Guild Wars_ Ghosts of Ascalon - Matt Forbeck [120]
It went on for what seemed to be several long minutes. And when it stopped, a huge fog bank of dust and death hung over the city. And there was no sign of ghosts, kings, or asura.
The pair stumbled through the cloud of pulverized bone, making for the hazy pillar of light.
“He must have pulled in every loose bone in the city,” said Dougal, shaking his head.
“And the ghosts with them,” said Riona. “It will be a while if they re-form.”
“You think he got Adelbern?” asked Dougal.
Riona shrugged. “I’m sure he drove him back. It is going to be a long time before he shows his undead face aboveground, though I bet he won’t be alone when he does.”
The air was so thick, they almost toppled over the edge of the pit without seeing it. The dust cleared enough to show a huge beacon lancing from the bottom of the pit toward the sky, punching through the low-hanging clouds. Somewhere at the base were the remains of the tower where Adelbern, the Sorcerer-King, invoked the Foefire.
Dougal reached into his pack and pulled out a length of rope. He handed it to Riona. “Find something solid to anchor this,” he said. “I’m going in.”
“I’m going with you,” she said.
He shook his head as he peered down into the blackness of the well. “I need someone back here guarding my way out. Otherwise, I’m never coming out of there alive.”
Riona frowned but nodded in agreement as she went to fasten the rope around the base of a nearby statue. Dougal recognized it as a portrayal of Adelbern in his younger days, soon after he had returned from his battles with Kryta to claim the crown. It hurt to think how far the king had fallen from that hopeful age. He and the rest of the world.
Once Riona secured the rope, Dougal swung his legs over the ridge of broken stone around the pit. He mentally overlaid Dak’s map. No, Savione’s map. Was that the ghostly courtier’s curse: that he could not leave for the Mists until the ghostly dagger was removed? Would he return as well?
Carefully, Dougal climbed down the side of the pit, Riona playing out the rope from above. He could feel the intensity of the light on his back, almost pushing him against the wall. If he was right, he would not have to crawl all the way to the bottom of the shaft.
The wall was slippery as well, and slicked with moss. Dougal had a hard time finding handholds. The rope meant he didn’t have to, but he didn’t like to trust himself entirely to his equipment. Ropes had been known to snap, and there was always the chance the ghosts would find it and cut it loose. Of course, if that happened, the lack of a rope would likely be the least of his troubles.
There. About halfway down the pit, a passageway delved farther into the depths. At some distant point in time it had been framed by a pair of heavy doors, but one was missing and the other canted at an angle, its wooden face reduced to splinters. Now it reminded him of the empty eye sockets of a sun-bleached skull.
Dougal swung over to the entrance. There was a thin perch before the door. Dougal reached into his pack and fished out a small lantern on a lanyard. He lit it and hung it around his neck. He would need the light once he moved away from the Foefire.
“I’m there!” he shouted up to Riona.
Her head appeared at the rim of the pit. “Good. What do you see?”
“This must have been a secret escape route for the royal family,” Dougal said as he moved deeper into the foundations under the main square. “I’m surprised to see so little security.”
As the words left his lips, Dougal felt something under his foot click. He recognized the sensation right away: a pressure plate. He braced himself for something horrible.
Dougal froze and nothing happened. All right. Then the trap would spring when the pressure was removed.
The trap was probably meant to go off when he walked past the pressure plate. That meant