BioWare owns it! : )
Okay, our lovely rogue has woken up, but was a little less than thrilled that Kai held back about Alistair's voice and probably will be even angrier that Kai sicced Argus on him to keep him from going. And Kai has a new problem – boarding a ship and taking down a bunch of well-trained mercenaries. Let the games begin!
Thanks for your reviews, your emails, your constant support. Especially the lovely reviews, wow, I am really flattered. I appreciate you all so much! : ) Sorry yesterday's chapter was so late, damn real life anyways. : )
Another shout out to Shanda 27 for another quote in her review that I just had to use as it was so appropriate. : ) I love that you all inspire me!
And a special apology to a fan whose name I got wrong in my own shout out, DOH! Nighthunter MGS, I am so sorry. And I do owe you this apology, nothing like making someone's initials into a horrible food additive! I am very sorry, sweetie. : (
Blessings!
Kai sat in her black leathers with her black hood pulled up and the black veil covering her nose and mouth, all the Scath were dressed the same. Only Sten, Oghren, and the mages were not. Morrigan always had on dark clothes, just less than most. They all wore dark cloaks to soften their forms and conceal themselves, especially Sten and Oghren who wore plate mail. They sat hunched low as their small boats quietly made their way across the water to the ship called "Wave's Promise" that had anchored just outside the harbor leading to the docks in Denerim. Anora, still spiraling into insanity, albeit a clever insanity did not wanted to have a lot of heavily armed mercs disembarking a ship in broad daylight. Such a sight might cause the people of Ferelden to get a little nervous and upset. So, the ship was anchored outside of the shipping traffic waiting for midnight.
Kai and her compatriots made it to Denerim with two days to spare. They camped outside the city then snuck through the gates in the dead of night the day after they had left the farm hold. They spent their time since at one of the Scath hideouts. It had given them time for Kai to get to know some of her newest recruits and for her to use the procul globe to let them speak to their fellows still in Antiva and, as it turned out, elsewhere. Apparently along with the Crows, Kai inherited six of the globes, which were in the hands of her ex-Crows as far away as Par Vollen. Kai wanted them to be a cohesive group that had more than just being Scath in common.
Vimaro desired them to be in competition with each other so they didn't think to compete for his place as Master, just one of the man's many paranoid charms. Kai was the opposite and made sure they all knew it. Her biggest requirements were honor and loyalty. Honor for themselves as individuals and to their fellows and the group as a whole, and loyalty to their fellows and the Scath. Again, none, even the ones far abroad, declined to be a Scath rather than a Crow when given their freedom. This communication was the reason Kai had wanted her new Scath to talk to their fellows, so they would believe it when they were told they had a real choice. Apparently, those conversations helped a great deal, according to Naseel, because they had been able to talk to those here who had first-hand experience of their new leader.
And according to Zaeed, all was quiet in the house of Cresconio, in fact, Zaeed informed her that everything was going as it always did. Zaeed was continuing to feed Lord Cresconio false information regarding the trials and travails of catching one Zevran Arainai, who had been the best in Vimaro's house and poised to become a master of it. This position was why Vimaro had set up Rinna and manipulated Zev into believing she was a traitor. Vimaro had been jealous and had hoped to break Zev, plus stop a very real competitor.
Kai's heart had hurt at that, her cold fury had returned for a moment, and she was very tempted to just destroy them all once again. She had stopped herself, as always, but she also realized part of her fury was guilt at her own betrayal.
Zaeed also assured her that Lord Cresconio was currently too occupied with a new male lover whom they had managed to help him cross paths with. "He is obsessed in his affections," Zaeed told her with a grin. He would, as always, keep her informed about what was happening in Antiva.
"Kai, about Zevran" Alistair's voice sounded in her ear, "I am sorry, my love, I didn't think he would get so upset."
Kai huffed into her own head, "He wasn't upset about the sex, he was upset that I didn't trust him enough to tell him about you."
"What were you supposed to do, I mean, how do you tell someone that kind of thing anyways? 'Oh, by the way, I'm hearing my dead lover's voice in my head, he wants me to sleep with you, is that okay?' Meh" Alistair's tone faded into a grumble.
Despite the shame curdling in her belly which she felt every time she thought about her last conversation with Zev-and she had been thinking of it a lot-she laughed at Alistair's joke, though she sobered immediately. "I should have told them all the same day I started hearing you, even though I didn't know if I was just crazy." Kai felt tears starting, "And I definitely should have told them all after I came back from the Fade." Kai sighed and swallowed the tears back, "It doesn't matter now. I may have lost Zev, and who knows what the Sten, Shale, or Oghren will think when I tell them." Ice settled in her belly along with the shame. "It doesn't matter how I tell them, just that I do it."
"I am so sorry, my love." Alistair's tone was comforting, "Just be safe tonight."
"I will do my best, beloved, as always. Although my best seems to just wreak havoc in some way or another." Kai gave a mental grimace. Before Alistair could offer a comment, the boat she was in bumped gently against the side near the prow of the ship, "Time for me to go to work."
One of the Scath armed a crossbow with a small metal grappling hook, the hook was made of black dwarven steel, like Alistair's Dead Legion Armor, and so it wouldn't shine in any ambient light. All the Scath's weapons were made with it. Attached to the grappling hook was a black rope with knots so they could climb up the side of the ship. The idea was the Scath would go first and incapacitate the crew. Kai wanted them tied up and put on the boats, blindfolded and gagged. She intended to keep the civilian casualties to a minimum. They would drop the crew off on land and scuttle the ship after dealing with the mercenaries, making it disappear. The more confused she could keep Anora, the better.
Kai watched as Erys climbed the rope ladder quiet as a shadow, sticking her head over the side of the ship to see where the crew was. She made hand signals in a form of sign language developed by Vimaro's house, which they were now all using. She then disappeared over the edge. It was a moment before they saw her again making more hand gestures. They watched as a man's tied, blindfolded and gagged form was lowered into the boat by a rope, one of the crew, then. Erys also lowered a rope ladder stored on board the ship on the other side to the boat holding Sten, Ogrhren and the mages. They couldn't very well climb a thin rope in heavy plate.
Kai grabbed the rope Erys used and climbed hand over hand putting her toes on the knots in the rope, then made her way to the edge of the prow, her fingers hitting wood gritty with salt from the sea. Kai took a quick look around before leaning over to help Morrigan up. They went to join Erys in the shadows of some crates tied down with rope netting over them. Naseel and Lelyth joined her, along with other Scath from a second boat next to theirs on the port side of the ship. Only handful of Scath would stay behind, collecting crew members and manning the boats down below.
Kai watched Sten, Oghren, the mages, and the rest of her Scath climb over the starboard side and hunker down behind more barrels and crates. The Scath practically disappeared in the shadows. Kai and her group had decided to hit the ship at supper time when most of the crew and the mercs, they hoped, would be busy eating, not armored and armed to the gills. Added to that, some of the Scath and a certain pretty redheaded bard had managed to convince the ship's captain, when he'd shown up on land to order supplies, that an evening of entertainment from minstrels would make his tired crew much more amenable after a long hard sail against storm-tossed Spring seas. Leliana and her fellow "musicians" would be entertaining them all and keeping them distracted. The downside to their plan was the possibility of being seen so early in the evening with the night traffic in the harbor.
As with Vimaro's hideout, her Scath rogues went ahead of her; it seemed to be an unspoken rule now, no doubt Eamon's doing. They would quietly steal back and motion them all forward. Kai saw crew members knocked out so far. Scath coming behind her would be the cleanup crew, ensuring those still breathing bodies made it onto the small boats belonging to 'Wave's Promise' and onto dry land.
Kai and her group continued down the stairway to the next level, which would have the dining hall and kitchen and the rooms for the crew and those who booked passage. 'Waves Promise' was exclusively a transport ship for people crossing the Waking Sea from Orlais, The Free Marches and Nevarra. So, the main body of the ship was a place for travelers to eat and sleep, containing only one small cargo hold for baggage and some small amounts of goods.
They ran across their first mercenary coming out of the privy on the ship, he was buttoning his trousers and looked up with wide eyes before a dagger stuck in his chest and blood bubbled out of his mouth. His body got stuffed into a closet with mops and buckets.
As they got closer to the dining hall, Kai heard Leliana's beautiful voice leading the mercs and the crew in a bawdy song called "The Clean Song." Kai could hear multiple male voices as Leliana lead them in the lyrics, "There was a young sailor who looked through the glass, and spied a fair mermaid with scales on her...island!" Leli's voice sang, and the sailors laughed and catcalled. "Where seagulls fly over their nests, she combed the long hair that hung over her...shoulders!" And so the music strummed and the men all sounded, if not drunk, at least relaxed and having a good time. Kai made the signal for them to charge.
Kai and her group burst into a dining room full of surprised faces. The mercenaries were shocked at first but, as she suspected, being trained soldiers the element of surprise didn't last long. The crew of the ship, including the cook and a little wire-haired mutt belonging to the cook, were all incapacitated and kept out of the way well enough. But the mercs, even with the added surprise of the minstrels turned assassins, did not give more than a momentary pause. These fighters were disciplined and well trained. It brought home to Kai the importance of making sure they didn't reach Ferelden soil, as much as a part of her mind hated killing other human beings, dwarves, and even a few elves.
Kai found herself fighting a big brute of a man, hairy like a bear and built like the same animal. He had a generously fat belly, but it was muscled underneath as she found out when she tried some of the skills from her Qun arts. The man apparently slept, bathed and ate with his weapons as well because he, unlike his fellow mercs, he kept his two axes with him. They were surprisingly small for such a big man, they looked almost like daggers in his big meaty fists, but he wielded them with the grace of a dancer. He knew what he was doing with them, and he'd gotten in a few shallow cuts with his blades. They were so sharp she didn't feel them slice her skin. He was very good, and he was twice her size and three times her strength. If she didn't take care of him soon, he would fell her with a thousand cuts, the bleeding weakening her and slowing her reflexes.
He got in one good swipe at her abdomen and her reflexes had her tumbling backwards to avoid it, but not fast enough to avoid it completely. The man was good. Kai came back to her feet and waited until he made a move to swipe at her torso. She bent forward, rolled under the swipe between the man's legs, slashing with her dagger into his groin, severing an artery. Hot blood hit her with a fine spray before it started pouring down the man's tree trunk leg. She came up and spun around to the man's back and stuck both her daggers in, leaning on the dining room table and kicking him forward with all the strength in her legs, while shouting for Sten. The giant Qunari turned and with Asala took the man's head off in a double-handed stroke, causing it to spin across the dining hall table before landing in a plate.
The other mercs were not as difficult as that one, thank the Maker. Soon the room was quiet after what seemed like hours of mayhem, which in truth was really only a matter of minutes. Kai did a head count of her friends and her Scath. All were standing. All sported various injuries, which Fiona and Wynne were looking at. More serious wounds would be taken care of here, then the rest back at the hideout. Kai tried to look at the wound in her abdomen. She only felt a trickle of blood, and the split in the leather was thin. She figured it wasn't that bad.
Once healed, the Scath who had come in behind the main group took the crew back up deck. Others went from room to room and into the cargo hold gathering anything that might be useful. Kai and the others went back up into the night air on the upper deck to wait.
"Scathach, we found something that might interest you!" Lelyth and Naseel came forward carrying a heavy chest between them, and Erys followed with documents. "We found five of these in the cargo hold." Lelyth lifted the lid to reveal a chest full of coins – gold, silver and copper, mostly gold and silver. The documents Erys held were letters and instructions from Anora, with her seal, for the hiring of the mercenaries and plans for their employment in implementing martial law. The letters were the ravings of a paranoid and deluded mind. Kai shook her head. Where was she getting this kind of money? Kai needed to find out, definitely. She nodded and indicated that they were to take all that they could, the chests especially. Kai and the rest all climbed back down into the boats and rowed out into the harbor some distance to wait. When they saw the rest of the boats rowing out to meet them, Kai knew her Scath had scuttled the ship. She watched until 'Wave's Promise' sank before she had her Scath row her back to shore.
They all made their way back to the hideout. Her Scath would see to the safety of the crew. Luckily, she would only have two on her conscience. They would also hide away the treasure they found in one of the warehouses they were using.
Kai wanted nothing more than a long hot bath, some poultices and to get back to the twins for physical and emotional reasons both. She missed them so when she was away from them. The thought of them had her smiling as she asked Leliana to help her unbuckle herself from her armor. Leliana helped her get her cuirass off, sliding it over her head. As Kai raised her arms to help, she felt a hot wetness spreading rapidly down her leg. When she looked down, she saw that the cut on her abdomen she thought wasn't so bad was causing the white cotton shirt she wore to bloom a crimson that began to spread rapidly and drip from the hem. Kai clapped a hand to the cut, feeling hot blood flowing between her fingers. "Um, Leliana, I think you better call Wynne or Fiona or both. And quickly" Kai's vision started to go gray around the edges as she sank towards the floor.