As its corpse crashed to the ground, the newly hasted dragon warriors took advantage of their increased speed to run roughshod over the lizardmen. It didn’t hurt that they were focused on getting to Sheila and couldn’t really get to her without reaching past the dragon warriors and opening themselves up.
“I’m the Builder of Legend.” I offered her my hand. “Pleased to make your acquaintance.”
She took my hand as another beholder fell. “It’s almost unfair.” She shook her head. “Wish you were here when we fought the ravagers. We wouldn’t have had to sacrifice so many dragons.”
“About that. Do you train them?” I asked, gesturing to the glittering armor. “Cause that’s all made of dragon scale…”
“No.” She spat. “Dragons cannot be trained. Little better than mindless beasts. We lured them into the path of the ravagers, and once they saw each other, well, the rest was history. Those that survived were quick to leave to lick their wounds and divide the spoils of those that had fallen.”
“Hmm,” I mused as more of the beholders fell. “Would you like me to teach you how to make the Beholder Killing Arrows?”
“Yes, but from the look on your face, I suspect you want something.” She looked me up and down. “I suppose I can do as you ask. For my people. But not until this battle has ended.”
“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” I said, nodding to her as I turned to watch more of the lizardmen die beneath the dragon warrior’s might. It wouldn’t be long at all before only beholders were left, and they’d go down quick enough without lizardmen to protect them.
36
“Thank you for your help. I’m not sure we’d have been able to hold out much longer without it,” Diana said as we walked through the burned-out husk of the town. Because most of her non-combatants had fled behind the barricades at the other end of town, there were surprisingly few casualties.
“You’re welcome,” I replied, kneeling down beside a downed lizardman and picking up the Dark Blood glimmering within his corpse. “Anyway, as I was saying earlier, having these are key.” I held it up so it caught the light.
“I sort of get what you’re saying about the explosive arrows being powered by Dark Blood,” Diana replied, taking the Dark Blood from me and examining it. “But we at Blade’s End have two problems with doing as you say. The first problem is we don’t have an alchemist skilled enough to turn this,” she hefted the Dark Blood, “into an explosive arrow. Hell, we don’t even have an alchemist at all.”
“What’s the second problem?” I asked, turning from her and purposely making my way toward the dead dragons. Their scales glimmered in the sun, throwing a kaleidoscope of colors across the ground. As I approached, the tinny smell of their blood hit my nose, and I had to work not to gag. Their corpses left a decidedly more familiar smell behind in death, and it shocked me in a way the corpses of the Darkness creatures hadn’t.
“The second problem is that attacks like this are rare.” She gestured at the ravager’s corpse. “That thing stepped out of a portal a few miles away. We were lucky our scouts saw it in time to lure the dragons down, and even then, it almost wasn’t fast enough.” She waved off her train of thought. “My point is simply that even if we rounded up all the Dark Blood here and used it to make arrows, we simply would run out before long.”
“Why do you want the arrows then if you don’t get attacked by the Darkness very often?” I asked, shaking my head in confusion. “They’re not really effective on the ravagers because of their healing Abilities.”
“I like to be prepared.” She gave me a pointed look. “Besides, it's not your business why I want the arrows, only that I do, no?”
“You make an excellent point,” I said, nodding to her. “What if I agree to supply you with arrows?”
“And what would you want for that?” she asked, and she gave me that same look she had on the battlefield. “You still haven’t said why you came here.”
“I need Etheric Flame,” I said, laying my cards on the table even though Buffy would have had my head. Still, if she had wanted to be here, she could have. Instead, she was busy talking to the local merchants about supplies and trade.
“Why?” Diana asked, and there was a lot more curiosity in her voice than I expected.
“Does it matter?” I asked, smirking at her. “Doesn’t it only matter that I want the Etheric Flame?”
“Ha, ha,” she intoned, running a hand through her snow white hair, causing it to fall across her shoulders in a wave. “I suppose you make an excellent point so I will add more information.” She looked toward the corpses of the dragon. “Every dragon possesses a single Etheric Flame, which makes it rare in that a dragon has to be killed in order for one to be obtained.” She gestured at the slain creatures. “Normally we do not have a ravager to do that for us, making it quite rare.”
“I expected it to be quite rare so if you’re trying to drive up the price, I’m not sure why you don’t just tell me what you want and go from there,” I said, putting my hands on my hips.
“It is not a question of price,” she waved her hand dismissively. “Despite being quite rare, it is largely worthless. Few know how to work with it, and even then it is usually the odd piece of jewelry or decoration. Nothing of note.” Her eyes sparkled. “So tell me why you would venture here and offer me a way to kill beholders in exchange for it.”
“I can use it to reopen the portal you saw. They’re called Nexus Gateways. Etheric Flame is one of the key ingredients for controlling them. Once we have it working, we’ll be able to control where we go. It will make travel between here and other towns instant.” I took a deep breath. “I suspect that soon your Etheric Flame will be quite valuable.”
“Interesting,” Diana said, rubbing her chin. “I will agree to a trade. Arrows for Etheric Flame. The merchants can work out the details.” She put a hand on her hip. “But you have to give me control of my Nexus Gateway or the deal is off.” She looked up at the mountains framing the small valley where Blade’s End sat. “We’re quite remote and getting people and supplies here is difficult. If you can eliminate that by getting your Gateways working, I will gladly help you.” She held out a hand to me. “Deal?”
“Deal.” I took her hand. Her grip was surprisingly strong and firm.
“Excellent.” She pulled her hand away. “So, when will the Nexus Gateway be completed?”
“Soon, I hope. We need to get the rest of the recipe, and then figure out how to create it.” I pointed at the dragons. “Getting the Etheric Flame is step one.”
“What if the rest of the ingredients are impossible to obtain?” she asked, arching an eyebrow at me.
“Then I will have traded you a bunch of arrows for something worthless.” I shrugged. “I’m the real loser here.”
“I somehow doubt that,” Diana replied, turning away and moving back toward the main part of the town. “I will instruct the butchers to collect the Etheric Flame. I hope that you succeed, Builder.” She licked her lips. “I would love to see more of you.”
“Thanks,” I said as we approached the merchants. “I hope we succeed too.”
She gave me a strange look for a moment before shaking her head, causing her hair to whip around her face. “Anyway, I have no desire to sit and squabble over prices with them.” She gestured toward the merchants. “This is where I’ll take my leave.”
With that, she left me to the merchants, and as I walked up, I wondered if I could somehow avoid it too. I honestly didn’t care what we paid as long as we got what we needed. Everything else was just a distraction. Besides, I really needed to talk to Sally and Annabeth. I had an idea I wanted to try.
“You’re in luck, Arthur,” Buffy called, waving at me before I could escape. “I think we’ve hammered out a good baseline. There are some details to go over if you have a minute…”
“Sure,” I said, moving toward her, and if she caught my reluctance, it didn’t show.
“Great, pull up a chair,”
she said, patting the empty space between her and the other goblin.
An hour later, I got bored with the whole thing. There was a lot of nuance to the negotiations I wasn’t aware of, but at the same time, it was all details, and Buffy definitely didn’t need me for that.
As I sat there listening to a discussion about transport costs, Diana showed back up with a burlap sack.
“What’s that?” I asked as she placed it on the table in front of me.
“Those are the Etheric Flames we collected from the dragons felled by the ravager. I wish to give them to you as a way of saying thank you for your help.” She pursed her lips, and as she was about to say more, her goblins poke up.
“Lady Diana, if you have a moment, I’d love to speak to you about the infractions clause in the contract.” The goblin pointed to a spot the two goblins had been arguing about for at least an hour.
“I can’t right now, but I’m sure you’ve got my best interest. I’ll leave you to it.” She turned and ran off so quickly, I almost expected to see one of those cartoon smoke outlines around her.
As I watched her go, I decided I was done too. I had some Etheric Flame now, and every second I didn’t talk to Sally about it would be a wasted second.
I wasn’t quite sure how many we’d need to complete a Nexus Gateway, but I felt like we were getting closer to it, and that was good. We’d already waste too much time here, and who knew how little time Gwen had. I was determined to save her, but I couldn’t do it half-cocked. If I went in without a plan, we’d be trapped in the Graveyard of Statues forever. That wouldn’t help anyone.
The only thing that gave me hope was that I could still feel her through Clarent. Not enough to know where she was or anything, but I could feel her life force still beating. It was weak, but it wasn’t gone. That was good. If it vanished, I wasn’t sure what I’d do, but taking a ravager into that graveyard to fuck up the Empress’s statue would be first on my “to do” list.
“If you two will excuse me, I need to take these to Sally,” I said, getting up from my seat. As I moved to the door, I put a hand on Buffy’s shoulder. “Give ‘em hell.”
“Wouldn’t have it any other way,” Buffy said, smiling up at me and batting her eyes before turning back to the contract. “Now then, the weight limit in subsection 3A is completely unacceptable.”
I left them and made my way toward where Sally had set up a temporary shop. Diana had gathered up a bunch of arrows from the archers and had them brought to the fletcher’s building on the far end of the town. As I approached, I saw both Sally and Crystal working to create arrows. Perfect.
“Hey, Crystal,” I said, walking up to them.
“Hey, Arthur,” Crystal said, setting the arrow she’d been inspecting back into the pile beside Sally. “What’s up?”
“I distinctly recall us having a deal,” I said, holding up the burlap sack containing our six Etheric Flames. “I got my part done. Now it’s your turn, eh?”
“Yeah, that.” She took a deep breath. “I was thinking about that.”
“You seem like you don’t want to rob the alchemy guild anymore,” I replied, part amused and part annoyed. I’d sort of expected this, but at the same time, we needed the recipe.
“I don’t have a problem stealing it,” she said, waving a hand. “But what if they don’t have it? If they did, wouldn’t they have already completed the gateways? I overheard Buffy talking to the other merchant earlier. The Etheric Flame is fairly worthless, and even if it was incredibly valuable, the government never cared about things like cost, so that’s hardly a constraint.” She pointed at my sword. “That makes me think the Alchemy Guild doesn’t have it, and even if they do have it, the recipe could be buried in a tome in the library. In short, I don’t know what to steal unless you want me to nick the whole library.” She grinned then. “I’m always up to try that if you’d like.”
“Those are excellent points,” I said, rubbing my chin as I moved to sit next to them. “That’s why I want to try something.”
“What’s that?” Sally asked, looking up at me as I pulled one of the Etheric Flame from the bag. This one was bright green like the dragon it’d come from, and reminded me of a sea anemone, complete with fluttering tentacles.
“I was thinking about Sam. See, she had a new Skill Tree pop up recently. I didn’t see it before, and it was unlocked by working on Clarent.” I patted my sword with my free hand. “I would be able to see if the Nexus Gateway Skill existed if you had it, obviously, but maybe you don’t because you’ve never used Etheric Flame before.” I turned my eyes to her Skill Tree. “You don’t even have a Skill Tree related to its use at all.”
“So, what would you have me do?” Sally asked, her eyes flicking to Crystal as the girl sat back down beside us. “I don’t have any idea what to do with that.” She gestured at the Etheric Flame in my hand. The tentacles were beginning to wrap around my fingers.
“The same thing I’m going to ask Annabeth to do with the one I have for her,” I said, handing her the glowing, tentacle-ridden mass. “Anything. Do anything with it. I know you have some general Skills related to objects. Hell, try refining it. I’m willing to bet that if there is a tree related to it, working with the material will unlock it.”
“And what if it doesn’t work and I waste the flame?” Sally said, pulling the mass into her lap and staring at it. “I don’t even know where to begin. It might be destroyed.”
“That’s the great thing about it,” I said, getting to my feet. “It’s worthless so I’m willing to let you try a few times before we go and steal the entire alchemist’s library.” I winked at Crystal. “Though maybe we can do that later for fun.”
“I suppose that makes sense,” Sally said, her eyes not leaving the Etheric Flame. “I’ll see if I can refine it like how I do the Dark Bloods.” She took a breath. “Better pass me a couple more.”
“Okay,” I said, opening the bag and removing a sapphire Etheric Flame. After a moment of thought, I simply handed the whole bag to her. “You can have all of them. Pretty sure Annabeth will only need one, anyway.”
“Why do you want Annabeth to carve one up?” Crystal asked as Sally took the bag from me and studied its contents.
“The highly technical answer is that the sculpture she used to increase the speed of the buggy was made from Dark Blood. It wound up boosting the power of the sculpture, making me think material matters. While she didn’t get a tree or anything, I think that’s because her Skills work differently. I am curious as to what bonus a sculpture made from Etheric Flame will have.” I shrugged. “Maybe nothing. Or maybe something.”
37
It took another hour for Buffy to finish up negotiations, and in the end, we walked away with almost fifty Etheric Flame with promises of more to come when we delivered the next batch of arrows. All in all, it felt like a good trade, provided we could actually get the Nexus Gateways to work.
I was still a bit concerned about that as I helped load the buggy with the Etheric Flame. Annabeth was sitting atop the buggy, working on another sculpture. She’d opted to make one similar to the Dark Blood one she’d made in the hopes it might further increase the buggy’s speed. I was all for it, but at the same time, the boxes weren’t going to lift themselves.
Worse, since Buffy was still signing forms and Sally and Crystal were working on the arrows, Sheila and I were left to do the loading.
“These are heavier than they look,” I said, hoisting a crate of supplies onto the back of the buggy. It was filled with green dragon scale, and I was hoping that Sam might be able to make something cool with it.
“Yeah, that’s why almost no one wears it as armor,” Sheila huffed as she put a crate of blue dragon scale next to my box. “I’m just glad that’s the last one.” She wiped her brow with the back of one hand before pulling her canteen from her belt and taking a long swig. “Want some?” she offered it to me.
“Thanks,” I said, taking it and tipping it back for a drink. As I
gulped it down, I realized it wasn’t water. The liquid burned my throat like fire, and as my eyes began to water, I struggled to swallow it down. The substance stabbed at my insides the whole way down, and by the time I’d finished and weakly offered the canteen back to her, the big guard was laughing at me.
“Never had fire water before?” she asked, smacking her lips together. “Goes down easier with every sip.” She winked at me and took another swig before offering it to me. “Trust me.”
“Are you trying to get me drunk? That’s like straight alcohol.” I took the canteen and because I felt the need to prove myself, took another sip. It still burned but less so this time. Glancing down at the bottle just to ensure there wasn’t actual flame inside, I gave it a small shake. No fire roiled out.
“Me? Get you drunk?” She patted me on the shoulder before taking the canteen from me. She took another swig. “Trust me. If I wanted you drunk, you’d be drunk.” She capped the canteen and put it back on her belt. “Why I have some stuff back at Lustnor that will knock you on your ass after a single drop.” She grinned wryly at me. “And let me just say there’s absolutely no way to keep your clothes on once you’ve had succubian tequila.” She leaned on the buggy. “Got some of that too. Been saving it for a special occasion, if you know what I mean.” She waggled her eyebrows at me, giving me a very clear indication of exactly what she meant and making some very interesting thoughts run through my mind.
“Done!” Annabeth cried before I could respond, and even though my face was bright red (from the alcohol, I swear), I turned toward her.
“Done?” I said like the picture of suaveness. In fact, I was feeling mighty good. I took a deep breath that tasted of honey and chives as Annabeth appeared over the edge, brandishing something that looked exactly like an octopus riding a chariot pulled by dragons.
“I call it ‘An octopus riding a chariot pulled by dragons,’” she said, offering it to me. The sculpture throbbed with an inner flame, and sparks of sapphire danced along its edges. She’d somehow preserved eight of the Etheric Flame’s tentacles, appropriating them into the octopus’s own. It was quite simply the most amazing thing I’d ever seen. As I stared at it, a tool tip resolved next to it.
The Builder's Sword (The Legendary Builder Book 1) Page 21