Guild Wars_ Edge of Destiny - J. Robert King [72]
At last, Rytlock managed a few words: “We’ve killed . . . half your army.”
A deep moan came, a sound of infinite misery that evolved into a drone of delight. Not half. Not one-tenth! The Dragonspawn flung out its algid arms, and purple light jagged from its fingertips.
The walls of the cavern shattered, tumbling to the floor to reveal more of the icebrood. Rank on rank, the dragon minions stretched into the unseeable distance.
Your sandman and your tiny band cannot kill them all. Nor will you kill me. Instead, I will make you my own.
Eir closed her eyes, fighting against the Dragonspawn’s aura. She mustered the words “You have no power over us.”
So many have said that, the shaman replied, and have been wrong. It beckoned to its troops. Come to me!
Thousands of icy feet pounded the ground. The icebrood converged on Eir and her companions.
“We must escape,” Logan muttered, fear creeping up his spine.
“Sandy can get us out,” Rytlock added.
Eir shook her head. “That’s the Dragonspawn talking.”
Rytlock said, “Your plan has failed.”
“Not yet.” Eir pulled another exploding arrow from her quiver.
“What are you going to do?” Rytlock raged.
Eir drew the gray vial from her pocket. “Adapt the plan.” She rammed the vial into the explosive head and said, “Phase Four.” Eir aimed at the Dragonspawn and launched the shaft.
The arrow whined through the air and crashed into the shaman’s icy chest. It exploded. A fireball engulfed the Dragonspawn, embedding tiny gray powerstones all across its figure. The shaman’s mesmeric mind, which once filled the cavern and drowned out all other minds, suddenly imploded.
The mental onslaught ceased.
Eir and the others could think again.
The Dragonspawn was cut off from every mind in the chamber—cut off even from the mind of its master.
The marching armies faltered. A thousand ice warriors halted. They had obeyed the Dragonspawn because it was the champion of their lord. Now, it was only a terrible, foreign power in their midst. They turned from Eir and her comrades and turned on the Dragonspawn.
They were no longer marching but running, converging on the spectral creature. The icebrood tore into the Dragonspawn. They ripped off its icy arms and cracked open its body and shattered its head. Each time a shard came away, though, the storm of energies around the Dragonspawn whipped wider. It became a whirling cyclone. Its circling arms bashed into its attackers.
“Is this what you planned?” Rytlock yelled.
“In the end.” Eir nodded. “The lust for power turns on itself.”
The swirling storm of blue magic around the Dragonspawn picked up the icebrood and smashed them together. They broke into flying shards of ice and stone, which spiraled around the dragon champion. It was taking a new shape, not as a single entity but as an ice storm. The souls and bodies of its minions were becoming part of the champion. Already, the cyclone of ice and stone whirled fifty feet high and twenty feet wide, and it roared as it consumed even more of the icebrood.
“The Dragonspawn seems to be winning,” Rytlock noted. “What’s Phase Five?”
“Escape,” Eir said grimly. She turned and ran, with Rytlock, Logan, Zojja, and Garm close behind. Eir shouted back to Sandy, “Get us out of here!”
THE NEW CHAMPIONS
The Dragonspawn whirled, a wintry cyclone ripping apart the icebrood. Their ravaged bodies—shards of ice and stone—only added to his spinning form. The vortex shuddered as it grew. Already, the storm reached the ceiling of the ice cavern.
Eir meanwhile reached the ice cliff, with Garm beside her and Logan and Rytlock arriving next. Eir shouted back to Sandy, “Hurry up! We’ve got to ride you to the top!”
Sandy stretched its legs, pounding up to the cliff. It turned toward Eir, laced gritty fingers together, and held its hands out to her.
She hitched her foot into the golem’s hands and launched herself up, intending to reach its shoulders.
Sandy had other ideas, hurling her straight up the cliff face to where Snaff waited.
Rytlock goggled. “It just killed her.”
Eir soared upward,