Ghosts of Ascalon by Matt Forbeck & Jeff Grubb

Author:Matt Forbeck & Jeff Grubb
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pocket Books
Published: 2010-07-27T00:00:00+00:00

Killeen! Stop it!” Dougal said. “Let her go! Now!”

The ferocity of his revulsion stunned him, but he could not deny it. He’d seen the sylvari use her magics to animate corpses before, but not with someone so freshly dead, and not with a fallen member of the Ebon Vanguard.

Killeen’s brow crinkled with concern. “What is it?” she said, examining the walking corpse. “Are her eyes falling out or something? I miss things like that sometimes.”

Killeen’s sincerity nearly deflated Dougal’s anger. When he spoke again, he struggled to keep his words measured and his tone even. “Killeen,” he said, “could you please let that woman rest in peace?”

“Why? Don’t you think she’ll make a good— Oh!” The sylvari clapped a hand to her forehead. When she pulled it away, regret twisted her face into a rueful frown. “I’m so sorry! I didn’t even think about how that might offend you.”

“It’s all right,” Dougal finally said. “Just let her go.”

“No!” said Kranxx. He raced forward, peering up at the walking corpse from below. “Don’t do that. She’s perfect just the way she is.”

“Dougal’s right,” said Riona, who looked just as distressed as Dougal felt. “This is beyond the pale. The guardswoman was just trying to do her job.”

“And we’re doing ours,” said Kranxx. “There’s a good chance that the sewage tunnel exit is trapped, and we could use a walking test case to send in first to check things out.”

“That is exactly what I was thinking,” said Killeen, obviously pleased that someone understood that she had only the best intentions.

“Trapped?” Dougal glared at Kranxx. “And why didn’t you mention that before?”

Kranxx shrugged. “I didn’t want to complicate the matter with other issues. I figured you—and I mean the collective ‘you’ here—would have a hard enough time making the right choice about how to get to Ascalon City from here without having to sift through extraneous points of data.”

“Wolf’s breath!” said Gullik. “We’ve been wading through this river of sludge to reach a tunnel of traps?”

“Some of us have,” said Kranxx. “Others have remained nice and clean.”

“Maybe too clean,” said Ember. “You didn’t dirty your hands in that fight, did you?”

Kranxx cringed at the accusation. “I was trying to get a surprise for our foes out of my pack, but the rest of you made such quick work of them that I never had the chance.”

“Sure,” said Ember. “Lucky you.”

Kranxx bristled at her words. “The next time I pull something from my pack, just remember this: Close your eyes.”

“By the time you pull something from your pack, we all will be dead,” muttered the charr.

Dougal returned to Killeen. “Just let the woman go.”

“Wynne,” Riona said in a voice thick and raw. “I know her. I mean, I knew her. Her name was Wynne. Her father was friends with my father when we were young. He ran the armorer’s shop.”

Dougal couldn’t look at the woman anymore. He had to turn away.

“She’s dead,” said Ember. “But she may still be of some use. That seems like a good way to honor her life.

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