Somewhere In Ferelden- the Imperial Highway
There were few things in life which leveled the playing field entirely and completely. Between the nobles and the commoners they claimed to rule. The need for food, the need for sleep, being born the same way, and dying. All would speak to the lie of the nobility of blood.
But of all the forces of nature, the most profound, the most ironic, was that carriage exercise didn't discriminate.
Maker, if you exist, this ride is uncomfortable. Kara thought as the carriage lurched suddenly over a rock or an uneven path of ground.
And it was true. Perhaps nobles had fancier carriages, more cushions, linens, and comfortable sofas. Expertly crafted horses who knew how to do their job and what they were for. And it was true, many commoners only had push carts instead of rich horses to pull their goods to market.
But, the uneven ground made fools of them all.
They had arrived in Ferelden about two weeks ago. Crossing across the sea, and then darting straight to Denerim. One of the local landed owners recognized a name, and invited them to dinner.
Fortunately for Kara though, her mother decided that she wasn't feeling well enough to travel, so it was just her and her brother Albert.
He accepted the invitation and they spent much of their first day in Ferelden cavorting, dancing, and being introduced to many of the single ladies and lords of Ferelden. A few of them eyeing her up. She was most unamused by their attempts.
Though, one good thing did come out of their little distraction in the estates in and around Denerim. The local lady of the house warned them about the potential for bandits. They were stalking across the Imperial Highway and other major arteries of the Kingdom. Hunting weary travelers and robbing the more wealthy merchants. Stalking, waiting, gathering intelligence, and striking when they decided a target was worth the effort.
A convoy of nobles and their baggage would certainly have been a tempting target for even the dullest of bandits and mercenaries.
So, the lady, recommended they hire the Blackstone Irregulars. Albert went into a bar, handed over the thirty sovereigns for their services, and away they went. Their convoy now about ten members larger, with horses, and an extra carriage.
They were now protecting them and flanking the carriages as they slowly made their way across the Ferelden countryside. Some were riding along in horses, and others sat on the top of the carriage with crossbows primed, scanning the surrounding countryside for any sign trouble. Not that there was any that was going to materialize. So it seemed.
Going into it Kara would've thought the incessant chatter and constant intonations that she needed to do something with her life, join the Chantry, the Templars, find a nice noble man, would've been the worse part of the trip. Instead it was the cramps, the constant jolts, and the floor grinding up against her. And even the cushions started to hurt after a while.
Worse still, the Blackstone Irregulars demanded a frightful pace for them. Few breaks, and almost a full trot, as they made their way across the land that suffered from the Fifth Blight. Their logic, they said, was to avoid any ambushes by moving faster than any scouts or messengers could travel.
Of course they aren't being charged by the hour and have already gotten half their pay, so it's not like they want to go nice and slow.
And their breaks were few and far between.
"Alright, I think this is far enough!" The Blackstone leader called from the top of the carriage. "Dismount, set up camp!"
The convoy shivered to a halt just off the main road, in a little gully off to the side. Their mercenary group leapt off their posts and took up a defensive position. They held it for a moment.
"Alright, all clear, civilians. Dismount!" He bellowed.
Kara got out of the left hand door to the carriage and Albert scrambled to the right. They both landed with a thump and Kara's lungs filled, quite gratefully, with gorgeous fresh air.
Kara threw her arms wide as if embracing the air now pouring over her.
Several other members of their party enjoyed similar poses and postures. The Blackstone's, now quite content that they were indeed safe, were lounging about. Some were stripping off their armor. The nobles began chattering amongst each other, or at least shouting for their servants to attend to their every need.
Commoners began darting hither and thither, beginning to set up camp and making the preparations for a fine lunch. And for once, Kara was quite content to let them work.
Though, several times in the last few days and weeks her brother called her to work and help they set up the camp. While he watched. Taking some perverse pleasure in letting her perform the acts of a commoner, which she didn't really mind the work, it was the attitude she didn't care for.
Not now however.
Now, she was craning her neck around and stretching her back, cracking her bones and muscles back into their proper shape.
Much better. She thought to herself.
"Kara!" Albert called.
She sighed, and turned to her brother looking at him over her shoulder. "Yes, brother dear?" She asked sarcastically, though she hoped it was subtle.
"You enjoying the trip so far?"
She shrugged, "More or less," She gestured around her, "If this were the case and it was more outside and seeing the Ferelden countryside, a foreign and strange land, I might appreciate it more. But, stuck in the carriage, all cramped and bumpy…that I do not like."
"It'll all be over soon," Albert assured her.
Her fiery red eyebrow couldn't help but drift upward at their proclamation, "And how do you know that? We could be miles away from our destination, hundreds of miles."
Albert shrugged, "my area of expertise is maps and finding my way around, I studied them while you were…off doing whatever it was in the forest. And, with the pace the Irregulars are forcing us on, we should be there by the end of the week."
Kara's mouth twitched, "Seems our definition of 'soon' varies greatly."
He tisked, "tough Kara, defeated by some simple carriage exercise."
She sniffed, "I would hardly call fourteen hours a day 'simple' dear brother. I would rather be out and about, using my legs, or at the top of a horse. Maybe not for that long. But the Irregulars seem quite…insane…after all the summit is still a few weeks off isn't it?"
It was Albert's turn to look uncommitted, he gazed around their burgeoning camp, "The summit will start when all the parties are there. There is not a specific date…or until the Chantry representatives sponsoring the meeting decides there is no one else coming. It could be weeks, months…or hours. And with bandits stalking the wilds, apparently the Irregulars concerns are warranted."
Kara grumbled a curse under her breath.
"It just makes sense Kara," He said to her, patting her on the shoulder as he passed, and circled her.
Kara said nothing but shimmied slightly away from her brother. Trying to subtly separate herself from him without his notice. Watching him out of the corner of her eye, and the way his head whipped around towards her indicated she didn't succeed in her dearest lifelong ambition.
"I've been thinking Kara," He said.
"Did it hurt?" She returned sarcastically.
He sniffed, "You are twenty six years old Kara. And while you can take care of yourself, that much is clear, you really aren't doing anything with your life."
"You mean, anything you approve of…which is quite ironic in its own right."
He sighed, "You haven't taken a husband, you do not have a steady job, and you have not joined the Templar Order or have made any other overtures of Chantry support. In fact, according to some of the sisters you have been quite… belligerent."
"Chantry services are rather boring," She explained.
"To you," Albert shot at her and then closed his eyes, as if praying to the Maker for guidance and patience.
"It will not do to reexamine old arguments, the mere fact is our patience will not be infinite…mother wants you to choose. To choose to uphold the family honor."
"Did she put you up to this dear Albert?" Kara said.
"She is merely concerned, that is all."
"Concerned?" Kara snorted. "For me or for herself and the reputation of the family?"
"They're the same thing," Albert said, his voice dripping with supreme confidence.
"No they aren't, if they were concerned about my wellbeing they would try and support me in the decisions I want to make for a career, and try and find a compromise. But yet, the only one who ever has to compromise in this family is me."
"You have to make a choice, if you expect to live in our house much longer."
Kara snorted again, "And you don't think I want to go? But I am not getting much support in that regard from the family in that regard. Maybe I could go live with my dear uncle." She shrugged and turned away from Albert, turning her back on her brother. Finally, and decisively putting an end to the conversation once and for all.
She was saved from any more awkward attempts to converse with her as the Blackstone's started to bellow.
"Alright you dainty little nobles! Unless you got your priorities messed up we are packing this trip up, getting back on the road!"
Kara risked a glance back at Albert, and he was already moving back to the carriage. Silently hunching his shoulders.
Kara sighed, and went to join him.
And so, they were back out on the Highway once more. Gingerly making their way once more South and West at the same time. Passing through the former war torn country who had suffered greatly at the hands of the Blight. The land still looked blackened and unclean from its treatment. Yet, it was beginning to recover. Ferelden only suffered from a single year, and not the centuries in Ages past. The land would one day recover.
They camped next to rivers, and streams, in the shadows of great trees, and under the blankets of starry skies.
And despite Albert's assertions of earlier he barely seemed to pay her any head as they crawled across the Kingdom of Ferelden. Except for pure shop keeping and the business of their trip. Treating her more and more like a commoner, a bit of luggage, and not the member of the same family.
Fetching the firewood, preparing the meals, and just working out. Not that she minded, but, it was the attitude behind these requests that bothered her. As if something had finally broken in their relationship.
For four days they traveled thus, growing ever closer to their destination.
Finally though, something happened.
Kara was feeling dizzy, sitting in her chair she was dozing off at the slightest provocation. Feeling tired, sore, forelorn, and dreary. Her head nodded off, her eyes closed, only to be jolted awake when they hit a rough bit.
The Irregulars, inexplicably and impossibly, had decided they weren't moving fast enough. And the only way to increase their speed and their pace was to make them stay even longer.
Though maybe we can get this over with faster. She thought as her arms folded over her chest, her head lolled to the side, and she felt her shoulders twitch.
Another jolt caused her to blink, and yet she valiantly tried to rally her defenses to get a nap.
But, her attempt was short lived in the extreme as her eyes bolted open, darting around the carriage. Some of the Irregulars were raising quite the ruckus. Shouting at something, though Kara could not quite make out the words, it sounded as if they were challenging something. Beckoning something forward into the light.
Something is wrong. Kara thought.
"Identify your-" their leader's speech was cut off by a blood curdling scream.
Kara sat upright in her seat all thoughts of sleeping, all feelings of fatigue fleeing from her. Albert took notice and craned out the window.
More screams, more shouts, and Kara's well-honed ear thought she detected the whistling of arrows as they passed overhead. Rips and tears sounded, opening holes in their sides, men thumped overhead as they were pierced by armor piercing shafts.
"We're under attack! Bandits!" Albert cried next to her.
"Oh well spotted," she snapped leaping out of her seat and unhitching the side door, leaping through it with a crunch onto the ground.
Kara instantly took in her surroundings, fortunately she was on the side facing away from the battle, so she had time. But also, no one else was in sight. From the sounds of the shouting growing closer, she believed that was easily and soon going to change.
She looked up, at the top of the carriage, and a corpse was draped across it, but sticking out by it was the edge of a wooden bow. She reached out a quiver and scooped up a quiver and gently, gingerly, removed the bow from its perch, and made ready for combat.
Kara Trevelyan, noble of Ostwick, pampered and spoiled beyond measure, crouched low and made herself ready for combat. Footsteps were fast approaching her from the side of the carriage, friend or foe, she did not know, but she imagined the latter. So she nocked an arrow, placing it on the string, and waited.
A bandit turned the corner, his uniform not that of the nobles, or the house of Trevelyan, or of the Blackstone's.
He turned, and beheld her, bringing his sword up in a threatening manner, trying to intimidate her.
Her arrow leapt from its string in response, flying through the air. The mercenary yelped, his hand clawing at his shoulder, where the end of Kara's arrow was sticking from it.
A bad shot, but this is the first time I ever shot a human before, in anger, in the heat of battle.
The man before her recovered quickly, and now couldn't help but take the threat she posed seriously. His mistake though, was fatal as the second arrow just as easily found its mark, slicing through his head, and silencing him.
She crept along the path where he came from, rounding the corner between two of the carriages…and nearly got skewered by a spear. This time though, it was held by a Blackstone, and they both breathed a sigh of relief almost simultaneously.
His mouth opened, as if to answer a question and she held up a finger silencing him. Then, she peaked around the carriage looking out over at their assailants. Who were crouching and laying in the small grass, clearly waiting for them in ambush.
"Borge!" One of them called out, peaking his head up so Kara could clearly see his bearded visage. "Borge, answer me, are they rich?!"
Kara hissed.
Slowly the remainder of the Blackstone forces gathered in the shadow of the two carriages, between the two of them. Only three of them were left. Only three?! Three out of around ten mercenaries. The bandit strike was most fast, and efficient.
Not much of a strike force. Kara thought drearily to herself.
Plus, none of them looked much older than…she did. They were young, scared, and none of them had the rank insignia of a senior Blackstone Commander. And they were they were looking at her, darting furtive glances, gathering around with her in the center it makes me nervous.
Her fears were confirmed when the first, and apparently youngest, of their escorts opened their mouth. "We need a leader, none of us are nobles, we are still young, and this is the first taste many of us had of combat."
Kara's mouth opened in shock, "I'm no leader! I may know how to fight but I have never led...people into combat before."
"You are the only noble left, nobles lead people into combat usually. And you look…capable." The oldest said glancing her up and down, and then over at the fallen corpse next to them.
She couldn't help the derisive snort that made its way up through her throat, "Oh, only because I am a noble eh?"
"It is the way of things," Albert's voice said behind her making her jump, "nobles are the leaders of armies, and of men. Some of the Blackstone's are nobles, and it falls down to us to make the necessary sacrifices of command, society cannot function otherwise."
"Then why don't you do it?" Kara snapped.
He smirked, "As you notice I spend a lot of time in the library at the House of Trevelyan. Or wooing some of the local girls that I can. Trying to do my duty. Your skills…are a lot more aggressive than mine are."
"Borge! If you don't answer, we'll be coming in there!" The Bandit leader shouted, his voice sounding quite clear even over the distance.
"Fine," She sighed. Her mind was already working on the plan given they were about to be stormed by a great many bandits. Time was of the essence.
"OK…you…" She pointed at the eldest of the warriors, the one with a great shield and a sword. "Draw their fire, give us a chance to get a move on. Remember, stay alive, we're greatly outnumbered. Let's get through this."
They all nodded at her and moved out, Kara and two of the warriors moved back across the carriage heading for the front, where it was facing yet another carriage. The warrior, instantly headed the other way.
Kara moved quickly, legs pumping, arrow coming out of quiver and to the string of her bow. She broke across the line of the carriages and the warrior was genuflecting, his chest pumping, sword and shield rose threateningly, drawing the eye of the combined bandit force which was moving on the carriages, obviously not willing to give their man anymore time.
Most of the bandits were armed with crossbows, and they stalked over to him and fired their weapons at the Warrior. He crouched low behind his shield and the shafts buried deep, but did not penetrate the other end.
So far so good, my plan seems to be working.
Releasing the arrow from her bow, it flung itself, burring it deep in the flesh of one of the sword bearing bandits. They turned on her, and her men, the warrior on their flank started flanking them. Their forces were divided between the two threats.
Kara fired another arrow, and again it found its mark, just barely, sticking out of the chest of her intended target. He grunted, grabbing for it, and fell down sideways in the dirt.
Several of the bandits broke for her, the two warriors flanking her rushed to meet them, shielding Kara from their blows and strikes.
One of them brought his great two handed great sword around, slashing it in the air in a giant sideways arc, and batting the man aside like so much of a doll.
The other slammed his smaller shield into the bandit's face, snapping his jaw and slamming him back hard. Either dead, or quite disabled, Kara was not sure she cared.
Her mind and senses was driven into overdrive, everything she could hear and see, even out of the periphery of her vision. She looked right and saw the Blackstone dueling with two smaller bandit warriors. Kara unleashed an arrow, which stabbed through and knocked one of them out of combat, and the warrior slashed through the other's stomach taking him down as well.
The man shot Kara a grateful smile, which she returned pleasantly. The warrior turned around to reface his aggressors and Kara saw a shaft fling through the air and hit the Blackstone in his neck. Even from this distance Kara saw the look of shock which flashed briefly on his face, before he collapsed on his knees. In the dirt.
"No!" Kara shouted.
She heard a rush of feet and a flurry of yells and shouts drew her attention to the immediate area around her.
The two warriors with her was in the midst of a major duel with several of the bandits. Four on two, all swords and daggers flashing in the mid afternoon sunlight. The sword and shield warrior braced with his shield pushing off of it against a swing, and then parried another blow from his right.
Kara, taking advantage, sprung to action. Her bow came up and an arrow launched itself right into the scalp of one of the bandits.
Instead of using the timing to his advantage, the warrior was seemingly caught off guard by the action. He swung around, and was taken out of position. The bandit leapt on him, sword piercing his side, and another strike pierced his chest, he yelled, and collapsed.
Kara's eyes widened.
The other warrior, the last Blackstone still standing threw his shoulder into a tackle, leaping one of the bandits back, then swung around keeping the other one off balance, he had to leap back.
The sound of a crossbow bolt being fired split the air, the two handed warrior yelped, his hands jolting out, and his sword falling at his side.
It is now only me. She realized. The rest of the Barbarian Hoard seemed to realize the same thing as they all turned into her, forming a half circle, the few of them that were left. Whatever else happened, she did bleed the bandits good. But, there was now likely that much more murder in their hearts.
Instinctually Kara Trevelyan backed away, heading back for the carriages, running backwards over the uneven ground. Her bow went into action. Sending shafts into the air, what she had left, keeping the bandits honest. A few of them hit their targets, and killed the enemy, a few of them flew wide.
Soon, she was back amongst the carriages. The last two bandits were charging in after her, the leader, his crossbow cradled in his hand, and Kara waited.
Taking a few deep breaths, the rogue steadied herself, making sure her breathing did not throw off her aim. She had time, she had bought herself time. Not having time to mourn the men she led to their deaths. Finally, she was ready. One of her last arrows came up, she peaked over the edge, and saw just the rogue with two knives stalking in.
Where is the leader? She scanned, and did not see anyone, or anything.
So, she fired, her arrow perfectly puncturing the weak leather cloak the man was wearing, he twitched for a second, and collapsed in the dirt, sliding a few feet.
Another arrow instantly came up to the bow, but yet she couldn't find anyone. So, she moved out, creeping back across the line, risking exposure to his crossbow fire, but she also knew she couldn't wait.
Looking to her left as she crossed the line, she saw him, aiming down his crossbow sight. Her eyes widened, she leapt, as he fired almost at the same second. She could just feel the bolt rip past her through the air, as she slammed into the ground, sprawling out, the arrow going off the string, and she grumbled. Dirt now caking her face and her riding dress.
The Bandit leader, his teeth yellow, snarled, as he brought another bolt to the bow. For some reason, Kara could not recover, her legs would not obey the commands of her head, as she stared at him stupidly.
I'm finished, she thought to herself, despairing.
Yet, she wasn't. Somewhere from the right Albert sprang forth, snarling. He ducked under a blow, brought a knife up, and speared the Bandit's hand. The bandit yelped, then growled in pain. Slamming his backhand across the Ostwick Noble's mouth and knocking him in the dirt.
A spike of familial rage rolled through Kara, it gave her enough energy to leap for her last arrow, bring it to bow with her still crouching, and fire.
The tip perfectly slashed through its neck, burying itself there. The bandit's eyes widened in pain, as he clutched and tried to scoop the arrow out of his neck. It wasn't working. He looked at Kara, smiled lightly. His knees caved out from under him, he fell in the dirt, and then crumpled over with a surprisingly loud thud.
Taking one last look, she made sure the rest of the bandits were out of the fight. They were, either dead or dying. Not that I could do anything about it anyways without arrows, or my knife. She thought.
Satisfied she was safe, she dropped everything and rushed over to her brother's side. Crouching low over him, checking him. The body was not stirring, but she could hear his light breathing.
"Albert, are you alright?" She asked softly.
He rolled over with a groan and looked up at her, his lip was bleeding from a slight cut. "I…hurt…but I'll be OK." He winced as he sat up. "I think."
She patted him on the back, "That was brave of you, thank you."
"Surprised?"
She shrugged, "Perhaps a little."
He smiled, "Perhaps so am I, you did well by the way."
"Thank you," She blushed.
He winced again as he got up, "Come on, without an escort we are vulnerable, we need to reach the summit as soon as possible."
"You will get no argument from me," She agreed.
She heaved him up, and together, they gathered the rest of the supplies, the bodies, and headed back out on the path they had been traveling along.