Guild Wars_ Edge of Destiny - J. Robert King [96]
Faolain yanked her hand free. Black rot riddled her fingers, ascending through her arm. She flexed the limb, hissing with exquisite pain. “Oh, love turned to hate, to poison. It deadens me.” She staggered back from the workbench, nearly running into Rytlock.
The charr waved Sohothin behind her. “Remember this?”
“Let me go! I have released her!”
“Yes,” said Caithe, sitting up. “Let her go!”
“She’s a monster.”
“Let her go!”
Faolain stooped to lift her black cloak from the floor. She slid her rot-riddled hand into it and stepped past Rytlock. “This, too, will heal. My arm will be mine again.” She glanced at Caithe. “And so will you.”
“Get out!” Rytlock roared.
Faolain was visibly shivering as she walked up the stairs, out the blasted top of the ziggurat, and into the night of Rata Sum.
Logan lingered on the stairs, watching, but the rest of the companions gathered around Caithe.
“Are you well?” Eir asked. “Truly?”
“Yes. And I know what we must do.”
“What?” asked Rytlock.
“A great evil is rising. An ancient evil. We haven’t fought the true evil yet, but only the mortal champions. Now we must fight a true dragon. He is rising. His champion is bringing him out.”
“Faolain showed you this?” Rytlock asked. “Surely she was lying.”
“There is only one hope to stop this new threat: we must slay the dragon’s champion.”
Rytlock shrugged. “Well, we’ve killed the others. Why not this one?”
“What is this champion called?” asked Eir.
“She’s another dragon—a lesser dragon,” Caithe said, “though ancient in her own right. Humans call her Glint.”
“Glint!” Logan said. “The Glint? Keeper of the Flame-seeker Prophecies?”
“The same,” Caithe said.
“Are you kidding me? She helped stop the Lich Lord. She helped stop the titans,” Logan went on. “Why would she turn against us?”
Caithe looked levelly at him. “Glint is the champion of the one who rises.”
“Glint is a friend of humanity,” Logan argued.
“Very few of us are human,” said Zojja.
Logan said nothing, but after a moment he nodded.
“Glint is in the Crystal Desert,” Rytlock grumbled. “That’s a long walk.”
“There’s no time to walk,” Caithe said. “We must arrive in a matter of days.”
Snaff snapped his fingers and trundled off across his workshop.
“Where’s he going?” Rytlock wondered.
Over his shoulder, Snaff called back, “I’ve got a device that could get us halfway there!” He disappeared into a closet, and there came the sound of clattering metal. Something heavy crashed to the floor; then Snaff emerged, seeming to carry nothing except a smile. “It’s one of the cleverest things I’ve come up with.”
“What?” Rytlock asked.
Snaff reached in his pocket and pulled out what looked like a metal coin. “I call it a ‘hole in my pocket.’ But it’s actually a mini, portable asura gate, of my own fabulous design.” He flicked the coin, and as it tumbled in midair, it expanded. Metal filaments slid over each other and reoriented, broadening into a hoop, then a wide ring. The metal circle came down to strike the floor, wobbling itself flat. The moment that the entire circumference of the circle touched the floor, the flagstones within it vanished, showing a patch of windblown sand.
“Whoa,” Logan said. “Where is that?”
“I can tune them only to known places, and this one’s tuned to just south of Ebonhawke.”
“How far south?” Rytlock said in alarm.
“Out of arrow range,” Snaff assured flatly.
Logan frowned. “What if the charr are sieging?”
“Out of range for them, too. In the desert! Where do you think I got all that sandstone for Sandy?” Snaff clapped his hands together and rubbed them. “Now, let’s gather up supplies and golems and go see this Glint!”
From Her Royal Majesty, Jennah,
Queen of Kryta
To the Most Magnificent Logan Thackeray
Logan:
Another dragon champion lies slain at your feet—the Destroyer of Life and his thousand minions. Well done! You have saved Rata Sum, and