As expected, the battle was enjoined the evening after King Cailan's solemn pyre. It was really more like a remembrance. No speeches. Few tears. The Archdemon had made a tactical error. Instead of demoralizing the army … as his death on the battlefield might have done … it bolstered their resolve to defeat the monster who would dare murder their king, outright, in cold blood.
Or, at least that's what Duncan hoped. He had wanted to speak with Loghain and Kezel about it, but there just wasn't any time left for those kinds of discussions.
The official funeral would be in Denerim at a later date. The ashes were collected and were already on their way to Denerim with the last of the civilians. A messenger left the evening before to deliver a message to the Queen from her father. Loghain didn't have much time to think about the wording to such a tragic missive, but he penned one, nonetheless.
Duncan looked around the group at the bottom of the chasm. They were the bait … the best wardens and soldiers he had ever fought with. He smiled at Cal. The difference between this dwarf First Warden and the prior one was monumental. Asrale was a fool and dilettante, the accidental third son in an Orlesian noble family. Duncan didn't put a lot of stock into Maker intervention; however, the entire order was surprised that Asrale appointed Cal to succeed him before he left for his Calling. Curious that Asrale's Calling happened a good five years sooner than expected, as well.
Men and women stood beside Duncan in the chasm. In addition to Arlaine Cousland, who was with Gilmore's flank, there were many women in the king's army who stayed even after the warnings of what could happen to them. Duncan had overheard more than one pact among the soldiers: if a woman was captured, her friends agreed to kill her if they couldn't free her.
The scouts and shapeshifters kept everyone apprised of the movement of the darkspawn. Daylen, Garrett and Theron stood next to Duncan. His falcon wardens had their plan. Duncan feared it was suicide, and smacked of desperation, but these were desperate times and the Archdemon had to be brought down far enough for the ballistae to do their work to keep it down. Also next to him was one of his oldest friends, Fiona. She wasn't tainted any longer and had been released from the order, but she insisted that she wasn't going to slink away when she was needed. She was quite likely the most powerful mage on the field. Duncan had tried to convince her to stand with Alistair in Loghain's flank, but she knew the best place for her was at the vanguard. Her elemental aura was devastating. She would be able to keep many of the darkspawn away from the others in the chasm.
"Enemy sighted!" came the call from the lookout atop the cliffs of the chasm. As if to punctuate the dire situation, thunder rumbled in the distance. A storm was coming. It sounded like the Maker was planning to wash away all the devastation when this was done … one way or the other. Duncan hoped the rain waited until the Archdemon was down.
The darkspawn horde advanced, three times the size of the Ferelden defense stationed in the chasm. In total, the forces were fairly evenly matched. Duncan hoped the Archdemon remained unaware of the flanks waiting to close the noose around the horde. Until now, they had tried to mask their numbers in camp, but who could know what a flying dragon could see.
Fortunately, the chasm acted to funnel the horde into shorter ranks, easier targets for the area of the magic available. The speeches were over. The plans were done and set in place, not to be amended again except on the fly as the events developed. Duncan could feel the fear start to mount among the soldiers who were silent, awaiting release to take as many darkspawn down that they could before they themselves fell.
The first ranks of darkspawn broke through the tree line, haughty and threatening, thinking themselves in a superior position … or, that was what Duncan hoped they thought.
"Theron, Garrett, Daylen … throw what you can at them at General Kezel's command." Duncan gave his wardens a smile.
From behind Duncan, came a familiar voice. As Duncan had predicted, Uldred and a few of the Circle mages made their way to join the vanguard. Uldred grinned, an unusual look for someone about to stand at the front of an endless stream of darkspawn. "And, after our first volley of earthquakes, fire and ice, the wardens can go aloft as planned." He squeezed the shoulder of Theron. "Save your energy for your aerial offensive."
Theron nodded while Garrett and Daylen looked to Duncan to confirm. Neither Fiona nor any of his warden mages trusted Uldred. Jowan had told them Uldred was a practicing blood mage. But the Senior Enchanter made a good point. "Thank you for joining us here, Uldred. That is a good idea."
Theron, Daylen, Garrett, Fiona, Uldred and the other Circle mages prepared to unleash their elemental attack at the order of General Kezel, who had been working with them to learn their range. The general raised his arm and shouted, "Earthquake! Make ready catapults and archers!" The catapults, interspersed among the ballistae along the top of the cliffs of the chasm, were uncovered while ten long rows of expert archers nocked arrows and pulled tension on their bowstrings.
Theron's power visibly swirled around him, to the continued astonishment of the trained Circle mages and their Templar watchdogs. His power came from nature and it was devastating. The entire front darkspawn ranks, ten or so deep, fell to the ground. Kezel then called for three volleys of arrows followed by a catapult volley of deathroot poison bombs. Once many of the front darkspawn lay dead and the next ranks of darkspawn moved up into range, he yelled, "Magic storms!"
Duncan knew that the magic was terrifying to many of the soldiers, indoctrinated from birth by the Chantry to mistrust magic, but it was also encouraging to have on our side. Fiona stood at the center of the mages, her aura swirling around them. Theron, Garrett and Daylen nodded solemnly, shapeshifted into their falcons and took off while Uldred and the others kept the storms going. The army needed to know where the Archdemon was and the two flanking armies needed to know when to advance to completely encircle the darkspawn. So much rested on the judgement of three of the Grey Wardens newest mages. But, Duncan trusted them to make the right decisions.
The Templars showed up then. They were angry that Uldred had broken away, but didn't dare try to remove him and the others. However, in hindsight, Duncan should have dismissed Uldred.
They all knew the mages could only do so much before their reserves would be exhausted, but things were looking good. The flanking armies should soon be able to move into position behind the advancing darkspawn and close the circle. Thanks to Uldred and the others, Duncan estimated that over a third of the darkspawn horde would fall to magic and ranged attacks.
Before everything went to the Void.
Kezel called the soldiers to ready as Uldred shouted in a voice blended with another voice that was not his own, "No need! Magic will end this battle!" He turned and took out the Templars with a blast of lightning stronger than Duncan had ever witnessed. The sparks flew around the Templars and bounced between them. They fell to the ground as the worst thing possible happened in front of everyone's eyes. The terror was plain on Uldred's face as his body gave over to a demon and he grew into a hideous demon of pride. "This world is mine! All of you will bow to me or die!"
Fortunately, Duncan, Gavin and Alidain had been training with Alistair and were able to interrupt and slow the transformation of the abomination, but not stop it. It gave the Templars time to come around. The good news was that the abomination killed darkspawn and non-darkspawn alike. The bad news was that the break in mass damage the Fereldens were exacting on the darkspawn gave them the opportunity they needed to swarm over those in the chasm.
Duncan no longer knew what was happening, nor did anyone else. "Wardens! Concentrate on the darkspawn!" He hated to leave the disposition of the abomination to the soldiers and remaining Templars, but the wardens had their priority. Kezel agreed, apparently, as he ordered a certain squadron to battle the abomination while the majority of the soldiers joined the wardens in taking on the darkspawn. That was the last order the general was able to give as the sounds of battle took over.
Duncan had to count on his falcon wardens to determine when was the best time for the flanks to move in. All he could do was keep his concentration on where the enemy was and how to avoid becoming one of the honored dead … prematurely.
Loghain hated waiting, even though the flanking surprise was the right thing to do. His battalion, along with the Dalish warriors and the Dalish mage, Merrill, was unorganized, by plan. They huddled under the trees as much as they could to avoid being seen from above. Good thing, too. The blasted Archdemon was up there, flying around and watching … but still not participating, not dropping near enough for the warden shapeshifters to engage it and drop it even lower.
Alistair walked up to Loghain and nodded toward a tree a few feet away. Loghain looked around. It seemed the boy wanted a private conversation. Since it seemed they had a bit of time, Loghain made a hand motion for his guard to stay back and walked over to the tree. "I admit I was a bit surprised when you decided to join our flank, Alistair. I thought you would be more likely to join with Cousland's group."
"You mean, you were surprised when I pulled the king-thing and insisted on joining your flank." Alistair smiled. "I figured Kezel would be more likely not to knock me out and haul me away to Denerim if I were with you."
"Smart move to avoid Kezel. Dumb move to serve Ferelden. Anora and her child are going to need you alive and whole." Loghain tried to hide his irritation at Duncan's insistence that Alistair was a warden first and king second.
The boy sighed and leaned against the tall evergreen tree. "Anora will do better training the future ruler if I don't survive, Loghain, and you know it. I have no idea how to be a king. Cailan was trained from the time he could walk."
Loghain's mood softened. "You think Maric had any idea how to be a king, Alistair?"
"By the time the rebellion was over, he did … and he had you by his side the whole way to pick up the pieces when he messed up." Alistair sighed.
"I'm standing right here … Your Majesty." Loghain cocked an eyebrow. "Do I really have to take a knee to swear to you that I'll clean up your messes as well?"
Alistair turned and gave Loghain a grateful smile. "No knee taking … that's a royal command. Maker, I'm going to make that a royal command for the entire kingdom if I survive this."
Loghain grabbed Alistair's shoulder. "I can't promise that either of us will survive this, Alistair, but, know this … you have come a very long way in a short time. I credit your length of time with Duncan for this. If he hadn't gone to Cailan and told him of your existence in the Chantry, things would not have happened as quickly as they did. You would have had mere days and weeks with Duncan, rather than over the year you did have. If I had to swear anything, it would be that you are very much more prepared to handle 'the king-thing' than Maric ever was."
"You mean that?" Alistair's look of surprise made Loghain chuckle.
"Yes, Your Majesty, I mean that." Loghain sighed. "It's too late to send you off now. We'd need to pull a guard detail to go with you. We need every man and woman we have to win this." He lowered the hand on his best friend's son's shoulder. "Survive this. Ferelden, her current Queen and her child … your niece or nephew, the future ruler … need you."
"I'll do my best, Loghain." Alistair gave Loghain a sincere smile. "Thank you … for everything."
Loghain didn't get to respond to that as Warden Garrett flew in and reformed into himself. "Uldred turned abomination, Your Grace. The chasm is in chaos, the soldiers there are overrun."
"Maker's Breath," Alistair mumbled as he ran his hand through his hair.
Then, Garrett smiled. "That's the bad news. The good news is that the mages took out a good third of the horde before the abomination turned up. The time is now to close the back gate. And, because of the appearance of the demon, the Archdemon has lowered itself to better monitor the battle below. Theron is about to make his move and I need to go up to join him. Keep a bit of an eye up, lest the Archdemon land on top of you all."
Loghain turned to Ser Cauthrien. "Sound the … rally! Prepare to charge! We march for the chasm! Eyes up when you can for the Archdemon to fall!"
Alistair turned to Garrett. "Maker protect you and the others up there."
"Maker protect us all," Loghain responded as he pulled his sword to lead the gathering flank.
Arlaine paced in front of the western flank, Leale pacing at her side. She stopped to skritch Leale's ears when she heard both Roddy Gilmore and Varric chuckle.
"Keep it up, my lady, and we'll have a second chasm to jump before we can move to flank." Roddy grinned. He always got by with joking with her. It was the dimples.
Curiously, Alistair didn't have dimples and yet, she found she was … ah, to the Void with denying it, she told herself … she was falling in love with him. That's why it was so painful when he insisted on joining with Loghain rather than stand with her … or better, get his royal ass back to Denerim. "After this is over, we'll need to speak about familiarity, Ser Gilmore." She added a wink to that, even though he would know she was joking with him.
"His Majesty will be fine with Teryn Loghain, Princess." Varric stretched his back. The tension of waiting was hard on everyone.
"I know," Arlaine admitted. The sounds and sensations of the battle below … the slight shudder of the ground, the crackling of the lightning storms, the roar of the fire infernos … were frightening and exhilarating at the same time.
"Maker, I hate this waiting around." Now, it was Gilmore's turn to show his impatience.
"You hate it?" Varric looked cross … as much as he could ever look cross. "I'm the storyteller here and I'm missing the magic devastation to end all magic devastation!"
That made Arlaine laugh. "Right … like actually witnessing it would change the fabrication you come up with anyway."
Varric slammed his hand on his chest. "Madam! You wound me!"
A nearby group of dwarf warriors started to laugh and Varric turned to them. "Traitors! The lot of you!" Which made them laugh harder.
These dwarves were not the best warriors of Orzammar, but they had heart … and incredible stamina. Duncan was very disappointed with Bhelen at first, but even the Warden-Commander warmed up to the dwarves Bhelen sent, after a time. Since they arrived about a month ago, Kezel had his seasoned trainers working with the dwarves. They were slow and ended up on their asses more often than not, but they never gave up.
As Arlaine came to understand it, the dwarves were organized by castes … and the warriors Bhelen sent were casteless, each having tattoos on their faces to mark them as such. However, they were determined to prove themselves worthy of Bhelen's trust and Arlaine had no problems standing with them now.
The Ash Warriors who arrived to aid in the battle watched the training sessions and took a few of the dwarves under their wing to train their innate berserker abilities. Those dwarves were fierce and deadly. The Ash Warrior leader told Arlaine that she could possibly learn the ways of the berserker, but it would take longer than they had time for.
The minutes continued to tick by and thoughts about Howe's journal that they'd found with the spy's things started to creep into her mind … even though she knew she should put it out of her head until after the battle. Rendon Howe was deranged. Instead of executing him as the leader of Vigil's Keep, Arlaine wondered why the darkspawn didn't bow to him as a compatriot in evil. How anyone could have been so obsessed with becoming Teryn of Highever was beyond her ability to understand. How she and her family had missed it frightened her a bit. What else had they missed over the years? Amazing that Nathaniel, Delilah and even Thomas turned out so well. The fact that the journal was found in the possession of a dead Tevinter spy offered one possibility: Rendon was under some kind of blood magic control. Loghain told her about the Tevinter blood mage Caladrius and that they had discovered vials of blood in Caladrius' base. None of the labels vials had Rendon's name on it, but it could have been in the possession of this spy at some point. They would never know now.
Lost in her reverie, she was startled when a falcon swooped in and reformed into Warden Daylen. He reported that one of the Circle mages had succumbed to a demon. They were fighting darkspawn and an abomination in the chasm. "The Archdemon has made a couple of low-flying passes and Theron is getting ready to make his move as soon as the tainted dragon is over the chasm and low enough to guide into the ballistae hooks." Daylen took a deep breath. "The time is now to close the gate, Ser Gilmore."
Roddy looked to Arlaine, but all she did was nod. He turned to his troops, dispersed among the trees. "Pass the word. Form up quickly! We head to close the circle!"
In the chaos and tension of the moment, Arlaine missed Daylen turning into a falcon and flying off. What she and the others were going to do was going to be difficult. What the three warden mages were going to do was nothing less than heroic.
Daylen didn't wait around for anyone to give him leave. He quickly shifted into his falcon and flew up to rendezvous with Theron's and Garrett's falcons. They had a plan and they had an order. Theron first, then Garrett would try next and lastly Daylen. For the past two weeks they'd been practicing landing on a flying target. Morrigan shifted into a large eagle and the falcons would attempt to land on her back, shift back into human form and begin casting. The dwarf smiths came up with a harness with hooked straps that they could anchor themselves with … somewhat … and Theron performed Dalish magic that would allow the harness to shift as their clothes did.
Theron started his run as soon as Daylen and Garrett returned. They flew to either side of Theron. All the practice with Morrigan didn't prepare them for the great wind turbulence the ancient dragon caused with one flap of its wings. Theron was almost taken out with that first attempt, but he circled up and they regrouped. They would have to approach from the front. The Archdemon was big, but it wasn't trying to outfly them … yet. It was slowly circling the battlefield.
Daylen hazarded a look below and saw the pride demon taking out soldiers, wardens and darkspawn alike. It had a wicked lightning storm. That's when Daylen knew Uldred was truly gone. Uldred preferred fire infernos. Thank the Maker the pride demon wasn't unleashing one of those.
The falcons circled around again. This time Theron had to gauge how fast the dragon was moving and its direction and adjust his descent to approach from above and in front. It was going to be much trickier to hit the back of the dragon, anchor the harness and then start to cast his weakening spells while facing the dragon's tail instead of the head. An ironic quirk of fate was that the pride demon and its killing spree below was attracting all of the Archdemon's attention for the moment.
Once Theron was anchored, Daylen and Garrett had to repeat the approach and anchor themselves behind … no, in front of Theron. Of course, that would be even trickier since the Archdemon would be angry it already had a rider who was interfering with its overall plan of complete domination. Those few moments of thought almost put Daylen out of the plan. Theron had landed and shifted into his Dalish form, facing the back of the dragon. The Archdemon immediately knew something was on its back and dove for the ground. Garrett was closer than Daylen. He still had a chance to land and he took it. Daylen had to wait for the outcome as the dragon banked away and Daylen lost sight of his fellow wardens for the moment.
Theron somehow … someway … managed to hook his harness straps under some scales on the upper back of the dragon. Daylen saw him grab onto the scaly ridge and the greenish glow told him that Theron was draining the dragon's life force and stamina, powerful and dangerous magic never taught by the Circle. Daylen was only beginning to learn the spells of the Dalish when the Archdemon decided that planning and learning time was over.
Daylen's falcon had to climb and readjust to descend. He could see the dragon continue to descend just as they planned. He circled around and tried to adjust his own descent so that he could land behind Garrett … but Garrett wasn't on the dragon's back. Daylen scanned the skies for Garrett's falcon, but he wasn't aloft either.
The likely scenario of his newly-found cousin's demise began to creep into Daylen's thoughts, interfering with his timing. The Archdemon circled under him and past. Daylen had missed his chance to land, but he did see that Theron was still on the dragon's back, even though the Archdemon was trying to ascend, turning in ever-smaller circles at angles that it hoped would throw off the intruder. Theron needed Daylen's support to ice those wings and force the beast to go down, not up.
This time Daylen put any fear and worry out of his mind and concentrated on the one spot on the dragon's back that he would claim. He pumped his wings and then nestled them back along his body to increase his speed and prayed the dragon wouldn't notice him. It didn't, but as soon as Daylen landed and shifted into his human form, the Archdemon banked sharply and Daylen's landing spot tilted to a dangerous angle.
He slid back a bit further than he wanted to be, but he was on the beast. He plunged the strong, wicked-looking, multi-barbed hooks under scales and just held on for his life until the dragon leveled its flight for just the few seconds Daylen needed to grab the right side and let the icy tendrils of his best magic flow into the dragon. He was too far back to reach the entire wing, but the frozen skin below the right wing's frame of bones shattered when the Archdemon tried to pump the wing to ascend. It roared and bucked. Daylen grabbed nearby scales and held on. He couldn't even spare the time to see if Theron were still attached or how high they were. He really didn't want to know that last one.
The Archdemon began to spiral down, the one wing crippled and barely useful. That's when Daylen saw how far they had to fall … and knew he was about to die. Because of the angle of descent, Daylen saw Theron try to disengage his hooks. He was going to try to get off and shift in mid-air. Daylen had never been successful at that. To his knowledge, neither had Theron … but if anyone could make it work it would be the Dalish warden. Unfortunately, the Creators decided they wanted Theron to join them. Just as he freed himself, the Archdemon bucked again and threw Theron off. The force of the hard scales hitting the elf's body knocked him out and Theron fell. Thank the Maker he was unconscious for that fall. Daylen hoped Garrett had been as well.
Daylen felt the Archdemon start to level off. It was still too high up for the ballistae. It was up to him. He'd never really thought of himself as the heroic kind, but this was his duty. He was a warden, a warden with the ability to bring this dragon down now that Theron had weakened it. He felt the Fade start to push at him. Demons were offering anything he wanted … all Daylen had to do was let them save his life. He slammed the murmurings of Fade out. If he was going to die, he was going to die as a human mage, Templars be damned. He reached out with other hand and put all of his mana, everything he could into one powerful ice spell. The wing skin on the left side cracked and the Archdemon roared. It knew it couldn't flap its wing to go up. It had learned that lesson before. It had to go down.
That's when Daylen learned it was really true. In those few moments as he plummeted to the ground on the back of the Archdemon, he thought about his life. The Circle wasn't all bad. He'd made some strong friends. He had allies he could trust, who would always have his back … who would mourn his death.
"Ho! It's comin' down!" The cry went up as the ballistae fired. Alistair had just killed another hurlock … he'd lost count long ago. The darkspawn weren't completely fooled by the flank. No doubt the Archdemon saw the charge and gave them a bit of a warning. However, the dragon was up there and the Fereldens … the really angry Fereldens … were down here. When one of the warden mages fell to his death, it stalled the fury a bit, but not for long. When another one fell, everyone's rage was pushed more.
Now, they had two other names to shout. "For King Cailan! For Warden Garrett! For Warden Theron!" Alistair prayed that Daylen would survive. He knew the young mage must still be pouring his magic into grounding the Archdemon to fall here and not just fly away.
Despite Loghain's attempts to protect Alistair by surrounding him with his own personal guard, Alistair managed to slowly inch toward the center of the chasm. He saw the abomination finally go down and that also sent up a cheer. Alistair didn't cheer. He wondered how many had died at the hands of that mage. He thought of Garrett, an apostate trained outside the Circle. It wasn't a demon that fell from the sky. It was a powerful mage with a loving family and a mabari. In that moment, Alistair knew that Circles were important, but their methods had to change.
Actually, it amazed Alistair how he could continue to think about other things as he lopped off the heads of genlocks and disemboweled hurlocks and Smited emissaries. It was the way he had always fought.
Then, he felt the breeze caused by the strong swing of a two-handed weapon and grinned. "Nice of you to join me, my lady." When a crossbow bolt whizzed by his head and into the face of the darkspawn about to approach Alistair, he added, "And, you, too, Bianca."
Varric laughed. "At least you know who to respect in this duo, Your Majesty."
That was all the discussion they had the time for. Alistair and Arlaine fighting back-to-back with Varric moving around to pick off targets at will was an impressive fighting unit. Loghain's men didn't let down their guard, but they didn't try to stop Alistair from doing his duty as a Grey Warden.
Suddenly everyone … human, dwarf, darkspawn, elf … stopped for just a second as the ground bucked when the Archdemon fell nearby on top of the dead abomination and all the fighters around it … the wardens around it. A whoop went up, but they were still too far away to see who had survived the abomination only to die under the falling Archdemon.
The battle went on. Alistair finally found his way to the battle with the Archdemon. Hooked ballistae spears were imbedded in the dragon's side with the attached ropes grounded all around, but they were almost unnecessary. Its wings were shredded. It wasn't going anywhere. A ring of fighters were battling the dragon.
Arlaine grabbed Alistair's arm. "Those are mostly Kezel's men! Where are all the wardens?!"
While Loghain's men cleaned up the few darkspawn left around Alistair, he took the time to really look around. He saw Alidain and the First Warden still up and pointed them out to Arlaine. His heart stopped to see the carnage around the Archdemon. His eyes stopped on Duncan's body. From the angle of Duncan's head, he was likely dead. His mentor and savior … both of his saviors, now dead. Now that he was closer, he saw Daylen hanging in the harness on the dragon's back. He was limp and seemed lifeless. Gavin was unconscious, but could still be alive. It looked like he'd taken a blow to the head. Carsten, Gabrel, Sared, Wilrick … all dead. Jongis was harrying the hind legs of the Archdemon and got swept to the side by the force of the dragon's tail. When he hit a nearby boulder, he fell unconscious.
"Only two left," Varric said.
"Three," Alistair corrected him as he looked at his father's dragonbone bone sword that Cailan had given him.
The Archdemon reared back and sprayed its front attackers with that purple flame, but it was a small attempt. It was dying. Alidain must have been fatigued. That's the only way the dragon could have picked the Dalish warden up in its powerful jaws and closed down. Alistair was close enough at this point to hear Alidain's bones crack. The Archdemon threw the dead warden somewhere into the darkness toward the Wilds … and dropped. Its sides still heaved, so it wasn't dead yet.
First Warden Calbard shouted, "All other attacks must cease now!" The word passed quickly and the soldiers turned to mopping up the darkspawn and keeping the area around the Archdemon clear. He looked around and saw Alistair. "It's up to us, warden." Cal's arm was obviously broken and his weapon had been damaged. "Give me that sword, Alistair."
Arlaine was standing by Alistair. He could tell she wanted to stop him, but all she said was, "I know this is your duty, Warden Alistair. Maker protect you."
Alistair nodded to her gratefully … even though he had no intention of letting Cal make the killing thrust on the Archdemon. He would have nothing to give a child to make him or her a better ruler. He had never developed the confidence it would take to lead Ferelden into the future.
He was no king.
He was a Grey Warden.
The dragon stirred when Alistair approached with the sword. It lifted its head and took the decision out of anyone's hands. It swung its head and knocked Cal to the side. The First Warden was moaning but alive.
It was up to Alistair. Somehow, he knew it would end like this. With every plan that moved him further away from the center chasm, he knew he'd be the one left standing. He saw Loghain run up and look up toward the camp. They both knew that there were a couple more wardens up there, but they were healers … and there was no longer any time to get them. Loghain gave him a look of respect and stood to attention, bringing his arm up to cross his chest in salute. Loghain never saluted anyone. Other soldiers who weren't occupied with darkspawn did the same. So did Arlaine, only with tears running down her face.
The Archdemon's head twisted to look at him. It had no flames left. Its head fell and the eyes closed. He'd read they could regenerate after a while, so he knew he had to be quick. Alistair ran up to the dragon and slashed down at the side of the dragon's head behind the jaw. The skin parted with some effort. Jongis had said the hide needed to be slashed open for the sword to be thrust forward past the skull and into the brain.
It started to rain.
He jammed the sword, hilt and hand included, into the wound he'd made. It went in easily. He had found the right spot. The Archdemon didn't even move.
A bright light flashed.
AN: Thanks to all reviews, favorites and follows! :) No, this isn't the end just yet. A couple or three more chapters remain. (Guess what the titles are?) I hope you've enjoyed the journey so far. :)
Lady Cougar-Trombone, I hope this chapter was intense enough for you. ;) Again, I truly appreciate your continued reviews week after week. Thank you so much! :)
Legionary Prime, welcome and thank you for your review! I'm glad you found this little alternate universe interesting so far. I hope you enjoy the last few chapters as well. :)