Guild Wars_ Ghosts of Ascalon - Matt Forbeck [9]
“That doesn’t mean they’re not true.” Dougal scowled.
“Please,” said Clagg. “If these people had the power to do what they claimed, they’d still be wandering the world in one form or another. Those are just words.”
Gyda laughed at this, a low rumbling under which lay a note of malice. “If this Blimm of yours is beneath your notice, then why are we bothering to rob his grave?”
“Blimm was one of the most impressive golemancers ever,” said Clagg. He patted Breaker’s stone chest. “Most of the time, you need several arcanic motivators to move a golem’s exo-frame about at a reasonable speed: at least one for each joint, plus another for the senses. And you need to arrange them in a very particular way or it all falls apart.
“Blimm, though, figured out a way to imbue a fist-sized ruby with the same amount of power as you see in Breaker here. His secret died with him, but legend has it that it was buried with him too. Once I get my hands on the Golem’s Eye, I should be able to reverse engineer the process and establish myself as the greatest golemancer of this age.”
Gyda held up a large hand, her brow furrowed in what Dougal thought was confusion. “For someone so small, you talk a great deal. Let’s find this ruby of yours and be gone. I would like to quit this place.” She stared hard at the double doors, and Dougal knew what she was considering.
“Hold on,” he said, holding up his bag of tools. “Let’s try this the easy way first.”
Dougal stepped up to the hole left in the golem’s forehead. The bas-relief was hollow, and beyond it was a maze of thin wires and interlocking gears, some of them glowing softly of their own light. Dougal opened his moleskin pouch, selected a thin flat tool with an end that looked like an asuran summation sign, and slipped it into the gap. He twisted it, and the great double doors rumbled outward. Gyda and Clagg had to step back down the broad steps.
The room within was circular, its walls and domed ceiling jutting with the bones that adorned the rest of the crypt. The granite floor was set with a pattern like slices of a pie, forming a series of concentric circles centered on the bier in the middle of the room.
The bier at the center of the pattern was a pile of skulls, although from the doorway Dougal was hard-pressed to say if they were real skulls or just carved stonework. Probably the former, he decided, to instill fear into would-be robbers. Atop the bier squatted a large marble box, its sides etched with the swirling script of the asura. Dominating the lid of the sarcophagus was a larger-than-life effigy of the deceased, dressed in ornate stone robes gilded with precious metals, its arms crossed over its chest.
And hovering over the forehead of the reclining stone form floated a red gem the size of Clagg’s fist. It turned and glimmered in the light from the door.
Clagg had Breaker nudge Dougal forward. “Do your job,” said Clagg.
Dougal pushed back. “My job is to spring locks and locate traps.”
Clagg sniffed. “You are guaranteeing that there are no further traps and that that gem floating there is free for the taking?”
Dougal did not respond, but Gyda clapped him on the back. “Get in there,” she growled. “Get the ruby for us—or I’ll toss you on top of the coffin from here.”
She reached for him, intent on carrying out her threat, and Dougal stepped into the room. Safe from his companions for the moment, he pulled a length of thin rope from his pack, uncoiled it, and tossed an end to Clagg. The asura made the rope fast around his golem’s waist. Dougal held the rope with one hand, wrapping it over his wrist and letting it play out behind him as he advanced. The stonework felt spongy beneath his feet, like a road after a soaking spring rain. It looked solid enough, but Dougal chose his steps carefully as he moved toward