Snaff said quietly, "We killed them here so that they would not kill in Hoelbrak."

Eir gazed around the dark cave. "We didn't kill them. We ended them. The Dragonsp.a.w.n killed them." She peered deeper into the ever-descending cave. Another chute slid down into total darkness. "We're very close. Already, we've destroyed his defenders. Now we're poised to strike at the Dragonsp.a.w.n's heart and be rid of him forever."

With that, she strode across the bloodstained ice and launched herself over the edge of the chute. Garm bounded close behind.

There was a moment's pause as Big Snaff and Big Zojja looked at each other. Then Snaff ran forward and leaped over the edge, and his apprentice followed.

At first, it was just sliding-velocity and vertigo. Armor and metal joints skirled on shoulders of ice. Eir and Garm slalomed down into darkness, and Big Snaff and Big Zojja followed, spinning like tops. Their minds were spinning as well, with a fear that Zojja voiced for them all. "How will we get back?"

Before anyone could answer, the chute dumped them out in a deep place, so deep that the glacial ice above no longer glowed with sunlight. They skidded across the floor of that cavern and spun to a stop, leaving chaotic score marks.

Eir rose, followed by Garm, Big Snaff, and Big Zojja.

"Well, here we are," Eir said.

It was preternaturally cold-bone-shattering. Spell conduits hardened and hydraulic humors thickened. Webs of frost formed on steel skins.

"Bigs, what do you see?" Eir asked.

"The ceiling is a ma.s.s of icicles, gigantic icicles," Zojja said. "Thirty feet long, some of them."

Eir asked, "What other threats?"

"The floor is clear," reported Snaff. "No defenders. No wolves. No icebrood. Nothing."

"Let's march," Eir said. As she and Garm led the charge, the Bigs marched behind.

Big Snaff stiffened. "There's something approaching, dead ahead."

"Halt," Eir said.

They did, staring into the murk.

Out of the depthless dark, something emerged.

Its body was fas.h.i.+oned of living ice. It had a long head like a cattle skull, and its eyes glowed with eerie blue flame. The rest of it seemed skeletal as well, with an arching spine draped in white robes. A blue-gray vapor circulated among its icy ribs, forming the body of the creature. Gaunt arms lifted clawed fingers, and gaunt legs spread talons on the ice. The creature reached to its sword belt and drew out a blade that was so cold it roiled with frost.

"The Dragonsp.a.w.n," Eir said.

"He's not a man at all," Zojja murmured.

"A tibia of ice. A fibula of frost." Snaff spoke in a hushed voice. "Skull of a minotaur. Tail of a drake."

"Sounds like a spell," Zojja said.

"That's what he is," Snaff said. "He's just like the Bigs-a marionette moved by a hidden mind!"

"He's just like me . . . ," Zojja replied in a dreamy voice.

Eir looked at her. A faint blue glow pulsed in Big Zojja's eyes, matching the eyes of the Dragonsp.a.w.n. "Look away!" Eir shouted, averting her gaze. "Don't look at it. Don't lock eyes with it. It's trying to freeze you."

With an effort of will, Big Zojja turned away from the glowing visage. The blue pulse faded from her eyes, and she shook herself. "How can we fight something we can't look at?"

The Dragonsp.a.w.n's elongated head turned toward his foes. Eyes glowed bright blue. The beams splashed across Eir, Garm, Snaff, and Zojja. They s.h.i.+elded their eyes, but the monster was seeping into their minds.

"Look away!" Eir called. She turned, seeing that Big Snaff and Big Zojja already stood motionless. "No!"

MAGMA MONSTERS.

Three destroyers advanced across the meadow, searing plants with every step.

"I'm not afraid to play with fire," Rytlock snarled, hoisting Sohothin. He shot a glance at Caithe. "Careful, twig. You might get yourself singed."

Each destroyer strode steadily toward one of the comrades.

Rytlock lunged at the nearest destroyer, thrusting Sohothin. The blade burned through the creature's stony skin and plunged into its heart.

The destroyer halted, arms shuddering and head falling back as Sohothin transfixed it. The creature's molten joints flared, and its chest expanded with spinning energy. Fiery light intensified in its amorphous face.

"d.a.m.n," noted Rytlock.

The destroyer brought its pincers swinging together to crush Rytlock's head. Stone knuckles crashed- But the charr rolled away beneath them. He scrambled up and stared accusingly at his sword. "What'd you do?"

"You're feeding feeding it," Logan said while backing away from the destroyer that stalked him. "You might as well attack a Krytan with a baguette. Move back." it," Logan said while backing away from the destroyer that stalked him. "You might as well attack a Krytan with a baguette. Move back."

Rytlock growled, "Retreating is a good strategy. Very human. Use your hammer, for blood's sake! Break some stones!"

"All in good time," Logan said, leaping back over a patch of long gra.s.s. His hand painted a blue aura in the air, a slim band meant to trip up a destroyer.

His pursuer swung a stone claw that missed, then stepped in the long gra.s.s and tripped on the guardian aura. The destroyer overbalanced and crashed into the ditch.

A blue aura lit Logan's hands and spread to encompa.s.s his hammer. The glow seemed to hoist him into the air, and he brought the weapon down in a ma.s.sive overhead stroke. The blow struck the destroyer's solar plexus and shattered it into five pieces.

"Let me get in on that!" Rytlock said, bounding over to land flat-footed on the creature's spine. Rocks snapped, and lava welled up between the broken parts.

"Nice footwork," Logan said, "but, of course, you've brought yours yours over here." over here."

Rytlock's destroyer rushed the man, reaching for him, but Logan ducked beneath the grasping claw, spun on his heel, and hammered the beast's thigh. More rocks snapped. The destroyer roared, stumbling toward Rytlock.

"Get out of the way!"

Rytlock jumped off the fallen destroyer as the other one crashed down on its back. "Better yet!" the charr enthused. He scooped water from the spring and flung it on them. The droplets struck and sizzled, solidifying magma. "How do you like that?"

"Nice," Logan said, splas.h.i.+ng both monsters.

"While you two mess around," Caithe said, "I've had to keep this one occupied by myself." She moved wraithlike, ducking beneath an arm, reeling back from another, and diving between its legs.

"Nice, as well," Logan said.

Behind him, the two destroyers climbed up from the ditch.

"None of us can take a single destroyer," Logan noted, "but maybe together, we can beat all three."

Puffing a sweaty lock out of her eyes, Caithe said, "What's the plan?"

"Well," Logan said as he ducked a hundred-pound fist, "I seem best at defense."

"Which means retreating," Rytlock said as he kicked a destroyer in the chest. The monster reeled back unsteadily.

"And Rytlock seems best at being offensive," Logan said.

"Hey!"

"Which leaves me," Caithe added as she high-stepped away from her destroyer. "What's my role?"

"You deliver the killing blow-like with the devourers."

Rytlock landed a haymaker on one destroyer's jaw-then shook out his claw. "These aren't scorpions. They're magma monsters. You can't stab them in the tailbone."

"Not the tailbone," Caithe replied as a destroyer grabbed her and began to squeeze. "But magic has channels just like nerves. Weak points." She thrust a dagger into the lava joint at the creature's shoulder, twisted, and cracked the arm loose. It clattered to the ground as the destroyer staggered back and Caithe stepped away.

Meanwhile, the charr dodged behind a boulder, a lava creature in pursuit. "What's the plan?"

"We take out one foe at a time," Logan responded. "This one, for instance." He was slowly backing away from a destroyer. "I draw one in"-Logan hooked his war hammer on the lowest limb of a nearby birch and yanked himself up, scrambling onto the branch. The destroyer grasped the tree, setting it alight-"then Rytlock attacks."

The charr rushed up behind the destroyer and kicked its knee sideways, shattering it. The destroyer crashed to the ground.

Amid flaming branches, Logan shouted out, "And then Caithe delivers the kill."

The sylvari bounded over to sink her stiletto into the back of the destroyer's neck. She wrenched the blade in an arc, and the destroyer's stony head rolled away. She drew out her stiletto and said, "Their necks are weak: all magma. Cuts like b.u.t.ter."

The lava in the destroyer's joints turned gray, and the solid bits decayed into separate stones.

"Pretty good," Logan said.

"d.a.m.n good," Rytlock said.

Caithe grinned at the other two. "Let's do another."

They turned and strode side by side toward the other two destroyers.

One roared, flecks of lava flying from its mouth. It charged.

Logan broke from the other two, charging as well.

The destroyer reached with ma.s.sive hands toward him.

Logan slid beneath them and rammed his war hammer into the monster's groin. He posted the b.u.t.t of the haft in the ground, and the beast's momentum carried it over the hammer. The destroyer hung in the air for a split second, then crashed face-first to the ground.

Rytlock followed on, leaping onto the monster's back and marching double time. His claws shattered the stony skin, leaving the creature a pulpy ma.s.s. Lava oozed up, and Rytlock leaped free, patting out the flames on his dewclaws.

Caithe arrived, her white stiletto spearing the neck of the monster and twisting to rip loose the head. She kicked it away. "Too bad you can't put these on a pike."

"I was thinking rock garden," Logan responded, watching the head roll down the green slope.

Rytlock joined them above the kill, which crackled and dissipated to dust.

The team turned toward the final destroyer.

It stood at the edge of the meadow beneath the tree its comrade had set alight. It planted its ma.s.sive feet and lifted its brutal arms and roared with the voice of a volcano.

"Here goes." Logan rushed it.

The destroyer's hands dropped down.

Logan sprang over them. He bounded off one rock wrist and onto the creature's shoulder.

It reached up to swat him.

Rytlock's shoulder crashed into the destroyer's stomach. Rytlock leaped free as the flaming minion toppled.

Caithe plunged her white stiletto into its neck and twisted, harvesting the monster's head.

She stepped back. The ropy ends of neck cooled. The beast shuddered and segmented and settled on the ground. In moments, it was a pile of rubble and ash like the other two in the clearing . . . like thousands in the ruined city of the dwarves.

"We're getting good at this," Logan said with a laugh.

"Yeah." Rytlock nodded breathlessly.

Caithe kicked the pile of smoldering stone. "Teamwork."

The man, the charr, and the sylvari grinned at each other, then turned awkwardly away.

Rytlock looked around. "So, where do you think we are?"

Logan scanned the green glens and hardwood glades, the gentle hillsides sloping down toward golden plains. "It's not Ascalon. Not since you lot moved in. I'd say Kryta. But we can't know until the stars come out."

"I'm hungry," Rytlock groused, sitting down on a fallen tree.

"Yeah," Logan agreed, plopping down as well. "Scorpion tail doesn't stay with you."

Caithe shook her head. "There may be some grubs for you two in that log. I'll see what else I can find." She drew her dagger and stalked off into the brush.

The charr and the man sat on the log, looking out at the green landscape. Long moments pa.s.sed before either spoke.