A/N: Happy Halloween! ~Should auld acquaintance be forgot, and never brought to...~

Oh wait, wrong holiday.

Enjoy!

The rain had not let up, and the relentless torrent had turned the dirt tower courtyard into a miasma of thick mud. Some of the forward preparations seem to have taken place here. In the occasional flashes of lightning, Nike could see a small smithy that had been hastily set up in a battered shelter. A couple of nearby wagons seemed to be in various stages of repair.

If the smith had stayed behind, he was one of a dozen dead littering the ground, not all of them human. One flash of lightning lit up the grotesque and grinning face of a hurlock, glimmering off the black and rotted brains spilling from its skull. The rough axe that had made the wound still jutted from it.

On the other side of the courtyard and through the supports of several wood ramparts, Nike could see two mages still fighting a half dozen darkspawn that stood between them and the tower door. Within, in the light of the torches, more shifting shadows spoke of reinforcements waiting their chance.

Fighting the urge to run forward, an action that risked slipping, Nike strode instead, and stretched her bow. One of the monsters glimmered with blues and golds from the mages and she took the opportunity to let fly as soon as her target became clear. The arrow struck home in the beast's gulping throat, and he let out a hoarse and guttering cry, hands flying up to his neck. A gout of black ichor rushed from his mouth. He had not yet hit the ground before Nike had another arrow set and loose.

Holly was already barreling forward. One of the mages had snagged a couple of the darkspawn in what looked like some sort of vine. The first was bound tightly leg to neck, but the second was loose save for an arm. As it tried to pull against the vines, Holly rose up and bore it down with her weight, her head shaking madly back and forth. Nike could not see where the dog had caught hold but given the trembling spasm of the darkspawn's legs, it would not be rising again.

Nike did not look around for Alistair and their soldier companion. She could hear men shouting and the clash of steel so they were at work, but for every creature that fell more were coming from the tower. She set and loosed, set and loosed, taking every flash of lightning, magic, or gutter from the interior torches as an opportunity to mark her target.

Then something shimmered down over the doorway. A tangle of silver light at first, it solidified quickly into something that looked almost like thick webbing, stymying those darkspawn trying to get out. For a moment, there was nothing to shoot at. The soldier that had joined them tore his sword from one twitching body and struggled to catch his breath. A quick glance told Nike that only one of the mages was standing any more, but Alistair, the soldier, and Holly seemed unharmed.

She headed toward the second mage, the one she suspected had blocked the door. His beard was a tangle of wet blood and muck, his balding head mud-spattered and pale. As if sensing her approach, he turned and nodded.

"That should hold any more from coming- "

"We need to get in there!"

He looked at her as if she were mad. "In? There are a hundred darkspawn- "

"We know, but we need to get in. If we don't get that beacon lit, Loghain's men will not know when to close the trap!" Alistair said, absentmindedly swiping rain and sweat off his face with his free hand.

"Is there another way to get in," Nike said. "A way around them?"

"I…I don't- "

"Yes, there is," the soldier said, and gestured to his left. "There's an old service entrance, boarded up over this side. It leads into a small room. The darkspawn may not have discovered it yet. If we can get through there, we may be able to slip past them."

"What was your name?" Nike asked.

"Collins, ma'am."

"And yours?" she asked the mage.

"Aberny," he said.

"You said it's boarded up, Collins? Just boards?"

"Yes ma'am, years ago. The boards are half rot, but they weren't worth the effort to pull free and clear that entrance. Won't take a moment to clear the way."

"All right. Aberny, are you with us? We just need to get up to the top level as quickly as we can, before the signal is sent to light the beacon. If we fail, the King's forces will be overwhelmed."

The mage straightened, rainwater gathering and dripping off the end of his nose. He wiped it away with a shaking hand, but his voice was certain. "Ay, I'm with you."

Nike had never fought aside a mage before. She'd never fought beside anyone before, truth be told; from the few moments she'd seen him in action, however, it appeared that he was most effective at range and not in close quarters. His armor suggested that as well, as he was wearing little more than robes and thick, woven cloth padding over his chest and neck. Such armor might slow down a dagger or a stray arrow reaching the end of its flight, but would be nothing to a heavy melee weapon.

"Collins, if you can get those boards clear we'll follow you in. You know the way. Alistair, help him. Holly, stay with the men in front. Aberny, stay back with me and we'll hit them as we can. Remember, the goal is not to stop and fight but to keep moving. When we reach the top, we can hopefully blockade the door and hold it long enough to light the beacon and signal the attack."

No one paused or offered question, Collins immediately nodding and heading around the side yard toward his boarded door, the rest of them following.

Their gloves protecting their hands from any splinters, Alistair and Collins used brute force to pull the soft, old wood boards away from the door. The door itself did not seem in much better shape, the wood spongy with age and damp, held together only by the iron reinforcements that kept it hinged.

At the first sound of cracking wood, Nike's lashes fluttered. If the darkspawn heard them-…but no. The rain was still sheeting almost violently, the sky roiling with thunder. The sounds of battle were more subdued here, but formed their own sort of thunder, punctuated by sharp cracks as the trebuchets fired. The splintering of wood on the other side of a small room and thick stone walls would be lost, even to darkspawn ears.

Collins kicked the stubborn end of one last board off of its nail and then nodded at Alistair. Reaching cautiously forward, his sword at the ready, the young Grey Warden shifted the latch and pushed the door open a few inches.

Holly, the only one of the group that seemed impatient to get back into the fray, shoved her broad black nose into the gap and snuffled heartily.

"What do you think, all clear?" Alistair asked her, then shook his head, his voice even softer as he directed his next words at himself. "Look at me, talking to a dog."

Holly sneezed, then looked back at Alistair with a bob of her head that looked remarkably like a nod. He lifted his brows.

"Well what do you know, the dog answers."

He edged the door open more, then slipped inside, both Holly and Collins right on his heels. Nike and the mage gave them a moment before following, finding themselves in a shadowy, cob-webbed space that looked as if it had once been a closet. Alistair was already at the next door, light from the torches beyond making sharp blades of gold through its cracks.

"Is the way clear?" Nike asked in a whisper as she and Aberny approached.

"Looks like they're all still gathered at the front door," Alistair said, his voice just as soft. "They're trying to tear down that webbing. They've got their backs to us."

"How many?"

"Dozen at least."

"To your right," Collins whispered as well, his voice barely more than a breath. "There's another door, goes into a large room. The stairs starting up are at the far side of it. Room's likely to be crawling with these things."

"If nothing else there'll be more room to maneuver," Alistair said. "If we're quiet the ones at the door might not even turn around. They're stupid- "

"Stupid, not deaf," Nike replied. "If we get past them and into that room and there's a fight, they're going to hear it. We'll have darkspawn behind us as well as in front. Give way."

Alistair moved away from the crack in the door, letting Nike slip in and peer through it.

A cluster of darkspawn, both genlocks and hurlocks, were on the other side of the room. Some growled and beat on their armored chests, shaking axes and battered broadswords, but most were tearing at the webbing and even the walls as they tried to batter through them. From the small crack, she could not see much else, and the stairs that Collins had mentioned were out of sight.

"What do we do?" Alistair asked. Time was slipping past like sand. Already it felt as if an hour had passed since they'd made it across the bridge.

"I don't know," Nike admitted with a grit of her teeth, straightening from the gap and then looking at Aberny. "Those vines, can you- "

"Not so many at once, no," he said.

"What would it take to get the vines away from the door?" she asked.

"That'd be easy enough, but then they'd pour out into the courtyard."

"Well, that's good right?" Alistair whispered back. "If they rush out into that courtyard there's no chance of them coming up behind us."

"There'd be no one left between them and the bridge," Nike replied. "If that bridge is still intact, they'll get right into camp, take anyone left by surprise."

That was no good. Most of the fighting men were down in the battle already, the only ones held back those manning the catapults on the walls. She had no idea how many of them remained, but if the devastation they'd come through was any indication, it would not be enough even for a dozen darkspawn taking them by surprise. Those few non-combatants left in the camp would be slaughtered.

Aberny had shifted past her and was looking through the gap. "Fire," he said at last. Nike's eyes immediately snapped to him.

"Can you burn them?" she asked.

She could not see his face as he straightened from the crack. "I…I'm not practiced in Fire. It's going to take me a great deal of effort."

"Can you do it?"

She heard a rustle. He seemed to be digging through his clothes for something. A moment later, a faint glimmer of blue light appeared in the darkness. It was coming from a small vial in the mage's hand.

"What is-?" she started to ask, but Alistair spoke at the same time.

"Lyrium potion?" he said.

"Lyrium?" Collins drew back a little. "Isn't that stuff dangerous?"

"In raw form- "

"We don't have time to discuss the properties of lyrium," Nike said tersely, as Aberny opened the bottle and tipped it into his mouth. For a moment, she could still see the faint glow through his bearded cheeks. Swallowing, he tucked the tiny vial away again, then shifted back to the door.

"When I open this and step forward, run to the stairs," he said. "I'll join you as I can."

"Maker's luck, mate," Collins said. Nike heard Aberny grip the door latch. Torchlight rushed in as he boldly threw open the door and strode forward. The door hit the wall with a bang and the darkspawn all turned as one.

"Go!" Nike gave Alistair a shove with her elbow, and they ran out of the small storage room, following Collins who immediately made for a door to their right. A rush of heat and the sudden flash of orange and gold on the walls was all that Nike saw of the mage's attack on the darkspawn. She didn't dare look back.

As they rushed into the room the soldier had described, she could see the stairs leading further up the tower on the far end. She could also see more darkspawn, at least three of them, snapping toward them with snarls.

Holly reached the first in four bounds as Nike sent an arrow flying toward a second. "Keep on to the stairs!" she shouted as her arrow struck home in the genlock's shoulder. Slavering like a beast caught in a trap, it clawed at the arrow in its shoulder then stumbled in a slow circle. She could see frost riming across its chest, spreading outward like tendrils from the place the arrow had struck.

Collins and Alistair reached the bottom of the stairs unmolested, but Holly was busy worrying at the monster she'd knocked to the ground. Nike sent another arrow over the dog's head to stumble an oncoming Hurlock as she darted after the two men.

"Holly!"

The dog dropped her prey and turned her head. As she started after her mistress, Nike reached the bottom of the stairs as well and shifted her attention upward.

Her eyes went wide. "Alistair, look-! "

The warning came just in time for the other Warden, but too late for Collins. Steel and bone traps, teeth glimmering with something as viscous as the darkspawn's thick drool, had been set on the steps just around the first curve of the stairwell. At her shout Alistair made a motion that spoke more of startled surprise than intent, and his foot just missed the trap it had been about to land on. The Warden slipped and nearly fell back into her, and she caught his back with her shoulder as she instinctively turned to take the brunt of the collision.

Collins foot landed, and the trap he'd stepped on snapped shut with a meaty thunk that was all but lost in his sudden scream of pain.

Alistair stumbled back upright, and clumsily caught Collins under his arm. After making sure Holly wasn't about to bound right through the traps as well, Nike helped Alistair to pull a collapsing Collins up to the landing. His scream had turned into a thick blubbering sort of sob, his hands groping down toward his leg. Nike lost her grip as his weight on her grew, and he half fell to the stone floor of the landing. His sword could still be heard skittering down the steps behind them. He'd dropped it when the trap had shut on his leg.

"No!" Nike tried to pull the man upright again but he was all but dead weight, that thick sound he was making now a bubbling, ragged gurgle. His face had gone pale, his eyes bulging as they stared. Curds of foam leaked from between his lips. Alistair let him go, then grabbed her arm.

"It's no use," he said. "The traps are poisoned. He was dead the moment it shut on him. We have to go."

She looked at him in horror, but from the sounds beneath them more darkspawn were nearing the stairs. Steeling herself, she rose and stepped away from Collins, turning toward the next curve of stairs that continued upward.

More traps littered these, glittering madly in the gloom. Picking their way through would slow them down, but they had no choice. Moving as quickly as they could, the two Wardens picked their way upward, Holly taking as much care behind them so that her big paws didn't fall on one.

They passed the second floor, and another landing, winding their way upward. After the second floor, the traps thinned and then vanished, allowing them to move far more quickly. It didn't seem as if the darkspawn had made it this high.

Aberny had not joined them. Whether he'd fallen prey to the darkspawn he had sought to burn on the main floor, or the first of the traps on the lower tiers of stairway, she did not know and they had no time to wonder about. The message to send in Loghain's forces had to have come by now. The swiftly growing grunts and bellows behind them told her they had only moments before the darkspawn caught up.

Bounding up the final steps Alistair rushed into the beacon room, Nike and Holly right on his heels. The room seemed to be empty, with a few broken tables and chairs scattered about. A heap of what looked like discarded clothes and battered armor lay near the far open windows. Night wind thick with the smell of rain, dirt, smoke and blood drifted in, tangled with a cloying, leathery smell that she could not place. Lit torches shone in sconces all around the room, and seeing them filled her with relief.

Near the far side three huge fireplaces were already choked with wood soaked in accelerants. Their sloping chimneys would be packed all the way up to the top of the tower, joining with an enormous pyre. A few touches of a torch to the fireplaces would light the chimneys and ignite the pyre, which would be seen for miles around.

As soon as they reached the room Alistair had turned, hauling shut the great wooden doors. Seeing no immediate threat, Nike slung her bow over one shoulder and helped him drop a latch as thick around as her thigh down across the doors to seal them. It appeared here, at least, some repairs had been made. The door and the latch were of freshly hewn wood, not the rotting and worm-eaten wood of the doors in the rest of the tower.

Almost the moment the latch dropped into place the darkspawn reached them. The doors thudded with their wild blows and bowed slightly, but the latch held. Holly bellowed and snarled.

"It won't take even them long to figure out they can use their axes," Alistair said, breathlessly. "But it should hold for now."

"Let's get that beacon lit," Nike said, just as breathlessly as she turned back toward the room. "Thank the Maker the torches in here are lit- "

The room behind them was no longer empty. It had never been empty, she realized, and Holly hadn't been barking at the darkspawn outside the door. What she had thought was a pile of tattered clothes and armor was gone.

In its place stood one of those monstrous creatures she'd seen down in the battlefield, before they'd made their run across the bridge. It was so huge its curling horns nearly scraped the ceiling. Beneath tusks the size and shape of harpoon hooks, the monster's thick chin was streaked with drool and gore. Hanging from its hand was part of a dead soldier. It had been crouched with its back to them, eating it, when they rushed in.

Her blood ran like ice water as she stared at it, and it stared right back at her.

Ogre.

Just behind her, she heard Alistair whisper in choked horror. "Oh…bugger."