Chapter 7

Caleb and Juliet walked into the camp and as they drew closer Ser Thomas turned his head to look at them. He got up, drew his sword, and began moving towards Juliet with speed Caleb had never seen before. He drew his sword quickly and barely managed to get in the way of the attack in time, "What are you doing Caleb? She's an apostate, she's dangerous" Ser Thomas demanded of Caleb.

"All you need to know is that she's coming with us. Aside from that you're not getting an explanation" Even though Ser Thomas was old it still took all of Caleb's strength to hold him off. They stayed in their stare down for a few minutes before Ser Thomas backed away.

"Very well," He turned his head to Juliet and pointed his finger at her, "But if you make one wrong move I won't hesitate to cut you down"

"I'm so scared" Juliet sarcastically mocked him. Ser Thomas almost took another swing at her but walked off to his tent to cool down instead.

By now all the other companions had gathered around to look and see what was going on. They all gazed at the mysterious woman standing next to Caleb. Eleanor was the first to ask the question that was on all of their minds, "Caleb, who is this woman?"

"I am…" Juliet started to respond but Caleb cut her off.

"Her name's Juliet, I found her wondering around the forest. She needed somewhere to go so I decided to invite her along with us," Caleb calmly addressed them. Eleanor and Isala seemed to accept the explanation and walked off to their tents. Only Gwaren continued to examine Julie and he appeared to want to ask about her but decided against it.

"If you don't mind my asking, why did you lie about me?" Juliet asked

Caleb turned to face her and explained, "Because Eleanor and Ser Thomas don't know about Diederik or what your mother has told me, and it is going to stay like that, understand?"

"I suppose if you want to keep secrets, that's your business," Juliet coldly responded showing how little she actually cared, "but my next question is: where do I sleep?"

"You can sleep in the back of the wagon for tonight, don't worry it's a lot more comfortable than it looks. When we reach Halamshiral tomorrow, we'll buy some equipment for you," Caleb led her to the wagon and helped her into the back. After Juliet was settled in Caleb returned to his own tent to retire for the night.

The next day the group awoke early and set out towards the last city on their way to Val Royeaux; Halamshiral. It hadn't taken more than half the day to get to the city and the group was plenty excited to get there. Caleb heard them talking up a storm behind him. It hadn't taken that long to move from Jader to here but a lot had happened and stopping in the city would give them time to relax a bit before moving on to the Orlesian capital.

Caleb turned his head to look at the strange companions he had picked up. The dwarf that had tried to rob them, sharing stories with the elf that had tried to kill him. The witch that had snuck into their group as an animal, talking with the princess who he had fallen in love with while she was pretending to be a commoner. And the Templar that had trained him and been like a father to him was bringing up the rear.

Caleb turned back to face the road. He thought about what would await them, if Ser Thomas was sent to help a revolution against the empress there would be no telling how long they would be in the city. He figured the best thing to do was to prepare a strategy for how he would get to Starkhaven and deal with Diederik.

Than they reached the city of Halamshiral, it was about the size of Highever but a lot more crowded than it had been. They approached the city wall and as they approached the gate a guard pulled them over and ordered that they leave the wagon outside the city. So the put the wagon where the guard instructed, next to the wagons of other travelers in merchants and stabled the horses. They proceeded into the city and walked through it until they reached the town square.

"Alright everyone, if you need anything this is the place to get it. After here we're heading straight to Val Royeaux," Ser Thomas told the group though Caleb was barely paying him any attention. He was more caught up with taking in the sheer magnificence of the city, it was almost like Denerim with the amount of people running around in the market area they stood in, "Caleb," he turned to look at Ser Thomas.

"What?"

"Look out for the others; I need to take care of somethings before we go into Val Royeaux,"

"Alright, you can count on me," And with a nod Ser Thomas turned to Eleanor and motioned for her to go with him. The two left leaving the other four to themselves.

"So what are we supposed to do in the meantime?" Gwaren asked.

"First off we can buy Juliet some equipment and get some more food and supplies while were here in the market. Afterwards let's find a tavern, I could use a drink"

3 Hours Later

The group had gotten everything they thought that they would need from the market and had taken it back to the wagon. They walked into a tavern called "The Bastard Prince", a name which as a citizen of Ferelden Caleb couldn't help but think about his own king. They sat around a table in the almost empty building and ordered a round of ale, "Out of all the Orlesian cities, this one has some of the best ale," Gwaren said as the wench walked away from the table.

"I'm going to hold you too that, dwarf" Isala commented

"Anything is better than the ale my mother would make," Juliet said with a laugh, the others laughed as well. This was the first time that they had just been able to cut loose and blow of some steam. Maker only knew what would await them in the next few months.