Gholek's Lair
"It's so hard to get good guards these days," a draconic, yet definitely feminine voice grumbled from inside the cave. "Wartoks aren't that bright to begin with, but it isn't that hard to hit something as big as a dragon with a ballista." A pair of fiery eyes with a strange green cast to them appeared in the gas-choked darkness. "Who are my visitors?" The eyes came closer, blinking a couple of times at the light outside, and the outline of a head appeared. It tilted to one side in a gesture of curiosity. "Arokh? Morghus? Why are you here?"
"Nice to see you too, sister," Morghus said dryly.
"I see you're both still Bonded." Gholek's head and part of her neck came forward into the light, which glinted off her dark green scales. Arching an eyeridge at Arokh, she drew back into the shadows again. "Well? Why are you here?"
Morghus kept his expression carefully blank as Arokh said, "What has occupied you of late, Gholek?"
She laughed and more gases leaked from the cave in an emerald cloud. "For the sake of idle chatter, I guard a portal to a section of the Betrayer's holdings in my lair. I hunt. I sleep."
"So you serve Navaros?" Rynn dared to ask.
Gholek's eyes narrowed at her. "Interesting choice, Arokh. From Heron to a peasant."
Just like Werokh, Rynn thought, keeping her temper. Let Arokh do the talking.
"She passed the test of the Tower," Arokh said. "Rynn is more than worthy to be my rider."
The green dragon sniffed. "Mm hm. Listen, brother, if you're looking to come this way you're going to have to come in and kill me. As your human guessed, I serve Navaros. I'm pretty sure that you don't." She disappeared.
"There we have it," Rynn said.
"You call that evil?" Morghus snapped. "She's not doing anything unless we try to-"
"Morghus," Ebontyne said sharply, and her dragon fell silent. "She serves the Betrayer, and that's bad enough for me. We are trying to kill him." She looked at Rynn. "How do you propose to get in there and-" she lowered her voice, "-get Gholek's dragonstone?"
Rynn dismounted and took a few steps closer to the cave. Her eyes started to water and her throat feel strange, so she crouched and kept going a bit before coming back. "The gas is acting like smoke. If I keep close to the ground it won't affect me so badly."
"Great," Morghus growled. "And if Gholek does attack you, you think you can crawl faster than she can walk?"
"I'll be careful, and I'll handle this one on my own."
"We'll wait for you here," Arokh said, and Rynn crawled into the huge cave entrance.
It was slow going, and she had to be careful not to drag her knees across the stone or her armour rasped loudly in the silence. What's more, she started to wish she'd left her bow and arrows outside, as they had the habit of tangling her legs. She kept going, keeping close to the wall, and heading toward what seemed to be a source of light.
It was a large crystal of grimstone punching through the ground. The lambent green stuff let of a foul smell and Rynn went around it as swiftly as she could while holding her breath, but there was more behind it. The cave was full of it, which was an unexpected danger. Too much exposure to grimstone could drain a human's will and turn you into a mindless drone.
Time suddenly became an even more important factor. She crawled down the first branching passage she found, large enough for a dragon, and followed it to the end. In the far wall of the cave was a large, circular portal - big enough for a dragon to fly through.
"And an insect crawls into the web," a draconic voice rumbled. Gholek had been waiting beside the entrance to the cave, and her neck stretched around the corner for her flaming green-tinged eyes to stare intimidatingly at Rynn. "Perhaps I'll have some wartoks revive Arokh to keep me company once I've made you a meal."
Rynn hurriedly backed up and the dragon chuckled softly.
"Foolish human-thing." A hissing cloud of poisonous gas filled the tunnel and Rynn, holding her breath, jumped to her feet with her eyes shut and fled blindly back the way she'd come. When she hit a wall, she dropped to the ground and opened her eyes before sucking in a breath.
She coughed.
"I hear you, insect."
Rynn rolled behind an outcrop of grimstone and made herself as small as she could. The green dragon's head and neck came through the tunnel then lowered, like a hound picking up a scent. The sensitive nostrils twitched and Gholek smiled unpleasantly. She looked right at Rynn's hiding place.
"You think you can escape me?"
Taking another gasp of breath, Rynn fled further down the main passage as Gholek breathed out more gas. She was like a large cat playing with a mouse, Rynn thought as she ducked down another corridor and threw herself onto hands and knees. She was taking her time trying to kill her prey, enjoying the chase and the taunting too much. A fatal error for any villain, but this one didn't know it. Gholek thought Rynn was trying to get through the portal she was guarding, not trying to steal her soul crystal, otherwise she might have tried killing Rynn when she had the chance.
As fate had it, Rynn next found herself in the heart of Gholek's lair - where her dragonstone stood glittering in a green crystalline altar. It would have been like that since she'd been wakened from her sleep of stone. Hearing the heavy footfalls of the dragon behind her, Rynn stood and ran to the pedestal. Grabbing the soul crystal with both hands, she pulled.
It didn't budge.
Oh no...
"What are..?" Gholek entered the cave. But instead of the scream of rage and cloud of death Rynn had expected, the dragon's face seemed to crumple with confusion. "Are you... trying to free me?"
Rynn stared at her. "I..." Then she noticed that the altar was made of grimstone. "What happened here?"
Gholek bowed her head and sighed. "I don't know how Navaros' lackeys engineered it, but they changed my pedestal to as you see it now then put my soul crystal in it. It woke me, but... but I am a prisoner. A slave to the grimstone and to Navaros. I could never leave, and it wasn't just because of the wartoks outside." She came closer and indicated the altar with her head. "I tried breaking it with every power I possess, but nothing worked."
Rynn felt her heart returning to its normal rate. Carefully, she asked, "How are you a slave to Navaros? Do you have to guard these caves?"
"I can't leave them because my altar is made of grimstone and my soul crystal is bound to it. But as time wears away, so does the grimstone that 'grows' in these caves. I become weakened, even insane, as the grimstone crystals fade. Navaros keeps me guarding his damn portal by his control over the grimstone. His creatures can bring more, or keep it away." She shuddered from head to tail. "Perhaps it is weak and pathetic of me to admit it, but I need grimstone. The insanity... is horrible." Her green-tinged eyes lit up. "But you could change that. You could free me."
"I can try," Rynn said sympathetically. "Do you have any idea how?"
"You can try breaking the altar," Gholek suggested dubiously, "but I don't know how, since I couldn't."
"Don't you need the altar?"
"No, not unless I plan to re-Bond." The green dragon smiled ruefully. "I don't think I care to make myself vulnerable to this kind of torture again."
"Let me try my sword." Rynn drew Runeblade and smashed it into the altar. It produced a long scratch, but nothing more. Gathering herself again, she brought the weapon down with all her strength. The grimstone screeched and a deeper fissure marred the surface. "I think this will work."
"That's Runeblade," Gholek whispered, her eyes widening. "Heron's sword."
Rynn grunted and chopped at the altar again, swung the sword back and struck a fourth time. Bits of the altar broke off in large chunks. She kept at it like a lumberjack to a log, careful not to hit the soul crystal. Suddenly, green lightning seemed to shoot through the altar. The whole structure glowed brightly for a minute, then went dark and grey. In the abrupt darkness, Rynn heard Gholek catch her breath sharply.
Rynn fumbled at the broken altar and found the soul crystal. It pulled free from the shattered remnants easily. "I got it," she said softly.
"Oh, Rynn," Gholek whispered, wonder in her voice. Her eyes glowed like true fire; the emerald glow that had poisoned it gone. "I'm free. Thank you. Thank you..."