Chapter 52
Dragon 9:35 Nublis/Drakonis The West Road [Present]
They had set off at dawn. Rous on Hope and Alistair on Dusk. They had decided not to take a spare horse after all. Rous would have had to train it to pony and Alistair was in a rush, he had pointed out that in any event, since they were keeping to a main road they would not have to camp out in the open on the way. As soon as they had lost sight of the walls of Denerim from the West Road Alistair started to explain where they were going.
"The reason why I was not specific as to where we are going is because we are visiting the Izrail, Israfil or Azrail clan the transcription into Fereldan varies, I understand."
"A Dalish Elven clan you mean?"
"Exactly."
"I heard… I heard there was a clan that sent troops to the battle of Denerim…"
"Yes. They were members of this clan, their Keeper or leader is a mage called Lanaya. I've sent word ahead to her that we're coming. They will look out for us on the road and then escort us to their temporary camp in the forest when they see us. They never reveal their exact location to 'fast children' if they can possibly help it. I expect the camp to be at least a couple of miles from the road."
"And you have kept in touch with them." This was far more exciting than Rous had dared anticipate.
"Yes."
"How did they become your allies?" She asked with curiosity.
"You mean the companions' allies? You must never forget, Rous, that out leader was Neriya. I was just one of the companions. Basically we helped them with a problem and they pledged and gave us their assistance in exchange."
"What was the problem?"
Alistair explained the story of the Dalish and the werewolves.
"Elves, werewolves, talking trees and spirits of nature…" After he had finished the tale Rous looked at him her head tilted to one side.
"What can I say?" He said shrugging, "I was there, that is what happened… I am not asking you to believe me… Thinking back on it, I am certain the Maker favoured us in that part of our quest. We were able to lift the curse with relatively little bloodshed and reach a settlement that left both parties happy."
The west Road was quite busy by mid-morning mostly with travellers on foot clearly leaving or heading for Denerim and the odd ox cart. Their horses attracted quite a lot of attention and admiration. However, Fereldans being as they were, kept mostly to themselves and left them alone apart from bidding them good day even though Alistair got the distinct impression that the occasional trekker might have recognised him.
"My story is prosaic in comparison." Said Rous eventually.
"But I want to hear it nonetheless."
"Everyone knows now what happened at Highever… How my family and all the members of my household were slaughtered in a single night. I have little to add to that picture. I managed to get away because there was a secret passageway leading from a cellar that was unknown to Howe and his men. I made my way there through our holding with my mother. As you may know, she had a reputation for being an excellent archer and it happened that we fought well together. When finally we got to the cellar, we found my father covered in blood…"
Rous shook her head. "Apparently he had managed to drag himself there. By the time we found him he could no longer move, he was fatally injured, my mother took his head in her lap and refused to leave his side… They both told me to go, to go find Fergus, appeal to the King for justice, and avenge them.
"Live.
"I protested, I did, I suggested we should all try to get out… They wouldn't hear of it, and in the end… I left them. I left them to Howe and his troops and saved my own skin… I was barely 22."
"I… It must have been extremely difficult for you. Leaving your parents like that…"
"I think about it every day, even when I don't want to. I've dreamt about it countless times. Sometimes, we all escape and are happy once more. Even Oriana and Oren are there… But most of the time it's just the same thing happening again and again… and there's nothing I can do about it…
"I suppose for all my bravado and arrogance, and I had a lot then, the main problem was dealing with being alone. So very alone and so suddenly. I had no real idea what to do or where to go. Fergus, of course, had ridden off to Ostagar… But where was Ostagar? How did I get there? My mother, wise woman that she was, had ensured I picked up supplies, weapons and some coin as we made our way through Highever. If she hadn't I would have been in even a worse situation.
"I collected myself eventually, a very cold-blooded, practical side of me kicked in, and I realised should try to put distance between myself and the passageway exit. Preferably, I should attempt to make my way south to the North Road.
"Well fortunately they didn't chase me. I think it wasn't until late the next day when that bastard Howe had time to survey the dead that he had any inkling that I could be missing. By then I had made it to the road and bought passage with a carter who was heading west with some vegetables, beans, carrots and so forth for Kinloch Hold.
"You think riding a horse is painful. Try jolting along in an ox cart for about a week. By the time we got to the Tower of Mages, it felt as if all my joints had been displaced. My muscles ached… Still I had made good time and preserved energy, which was what I wanted.
"I was almost relieved to walk. Almost relieved. It felt good to stretch my limbs at first. I skirted Lake Calenhad always aiming to go south, always following the road.
"I felt very vulnerable. I mostly hid when I thought anything would be a danger to me. I especially tried to avoid groups of men. I also saw what must be Darkspawn for the first time hugely ugly fearsome creatures.
"My aim then was to remain alive and get to Ostagar. Find Fergus and petition the King. Surely Cailan would listen to me if only for past times' sake if I reached him. As I put one foot in front of the other, I began to believe that this was possible, that things would sort themselves out… that the nightmare I had found myself in would come to an end.
"It took me just over two weeks walking to get to Ostagar.
"The signs as I approached were not good. The Imperial Highway that I was now on appeared to be damaged and scorched. Cadavers were frequent. They frightened me. I would scuttle past them as fast as I could, pretending they weren't there…
"I ignored what my intuition was telling me. The west wind brought the stench of death and decay to my nose but still I told myself that all was well, the battle must have taken place already. The showdown. Fergus would be alive. King Cailan would be victorious. The few surviving Darkspawn would have retreated to the gloomy abode from whence they had emerged in the first place.
"All would be well, all would be well, all would be well…
"That was what I was saying to myself like a prayer or a litany when I walked over the crest of the last hill and looked down at the valley below me.
"And I saw…
"Did you see the immediate aftermath of Ostagar, Alistair?"
"No." He replied in a hushed voice. His face looked ashen, "Neriya and I were both recovering from being wounded after lighting the fire in the Tower of Ishael. It was described to me… and we went back to the battlefield a few months afterwards… It was covered in snow by then. But not the immediate aftermath, no."
"It was like a field of flesh… There were tangles of sinews and limbs everywhere. Raw rotting meat strewn about the earth, wherever I looked. Mottled and discoloured, mounds of it… Just lying there… It was hard to believe that, not so long ago, those piles of offal had been living, moving, feeling beings… The smell was too awful for words… Sweet at first and then turning sickly, stale and putrid.
"I felt faint. I felt like turning away, going back down the hill and then walking back up again to see if anything had changed. But I knew that wouldn't work. So I went down.
"Up until then I had been able to tell myself, unconvincingly, that this was a Darkspawn rout that Ferelden had prevailed. But as a I drew nearer there could be no doubt. Most of the eyeless, gape-mouthed, sunken-cheeked, sallow corpses were unmistakably human.
"Worse than anything was the thought that that one of those twisted bodies had once been my brother Fergus but there were so many, I did not have a hope of finding him.
"I tried though…
"A month ago, barely a month ago, I had been eating off china plates, entertaining casual lovers in my bed chamber, surrounded by a doting, caring family, never wanting for suitors or friends.
"Now as it occurred to me that Fergus would want me to live, I found myself overturning rotting cadavers, looking for him but also plundering the dead as I went, a soiled rag tied over my mouth and nose in an attempt to reduce the stench and to keep off the flies; routing among maggots and putrefaction, looking for clothes, weapons, money anything that would help me survive.
"Utterly alone."
They trotted in silence for half a mile or so and then Rous said in a strangled voice, "I can't carry on talking about this today. Just recalling it all is making me feel sick."
"That's understandable."
"Thanks for listening."
After a further ten minutes Rous said, "Talk to me Alistair. Distract me. Tell me something about yourself…"
Alistair sat up a bit straighter in his saddle and ran a hand through is hair, his eyes glinted. "This is a secret…" He said.
"Ah the man of mystery returns…," remarked Rous.
Alistair smiled faintly at her. "My mother was an Elf."
"What?" said Rous
"An Elf. A mage. An Orleisian. A Grey Warden." He said taking some care to enunciate the words very clearly, in order to make himself understood. It felt good to let it all tumble out at once like that.
Rous looked suitably taken aback. She suddenly seemed to be examining him carefully as if to detect any external traces of Elven ancestry. "I thought she… Rumour has it she was a serving wench in Redcliffe. A human."
"Until very recently that's what I thought, too."
"…so I was conceived in Orzammar." He concluded. "I cannot imagine how anyone could… Well, you know, down there. In the Deep Roads, I mean. Orzammar, the city is actually quite a nice place. But the Deep Roads, I've been there twice now, they're filthy, the dust gets everywhere, your hair, your eyes, and dangerous… when they're not as creepy as hell, of course."
"They must have been desperate. A King and a mage… That is very romantic."
"I believe so, they must have thought they were going to die, so, who gives a toss… And, yes, it is."
"'End of the world sex.'" Summed up Rous.
"That's right," He concurred, "'end of the world sex.'"
There was a slight pause. "Have you ever done that?" She asked curiously.
Alistair hesitated. It was a direct question. This was not something he had planned on revealing to Rous at this early stage of getting to know each other, he hoped he could escape for the time being without having to disclose too much detail, but he refused to lie. "Uh… Sort of, actually… And you?"
"Yes." She said, "This is turning out to be quite a journey…"
"I told you it would be worth your while."
"Nothing quite like a traditional Ferelden meal" said Alistair running his wooden spoon through the unidentifiable greyish/green gloop on his dish. They had stopped to spend the night in a tavern a few miles past Dragon's Peak.
"I've eaten worse than this before…" Said Rous.
"Oh, so have I, unfortunately it tended to be my own cooking…"
"At least the beer's good."
"The beer is good."
"I thought you were more into wine."
"Wine, beer, it's all good in its own way."
"You need a re-fill, so do I." Without asking him, she picked up their tankards, sauntered over to the bar, and put her elbows on it. She was somewhat aware that Alistair's eyes were following her across the plank floor.
"Hey pretty…" Said a guy standing next to her. "Haven't seen you around here before 'cause I'd remember if I had. I likes me a hot touch of ginger…"
He wasn't unattractive; he had medium-length wavy brown hair, a moustache and a straggly van dyke. He reminded her a bit of Bann Teagan, with whom she'd had a few pleasant conversations over the last year at the odd meeting or party. The Bann of Rainesfere was always so extremely solicitous and careful in her presence that she wondered exactly how much he knew of what had happened to her. Teagan simply wasn't her type, but she could well understand the frisson he caused in other ladies.
As for this young man, he was at least some fifteen years younger than Teagan and probably at least five years younger than she and far, far dimmer. He was grinning at her inanely. Rous was pretty certain the dapper Bann would have better-polished pick-up lines… She smiled at the guy briefly and then pointedly ignored him.
"…and you're looking really sizzling in leather an' all."
"Sorry," she said, "But I'm with someone…"
"Ach," He said glancing over to the corner where Alistair sat, "But I could give you such a good time…"
"Two more, please." She said to the Innkeeper who at last seemed willing to serve her, thrusting the empty tankards towards him. "Think he can't?" She said to the pest from the corner of her mouth. "Think again."
"Problem?" asked Alistair slightly arching his eyebrows when she came back with the ale.
"Not anything I couldn't handle…" Said Rous casting her eyes back at the guy, who when he saw she was looking at him, smiled and raised his tankard to her. "Says he fancies redheads. I told him I was with someone…"
"I really like it when people don't recognise me…" Commented Alistair, "Real things happen…"
"If by that you mean inopportune arseholes in taverns," Said Rous, "Then yes, they're real enough… Unfortunately."
Even though it was quite early, they decided to go to bed shortly after drinking their beers. Being on the road, even on horseback was pretty tiring. They crossed the main barroom floor to get to the stairs leading to their bedroom.
As they walked past him, the pest clicked his tongue audibly. How much of an idiot could the guy be? Thought Rous. Couldn't he see Alistair's bulk?
"I do like a redhead." He said.
Without being able to help herself, Rous stopped and glared at him. She felt Alistair come to a halt behind her. Suddenly a large hand landed gently on her shoulder.
She looked back and up at Alistair. He was smiling genially at the pain in the neck. "So do I." He said. "But you are going to have to find your own woman, friend. This one's mine and she's taken." Rous was wholly unprepared for the surge of warmth that lanced through her in response to these words.
The pest sighed and shook his head. "C'mon." Said Alistair quietly. When they got up to their room he said, "Gosh, I loved that…"
"You've never fought over a woman before…" said Rous.
"Nope." Said Alistair. "Not even argued. Didn't know what I was missing."
Rous laughed.
"Now what happens?" Asked Alistair opening his arms. "Do I stake my claim to this good-looking, flame-haired beauty by taking her in my arms and making her mine for all the world to hear…? It's bloody tempting…" He glanced at the bed and then back at Rous. "Somehow I don't think that would withstand my passion and ardour…"
Rous turned, he had a point, the double bed did look rather rickety. She sat on it and it creaked ominously.
"I'll take the floor." Said Alistair, suddenly all continent resolve.
"Alistair…" Said Rous, "At the very least kiss me dammit!" she said as she passed him one of the pillows.
He rolled his eyes at her, "Do I really have to?" He replied teasingly.
However, a little later, while they were both in their smallclothes he got on to his knees in front of her as she sat on the edge of the bed and suggested, "Why don't you kiss me?"
Rous wrapped her arms around his neck and put her mouth to his and kissed him until his eyes had turned a confused, smouldering amber. Then she nipped his earlobe quickly and in her very best purry voice described to him some of the things she was going to do to him as soon as he let her.
Finally when he begged her to let him go because if she didn't he was going to burst and no longer be responsible for his actions, she released him from her arms and stroking the back of his head one last time, kissed him on the forehead and bade him good night.
