Guild Wars_ Edge of Destiny - J. Robert King [38]
“Until you can return with real warriors, not clockwork toys.”
“We got further—”
“You failed,” Knut said plainly, “and we have paid the price.”
“But I will succeed. I will stop him! I’ll bring better warriors.”
Knut did not answer, but only turned to leave.
Snaff looked down at his feet. “Where are we supposed to find warriors?”
“We’ll go where they gather,” Eir said with a bleak smile. “We’ll go to Lion’s Arch.”
PART II
SLAYING MONSTERS
LION’S ARCH
Names?” growled the Lion’s Arch gate guard—a norn holding a quill the size of an arrow.
“Logan Thackeray of Kryta, and this is Rytlock Brimstone of the Blood Legion, and Caithe, one of the Firstborn of the sylvari.”
If the guard was impressed, he showed no sign, scrawling the names in a gigantic book on a stand. “What’s your reason for visiting Lion’s Arch?”
Rytlock muttered, “Just looking for an asura gate.”
“Where to?”
“The Black Citadel.”
The norn snorted, then wrote, En route to the Black Citadel.
“Not us,” Logan said, pointing between himself and Caithe.
The guard looked at them. “What are you here for?”
“I’m a scout,” Logan said.
“What kind? Seraph?”
“Um, no. My brother’s in the Seraph, but I’m, well . . . freelance. Work for merchant caravans.”
“I see,” the norn said, arching an eyebrow and writing, Unemployed. “And what about the sylvari?”
“I joined them,” Caithe said.
“Would you just let us in?” Rytlock pressed.
The norn glared at him. “What about the sylvari? Why does she want to enter Lion’s Arch?”
Caithe’s eyebrows rose thoughtfully. “Is it interesting?”
“What?”
“The city. Is it interesting?”
The guard scowled. “Of course.”
“Then put that down,” Caithe replied.
The norn wrote, Not applicable, snatched up a wooden stamp, and pounded it down on the entry. “In you go! Just don’t break anything.”
Logan, Rytlock, and Caithe shuffled into the vaulted city gate, passing beneath an iron portcullis that dripped rusty water down their backs.
“Why did he think I was ‘not applicable’?” Caithe wondered.
“Ha!” Rytlock barked, but then frowned and shook his head. “I don’t know.”
The vault above them echoed with the clatter and tumult of the city ahead. As the three stepped out of the entryway, they caught their first real glimpse of Lion’s Arch.
“Wow,” said Rytlock.
The city was huge and a hodgepodge. To the left gleamed a wide bay full of great galleons. Their masts and rigging made a patchwork of the sky. A water gate guarded the entrance to this sheltered harbor, and pennants flew all down the docks. The docks teemed with longshoremen hauling skids from ships to warehouses. These warehouses themselves were former galleons, overturned on land. Many of the city’s other buildings were also fashioned of ships washed ashore by the great flood. More than a few vessels had even been upturned to become strange towers, jutting skyward.
“A market!” Caithe noted eagerly.
Logan and Rytlock turned to see a manifold market spread beneath billowing blue sails. Stalls and tents crowded against each other, forming narrow lanes that thronged with people.
“They say everything’s for sale in Lion’s Arch,” Logan noted.
Rytlock laughed. “Everything and everyone.”
“Let’s see,” said Caithe, striding into the marketplace.
“Wait,” Rytlock called, “we’re looking for an asura gate!” But already the sylvari was approaching one of the outer stalls.
Within it, an ancient-looking asura sat surrounded by buckets into which he flung bits of a machine he was dismantling. Each bucket was marked with a coin amount—1g, 2g, 3g. Without looking up, the asura said, “What sort of mechanism are you building?”
Caithe’s brow furrowed. “I’m not building a mechanism.”
“Then you’re blocking my light.”
“What sort of mechanism are you building?”
He looked up, eyes annoyed under linty brows. “Something that had no right getting built in the first place.”
“What was it?”
“A washing machine.”
“Sounds helpful.”
“Would’ve been if I had dirty friends like yours,” the asura noted as Rytlock and Logan strode up. “Not that they would’ve used it. Nobody did.”
“Why not?”