He means to present them to Daemon. He believes that Daemon is awake now.
As to whether Elgar could hold them until then was a question. Though he had spoken blithely about Roan, the truth was that the man was wriggling like a worm on a hook and he was loosening Elgar’s hold upon him even as Elgar clamped down. With the two others to also contend with, eventually Roan would get free.
“Yes, I can hold them, but we must move with efficiency,” Elgar said.
“I am nothing if not efficient,” Sana laughed. “I can teleport them to the gate one at a time or–”
“I will lose control if you teleport them,” Elgar told her. “There is a momentary loss of connection during the teleportation, they can break free. We must walk them back.”
“Walking!” Sana laughed. “Well, at least we’re moving even if it is at a snail’s pace.”
“Then let’s get them moving,” Demos said. “I’ll be happy with them behind bars.”
Elgar ordered the three adversaries to walk, first to them and then ahead of them down the Hunter’s Path. The path wound up to the gate. It was over a mile and a half away. Never had such a distance seemed so long.
As Roan and Legion walked past them, Ryder/Weryn said, “Here we are again. They tell me it has been a long time since I saw you two. But I remember it as if it were yesterday. But this time, I will crush you underneath my heel. Nothing will stop me.”
Despite Ryder/Weryn’s cutting words, Legion’s hope at seeing him was like a child’s. That hope rode upon black waves of violence and depravity. Elgar had always hated beingin Legion’s mind, because it was a sewer of diseased thoughts. There was no conscience there, only primal desires to torture and kill.
For Ryder/Weryn alone there was a mockery of tenderness, because he had given Legion the dark gift of vampirism and allowed them to become themself. That Ryder/Weryn should come and rout Roan seemed especially gleeful in Legion’s eyes. In that, Elgar and the War Childe were in agreement.
Elgar’s eyes flickered to Roan as the Kaly-Eyros Vampire walked past him. Sweat stood out on Roan’s brow as he fought for control. But the Whisper had weakened him and the slicing had done the rest. His mind seethed with rage and petulance. It resembled Caemorn’s in no way whatsoever. Absent his knowledge that this was a Kaly slice, Elgar would have never connected them.
“They didn’t win the War,” Demos said grimly. He put his hands on his lips as he regarded them with disdain. “They’ve had to live in complete darkness, nursing old grudges, and fearing Daemon’s return. Well, he’s back now and his empire will be greater than ever while theirs will be a cell.”
“Not being able to teleport is worse than a Second Death to a Wyvern,” Sana remarked as Shaela brought up the rear. “I wonder if it was worth it to attack your own kind, to go against our king.”
Shaela felt like a butterfly pinned to a board. Her soul squirmed at Sana’s, seeking escape. There were rumors that Wyverns were more spirit than flesh in some way, which was what allowed them to travel from one place to the next as they did. The sense within her that she had tomovewas stronger than just a wish, but he would not let her go.
They started after their adversaries, but his feet felt heavy as if he did not wish to leave this place, as if there was somethingundone. He frowned. He glanced around, but saw nothing out of place yet…
Elgar’s gaze went to the back of Roan’s head as the Eyros-Kaly Vampire strode ahead. His mind was a tumult of thoughts. Rage at being caught. Consternation for missing the Whisper. Aggravation at Legion. More and more surface thoughts…
“Elgar, you coming?” Demos called over his shoulder.
Surface thoughts. Too many surface thoughts. Anger, but underlying it all… glee. He believes he has won!
“Stop!” Elgar shouted, even as he forced their captives to as well.
“What is wrong?” Ryder/Weryn got out just as the ground began to shake as if there was an earthquake.
But there was no earthquake.
Elgar’s head snapped up and he met Roan’s eyes. They were filled with triumph.
Your Whisper was too effective,Roan said.It caused me to forget to reset the Necrolyte and now it is too late. I had hoped to use it elsewhere, but here is better than nothing.
“What’s with the tremors?” Sana asked as she struggled to keep her feet.
“What the hell?!” Demos shouted as his eyes went huge. “Elgar, what’s happening?”
“What have they done?” Ryder/Weryn growled.
Elgar ripped through Roan’s mind, looking for information on the artifact–the Necrolyte–and he found it just as the first skeletal arm shot out of the earth. It was the arm of one of the creatures that were represented by the statues. Their corpses had been buried in front of the statues carved in their honor. But it wasn’t just the dead here that were rising.
No.
Not just here.
