Chapter 152: The Charge
The darkspawn surged forward, a wall of blighted claws, tainted teeth, and twisted metal. The creatures howled and raged as they filled the pass leading into the village of Redcliffe.
The wardens and their allies did not care.
Winds whipped through the pass blinding the monsters as they charged, as the wardens had hoped the size of the entrance prevented the monsters from truly bringing their superior numbers to bear.
Shayle led them forward, her fists and feet striking anything in reach, a golem could not tire, so the darkspawn found themselves facing an unstoppable juggernaut.
As she cleared the path, the wardens and their allies punched through.
Wind and rain whirled around Alim as he used his staff on any darkspawn lucky enough to have gotten by Shayle. Staff and blade bit deep into tainted leather and twisted flesh. The elf tried to call down lightning, but the aura of so many darkspawn in one place made the weather as unstable and crazed as any tainted ghoul.
Fortunately, he had more basic spells to rely on; his circle training had served him well, and now, with over a year of combat experience under his belt.
The elven warden was a terror.
Their warriors might have been the tip of the spear, but it was the wardens the drove the advance. Elissa seemed to take a twisted joy in the slaughter, no longer appearing weak or sickly, the girl's color returned as the battle surged towards her. Theron had abandoned his bow, fighting with his hand ax and dagger. What Elissa shoved away with her shield, he would finish before it had a chance to recover. Alistair fought hard beside his bodyguards. Men determined to protect their king from the fate that had claimed his brother at Ostagar. Yet even they could not keep the new king from fighting hard beside his allies, they must have realized by this point that the king was not going to stay back and let them do their job.
The elf chuckled at the sight.
Clearly the men had some sense, if they could not control their monarch; they might as well support him, and stand at his side in this bloody battle. If they truly wanted to keep the king safe, then they needed to stay close.
It was the only thing they could do.
Jowan was…
Alim glanced back at his old friend. He had known going in that this battle would be his old friend's first real test. So far he had only seen Jowan use basic Circle spells, basic techniques that any student of magic had to learn.
As the elf looked upon the former apprentice now…he realized just how far Jowan had come.
As winds whipped around the elf, ensorcelled blood spun around Jowan. Alim could not tell whose blood it was, if Jowan had been injured, or if it had come from some unfortunate soldier that had died during the first few moments of the battle. The blood swirled around a shadow as it strode forward, staff in hand. You could not make out Jowan's face; the mage had become a living shadow, a shadow that was now directing its darkest powers against the darkspawn. Hurlocks and Genlocks squealed as they got too close to the new warden. Dark magic melted tainted flesh and armor with the ease that a hot knife went through butter, for the spawn that fell, the magic was not done with them, tainted bodies rose up, striking their still living fellows. It was clear that Jowan did not have the power to fully animate the dead, but he could get at least one good strike out of them, before his spell consumed them, sustaining itself on life, tainted life perhaps, but life just the same.
The mere sight of it made Alim shudder.
"I dabbled. I thought it would make me a better mage." Jowan had said those words to Lilly a lifetime ago in the Circle Tower, confessing to her about his blood magic.
He had looked so humble then, like he had truly not understood what he had done when he had taken up the power of the blood.
Seeing Jowan unleash such power now, even if it was against the darkspawn…
…It was easy to see why Greagoir had been so willing to see those that had allowed Jowan to escape be punished. What they were seeing now is what Greagoir feared. It was evil, but it was an evil turned against a greater evil.
Alim was not sure if that truly mattered.
"ALIM!"
Leliana's cry brought his attention back to the now, and a good thing to, a large hurlock alpha had managed to make it pass Shayle. The monster brought a wicked looking great sword around and down towards his chest.
Alim raised spellbinder just in time.
CLANG!
Lightning crackled as warden and darkspawn blades met. Electricity danced down the darkspawn's arm, but the beast remained standing. The armor plates it wore over its tainted flesh looked dwarven in origin, but it was clear that that was no longer the case. Spider webs of blacked fungus seemed to grow over the plate, almost making it a part of the alpha's skin.
It was a powerful beast to be sure, and clearly not intimidated while battling one of their mortal enemies.
The creature roared down at his opponent. Its mouth was full of razor sharp fangs. The fangs were made even more visible by the fact that it looked like the creature had had its lips sliced off, perhaps on purpose. Darkspawn saliva spattered Alim's face, but the elf remained undaunted, he pushed the monster back.
"You want me, filth!" he shouted, driving his staff, up into its bladed mouth. His elven eyes glowing white with magical energy.
"Here," he shouted.
"EAT THIS!"
The warden summoned lightning into his hands and let it flow through his staff. Lightning that now flowed freely into the darkspawn's face and armor. The creature shook with the sheer power that the warden was unleashing, yet, Alim did not let up. It did not roar or squeal as Alim continued the attack. Pale milky eyes blazed as lightning crackled both through armor and bone.
Alim roared with fury. He did not let up, not for a moment.
He wanted the creature suffer as he did every night, as its foul master reached out through his warden dreams, reached out and tried to touch him.
The darkspawn finally caught fire, its eyes popped as its weapon fell from its dead hands. Alim whispered to the wind spinning around him, asking for it to take this foul creature from his sight.
A gale carried the burning carcass away, causing it to smash into a line of genlocks trying to get around Shayle; they went down squealing as a wall of burning meat slammed into them.
Though he was winded, the elf whirled around and caught a genlock rogue trying to stick a blade in his side, his staff, broken the monsters skull, and as it started to fall, Alim used magic to fling it back as well.
The elven warden's eyes narrowed.
They were making progress, they were cutting through the spawn, and only a short distance away stood the gates of Redcliffe Black smoke rose from behind the wooden wall as more darkspawn flooded forward, seeking to stop the warden advance.
They can't keep us out, he realized. They have the numbers, but the size of the entrance nullifies any advantage. Once we get inside the village proper that will change.
Thunder rumbled overhead, not because of Alim this time, but because of the tainted power of the horde.
Yet something still nagged at the back of the warden's mind. Something, he thought, seemed…not quite right.
There were a lot of darkspawn here that was true, yet still too few from what he had seen in the dead trenches months ago. He remembered the torches, still had nightmares about them in fact, a darkspawn army flowing through the shadows as far as his eyes could see.
Alim's elven ears twitched.
Redcliffe was not large enough to hold that many spawn, and if this was the main horde, where was the Archdemon, why was it not swooping down upon them, trying to slow their advance.
They were fighting the horde; it was true, but at the same time.
Alim could not shake it, that strange feeling in the pit of his stomach.
Something was not entirely right.
Something…was amiss.
IOI
When the wardens and their allies finally broke through the darkspawn lines and entered Redcliffe village, Shayle finally went down.
Leliana had exhausted her supply of arrows. She fought back now with short sword and dagger, pushing back fatigue that was threatening to slow her down.
The battle brought back too many memories of the deep roads, how the spawn had just seemed to keep coming and coming…
She almost gasped with relief when Shayle finally pushed her way through the ruined entrance to Redcliffe village, pushed through and fell.
The darkspawn wasted no time, the creatures swarmed over the fallen golem like a black flood. Hurlocks and genlocks rushed forward, many carrying heavy mauls and hammers.
The bard gasped.
The darkspawn clearly meant to smash the golem into rubble.
She was too far away to aid her companion. She had stayed back with Wynne, Morrigan, Kally and Carver.
She could not see Shayle, so many of the monsters surrounded her.
The first hammer blows fell.
It was at that moment that lightning split the sky and struck behind the seething darkspawn, blasting most of them into the air. Thunder deafened her for a few seconds as spots danced before her eyes. Her lover's work clearly, but she had to wonder.
Was he in time?
Oghren and Sten leapt forward, the Qunari swung his great sword in a wicked arc, clearly any spawn in its path. Oghren, looking both bloodied and furious, met the spawn with a war hammer of his own, caving in several darkspawn faces and skulls.
Then her beloved was there, he and Bandit striking at any monsters still threatening their friends. Blade and staff spun while Mabari jaws and teeth pushed the darkspawn back.
Shayle covered in black blood, staggered to her feet, the Golem's crystals flickered as she struck out with her powerful hands, crushing bone and armor like egg shells.
The Golem snorted loudly.
"This would never have happened if Wilhelm had never shrunk me down," she complained, "Never before would I have…"
"Shayle," Alim shouted, "Less bitching, more squishing!"
The golem sniffed loudly and grabbed a hurlock nearby and flung it into a burning hovel. She did not like taking orders, but in this particular order she and the elf were of the same mind.
As the rest of the group began to emerge into the village, they could all see the damage that had been done in the darkspawns' wake. The great windmill of Redcliffe was gone; burning wreckage was all that remained. Most of the homes and shops had also been put to the torch. Yet Leliana saw few bodies, and the ones that she did see wore Redcliffe armor.
Had the people managed to make it to the castle before the attack? It seemed that way. She looked up at the distant fortress; more smoke billowed from outside the walls, but others than that, the castle seemed secure, at least for the moment.
Their allies broke from their formation and began to engage the beasts in earnest. As Alistair and his guards broke through, so did many Ferelden soldiers that had followed their king into the breach. Now that they were free of the pass the darkspawn did not seem as…numerous as they had marching in.
It was clear that the bulk of the horde had been directed at the army, and these stragglers were what remained of the forces attacking the village.
The wardens and their friends made quick work of them.
Alim glanced around as Leliana found her way to her side. Her love's white coat and hat were spattered with darkspawn blood, but he seemed no less the worse for wear.
He glanced up at the path leading up to the castle. At least one Ferelden company was fighting their way up their now. The darkspawn were trying to form up trying to push them back, but now that they had broken through their lines, the spawn seemed lost, they fought on, but it was clear that it was them, not Ferelden's defenders that were being overwhelmed.
"We must secure the castle," Alim shouted over the cacophony of battle. "Any who are injured should remain here, Wynne and Morrigan will see to your injuries, the rest of you, come with me."
Alim led the charge, once again he directed the wind against the spawn, and the black clouds that had roiled overhead seemed to be diminishing now that the horde was falling apart.
Leliana began yanking arrows out of the bodies of the darkspawn, refilling her quiver with the few useable ones she could find.
They could still hear the sounds of battle in the distance. The darkspawn were even now trying to breach the castle walls.
Leliana scanned the skies. She sought to catch a glimpse of the Archdemon. The battle here was going well, perhaps, almost too well.
The bard frowned.
Misdirection was something she knew well; it had been an old friend once, during her youth in Orlais. You show the enemy one thing, while you give them something else.
This attack on Redcliffe would slow their plans, but it would not stop them. Victory seemed near, but…
There was no sign of the Archdemon, if the beast meant to destroy Redcliffe; surely it would have been here.
Which, of course, led to another question: If the Archdemon was not here…
Where, in Andraste's name, was it?