Guild Wars_ Ghosts of Ascalon - Matt Forbeck [64]
The stench did not improve. It was awful.
“Wolf’s nose!” Gullik said. “This smells worse than the latrines I had to muck out as a young warrior in the Battle of the Burning Pass.”
Dougal peered into the filthy waters and tried to ignore the things he saw floating downstream. Mountain streams ran as clear as the rain, but the surface of this muck was so opaque, he could not discern its depths.
Kranxx led the way along the right-hand side of the stream, where a narrow walkway was perched over the flow. He could walk normally. Killeen, Riona, and Dougal had to follow more slowly, edging along. For Ember and Gullik, there would be no other choice than to wade through the edges of the muck.
And suddenly Ember stopped.
“Not a chance,” the charr said, her voice filled with revulsion. “There has to be another way.”
“We’ve already been over this,” Kranxx said, calling back down the tunnel. His voice echoed off the slick masonry that lined the walls.
“I cannot—” Ember bit her tongue and swallowed back the bile rising in her throat.
“You are a brave and powerful warrior from a proud and magnificent people,” Gullik said. “You have the strength to do this, and I will be there with you.”
After a moment of trying to steel herself, Ember held out her hands instead. “Take off these chains,” she said.
Riona shook her head. “Not until we are away from Ebonhawke. What if the Vanguard found us with you unchained?”
“I am not going to forge my way through that filth while bound in chains.” Ember’s tone made it clear that this point was not negotiable.
“She has a point,” said Killeen. “What if there’s a drop-off and she needs to swim?”
The thought of Ember falling all the way under the sewage made Dougal want to gag.
“No,” Riona said. “She agreed to the plan, and we’re going to stick to it.” Her earlier softness, during the discussion up on the wall, was completely absent now. The Riona who led the party was back in charge.
“Then I go no further,” said Ember. “I will make my way back to the surface and lead off any pursuit. I do not fear death, but this is no way for a charr to die.”
“Leave a charr in the heart of Ebonhawke ?” said Riona sharply. “That is not an option.”
Dougal couldn’t think of anything else to say. Instead, he walked back to where Ember stood at the intersection of the two tunnels and stood before her. She watched him patiently as he reached into a pocket and produced the moleskin package that held his lock picks. He held them up before the charr’s face. Ember lifted her wrists to him with a smile, and he got to work.
“What do you think you’re doing, Dougal?” Riona stormed toward him, her hand on the hilt of her sword. Before she could reach him, though, Gullik stepped between them, blocking her way. She tried to push her way past him, but he widened his stance to make it clear that he would not give way.
“Do you need a light?” said the norn helpfully, ignoring Riona’s struggles and curses behind him.
Dougal ignored Riona as well, and a moment later Ember’s hands were free. He reached up to undo the attached collar next.
Riona growled in frustration and craned her neck to see around the norn’s bulk. “Dougal Keane!” she said. “I order you to stop!”
“Following your orders,” Dougal said. The collar came open, and the set of shackles cascaded to the wet stones. “Oops, too late.”
Ember scooped them up and hefted them in her hands, contemplating their steel links. Dougal thought she would throw them down the passage and into the sewer water. Instead she handed the chains to the norn, and Gullik for his part rooted around in his satchel for the charr’s weapons. Dougal pocketed his picks once more, when Riona, now free of the norn’s blocking frame, grabbed his wrist.
“How dare you?” she hissed, whirling him about.
Dougal braced himself, ready to knock aside her anticipated slap. Instead, when he opened his