"I'm serious," he said, his eyes red-rimmed. "Brute force won't solve this problem. I'm smarter than the three of you combined, and I have a pack filled with little distractions. And I have an idea of something I could do, something special." He nodded at Dougal, but the human didn't know what he meant.
Dougal protested, "Kranxx, we've lost one person already…"
Kranxx shook his oversized head. "I need to do this. For Gullik if for no one else. I cost him his life. I don't plan on dying without giving him vengeance. He'd never forgive me if I didn't."
"You need someone to come with you," Ember said. "Your will is strong but your legs are short."
"Good idea," said Riona, nodding. "Who could be a better distraction for this group of ghosts than a charr? Just the sight of you should send them into a frenzy."
"I was thinking of you, actually," Ember said. "You are the least important part of our team, the one we could best stand to lose."
"Very well. I'll go with Kranxx," said Riona. "If Ember Doomforge is too much of a coward to stand up to a bunch of Ascalonian ghosts, then I'll let her run off with her tail between her legs."
"I am no coward, mouse!" Ember snarled down at Riona, and Dougal wondered if the charr might end the argument by tearing out Riona's throat.
"Prove it! I've seen kittens less skittish than you."
Ember grumbled at her. "Fine. If Kranxx is determined to play the decoy, then I will join him. I wouldn't leave him with you, in any event.
"We'll keep them occupied for as long as we can," said Ember. "You just move like the wind. The longer we must keep them chasing us, the more likely they'll catch us."
Dougal held out his hand to Ember and then Kranxx, shaking with each one of them. "Thank you," he said.
"Don't worry about us," Kranxx said with a somber wink. "I'm not quite out of tricks yet."
"This isn't farewell." Ember's fur bristled as she spoke. "We shall toast our foes' failures tonight!"
Ember and Kranxx moved to the doorway and down the long staircase. On their appearance, the king let out a rumbling shout, and in response, the ghostly hordes poured from every doorway. They crowded and milled in the courtyard below, and then, as if propelled by a cannon, shot up the staircase toward them.
Ember picked up Kranxx and, with a bellow of her own, charged down the stairs.
Dougal could not bear to look, but halfway down the stairs the charr took a sharp left, off the stairs themselves. The pair, charr and asura, landed on a rotted roof not less than ten feet below them. Slate tiles shot out from beneath Ember's feet, but she kept her footing and jumped again, landing on a lower roof, and repeated the action once more.
Ember landed on the edge of the avalanche of masonry. She held her feet out before her, stiff and wide, and when she hit the stones she did not tumble and fall. Instead, she kept her feet and slid down the shattered tumble of stone, straight toward the street below.
Kranxx screeched the whole way down.
The ghosts followed them, those on the stairs streaming over the railings and into the city itself, those at the bottom changing directions and surging after the fleeing pair.
Dougal watched the ghostly pursuers disappear down the streets.
"You should go, now," said Savione. "They cannot keep them busy for long."
Riona led, and Dougal followed. Ahead of them the staircase was clear, and near the base of the stairs, visible in the overcast daylight was the pit that caged the Foefire's Heart. Yet, Dougal felt that someone was watching him and, despite himself, turned and looked up at the parapets above the royal chamber.
And there stood the last king of Ascalon.
Adelbern had been middle-aged when he'd died, but he seemed as fit and trim as any soldier half his age. He wore a suit of armor that Dougal suspected would have sparkled had it still been real and not some strange, ghostly abstraction. His head was bare, and his white hair fluttered in the wind that whipped through the crumbling battlements. His piercing eyes glared down at Dougal, and a snarl curled on his lips.
Adelbern raised his fist over his head and then swung it down to point a pale finger at Dougal. "How dare you trespass in my kingdom, thief! " the king said, his voice strong and full of fury. "For this, you shall pay the ultimate price!"
Dougal knew that if they fled, Adelbern would just send more ghosts after him, and their whole plan would be destroyed. He needed to play for time. He dropped to one knee and hoped that Savione's story was true.
"No, Your Majesty!" Dougal said. "I am Ascalonian by heritage, and I have come to seek your blessing!"
This strange request took Adelbern back an instant, but his fury resurged. "The only thing of which I shall approve is your death!"
"But, Your Majesty," he said, "I come here on behalf of your son, Prince Rurik!"
This blatant lie brought the ghost up short. He stammered for a moment, suddenly distracted. "Rurik? My son?" For a moment his face softened, but then it grew dark again. "Rurik is dead! To me, he died the moment he left Ascalon!"
"Your son is dead, as you are." This voice came from atop the battlements. The king turned to see its source, and his face grew livid.
"Savione!" he said. "You worthless wretch! How dare you enter my presence without my bidding?"
"No, sire! These people are here to repair the damage that you've done! I won't let you hurt them!"
"Stand aside and let me slay this foul beast now, Savione! In honor of your years of service, I will give you one last chance!"
"Years!" Savione threw up his hands. "Try centuries! You killed me, and you still consider me to be in your service! Well, no more!"
The courtier stared at his king and spoke in short, cold phrases. "I renounce my position in your court. There's nothing more you can take from me, Adelbern. You cannot hurt me."
"So you think!" Adelbern reached forward and pulled the ghostly dagger from the courtier's chest. Then the mad king stepped forward and swung his blade at Savione. The ghostly servant did not move to avoid the blow, and the blade sliced through him, cutting him cleanly in two.
Dougal waited for Savione to re-form like the ghosts that Ember had battled in the cave near the Dragonbrand. Instead, the two halves of Savione separated from each other and slid apart. His legs fell one way while his chest fell another.
Before he faded away entirely, Savione said one last word, his voice brimming with grim relief: "Finally." Then he disappeared, flowing away into the breeze atop the battlements like a half-remembered dream.
Adelbern turned away from the vanished shards of his former servant but found the staircase empty. Riona and Dougal were already lost among the shadowed buildings below.
Behind them, the human pair heard Adelbern's cry of frustration over the rooftops.
"I think we got under his skin," said Riona, hugging a wall.
"You think Savione is really gone?" asked Dougal.
Riona shrugged her shoulders. "I don't think it matters what happens to Savione, Ember, or Kranxx. What matters is we find the Claw of the Khan-Ur."
Dougal grimaced at her, then craned his neck to get a better look at the top of the tower again. "All right," he said. "You're right. I know you're right, but I don't have to like it. Let's move."
Dougal sprinted through the town as fast as he could. Riona lagged behind just a bit, but he could hear her behind him every step of the way. Soon they reached the main square, and Dougal skidded to a halt.
The carnage sprawled out before him stole his breath. From one side of the square to the other, the remains sat piled up as if tossed into some careless giant's abattoir, bones and weapons and armor stacked upon each other like kindling for a monstrous fire.
Most of the bodies, especially the ones nearest to and even inside the shattered gates, had once been part of the charr invading force. At a curving line that met roughly near a well in the center of the square, though, the charr corpses mingled with those of the force of human warriors once arrayed against them. The two sides overlapped for several yards, a stark example of the uncertainty and chaos of battle.