Guild Wars_ Ghosts of Ascalon - Matt Forbeck [99]
“As with the Claw,” said Riona.
“As with the Claw,” agreed Dougal. “It is a tenuous link, but the most likely one.”
“Mysteries upon mysteries,” yawned Gullik. “I know I have spent a hard night walking, and more in sight. Let us think more of this later, after a good sleep.”
Kranxx volunteered for the first watch. Dougal offered to join him. Riona didn’t say anything to him, but she was less frosty and more relaxed as she laid out her bedroll. The shock of the previous night had washed over her, Dougal decided, and she had come to terms with it. That did not surprise him. If Riona was anything, she was resilient.
Putting his back against one of the feed barn’s walls, Dougal pulled out the locket with Vala’s cameo. It felt warm and reassuring in the darkness. Dougal removed the Golem’s Eye as well and saw a warm red spark dancing at its heart. He wondered if he could use it to see the cameo.
“Is that what I think it is?” Kranxx was suddenly at his side. “How did you get your hands on a vintage ambient thaumaturgic construct like that? They don’t enchant them like that anymore.”
Dougal wanted to hide the gem, to keep it a secret. Yet, hadn’t keeping secrets done nothing but hurt him and the others? Slowly he held it up and let it catch the moonlight shining through the slots of the barn wall.
“I … recovered it,” Dougal said, “with Killeen’s help. From the tomb of an asura named Blimm.”
At the mention of Blimm’s name, Kranxx choked. Dougal smacked him on the back to help him clear his throat.
“May I … see it?” said the asura, with the voice of a child asking for a third piece of candy.
Dougal’s mouth was a thin line, but hesitantly he handed the gem over.
The asura examined the gem closely. “It’s been deactivated,” he said. “That’s standby illumination in the heart. That is old magic, from just after my ancestors emerged on the surface.” The asura blinked at it, turned it over in his hands, whistled softly, then handed it back. Dougal noticed that Kranxx seemed to have the same problem returning it that he had had giving it.
“It did that automatically after we left the crypts beneath Divinity’s Reach,” said Dougal.
Kranxx grinned as Dougal pocketed the gem. “It’s an archaic spell matrix, but I think I know just how to recharge it. If you’re interested, of course.”
Dougal felt uncomfortable. The Golem’s Eye was a victory, messy and bought at a high price, but a victory nonetheless. And should everything go south, it would bring a pretty gold piece in Lion’s Arch, or even Rata Sum.
And the sudden avarice in Kranxx’s eye reminded him of Clagg.
“I think we have other things to worry about,” said Dougal, and, to his surprise, the asura did not argue or offer any retort. Instead he just nodded and crossed to the far side of the barn and sat by the other entrance.
Yet, through the rest of their watch, Dougal felt that the asura was watching him, not the outside world. And when, after a few uneventful hours, Ember and Gullik took their watch, Dougal shifted the gem to another pocket, buttoned it, and then slept on that side for the rest of the evening.
It was almost morning when Dougal awoke, refreshed. His hand went to his pocket, but the gem was still there, and he cursed his own distrust. He looked around: Riona, Ember, and Kranxx were all asleep in the soft hay. Gullik was alone and awake by one of the barn doors.
“Couldn’t sleep?” Dougal asked.
Gullik shook his head. “Normally I sleep like Bear herself, but sleep was a prey I could not catch this evening.”
Dougal sat down next to the norn. Because of their difference in size, he felt like a child sitting with a parent.
“Thinking about Killeen?”
Gullik nodded.
“It’s not your fault.”
“Of course it is! If I had not charged into battle against that minion, we might have escaped from the Dragonbrand clean!”
“Or it might have run us down and killed us all.”
“I would like to believe you are right.”
Dougal thought about this for a