Thanks so much, all of you! I'm excited about this story, and I'm so glad to see you are, too. As always, I love to hear from you - if there are characters you're curious about, plot elements you'd particularly like to see, etc., feel free to leave a review (signed, please!) or drop me a PM. Many thanks to Oleander's One for her patient and enthusiastic betaing!
Fenris and Bianca took turns rowing across the strip of ocean that separated the tip of Rivain from the island where the bustling port of Llomerryn was located. They landed on the opposite side of the island, however, not wanting to deal with the curious crowds in the larger town. Leaving them with the boat, Evelyn bandaged her side firmly and walked up to the small village on the coast near where they had landed, only a slight limp showing what the movement was costing her.
She negotiated for a fishing boat and captain to take them across the water and into the Free Marches. The price demanded was ridiculously high, but no one was fooling anyone—Evelyn needed the boat badly, and the captain knew it. He could charge what he wanted and she would pay.
Late at night, the three of them came to the dock. Fenris was shrouded in a heavy cloak, covering the distinctive markings. Even in the dark he couldn't entirely conceal them; they shone with their own luminescence, their reflection glinting off the waves when his hand emerged from under the cloak to reach for Bianca's. Ostensibly he meant to steady her, but in reality it was more to reassure himself that she was there. Evelyn's brush with death three days before still had Fenris unsettled. It was a more direct reminder of the fragility of their peace and happiness than they'd had previously. As Fenris had never entirely grasped the concept of a home, losing the string of them mattered little to him as long as he still had Evelyn and Bianca. To have come within a hair's breadth of losing one of them ...
"Papa?" Bianca tugged at the hand that grasped hers, and Fenris blinked, reminded that they were on a dock getting ready to flee to one of the least safe places in all of Thedas. "Papa, come on," she said eagerly.
He allowed himself to be led, crossing the plank to the waiting boat. The fisherman waited until they were all three aboard, then cast off, his son the only other crewman.
"You know how to sail a ship?" the boy—a lad in his late teens, from the looks of him—asked Bianca. There was a gleam in the boy's eyes that Fenris didn't like.
"No. But my—" Bianca caught herself at a warning shake of the head from her mother before she could mention Isabela's pirate ship. "My dream is to learn how," she said instead, smiling at the boy.
He flushed in response to her beautiful smile, and Fenris restrained himself from growling, but only barely. He glanced at Hawke, who seemed more amused than anything else. "We should not allow her to become so familiar with this young man," Fenris said softly.
"Why not? It isn't as though she's likely to see him again after this voyage," Hawke whispered back. "She has to learn how to talk to boys sometime."
"She's a child!"
"She's almost sixteen, Fenris. By the time I was her age ..." Evelyn's voice trailed off. "Well, perhaps she doesn't need to learn that much." She grinned.
"I find your levity on this topic most disturbing."
"Of course you do. You're her father; it's your job to glower and be entirely too serious every time a boy gets near her." Hawke glanced over at Bianca, who was listening intently to an in-depth description of knot-tying. "At least she won't see this one again once we get to Kirkwall. And he seems harmless enough." She dug her elbow into Fenris's side. "It's when she starts going for the dark, broody type that we'll need to worry."
He narrowed his eyes, not enjoying the joke. "I do—"
"Not brood," she finished for him. "I know."
Fenris had to smile at that. He was relieved to be here with her, and to watch her spirits rising as the boat pulled away from the docks and out in the dark water, moving toward Kirkwall. "Are you certain these people will take us to the correct place?" he asked, suddenly suspicious. He would not have put it past the Tevinters to have bribed the boat captain.
Hawke didn't answer for a moment, staring out over the water as though her gaze could pierce the darkness of the night. "Relatively sure," she said.
"I would have preferred a more confident answer."
"I would have preferred to give you one." She chuckled softly. "They seem to be going in the right direction for now, and in the morning we'll see where we are."
A quick glance told him Bianca was busy practicing knots while her youthful instructor corrected her, and he tugged Hawke a little farther away. "It still strikes me as foolhardy to walk into Kirkwall as though we are waving a red flag at the Chantry and the Tevinters."
"Maybe it is," she said, "but I can't run any more. I've had enough running for several lifetimes. I'm through letting the Chantry—or the Tevinters—dictate my life and keep me away from the people I care about. I haven't seen Varric in nearly two decades, all because we're so afraid of the people who are chasing us that we don't dare go home."
"But for how long, Evelyn? What will we do when they come for us again, when they threaten Bianca's life once more?"
"We'll figure out a way to get them to stop. Between Varric and Aveline and Isabela and you and I and Bethany—"
"And Donnic," Fenris put in, thinking with pleasure of how nice it would be to see his friend again. Perhaps she had something here, after all. It could be that they were only vulnerable because they were isolated. "I see your point. I only hope that we are afforded the chance to plan before our enemies come for us." He swallowed, thinking of Bianca clutched in the Tevinter's hands, of Evelyn sinking to her knees with blood covering her side. "I cannot imagine what I would do if—"
"You don't have to," Evelyn said firmly, putting her arms around him. "Nothing's going to happen to us; we're going to be fine. Trust me," she whispered, her mouth very close to his. Her soft lips touched his cheek, then his jaw, then claimed his mouth, her tongue teasing his lips until Fenris groaned and pulled her against him. She gave a pleased moan as he took charge of the kiss, holding her head still while his tongue plundered her mouth.
An exasperated exclamation broke into the moment, and Fenris tore his lips from Evelyn's to see their daughter staring at them, her arms crossed and her foot tapping impatiently. She narrowed her green eyes at them. "Do you two know how embarrassing you are?"
Evelyn chuckled. "I used to say that to my parents, too." The smile faded, and she sighed. "If I'd only known how lucky I was to have parents who loved each other the way they did ..."
Bianca snorted. "At least you had a brother and a sister to roll your eyes at."
Fenris felt the sudden tension in Evelyn's body. They had tried for more children, tracking Evelyn's cycles and experimenting with timing and frequency and positions, but she had only conceived the one time. He had learned years ago to be content with the blessing that had been allotted to them—and had secretly wondered if he could care as deeply for another child as he did for the stormy, beautiful, intelligent Bianca—but Evelyn hadn't given up on the dream until her cycles began to arrive more erratically as she grew older. Unfortunately, that development had coincided with Bianca learning how effective a weapon her only-childhood was in her continual wrangles with her mother. He did not believe his daughter set out to hurt her mother, but certainly she had found it an effective way to gain the upper hand in an argument.
"Perhaps you would be better off simply averting your eyes and keeping your thoughts to yourself," he snapped at Bianca.
Her eyes widened in surprise; Fenris realized that this time his daughter's comment had been truly wistful, rather than designed to wound. Bianca flushed, casting her mother an apologetic look. "Of course. Sorry, Mama."
"It's all right, Bianca. I wish you had a brother or a sister, too. Although I have to admit that it's easier to move one child than three. My poor mother," she said softly, looking out over the water. Fenris's arms tightened around her, and Bianca came across the worn wood of the deck to add herself to the family hug.
After several minutes, Fenris disentangled himself. "The two of you should get some sleep. It will be a long night."
"You know the coastlines better than I do," Hawke reminded him. "Why don't you sleep now and I'll take the night watch?"
"Why do we need a watch at all?" Bianca asked. "Surely we're safe enough on the boat."
Fenris and Hawke exchanged a glance. "Habit," Hawke said in response to Bianca's question.
The girl frowned, and then shrugged, obviously deciding it wasn't worth carrying the line of questioning any further.
Grudgingly, Fenris allowed Hawke to prepare a pallet for him on the deck. "You are certain you won't let me stand the night watch?"
"Don't be foolish. I'm perfectly capable of keeping watch, and you know it."
"You know, I could keep watch," Bianca put in. "I'm almost sixteen, and I can probably stay awake better than both of you."
Hawke looked at her daughter appraisingly, but Fenris shook his head almost before Bianca had finished speaking. "No. Perhaps some other time."
Bianca sighed, rolling her eyes, and muttered something uncomplimentary under her breath that Fenris pretended not to have heard. Some day he would have to begin accepting that his daughter was growing up and becoming an important part of their defenses, but for now she was still what needed protecting. He held himself immobile next to her, listening as her breathing slowed and stretched out and became even and soft. Every sound she made, every movement was unutterably precious to him, not just because soon she would be too old for this, but because he lived every day with the fear that she would be taken from him, caught in the crossfire of those who pursued her parents.
Shifting to his side, he watched her peaceful face, marveling that such beauty had come from him. He had to admit to himself that even though he still thought Hawke was being perilously foolish in insisting on going back to Kirkwall, he did want to see Donnic and Aveline's four sons, to speak with his old friend and find out if his experience of fatherhood and family life had been as transformational, as utterly fulfilling, as Fenris's had.
Despite Hawke's admonishment, Fenris spent most of the night lying awake and watching his daughter sleep. As dawn broke in the sky, he found to his relief that he could see the coast of the Free Marches in front of him—a far rockier and more forbidding coastline than if somehow the captain had gone north along the coast of Antiva, and on the correct side of the boat. At some point in his past he had known which was port and which starboard, but for the life of him, he couldn't remember it now. Clearly, he was a failure as a pirate captain's brother-in-law.
He considered Isabela and Bethany for a moment. Certainly, they would protect Bianca as their own, if Fenris and Evelyn entrusted her to the care of her aunts, and there were few better than Isabela for training in the shadowy skills Bianca seemed best at. The years hadn't slowed the pirate at all, merely adding a honed edge to her talents. It would have been perfect if they could have taken Bianca aboard themselves and enjoyed a few years of carefree living on the high seas. But Hawke had hated shipboard life, and they both had dearly wished for Bianca to grow up with a real home, something neither of them had ever had. He wondered sometimes if that had been a mistake—had they allowed Bianca to train aboard the Temptress with her aunts, could he and Hawke have taken steps to free themselves of those who stalked them?
Fenris got up, going to the rail where Hawke was leaning out, looking down into the water. There was little point in imagining what might have happened, he decided, wrapping an arm around her waist. No one could fight the entire Imperium, after all. He turned his attention to his wife. "Is the sea a different color as we near the Free Marches?"
She straightened up, smiling at him. "No. But I wish it was, just so I could tell when we were getting closer."
"Soon enough." He slid the other arm around her waist, as well, holding her against him, and they watched the water flow by.
It was dark again by the time they came as near to Kirkwall as the captain felt comfortable going. Hawke handed over a few more coins that glinted gold in the sunset, and the captain and his son were back out to sea within moments. The son didn't spare Bianca a backward glance, and Fenris was relieved that she didn't seem to notice.
They hiked up the sandy hills of the Wounded Coast. Excitement was surging in Fenris's heart, despite all his attempts to remind himself what a perilous thing they were attempting. All around him were scenes that he remembered. The hillock where the Tal-Vashoth had fallen on Varric, his blood ruining Varric's coat. The promontory where Hawke had been held prisoner by the mages, and where they had been married in Varric's makeshift, unique, wonderful ceremony. The stretch of sand where they had once met a Dalish elf from Ferelden who was chasing a werewolf. Fenris had always wondered what the story was behind that.
Hawke led them toward a side gate, so little-used that Fenris hoped it hadn't been sealed over in their absence. Aveline had, of course, known about the gate's existence, and he thought it highly likely that the ever-cautious Viscountess would have done away with most of the various hiding-holes and secluded entrances they had all used, in order to keep other, less lawful, renegades from rising to take Hawke's place.
"Here goes nothing." Hawke tossed a grin over her shoulder at him, reaching into the dense ivy covering the gate for the handle. It held as she pulled up on it, but after some wiggling the rusty mechanism moved and the gate swung open. "Bless Aveline's heart."
They moved cautiously into Hightown, looking around to determine if the gate was being watched. It seemed safe; there were no obvious locations where someone could be concealed. Adjusting his cloak to be certain his markings were completely covered, Fenris followed Hawke and Bianca along the small alleys and side streets that led them to the wall surrounding the gardens of Hawke's estate. He hoped his wife was prepared to find her beloved garden fallen into disarray. They had left Orana, the young elven servant whom they had liberated from slavery long ago, in charge of the estate when they left. Varric's letters indicated Orana had done a fine job, but it was a large estate for one person to manage.
Hawke stood back to let Fenris scale the wall of the garden first. She didn't say much about it, but her side still pained her, the wound healing slowly.
Dropping softly into the dirt of a flowerbed, Fenris looked around him in shock. The garden was flourishing beautifully, flowers waving in the night-time breeze and herbs perfuming the air. Orana had put as much work into this as if Hawke was expected back at any moment.
Bianca landed next to him, and between the two of them they helped Hawke climb up and over. Fenris stood back to let his wife look on her garden. Even in the dim light, he could see the shimmer of tears in her eyes. "Look, Fenris. Look what she's done." Evelyn moved slowly through the garden, touching various plants gently, leaning over to smell the flowers. "It's just like I left it."
The house door opened and a small figure with a lantern appeared, looking out.
Hawke moved into the lantern-light. "Orana?"
"Mistress!" There was delight in the elf's voice. "I was sure you would come home someday." Orana peered into the dark past Hawke, and Fenris moved forward, bringing a suddenly shy Bianca with him. "Master Fenris." Orana's tone was respectful; she and Fenris had never learned to be comfortable together as master and servant. Their backgrounds were too similar for that. "And the young mistress, too! What a happy day!" A tear slid down Orana's cheek, and she wiped it delicately away with a handkerchief she took from the sleeve of her dress. "Please, come inside. You must all be very weary."
Weary put it mildly, Fenris thought, allowing his wife and daughter to precede him. And the danger had only just begun. It would be a long time before they could truly rest, he suspected.