Knights of the Grey City

Chapter 48 - CHESSBOARD

"There's no way in hell I'm doing this."

I looked at Rayne and then over at the Gargoyle, who stood in front of us. "Well, you heard the woman."

Huang sighed. "Rayne, I get that this is scary and weird."

"No kidding!" Rayne exclaimed.

"Just let one of us carry you, we have work to do," Katie snapped, the Firedrake wheeling above of us.

"No way," Rayne repeated. "There's no way in hell either of you are getting me up on top of that tower."

I crossed my arms and peered up at the sentry tower, unable to think of a convincing argument. Yeah, I know it's an enormous tower covered in spikes and crackling with dangerous energy, but we want to go look at a map and think your powers will make it look cooler. That was not going to cut it.

The Gargoyle folded its wings and curled its tail around its legs. "Listen, Rayne... doing this will help you understand your power better. It gives us a better chance of staying alive in here, of seeing what our next step needs to be."

"Good luck with that," she said. "I'll do what I can from down here."

"But we... we need you," I said. She shot me a look. "Sorry, I hate it, too, if I'm honest. But we need your help to do this."

"I don't even understand what it is you're trying to do," she said, half crossing her arms.

A blast of hot wind off of Katie's wings washed over us. I frowned at her. "Can you back off a little, Katie? We're trying to take this slow."

"Uuuugh," Katie groaned, and the huge, fiery dragon alighted on a glass building nearby. The roof crunched and crackled under her weight, but didn't break. She curled up on it like a cat and rested her chin on her long, curved talons. "All right, wake me when we've decided we're going."

I shook my head, then turned to Rayne, who was watching us all with great wariness. "Alright, so I know it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to you right now. Basically, we need to be able to track where the danger is by looking at the map."

She bit at her lip and shot another glance at the tower. "I get that, but why do you need me? Just leave me in the Sanctuary and go do your dragon adventures without me, please."

Huang shifted, lifting his talons and placing them back down. "Your abilities will augment the map in some way. I'm afraid that, like it or not, you're one of us now."

"So, you want me to go help you fight them, is that it?" she asked.

"Right now, we literally just need you to come with us," I said. "And stand there. You'll see when you get up there."

"But in the future..." she pinned me with a look. "You'll expect me to fight."

"I can't expect you to do anything," I said stiffly.

Rayne threw her hands up. "I suppose I should be glad neither of you has already grabbed me and flown up there."

"You should be," Katie said.

"Katie. Stop," I snapped at her. "Everyone, come on. We're all pretty much trying to accomplish the same goal, here. Rayne, this is a part of us learning how to escape the Grey City. To get out, we have to win. And to win, we have to gather some more information... up there."

"I'm a great flyer," Huang assured her. "You'll be in no danger."

Rayne grimaced. "That's the only map, huh? And you really need me there in order to use it?"