Ember moved effortlessly and suddenly, bringing her elbow around hard. Her first swat knocked Riona off her feet. Ember followed her, weaponless, but with her claws extended from her paw. She raised her paw again, this time for a blow that would rip Riona's armor off.
Before the charr could bring down her arm, though, Gullik's hand snaked out and plucked the fur on the back of Ember's neck. With a sharp yank, he hauled her back so hard that Dougal wondered if Ember's head might separate from her shoulders.
Snarling, Ember spun and launched herself at Gullik instead. He brought his free arm around and smacked her across her snout hard enough to knock her from her feet. Ember yowled at the norn. Dougal stepped between the two, his black blade in his hand, ready to put it to use if the charr came up swinging.
"Wait!" Riona said. "Don't do it! We need her!"
Dougal glared down at the charr. Riona had provoked the attack but now was trying to undo the damage. Perhaps she didn't want to go back to General Soulkeeper and explain what had happened. To Ember he said, "Are you done?"
Ember's mouth twisted, and Dougal thought she might be preparing to bite off his face. Then the fight went out of her, and she nodded at him without speaking.
"It seems," said the charr, measuring her words, "that I must make a habit of apologizing to you, Dougal Keane." She touched the corner of her mouth, and her fur came away spattered with blood. To Riona she said, "But you had best remember that you have your stories, and we have ours, and the two differ greatly."
Dougal sheathed his sword and stepped away from the charr. Gullik, his earlier violence forgotten, hauled Ember up and set her on her feet. "You are a ferocious warrior," he told the charr. "I would enjoy fighting alongside you in battle someday. But put your claws away today."
Dougal looked around: the alleyway was as empty as before. In Divinity's Reach a half-dozen Seraph would have been on top of them, and shutters would be slamming shut and secured up and down the street. Here it was just another morning brawl.
They moved through the back alleys to the covered merchant district. The banked braziers and forges of the bazaar lit the blue sailcloth from below, giving the area an otherworldly feeling. The few merchant guards watched them carefully until they left their particular areas, then returned to their bottles and warm blankets.
Within sight of the asura gates, Riona called a halt. At this point she produced the manacles from Gullik's pack, which also held Ember's armor and weapon. Ember flinched at the sight of them but then held up her hands, wrists together.
"Wolf's teeth!" said Gullik, softly. "A charr allowing a human to put her in chains? I must still be dreaming."
"I have my orders." Ember growled out her words. "I follow them."
"You are braver than I," said Gullik.
"It's the only way we can get her through Ebonhawke." Riona fixed Gullik with a glare that insisted he say nothing more, but he showed no signs of understanding it.
The norn sighed. "Ah, Ebonhawke. I know it well! I haven't been there since they threw me out of the city for destroying one of their pubs."
Ignoring Riona's protests, Ember turned and stood up right in the norn's face. Gullik's smile vanished. "That's something you failed to mention before. That's not going to present a problem for us, is it?" the charr asked.
Gullik put up his hands to reassure her. "Of course not. That was years ago, and I'm sure they've rebuilt it by now."
Ember turned back to Riona and let her finish attaching the chains. "If this fails to work, the Ebon Vanguard will hang me as a spy," she said,. "But before I go, I'll kill anyone responsible for causing that failure. This I promise."
"She's touchy," Gullik said to Dougal. "But still as regal as a lioness. I think I like her!"
They emerged from the market near the half circle of asura gates, their stone and metal ovals flickering with stray, erratic flickers of eldritch power. At the Divinity's Reach gate stood a trio of asura that Dougal had noticed coming in. They were practically vibrating with excitement, running from crystal to crystal and rune to rune, adjusting, modifying, and trying to tune the gate to the proper aetheric frequency.
"I'm not getting anything," snapped one.
"Try the sympathetic diathuergic connection!" suggested the next.
"Hang on, I'm seeing the handshake invocation come through. Tuning in the test chord."
"Got it!" said the first. "We are a go! Planar boring up and operating. Full chord registry. Amazing! We are live by five!"
"Kranxx, you are simply magnificent," said the second to herself with admiration, staring at the gate.
"You lot," snapped the third at Dougal's group, "get up there! We can't hold this for more than ten heartbeats! After that, the hard-linked resonant dampers reset and who knows where you'd end up."
Ember held up her chains and shook them, then nodded at Riona, who was holding the other end. Riona adjusted her helmet and nodded back. They ran up the ramp and stepped through the gate. Dougal followed them.
He felt his skin dry as he stepped through the gate. He had not felt damp in seaside Lion's Arch, but now all the moisture evaporated from his flesh, and the dry night air, still warm, forced its way into his lungs. Ebonhawke was perched on the edge of the Crystal Desert, and even in the dead of night the residual heat pulled the sweat from exposed flesh.
The far side of the gate was similar to that of Divinity's Reach: set atop a low mound, surrounded by a thick wall with a parapet pointed in toward the gate. In the event that something unpleasant pushed its way through from the other side, there would be a welcoming committee on this side.
Except that the guard posts were empty at this time of night. And at the base of the stone mound a single nervous, frustrated asura stood rubbing his short fingers through a tangled thatch of long hair.
Of course, thought Dougal, Soulkeeper's "man" in Ebonhawke would have to be an asura.
The asura looked at the adventurers. "You all made it? Good. Let me reset the dampers." He toggled a few runes on the plinth, resetting the crystals to their original positions. The shimmering meniscus of the gate surface faded behind them. "We need to move quickly. And just so you know, this was Soulkeeper's worst idea ever."
"Hold!" came a voice from the gateway. A trio of Ebonhawke soldiers strode through the gates. Others, armed with rifles, appeared on the parapets surrounding the gate grounds.
"Put your hands up!" snarled the officer. "Reach for your weapons and you will be slain where you stand!"
They were trapped.
Have you lost your minds?" said the lead guardsman. "Where do you think you're going with that charr?"
Dougal looked around him. Riona stood stock-still, her hands gripping the chain linked to Ember's manacles. The charr was equally quiet, but Dougal saw that her leg muscles were bunched for sudden flight. Killeen, always accommodating, smiled and raised both arms. Gullik crossed his, scowled, but said nothing.
"Officers," said Dougal, raising both hands in front of him as if to ward off an expected blow, "we have a good explanation for this."
"Explanations later," said the officer. "Hand over that prisoner-now! Hand it over!"
Dougal looked at Riona. She bit her lower lip, then offered him the charr's chain. "Very well, then."
Ember's eyes went wide and white, and Dougal was sure the charr was going to try to bolt. She would not make it ten feet before the riflemen on the walls cut all of them down.
The asura running the gate stepped between Ember and the officer. "Just a moment, Lieutenant. What are you doing with my property?"
"Your property, Master Kranxx?" said the officer, towering over the small asura but no longer reaching out for the chain. "Why are you smuggling a charr into Ebonhawke?"
"My studies, of course," said Kranxx. "Your superiors keep pressing me for new and better ways to kill charr. I hired these"-he waved a small hand at Dougal's group, searching for a word-"individuals to bring me a living, breathing representative of the race."