Chapter 10: The Darkness Takes the Light
Cullen ran for the door to the main keep shouting commands to the scrambling guards on the battlements. "Madden, sound the alarm. Belinda, Pellane, defend the western stairs. Keep them off the battlements. Rion, Maker help us, you need to stop them from getting through the entrance to the south. Dorian, help Rion! Everyone to arms!" And then he was through the door and clattering down the stairs to the main hall.
Maxwell leapt past him to the end of the balcony and looked over. Darkspawn surged in a thin stream from the broken doorway to the dungeon, already filling the courtyard and trickling through the opening to the southern yard and stables. His mind swept past the unlikeliness of this attack and moved to the tactical. Stop the flow, then deal with those inside. Then figure out how this could have happened.
With a shout he threw himself off the battlement and onto the cluster of genlocks that had just rushed through the door. Pulling them to the ground with him as he rolled to his feet. Slash, push, parry...Spinning, his sword sprayed a swath of tainted blood at the garden walls as more surged into the courtyard past him.
Past him...even though he was the first opponent in sight. They were behaving oddly, splitting to avoid him rather than engage. Running for the battlement stairs and building doorways. He'd hoped to bottle them up at their entrance but for each one he slew, another two ran past him into the darkness. He could not allow them to harm the civilians and, Andraste preserve them, the visiting nobility. "Don't let them get inside!" He shouted to the soldiers swarming out of the bunks above the blacksmiths building.
Several tried to climb the rough garden wall. "Sorry, I don't want you mussing my quarters." Dorian's voice sounded almost bored as an ice spell slicked the stones, sending darkspawn sliding down into Maxwell's whirling blade.
"Darling, really, your taste in furniture is completely relevant for Darkspawn. I'm sure they ache to have you decorate for them." Vivienne's dry tones matched the fire she rained down as she stepped out onto her balcony above the courtyard. "Vivienne, can you stop them on the south stairs from your vantage?" Maxwell shouted and she turned to lance lightning down at the group that had run through the arch. "I will do my best, dear. And my best is very good."
Maxwell spun to deflect an incoming attack as a mass of hurlocks broke through the doorway and rushed forward, pushing him back. At their center he heard the hissing build of a spell. "They have an emmisary with them!" His shout was answered by a storm of arrows raining from above. Leliana and her scouts had awoken, thank the Maker.
Even with the ranged help, the battle around him became fierce. Soon his pommel was slick with blood, much of it his own. The struggle to keep their tainted fluid from him making the fight harder than he'd have liked.
His attention vaguely acknowledged the roar from the area near the tavern. The Iron Bull had entered the battle, hopefully with the Chargers, but he didn't spare the attention to look. Then from the top of the stairs to the main hall. Cullen's shouted commands interspersed with the grunts of exertion and the clash of weapons. Another crash as the emissary loosed a ball of his own fire at the tower, stilling the archers as they ducked for cover.
Then behind them all, last through the doorway hunched the largest darkspawn he had ever seen. He'd fought them before, even though he'd been young during the last blight. But this, this was more than just an alpha. As it straightened it towered over the other hurlocks but did not engage any of the combatants around it.
Something was off, Maxwell thought as he struggled to maintain his footing in the sea of tainted blood now drowning the grass of the courtyard. They weren't acting like normal darkspawn. Maxwell's mind raced. The darkspawn would lose, bottlenecked and outmanned. So why were they here? They weren't completely mindless, for all their lack of individual thought. Something wasn't right.
The hurlock general tilted it's head as if listening. It didn't gesture but the rest of the darkspawn redoubled the fierceness of their attack forcing the defenders attention to themselves. Instead the the massive creature looked up past the wall, it's head turning as if searching out a specific prey. The skeletal nostrils flared and then it moved in one great leap to grasp the edge of the rampart and swing itself over.
Maxwell could barely see over the wall. What he did see made his gut clench. Dorian stumbled back, firing a bolt from his staff. "You ARE a big boy! A little help here!" A low roar and a swipe of it's sword was the monstrous darkspawn's only reaction to the sizzle of it's flesh. A grunt of pain in return as the sharpened steel connected and threw the mage off the walkway.
Without pausing it strode out of his sight.
The horns were what woke Angelica from the deepest sleep she'd had in a long time. As consciousness slowly returned she became increasingly aware of shouts and screams. Sitting up in a disoriented rush, she realized the door to the bedroom was open and the sounds of battle outside echoing on the stone walls.
Her mind flashed to memory. A sword piercing her stomach and more pain than she'd ever felt in her life as she fell. Armored feet crushing the small body she'd dropped as her arms had relaxed in what she was sure was impending death. The sounds and screams of fighting all around her but she couldn't move. Couldn't run. Couldn't save her daughter.
In a flash she was on her feet, panic stealing any ability to think clearly. She had to run! In swift steps she reached the doorway. She had to hide, to get away...
No, she had to find the children. She had to find her baby, the new baby she'd taken into her heart. What she would do then...it didn't matter. She had to find them. But where were they?
She couldn't see the fighting from there, but people were gathering in a rush in the garden, crying, screaming. Soldiers gathering near the entrances. ARN! Arn was there and near him the dark form of Leesa. In the press she couldn't see the other children.
She rushed to the end of the balcony over the garden. Maker curse it, here was no way down! Shouting above the din, she waved until Arn looked up and saw her. "ARN! Arn, are the other children there?"
She couldn't hear his response but she understood the nod of his head. "And the baby?" Arn or Leesa were the ones who carried the infant, but neither had it then. She had to repeat herself twice more, along with rocking motions for them to understand as the sounds of fighting on the other side of the garden wall intensified. Finally Arn shook his head and gestured towards the main hall. With a nod she turned and ran towards the door that opened onto the keep. In her desperate focus she barely registered Dorian at the other end of the balcony, firing bright flashes into the darkness.
Until the monster appeared on the ledge, swinging it's sword and toppling her friend into the garden.
She stood there frozen in terror a moment, gawking at the hulking form as it's eyes…it's horrible red eyes turned on her and it began a steady approach.
The baby, she had to get to Salvisa. She couldn't fail again. With renewed vigor (and panic) Angelica darted into the doorway. She wouldn't make it across the balcony in time and with more courage than she had ever thought she owned, she jumped from the lower part of the ledge to the main hall.
Varric panted as they finally managed to get the massive door to the main keep closed and barred. It had been a challenge to shut against the attackers that kept trying to slip past Cullen and his soldiers on the stairs outside. That damn door was heavier than the Makers massive prick he was certain. "Well, all smooth sailing from..." He turned just in time to see Angelica, of all people, rush through the door and leap off the balcony to the floor.
Her landing was hard, and he heard the snap of bone as she cried out. "Frosty, welcome to the party." Varric stated calmly. The swiftness with which he shouldered his weapon and grabbed for her arm belied the tone of voice. "What the hell is little miss miracle doing leaping off ledges?"
"Varric, where is the baby?" She panted in pain and exertion as she tried to step away from him, nearly falling. "It's coming…behind me." What was coming? The balcony she'd come from was one of the safest places in Skyhold so far as he knew. Only one entrance, second floor, away from the main gate of the castle...there was a reason the visiting nobles (now crowded in a terrified huddle against the far wall) were so often housed along there.
"Don't worry Frosty, that baby is probably the safest person in this whole damn..." His voice cut off as behind her the largest Maker damned darkspawn he had ever seen strode through the doorway she'd just run through. "SHIT!" He raised his crossbow as the monster leapt from the balcony.
He managed to get one good shot into it before it reached for Angelica. "RUN FROSTY! We got this!" He shouted. But she'd frozen in place...that look on her face. Varric's heart jumped into his throat. "Not now Frosty. This isn't the time for miracles."
And then it was too late. She turned, blocking his ability to shoot. Raising a tender hand to the beast behind her. But the beast grabbed her throat and she collapsed. Whether dead or unconscious Varric couldn't tell as he rolled to the side to get a clearer shot.
The surprised soldiers rushed the darkspawn general. "Please don't die!" He didn't even realize he'd cried out as the monstrous humanoid ignored the slashes that splattered it's blood along the stone flooring. It ignored Varric's own bolts that peppered it's back. Instead it tucked the woman he'd sworn to protect under it's arm and leapt for the balcony and then out through the door it had come from.
"SHIT! SHIT! SHIT!"
Maxwell was tiring. He'd moved his part of the battle from the now empty dungeon door to the base of the archway below the stairs. Most of the civilians lived in that section of the keep. He could only pray that Blackwall and whatever soldiers were housed there were enough to stop what had gotten past him initially.
"Makers fucking face tits!" Sera's curse rising above the clamor almost made him smile. He thrust forward one handed, wiping blood of a head wound from his eyes with his other.
Then the darkspawn general re-appeared. Leaping from the balcony above the dungeon door it fled into the dark passageway. But Maxwell saw what it was carrying.
"Angelica!" With a mighty blow he moved to pursue, but so did every damn darkspawn still in the courtyard. They massed into the doorway in a rush, fighting in a last fierce desperation as they fled. Delaying...so many died in that space that the doorway was painted black with tainted blood.
Maxwell, Cullen and what soldiers would fit in the tight staircase pursued and even managed to kill another score of the hideous creatures before what was left had climbed like rats down into the darkness.
He stood, panting from the exertion, the sound of the waterfall an empty counterpoint. He didn't know how to feel in that moment.
Cullen spoke, exhaustion, and something else in his voice. "She is the only one they took."
The Largest of the Mothers Children hurt. He bled and ached and rejoiced as he carried his precious burden into the darkness. Only a few of the horde still lived. But it was enough.
He looked down at Lhe light glowing in his arms. It's breathing was broken. Mother would be pleased, but only if he could keep the Light alive to bring it to her.