2
The trip back to Vigil's Keep was less lonely than the trip to the queen's encampment, though substantially more nerve-wracking. For the first few hours it was very quiet. Mhairi had never been the chattiest of her fellows, but Willem and the guard put her to shame with their disciplined silence. Mhairi was not sure whether it was something that Queen Brighid generally required of them or merely something that they took upon themselves out of propriety—or intimidation. Mhairi could not, herself, confess to being especially comfortable with the idea of making conversation with the queen, though she answered the woman's sporadic questions about the keep as best she could.
The queen did speak quietly from time to time with her servant and cooed at her mabari as it intermittently ran off and returned, having dug up various trinkets that it delivered to her. They stopped at midday to eat, just dry rations and water, but it seemed to loosen tongues all the same. Before they set off again, Mhairi conversed with Willem and learned that the other two guards were called Nola and Leland. She was quite sure she had also been subtly propositioned by the elf, Zevran. Mhairi stared at him, surprised and confused, the queen rolled her eyes, and Zevran laughed.
The sun was just setting as they neared Vigil's Keep. They could see the walls in the near distance and Mhairi squinted at them.
"That is odd," she said. "Why have no Wardens come to greet us?"
The words were barely out of her mouth when the mabari began to bark furiously and set off down the road.
"Knight?!" the queen yelled and ran after him. Mhairi and the others, naturally, ran after her. Queen Brighid had almost caught up to her dog when her steps faltered and she came to a stop with a sharp intake of breath. The mabari continued forward and disappeared through the gate, which Mhairi could now see was gaping open.
"Darkspawn," Queen Brighid declared and drew her longsword before continuing. Mhairi drew her sword as well and took a moment to wish that she was better armored. Willem overtook her, trailing after the queen, shield raised and blade at the ready. They were still a few yards from the gate when a man burst out of it chased by a pack of genlocks.
Mhairi had been in the last battle at Denerim. Things she saw there would stay with her forever, not least a glimpse of the archdemon, that great and awful dragon, flying overhead. But for all that she fought countless darkspawn that day, for all that she was wholly ready to dedicate the rest of her life to fighting them, she doubted she would ever get used to the sheer ferocity of them. They were so twisted, so evil, nothing but empty rage and a lust for death and corruption. She had never stood against them without her entire unit behind her before—an unbreakable line, each of them drawing strength from the others' resolve.
The fleeing soldier screamed, though he was armed, and Mhairi could not find it in her heart to blame him.
Queen Brighid charged forward and immediately sunk her sword into one of the darkspawn's chests. She slid it back off of the blade with a strong kick and, as it hit the ground, slit its throat with a slash that nearly took its head off. A second attacked her from the left, but Willem was there knocking away its wild swings with his shield and stabbing at it viciously. The queen immediately moved on to another, parrying its strike and quickly drawing her long knife to stab its face. Mhairi charged forward, as did Nola and Leland, and met the darkspawn. Nola and Leland steered darkspawn away with their shields as Mhairi, neither fully armored or armed, slashed at their backs. Instinctually, she kept her distance, muscle memory from years of practice guiding her footwork. The creatures seemed to have a preternatural attraction to Queen Brighid, attempting to surround and overwhelm her at any chance they were afforded. Mhairi and the others made sure they had no chance. Not that she thought they would have much otherwise. The queen had singlehandedly killed five of them when Mhairi last looked towards her, before she reminded herself that she needed to concentrate on her own fighting.
The fleeing soldier had been heartened by the assistance and joined the fray as well, bashing a darkspawn brutally with his mace. Zevran, however, had vanished. In the encroaching darkness and the chaos of the fight, Mhairi could not pinpoint his location. He had not been armed that she had seen and she supposed there was only so much that one could ask of a manservant. The final darkspawn was snuffed out with a horrific gurgle as Willem freed his sword from its throat. The soldier they had saved stood panting over one of the bodies, its head turned into an unrecognizable mush by his repeated mace blows.
He turned to look at the queen as she approached and evidently recognized her. He immediately fell to one knee.
"Your Majesty- I-I mean Warden-Commander, I-" he stammered.
Queen Brighid cut him off.
"What happened here? Where did the darkspawn come from?"
"I don't know- I don't know they- they were just there. There were so many. Everywhere inside the keep. They came out of nowhere."
Queen Brighid took this in stride. They could all hear the sounds of battle now, nearby and getting closer.
"How many Wardens survive?"
"I don't know!" he now looked near tears. Try as she might, Mhairi did not recognize him. She wondered how many of the dead she would know.
"You must help, please. You must."
The queen grabbed his shoulders and wrenched him to his feet. She stared at him, pinning him with her clear, blue eyes.
"My procession is down the road. They are on the way here. Go to them and tell Ser Perth that I sent you. Tell him that I said to bring his men as soon as possible. Tell him to leave all of his burdens behind if he must, but to come here now."
Mhairi was unsure that the man was in any condition to continue standing, much less carry a message, but she did not know if anyone in all of Ferelden could have denied the queen's command in that moment. He nodded vigorously, unable to form words.
"Go!" the queen said, releasing him, and he ran.
"Just what we need. Darkspawn launching sneak attacks," the queen said. At first, Mhairi thought that she was merely thinking aloud, then she noticed that Zevran had reappeared without her notice and stood at the queen's side. He was untouched by the battle. Wherever he had been hiding, it had been well out of harm's way.
"Since when do they learn new tricks?" he asked.
"The better question is why couldn't I sense them until I was practically on top of them," the queen replied.
Their discussion was calm. Hearing it, Mhairi felt anything but.
"How could they be so organized? I don't understand!" she said more loudly than she intended. "The Blight is over. There is no archdemon to command them."
"Perhaps there is something else leading them," the queen said.
"There's a happy thought," said Zevran, a wry turn to his mouth.
"I assume guide is not the extent of your normal duties?" Queen Brighid asked Mhairi, with a glance towards Mhairi's bloodied sword and relatively unbloodied person.
Mhairi followed the queen as she began striding towards the gate and shook her head, though the queen was not looking at her.
"I was a knight in the king's service, Your Majesty. I came to the Vigil a month ago, after volunteering to become a Grey Warden. I have not had my Joining yet, obviously."
"Then I suppose," the queen said as she slipped past the gate. "You can consider this a pre-initiation."
Inside there was a tumult. There were still soldiers alive and fighting, scattered around the village in small groups of two or three, but the ones that they could see were outnumbered by darkspawn. Two large ones tried to take the queen's party from their left but were met by Willem, Nola, and Leland. Out of the corner of her eye, Mhairi saw Zevran dashing off to one side before she lost sight of him entirely yet again.
The queen scanned the area, hawk-like, and then she ran towards a small cottage down the lane. Mhairi had no idea what Queen Brighid was doing until she drew closer. An eerie light revealed a hunched-over darkspawn clutching at a gnarled staff. It waved the staff in an undulating pattern and the air seemed thicker the nearer Mhairi got. It stopped whatever dark magic it had been working when it noticed the queen about to flank it and instead pointed its staff at her. A stream of fire erupted from the tip, aimed straight at the queen's chest.
Queen Brighid raised her forearms to block her face and Mhairi yelled a useless warning. She watched, thinking that she would bear sole witness to the demise of the Hero of Ferelden, but the queen kept moving forward. Where the fire hit her chest and stomach it dissipated against the shining black-green of her armor without igniting. The burning stream stopped before the queen even looked especially bothered. The darkspawn mage flailed wildly and a violet glow sprung up on the ground around him. The queen stumbled backwards as if shoved by an invisible hand. She went down, but rolled head over heels with the force, immediately gaining her feet again. Mhairi charged and ran into resistance as well, but braced for it and did not fall.
The assault from multiple sides seemed to tax the darkspawn beyond its capabilities since when the queen next pressed forward it only tried to club her with its staff. She blocked with her knife, which sunk into the wood, and drove her longsword into its shoulder. It shrieked, an awful sound, then raised its free hand, glowing red and dripping with its own blood, to grab the queen's arm. She gritted her teeth as it made contact, but did not otherwise react before knocking its staff to the ground, pulling her sword out, and driving it back into the darkspawn's chest. It released her and fell dead.
Mhairi watched as the queen bent to get her knife, which was still lodged in the darkspawn's staff. Once she retrieved it, she did not straighten back up again fully. Instead, she stayed bent at the waist for a long moment, resting her hands on her knees. Mhairi rushed to her side, unsure whether it would be appropriate to touch her in order to check her condition. She could see then that the sleeve of the queen's tunic was worn away on her bicep where the darkspawn had grabbed her. The edges were blackened and the queen's arm itself was coated in what Mhairi hoped was the darkspawn's blood. Before Mhairi could decide on a course of action, the queen straightened up again.
"One does get spoiled having a templar always about," she said before setting off again. Willem rushed towards them, looking at the queen with great concern, but she paid him no mind. Nola and Leland still fought beside some of the soldiers nearby and they were doing far better than they had been without the darkspawn mage casting protections on its compatriots. They walked only a few steps towards one of the lingering conflicts before there was a roar from down the main road, past the houses locked and shuttered against the attackers.
Near the steps of the keep itself, at least half a dozen men swung their weapons frantically and, it appeared, futilely at an ogre. The massive beast swatted at them as though they were flies, each swing of its meaty hand threatening to send them flying. It kicked and caught one man behind it with its foot, and he went about eight feet in the air before landing with a thud and the sound of crunched steel. Mhairi spotted the queen's mabari for the first time since they'd passed the gate, snapping and snarling at the ogre's heels.
"At least it's not in armor," the queen mumbled before taking a breath and running directly for the ogre. Mhairi and Willem followed. Most of the men had already fallen back when they approached, either injured or hopeless in the face of such a beast. Noticing its mistress, the mabari fell back as well, but only to her side, still growling.
"Turn him around, boy," the queen commanded and the mabari charged forward again. He darted between the ogre's legs and circled one, then the other while the beast attempted to catch him. As it turned to one side the queen moved in, slashing its exposed flank and opening a wide cut. The ogre swept back around to face her and swung, but she dodged easily. On its other side, the war hound clamped down on the ogre's leg, worrying it ruthlessly. The ogre spun again, dog still attached to his leg and Willem charged. He stabbed the ogre in its side before it had oriented itself to face him, but in his full plate armor was too slow when it did turn on him, furious. It swatted at him and Willem raised his shield.
The ogre's fist, about the same size as the shield, slammed against it and Willem fell to the ground hard on his side. The queen sliced the ogre's back, causing another copiously bleeding wound and Mhairi took the opportunity to hack at the leg nearest her. The ogre, however, had clearly decided on its target. With a jerky kick it dislodged the mabari from its leg and sent it skidding across the ground with a whine, where it rolled over and over for a few yards and then lay still. Then, the ogre began to advance on Willem, whose teeth were clenched in pain as he attempted to scramble backwards.
Mhairi stabbed the ogre's leg again, but was forced to jump back when it kicked at her negligently without changing course. Then, the queen ran full speed at the ogre's back. She looked like she might tackle the creature until at the last moment she half-crouched and half-slid between its legs. She stood up on the other side, directly in front of it, and jammed her sword into its stomach up to the hilt. The ogre howled, sending blood flying as it bubbled up in its mouth. It reached for the queen and no one could have been fast enough to escape its grasp from such close proximity.
The ogre snatched the queen off of her feet and yelled in pain again as it did so. Queen Brighid had not released her grip on her sword, and so when it picked her up it had also pulled the sword out of its own belly at an angle. The gaping wound in its stomach oozed and filled the air with a scent even more foul than all of the blood and death around them. The ogre held the queen in one hand and she struggled to wriggle free of its grip. The queen's attempts were unsuccessful and the ogre lifted her up higher to stare at her with what Mhairi could only call contempt. Then, the hilt of a dagger suddenly bloomed from its left eye.
Mhairi retraced the trajectory just in time to see Zevran lower his outstretched arm and dart forward, a matching dagger, already dripping with blood, in his other hand. The ogre barely had time to finish its wail of pain before the elf was upon it. With blindingly fast flicks of his wrist, Zevran covered its arm, leg, and side with quick nicks and cuts that Mhairi did not grasp the effectiveness of until they began, almost instantly, to swell and froth with pus. The daggers were obviously tipped with something very virulent and Zevran was obviously no more just a servant than Mhairi was just a guide.
Queen Brighid took full advantage of the ogre's host of new troubles and managed to free both of her arms. She stuck her own knife deep into its shoulder and the ogre released her entirely. The queen hung then, for just a heartbeat, from the handle of her dagger, legs swinging, before bringing her right arm up and driving her sword into its chest. The ogre wavered on its feet and toppled backwards. Kneeling on the creature's chest, Queen Brighid freed both of her weapons before driving her sword through its remaining eye and wrenching it downwards, then to one side, before pulling it out. The ogre's arm twitched one last time, then it was still.
"Your Majesty," came Willem's voice, cracking with concern. He had pulled himself back to his feet. He clutched his shield arm as he moved towards her, but the queen was peering off into the darkness. The sun had set completely during the fighting and the night was cloudy.
"Knight!" she called. There was a long pause and then a whine and a bark before the mabari came trotting out of the shadows. He butted his head against the queen's hand, then licked it.
"I am so sor-" Willem began, anguished, but Queen Brighid cut him off.
"I'm fine, Willem."
"Yes, Your Majesty," he replied, but he did not seem at all relieved by her reassurance.
At the ogre's head, Zevran plucked his dagger from its eye and attempted to wipe the blood off on the creature, to little avail.
"You know I hate the way this smells," he said to the queen as he came to her side.
"We all have problems, Zev," she replied.
They doubled back to collect Nola and Leland. The queen's gaze flicked towards Willem's injured arm as she passed him, but just as soon returned to focusing straight forward, steely. She said nothing and Willem stared at his boots the entire way. For her part, Mhairi noticed that no small number of the darkspawn corpses they passed were covered in the same angry welts and sores as the dead ogre. She eyed Zevran speculatively, but he just grinned at her.
Nola and Leland had gathered the surviving soldiers with them, a baker's dozen dragging a few wounded, and they directed the entire party back towards the keep and off to one walled and protected corner where a handful more soldiers were administering aid to at least a score of injured. Queen Brighid pulled the most senior man there off to one side and began to question him. Zevran hovered nearby while the mabari sat at her feet. As Nola and Leland helped with the injured, Mhairi followed close behind Willem. Her gauging of his mood left her unwilling to directly offer him help, but similarly unwilling to leave him entirely to his own devices. Still cradling his arm, he made his way over to one of the soldiers tending the injured.
"Can you check my arm?" he asked the man. The strain in his voice surprised Mhairi, as did his heavy breathing. He was in more pain than she'd suspected.
Without a word, the soldier removed Willem's huge pauldron—now misshapen from impact—and slid off his gauntlet and the rest of the mildly dented plate. He probed up the arm from the wrist and when he got to Willem's shoulder the younger man hissed loudly in pain.
"It's dislocated," the soldier informed him and before he could say anything else Willem had already issued a command.
"Pop it back in," he said.
"I can," the soldier replied, "But you'll need a sling and some rest before-"
"Just pop it back in."
Obediently, the soldier stretched out Willem's arm before turning it and then jerking it upwards. Willem didn't scream, but his face screwed up in agony and tears brimmed at the corner of his eyes. When the soldier released him, he shrugged it experimentally and winced, but immediately began re-attaching his armor. The soldier looked as though he might say something, but eyeing Willem's face, decided better of it and wandered off.
Willem was flexing his fingers inside of his gauntlet when the queen rejoined them.
"Nola, Leland," she said and they immediately stood at attention. "Wait an hour, make sure there aren't darkspawn hiding in any corners out here. Then take half of these men and go into the keep and clear out any stragglers you come across."
"Yes, Your Majesty," they said in unison.
The queen took a moment to spread a poultice on her arm and deftly wrap a bandage around it. Mhairi could see now that there was an angry red splotch beneath the drying blood where the darkspawn mage had touched her. While she did so Zevran collected a few extra medical supplies, tucking them into a pocket on his belt. Willem merely stood and arranged himself beside the queen, a huge, immoveable statue.
"Mhairi," the queen said when she had finished tending her arm. "Do you still wish to be a Grey Warden?"
"Of course, Your Majesty," Mhairi replied without hesitation.
"Then come along."
With that Queen Brighid, Zevran, and Willem marched towards the doors of the keep. One was slightly ajar, but Mhairi could see nothing inside. Even the dog seemed full of silent determination as he followed.
Mhairi looked down at the makeshift pallet beside her, where a man lay, eyes staring up unseeing at the night sky. No one had been watching him and he'd died. She thought, unbidden, of Rowland, who had befriended her during her first week in the service, when she was young and terrified and determined. Was he dead as well? Had he died alone with no one to notice his passing?
A shield leaned against the wall at the head of the pallet. Mhairi picked it up and adjusted the familiar weight into place on her left arm.
Then, she followed her queen into the darkness.