Promises: Chapter Seventeen
Disclaimer: Dragon Age and all assorted characters/places/etc belong to Bioware, not me.
A couple weeks of weeks went by, and the small group continued to track slavers up and down the Antivan coast. On several occasions, they ran into bands of slave hunters, and they wound up freeing many captives after putting the slavers out of commission. However, despite the luck they had, they were still no closer to their ultimate goal. Brax was too cunning a master slaver to leave clues regarding his location, and little by little, the lack of results was beginning to wear on their small group.
Fenris was perennially grumpy. While he remained committed to finding Brax and removing him as a threat, he longed to leave Antiva and put more distance between him and Danarius. The mere sound of the assassin's voice was starting to grate on his nerves. Fenris didn't find Hawke half as annoying but that was to be expected as he liked her. If the foolish assassin ever frustrated Fenris enough to make him give up and flee the country, the elven warrior would make certain to drag his mageling along.
Zevran was also noticeably on edge about the whole matter. Though for the most part, the assassin continued to be lively and optimistic, his bitter side showed through more each day. There were times when the assassin was exceedingly cynical in his assessments, and Fenris couldn't help but think that they were starting to see Zevran's true face. The glimpses that Fenris got of Zevran's real personality were enough to convince Fenris that he and Hawke shouldn't spend any more time with him than strictly necessary.
As for Hawke, while she remained cheerful after her heart-to-heart with Fenris, it was still obvious that the mageling was quickly losing her patience with the whole matter. The weather might have had something to do with that. Late spring had turned into early summer, and with the change of seasons came a change of weather. The days were warmer and more humid. While the slightly muggy days hardly bothered Fenris or Zevran, Hawke was ill equipped to deal with it, being from Ferelden. As a consequence she tended to whine about how hot it was more and more. Now was a good example of that. "One of these days, I am going to melt," she declared.
"Is that so? I don't suppose there is anything you can do to speed up the process," asked the assassin from his spot on the ground where he was once again examining his maps. "It's awfully hard to concentrate when you're always harping on about the weather," he added.
Hawke glowered at the blond elf. "I swear we're going around in circles," she said snarkily.
"Ah, so you do have a sense of direction. Because we have made a circuit of sorts," the assassin replied. "We started off heading to Rialto but we're now headed back towards Antiva City."
Hawke paled. "Um…you don't intend to—"
"Return there? No, not after all the trouble we had leaving last time." The assassin pulled a face which was echoed by Fenris and Hawke as the entire party remembered fleeing both the templars and Isabela's raiders the last time around. "Perhaps our pursuers have figured out that we're long gone and so have stopped looking for us in the city itself but that is not a risk I am willing to take."
"Good," Fenris said shortly. If the other elf had suggested returning to that bog of stench, Fenris would have listened to his common sense and marched him and his mageling in the opposite direction. If he never had to step foot in Antiva City again, it would be too soon.
"Well I'm not going to sit here and pretend like I want to return there, but that is where the slavers' trail is currently taking us. So if we're not going to follow that trail, what are we going to do?" asked Hawke.
"I'm working on that," replied Zevran.
"Oh. Great." Hawke kept her face blank.
Zevran glanced up from the maps, quirking up an eyebrow at Hawke. "It doesn't sound like you have much confidence in me, little one," he noted.
"Oh really? I wonder why."
"Indeed," Fenris agreed with Hawke readily.
"With friends like you, it isn't any wonder why I've not made much progress," Zevran muttered under his breath. "If you don't believe in me, who will?"
"Um…are you trying to say that you don't think you're capable of doing this job? And here I thought you were your own biggest fan," said Hawke.
Zevran winced as Hawke's barb struck true. "You certainly have mastered the trick of completely deflating a man's ego," he said. "And I'm starting to have my doubts. It makes no sense. We have been going in circles for the last five days. I have no idea what it is Brax is plotting. Unless of course he's figured out that I'm after him and he's doing all this in an attempt to drive me insane."
"I hardly think Brax would care if a whole flock of assassins were after him," Fenris stated. "One does not become a master slaver for the magisters of Tevinter by being weak of heart."
"Is it possible to become one then by lacking reason?"
"I've always thought that one had to lack all common sense and morality in order to feed the magisters' unending appetite for more slaves." Fenris allowed himself a small smile. That wasn't the answer the assassin was looking for, if the glare Zevran was sending his way was anything to go by, but it was still the most truthful one out there.
"What I mean," Zevran spoke slowly and precisely, "is that I thought one needed some modicum of intelligence in order to advance as a slave hunter. Because the way Brax has been spreading his minions across the east of Antiva…why does he continue to collect slaves instead of moving them to Tevinter?"
"Maybe he's waiting for a break in hostilities between the Qunari and the magisters," Hawke suggested. "After all, not only is passage by ship is faster than by land, I also imagine that there are less escape attempts as well out on the open ocean."
Fenris snorted. "If that's the case, he'll be waiting a long time. Even if the magisters were inclined to cease hostilities for a period, the Qunari would hardly agree to indulge them."
"Our grumpy friend is right. It may take two to fight, but a very determined one can prolong a war indefinitely," Zevran put in.
"Is that so?" Hawke frowned as she stared at the map. Her frown deepened as her eyes flicked between the Antiva's eastern seaboard and the Tevinter capital. "Oh dear. Now I'm thinking that we've missed something obvious. Perhaps passage by sea is impossible at the moment, but that still leaves other waterways open. I bet you that he's been ferrying his captive to Tevinter by way of that river." Hawke tapped the map to indicate the large river that ended in Antiva City.
Fenris snarled. Hawke was right. How could they have missed something so obvious? Zevran, however, had a different impression of Hawke's theory. "Impossible. For one, there are no rivers that go all the way through to Tevinter," Zevran said.
Fenris rolled his eyes. The assassin was clearly grasping at straws. They had been caught flatfooted in a bad way, and the other elf was stuck in denial over it. "It would still get them closer to the markets of Minrathous and also have the advantage of being quicker than traveling by foot," said Fenris.
"I'll give you that," Zevran agreed with a careless wave of his hand. "But there is something that you two have not taken into account. River traffic here in Antiva is heavily regulated. There is no way you could get a ship of slaves past the officials in a single city, much less all of the cities you would have to pass."
"Officials can be bribed, can't they?" In Fenris' experience, this occurred all too commonly. Whenever Danarius wanted to act outside local laws, he simply threw money at the local officials until they were bowing and scraping at his feet. The magister only exerted himself by resorting to blood magic the few times he had run into an honest official who wouldn't accept bribes. Sadly Fenris could count the number of times that happened on one hand.
"Spoken like a man of the world, my friend. Yes, officials can be bribed if you have enough coin. The amount of coin it would take to bribe every local tariff collector between Antiva City and Seleny…." Zevran's words trailed off and he shuddered. "Sorry. That was the sound of my mind boggling at trying to calculate such an amount. It simply wouldn't be worth it to take a ship full of slaves by river. You would pay more in bribes than you could ever hope to make."
Fenris had to concede that the assassin did have a point. Hawke, however, wasn't so quick to give up. "But what if the cargo on the ship was especially valuable?" she asked. There was a gleam in her eyes, and Fenris could practically see the wheels in her head turning as she refashioned her arguments to take into account the information Zevran had given them.
"Ha! It would have to be very precious cargo indeed in order for it to be worth—" Zevran stopped suddenly and glanced over at Fenris. His eyes widened. Zevran flicked his gaze over to Hawke, who slowly nodded.
"The notice you showed me said the bounty was fifty sovereigns, right?" Hawke asked conversationally.
"That it did and that was several weeks ago. It probably has increased since then."
"So naturally the amount Brax would receive would be several times higher than that," Hawke.
"Yes and what's more than that is the good will Brax would engender by keeping an important customer of his happy," Zevran added, nodding his head fervently.
Fenris was tired of being left in the dark. He didn't have the slightest idea what the other two were referring to, and that made him feel stupid. He didn't very much like that feeling. It was high time for them to stop speaking in riddles. Fenris crossed his arms and glared icily at his mageling, not happy at how she was leaving him out of the loop. "Care to tell me about this bounty you're speaking off?"
She looked up at him in confusion. "We're talking about the price on your head, of course. You remember —the bounty notice Zevran showed us when we first met."
Fenris flushed. He remembered the assassin thrusting some papers at him in an attempt to convince him to help, but he hadn't bothered to examine them. There wasn't any reason for him to try when he couldn't read, but he wasn't about to admit that weakness of his to Hawke, much less to the assassin. "I didn't really look at it," he said weakly.
"That's right," Hawke said. "I remember that you hardly glanced at it because you thought it could be forged. Well I think that's been proven wrong since then. Anyway Zev and I both think that Brax is probably waiting to capture you before he sends a ship full of slaves down the river."
Now that Fenris knew what they were talking about, the pieces of the puzzle fell into place for him as well. "That does seem likely," Fenris agreed. "He would have a buyer for the other captives in Danarius, which would bring him an additional profit."
While Hawke had reminded Fenris about the price on his head, Zevran had started to pace back and forth. The elven assassin was full to the brim with nervous energy. He was muttering to himself and would occasionally punctuate his thoughts with a grand wave of his arms. Fenris exchanged a glance with Hawke. Had the assassin finally taken leave of his senses? Fenris was about to interrupt the assassin's conversation with himself when Zevran stopped pacing and turned to face his companions.
"All right. I have a plan. It's a very rough plan still, but hear me out. We hand over Fenris to the slavers— "
"No." Fenris refused to consider this mad plan of the assassin. His freedom was precious, and the coin he had paid for it was too high for him to throw it away on a half-baked plan put together haphazardly by Zevran.
"We wouldn't be handing you over for real," Zevran said, exasperation coloring his tone. "You would be bait, bait that we would track back to Brax and—"
"My answer is still no."
"But if you just—"
"Zev, you try to hand Fenris over to any slaver, much less this master slaver that you're after, and your merry band of assassins will be the least of your concerns. I'll gut you myself. With a rusty knife. And that would only be the start." Hawke smiled sweetly at the assassin, but the hint of steel in her voice could not be ignored.
Zevran was apparently desperate enough to argue with her though. "You have certainly become more vicious since we first met. But just try and listen to me. I have no intention of handing over Fenris for good. We would be hiding in the shadows, ready to follow him, and we'll free him during the handoff to Brax."
"Oh yes. Because we're going to be able to walk right up there and ask nicely for them to let the deadly swordsman they have in their grasps go so he can join us in our battle against them. They'll probably also invite us to sit down for tea and cakes so we can get some sustenance in us before we start fighting. And if we're really lucky, maybe they'll lie down so we can walk all over them too." Hawke wielded her sarcasm as ably as Fenris did his sword, and she completely dismembered Zevran's arguments.
He tossed his hands up in the air and stalked off to one side, a string of curses falling from his lips. "All right. Fine. Perhaps I need to think on that a bit more," Zevran said. "My basic plan is still a good one."
"Yes. Except for the part about using Fenris as bait," Hawke said.
"Do you have a better idea?"
"Yes. If you're so desperate to end things, then we can hand you over to the slavers. The description the bounty gives of Fenris is vague enough that it applies to you as well as him, and that one group we ran into couldn't figure out which one of you the bounty was meant for," Hawke put in quickly.
Fenris hid a smirk. He knew what Zevran's answer would be. The assassin was so quick to volunteer others' freedom, but he wasn't a big enough fool to risk his own. Hawke's proposal would be shot down quickly, and then they could turn to the task of formulating a viable plan.
"Fine," Zevran said shortly. Fenris gave a start. He would have never expected the assassin to agree and so quickly.
"Are you feeling all right?" he asked the other elf. "You do realize what you signed up for?"
"I do," replied Zevran. He clenched his fists to his side. "If this is what I must do to finish the job, then so be it. Besides this may work out better. You two don't have to worry about freeing me as I've yet to meet a pair of shackles I couldn't get out of."
Fenris raised his eyebrows but said nothing further. Hawke, however, wasn't finished. "Somehow I get the impression that you still haven't thought things through. There's so many ways this can go wrong. What if we can't—"
Zevran raised a hand to silence the mageling's concerns. "I don't want to hear it. My mind is made up. I know the risks, and I am willing to accept them. Besides I'm only gambling with my life, and I put that on the line long ago. It's been weeks now. The Crows are undoubtedly getting impatient. If I don't get the results they want soon, I'm dead anyway."
Author's note: My thanks to everyone reading this fic and especially to those kind enough to review. :D