The Iron Claw camp is a buzzing hornet's nest. The news of my success has spread like wildfire. I have gone from a sacrificial outcast to an unlikely hero. The mercenaries who ignored me the day before now give me respectful nods. I have earned my place, not with words, but with an act of insane audacity.
The egg is placed in the center of the command tent, on a bed of warm sand to maintain its temperature. It is the center of all attention, the pivot of our strategy. Kaelen, Lyanna, and the other officers are hunched over maps, planning the ambush.
I stay back, observing. The voice of the egg in my head has quieted, replaced by a feeling of warmth and relative security. It knows it is no longer in the cold and darkness.
"You should rest, Reinhardt." Lyanna's voice pulls me from my thoughts. She has approached me, a cup of steaming herbal tea in her hand. "You look like you're about to collapse."
She is right. The tension, the chase, the use of my skills... it all comes at a cost. I take the cup. Our fingers brush. A brief contact, but it sends a wave of warmth through my tired body.
"The Saurian King won't attack right away," she says, following my gaze to the maps. "He may be a beast, but he is a king. He will send scouts first, try to locate us. He won't risk his elite guard in a blind charge. We have some time."
We sit apart from the others, sipping our hot drinks in silence. It is a moment of precarious calm, a respite before the storm.
"What you did..." she begins. "No one else could have done it. I was right to trust you."
"You gave me the means to succeed," I reply, thinking of her potion.
"A tool is nothing without the craftsman who wields it." She looks at me, her green eyes shining in the lantern light. "I studied your aura while you were near the egg. The bond you formed with it... it's primordial magic. Something the books only describe. Tell me, Reinhardt, who are you, really?"
The question is direct. Dangerous. But after what we have just been through, lying seems futile.
"I am a hunger," I say, my voice barely a whisper. "A skill I was born with. It allows me to absorb the power of what I... consume."
I expect disgust, fear. But Lyanna shows only fascination. Her scholar's mind overrides everything else.
"Consumption magic... It is a forbidden branch, considered heretical by most academies. It is said to lead inevitably to madness, to the loss of self." She leans toward me, her excitement palpable. "But you control it. You use it as a tool. How?"
"I learned not to fight it, but to negotiate with it."
Our conversation is interrupted by Kaelen. "Reinhardt. Lyanna. The plan is ready."
We gather around the map. Kaelen's plan is simple and brutal, worthy of a mercenary. We will use the egg as bait to lure the Saurian King into a narrow canyon a few kilometers from here, the "Dragon's Maw." It is a natural trap. The canyon walls are steep, offering perfect positions for archers and mages. Once the King and his guard are engaged, teams of dwarven miners will collapse both ends of the canyon with explosives, trapping them.
"It will be a slaughter," Kaelen says with a cold satisfaction. "They will be trapped, with nowhere to run."
"And the egg?" I ask. "It will be at the center of the ambush. It could be destroyed."
The thought of the terrified creature in the egg, used as a simple bait only to be annihilated, bothers me more than I want to admit.
"It's a necessary risk," Kaelen replies. "Its only value is in luring the King. Once that's done, it's useless."
"No," I say, my voice firmer than intended.
All eyes turn to me. Kaelen frowns. "What do you mean, 'no'? It is not your place to question orders, boy."
"It's not an order, it's a strategy. And it's flawed." I lean over the map. "The Saurian King is an ancient and powerful being. Do you really think he's going to charge headfirst into such an obvious trap? He'll send an advance guard. He'll probe our defenses. And when he sees the egg, unprotected, sitting in the middle of a canyon, he will know it's a trap."
"Then what do you suggest, O great strategist?" one of the officers scoffs.
"We don't show him the egg. We make him think we are trying to escape with it." I look Kaelen straight in the eye. "Give me the egg. I will be the bait. Not a static bait. A moving one. I will cross the Dragon's Maw, as if trying to escape to the north. The King will pursue me. He will only be thinking of retrieving his heir. He will be blinded by his paternal fury. That is when you will spring the trap on him."
Silence falls in the tent. My plan is even riskier than his. It places me, alone, against the fury of the most powerful monster in the region.
Lyanna is the first to speak. "It's... plausible. The parental instinct is a powerful motivator, even in the most monstrous of creatures. It makes the trap more believable."
Kaelen stares at me, his icy eyes analyzing every part of my being. He is not looking for logic. He is looking for motivation. Why would I take such a risk?
"You want to be the hero, is that it, kid?" he says. "You want the glory?"
"I want to survive," I answer honestly. "And this is our best chance to do it. All of us."
He thinks for a long moment. Then, he nods. "Alright. We'll do it your way." He points a finger at me. "But if you try to betray us, if you really run off with that egg... I swear I will hunt you to the ends of the earth, and what I do to you will make what the Saurian King would have done look like mercy."
"Understood."
The strategy is adopted. The ambush is set for the following evening, when darkness will be our greatest ally.
I spend the rest of the day with the egg. I keep it near me, speaking to it with my mind, reassuring it. The bond between us strengthens. I am no longer its captor. I am its guardian.
Lyanna comes to see me. She doesn't talk about the mission. She sits next to me and watches the egg.
"You've grown attached to it," she says. It's not a question.
"It is alone. And scared. I know the feeling."
She places her hand on mine, which is resting on the egg's warm shell. Her touch is gentle. "You're not like the other mercenaries, Reinhardt. They see power, wealth. You see a life to be protected."
I don't know if that's true. I don't know if my motives are noble or selfish. I just know that I cannot let this unborn creature be sacrificed. Perhaps by saving it, I am saving a part of myself.
"Be careful tomorrow," she whispers. "For real."
"I will."
Night falls on the Ash Pit. The calm before the storm. Tomorrow, I will face a king. And I will decide the fate of his heir.