Guild Wars_ Ghosts of Ascalon - Matt Forbeck [23]
Killeen did not notice that Dougal was now cradling his face in his hands and that Riona was chuckling. “So,” began Dougal, “you told them where I hid the gem …”
“Yes,” said Killeen, smiling. “Honesty works out best, I find.” At this, Riona actually laughed. “And that reminds me,” the sylvari said, reaching for her pouch. “I wanted to give you this.”
She produced a small object wrapped in a lace handkerchief, about the size of an asura’s fist. It thunked heavily on the table. Dougal picked it up, and a flash of red crystal flared in the late-afternoon sun.
“Nice,” said Riona, catching a glimpse as well. “Looks just like the type of thing you would risk your life for. Not magical, is it?”
Dougal pushed the entire gem in his pocket, handkerchief and all. “I’m confused,” he said, shaking his head. “You just told me—”
“That I told our jailers where you hid the gem,” said Killeen. “I didn’t say anything about where I hid it afterwards …”
“Where you …” The pieces of the puzzle fit together in his mind. “I see. When you climbed up my back … .”
“I pulled the gem from where you put it and moved it further up, and quickly sealed it up inside a skull for good measure. When I saw you leaving the jail, I went and retrieved it.”
Now it was Dougal’s turn to laugh. Killeen leaned across the table and, in a conspiratorial tone, said, “So, what is the new job? Is it dragons?”
Riona shook her head. “I’m sorry, Killeen of the Night, but this is a private matter between me and—”
“Ascalon City,” interrupted Dougal, ignoring Riona’s glare. “She wants me to go to Ascalon City for the Vigil. She won’t tell me why yet.”
Killeen leaned back and put her palms together. “Ascalon City is in the center of charr territory, and filled with ghosts.”
“I know,” said Dougal, “I’ve been there.”
Killeen blinked in surprise. “I didn’t know,” she said, and was silent for a moment.
Dougal felt compelled to add, “It did not work out well,” and looked at Riona. For the first time Riona nodded in agreement, her mouth a tight line.
Killeen looked up and said, “All right. Count me in.”
Riona looked up in shock and stammered, “I’m sorry, that’s impossible.”
“Why?” said Killeen. “You’re taking him.” She motioned at Dougal with the glass and Dougal felt vaguely insulted.
“Ascalon City is filled with ghosts …” Riona began, repeating Killeen’s words as if explaining something to a child.
“She’s a necromancer,” said Dougal. “That argument doesn’t have a lot of traction.”
“Indeed, Riona Grady of the Vigil,” said Killeen. “My people are less than twenty-five years old. None of us have died, save by violence, poison, and disease. We don’t know much about what it is like to die. I find the dead, and the undead—and ghosts and everything similar—to be fascinating. If you are going to Ascalon City, I am in.”
Riona looked at Dougal, who smiled. “You should have heard her in the crypts,” said Dougal. “She was practically poetic.”
“I’m sorry,” said Riona, spreading her fingers out toward Killeen, “that’s just impossible.”
“She’s in,” said Dougal.
Riona goggled at him, an angry color returning to her cheeks. “You don’t get to decide.”
“Of course I get to decide,” said Dougal. “If she doesn’t go, I don’t come to Lion’s Arch. You march me back to Captain Logan Thackeray and his Lieutenant Groban and I spend the next few years repairing docks on Lake Doric. Which, you might think, is poetic justice. And you get to go back to the Vigil and explain how you let the one man who’s been to Ascalon City and lived to tell the tale get away, and your entire plan, whatever it is, falls apart.” Dougal leaned back