Guild Wars_ Ghosts of Ascalon - Matt Forbeck [80]
“I thought I should wake you first,” she said. “I didn’t want the others to know you drifted off.”
Dougal stood up and yawned and checked the sun. The shadows of the valley wall were just touching the far side of the vale, but it would be several hours before it was dark enough to move. Stretching, he stumbled off to wake Riona and Ember and then get himself some guiltless sleep.
Keep moving!” Ember growled the words through her fangs as she forged through the darkness of the mountainside and into the vast valley of Ascalon below. “If one of those patrols catches sight of us, we’re finished.” The moon was filling out now, and even behind its shroud of pallid clouds, its light made travel easy.
The charr led the way through the shattered landscape, and Dougal chased right after her, with Riona nipping at his heels. Killeen came next, moving her shorter legs faster just so she could keep up. In the rear, Gullik had given up trying to hustle the even shorter Kranxx along and had scooped up the asura and set him to ride on the norn’s broad shoulders.
“Wolf’s teeth!” said Gullik, a little too loud. “We should turn this hunt around and kill them all instead!”
“Shush!” Riona said. “They can find us as easily by sound as sight.”
“Bring them on!” Gullik said, louder than ever. “I will bathe in their blood!”
Kranxx rapped the norn in the ear. “This is simple math,” Kranxx said. “There are six of us. Each warband has up to twenty members. Ember? How many warbands are there in southern Ascalon?”
The charr answered without looking back. “The Iron Legion has centered here since being charged with the siege of Ebonhawke. They and the Blood Legion both have responsibility for the patrols. Count in some Ash Legion detachments as scouts. Probably hundreds of warbands roam the region.”
“Right. That makes for thousands of charr wandering these lands. What happens when one of them finds us?”
“And they say the asura are as smart as Raven!” Gullik laughed. “We kill them, of course!”
“I’m sure we will, but what will they do first?” asked Kranxx.
“Quiver before our might!”
“And?”
“Quake too?”
Frustrated, Kranxx spoke slowly, enunciating each word. “They’ll make noise. They’ll sound the alarm. They’ll bring more of their kind.”
“Raven’s eye! I do believe you’re right!” Gullik tried to keep a straight face.
“So,” Kranxx said ignoring the norn’s bemused expresion, “discretion is the better part of … ?”
“Battle!”
“Valor,” corrected the asura.
“And why might that be?”
Kranxx grabbed his head with his hands and nearly fell off of Gullik’s shoulders. “It means that it’s better to understand what you are up against before you get into a fight. It involves gathering intelligence, thinking broadly, and figuring the odds.”
“Fine, friend Kranxx!” Gullik twisted his neck to grin up in the asura’s direction. “I shall permit you to do the figuring and to tell me when a battle is too odd!”
Kranxx clapped a hand over his mouth to keep from cursing.
Dougal chuckled as he strove to keep up with Ember. The charr was as fast and nimble as a mountain cat, and she had a longer gait, so keeping pace with her, even in the darkness, took some sweat.
The ground was fairly open, dotted by small copses of trees and the foundations of ancient habitations. Occasionally there would be a weathered crater, a remnant of a centuries-old battle between the humans and charr. Sometimes the center of the crater was empty, and sometimes the water that had gathered in the hollow winked like a crystal in the wan light. The grass reached up to Dougal’s calves and in the daytime probably sported a host of wildflower blossoms.
They kept to moonlit sides of the hills, risking detection to keep from spilling into unseen pitfalls and gullies.
The six moved silently through the dusk and into the night, now not speaking unless necessary. The blue-white shades of the shrouded moon were only interrupted by the towers of flame erupting from the distant charr camps. These lit the undersides of the clouds, and the reflection of that light washed everything