Zevran led them nearly a kilometer south of camp for the hunt. It was true enough that any tasty game would have been spooked by the commotion of the wolf fight, but half that distance would have been sufficient.
Kalya kept her eyes trained on the elf, waiting for some cue that this was more than a hunt. His pleading for their lives and promises to serve the group had sounded genuine enough, but she wanted to be prepared for anything. Within reason. After reuniting with Alistair, she wasn't about to leave his side, but she also didn't fancy being used as collateral damage if she could help it. With no weapons, no range of motion, there was a limit to how much a mage could cure when another attack came. Her ears pricked, ready for any command.
What she wasn't expecting was Leliana sidling up a little too close behind them when they reached a thick cluster of vegetation.
"Were we followed?" Her hushed voice suddenly made Kalya feel very unsafe.
Zev must have caught the same whiff of suspicion. He masked it with an amused expression and raised eyebrow, but Kalya saw his biceps tense, for all the good they'd do him tied behind his back.
"There's no one within earshot, if that's what you mean," he said. A hint of menace to match menace.
"Good."
Behind her, Kalya recognized the dull shink of a knife being removed from its leather sheath. She spun to her left, but Leliana's grip caught her forearm. With a quick slash, Kalya's arms snapped apart. The length of rope fell to the forest floor.
Zevran allowed the bard behind him, and in moments, he too was freed.
Procuring a second knife from an opposite sheath on her hip, Leliana tossed them in the air, caught them by the blades, and extended the handles to the two elves.
"Is this a trick?" Kalya leaned away from the offering, but Zevran grasped his in an instant.
"No trick. It's getting dark, and it'll be faster and quieter if we split up."
A mischievous smile split Zevran's face. A spark of trouble Kalya hadn't seen in months lit his features. "But your dear leader…"
"Doesn't have to know, if you will oblige me tying you back up when we're finished. I like to discern trust on my own terms."
Zevran nodded his head to the east, deeper into the brush. "We should fan out this way. These bushes are usually full of berries. Something is living nearby."
The weight of the knife in her hand enveloped Kalya like a barrier of protection. Surprising how vulnerable one could feel surrounded by a group of armed warriors. Well, maybe not surprising when most of them hated you. She caught herself slashing the air, running through some defensive tactics, before a raised hand up ahead stilled her blade.
Zev had located a small thicket providing shelter for… something. By the pattern of trampling around it, Kalya guessed it was a family of wild boar. He approached soundlessly, gave the ready signal, then rustled the brush. With a leap, he descended on the first to flee. Kalya caught a larger sow running in the opposite direction, and Leliana sunk bolt after bolt into the three younger boar scrabbling wild and scared.
When all were felled, Leliana shrugged out of her pack and hunched to the ground to cut several lengths of rope. The elves slit the throats of each pig and strung them up by their hind legs over a tree branch, bleeding them out so they would be lighter for the trek back.
A quarter hour later, the last drips of blood hit the forest floor. Zevran tested balancing the larger boar over his shoulders while holding his arms behind his back. It looked believable enough that the elves would have simply been used as trackers and then workhorses. Leliana rose to her feet and got to work connecting three medium-sized piglets on one rope.
As the bard worked, Kalya caught Zev eyeing Leliana's satchel, some thirty steps away from her turned back. He quickly blinked away, but she knew his feigned aloofness all too well. She followed his gaze. He wasn't giving her a signal; he was planning something of his own. The glint of Leliana's third knife shone next to her backpack on the forest floor. He shook his head almost imperceptibly with a warning smirk.
"Do you need more rope?" she asked, heading for Leliana's pack.
The woman didn't lift her head from looping a complex knot. "Yes, about another meter. Thanks."
Kalya bent down and slipped the knife into her boot in one smooth motion.
When they finished tying up the pigs, Leliana brushed her hands off and gathered the Crows around her pack.
"I'm sorry to have to do this again, but hunt with me tomorrow, and you'll have your freedom again, for a short while." She held her hands out for the knives, and both elves dutifully returned them, then lifted the two larger boars over their shoulders.
Flipping Kalya around first, she wound another length of rope around her wrists, just as tightly as Sten had done.
"I will work on Elissa. I doubt she can keep you bound forever, but ideally you'll be free before you're chewed to death by wolves."
Leliana could only carry two of the smaller pigs around her own shoulders. She strung the remaining pig on a long rope and handed an end to each of the elves. Even uncomfortably behind their backs, their bound hands held the rope and stretched it taut between them.
As they walked back to camp, several paces behind Leliana, Zevran again caught Kalya's eye, but this time a smile spread across his face.
"That was sneaky and dangerous," he said quietly, maneuvering around a tree root. "My two favorite things in a woman."
"I didn't take it for us," Kalya hissed. "I took it so you wouldn't slit your wrists the first chance you got."
He blew out a sigh. Leliana trudged farther ahead.
"So if we're attacked again, you'll leave it in your boot? Seems a shame."
She ignored him. The sky's vibrant purples and greys began to give way to the approaching darkness, with just a few dim stars trying to burst through the night sky. Kalya was eager to rest her bones in silence before another long day of trying to stay alive.
"Would you believe me if I told you I no longer wanted to kill myself?"
"No." She ducked under a low branch. Zevran kept trying to meet her eyes.
"I had a change of heart when you stilled that woman's blade."
She wanted to zoom ahead, force him to uncomfortably keep up with her, to approach camp sooner, but exhaustion was setting in. With a sigh, she asked, "And will you want to kill yourself tomorrow, or do I have to wait and see?"
Zevran shifted under the weight of his sow.
"Kalya, before all this, I never –"
"No." Kalya stopped and glared at him. "All you've done is lie to me. I'm through listening to your half-truths. And I obviously can't even see warning signs when they're right in front of my face, so all I can do is… this." She nodded down to her boot.
He cocked his head to the side with the hint of a smile. "Fight me while pretending not to care?"
"Protect you."
"Protect me?" His mouth stretched into an amused smile.
Kalya adjusted the pig on her back and started back on the path, now several minutes behind the bard.
"From yourself."
The lightness ghosted slowly away from his face, but never completely faded. They walked the rest of the way to camp in silence.
:::
Alistair's eyes went wide when he saw the haul they returned with, and the goofy smile that cracked his pained face filled Kalya's heart with welcome warmth. She knew he was counting on their success at the hunt, as she was, to prove trustworthiness to Elissa. Every little bit helped. That, or his wide grin was at the prospect of all the food. She would take either.
The warriors unloaded the pigs from the prisoners' backs, and Leliana began preparing the food alone, humming as she went.
The two elves were left bound and shuffling in nervous energy in the center of a ring of tents. Elissa hovered nearby, supervising Sten and Oghren as they drove stakes into the ground at opposite ends of the camp. Kalya presumed those were to be the prisoners' sleeping arrangements for the immediate future. Well, she'd be happy to be away from Zevran.
Once the stakes were sufficiently secured, everyone retired to their tents to change into lighter armor for the evening. Leliana's back was turned, still humming away as she worked on the food. The elves exchanged a look. It was strange to be left alone for even a moment. Zevran shrugged and leaned back against a tree. Kalya bent into a crouch, ready for the day's trudging to wick from her weary muscles. What she wouldn't give for a bath, even in a cold nearby stream.
A few minutes later, Elissa emerged from her tent and lowered slowly onto a stump, eyes closed in what might have been pain. Now without her heavy pauldrons, the Warden began rubbing a sore shoulder. Zevran was at her side in an instant.
"The day has tired you," he said, a twinkle of daring sparking his features. "Would you like one of my massages?"
Elissa snorted. "Can you do it with your hands behind your back?"
"I can do a lot tied up in rope."
Kalya's eyes nearly rolled out of her head, but Elissa stilled, disarmed for a moment, before rising to her feet. After a beat, she replied, "Just keep it in your pants until I figure out what to do with the two of you."
"So, perhaps later then?"
She walked towards the fire shaking her head, but it was obvious the elf had amused her.
When Oghren and Sten re-emerged, Elissa sent them to tie the elves to their posts for the night. At least they were allowed to sit down. Kalya had never slept sitting up, but exhausted as she was, she doubted she'd have a problem. The dwarf tied the knot with one last jerk, somehow tighter than she'd been confined all day. She shot him a glare as he ambled back to the center of camp and sat amongst the group to eat.
When dinner was finished, Leliana brought both elves thin strips of meat and fed it to them, followed by a slow pull from a canteen of water. It was humiliating, but Kalya was famished. She couldn't meet the woman's eyes, nodding curtly when she'd had her fill. At his turn, Zevran ate unabashedly and thanked the woman for her kindness.
Extra servings of meat were left roasting over the dying fire, drying out to be used for breakfast and perhaps lunch as they marched the next day. The smell set Kalya's stomach growling for more, but she forced herself to be grateful for what she had been given.
Everyone went their separate ways for their nightly ritual – some to the nearby stream, others relaxing near the cooling fire. Alistair retired to his tent early, and with him went Kalya's hopes of pouring her heart out while the others went about their business. Tomorrow, then.
Leliana and Morrigan emerged from their tents just as everyone was settling down. First watch was theirs.
The camp was still at last. The dim stars she'd seen earlier were now burning their brightest, lighting up the camp in the dying firelight. Zevran slumped over sideways against his post, deep in sleep already. Soft snoring in a quiet cacophony drifted out of the cluster of tents and Kalya quickly found sleep herself.
:::
"My dagger!"
Kalya awoke with a harsh kick to her leg, registering her surroundings only seconds after Leliana's shrieks. The qunari loomed over her. Heart racing, her gaze shot to Zevran who was being jerked to standing by the dwarf. Her mind struggled to cut through the fog of sleep.
The tents had already been collapsed, and Leliana was tearing through her backpack frantically. All eyes were on the two elves.
"Who has my dagger?!" Leliana shouted. "I had three when I left for the hunt."
Kalya's heart pounded almost painfully behind her rib cage. She had to force herself to not look to Zevran for guidance. Sten grabbed her by the neck and tried to lift her to his level while still tied tight to the post. She yelped in pain.
"I have it," she choked. "I have the knife. It's in my boot! Let me go!"
Elissa was closest, and she marched over and shoved her hand into Kalya's boot, drawing the knife out.
She pointed the glinting blade towards Kalya's face as Sten retained his grip. "How did you get this?"
Kalya gulped hard, speaking before she could think. "I – Last night, before dinner… Everyone was in their tents when I ran for her satchel –" Her words were cut off by Sten tightening his fist.
Leliana rushed to Elissa's side, face flushed. She motioned for the Warden to join her just out of Kalya's earshot and whispered something urgently. Sten squeezed tighter, crushing tendons,and cutting off her airflow almost completely.
"We don't know that!" Elissa hissed.
Something in Leliana's quiet words seemed to calm her slightly. Darkness crept slowly around the edges of Kalya's vision as she wheezed. After a moment, Elissa turned and started back toward Kalya, head shaking with disappointment.
"I won't kill you now, but who knows where the day will take us?" She turned to Sten towering above them both. "Tie her tighter. The other one, too."
The qunari grunted and obliged, letting go of Kalya's throat. Air rushed into her starving lungs, and she choked out a gasp. As she swayed dizzy in front of him, Sten tied her legs together with barely enough room for a full step. Then, yanking her backwards, he looped the rope around her confined hands. Its tautness had her slightly bent backwards. Her heart ached as she watched him do the same to Zevran, but he just smirked at his captors. His pain was her fault.
When camp was packed, Elissa shoved the two elves to the front of the group for the day's travels. A dusty path led out of the forest towards more barren terrain.
Kalya kept tripping in her tight bindings, and every half hour or so, she fell behind the backbreaking pace. Sten and Oghren stayed directly behind, so whenever they passed her, one would whip around and growl a warning to keep up.
The road north was a precarious rocky path. Zevran stayed close by, digging his hip into hers whenever her step stuttered. She said nothing, ashamed and angry with herself.
By the time they broke for lunch, Kalya's wrists were rubbed raw and bloody. The extra rope left even less room in the already tight bindings, and the hump of a knot cut painfully into her immobile palms.
Sten bound the two elves together and sat them on the ground closest to him as the group ate a few thin pheasants Leliana had caught with her arrows. From their light chatter, Kalya learned they were nearly a day away from their destination, a town called Redcliffe that Alistair seemed very eager to get to.
She finally caught his eye from over the edge of the table and flashed him a shy smile, but he averted his eyes so quickly, she wondered if he had met her gaze at all.
Shame burned into her cheeks. In Denerim, she'd been scolded by human masters in the mansions where she worked, shunned by her own peers in the Crows, and probably disgraced far worse in the fuzzy alcohol-soaked time spent on her own. Still, she'd never felt more humiliated than she did being held prisoner by the one person who had kept up her spirits, whose memory urged her to fight on. This wasn't the "by his side" she'd prayed for in the Chantry.
Her entire body felt too heavy. She arched her back against Zevran wordlessly, sore from being pulled back at such an odd angle.
"Fight through the pain," Zevran said, too low for the qunari to hear. "Let it fuel your resolve."
"I know," she answered.
"This isn't forever."