Chapter 12 : Bad News, Bad Man
Lyssa stared up at the castle she had so recently escaped from. She was sitting casually, her back against a wall. She was whittling away at a chunk of wood absentmindedly. Morrigan and Gildre were standing behind her leaning against the same wall. Although they were facing each other, their eyes were constantly scanning the castle. Every time someone came close, Morrigan would flirt with Gildre, twisting her hair in her fingers and speaking in a syrupy voice. Gildre would smile and blush. Lyssa was impressed at how well he played the role. He was an awkward young man who had found himself in the fortunate position of being chatted up by an attractive young woman. Every time Morrigan spoke Lyssa had to stifle a giggle. Morrigan was not good at flirting. She sounded more like the creepy older woman who lingered a little too long while staring at the young templars in training than a young woman who was flirting with a handsome young elf.
"How long do we have to keep doing this? I'm running out of lines," Morrigan hissed.
"Darling, you ran out of lines two minutes in. I've just been too polite to tell you," Gildre said smiling.
"What would you know? You clearly aren't interested in women," Morrigan said.
"That doesn't mean they aren't interested in me. I've heard better pick up lines from drunken dwarves. You are really bad at this," Gildre said laughing.
"That's because I've never had to use pick up lines. If I want a man, I tell him, and he comes to me," Morrigan said haughtily.
"Are you sure about that? I think you're more likely to scare the men into petrification. Like prey bitten by a spider, unable to move until you've finished having your way with them," Gildre said.
"Well, there is that method as well. Simpler that way," Morrigan said matter-of-factly.
"Shh," Lyssa said, "I think this is him."
Lyssa stared at the huge Q'unari coming out of the castle and heading into town. Sure enough it was the Kithshok. Lyssa nodded her head as she spoke.
"That's him. Are you ready?"
"As I'll ever be," Morrigan said.
Gildre looked back at Morrigan. When he saw her, he stumbled backward into Lyssa in surprise. Before him stood a huge Q'unari woman. Her braided white hair fell all the way to her waist. Her bronze skin was set off by a simple cream colored frock. She had violet eyes that flashed in the light.
"What's the matter, never seen a female Q'unari before?" Morrigan asked smiling.
Gildre found it extremely disconcerting to hear Morrigan's voice coming from the huge Q'unari woman's mouth.
"No actually," Gildre stammered.
Lyssa turned around curious and gaped.
"Wow! I guess I haven't either," she said.
"Doesn't surprise me. The backwards people keep their women at home. Here he comes. I better look a little more... domestic," Morrigan said. She approached a clothes line strung up in front of a nearby house. While Morrigan started pinning up some things from a nearby wicker basket, Lyssa and Gildre slipped inside the small home and peered out a shuttered window. They had paid the owner handsomely for use of the domicile for the afternoon. The owner of the house, an elf, had leered at the trio lecherously before taking the sack of coins.
Lyssa watched as Kithshok walked down the street toward the home. He had several guards with him. Morrigan was pinning up a sheet when Kithshok turned toward her. She shyly peeked around the sheet at him, letting a coquettish smile play across her lips. The magic did the rest. Kithshok found himself unable to look away from this female. He approached without caution, his lust blinding him to any misgivings he might have had.
Morrigan shyly ducked behind the sheet as Kithshok approached. When Kithshok was almost within reach, Morrigan picked up her empty basket and slowly stepped into her house, blushing as she looked back at the Q'unari commander. She closed the door most of the way, leaving it open a crack. Once inside, Morrigan motioned for Lyssa and Gildre to get behind the door. Morrigan placed the basket on the table and turned to face the door.
Kithshok stared at the slightly ajar door, considering the invitation. He turned back to his guards. They also were looking at the door with great longing. The Q'unari woman had been quite beautiful. Several of the guards were thinking that if their commander wasn't going to take advantage of the situation, they certainly would.
"You may leave. I will be... a while," Kithshok said.
The guards nodded and three of them headed for the tavern. One guard stopped across the street from the house and stood vigil. Kithshok turned and opened the door. The beautiful Q'unari woman was standing at the table, smiling at him. He shut the door behind him.
As he did, Morrigan waved her hand. A brilliant flash of blue light leapt from her fingers to hit the Q'unari commander square in the forehead. He slumped to the ground. Lyssa ran forward and quickly began tying up Kithshok's hands and feet while Gildre started to pull the huge man's sword away from him.
"No," Lyssa said putting her hand over Gildre's. "The bonds will hold."
"If you are sure," Gildre said leaving the sword on Kithshok.
Morrigan approached, still in Q'unari form, and helped them lift Kithshok and drag him to the bedroom. They laid him on the bed, with his back leaning against the wall and shut the door. Morrigan changed back and stood at the foot of the bed waiting.
"Okay, bring him around," Lyssa said. Gildre was busy making sure the shutters were closed tight.
Morrigan waved her hand and Kithshok opened his eyes. His gaze fell upon Lyssa and he immediately pulled at his restraints. They held.
"Vashedan!" he hissed.
"Indeed," Lyssa said, "I am sorry to do this to you, but we need answers."
"I gave you the answers you needed! Humans! You never listen. It is why you speak so much," Kithshok said angrily.
"No, I listened quite well. That is why you are here and not facing the might of Ferelden's army as we speak. I understand that your people are not ready to defeat us and won't be for many, many years. I also know that our armies will grind each other down should we attack. I am no fool. I knew this before you spoke of it. I know you disobeyed your Arishok. You lied to him, and told him I was dead. What I don't know, and what I want to know, is why. I also want to know who has been talking to the Arishok. Who has gotten your people in this mess?" Lyssa asked.
Kithshok looked down at his bonds and tested them again grunting, "You were supposed to leave, hide in the woods, try to find a way off the island."
"Love to. Give me a boat and I am so off this island," Lyssa said.
Kithshok looked away and glowered.
"You won't do that...? Why do you not challenge the Arishok? If you win, you will take his place. You can do whatever you like then," Lyssa asked confused.
"You ask me to kill my own father. This I will not do. It would not matter. Arishok has defended Seheron for many years. Half my people would jump into the sea and drown themselves if he asked it. If I killed the Arishok, the outcome would be the same for us. Either we kill each other, or your people kill us," Kithshok said.
"If you won't give me a boat, why did you help me at all? I cannot stop the war from coming if I cannot get to my people," Lyssa said frustrated.
Kithshok sighed heavily.
"I hoped Arishok would change his mind. I hoped he would see sense. I still do. You are alive. All this can still be undone should Arishok come to his senses. He would be angry at first, but relieved. I have not yet been able to convince him of his folly. I cannot let you leave. You are safer here than in Ferelden," Kithshok said.
Lyssa sat on the bed near Kithshok's feet.
"Is that why you abducted me?" she asked.
"No. That was a fortunate coincidence. If I had been ordered to kill you, there would have been nothing I could have done. I would have had to challenge Arishok or let my people go to war. It was the traitor who wanted you kidnapped."
"But why? It makes no sense," Lyssa interrupted.
"They had two reasons," Kithshok said, "The body arriving burnt at the docks of Denerim would goad the people's anger to fury. There was much talk of needless theatrics. Foolish. Angry people act without forethought. War should be started with calm assurance of victory.
"The traitor also needed the King under control. They felt the King would not be controllable had he found his queen dead. We had to wait for the signal. Once the King was back under the watchful eye of the traitor, only then were we to kill you. But this traitor acts as rashly as the Arishok. My only hope is to change the Arishok's mind," Kithshok said.
"Why does Arishok listen to this traitor?" Lyssa asked confused.
"I do not know. I ask and he tells me nothing. I have only seen a messenger. A man who waits at the docks for the birds to come. He delivers the messages to Arishok. I thought of killing him many times, but I cannot be certain that this would help. If the messenger died, Arishok would no longer listen to me, and the traitor would likely just send another to deliver their messages," Kithshok said.
"You can untie me. I will not harm you. You need to be unharmed should the Arishok come to his senses," Kithshok said.
"She needs to be unharmed. We are expendable," Morrigan said stepping forward.
Kithshok looked at Morrigan, "You were the Q'unari woman. Forbidden magic?"
"It is not blood magic, if that's what you mean," Morrigan said.
"Old magic then. You have powerful allies, Grey Warden. I will not harm them. I swear by my sword," Kithshok said.
Lyssa turned to her friends. Gildre nodded. Morrigan frowned, but stepped back and leaned against the wall, saying nothing. Lyssa pulled a blade and sliced through the bonds. Kithshok rubbed his wrists and stood up, touching his blade to make sure it was still there.
"What will you do now?" Kithshok asked.
"We need to find out why Arishok is doing this. If we can change his mind we must. Obviously we have to do this before he finds out you betrayed him. He will not listen to you if he knew what you had done, even if you are his son," Lyssa said pacing.
"No, he would not." Kithshok said.
"Maybe we could find something out from this messenger. If we knew who the traitor was, then perhaps we could gain some insight into why this Arishok is involved," Morrigan suggested.
Kithshok looked thoughtful for a moment before he spoke, "I was afraid of questioning the messenger before now, for fear of the Arishok finding out. But as I suspected, once the body was delivered, the messenger disappeared. He has not left the island, this I know. No one is allowed to leave without my authorization. But he has disappeared among the population here. If you can find him, he is yours to question."
"What does he look like?" Lyssa asked.
"He is not much older than you. He is human and has red hair. I know little else. But there are few humans on Seheron. He would stand out. Seheron city will be the best place to look. Most of the smaller cities are exclusively Q'unari. The elves and humans that are of the Qun feel more comfortable here," Kithshok said.
"How long do you think we have?" Gildre asked Lyssa.
"I suppose it depends. They surely have the body now. The current runs north to south along the coast of Thedas. The small fishing boat we saw will travel quickly. They probably only recently received it. If Alistair got my message correctly, he may try to delay them somehow. Even if he did... if they paraded that body through the streets of Ferelden... there isn't much that could stop the soldiers from sailing out to Seheron, with or without a commander," Lyssa said.
"Then we need to find this messenger quickly," Morrigan said.
Lyssa nodded. "Kithshok, I will do the best I can to stop this war, but I want you to think of your actions as well. If we cannot find some way to convince the Arishok that it is not in his people's best interest to fight this war, then you need to consider this. Whoever the traitor is, they wish to weaken both Ferelden and the Qun. If you let us go to war because you fear your people will rebel against you, then the traitor will get exactly what they want. If you can somehow find it in yourself to do the honorable thing, and challenge your father, Ferelden will remain strong, the traitor will be ousted, and you will find yourself with a very powerful ally. Should you need aid to calm the unrest your people after you challenge the Arishok, Ferelden would gladly come to your side. Think on this when the Ferelden ships appear in your seas. People who are eager for vengeance often act foolishly, but that does not make their blades any duller."
Kithshok watched as Lyssa and her companions climbed out the rear window of the small house and headed out into the city. He pulled his great sword from its scabbard and looked upon it. He touched the shining surface and remembered the day his father gave it to him. He knew the human woman was right, but he did not know if he had the strength to do what must be done.
**
It was morning when they got their first breakthrough. Gildre had charmed a young elf woman who was serving breakfast at a rundown tavern in the back end of Seheron. She was a chatty thing and Gildre had managed to get her to talk about some of her more unusual customers. She mentioned the human right away when that topic came up.
"Yes, I've had some doozies. There is a new human in town, which in itself is strange. One of the reasons I moved here. Our people are treated much better here in Seheron than in Fereldon. When you tire of the way humans look at you, you should consider relocating. We have Dalish here as well, but they do not fear the humans," she said fluttering her eyelashes at Gildre.
"So do the humans visit this bar often?" Gildre asked.
"A few. This one was alright, until a mage sat near him. We do not have many mages here. The Q'unari are quite harsh to any who practice forbidden magic. Anyway, when the mage sat down I thought this human was going to explode. His face got so red I thought he had eaten a hot pepper or something. I asked him if he was okay and he started whispering to me that there was a mage in the room, as if I didn't know it. I'm not stupid. Anyway he started preaching to me, if you can believe that. 'All mages are evil. All mages should be locked up and under strict control.' Blah blah blah! I don't know what his deal was, but I was glad when he left," the waitress said.
"He isn't staying around here is he? My friend is a mage. I think we should probably avoid him," Gildre said.
"You're friend over there, that cute elf? Tall for an elf. Good looking. How... close a friend is he? We could all get together later," the waitress said, touching Gildre's arm. "See what happens?"
"Sure, I think we'd both like that. I've been trying to get him in the sack for ages. He's a little shy, having you around might do the trick. But like I said, only if it is somewhere we won't run into that human. I don't want to ruin the... mood," Gildre said cupping the waitresses' hands in his own.
"Well, we could meet up near the center of town. That should keep us far away from here. That human is probably holed up a Jona's. Jona isn't very picky about his borders," the waitress said. "There's a tavern near the castle. It has a leaf on the sign, and nothing else. It's elves only, so we won't have to worry about any humans at all. See you there... tonight."
She gave Gildre a kiss on the cheek and walked off. Gildre gave her a little wave. He stood and walked back to Lyssa's table. He leaned in and said, "Let's get Morrigan. We need to find a place called Jona's," Gildre said in a low voice.
Lyssa nodded and stood as the waitress across the room winked at her and blew her a kiss. "Gildre, why is that waitress flirting with me?"
"Uh... I might have agreed to a threesome. I got the information though," he said. He hid a smile as he watched the waitress lick some foam off her finger seductively while pointedly looking at Lyssa.
"So... we should avoid…"
"The One Leaf Tavern. Stay far away," Gildre said laughing.
"Got it," Lyssa said walking over to the door. Before she could reach it the waitress had managed to come back their way. Lyssa felt a hand firmly grip her buttocks and squeeze.
"Don't be shy lover. I'll make it worth your while, trust me," The waitress whispered in Lyssa's ear.
Lyssa tried not to turn around. She didn't want the waitress to look too closely and find it was a woman she was manhandling, or that Lyssa's hair wasn't hiding pointed ears.
The waitress walked, looking back over her shoulder appreciatively. "Yummy. See you tonight!"
Lyssa stepped out into the morning sun trying to ignore what had just happened. Gildre held in his laughter just long enough to make it to the end of the street.
"Come on lover, let's find Morrigan," Lyssa said shaking her head. "And you better not be lying about this One Leaf Tavern thing. If we get to Jona's and there is a naked woman in the room, I'm making you undress first."
Gildre laughed for a little while, wiping tears from his eyes. "There's Morrigan," he said, pointing.
They walked over to Morrigan who was asking a merchant pointed questions about something. When Morrigan noticed Gildre and Lyssa she tried to keep her face emotionless.
"What is it?" Lyssa asked.
Morrigan frowned. "We should go somewhere quiet. This place is too public."
Lyssa was disturbed by the tone in Morrigan's voice. She grabbed Morrigan's hand as they walked away from the merchant.
"What is it?" Lyssa pressed.
Morrigan sighed and looked down. "A message came from Ferelden. It seems... that when the body of the queen was delivered to the king... in his grief... he took his own life."
Lyssa dropped Morrigan's hand and felt her body stiffen. Gildre grabbed Morrigan by the tunic and shook her.
"What? Is this some kind of cruel joke?" Gildre said his voice raising.
"Tis no joke," Morrigan said watching Lyssa. "Teagan himself came upon the king moments after he…" Morrigan trailed off. "The news is everywhere in town. The people here are in a bit of a panic. Many are leaving the city to avoid being killed by what they all fear will be the inevitable onslaught of Ferelden's forces. Lyssa..."
Lyssa brushed off Morrigan's hand, her face blank. She was thinking furiously. Gildre fell against Lyssa, his cries of anguish audible up and down the street. Morrigan stared at the elf in shock.
"This is why I tried to get you to come somewhere out of the way," Morrigan said, watching Gildre, "but... this is not how I imagined it would be."
"Gildre, come with me," Lyssa bent down and wrapped her arms around the elf. She pulled him gently towards a quiet alley where a few trees still stood. Morrigan stood next to them, her arms crossed.
Gildre was on the verge of a complete breakdown. "Gildre," Lyssa said sternly, "You must get a hold of yourself."
The elf did not seem to hear her. Tears streamed down his face as he hugged himself tightly, rocking back and forth.
Morrigan stared at Gildre with a disgusted look, "I can understand Gildre finding Alistair's superficial, muscle bound facade appealing but he reacts as if he is in love with the man " Morrigan said with utter disbelief. "Has the whole world gone mad?"
"I know you despise Alistair, Morrigan, but must you lack compassion for those who do not?" Lyssa said coldly.
Morrigan staggered back, as if struck.
"I'm sorry, Lyssa. I didn't mean...," Morrigan said.
Lyssa sighed and pulled Gildre into an embrace. "No, I am sorry. I did not mean to snap at you. My patience is wearing thin. I don't care for the politics of nobility at the best of times. I like it even less when I am embroiled in it myself. Forgive me. I know you mean no harm."
"No, it is I who must apologize. I spend too much time away from the world. I... am not very good relating to the people in it. I will make a stronger effort," Morrigan said softly.
Lyssa looked up at her friend surprised, "I was wrong. You have changed. Motherhood has softened you, Morrigan."
Morrigan looked away from Lyssa, "No, twas not motherhood that did that."
Lyssa stared at the back of Morrigan's head for a moment, wishing she could see inside. Then she turned back to Gildre and lifted his face to hers. She kissed his wet cheeks and smiled at him.
"Gildre, please. You must have faith. Alistair was probably scheming of ways to get out of the castle as soon as he realized he was trapped. I think he saw an opportunity to get out of the castle without being followed, and he took it," Lyssa said stroking Gildre's hair.
Gildre looked up into Lyssa's face and saw the confidence there. He took a few steadying breaths and nodded. Lyssa smiled at him and used the sleeve of her tunic to dab the tears off of his face. Gildre hugged Lyssa tightly.
"I'm sorry," he whispered. "I thought I was over this."
"Shhh," Lyssa said hugging Gildre back. "There is nothing to apologize for. Now, let us go find this Jona's. We have a messenger to interrogate."
Lyssa stood and helped Gildre up. She looked at Morrigan who was staring to the east.
"Look there," Morrigan said pointing. Lyssa followed Morrigan's gesture to see a ramshackle building with an old sign on the front that said 'Jona's.'
"Come," Lyssa said as she started toward the building. Then she froze. A red-headed human had just stepped from the building. He looked around furtively.
Morrigan watched the man as he finally turned and walked off down the street. Lyssa hastily pursued, stopping at the edge of the alley to stare after the man. Her intense gaze never left the man. The redhead entered a general store. Gildre furrowed his brow.
"Do you recognize him?" he asked, his voice low.
"Cullen!" Lyssa hissed under her breath.