by Matt Forbeck
For that, Dougal was thankful, but when he turned back to Riona, he saw that her face had fallen and she seemed on the verge of falling apart.
"I will delay them," said Killeen. "You talk to her." Before Dougal could stop her, she moved toward the guards, letting her hood drop to reveal her long, vegetative braids.
Dougal turned back to Riona. "This was all your idea," he said firmly.
"I know," she said, and sighed deeply, her forehead furrowing. "And when it was just finding you, and then sneaking into an ancient human city, it seemed doable. Now we have picked up a menagerie of castoffs and volunteers. And the more our numbers grow, the less likely we are going to succeed."
Dougal shrugged in agreement. "The less likely we will succeed without losing people."
Riona lowered her chin to her chest. "We could go off on our own."
Dougal started, but Riona continued hurriedly, "Two humans could sneak out of here easier than our clown carnival. Norn, charr, sylvari, and now an asura. Hardly the easiest party to conceal in open fields. We could reach Ascalon City, retrieve the Claw, and return it here, to Ebonhawke. Then we could keep it here. It would be a coup, a rallying point for our people."
"And for the charr as well," said Dougal. "If the charr thought that the Claw was here, they would stop at nothing to regain it. It would be worse than the worst of the assaults of seventy years ago, when the charr reached the base of the outer walls and undermined the outer district."
"You think so?" said Riona, and slid closer to him, her eyes never leaving the quiet battlefield.
"Look at it this way," said Dougal. "The charr want the Claw so badly that they are willing to talk about peace with the humans. What do you think?"
Riona nodded. "If this peace faction-"
"Truce faction," said Dougal.
"Truce faction," repeated Riona. "If they get the Claw, they will be able to force the rest of the charr to at least lift the siege and start talking. That's the theory."
"And then maybe we'll finally get a better view from here." Dougal kept his voice light, but Riona just scowled and stared at the charr front lines. Then she said, "You were right."
Dougal looked at her and she continued. "I froze back there, at the gate. I thought I could come up with a way to get us all past the guards if there was trouble, but when the time came, I found myself empty. I'm just rattled. Second-guessing myself."
Dougal's lips became a thin line, and he chose his words carefully. "This is about Ember."
"Do you trust her?" asked Riona. "Really?"
Dougal said, "She is part of your order. She is a crusader for the Vigil."
"I know," said Riona. "And I don't feel that way about General Soulkeeper. She's a charr, too, one that fought our people for many years. But the way Ember acts, she reminds me so much of… them." She pointed a chin at the distant war wagons.
"If it helps, I feel the same way," said Dougal. "After five minutes with Soulkeeper, I could forget she was charr. She commands naturally, and everything else just flows from that. Ember is part of her people, just like we're part of ours. You can see her struggle when she talks to us."
"Like I'm struggling," said Riona. "Still, I want you to know that I'm glad I found you. I'm glad you're here. You I trust." She slid close to him, and despite himself, he raised his arm to hold her. The weight of the locket felt heavy around his neck.
"I trust you too," said Dougal. "And this will pass. No matter what that Kranxx says, Soulkeeper's plan is a good one. We will get the Claw. Together. Promise."
They stood there for a long moment, and Dougal realized he had forgotten about Killeen talking to the guards. When he turned, Riona was still in his arms and the sylvari was heading toward them, raising her hood again. The guards were wandering back the way they had come from.
"Are we ready?" asked Killeen.
"I think so," said Dougal. Riona separated from him and nodded. They started down the steps.
"I had a curious chat with the guards," said Killeen. "It is interesting what people will tell you when you look at them with wide eyes and act like you just fell out of the tree. Apparently the siege has been quiet for the past few months: no new assaults from the charr lines. And, more interestingly, a moratorium on this side from sallies and patrols. They say some bigwigs made the decision."
"The truce faction," said Dougal, "and the queen."
"Yes," said Killeen, "but it is making everyone here very, very nervous. They are expecting some huge charr assault, and a lot of the human soldiers want to attack now, before it comes."
"You took a huge risk," said Riona. "They could have been looking for us."
"Everyone saw the charr; most would remember the norn," said Killeen. "Very few would pay attention to the sylvari in a cloak."
"How did you explain us?" asked Dougal. They were already at the door of the warehouse.
"I told them you were young lovers making a rendezvous," said Killeen, "and acted like I did not know what that meant. They thought that was amusing as well."
By the time they had gotten back to the secret warehouse, the others were ready. Kranxx was packing a backpack with numerous small parcels carefully wrapped in waterproof waxed paper. Ember was fitting herself into the armor Gullik had been carrying on his back: sleek, black lacquered plates that glided silently over each other. For his part, Gullik was stroking his scruffy chin and, for the first time, seemed to be deep in thought. Riona picked up her helmet and quickly strapped on her scabbard.
"We're late," said Kranxx, hoisting the satchel onto his back and grabbing a loose piece of cloth that, only when he put it on his wide head, was recognizable as a hat. He pulled out a small lantern and lit it.
"You're in your armor," Riona said to Ember firmly.
"Kranxx pointed out that if we are spotted, whether I am wearing armor or not is a moot point," replied the charr, adjusting her scabbard and resting a hand on a heavy charr-made pistol on her opposite hip.
"At least have Gullik carry your weapons," said Riona. "And wear the shackles."
Anger flashed in Ember's eyes, and Dougal added, "At least until we're clear of the city."
Ember looked at Dougal. Dougal nodded toward Riona. Letting the air out in a long, hissing breath, Ember unfastened her belt and handed it, scabbard, sword, and holstered pistol to the norn. Then she held up her wrists once more. Gullik fished out the chains and Riona fitted them, loosely but locked, once more on her wrists and neck.
"Until we're clear of the city," said Ember, looking harshly at Dougal.
Kranxx poked his head through the door, then motioned for the others to follow. It was almost light now, the eastern sky reddening and drawing back the widow's veil that had hung protectively on Ebonhawke.
Then something exploded off to the north, just beyond the first wall. Screams and shouts sounded right after, and a call to arms went up among the Vanguard. Kranxx's letter of resignation.
Quickly but not panicked, the asura ducked into the mouth of an alley, then hustled everyone in after him. They huddled there in the darkness as a column of soldiers in black-and-gold uniforms tromped past, racing from their barracks to the (hopefully) now-burning shop.
Dougal watched the faces of the soldiers as they passed their hiding place: grim, weary, and determined. These were people who hated their jobs but were proud to do them and refused to falter for an instant. Dougal had been one of their number, as had Riona. To see them in action again, marching off to protect the city, made him flush with shame for not being among them. He felt grateful that the alley stood shrouded in darkness so that no one would see.
He expected Kranxx to lead them in the direction the soldiers came from, but instead he plunged them deeper into the alleyway, into a maze of small back passages that snaked between granaries and shuttered workshops. Once they crossed a major thoroughfare, then ducked back into alleyways that even Dougal was unfamiliar with. He figured they were heading west through the city, until at last they reached
a dead end with a hatch nearly flush with the ground at its base.
Kranxx pulled out a key and fitted it into a lock on the hatch. He motioned to Gullik, who began struggling to open the heavy iron lid.
"Do we really have to go in there?" Dougal asked, peering down into the blackness. He pinched his nose so tight that it hurt, and the stench that escaped from the hatch still made his eyes water.
"It's the only way to get out of Ebonhawke without having to deal with the Vanguard," Kranxx said. "You could approach the commander and ask him permission to depart, but-given the nature of your mission and the fact that he's probably looking for you by now-he'd probably toss you into one of our lovely prison cells."
At the mention of Ebonhawke's prison, Dougal glanced at Riona. In the growing light of the morning, he could see the muscles in her face tighten, but she showed no other reaction.
"It's too bad the walls are so high," Gullik grunted, straining as he fitted his fingers under an edge and lifted. "And that you're all so small. Were we all norn warriors, we could just scale the wall and be gone."
Despite herself, Riona snorted. "You'd be filled with arrows and rifle shot before we made it halfway to the top. And then the charr would get to shoot at you on the way down."
Kranxx's lantern's light cast deep shadows on the asura's face. "The Ebon Vanguard built this place to stand against the charr forever," he said. "They drew on the experience Ascalon accumulated during the construction of the Northern Wall, and they've had over two hundred years of keeping the charr out of the city to help them figure out where the weak parts are and what they need to do to keep them plugged."
"Then how have you noticed something they haven't?" asked Dougal.
Kranxx allowed himself a chuckle. "Because I'm asura, and they're human. They think in terms of reiterations. They build something that they hope will stand, then they shore it up the best they can in the places they get wrong. People with brains think not in terms of single bits, like walls, but in terms of systems-especially interlocking systems and how they work together. The thing that lets Ebonhawke survive isn't the wall or the Vanguard. It's the asura gate. Without that, the charr would have been able to starve the humans out of here long ago. With it, the humans have managed a record-breaking stand against a truly determined foe."
"Granted," said Ember, whose hair bristled at the mention of her people's failure to wipe this settlement from Ascalon. "Many charr believe that Ebonhawke is impregnable, and taking it a waste of effort better spent elsewhere. The strongest dissenters are among the Iron Legion. This is why they have taken over the siege."
"And with their machines, they might someday manage to do it," said Riona, louder than she needed to. "One more reason we must work for this truce."
"Breaking down a wall isn't all that challenging, children," said Kranxx. "It just requires the right machines, and the charr have developed many crude but effective machines that could manage it. The trick is getting those machines into the right places. The Vanguard has gotten extremely good at keeping the charr from reaching those places."
Gullik hefted the iron hatch again and it rose another couple inches. The darkness beyond it gaped like an open, infected wound.
"So, why do we have to go down there, again?" asked Dougal.
"Because there's one spot in the wall that the Vanguard rarely watches and the charr don't attack: the sewage exit. Ebonhawke mostly gets its water from streams that flow down into it from the mountains, and they tap an underground river with a few deep wells. But they also need to get rid of all the waste they generate. Otherwise, the city would eventually be overwhelmed with it."
Even under her fur, Ember seemed to be turning a little green.
"The honey wagons dump the waste into a few well-positioned central depositories, each of which sits downstream from the wells and the point at which they divert some of the mountain streams into the sewer's main tunnel. The diverted water then carries the refuse under the city until it spills out of the far side of the mountain a couple hundred yards away from the wall."
Dougal's stomach turned. "You're kidding," he said, although he knew the asura wasn't.
The asura smiled. "The charr can't stand the smell. Every now and then, the Vanguard sends someone up to check out the sewage tunnel's exit, but he finds it locked up tight, and that's a good enough excuse for them to forget about it. The Vanguard isn't made up of complete idiots. They know about the sewage exit, of course, and they've secured it fairly well against attacks-from the outside."
"But not from the inside!" said Gullik, who had finally lifted the iron hatch and stood there, splay-legged, holding it up. "By the Snow Leopard's lazy tail, this just might work!"
"Might work? Of course it will work. It's foolproof!" He scanned the faces of the others. "It has to be when you're working with fools."
Ember growled at the asura, who let out a nervous laugh. "Present company partially excepted, of course."
"Then we have to go," said Riona. "And now, before the guards are done with Kranxx's foolishness and organize a proper search."
The set of her jaw told him everything Dougal needed to know. She hadn't lost an iota of her determination. She would do anything to see her mission through.
Dougal pointed into the darkness beyond the iron door that Kranxx had opened. A wrought-iron ladder disappeared into the abyss below.
"Let's get it over with."
The descent was interminable, and Dougal wondered how deep the original sewers ran in Ebonhawke. Gullik went last, securing the now-unlocked iron hatch behind them with what the norn probably thought was stealth but, to the others in the narrow vertical passage, sounded like the toll of a dead man's bell.
At the bottom of the ladder Kranxx handed his lantern to Gullik, then reached into his pack and pulled out and unlimbered a long pole made up of several hinged sections with a hook on one end. He shoved the other end into a pole-width pocket sewn into the back of his pack, then dug out and hung a glowing blue rock from the end of the hook. He shouldered the pack again so that the rock hung above him, about five feet off the ground, lighting his way, and he led them into the sewer.
Killeen followed right after Kranxx, peering at everything she saw in repulsed fascination. Dougal and Riona followed behind Killeen, with Ember after them and Gullik hunkering along in the rear, his head and shoulders held down tight to keep from scraping against the tunnel's ceiling.
The tunnel had been cut straight out of the side of the mountain, then covered over with fitted stones. Wooden trusses held up most of the roof, although in spots it had caved in or begun to sag. Far less care had been taken with these tunnels than with the elaborate underground structures in Divinity's Reach. Dougal supposed that had been determined by what each had been designed for. Here in Ebonhawke, they didn't have enough space for a graveyard: they burned their dead and watched the smoke from the fire carry their spirits off to the Mists.
At first, the floor of the tunnel was flat and dry, just like the passages that Dougal and Riona had been caught in as kids; but Dougal could hear the sound of running water up ahead. They soon came to a T with another tunnel. A wide stream ran through a deep notch cut into the left of this, leaving just enough space on the right for a human to walk.
The stench did not improve. It was awful.
"Wolf's nose!" Gullik said. "This smells worse than the latrines I had to muck out as a young warrior in the Battle of the Burning Pass."
Dougal peered into the filthy waters and tried to ignore the things he saw floating downstream. Mountain streams ran as clear as the rain, but the surface of this muck was so opaque, he could not discern its depths.
Kranxx led the way along the right-hand side of the stream, where a narrow walkway was perched over the flow. He could walk normally. Killeen, Riona, and Dougal had to follow more slowly, edging along. For Ember and Gullik, there would be no other choice than to wade through the edges of the muck.
And suddenly Ember stopped.
"We've already been over this," Kranxx said, calling back down the tunnel. His voice echoed off the slick masonry that lined the walls.
"I cannot-" Ember bit her tongue and swallowed back the bile rising in her throat.
"You are a brave and powerful warrior from a proud and magnificent people," Gullik said. "You have the strength to do this, and I will be there with you."
After a moment of trying to steel herself, Ember held out her hands instead. "Take off these chains," she said.
Riona shook her head. "Not until we are away from Ebonhawke. What if the Vanguard found us with you unchained?"
"I am not going to forge my way through that filth while bound in chains." Ember's tone made it clear that this point was not negotiable.
"She has a point," said Killeen. "What if there's a drop-off and she needs to swim?"
The thought of Ember falling all the way under the sewage made Dougal want to gag.
"No," Riona said. "She agreed to the plan, and we're going to stick to it." Her earlier softness, during the discussion up on the wall, was completely absent now. The Riona who led the party was back in charge.
"Then I go no further," said Ember. "I will make my way back to the surface and lead off any pursuit. I do not fear death, but this is no way for a charr to die."
"Leave a charr in the heart of Ebonhawke?" said Riona sharply. "That is not an option."
Dougal couldn't think of anything else to say. Instead, he walked back to where Ember stood at the intersection of the two tunnels and stood before her. She watched him patiently as he reached into a pocket and produced the moleskin package that held his lock picks. He held them up before the charr's face. Ember lifted her wrists to him with a smile, and he got to work.
"What do you think you're doing, Dougal?" Riona stormed toward him, her hand on the hilt of her sword. Before she could reach him, though, Gullik stepped between them, blocking her way. She tried to push her way past him, but he widened his stance to make it clear that he would not give way.
