Guild Wars_ Ghosts of Ascalon - Matt Forbeck [79]
“I’ll stay up,” said Killeen. “Kranxx has been up since we met him and probably needs a rest.”
“That’s the smartest thing I’ve heard since I last opened my mouth,” said Kranxx, lying down and using his lumpy pack as a pillow. He dropped his hat over his face and was asleep in an instant.
“I could use a rest as well,” said Riona. She leaned over Dougal and softly whispered, “Thanks.” Then she found a comfortable spot, not too far from where Ember curled up on herself, and was soon breathing deeply herself.
Dougal looked at Riona and wondered how long this calm would last before their next storm. Probably until he did something she didn’t like, he thought.
He looked near the entrance to their small oasis and Killeen was there, cross-legged in the sun and perfectly still. She could be asleep, or dead, for all her outward appearance showed. He walked over and saw that although her eyes were open, her eyelids did not move. She did not blink, and Dougal wondered if the sylvari did that just to reassure other races.
Dougal cleared his throat and Killeen closed her eyes, then opened them again. Suddenly they were luminous and full of life once more. “Is there a problem, Dougal Keane ?” she said. “You think me a spy?”
“No,” said Dougal, “but I do want to talk to you about what you did back there.”
“With the guard. Wynne.” She dropped her chin to her chest in a very human impersonation of a pout. “I meant no harm. It was the same thing that I did before, beneath Lion’s Arch, with that skeleton. And it served the same purpose: to set off a trap so we would not suffer from it. But as a result, now Crusader Riona is irritated at me.” She looked at him with her luminous eyes. “As, I suspect, you are.”
“Not irritated,” said Dougal, “disturbed. Necromancers among the humans have been considered rather unsettling for centuries, even though they work in magic like elementalists, mesmers, and other practitioners.”
“Yet, among my people it is just a type of magic,” said Killeen, “no different than divination or golemancy or any of the strange mathematical offshoots that the asura practice.”
“I think that’s part of it,” said Dougal. “The asura look strange, so they aren’t really judged the same way. You look a bit more like us, and therefore …” He let his voice trail off, unsure where to go next.
“When we act differently, it reminds you how separate we really are as a people,” she said.
“Pretty much,” said Dougal. “In the future, I want you to think about how others will react to what you do.”
“So you’re saying,” said Killeen, “you don’t want me to turn you into a zombie once you die.”
“I think the others would be disturbed by that,” said Dougal. “And you shouldn’t turn any of them into the undead, either.”
“Not even Ember?” said Killeen, her words belied by her smile.
“Not even Ember,” said Dougal.
“If you wish,” said Killeen, and turned back to watch the entrance niche to the valley.
“Good,” said Dougal, and when Killeen did not add anything, he walked a couple paces away and added, “Good.”
He found his own spot, in the shade, from which to watch both Killeen and the entrance as well as the others. It was as close to tranquility as he could hope to find, here beyond the walls of Ebonhawke, on the verge of enemy territory.
He shook his head. Gullik was right: the differences of this group could tear it apart. Ember was loyal to the Ash Legion, known for their secretive ways. Riona was both warm and cold to him by turn, and probably was going through all the same conflicted feelings he felt. Killeen was sometimes brilliant, sometimes out of step with everyone else. He knew nothing about Kranxx other than he had just gotten them out of a sealed city.
And Gullik himself seemed much deeper than his bumpkin norn exterior appeared. Was there more going on with him as well?
Dougal let out a deep sigh and wondered how they would even reach Ascalon City, much less find the Claw. Even if it was where he thought it was.
He did not mean to fall asleep in the warm afternoon shade, but Killeen was suddenly there, touching