TEN

Ser Cauthrien was waiting with fully thirty men when they tried to leave. She cursed. It had been a trap, although she didn't think it had been planned by Anora. They were tired and Alistair was wounded and she didn't like their chances against warriors of their calibre. Instead of fighting she allowed Wynne and Zevran to slip away with Anora.

Ser Cauthrien was an honorable woman, she knew. If she and Alistair were in her custody, they were probably safer from Loghain than anywhere else.

When they arrived at Fort Drakon, however, she realised her mistake. Cauthrien handed them over to the guards and they were taken below - to a chamber much like the one she'd found Oswyn in.

Oh maker, she thought. They're going to kill us both.

They stripped Alistair first - down to his smallclothes. He struggled a few times, but one of the guards pulled back Miranda's head and put a dagger to her throat, and he stopped. They tossed his gear into a corner and shoved him into a cell - one that looked out onto the chamber. Then they started on her.

She had reasoned Ser Cauthrien would treat them humanely, at least until Loghain's men got to them. She had reasoned that they would have time to plan an escape - that Anora and Wynne and Zevran would come to find them.

She realised she hadn't been thinking clearly. As the guards pulled her armour from her, then her clothes, she realised she'd been royally stupid. They didn't even know who she was - who Alistair was. They were just prisoners of Loghain's. She could hear Alistair shouting at her from the cage they'd flung him into.

"We've got ourselves a pretty one," the captain said. They'd stripped her completely naked. Two of them were holding her arms. Just her arms. She fought to stay still and resist the urge to kick, knowing that her only advantage at the moment was the fact that her legs were still free. They had pinched and prodded as they undressed her, but none of them had tried anything else, yet.

"So, who are we, then, my pretty?" the captain continued. "A traitor to the throne? One of Eamon's lackeys? Or just a deserter?"

"If you touch her I will kill you," Alistair's voice came from the cage, low and menacing.

"Mmmm. Seems like your fellow over there doesn't like to watch," the captain continued, stepping closer and reaching out a hand to cup her breast. She heard Alistair bash the bars of his cage and growl. He pinched her nipple and she gritted her teeth and turned her head away.

"No complaints from her yet, my friend," the captain called up towards Alistair. "Maybe I can make her growl like you do. Maybe we can all have a go at it, eh boys?"

The men laughed. She bit her lip then, and forced her head up to look the captain in the eye.

"You really don't need all these men to hold me," she said, as sweetly as she could manage. "Or share me, for that matter."

He cocked his eyebrow. "And what might that mean?"

She lowered her lids in what she hoped was a coy, flirtatious look. "I'm quite well experienced," she said. "But I perform better when there's only one customer."

The captain grinned suddenly. "Oh, but I couldn't deny my men the pleasure of someone so... tempting.." he said then, reaching out his other hand to her stomach and lower. She had to exert all her willpower to stop from flinching.

"I don't tire easily," she said. "They'll each have their turn. But as captain...." she looked him up and down and licked her lips, "you should definitely have first taste."

He laughed. "Well I'll be. Boys, make sure the complainer is secure and leave us alone." The two guards holding her shoved her forward to the captain, who grasped her wrists in his hands. "But seeing as I'm not completely stupid," he said. "I think we'll be using a few restraints." He dragged her by the wrists to a nearby table and threw her onto it, while the two guards who had been holding her locked her wrists into manacles. They were attached to chains, she realised with relief, and not directly to the table so she still had freedom of movement. And he did not chain her feet.

"Miranda.." Alistair's anguished voice came from the cage as he continued to rattle the locks - raising to a roar. "By the Maker, I will kill every last one of you!"

The other guards left once they were sure she was secure. The captain locked the door from the inside and turned back to her with a possessive grin and started to remove his armour. She tested the length of the chains - they were shorter than she would have liked, but long enough for her purposes. She could only thank Andraste that they had not bothered to check her hair when they stripped her naked.

"So how do you like it?" she asked the Captain, who was down to his smallclothes. There was an unmistakable bulge there that sent her throat dry.

"Well, my lady," he said. "How about we try a little something I heard about from Antiva.."

"Antiva?" she said then. "It just so happens that I have learned many things from that country. Let me show you..."

He grinned and climbed up onto the slab in front of her, grabbing at her breasts with one hand while he pulled down his smallclothes with the other. He moved over her and she felt the hard length of him pressing against her stomach. She reached up her arms to his head and made as if to lower his face to hers. As soon as he was close enough, however she twisted to one side, kicking up with her knees and legs suddenly to dislodge his weight from her, slipping out from underneath him and wrapping the chain from her left hand around the man's neck. Her right arm was twisted unnaturally and she cried out as she hit the floor - hoping the shoulder wasn't dislocated, but she had a firm grip on the chain as she strangled the life out of the captain. It didn't take long and he hadn't had time to cry out. When he was dead she painstakingly untangled herself from his corpse and let it drop to the floor and climbed back up onto the table. She tested her shoulder which still seemed to function, although she suspected it would be bruised black on the morrow, and searched through her hair for the pins she knew were there.

She made short work of the manacles and then rushed to Alistair's cage. His lock was no more difficult. "Just like Redcliffe," she said as the door clicked open. She was nearly bowled over, then as Alistair crushed her to him. "Maker," he said, his hands moving on her back, her neck, her hair. "My love, tell me you aren't hurt..." He was kissing her face, her neck, and she found herself suddenly completely and utterly helpless against a wave of desire more intense than anything she had ever felt before. Mine, she thought. My choice. She kissed him back and fumbled with his smallclothes. He pushed her back against the wall of the cell and she wrapped her legs around his waist as he entered her, frantically. She cried out and grasped at his back in pleasure as he drove into her rapidly.

It was over as quickly as it had begun and she had a moment to think it was very lucky the captain had locked the door from the inside. "Holy Andraste," Alistair breathed, leaning against her. "I'm so sorry."

"Sorry?" she said.

"That's probably the last thing you wanted after what they did... were going to do.."

She took his face in her hands and kissed him soundly. "Don't be silly," she said then. "It's exactly what I needed to wipe the memory away. Also, handy cover - they might have been suspicious if there hadn't been any moaning."

He laughed and disengaged himself, pulling his smallclothes back into place. She quickly gathered their armour and arms and started dressing, wincing at the pain in her shoulder. "They did hurt you," he hissed, as he saw her movement.

"It'll heal. He's dead now."

"How are we going to get out?"

They dressed Alistair in the Captain's armour - they were enough of a size for him to pass as long as he kept the helm on. She unlocked the door and Alistair poked his head outside briefly. There were only two guards outside - obviously the rest had duties. The first one saw the Captain's helm, grinned and nudged his companion. Alistair beckoned them both inside. Once they were through the doorway he flattened one with a gauntleted fist. Miranda knocked the other out with the pommel of her dagger. They stripped the two men naked and locked them in Alistair's cage. She donned the smaller of the two's armour and they gathered their gear into a pack.

Sneaking out of the fortress after that was relatively easy. They had the unimaginable luck of being mistaken for new recruits, with a bit of persuasion they were able to walk out into the streets of Denerim.

"Remind me when I'm king to replace all the guards in that prison," he said as they found an alley to rid themselves of the guard uniforms. "Or possibly burn it to the ground." When they were comfortable in their old gear he took her in his arms again, gently to avoid hurting her shoulder. "That was the worst thing I've ever had to go through," he said softly, and she was stunned to feel that he was shaking.

She didn't know what to say. Part of her had been terrified, but another part had known exactly what to do, thanks to Hubert and his training. "I can look after myself," she said to him finally. "You should know that by now."

"Oh, I do," he said, laughing a little. "The problem is, I want to look after you. But you keep managing on your own."

She smiled at him. "You do look after me," she said. "In every way."