Chapter 151: First Blood
The army continued to grow as they continued their long march south.
Dwarven soldiers flowed out of the mountain paths, soldiers bolstered by casteless troops raised up by King Bhelen. Twice did the army meet ferries coming across Lake Calenhad, bringing mages to help with the war.
Alim smiled as he spotted Solona among the first to arrive. It was good to see his old friend out front; Irving had always said she had potential, that either he or she would likely take his place when he finally stepped down as First Enchanter.
Though the Circle's numbers would be no near as large as their other allies, some of the most potent mages to survive Uldred's depravity now marched in service to the crown of Ferelden. Any one of these men or women would be a match for several junior enchanters. Their presence would go a long way in neutralizing the numerical advantage of the horde.
Alim embraced his old friend as she stepped off the boat. Jowan kept his distance, no doubt worried what Solona might think of him after all that he had done. In a show of true maturity, she chose to say nothing; she merely welcomed him with the shake of a hand, and asked Alim where the mages were needed most.
The officers wished at least one mage to accompany each division, that way they would be more likely to counter any offensive launched by the darkspawn emissaries. Though Alim agreed, he tried to keep those divisions close enough so when it came time for the mages to unleash their most potent spells, they would be able to aid each other, and push even harder against the darkspawn horde.
The scouts had also reported sightings of Dalish make their way through the mountain paths. Keeper Lanaya had kept her promise, Dalish in Orlais had heard the call, and were sending warriors to aid the wardens in their hour of need. They had been joined by several Ferelden clans as well, though those hunters had been few in number. The few that they had encountered before they crossed behind the safety of Lake Calenhad had reported a larger number of elvhen hunters waiting to join up with them as they began the final approach to Redcliffe.
By themselves, a single clan's hunters did not amount to much, twenty to thirty fighters at most, larger clans boasted around fifty or sixty, bringing up the finally tally to about three hundred, maybe five when everyone was finally gathered.
Small in number, perhaps, but, like the mages, they were not to be underestimated.
More than a few Dalish Firsts and apprentices accompanied the hunters, powerful mages in their own right. Keeper Lanaya, who Alim had meant months ago during the business with the werewolves, introduced him to all of them in turn. He was surprised to see that she had come herself. It was expected, she informed, she had sent out the call, so she owed it to her people to be on the front lines. He was worried that her choice to leave her clan might not have been wise. They were Belle's clan as well; he had no desire to see them suffer anymore because of him.
"Fear not Grey Warden," The Keeper had assured him, "The rest of my clan has taken shelter with one of our sister clan, their keeper has promised to keep my people safe until I return."
The keeper's bravery brought a smile to Alim's face, but in her eyes he could see what was left unsaid.
They will be safe until I return, if I return.
The warden chose to say nothing. Everyone here knew the risks.
He would not rub their faces in it.
At night, as he wandered through their camp, he listened to the soldiers talking around their campfires. Most had seen action during the Civil War, but there were a few who had yet to be bloodied.
The new recruits looked at their growing army and thought themselves invincible. The army had grown quickly, and continued to grow with each new arrival. Most of the green soldiers here thought that they would ride over the darkspawn horde like grass.
To the unbloodied, victory was certain.
Alim sighed.
He wished he still had their innocence.
He remembered the sight of the darkspawn horde in the dead trenches, the sea of torches glowing in the dark. Their army was vast, but nothing to match what the horde could muster, and that had been months ago, who knew how many new broodmothers had been created in that time, who knew how much the horde had swelled since those dark days?
Alim had no answer. He simply tried to stay positive, and trust in the strength and strategy of his commanders.
The darkspawn did not fight like a human army, their strategy was to overwhelm with sheer numbers, like army ants. It had worked for them at Ostagar.
It was Alim's job to make sure that it did not work so again.
Alistair did what he could to bolster his soldiers, despite what he thought, he had a talent for inspiring the soldiers and small folk. He had said as much to Leliana who had only offered him a gentle tired smile.
He frowned slightly.
Something in that tired smile, it made him…concerned.
His love had become…quieter in the last few weeks. She would rise early, slipping out of their tent even before he had a chance to wake. She distanced herself from him for the most part, focusing on preparing for the coming battle, there was nothing wrong with that he supposed, but it was not what he was used to, not out of his normal chatty, open hearted lover.
He started to get the feeling that something was wrong.
He asked her if she had had another of her visions, but she had said no. I tried to investigate further, but she refused to speak.
"You have other things to worry about right now, dearest," she reminded him.
"Stay focused on that. I shall be alright."
He had nodded, accepting that explanation, at least for now. He had kissed her on the cheek afterward, reminding her that if she needed anything, he was there.
She smiled warmly at him.
"I know my love," she cooed.
"I know."
IOI
It was a gray sticky morning that the army's blood was first shed.
They had been less than a day's ride from Redcliffe, and had finally left Lake Calenhad behind. The muggy air seemed to sing with the taint as Alim had emerged from his tent that morning.
His ears twitched nervously, the Archdemon's song still rang in his ears from his dreams from the night before. A mist seemed to cover the land in all directions, which did not please anyone.
The mountain paths leading into Redcliffe village could be treacherous enough. The mists would limit their vision, making the journey in even more dangerous.
Thunder rumbled overhead, yet Alim could sense no rain. He could feel the wrongness in the very air around them.
The elf's eyes narrowed.
It was a wrongness that he had come to know well.
Shouts quickly rose throughout the camp. Soldiers and officers emerged from their tents. A single rider emerged from the mists.
Alim did not need to hear his report to know what message he carried.
"Redcliffe is under attack!" the scout cried, "The Darkspawn are in Redcliffe! The village is under attack! Redcliffe is under attack!"
The cries brought the army to its feet. Alim reached out with his warden senses. He could not see the horde, but that did not make them invisible to him.
The warden hissed under his breath.
It seemed that the Archdemon was not willing to dance to the tune they were calling. He could sense the darkspawn before them, no doubt even now flooding through the mountain path into Redcliffe village.
He hoped that the castle had gotten warning in time. Redcliffe Castle had the bones to withstand an attack by the spawn, but not if any of the beasts managed to breach their walls.
He hoped that the creatures had not discovered the hidden door that they had used to breach the castle. If they had, the soldiers left behind would have a horrible fight ahead of them.
War horns sounded around him, calling the army to battle formations.
Alim of the Grey Wardens sighed.
So it begins, he thought.
The Fereldan's last push against the darkspawn had begun.
He ran off to find his fellow wardens.
They're time was here.
It was finally time to get to work.
The Battle of Redcliffe was about to begin.
IOI
The officers called the army to a halt just outside the mountain path leading into the village. The path was too small for a cavalry charge, and any attempt to retake Redcliffe by storm would not succeed. The size of the path nullified any numerical advantage the Fereldans had. If they tried to charge the spawn, the battle would turn into a meat grinder.
The Fereldan officers were too smart for that.
They formed their forces up into a crescent, pikes and swordsmen in front, archers and cavalry on the wings.
Alistair watched as a company of archers sent a volley of fire arrows into the path. The mist hid the darkspawn from their eyes, but his warden senses told him they were there.
Archers loosed their bolts as their officer brought his sword down. Fire arrows rained down into the mists their orange light fading as it dipped into the thick fog.
What followed was a frightening cacophony. Squeals of pain and roars of rage filled the air. The sound of rattling weapons and of many heavy footsteps shook the ground.
The Ferelden defenders locked their shields, pikes were raised and swords were held at the ready.
It was at that moment that darkspawn surged out of the mists, skeletal hurlocks, chubby genlocks, slender shrieks, and two large ogres. The creatures did not seem to care that they were surrounded, they did not care that they were running into a wall of pikes and swords spells flashed over the heads of the soldiers killing several hundred of the creatures, and still they rushed forward.
The darkspawn slammed into the Ferelden line like a hammer. An Ogre broke off from the pack, plowing into the right wing; it trampled several archers and tore a knight from his horse, flinging him hard against the rocks. The creature fell under a hail of arrows, but the damage had been done. Dwarven soldiers rushed to fill in the gap made by the ogre as hurlocks and genlocks pushed the advantage. The cries of men and the squeals of darkspawn filled the air as individual battles rages and broke as the Ferelden line tried to reform. Meanwhile the darkspawn slashed as the center of the army, the only things stopping the second ogre from repeating what its brother had done was the quick action by several of the mages, mages who wrapped the beast in a cone of cold. The ogre now just a frozen statue decorating the battlefield fell and shattered as the darkspawn were pushed back, reformed and tried to break the army's line again. Two more times did the spawn try this, the line gave…
…but the line did not break.
It was at that moment that Alim called his fellow wardens and the rest of his allies forward. The army would not be able to enter Redcliffe; their numbers would work against them in the narrow path. A small group however, with magical attacks and a golem working as a battering ram would be able to surge forward, turning the darkspawn advantage against the monsters.
Alim and his companions had gotten used to fighting large numbers of spawn in close quarters they had survived two journeys into the deep roads.
Fighting here would be no different.
He tried to call on the wind, it had served him well in the past to try and blind the darkspawn for attempting to charge. The air however wall thick with the taint, and did not answer his call as it usually would. Beside the elf a young Ferelden pike man, a boy really, not much older than sixteen or seventeen was slain, he lost his head to a particularly venomous looking hurlock.
The creature's phlegmy cry of victory angered the elf. He whirled and struck the spawn in the head with the tip of his staff, spinning the monster around, before it could recover he caught it with spellbinder the elvhen blade took the creature's head from its body, a body that now collapsed fountaining black blood.
With a cry of frustration, the warden raised his staff high, giving vent to all his anger and fury.
Lightning crashed down upon the spawn trying to emerge from the path, it struck once twice, and then a third time.
Spawn flew through the air, their foul flesh burning.
In that moment, there was the briefest of breaks in the darkspawn line.
It was all that Alim and his allies needed.
Shayle, Sten, and Oghren rushed forward, their weapons flashing, clearing a path for the rest of their allies. The wardens came next, flanked by Fergus and Carver striking at the disorganized spawn. Elissa howled with fury as she met her enemies, blade upon blade. Alim might not have liked Fergus' sister, but even he could not doubt her skill with a blade. Jowan cast spells he had learned in the circle, arcane bolts and ice spells, they were not as powerful as the spell he had used to escape the circle, but then again, that had been blood magic, and it may have been dangerous using it with so many allies around.
Alim leapt into the fray with Bandit at his side, the Mabari snapping and biting at any spawn who dared try to get close.
A hurlock rose before him, only to fall with an arrow sticking out of its left eye.
He did not need to look up to know that Leli was behind him. After so many battles together, he could almost sense when she was close, it was not like what he felt when he was around his fellow wardens, but it was close.
The wardens drove deep into the pass, Shayle crushing or flinging away any spawn foolish enough to get in front of her. Darkspawn died by steel flame and ice. Yet still the monsters came, flowing like black sludge from the burning village.
Yet the wardens did not flinch, they continued their charge.
The spawn squealed and tried to reform their lines to stop the advance.
They had no luck.
The battle continued.