Guild Wars_ Ghosts of Ascalon - Matt Forbeck [125]
“This is your chance, Dougal,” said Riona. “We go our separate ways. You go back to Divinity’s Reach or Lion’s Arch or wherever. You survived Ascalon City—twice. You have gems and gold to prove it. And while the charr legions tear each other apart, you can just wait for the dust to settle and for the humans to come back. All you have to do is walk away.”
“I’m afraid I can’t do that,” said Dougal. “You know that.”
Riona came at him, whipping the ungue around as she charged. Dougal realized that some of the bloody scratches were not from Ember but from the Claw itself. Riona was an amateur with the blade, and could injure herself just as easily as she could wound him. Yet, she could not drop it to pull her own sword.
Dougal countered her attack with a flurry of blows, but try as he might, he could not find a way past the Claw’s four blades. While Riona might not know how to handle an ungue, Dougal stood before her beaten and exhausted, the blood from his fingers making his blade hard to handle. She’d always been the better soldier, and that edge proved enough to keep him from hurting her.
Dougal backed up again, giving himself some more room from the Claw’s blades and hoping that Riona might trip on the uneven paving stones when coming after him.
The blades of the Claw flashed at him again and again, and it was all he could do to mount a decent defense against them. Every time he thought he might see a space for a counterattack, Riona closed it in an instant. Sometimes this meant cutting her own flesh with one of the other blades, but she didn’t seem to care. He kept backing up slowly, buying himself time with space, circling as he moved, putting her between the pit and himself.
“Just walk away, Dougal!” Riona looked straight into his eyes. “I’ll let you go for old time’s sake. I’m taking the Claw either way. You don’t have to die.” She launched herself at him. Dougal turned just in time to parry her attack. One of the Claw’s blades got past his guard and ripped a shallow channel in his leg.
Furiously, Riona pressed the attack, slicing and stabbing at Dougal with abandon. He stumbled backward over the stones, deflecting the most lethal of her blows. She was forcing him to move now, spinning him so his back was to the pit and his form was framed in the light of the Foefire.
He was the perfect target, which is what he wanted to be.
Riona let out a guttural cry that might have been a curse or a threat or a prayer, and charged him, her blades lashing out and laying open his left shoulder. That’s when Dougal struck, despite the pain, at Riona’s heart. She managed to half parry the blow, and it slashed through her side rather than into her chest.
But, more importantly, she had to twist to ward off the blow, and her own charge carried her forward, to the edge of the pit. She slashed again at Dougal, and he raised his blade again, piercing Riona’s chest through its chain links halfway up the blade’s length.
Riona’s eyes went wide with the shock, and she began to pitch backward, Dougal’s name on her bloody lips, his sword still lodged in her chest.
Dougal let go of his sword and reached beyond the length of the blade. He grabbed the Claw of the Khan-Ur from Riona’s tightly locked fingers and pulled. The Claw came free, but Riona kept arching backward, back into the pit.
She fell without making a sound, disappearing into the light. Dougal did not hear her land.
Dougal sat on the edge of the pit, breathing deeply, clutching the ungue. His shoulder wept blood, and tears streamed down his face.
A deep chuffing noise behind him shocked him and told him Ember had not fully given up the fight. He staggered over and slapped his pockets, at last finding the potion that Kranxx had given him. He rolled Ember onto her back and poured the liquid between her lips, then took a swig himself. It tasted like