Edge of Destiny

AGREEMENTS

The summer sun beat down on Rata Sum, but within Snaff's ziggurat, everything was cool.

He and Zojja and Eir worked away contentedly in the shade. Eir pounded her chisel, breaking loose a few more chunks of sandstone. She glanced at Snaff. "Keep flexing."

Snaff snorted, tensing his chest muscles. "I've never flexed so long."

"You're the one who wanted a 'buff golem,'" Eir reminded. "Besides, it can't be harder to flex muscles than to actually use them." A few more blows knocked the last of the large pieces from the sandstone block, which now had the rough shape of Snaff-only five times larger. Eir switched to a smaller chisel. "I've never carved sandstone before. Very soft. It doesn't hold up."

"All the better," Snaff said enigmatically. "So, you're confident in this plan of yours?"

Eir nodded. "I know we can defeat them. They don't plan. They just react. They wait until their opponents attack, and then they exploit the weaknesses they see. If we don't attack, they'll have to, and we'll be a mystery." Eir carved a long, swooping curve that would be the lid beneath Snaff's left eye. "Let me turn the question on you, Snaff: Are you sure about this sandstone golem? Zojja says no asura has ever created anything like it."

"No other asura could-well, maybe Oola, or one of her students, but nobody else."

"But you can?"

"We'll see," Snaff said with a grin.

"You'll have control?"

"Yes, but not with a single powerstone. With millions."

She shifted to the lower lid of his right eye. "A pretty expensive golem."

"No. I've designated one powerstone for each body part, and then ground them into fine powder. Each grain is a minipowerstone. We're going to spread them over the whole statue once it's finished. I'll have power over every inch."

"Ingenious."

"Thank you." Then Snaff coughed into his hand. "By the way, once you're finished carving this statue, we'll have to deconstruct it."

"What?" Eir stepped back and stared at him. "How do you deconstruct a statue?"

His smile grew devilish, and he pantomimed giving it a push.

"You're cracked."

"Thank you."

"Flex!"

The day after downing a destroyer harpy, Logan was back on his feet and fighting like never before. He credited the scarf of Queen Jennah for healing him, but of course the chirurgeons didn't hurt.

Sangjo was anxious that his newfound team keep fighting-especially since they still had such a large billet to pay off-but Edge of Steel seemed in no particular hurry to pay up. Logan had used his cut to complete his plate mail, Rytlock had moved on from thundershrimp to skale omelets, and Caithe had rented a private room in a tower near the arena, where she could "keep an eye on everyone."

The delirious winning streak continued. Even two months in, Edge of Steel was undefeated. They headlined the arena and bashed all comers: warriors and elementalists, devourers and drakes, humans and charr and whatever-no team could defeat them, and Lion's Arch hailed them.

Then Queen Jennah herself hailed them-or at least Logan.

The message came on a scroll of fine parchment, sealed with wax that was imprinted with the royal signet. Logan's eyes lingered on that emblem, the same sewn into the scarf on his shoulder. Then he broke the seal and unrolled the scroll and read:

From Her Royal Majesty, Jennah,

Queen of Kryta,

Regent of Ascalon

To Logan Thackeray,

Gladiator of the Arena in Lion's Arch

Greetings:

Your presence is required. Report to the royal palace in Divinity's Reach, Kryta. We will receive you at our convenience.

"She's calling me," Logan gasped, eyes darting again across the scroll. "She's summoning me." It was still morning. He had time to don his best clothes and go through the asura gate to Divinity's Reach and see his queen-all before the night's match. He looked again at the letter in his hand. "She's calling me."

An hour later, Logan was stepping through an asura gate, leaving behind the hurly-burly streets of Lion's Arch and stepping into the white splendor of Divinity's Reach. Sultry winds gave way to cool stillness, the loud menagerie of species to the sedate capital of a single, ancient people.

Humanity.

Divinity's Reach was the last bastion of human glory. White limestone walls, great statues, shrines to gods-Divinity's Reach was the world as it had once been, as it would be again.

It was laid out like a great wheel, with the high outer walls as its rim and six inner walls radiating like spokes from the hub at its center.

Logan stood in that hub-a broad, beautiful parkland with green lawns stretching to white pavements, beyond which rose great shining buildings. The buildings were grand, with columned porticoes and hanging galleries and friezes carved in their tympana. The carvings showed scenes of glory from Kryta's past, scenes of beauty from Ascalon before the fall.

This was the heart of the greatest human city on Tyria.

That building was the Chamber of Ministers.

Those white-walled barracks housed the Seraph.

Beyond them lay one of six elevated high roads, each dedicated to a god that the rest of the world had forgotten.

Logan turned to his right, seeing at last the glorious palace of the queen. It was a magnificent structure of spiraling columns and recessed arches, rounded roofs and overhanging stone gazebos and spires reaching to the sky. Before the royal palace sat an amazing domed garden. The dome consisted of a wrought-iron framework covered in a skin of glass. Circular limestone walls rose to a lattice of iron, holding up vast panels of glass. The sun beamed through them onto suspended orreries and solar clocks. Mature oaks and elms and beeches towered among winding paths and trim green lawns.

Logan strode toward the palace gate.

A Seraph emerged from a guardhouse, his armor gleaming mirror-bright but his brows glowering cave-dark. "Who approaches?" he barked while Logan was still half a block away.

"I am Logan Thackeray."

The storm clouds around the guard's face suddenly parted. "Logan Thackeray? The Logan Thackeray?"

Stepping up, Logan nodded. "Yes."

"You look a lot smaller up close."

"You've seen me in the arena?"

"Are you kidding? I was there when you killed that destroyer harpy. I've seen you a couple times since then. You're terrific!"

"Thanks."

The guard suddenly straightened. "Erm, what is your business here today?"

"I'm here to see Queen Jennah," Logan replied simply.

"No one sees the queen except by special appointment."

"How's this?" Logan lifted the scroll and unrolled it. "A summons from the queen herself."

The guard squinted at it, reading. Then he stepped back, set a horn to his lips, and blew three times. "One of her attendants will come gather you and take you to her."

Beyond the guard, a Seraph strode from the arched doorway of the castle. It was Logan's brother, Dylan. He smiled ruefully as he approached. "You're blowing the horn for my kid brother?"

The guard blurted, "The queen has summoned him."

"Him?"

Logan lifted the scroll.

Dylan scowled as he read it. "What would she want with you?"

Logan refused to be daunted. "I don't know. She no doubt has heard of my acclaim."

"Acclaim?" Dylan huffed.

"Yeah. You may not know this, but I'm one of the greatest warriors alive. The arena doesn't lie."

Dylan sniffed. "Follow me." He led Logan into a side garden ringed with tall windows and balconies.

"Wait here, Brother, until we are summoned into her presence."

Logan glimpsed a pair of wooden swords leaning on a nearby bench. "What are those for?"

"Practice matches," Dylan said offhandedly, then a smile cracked his face. "You say you're the greatest warrior alive?"

"I don't," Logan corrected. "Everyone else does."

"Then, how about you show me." Dylan gestured toward the practice swords in the side garden.

"All right." Logan entered the garden-benches circled around an elaborate white fountain, with sculpted shrubs standing sentry over beds of flowers. "Nice spot for sparring."

Dylan lifted one of the wooden swords and used the blade to hoist the other, flinging it to Logan.

Logan caught the sword and took some practice swings. "I'm used to a war hammer."

"You would be." Dylan bowed regally. "Pounding things. All power, no finesse."

Logan bowed likewise.

Dylan lunged, his sword striking Logan's breastplate.

Logan staggered. "I wasn't ready."

"You bowed." Dylan followed the first stroke with an overhand blow.

Logan dodged, letting the sword swing past, then elbowed his brother out of the way. Spinning, Logan retreated. "In the arena, we don't bow."

Dylan pivoted. "Yes. I've seen what you do in the arena. You fight like a charr."

"Thank you."

"That wasn't a compliment. And that last shot of yours didn't count. We're fighting with swords, not with elbows." Dylan charged again, sword jabbing.

Parrying the blow, Logan stepped behind one of the benches.

"Out of bounds," Dylan called. "That's a second point for me."

Glowering, Logan whacked Dylan's blade out of the way and stepped back into the garden. "Is that how it's played here? Battling for points?"

"That's the civilized way."

Logan was about to respond when he spotted a figure on a balcony high above the garden. It was she, the queen-Jennah.

His heart pounded.

Dylan lunged, his sword ramming Logan's breastplate. "That's another touch. Three points."

"That wasn't fair! I was looking at the queen."

"She is mesmerizing you," Dylan said, grinning. "I'm beating you three points to zero."

Logan huffed. "Of course you can beat me if this is a parlor game. But I thought it was a duel."

"It is a duel."

"Then let's forget about touches and out of bounds. The one who wins is the one who stands over the other."

"Fine with me."

Smiling, Logan flipped the practice sword over in his hand, catching the narrow end and swinging the crosspiece as if it were a hammerhead. Dylan ducked back and glared. Logan laughed. "That's more like it."

With a snarl, Dylan rushed forward, sword stabbing.

Logan's hammer cracked the blade to one side, and he bulled through to ram Dylan backward, causing him to sit down on a garden bench.

Distant laughter drifted down from the balcony.

Logan stepped back, giving his brother room.

"That counts for nothing," Dylan said. "I didn't go out of bounds, and you used your shoulder."

"It counts for me knocking you on your ass."

Dylan roared murderously, swinging his sword to brain his brother.

Logan sidestepped.

Dylan's blade struck a stone bench and rattled stingingly. "Why, you-"

Laughing, Logan scurried away.

Dylan followed with sword swinging.

Logan bounded onto a bench and leaped to the next and the next while Dylan's sword swiped impotently at his heels.

"Stand and face me!"

"This is how we do it in the arena."

"What, run away? Stand and face me!"

Logan planted his feet on the grass and raised his hammer. "Here's my face."

"Almost as ugly as the other side," Dylan noted as his sword jabbed.

Logan's hammer bashed the blade, entangled it, and yanked it free, flinging it behind him.

Shrieking in frustration, Dylan head-butted his brother.

Crack!

Both men staggered back. Logan shook his head, trying to get the multiple images of Dylan to coalesce. His brother meanwhile shambled backward, eyes crossed and hands flailing for balance. Logan's vision cleared just in time to see his brother stumble back into the fountain and sprawl into the water. He thrashed ridiculously for a moment, but then sat back against the central figure. It was a mermaid spitting water, which rolled down his face. "I hate you."

Logan bowed. "I love you, too, Brother." He rubbed his forehead, wondering if his skull was cracked. When he dropped his hand, though, he saw the queen on her balcony, beckoning to him. "I must go. Our sovereign calls."

Straightening his clothes, Logan strode from the garden toward the royal residence. He held his summons up before him, and the first Seraph he encountered led him up a broad stairway. At the top, they reached a high chamber with columns on either side and a thick red carpet down the center. Courtiers in samite and silk lined the carpet, turning to see this rough-and-tumble gladiator in their midst. They watched him, eyes narrowing and mouths curling in smiles of disdain.

Logan didn't care what they thought. The queen had summoned him, and he had come.

She awaited him, sitting at the end of the red carpet, on a throne of gold.

Logan strode toward the queen of Kryta.

Pallid-faced guards dressed in blue and gold-the Shining Blade-stepped up protectively around her throne.

Logan flashed them a smile and then went to his knee, bowing. "Greetings, Your Majesty."

"Rise," she commanded.

Logan got to his feet and stared wonderingly at her. She was more beautiful than before-her brown hair pulled back from her neck, her dark eyes locking with his, her lips a red to match the rich robes that mantled her. He almost forgot the words he'd been practicing: "Your Majesty, I came the moment I received your summons."

She smiled dazzlingly. "You must have. I sent it just this morning."

"I am at your command."

"Then I command you to stand with me." The queen rose from her throne. Logan stood there numbly as his queen stepped up next to him. She grasped his hand-her fingers soft but strong-and turned him outward to face the roomful of courtiers. She lifted their hands together. "Friends, senators, courtiers-" She looked pointedly at a proud bald man with a long goatee, and said in an almost growl, "Minister Caudecus-I want to introduce this young man to you. He is a warrior of a new stripe-a gladiator who slew a minion of Primordus in my honor. This is Logan Thackeray."

The courtiers nodded politely, donning smiles and clapping gloved hands in a muffled ovation.

"He fights for me," the queen went on, "as certainly as his brother fights for me. Yes, I have champions beyond the Seraph and the Shining Blade. I have champions such as this warrior. I said he was of a new stripe, but in fact, he is of a very old stripe. He is a hero, like Rurik of old."

Again came the muted applause, the supercilious smiles.

Logan blushed as the queen lowered his hand and squeezed his fingers. She leaned toward him and murmured into his ear, "Thank you for answering my summons."

He squeezed her hand in return. "I will always answer your summons."

"Will you?" she replied in a voice of sudden steel. Turning toward him, she pinioned him on her gaze. "Then you will be bonded to me." She lifted her hand as if in blessing, but then reached out to lay her palm on his forehead and lace her fingers into his hair.

Power poured through her touch.

It roared into Logan.

The queen's mind entered his own mind like a thief through a window. But he welcomed this thief. He took her hand and led her deep within and showed her vistas of memory.

They walked together at the height of the Blazeridge Gap as stones buried the charr.

They swam together through the depths of the underground river.

They fought side by side in the meadow against the destroyers.

They stood hand in hand on the arena sands before the Killers.

Logan showed her every moment: when he was a boy clapping his hands red as his brother was inducted into the Seraph; when he was a young man leading his first scouting party to escape a wildfire; when he was first blooded, slaying a centaur raider and taking the creature's war hammer; when he was most proud, using that hammer to destroy a minion of Primordus in the name of his queen…

Jennah's hand broke from his forehead, and she stepped back, catching a slight breath. Once again, the two of them were standing in the throne room, staring wide-eyed at each other.

Jennah whispered, "The things you have done."

Logan smiled. "The things I will yet do-in your name."

The senators and courtiers of Divinity's Reach listened in silence.

Jennah glanced toward them and drew a deep breath, becoming the queen once again. "You are bonded to me, now, Logan Thackeray," she pronounced, speaking to everyone. "If ever I am in mortal peril, I will call to you, and you must come to me."

"Yes, my queen," Logan said, dropping again to one knee.

Jennah's eyes moved among the courtiers, fixing on certain ones. "Let those who plot against the throne beware."

"Where've you been?" Rytlock asked.

Logan wandered dumbstruck onto the arena sands. "I'm not exactly sure."

"Sangjo wants to talk with us," the charr growled. "All of us."

Caithe walked up to join her teammates. "Something about a big matchup."

The three walked side by side through the main trainer's gate into the foul-smelling underbelly of the arena. They passed among rows of caged gladiators, who hollered excitedly to see Edge of Steel among them, and reached an infirmary, whose operating tables just now were empty. Beyond the tables, Sangjo stood in conference with a female norn, her dire wolf, and a pair of asura.

Wending among the empty tables, Edge of Steel approached. They stopped a few strides away, planted their feet, and folded their arms over their chests.

Logan spoke for them. "You wanted to see us?"

Sangjo dipped his head. "I've just arranged a special match for you."

"With whom?" Logan asked.

"With this group-Eir, Snaff, Zojja, and Garm." As Sangjo named them, he pointed to each one.

Rytlock blinked. "Are they suicidal?"

"No," replied the norn named Eir.

"You've seen us fight, yes?"

The little asura named Snaff waddled forward and nodded happily. "Oh, yes, many times. We've studied-"

"We've seen you fight," broke in the norn. "We're ready."

Rytlock strode along before the group. "How many matches have you fought?"

"We fought the Dragonspawn," Eir responded.

"Did you win?" Rytlock asked.

"No."

The charr lumbered over to Sangjo. "What is this? Is it some kind of trick?"

"It's no trick," Eir responded. "It's a bet."

Rytlock turned toward her. "A bet with whom?"

"With your owner-Captain Magnus the Bloody Handed."

Rytlock scowled. "What kind of bet?"

"If we beat you in the arena," Eir explained, "he will lend you to us on our quest to slay the Dragonspawn."

"What?" Rytlock snarled, backing away among his teammates. "He can't lend us out to fight a dragon champion."

"He's afraid," Snaff said in a stage whisper.

"Afraid of what?" barked Rytlock.

Snaff shrugged. "Of us, of course."

The charr made a hawking sound. "Of you?"

"You're afraid we'll defeat you. That's the only way you'd have to face the Dragonspawn-which, by the way, we've already faced and will again." Snaff turned to his comrades. "Maybe they aren't as tough as they look from the stands."

Rytlock roared with wounded pride and blurted, "We'll beat you. We'll destroy you!" He looked toward his comrades, who nodded shallowly. "Sangjo, you better promote this match. I want this place packed the day we shred these four."

Sangjo said simply, "It shall be done."

The evening sun cast long shadows as Eir, Snaff, Zojja, and Garm headed toward the Lion's Arch asura gate.

"That cost us," Zojja groused.

"Money well spent," said Eir. "My money well spent. We couldn't afford their billet, so a bet with Magnus was the only way to win them. And even if we win their billet, we also have to win their respect. And the only way to do that is to beat them."

"How?" Zojja wondered.

"Oh, we'll beat them," Eir replied, "and with Edge of Steel, we'll bring down the Dragonspawn, too."

Zojja sniffed, "You make it all sound predestined."

"It is, Zojja. We're the Dragonspawn's destiny."