I am really getting these out quick, man. Thank you for the kind words about the last chapter, I've never written a chapter that was all battle before, and I'm glad I did a good job. Unfortunately for our heroes, the battle is far from over.
Aveline never tore into a piece of meat with the voraciousness she did the piece of roast before her, juice running down her chin and spilling onto her shirt, unnoticed until she had eaten half the slice, She placed the meat down, and was greeted by laughter from the guardsmen sitting at the table with her. Aveline tried to glare, but began laughing herself. It was a strange moment, free of tension and worry, that quickly dissipated when everyone went back to eating.
The rest of the meal was eaten in silence, the rest and food in their stomachs both welcome. Though she probably should have been thinking of strategies for the next phase of the battle, all she could think of was her encounter with the Templar captain. The speed with which that man had swung his sword was nearly unlike anything she had ever seen. Hawke swung a sword that fast, maybe Meredith as well. While her pride would never allow her to admit it to anyone besides herself, she had been more than a little lucky. When she knocked his sword away with the shield, it had been pure instinct and guesswork. She could not honestly say she knew the Templar would bring his sword down on her the way he did. If he were to have cut diagonally, or horizontally, she would not be sitting at that table right now. The thought of her near death did not frighten her. She had faced far worse mortal threats than that man before, and come closer to death. Now, she was thinking the same thing she did after every near death encounter in her life. She would learn from her mistakes, and never make them again.
Donnic sat at her side, none the worse for wear physically or mentally, it seemed. He had fought valiantly during the battle, and her love and pride at being his wife had never been more. The few opportunities she was allowed to check on him, he always seemed to either be cutting down men climbing up ladders, or directing arrow fire with no lack of authority or confidence. Aveline was trying her hardest not to think of the likely possibility one of them would die and leave the other alone. While one would think it would be easier for her, having lost her husband Wesley to the darkspawn, it would not be. And Donnic, that sweet, strong, caring man, Aveline hoped she did not leave him. He did not deserve the pain she had once felt.
The Templars began another push five hours after their previous attempt was denied. The mid-morning sun shone bright in the sky, the heat making Aveline sweat profusely beneath her armor. She was donning a lighter set to combat the heat, but there was simply no way to stay cool on a summer day such as this. The heat would help them at least, making every step the Templars took a fight of its own, and the weight of their rams and ladders harder to bear. The men guarding the walls in the interim, mainly green boys desperate to prove themselves, were relieved of duty, more than a few complaining loudly and some having to be removed from the wall physically. Hawke gave a small speech, knowing that at this point, he had said everything that needed to be said already, and then Aveline climbed the steps to the top of the wall at his side. The first thing she noticed was the amount of men the Templar were sending forward, and the amount of ladders and rams they carried. It made the previous night's assault look tame in comparison. If Hawke showed any concern, he did not show it, surveying the battlefield with a calm anyone that knew him would expect. "Well, here we go," he whispered, nudging Aveline with his elbow. "Archers! Fire! Trebuchets, rain hell down on them!"
The first ladders sent dust flying from the top of the wall near Aveline fifteen minutes later. Down below, a ram was slamming into the gate, the cracking of wood into wood reverberating as if she was right next to it. A gaatlok was sent down just as the first men came into view in front of the Guard-Captain, her sword penetrating his skull at the cheek. Another ladder appeared to the right, with Hawke running over to take position in front of it. "Archers, take these bastards out! Forget the others, defend the walls!" he shouted. Four men hurried over to help him push the ladder away, while the archers began focusing their attention solely on the men attempting to breach the gates and climb the walls.
Despite their efforts, the first Templars gained a foothold on the wall within the first hour, on the far right of the wall where Aveline stood. Hawke turned to run and join the fight until she held out a hand to stop him. "You are needed here! I will handle this!" She then sprinted away before her friend could protest, cutting down men climbing ladders along the way. When she reached the spot where Templars were fighting her guardsmen, with reinforcements still climbing up the ladder and jostling to find room on the wall, she began pushing through her guardsmen, moving towards the enemies. "Use your shields!" she shouted. "Push them towards the edge of the wall!"
Led by Aveline, the soldiers formed a wall with their shields, moving forward behind them while prodding with their swords. A few of the Templars tried to replicate what the guardsmen were doing, but without a concentrated effort they only found themselves continuing to be pushed back. Once the Templars' backs were against the edge of the wall, blocking access from the ladder, the guardsmen's swords began finding the weak spots in their armor, the Templars unable to effectively defend themselves in their cramped space. When they were all dead, Aveline helped push the ladder down. "Throw these bodies down to join their friends!" she shouted. She hurried back to join Hawke.
The first battering ram to breach a gate occurred half an hour later. The crack of wood and a shout from Merrill made Aveline's head snap in her direction, and she saw the first Templars rush through the gates, steel ringing against steel as they were met by the troops waiting for them. "Why was no gaatlok dropped on that ram?!" Hawke shouted.
"We are almost out!" A soldier manning the trebuchet shouted back.
"Maker damn these bastards!" Hawke hissed to no one in particular. "Aveline, man the walls!" he said angrily. Gripping his sword tightly, he ran down the stairs and in the direction of the skirmish near the gate.
Aveline knew they were minutes from retreat. Retreat was not a loss, it was expected, but it was still not something she wanted to do. Hawke began cutting through Templars with a blood thirsty speed and power, but Aveline could not spend her time watching. A ram was approaching one of the two gates to the right of her. "Mages, focus all your spells on the rams!" she shouted. "Varric! Get those bastards below you! Archers, concentrate fire on the closest ladders!" Aveline kept a close eye on the walls, rushing to any spot where Templars were reaching the top and pushing them back. Down at the gate, Hawke, Merrill, and the guardsmen with them were holding back the tide, the corpses for both sides piling up at their feet, though the Templar casualties decisively outnumbered the guardsmen.
When the gaatloks ran out, three hours into the battle, it took mere minutes for the battering rams to begin breaking down the gates, one by one. Within half an hour of the second gate's breach, all of them lay splintered open. Nearly every troop wielding a sword or axe was diverted to defend the entrances the courtyards beyond. Aveline was part of the troops waiting at the middle gate, her fellow guardsmen at her side. The Templars came rushing through the gate, a war cry on all of their lips. Shields and bodies clashed at the threshold. The press of Templars outnumbered Aveline and her soldiers, but they stood their ground, pushed back, took every opportunity to stab at the Templars. She could hear the archers above loosening their longbows and crossbows, could hear the men falling dead beyond the broken gate, but the strength of the press never faltered as the dead were replaced at a moment's notice.
Finally, after what felt like hours but was only minutes, Aveline's strength began to fail, and her feet grudgingly slid backwards, the press too much. She looked at the soldiers to either side of her, saw the weariness in their muscles and pleading in their eyes, and nodded. "For Kirkwall!" she yelled, just before pushing as hard as she could against the Templar directly in front of her. He gave way, moving backwards just enough to give Aveline room to cut him down. The guardsmen around her did the same, and the battle between the two sides began. A sword cut horizontally at Aveline's neck, and she ducked below it before cutting a leg and throat. A shield bashed into her, but she recovered in time to block the follow-up and stab the Templar in the neck. Two guardsmen behind her teamed up to cut down a man behind her, just before one was stabbed in the back. The call for the archers and crossbowmen to retreat barely registered with her hearing, which was not helped when the flat of a blade struck the side of her helmet. She fought purely on instinct, desire to win, and fear of losing, the men she fought nothing more than targets for her blade, indistinguishable from each other. She did not know if they were young, old, captains or novices, good men or bad, and it did not matter. Blood dripped off her sword and covered both her face and armor, which was showing the scrapes of battle as well. Not all of the blood belonged to the Templars, and the bodies of her comrades began to fall around her. She would have to grieve later, as she focused solely on cutting down everyone she could.
She continued to fight and kill until the order came for the retreat. The flow of Templars into the city had lessened somewhat, allowing Aveline to turn her back without fear of being stabbed. The top of the walls were now occupied solely by Templars rushing to join the fray and their archers, who were taking up position to fire at those retreating. Aveline hurried away, never running in a straight line. Five arrows struck the ground near her at different times, but she ignored them and continued running. Merrill and Bethany were ahead of her, and when Bethany tripped, Aveline was there to lift her to her feet and provide support as they continued running. The poor girl had a cut on her cheek, which thankfully was not bleeding very much, and her eyes were nearly closed from exhaustion. "Stay with us, Bethany," Aveline whispered, loud enough to know she was being heard. "We are almost safe, stay with me." Merrill supported Bethany from the other side, and the three women ran as fast as they could.
Of course, Hawke was somehow up ahead, still shouting for everyone to retreat. He cast a quick gaze in Bethany's direction, the pain evident in his eyes, but just as quickly he was gone, running past them. Soldiers were hurrying into alleyways and buildings, taking cover. Aveline settled for the closest alleyway she could find that was safe, dragging Bethany and Merrill with her. She stared out onto the main street, taking note of the faces she saw as they ran by. When she Donnic, a weight she did not even realize had been there was lifted from her heart, and she managed a thin smile. Donnic did not see her, but that was okay. They could find each other later. "Hurry!" someone shouted. "Hurry, take cover!" Aveline covered Bethany with her body, and pressed her hands over the mage's ears. Merrill curled up into an impossibly small ball, covering her own ears as well. The explosion shook the ground like an earthquake, causing some to scream in fright. Aveline's ears rang from the deafening sound. The sound of stone collapsing was the first thing her ears could hear when they recovered, lasting for a solid two minutes. Beneath the overwhelming sound of the Lowtown buildings collapsing were the distant sounds of screams as Templars were caught beneath the rubble. When it was finally over, she removed herself from her position over Bethany, who managed a weary smile, and said, "I'm fine, I'm okay."
Aveline cautiously stepped out on the nearby street when it was over to see how effective a roadblock they had formed. She was pleasantly surprised. It may have come at the cost of people's homes, but they had managed to form walls of stones standing at least ten feet high, and on one street standing twelve feet high. It would take the Templars awhile to deal with those obstacles, and in the meantime they could harass those efforts, much as they had when the Templars were removing the bodies of their friends and the remains of their battering rams. Hawke had apparently had that idea, of course, as archers and crossbowmen were already in position on the roofs overlooking the rubble, firing at enemies Aveline could not see. She kept an eye out for arrows coming their way as she helped Bethany to Lirene's Ferelden Imports, the building Hawke designated as his headquarters for the second phase of the battle.
Inside the shop, now one of the most respected and visited in Lowtown, much of that due to Hawke's influence, he was standing over a table in the side room, where a map of Lowtown was rolled out. The corners were held in place by unlit candles, which if this went well would be lit later that night. Hawke looked up when Aveline entered the room, and immediately frowned at his sister. "Are you hurt, Bethany?" he asked softly.
"Stop it, Garret," she said curtly. "We are fighting a war, in case you forgot, injuries happen."
Aveline could tell that Hawke was biting his tongue, forcing himself not to say anything else. Bethany had been merciless with him the previous night, after the Templars retreated. "How dare you treat me like a child?!" she had screamed, spit flying onto her brother's face. It was the angriest Aveline had ever seen the normally shy and respectful mage. She spent minutes yelling about how she wanted to defend her home just as much as he did, that it was unfair to keep her prisoner while others put their lives on the line to defend her, that she had spent far too much of her life letting others fight her battles. Bethany seemed to let loose every frustration she ever had with her brother, until Hawke forced her into a hug. That just caused her to start hitting him, and he did not fight back as she pounded his torso with her fists. When she eventually stopped, the two of them held each other, until Bethany stopped crying and apologies were exchanged.
Afterwards, the two acted as if nothing happened, but Hawke knew that he would just reopen those wounds if he argued now. He nodded at his sister and waved her, Aveline, and Merrill over to join him. "That rubble will take some time to clear. We should be able to hold firm long enough to rest and recover. We will continue to fortify the area and lay traps along the stairs up to Hightown as well."
"We can't get back down to Lowtown without using those stairs," Merrill said. "How are we going to get back down here if the Templars are coming up? I don't think we can fight them."
"Nor would we try," Hawke said. "We will use the lifts the dwarven merchants built to lift their goods from the docks up to Hightown. We had them lifted up before the battle so the Templars could not use them, and we will use them to go back down if we cannot hold Hightown. From there it is only a short trip across the water to the Gallows."
Aveline shuddered. She hated those things. During an intense training session in her third year as Guard-Captain, she broke her leg and was unable to walk up the intimidating number stairs from Lowtown to Hightown. The guards with her offered to carry her, or have one of the wagons used to transport goods up the stairs carry her, but she assumed the lift would do less to hurt her pride. One frightful ride spent with her knees to her chest later, she decided to never do that again. Now she might not have a choice. "I guess we have no choice," she muttered.
Hawke chuckled. "Sorry, unless you insist on cutting through the Templars on the stairs, the lifts are your only choice." The smile on his face was grating. He had laughed quite heartily when he heard about Aveline's lift ride, of course.
"You're right," Aveline said. "The lifts it is."
"Good." Hawke stood straight and looked around at all three of them. "We have a few hours. Find a cot and get some sleep if you can."