Chapter 15 : Honorable Combat
Lyssa stared up at the castle. It was midday and the trio were trying to figure out how a dead queen, an elf steward and a human apostate would go about getting a meeting with the Arishok.
"Probably something we should have asked Kithshok about before we left," Lyssa said frowning.
"Morrigan could pop on a Q'unari suit maybe, find Kithshok and get us an audience," Gildre suggested.
"I could try that, but fooling a few men with a little glamour is easier than fooling a castle full of them. I don't think I'd get very far," Morrigan said.
"I guess we'll have to break in," Lyssa said.
Gildre laughed, "You're funny!"
"I think she's serious," Morrigan said.
"No she's... oh," Gildre said.
"It shouldn't be too hard. I broke out. Breaking in should be a snap," Lyssa said walking around the castle wall.
Morrigan and Gildre followed Lyssa as she stopped outside the wall where Lyssa and Gildre had climbed out not two nights earlier. She looked up at the window. The single bar she had removed was still missing. She turned around and peered up into the stable. The huge black stallion she had borrowed before was back, eating hay.
"He made it back!" Gildre said.
The stable boy was nowhere to be seen.
"Well then, let's see if we can get back in," Lyssa said leaning against the wall casually.
"Every quarter hour," Gildre said joining her.
"Perhaps, but if we're lucky the guard was increased because of me. That's a lot of guards to waste patrolling a castle on an island that no one can dock at," Lyssa said.
They waited for nearly thirty minutes before they heard the patrol. After the guards passed, Lyssa nodded at Gildre who got down on one knee and entwined his fingers. Lyssa put her foot in his hands and he boosted her to the top of the wall. She wasted no time reaching down for Morrigan and Gildre.
"Hurry, there are some shrubbery against the wall. I don't want to be seen," Lyssa said as she dropped down to the ground.
They scurried up to the shrubs and ducked behind them. Gildre looked up at the third floor.
"I know you climbed down this, but I don't know if I can climb up," he said.
"Do you have some rope?" Morrigan asked.
Gildre opened his pack and pulled out a cord of rope. He handed it to Morrigan. Morrigan took the end of the rope, and then vanished. A huge crow sat on the ground beside them, the end of the rope clutched in its beak. The crow took a few hops backward, then beat its large wings for a few seconds before it was able to take off. It flew up to the window and disappeared within. After a few minutes the rope dropped to them.
"Handy person to have around," Gildre said holding the rope while Lyssa began climbing, "Why didn't Alistair like her? Besides the scary witch thing, and the fact that she seemed to enjoy torturing the poor templar a little too much, she isn't so bad."
Lyssa smiled as she climbed, "I think," she said quietly down to Gildre, "You had to have met her before the Blight. She used to swoop a lot more."
Lyssa reached the window and pulled herself up. She turned back around and reached down to help Gildre up the last few feet. Lyssa pulled the rope up and tucked it behind the curtain in case they needed an escape route.
Morrigan was at the door to the hallway, peeking out. She motioned for them to come closer.
"I see no guards in this hallway. Do you have any idea where we should go next?" Morrigan asked.
"Well, after I woke, Kithshok did not take long to come to my room. My guess is he won't be far from here. I wonder if we act like servants if they'll ignore us?" Lyssa asked.
"We'd have to leave our weapons. Servants aren't usually armed. I think I'd rather take our chances hoping we don't run into anybody," Gildre said.
"Okay then, let's go," Lyssa said stepping out into the hallway.
Gildre and Morrigan followed her lead. Lyssa had been in many castles and forts over the years. They were never structured very differently. Typically, the quarters were never near the front of the building, and generally near enough to a rear entrance that should the castle get sacked, the rulers could make a hasty escape.
Lyssa walked toward the back of the castle where the hallway cut left. She peeked around the corner and saw two sets of stairs leading down. She looked at the doors lining the walls. There was a huge door in the middle of the hallway with a guard sitting outside. The guard was quite alert. Lyssa looked at Morrigan, behind her, and nodded indicating Morrigan should come forward. Morrigan looked around the corner and whispered something under her breath. A flash of green left her fingertips.
The flash traveled through the air swiftly and silently, hitting the guard in the head. He slumped back in his chair unconscious. Morrigan walked into the hallway and made her way toward the large doors. Lyssa grabbed her arm and shook her head pulling Morrigan back.
"That would be the Arishok's chambers. It would be best if we talked to Kithshok first. The Arishok is not going to trust what I say out of hand," Lyssa whispered.
She led them to one of the smaller doors and she pressed her ear to it. After a moment, she left it, then proceeded to the next door and pressed her ear to it. She looked at her companions and nodded her head before she pushed open the door slowly. When they crept into the huge office they saw Kithshok pacing back and forth.
Lyssa carefully shut the door and the three stood up straight. Lyssa cleared her throat. Kithshok turned, startled. He grabbed his blade from his back. When he saw Lyssa he frowned deeply.
"Our security is remiss," he said gruffly.
Lyssa shrugged, "I just came in the way I went out."
"Have you found the messenger?" Kithshok asked.
"Yes. And we know who the traitor is," Lyssa said leaning against the huge wooden desk at the center of the room.
"Your Arishok has made a deal with the Grand Cleric," Lyssa said crossing her arms.
"What? That cannot be! He would never trust... that human," Kithshok said.
"The messenger did not lie, I am sure of it. And the Chantry has everything to gain from this gambit. It fits," Lyssa said simply.
"Why would he send our people to war at the request of that woman? It makes no sense!" Kithshok said angrily.
"She promised to give him back your lands in Rivain. If the Arishok were able to accomplish this feat, he would indeed be highly honored among your people. The Q'unari hold no land aside from your islands. To gain a foothold once again on one of the larger landmasses of Thedas... they may even write songs about him," Lyssa said coyly.
"He has gone mad then. He should know the Grand Cleric has no such power," Kithshok said sitting heavily in a chair.
"He is getting old," Lyssa said calmly approaching Kithshok. "Perhaps he is even dying. He has known nothing of victory in all his time as Arishok. He is the highest ranking member of your military. And he has no legacy other than that of defeat to leave his people. It is not madness that causes him to make this decision, it is desperation."
Kithshok stood and walked to the door.
"Come. I will speak to him now. We cannot allow this any longer. I will not allow my people to be fooled this way. I will challenge him should he not submit. The Chantry will destroy us all if he goes through with this," Kithshok said.
They followed Kithshok out into the hallway. He looked down at the slumped guard and back at Lyssa shaking his head. He opened the huge doors to the Arishok's chambers. Lyssa, Morrigan and Gildre followed close behind. They moved into a large room where an ancient looking Q'unari was sitting. His hair was tied back behind his head, falling to the middle of his back. The creases around his red eyes were deep from years of fighting in the sun. He looked up when Kithshok entered. When he saw Lyssa he stood up and backed away in shock.
"What is this, Kithshok? Who have you brought into my room, at this time?" Arishok asked.
"This is the Queen of Ferelden. She knows of the traitor. And now, so do I," Kithshok said with an angry disappointment in his voice.
Arishok stared at Lyssa in disbelief. "But she is dead. I watched her hanged."
"Another woman. A murderer. Nothing more. The Queen escaped that night. And I sent a criminal's body in her place to Ferelden," Kithshok said.
Arishok stared at his son, "Why would you do this thing?"
"Because I did not want to challenge my Arishok. Because I hoped he would change his mind before it was too late. But now I find you have made deals with the Chantry, our sworn enemy," Kithshok said.
"You have betrayed me? My own son?" Arishok asked angrily.
"You have betrayed us all, father. You would waste the Q'unari, spend them on a war we cannot win. All for the chance you might be well remembered after you pass. You will leave us broken. Powerless at the feet of holy armies that will sate their blades with the blood of our children, in the name of their god, in the pursuit of your glory," Kithshok said, his voice growing very dark.
"I am bringing us back to greatness! We cannot fight from our islands. We cannot grow while trapped here. We have retreated enough! It is time to take back what was once ours!" Arishok yelled.
Kithshok looked down at the ground. Lyssa could see he felt there was nothing else he could say. The Arishok would not listen to reason. She stepped forward.
"The Grand Cleric cannot be trusted. I know what she has promised you, but she has no intention of fulfilling that promise. She doesn't have the authority; regardless what she may have told you. She has been building an army of templars. She intends to use them to take control of Ferelden, then to finish you off after you have done her the service of destroying all the men loyal to the King. You will not be able to stop her. You may survive the first attack on your shores, but you will be badly wounded. She will take advantage of that when the second wave, the templars, arrive on your shores," Lyssa said.
"And I should trust the word of you, human?" Arishok said with a grimace.
"I have never declared an Exalted March against your people. Yet you trust the Grand Cleric? Perhaps Kithshok is correct. You have gone mad," Lyssa said coldly.
Arishok turned angrily from Lyssa and stared out the window.
"Face it Arishok, you have been manipulated. She played on your weakness, your desire for a glorious battle, your desire for greatness. Your people know nothing of intrigue. The Chantry knows nothing but intrigue. It was a hand you were bound to lose," Lyssa said.
"It is too late," Arishok said darkly. "Your people come. She has made sure of that."
"If you pull your people back, I can meet the oncoming fleet. When they see me they will stop," Lyssa said.
"No. Your King is dead. You will not be able to stop them," Arishok said.
"He is not dead," Lyssa said stepping forward.
Arishok turned to her, his face enraged. "It is not the Chantry woman who told me this, it is my own people. Now you lie to save your army. I will not pull back my armada so that you may take Seheron unchallenged. You try to deceive me as well. I will not make the same mistake twice," Arishok pulled his massive blade and lunged at Lyssa.
The blade clanged to a stop inches from Lyssa's face intercepted by another. Lyssa stood motionless while she stared at the two massive blades locked together before her. Kithshok strained to hold his father's blade back. Kithshok was sweating from the effort.
"Go. I will do what I can. Just go," Kithshok hissed.
"Traitor!" Arishok screamed.
"That's going to bring some guards I'll bet," Gildre said, pulling on Lyssa's tunic.
"Come on," Morrigan said.
The three ran out of the Arishok's chambers and down the hall toward the room they had climbed up into. They could hear guards clambering around the corner just as they shut the door behind them.
"What do we do now?" Gildre asked, running to the window as Morrigan blasted the lock on the door with a spell, melting the metal.
"Kithshok," Lyssa said with a concerned look on her face.
"He made his decision some time ago," Morrigan said putting her hand on Lyssa's arm, "When he decided to take you from the roadside instead of challenging his father. You cannot blame yourself if he realized his mistake too late. We must flee this place and hide. They will be looking for us now. We can no longer travel through the city."
Lyssa followed Morrigan to the window and they looked down. No guards were present so they quickly made their way back down the rope and over the wall. They ran into the nearby woods and Lyssa stopped to look back at the castle. She sighed deeply, unsure of herself for the first time in many years.
"Come. We must go further from here. We should head to the harbor. I think now it may be time for us to do something truly drastic. There is a chance your army will stop if they see their queen. They are loyal to you. If they truly believe it is you, then we may yet win the day," Morrigan said pulling Lyssa along behind her.
**
They stood in the fringes of the forest near the Seheron harbor staring out at the sea. Lyssa could see no sign of the Ferelden fleet on the horizon. The day was coming to a close. Fighting had broken out all over the city. As Kithshok had predicted, half the Q'unari still backed the Arishok, despite Kithshok's challenge to the old leader. Any citizen who was not a Q'unari had holed up in their houses.
Kithshok had been declared a traitor to the Qun. Arishok had been declared mad. Q'unari in the harbor looked both toward the island and toward the sea with equal apprehension. While the guards of the castle and city fought amongst each other, the Q'unari naval fleet remained committed to their mission. Their last order had been to protect the Seheron coast at all costs. They were not about to abandon their posts to join the brawl.
Lyssa and her companions sat and waited, hoping to catch a soldier leaving his station unguarded so they could take a boat. They had agreed that if they saw the Ferelden fleet approaching, they would do whatever it took to get out on the water to meet them. They saw a small fishing boat with huge sails. Morrigan promised that if they managed to get on the boat, she would make sure it could outrun anything that attempted to follow it. Outrunning the cannons on the Q'unari fleet would be another matter altogether, but Lyssa said they had to try.
Lyssa sat a little apart from Gildre and Morrigan. She had wanted some time to herself to think. She hoped Kithshok was still alive, that the men loyal to him helped him escape the castle. But she could not be sure. She sat contemplating her decisions, wondering if there was anything she could have done better.
Morrigan sat in the sandy soil near the edge of the wood scanning the horizon. Gildre sat beside her plucking at a blade of grass impatiently.
"Tell me Gildre, why did you leave the Dalish camp?" Morrigan asked idly.
"Do you really want to know, or are you just trying to kill some time," Gildre asked.
"A little of both, I think," Morrigan said.
"My sister had recently been killed. She had been raped and murdered by bunch of street thugs in the city of Denerim. She went there to make a few trade deals. She liked to go into the city. She liked watching people. And she often brought things to the elves in the alienage. Food and medicine. It was a senseless act of violence that took her life, but it was the insensitivity of men that left my brother and I without justice. The city guard simply said Amaaro shouldn't have come into the city. That she should have known better. I was furious. But my brother had a different reaction. Arsan decided then and there that the best way to combat our grief would be to go out into the world and show that elves were worthy of the same respect as humans. I didn't understand at first, but, my brother was always very skilled in the art of persuasion. We left together, much to the disgust of the Keeper. Our goal was to change the way people looked at elves," Gildre said sadly.
"A noble goal, if a bit naïve," Morrigan said simply.
"Perhaps. But I don't regret my choice to go with Arsan. I would do it again, even knowing everything I do now," Gildre said.
"Where is this Arsan now? He must be proud of your current position as the King's Steward. I must admit, every now and then Alistair does something intelligent. You are quite resourceful," Morrigan said.
"Thank you... I think. But Arsan passed away almost fourteen years ago now. He did not live to see me get my Stewardship. He died in the joining," Gildre said.
Morrigan was quiet for a while.
"Well, I'm sure the queen was by his side then. If I am to die, there is no other place I'd want to be," Morrigan said simply.
Gildre smiled a little.
"Morrigan, you and Alistair, were you ever...," Gildre asked.
Morrigan laughed a little, "You have entirely the wrong impression. I do not despise Alistair because I am a spurned lover. I despise him because he is man, and a very foolish one at that."
Gildre frowned puzzled, "Then... you and Lyssa?"
Morrigan laughed again. "You are a clever little thing, but no. The connection you sense between us is a bit more complicated than that. I have never taken Lyssa as a lover. I love her as a sister, nothing more. Had things gone differently, I suppose tis possible I might have pursued her as such, but her heart has ever belonged to Alistair."
Gildre shook his head, "I'm sorry. I got the impression that something happened between you three. I'll keep my nose elsewhere then."
"Please do," Morrigan said curtly.
"Lyssa said you were a mother. Is your child grown then?" Gildre asked.
Morrigan flushed suddenly.
"Oh, forgive me Morrigan. I did not mean to pry. Most mothers enjoy talking about their children is all. I... was just trying to steer the conversation somewhere less disagreeable," Gildre stammered.
Morrigan turned and stared hard at Gildre, studying his face. Finally she decided he knew nothing and turned back to the sea, "You are forgiven."
Lyssa came towards them just then and nodded toward the water.
"There is a tiny speck. But only one. I cannot quite make out the details, but... it does not look Ferelden to me. Will you give me your advice?" Lyssa asked.
Morrigan looked in the direction Lyssa was pointing and Gildre was astonished as he watched her golden eyes transform into those of a bird of prey.
"I cannot tell from here. Give me a moment," Morrigan said, and she transformed fully into a hawk. She took off into the sky toward the dot on the horizon.
Lyssa watched Morrigan fly off and turned to Gildre speaking very softly.
"You and Morrigan, I saw you speaking. Did you perchance, ask her about her child," Lyssa asked.
"Yes, but she shut down immediately. You were right, she seemed nervous when I asked," Gildre said softly back.
"She did not suspect that you knew anything?" Lyssa asked.
"No. It came off very innocently. She... was very discreet about what went on between her and Alistair as well. I do not think she has told anyone about that night. I could tell she would have liked to say something nasty about Alistair's infidelity, but she held it back. She loves you, Lyssa. Truly. She will tell no one. I do not think she has any interest in placing her child on the throne," Gildre said putting his hand on Lyssa's.
"Thank you, Gildre. I just needed... an outside opinion. I can never tell if I am too close to something. And after the Arishok... I didn't even sense him coming. He surprised me. I thought I was getting through to him. It has been a long time since I came so close to death," Lyssa said.
"He surprised me as well. Perhaps he has gone mad," Gildre held Lyssa's hand. "You know, Morrigan is not exactly what I suspected she would be. When you told me all those years ago about that night, I don't know. I just figured she would be some nasty old hag I could hate. Alistair never said one word to me about her. I thought there must be a good reason."
"He doesn't speak of her—ever. Sometimes I think he has convinced himself it never happened. He loathes her in a way it is hard to comprehend. Like I said before, I think if you had met her then, you would feel differently. She has changed. It was hard for me to like her then. I didn't really, for a long time. I pitied her, yes. I saw her life as being very sad and empty. Not because she claimed not to believe in love, but because she desperately wanted it. She hid it well, but I could see it. Despite that, I could not find it in myself to care for her the way she did me.
"But when someone does what she did... she saved my life, and Alistair's, despite how she felt for him. I love her for that. She could have let him die. She could have scooped me up in her arms and flew off with me into the wilds. She could have soothed my pain. In time, I may have let her. But she didn't. She made my life possible. But the price was high. So very high I fear. If we get past this, I think it is time to talk to Duncan about it. He suspects something, I know. But you cannot tell Alistair we saw her here. Or that we tried to ask about... his child. It would open old wounds," Lyssa said.
Gildre put his other hand on Lyssa's. "In all the years I have known about this, all the trips I took to the places you knew the letters came from, all the people I have questioned about it... I have never said a word to him."
Lyssa smiled and pulled Gildre's head to hers. "You are a dear friend, Gildre."
Gildre moved one of his hands to the back of Lyssa's head and entwined his fingers in her hair. He sighed and closed his eyes. "And you... are lucky you are not a man. Otherwise this would get quite awkward indeed."
Lyssa laughed as she stood. "How would you ever choose between Alistair and me?"
"No need for choosing, I would take you both," Gildre said smiling as he stood as well. He looked out at the sea.
"I bet your fantasies would make Oghren blush," Lyssa said giggling.
"Hmmm," Gildre mused smiling to himself.
The hawk returned, fluttering down from the edge of the wood. Lyssa and Gildre watched as Morrigan transformed back into her old self.
"Where do your clothes go when you do that?" Gildre asked.
"I have to make the feathers out of something, don't I?" Morrigan asked, raising an eyebrow. "I have... good news I think. It is a Q'unari vessel. I could see no Ferelden vessels at sea, so either they have been waylaid, or they are more than twelve hours away. And... Alistair was on the Q'unari vessel."
Gildre reached back and grabbed Lyssa's hand, a look of pure delight on his face. Lyssa smiled at him.
"I told you to have faith," Lyssa said. "And that is indeed good news about the fleet. Maybe with Alistair here, the Arishok will listen. Let's hope the armada out there doesn't shoot them out of the water before they can get here."
"Well, hopefully it will help that Sten is also with them. Maybe we won't have to go on a suicide run after all," Morrigan said looking out to sea.
"They will be here by dark. We just have to keep the harbor safe for their arrival," Lyssa said.