"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 Dragonsp.a.w.n-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 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 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, billet, we also have to win their we also have to win their respect. respect. And the only way to do that is to beat them." 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 Dragonsp.a.w.n, too."

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

"It is, Zojja. We're the Dragonsp.a.w.n's destiny."

CONTEST.

For the first time in two months, Edge of Steel canceled their scheduled match.

The fans were outraged.

"They will not fight tonight or tomorrow," proclaimed Sangjo, standing in the announcer's tower. "Or the next night or the next."

Boos answered his p.r.o.nouncement, welling up around the arena.

"What's the matter?" Sangjo asked. "There are plenty of other gladiatorial teams."

A chant of "Edge of Steel! Edge of Steel!" "Edge of Steel! Edge of Steel!" began in one sector of the arena and propagated through the whole. It shook the stands and washed across the other gladiatorial teams waiting below. In the announcer's tower, Sangjo smiled secretly and waited for the chants to die down. After five minutes, they did. began in one sector of the arena and propagated through the whole. It shook the stands and washed across the other gladiatorial teams waiting below. In the announcer's tower, Sangjo smiled secretly and waited for the chants to die down. After five minutes, they did.

"Friends. Friends-they will will fight again. In five days, you will see them face their greatest rivals ever." fight again. In five days, you will see them face their greatest rivals ever."

A wild cheer went up. The cry evolved into a single chanted question-"Who? Who? Who?"

"In five days, you will see."

Throughout those five days, Sangjo furiously promoted the match. He sent out a small army of stable hands to stand in the streets and shout teasers. The one bit of information they did not divulge, though, was whom Edge of Steel would fight.

Edge of Steel themselves spread the news through the taverns of Lion's Arch. They promised "a strange challenge," "a brutal whupping," and "a b.l.o.o.d.y ma.s.sacre," depending upon which group member was giving the report. Soon, the taverns rang with speculation about the mystery challengers.

But even Edge of Steel knew little about their opponents. Just after laying down their challenge, the foes had vanished through an asura gate. They were a complete mystery.

As Edge of Steel worried about their unknown foes, Lion's Arch boiled into a frenzy over them.

Then the night of the match came.

Crowds clogged the streets all around the arena, shutting down traffic as they jostled to get inside the huge overturned s.h.i.+p. The stands filled with hundreds and then thousands. Banners announced the crowd's favorite-Edge of Steel-but no one knew the name of the challengers.

Then the time for battle came, and Sangjo ascended the announcer's tower to call out, "Welcome, everyone, to tonight's epic spectacle. The famous versus the obscure, the known versus the unknown. The heroes versus the villains. Many have asked who these challengers may be. Now is the moment you will see for yourselves. Here they are, Dragonsp.a.w.n's Destiny!"

The crowd leaped to its feet, applauding and cheering-craning to see what great menace would emerge from the gladiators' hold.

The barred gate rolled back, and from the darkness waddled two tiny asura onto the newly sanded arena floor.

A rumble of uncertainty answered, followed by a roar of derisive laughter. These two? They looked like aphids. Shouts of outrage began to pierce the laughter.

"What is this?"

"No!"

"A joke!"

Then, a towering norn warrior stepped from the darkness, dragging a huge bow from her shoulder. She drew from her quiver three heavy-headed arrows, each bolt the height of a man. When a great black wolf loped out beside the woman, the furor of the crowd died down, and a few people began to chant, "Wolves! Wolves! Wolves!" "Wolves! Wolves! Wolves!"

But then the men rolled the gates closed. No more wolves emerged-no more creatures at all.

Heckling shouts filled the stands.

"And now, the team you have come to cheer for, the champions of the arena, the undefeated. They are Caithe, Rytlock, and Logan, but you know them better as Edge of Steel!"

The air turned solid with cheers.

From a gate on the opposite side of the arena trotted the sylvari, charr, and human, and the shouts redoubled. The gladiators lifted their hands in greeting, and the fans responded with a growing chant.

"Edge of Steel! Edge of Steel! Edge of Steel!"

"And now, let the match begin!"

Rytlock ripped Sohothin from its stone scabbard and stabbed it skyward. The blade added its hungry roar to the roar of the crowd. Logan meanwhile lifted his war hammer from his belt and swung it in a series of deadly figure eights. Caithe pulled the daggers from her bandoliers and twirled them before her. The three stared across the arena sands at the norn, her wolf, and the two asura.

The storm of cheers quieted, and a watchful hush fell over the crowd.

Edge of Steel stood, waiting.

So did Dragonsp.a.w.n's Destiny. They didn't move a muscle.

"What's taking them so long?" Rytlock asked.

Logan said, "Probably terrified."

The members of Dragonsp.a.w.n's Destiny still stayed put.

"Probably planning planning something," Caithe said. something," Caithe said.

An ugly rumble began in the crowd and rose like a wave.

"Don't they care that they look like idiots, just standing there?" Logan asked.

Rytlock snarled. "Don't we?"

With that, he strode forward and broke into a run. Sand flew up in a dust cloud behind him.

"Let's go," Logan said with a sigh, bolting after his comrade.

Caithe lit out as well, catching up to Logan, who caught up to Rytlock. Side by side, the gladiatorial champions charged across the sands toward their mysterious foes.

Dragonsp.a.w.n's Destiny had still not moved. They seemed frozen in fear.

Rytlock roared a war cry, and his comrades took it up.

At last, the norn warrior moved. She nocked three arrows, hoisted her huge bow, and let fly. The arrows arced up above the sands and then came whistling down toward Edge of Steel.

"Dodge!" Logan called out, swerving to one side as Caithe and Rytlock swerved to the other.

The arrows swerved as well, falling upon them.

"Knock them away!" Logan cried, swinging. His war hammer cracked the shaft that angled toward him, but the head of the arrow sprung open, releasing a metal net. It spread over him and draped to his feet. He tripped and sprawled to the ground, seeing that Rytlock and Caithe were down as well. "d.a.m.n it!"

Logan struggled to get free, but the metal mesh clung to his armor. He fought against it, managing to drag the clinging stuff from his left arm. His right was still fouled.

The norn warrior rushed across the sands toward him, pulling a heavy mallet from her belt.

Desperate, Logan stood up, though the mesh still clung to his war hammer.

The norn was there, and her mallet fell like thunder.

Logan tried to leap aside, but the maul smashed his breastplate and sent him tumbling across the sand. He rolled to a stop and staggered up, finally yanking his war hammer free. The norn warrior was stalking toward him, her red hair gathered in braids.

This was not going to be an easy fight.

Rytlock, too, was in trouble. He had scrambled up from the metal net but had left Sohothin within it, hopelessly tangled and sending up metallic smoke.

Worse, the dire wolf was upon him. It leaped for his throat, its jaws gaping.

Rytlock crouched, curling into a ball.

The wolf's ma.s.sive teeth closed over the neck piece of his armor. The fangs skirled on the metal as the wolf flew past, carried by its momentum. It pounded to the ground just beyond Rytlock and turned, snarling.

He rose and snarled back, his claws out.

The dire wolf eyed him and began to circle, looking for a chance at the charr's throat.

Rytlock laughed. "You look flammable to me. If I had my sword, there'd be wolf on the menu."

The dire wolf lunged, fangs bared. It bashed into Rytlock and knocked him to his back. Its teeth snapped just short of his throat. Roaring, the charr raked his claws down the wolf's neck, drawing blood. The beast reared back and brought its ma.s.sive forepaws down to pound Rytlock's chest. Breath blasted from his lungs, and once again the wolf lunged for his throat. Rytlock rolled aside, and the wolf got a snoutful of sand. It sneezed ma.s.sively and bounded off the charr.

Rytlock scrambled to his feet and struggled to regain his breath. The air around was thick with shouts. The crowd chanted, "Edge of Steel!" "Edge of Steel!" but also, but also, "Des-ti-ny!" "Des-ti-ny!"

They didn't care which team won. They only wanted a spectacle, and they were getting it.

On one side of the arena, Logan and the norn warrior traded hammer blows. On the other, Rytlock and the dire wolf circled each other, snarling. That left one other member of Edge of Steel, the one who always struck the killing blow. . . .

Caithe, too, had escaped her net, and she stalked toward the two asura. They lingered near the arena wall as if petrified. She had a dagger for each one, and she could easily plant them from thirty paces. She was nearly in range. Flipping a blade in her hand, Caithe caught the keen tip of it and raised it to throw at the male asura.

But he threw something first-a handful of red sand. It flew out and whiffed down in front of Caithe.

Did he want to blind her? He would have to throw better than that.

Caithe took two more steps. In range. She threw her dagger- Except that the ground s.h.i.+fted underfoot, and the blade spun off-target, only nicking the asura's ear.

He didn't even flinch, focused instead on the sand beneath her feet. It was mounding up. The asura spread his fingers toward the ground, and it rose in response.

Caithe's feet sank to midcalf in the clinging sand. She tried to pull them free but plunged to her knees. Clawing the stuff only trapped her hands as well.

Quicksand! But it wasn't watery. It was firm-like muscle.

A huge sand creature was emerging beneath her. Its back arched from the arena floor and revealed a head with pointed ears. Caithe's feet were mired in its shoulder. Sand sifted away to reveal broad but stumpy arms and stocky legs. The golem stood to full height-a gigantic asura in the likeness of the older asura.

The golem moved as the asura moved. He lifted a hand to his shoulder and pressed firmly down, and the golem's hand lifted the same way, driving Caithe to midthigh in the sandy golem. She stabbed the thing with her daggers, but the blades only sank away, lost in the all-consuming sand.

Caithe shouted for help, but her teammates couldn't possibly hear over the roar of the crowd.

Why are they laughing? Logan wondered, but he had no time to look. Logan wondered, but he had no time to look.

The norn's mallet thrummed the air. Logan leaped aside as the maul cratered the ground. He hurled his own maul around in a sudden, desperate stroke. The head missed the norn but struck the handle of her mallet, breaking it. The blow also jarred the norn's hands. She staggered back.

It was Logan's first opening, and he took it.

Spinning, he whirled the war hammer in a moaning circle.

The norn tried to leap away, but the hammer struck a glancing blow to her ribs. Crack! Crack! Breath blasted from her. She staggered back, fell to the ground, and gasped. Breath blasted from her. She staggered back, fell to the ground, and gasped.