The Korcari Wilds were ablaze. Not the whole Wilds, not by far. The marshlands were too moist for that; they would never succumb to a forest fire. But a dragon's breath, the flaming, noxious fumes, those could set a portion of the Wilds on fire, if only for a while.
Andraste was still circling overhead, occasionally swooping low to spit flame at the Darkspawn still milling about the center of the Wilds.
"I'll be damned," Lance muttered. He was certain that the dragon didn't know the difference, certain that it was just a dumb animal. But it was comforting to think that the great creature wanted them to succeed.
"I can scarcely believe it," said Morrigan. "The Wilds are burning."
"Happy?" he asked her. She shrugged.
"I do not yet know. They were home for the whole of my life. I hated them, but to see them set on fire?"
"It is horrible," said Velanna. "These trees, the animals. They do not deserve this. They did nothing wrong."
"I wouldn't worry," said Lance. And Rand was beside him, nodding. He wished they had a spyglass to see down into the forest.
"There are only Darkspawn there," said Rand. "Nothing else. Nothing worth preserving."
Lance unsheathed his sword.
"From here on," said Lance. "Our lives are forfeit."
Sigrun snorted. "What do you mean from here on?"
"The rest, Sigrun. I meant the rest of us."
And he took the head of their column, finding a patch of forest left untouched by flame, a path to take them into the Deep Roads.
During the Blight the Darkspawn had come north from the Wilds. There was no way to track them, no way to follow them to their source with the depth and danger of the woods and the Darkspawn. But Andraste had lit up the forest, given them a beacon to follow.
And now they could feel them, smell them burning. The reek of fetid, burning flesh assailed them. It made them queasy at first, but they suppressed it and went forward.
The Darkspawn had been largely routed by the dragon, either returning to their underground lair or dispersing into the burning woods. Either way, they were a non-entity at this point.
The entrance to the Deep Roads appeared to have once been a great door. Perhaps the exit from the underground to a surface settlement, or a means by which the Dwarves filtered out their air. It had been burst open from within long ago, the rusting, decaying remnants of its structure bulging and scattered about the forest floor. It was blackened from smoke, the very same smoke that was becoming hard to breathe through despite their mages' magic.
The dank underground air wouldn't be a significant improvement, but at least they needn't worry about dropping dead. The twelve Wardens made their way into the Deep Roads, unmolested by Darkspawn or traps of any sort.
He could feel Urthemiel, the group mind of the Darkspawn throbbing behind his eyes. It was noxious, sickening, but at least let him know they were close.
They didn't need torches, not with the mages able to cast light from their staves. Dull blue and green and purple glows reflected off the bare walls, only to be eaten up by the Darkspawn corruption deeper within. The Deep Roads were covered with the fleshy, organic Taint.
A physical manifestation of the Darkspawn's corruption.
Starfang added to the glow, the mysterious alien metal creating an ethereal aura. It was comforting.
The runes along its surface glowed brightly, the Silverite enchantments reacting to such a strong concentration of Darkspawn.
They could hear the scratching of talons on stone, Shrieks rushing to and fro. The Darkspawn had to have sensed the Wardens by now. Why they had yet to attack wasn't something Lance could guess at. It didn't matter, though. Soon enough they would be going toe-to-toe with the monsters in their full muster.
Rand nudged Lance, pointed to his eyes and then ahead at the encroaching darkness kept at bay only by the combined magical lights being wielded by the Wardens. Lance took a step forward, pointing his sword out to illuminate the long tunnel ahead of him.
And one of the sneaking Shrieks charged forward.
Lance ducked, allowed one of Nathaniel's arrows to whistle by his head and pierce the Shriek's throat. It took two stumbling steps forward before falling flat on its face.
And that seemed to be the only signal the Darkspawn needed, springing forth from narrow hiding places and dark crevices to wave their curved swords and broken spears. They carried stolen shields, equipment made from whatever pieces of rust and iron they could scrape together.
And Lance welcomed them.
He was up, found the first Genlock to dare approach him and lopped its head right off its shoulders.
The Wardens reacted as one, sending their own swords, arrows, magic forward, killing the Darkspawn in droves. It wasn't a real attack, Lance realized. It was a distraction, a feint. Urthemiel wanted them distracted, but for what?
Saul was beside him, glad to fight next to the Legend Himself. He was grinning madly as he thrust his sword into a Darkspawn chest. He was using his shield to pound them back, all while Lance hacked and skewered with Starfang.
The Darkspawn fell back then, rushing back into the Deep Roads to hide and prepare another ambush.
Lance held his hands out, signaling the Wardens to stop.
"Wait," he said, voice echoing through the Deep Roads, muted in their minds by the buzzing Darkspawn Taint. "It's a trap."
And they all hesitated, trying to see a way around the ambush. They could feel it, the festering mass of Darkspawn waiting just ahead. The Darkspawn were leading them straight into an ambush, where the full horde could descend upon them.
"Commander," said Oghren, scraping his axe gratingly against the wall to rid it of Darkspawn gore. Sigrun saw what he was indicating, a strange rune carved into the wall. They would have missed it if not for the massed light being provided by the mages.
"It's an old marker," said Sigrun. "Some of the old Thaigs had these."
She felt along the walls, looking for what Lance assumed to be another rune. He had no idea how this Dwarf stuff worked. He'd have been lost in Kal'Hirol if not for the two Dwarves. The short bastards sure loved their secrets.
Sigrun tugged on the Commander's arm, indicating for him to use his sword to illuminate another section of wall. He looked nervously back down the tunnel, wondering how long the Darkspawn would wait before deciding to charge headlong in full force. Sure they'd take tremendous casualties, but at least they'd kill the Wardens.
And the wall appeared to be a blank slab, surrounded on either side by slabs covered in runes.
"To the untrained eye," said Sigrun. "It looks like a history of the Thaig's founders. And it repeats on the other side."
Lance snorted at that. To the untrained eye it looked like a lot of runes and nothing at all like a history.
"But this blank spot…" she said. And she gave it a push. The slab ground open, rusted gears creating a noise that reverberated throughout the Deep Roads. It revealed a long set of stairs, descending into the deep darkness below.
Lance stared back down the tunnel, where the Darkspawn were amassing.
"Saul, take point," he said, indicating the staircase. Saul nodded and hefted his shield, stepping forth into the dark to be able to dull any Darkspawn charge from below.
Lance gestured for Oghren to take up the rear, a position he wasn't very happy to take. But when the Darkspawn surged from the Deep Roads, he was most eager to hold the rear. Neria aided him with her magic, looking quite a bit shaken to be facing Darkspawn up close and personal, but altogether very determined.
She was brave, for such a young lady. He reckoned that she must have been one hell of a mage, especially if she had been able to ditch her Templars and find him.
She spat flames from her fingertips, causing Oghren to howl in rage – as opposed to fear. The Darkspawn flew back, Oghren's axe and Neria's magic proving to be too powerful for them. It wasn't a concerted attack anyway.
Urthemiel was howling now. Lance could feel it behind his eyes, in his mind. She-he-it was drawing all the Darkspawn in the Roads, gathering them up in the Dead Trenches, for a defense or for a real assault on the surface.
Either way, that was where the Darkspawn was and that was where the Wardens were headed.
The Darkspawn hounded them down the great stairs all the way to the bottom. The Wardens switched off with Oghren, to give him a rest when it became too tiring to keep up the rage or to keep swinging his axe.
The Darkspawn dead soon clogged the stairs behind them, making it too difficult for the Darkspawn to follow.
Rand kicked back a Hurlock that had died on his sword, stumbling backwards as they reached the bottom of the stone stairs. Neria immediately set to burning the pursuing Darkspawn, cutting off their approach.
But it wasn't the whole of the horde, not by far.
The stairs had released them in the deepest reaches of the Dead Trenches, a mile or more beneath the Korcari Wilds. And where the whole horde was amassing, under the talons of their Archdemon.
He was still below them, in the deep chasms of the Dead Trenches where Lance had never been.