Duty's Choice: The Bastards of Ferelden - Chapter 36

Running up that Hill

The first contraction hit around sunset.

Elinora had slowly hiked a full day, due north from the Warden's camp. She was snaking her way up a steep hill, managing about three steps before having to stop and catch her breath. If she was lucky, there was a tree to lean on. If she was very lucky there was something to sit on.

When the contraction hit, she wasn't so lucky.

Elinora lost her balance and fell, fortunately managing to turn to use the incline of the landscape to shorten the fall and catching most of the impact on her left shoulder. She rolled with impact on to her back and slid a couple of feet. There she stayed, letting the pain pass. She tried to count, but with no luck.

"Not now," she whispered to the child inside her. "Not yet."

The pain eased. She stayed on the ground and counted in the twilight. At six hundred and four another contraction hit. She counted. Sixty-seven.

It could be false labor, it could not be time.

But it could the real thing.

She needed to move, find some place safer, sheltered. Hopefully with a midwife and a fire and water and blankets and Alistair. A girl could wish.

Still counting, she rolled on to all fours. Elinora crawled to a friendly rock and used it to get herself back on her feet. At five hundred and seventy-six, another wave of pain took her. Through gritted teeth, she counted aloud. Seventy-one.

Ten more steps uphill in the deepening darkness. Five hundred and sixty-three seconds. Contraction. Seventy-seven seconds.

With the ebb of the last wave of pain, Elinora took a good look around.

She'd almost made it to the top of the hill. A massive pine tree waited, roots twining around the rocks, standing alone. It was pretty, but unimportant at the moment. What mattered was the wide view of the surrounding wilderness, which was just that, wilderness. No settlements, no campfires. No help.

Another contraction sent a crescendo of pain from her lower back all the way through her womb. Elinora didn't count this time, she just howled. When the pain was over, she realized that her legs were wet.

That confirmed it. Within a day her baby would no longer be safe in her womb.

She shouted her frustration to the heavens.

Alistair froze, gripping a tree branch that was going to launch him up the hill. He could have sworn he'd heard Elinora cry. It wasn't a sound he was deeply familiar with; she wasn't the crybaby he was.

And then he heard the roaring shout. That was defiantly her. That was the cry she often issued in battle, usually when injured and angry about it.

Alistair focused a moment. He felt the tug, the one that had pulled him off the main road in the first place. West. And up.

He threw himself upward and westward. "I'm coming, darling. I'm coming."

Rainer stopped as the last of the sun's rays faded. He'd heard a cry and tried to figure out its direction. An angry shout followed it. North. He pushed on up the hill.

Elinora managed to get herself to the great tree. She found a nice spot beneath it, a little hollow of soft ground, littered with pine needles, with a high root on one side and a solid rock on the other. They would provide her with something to grip and some support when the time came. For now she stayed on her feet, her back against the tree. She paced when she could, Petra said that was good for labor, until a contraction put her on her knees. She draped her arms on the root and pillowed her head against them until it passed.

She counted. At eleven a tear rolled down her cheek. At seventeen another. By the thirties she was crying outright.

She was alone in the wilderness. Alone and about to rip her child from her own womb. Which was better than him ripping himself out. She shuddered. At least her baby was safe from Morrigan and her Old God-child. Hopefully. Three hundred and forty-five.

Another contraction, she didn't count for how long, she didn't care. She panted through it, wishing and cursing in her head the whole time.

She wanted a proper bed, a cold compress on her forehead, experienced women around her, coaching her through. She wanted Petra and Twyla and Wynne and Orianna and most especially her mother. All there, all assuring her it was going to be alright. And if it wasn't, there to take care of her son.

More than anything, Elinora wanted Alistair.

She wanted his strong hand threaded through hers. She wanted to castrate him for leaving her and for getting her pregnant in the first place. She wanted him saying foolish things to distract her from all the hurting. She wanted the warmth and reassurance that was Alistair.

But here she was; cold ground, clothes on her back, dagger at her side and alone. And crying. Sobs choked from her body, howling her misery to the newly risen moon.

Alistair pulled himself up on a rock and paused. As he caught his breath, he sensed a Grey Warden off to his right. He followed its lead, grateful that it was not going up for the moment, and hopeful that Elinora was just around the bend.

Rainer stopped staring at the inclined ground and looked up. He could feel a Warden along the bond, one that wasn't here a moment before. He headed toward it and stopped on a wide rocky ledge.

Alistair stepped into the moonlight.

The two looked at each other for a long moment, shields and swords still on their backs. But the friendly terms they had parted on were forgotten, stolen in a cart going the wrong way.

Zevran caught sight of Rainer as he abruptly left the trail Elinora had left behind. The assassin stalked him, despite Cailin's very quiet protest. Once Zevran saw Alistair, he wasn't moving, but a quick hand signal and Cailin was back on his mother's trail.

Rainer's back was to Zevran, Alistair directly opposite. Zevran moved just enough to get into Alistair's line of sight. The king almost imperceptibly shook his head. Zevran stepped back and nocked an arrow anyway. One way or the other, Alistair was winning this fight.

With a slight shake of his head, Alistair asked, "Why did you do it, Rainer?" His voice was tightly controlled and his look deadly.

Rainer's expression matched the king's. "Because you failed her."

Alistair drew weapons, Maric's sword and Cailan's shield. "At least I didn't kidnap her. Couldn't stand that she turned you down?"

Rainer lips twisted in something like a smile and followed suit. "But she didn't turn me down, did she?"

Alistair lunged, focusing the anger that he buried for Elinora's sake, aiming for a quick strike to the heart. Rainer blocked with his shield and swung for Alistair's neck but met the king's shield instead.

Alistair took the opening and tried to thrust under Rainer's guard. It failed, but Rainer staggered back and set into a fighting crouch. They circled.

One of them was going to attack, but neither wanted to be the first. Wardens did not kill other Wardens for personal reasons, though this had left personal a long time ago.

They both heard it at the same time. A scream echoed from the rock above them. Rainer flinched, but didn't take his eyes off of his rival. Alistair forgot the fight and looked up, searching for the source, eyes wide and panicked. "I'm coming!" he called out.

Rainer attacked, poorly. To do more than get his opponent's attention would have been dishonorable. If he was to beat Alistair, it would have to be with honor. She would never forgive him otherwise.

Alistair batted away the feeble attack with a look of anguish. "Rainer, I get it, I really do. How could you not love her? How could anyone?" Alistair put up his sword and shield, unarmed but for his heart. "But if you have any love at all for her, you'll let me go to her."

Rainer's jaw tightened as he poised to strike.

Her wails filled the darkness.

"For Andraste's sake, man!" Alistair stepped into the reach of Rainer's sword. "She's in agony!"

Several heartbeats passed, filled with nothing but Elinora's pained sobs. Rainer dropped his sword and shield and fell to his knees, his head lowered. He closed his eyes against a pain deeper than any mortal wound. "Go."

Alistair went.

Morrigan watched as Alistair defeated Rainer with words. She never would have believed it if she hadn't witnessed it herself. Alistair headed off into the darkness, following the cries that were deafening to her wolf ears. Rainer stayed on his knees.

She transformed, wolf to human, and gave herself a minute before approaching the kneeling warrior.

Gently, she stroked his cheek, cupped his chin and forced him to look up at her. As his blue eyes met her amber, she said with more sincerity than she ever had, "I am sorry."

With a rush of movement and a roar of anger, Rainer pushed Morrigan away and himself off the ground, retrieving his sword as he did. "You bitch. What did you do to me?"

Morrigan sighed. She could paralyze or drain him and run, but now, it seemed with the time for the truth. "Ashling wanted an army to protect her and help her bring another of her kind into the world. She wanted the Wardens, whom she can control through the bond, and she wanted your undying loyalty." Morrigan's gaze shifted to the ground. "We made good use of your feelings for Elinora, figuring it was an easy route to your devotion."

Rainer rested his sword or Morrigan's shoulder, an easy flick of the wrist to her neck. "Is she controlling them now?"

Morrigan glanced casually at the sword. "I am not certain, but I do not believe so. The connection was broken when she drained everyone, and it took months to build. No, this plan has failed, but I fear she is going to make one last attempt. She is not far ahead of us, and neither is Elinora."

Rainer turned and marched for the crest of the hill.

Fear constricted Morrigan's chest. "Where are you going?"

"To end this."

Rainer froze, a paralysis glyph surrounding him.

"I cannot allow you to do that," Morrigan whispered. She stepped in front of Rainer, again meeting his eyes. "She is still my daughter. Know this as well; outside of the illusions of Elinora, everything between us was real, at least for me." She softly touched her warm lips on his frozen ones. "Find us in the Korcari Wilds."