Duty's Choice: The Bastards of Ferelden - Chapter 6

Inspection

Amaranthine – the next day

She awoke to a fierce and familiar pounding on her door. Elinora was alone and naked. But the detail that got her out of bed in a rush was that the sun. It was fully up. She'd overslept.

Pulling on her tunic, she cracked open the door to Orbert's panicked knock.

"So sorry to wake you, Commander," he stammered, "but you need to get to the practice yard right away."

She nodded blearily and closed the door. Once in leggings and boots, she jogged out of her room and to the practice yard.

Everyone in the castle surrounded the center sparring ring. With a groan of foreboding, she pushed her way to the front of the crowd.

Inside the roped-off square were Alistair and Rainer, practice swords and shields in hand. Both men were stripped to the waist and heavily sweating. They had been going at it for a while, and they sported the bruises the prove it.

Elinora was about to call a stop to it, when a hand landed on her shoulder. Burion smiled at her, then cut his appreciative eyes at the boys in the ring. "It might be best to let them get it out of their system."

She signed with frustration. "If I do that, one of them is going to get pummeled into jelly. And I'm not sure which."

"Me neither, but its so much fun to watch…"

He wasn't wrong.

With her best neutral expression, she watched two highly skilled, and rather out of practice, warriors battle for alpha male domination. Both of them had been behind a desk for too long, though it didn't take away from the visceral pleasure of the combat. Both of them were handsome, fit and half naked, sweat making the contours of their muscles gleam in the morning sun. She bit her lip, and noticed Burion doing the same. This was the best entertainment they'd had in ages.

And then Rainer's shield bashed into Alistair's forehead, which sent the king reeling. Rainer closed in.

"Enough!" Elinora's voice rang clear over the excited men. In the stillness that followed she could hear pieces of armor clank against each other as Wardens shifted uncomfortably. "Everyone to your duty stations or training rotation, on the double." She swung to face Rainer and Alistair, still panting from their sparring. "As for you two, I will see you in the Great Hall in fifteen minutes, suitably attired. Am I clear?"

They murmured their agreement as the crowd cleared, Wardens going off to train, soldiers to guard and servants to serve. She fixed the commander and king with a stern and masterful gaze. "If I may remind His Majesty and the First Warden," she growled, sharply saying their titles, "you are here on business, and I suggest we get to it."

With that, she spun around and returned to the castle.

Alistair and Rainer exchanged looks, then went their separate ways. Alistair's valet waited with a towel and poultice, then lead him to the royal pavilion just outside the gates. Rainer jogged to catch up with Elinora.

About halfway to her, Rainer began, "He asked for it you know."

She stopped dead, turned and put herself squarely in his path. "Do you understand that if you had accidentally killed the king of Ferelden, we will probably get banished again? Maker's breath, Rainer! For two hundred years there were no Wardens in Ferelden. We just started to make headway, and then Ostagar happened, wiping us out again and sullying our name!"

"But he wanted…"

"What a king wants and what a king gets are two different things." She started walking again.

Rainer stayed where he was. "You'd know, wouldn't you?"

Elinora paused, but did not turn. "Very, very well." She looked back at the First Warden. "We have work to do."

Rainer was slurping down a bowl of porridge when Alistair entered the Great Hall. The gleaming armor did not match his new black eye. Rainer smirked into his bowl.

Alistair fetched a cup of tea and wandered over to Rainer, casually lounging against the table. "Good sparring this morning. My people usually take it too easy on me."

"Afraid of mussing your hair?"

"Something like that." Alistair sipped his tea. "It's a pity she stopped us."

Rainer glanced at the king and dropped his voice. "Is it just me, or is she…?"

"Cranky?" Alistair suggested.

"Well, I would never say that to her face, but yes. Any idea why?"

"Lack of sleep I suspect." Alistair took a sizeable gulp of tea. "Makes me cranky."

Rainer shot Alistair a pointed look. "Well, when the king just shows up…"

Alistair shook his head. "I arrived only a few hours ahead of you. Its not that. She hardly slept in months." Alistair's eyes drifted around the Hall. He'd heard rumors of what a disaster this place was before the Wardens came in, but even now it was still dark and uninviting. "I think its this place." He sighed. "While the symmetry is nice, it was a mistake putting her here."

Rainer looked confused. "She never struck me as sensitive to gloomy architecture. Weisshaupt is much more depressing than this."

Alistair looked down at Rainer. "You know the history of this place, right?" At Rainer's headshake, Alistair sat down and told him the sad story of the Couslands and the Howes.

It took Elinora a half hour to get down to the Great Hall. She took her time getting ready, hair braided in the Orlesian style and armor polished to outshine the sun. In her study, she ate some breakfast and attended to a few details. She had no problem making the boys wait.

When she arrived in the Hall, she found Rainer and Alistair sitting at a table, talking.

And for some reason that made her worry more than when they were fighting.