"So are you gonna tell us why we're tromping across a sheep pasture in the middle of the night, or are you leaving it a surprise?"
Adaar glanced over her shoulder. There was no one around, unless you counted sheep. And Bull. And Dorian.
"Oh, it's fine," said the mage. "I love being dragged out of my nice warm bed and riding for ten hours in the wet and then sitting around in the dark. Absolutely my idea of a good time. Let's do it again tomorrow."
Adaar looked over her shoulder again.
"You look guilty as sin, boss."
"So," said Adaar. "Stroud and Leliana's people have been talking. He says that the Wardens at Adamant are waiting on a group of Wardens coming in from the east. They want to wait until they arrive and all do the ritual together."
"Makes sense," said Bull. "Maximum demons, minimum number of Wardens trying to stop you."
"We're slowing down the incoming Wardens while Cullen gets troops in position to take Adamant. The more time we can buy them, the happier everyone will be."
"I'm with you so far," said Dorian. "Right up until the bit where we're in a sheep field at night."
Adaar sighed. She hated this. She really, really hated this.
"We're creating a Darkspawn incursion," she said.
She stalked forward, through the wet grass. Her companions were silent, but she could hear the grass swishing at they walked beside her.
After a long, long silence, Bull whistled.
"Damn," he said after a minute. "Damn, that's beautiful. And cold."
"It was Leliana's idea," admitted Adaar. "But I authorized it and the blood'll be on my hands and no one else's."
"And ours, apparently," said Dorian.
"There's a tunnel near the surface here, coming up in one of the burial mounds. Stroud says there's a group that'll come out if we can move the boulders. There's nothing up here but sheep and a couple of shepherds, so we're not releasing them into a populated area. One of Leliana's people is dressed as a shepherd and will go blundering into the Wardens yelling for help." Adaar took a deep breath. "It's Darkspawn. They'll drop everything to clear it up. It'll take them days making sure it's secure and finding the breach."
Bull was nodding as she spoke. "It's good," he said. "I'm impressed. Did she suggest that you bring the two of us, too?"
Adaar stared at her feet.
"I didn't agree with her reasons," she said glumly. "But you're the two I trust the most."
"Reasons?" said Dorian. "What reasons?"
Bull grinned, but it had more teeth and less humor than usual. "Unleashing Darkspawn wouldn't be popular. We're a Tevinter and a Qunari. If we go telling tales, nobody's going to believe us."
It was Dorian's turn to whistle.
"Almost worthy of the Game, Inquisitor," he said.
"If you don't want to do it, you can refuse," said Adaar. "This is…um…voluntary."
Bull laughed. "Shit, boss," he said. "I'm already Tal-Vashoth, what am I going to do?"
Dorian sighed. "You need me to move big rocks out of the way, don't you?" he said. "Dorian, move the heavy boulders. Dorian, set the Darkspawn on fire. Dorian, save the world."
"Dorian, we're all very grateful," said Adaar.
"And don't you forget it."
The sheep downs were dotted with ancient burial mounds. They had low stone doorways, sealed with stones. The one that Stroud had marked had lost the doorway, the lintel stone crashed down and half-collapsed the mound.
There was a stony outcropping not far away. Adaar pointed to the top. "We climb," she said. "Dorian can work from the top, and if we are very quiet, the Darkspawn will move off without seeing us. I don't want to leave obvious bodies to find, or the Wardens will get suspicious."
"I see one major problem with this plan," said Dorian, gazing up the rocks. "How do you propose to get me up there?"
Adaar and Bull looked at each other, then at the rocks, then at each other again.
"Rock, paper, scissors?" she said.
"I'll do it," he said. "You go up first and find me a route."
Adaar nodded.
When you are seven and a half feet tall (not including the horns) chairs may be too small, but rocky outcrops are much less intimidating. Adaar scaled the stones like a particularly muscular monkey. A human would have found it difficult, but a human had shorter arms and legs and less upper-body strength.
She reached the top, poked her head over, and nodded to Bull.
"C'mon, Tevinter," said the Qunari. "You get a piggy-back ride. Just don't any ideas."
"Ideas?" squawked Dorian. "Ideas?"
"I'm generally a top," said Bull. He went down on one knee and presented his broad back to the mage. "Come on."
Dorian gave Adaar a horrified look. Adaar made an impatient gesture. "We're burning darkness, people."
The mage took a deep breath, let it out, and then wrapped his arms around Bull's neck. "Just don't put a horn in my eye," he said.
"We can't all rock an eyepatch," said Bull generously. He stood up, adjusted the mage's grip, and started up the same path that Adaar had taken.
When they reached the top, there was a flat space. Dorian clung to Bull's back, his eyes glued shut. "That was horrible," he said. "Absolutely horrible."
"It wasn't that bad," said Adaar. "He only jumped once. And he never slipped at all."
"Yeah," said Bull. "And you kept cutting off my air whenever I grabbed a new handhold, but did I throw you off?"
"We'll never get down," said Dorian. He still hadn't opened his eyes. "We'll die. I'll die."
"You can let go of my neck any time now," said Bull.
"Can't. Dying."
Adaar carefully pried the mage loose. "It's all right," she said soothingly. "Just move the rock and then move the rock back and we can allll go home."
"Don't patronize me. I loathe being patronized." He finally opened one eye and glared at Adaar. "I don't care about the Darkspawn, but this is really beyond the pale."
"You're doing great."
"I hate you."
"That's okay."
Dorian let out a small scream of frustration, clutched at his hair, then knelt down on the stone. "What blessed thing do you want moved or blown up or shattered or whatever?"
"That rock," said Adaar, pointing. "You pull the stones up, the Darkspawn come out. Bull, count 'em. When you hit fifty, squeeze my hand. I'll count too. Dorian, when I squeeze your hand, drop the rocks back. I'm not leaving an open Darkspawn tunnel around here, sheep or no sheep."
For once, it was genuinely that easy. They all lay flat and Dorian peered between two upthrust stones. He wiggled his fingers and muttered and the broken entryway glowed red and then lifted slowly into the air.
"Not sure I approve of desecrating graves," muttered Bull.
"The Darkspawn have desecrated it plenty. We're just cleaning house."
"Suppose you have a point, boss."
With the stones moved aside, the entry to the mound was a dark, ragged mouth. Adaar waited, hardly breathing.
A few minutes slid by…and a few more…and then Bull's fingers tightened on hers.
Two small eyes glittered as a dark shape lifted its head from the mound.
Hurlock. It's working.
Another joined it a moment later, then another. They grunted at each other. One made a high chattering noise.
The hurlocks milled uncertainly in the opening, sniffing the air. Adaar was uncertain if they could sense the magic that Dorian had used.
We're downwind. We haven't touched anything near the mound. It can't possibly smell us.
Then one of the hurlocks was dealt a ringing slap and a bigger one strode out of the mound, shoving it aside. Bull's fingers tightened again, this time from excitement.
Alpha! Yes! It'll get those bastards moving…
And it did. It moved confidently downhill, and the other hurlocks fell into step behind it. A thin stream of darkness began to ooze out of the mound, heading downslope.
Adaar watched them and her brief excitement passed.
Darkspawn.
And I unleashed them.
Anyone they kill, anyone they taint, is on my hands.
Corypheus used Darkspawn to further his own ends. Now she was, too.
Did the ends justify the means?
No. Never. But I have given the order and I will bear the burden.
Her eyes watered from staring into the dimness. She blinked a few times.
Bull squeezed her hand sharply.
Eh? What?
He glanced at her and squeezed again.
Oh! Fifty! Yes.
She reached over and gripped Dorian's wrist. (It was never wise to grab a mage's fingers—he might be in the middle of zapping something.)
He nodded fractionally. A moment later, the stones collapsed, crushing a hurlock that had been in the doorway.
The others barely glanced back. One stepped back, poked at the stones a few times, then looked around. Adaar could see its nose working.
It did not, however, look up.
After a moment, it hurried after the others.
And they were gone.
"The agent will have gone as soon as she sees them," said Adaar. "There's two failsafes in place. Leliana tells me it's as close to foolproof as it gets."
She sounded very lost and forlorn in her own ears.
Oddly, it was Dorian who reached out. He patted her arm and said "Better a battalion of Darkspawn than an army of demons. We've seen the way that future goes."
"Yeah," said Adaar. "Yeah."
It was a little easier to get down from the rocks than it had been to get back up. Gravity helped. Adaar waited until Dorian had disentangled himself—and gibbered a bit—before striding out across the pasture.
She did not want to meet Bull's eyes. I know I'm the boss out here, whatever we've done in the bedroom, but I still want him to approve of me. Somebody to approve of me, anyway. Leliana might, but Leliana is…hard.
But she was the Inquisitor. She gave the orders.
She squared her shoulders and led her people away from the scene of the crime.