Guild Wars_ Ghosts of Ascalon - Matt Forbeck [40]
The norn bashed his axe against a wall, smashing the bedpost from it. His weapon finally free, he hefted it in a meaty fist, ready to make quick work of Dougal and anyone who stood between them.
“Hold it!” Killeen shouted as she appeared in the doorway. “What are you doing?”
At first, Dougal thought the sylvari was talking to him, but she rushed into the room and grabbed the norn by the arm. “Gullik!” she said. “Stop! You’ll get yourself killed!”
Dougal wondered just whose side the sylvari was on. Doomforge didn’t bother to ask. She shoved Dougal aside and sprang at the norn, her claws flung wide to deny any escape. Behind him, Riona had gotten to her feet and regained her sword.
Killeen sprang between charr and norn, throwing one hand out toward each. “No! Don’t! He’s a friend!”
Doomforge hauled up short, her claws inches from Killeen’s face. She glared at the norn clear over the head of the sylvari, who looked like a child stuck between two giants. “Explain,” the charr said through her gritted fangs, her eyes daring the norn to attack.
The norn lowered his axe to the floor and leaned on its handle as if it were a cane. Dougal realized he had seen a norn do that before, in the crypts beneath Divinity’s Reach. With the scuffle suspended, at least for the moment, the adrenaline drained from the norn’s blood, and he wavered there, unsteady on his feet. He spoke slowly, with the precision of a drunk man trying to convince others that he was not drunk.
“Thunder and blood! This should have been so simple. Find the man who was with my beloved cousin at her death. Take my revenge on his triple-damned soul.” He pointed at Dougal with a shaky hand. “Exit with my honor, and hers, preserved.”
“So much for that,” Riona muttered, her blade still out and at the ready.
The norn ignored her and squinted at Dougal with glassy eyes. “Bear’s bile, though, damn me if I can see how a scrawny thing like you could have cut down such a prime specimen of female norn.” He blinked, then added, “Norness. Nornitude.”
Killeen tried to say something, but the norn cut her off. He let out a deep sigh, and Dougal swore he could see tears in the corner of the norn’s great eyes.
“She was such a gentle creature,” the norn said, “always tagging along in my footsteps. Who could blame her for being dazzled by my heroism? But mine are massive boots to fill, and now poor little Gyda is dead.”
“Gyda?” Dougal’s jaw dropped. “She was your—? But I didn’t kill her.”
The norn gave Dougal a long, lazy wink. “Of course not, little one. But what else would a human say when the finest warrior in all the Shiverpeaks came calling for his head?”
The norn reached out and put a massive hand on Dougal’s shoulder. Doomforge and Riona stepped closer, ready with claw and blade. But the norn only stood there, staring at Dougal, weaving as he stood. Dougal wondered if the norn would collapse and he would have to catch his huge form.
“By Raven’s black heart, who would blame you if you had killed yourself by now in terror?” He gazed into Dougal’s confused face. “You are a brave one, aren’t you? I can see it in your soul.”
Dougal opened his mouth to protest, but the norn shushed him. “Of course you didn’t kill her,” the norn said. “Just look at you. How could anyone imagine you could manage that?”
The norn paused for a moment to swallow hard, and Dougal feared that the drunken warrior might become sick. “But that’s not the point,” the norn said, recovering. “Not at all. It’s not that sweet Gyda is dead. It’s that you’ve failed to say a word about it to anyone. I heard she died, but nothing else. There’s an epic tale to be spun there, I’m sure, and Gyda deserves for her part in the grand saga to be told. No true norn fears death—only being forgotten.”
The norn’s hand grew heavier then, and Dougal put up his arms to help steady the tottering giant, whose spirit-laden breath smelled strong enough to make Dougal’s eyes water. As he did, he knew that he was too late. The norn’s eyes rolled back up into