Promises: Chapter Twenty-Two
Disclaimer: Dragon Age and all assorted characters/places/etc belong to Bioware, not me.
Hawke blinked, taken aback by Isabela's offer of passage on her ship. She glanced over at Fenris before answering, and he knew that he didn't need to tell her what his opinion was when it came to traveling by boat. "Thank you," she told the lady pirate slowly, "but we actually were planning on traveling by land. I'm not very fond of boats, and neither is Fenris."
"One, I offered you a spot on my ship not some rickety old boat. It makes a world of difference to travel on a proper ship rather than the washtubs masquerading as ones that they have in most of Ferelden. Two, seeing how the templars have been frothing at the bit to catch you ever since you gave them the slip in Antiva City…well let's just say that I don't think that you want to stay in this country any longer than you have to."
Fenris scowled. While he hadn't forgotten their narrow escape in Antiva City, he had thought that their trail was too cold for the templars to follow. "We haven't seen hide or hair of any templars in weeks," he said. "What makes you think that they know where we are?"
"You were working with a Crow, my dear. Undoubtedly Zev had strings pulled and made sure that the templars were fed bad information," Isabela smoothly replied. "Now that you're no longer working with Zev, I'm afraid that such protection won't be extended to Hawke any longer."
"You don't think," asked Hawke, looking down at her hands with a pensive expression, "that Zev might tell the templars where we're at?"
Isabela shook her head vigorously no. "Zev won't. That's not his style. He'll lie to his partners and rob them blind, but he wouldn't go so far as to have them killed…well not without reason that is."
"But if he were offered enough coin—" Fenris suggested.
"No, he wouldn't. You're lucky that he likes the two of you. He won't sell you out. Still it's only a matter of time before the templars discern your direction after they figure out that they have been following a false trail," explained Isabela.
"So we need to leave Antiva and quickly." Fenris frowned as he reached the same conclusion as the lady pirate. He wasn't looking forward to traveling by sea again, but it looked like he had no real choice. "Very well then. We accept your offer," he said brusquely.
"But—" Hawke started to issue a protest but fell silent after seeing Fenris' serious mien. "Fine," she said, expelling a large breath. "How much is this going to cost us?"
Fenris jerked back in his seat, surprised by his mageling's question. An uneasy feeling settled over him as he thought things through. The lady pirate had never mentioned charging them anything and so the cost of her help never crossed his mind. Given what he little he knew of the pirate's personality, it was highly likely that she expected some form of payment from them.
"You know it's generally better to negotiate the price before you accept the offer." Isabela rubbed her hands together greedily, which made Fenris only more nervous.
"Well considering you never said anything about charging us a sovereign or two, Fenris here probably thought you were offering to do us a favor."
"I was," Isabela put in quickly.
"For free," Hawke snapped. She sighed. "But that's not the way the world works, is it?"
"No, it's not," Isabela agreed pleasantly. "You aren't half as naïve as you look, kitten."
"Yet I'm still too green and inexperienced by far," the mageling muttered under her breath, a sad look in her eyes. Then she straightened up in her seat and met Isabela's gaze head on. "You probably need a bit of coin, don't you, to properly outfit your ship. That's why you asked if we wanted a ride to…wherever it is you're going. Where are you headed anyway?"
"Wycombe in the Free Marches is where my current shipment will take me," Isabela promptly answered. "After that, who knows? That depends on what jobs are available."
"So how much do you want to charge to take us both to Wycombe?" Hawke asked.
"I think ten sovereigns is a fair price," the pirate promptly replied. "Each."
Fenris boggled at the pirate's audacity to ask for so much. While the coin purse he had received from Zevran felt heavy enough to cover that price, the amount Isabela so blithely asked for seemed exorbitant. And if the steam rising from the mageling's head was any indication, Hawke felt the same way about the pirate's ludicrous answer.
"Ten sovereigns each? We're not made of money," Hawke said heatedly.
"Oh please. I wasn't born yesterday. Zev just paid you two for helping him with that job of his, and given who the target was, it must have been a hefty reward. I know you can afford it," Isabela said.
Hawke rolled her eyes. "Putting that aside, for the price of ten sovereigns, I'd expect a ride all the way to Val Royeaux and on a ship with far more amenities than a mere pirate's brig."
"Is that so?" Isabela leaned back and eyed the little mageling balefully. "Let me explain a couple things to you. One, you don't insult a pirate's ship. It's not a healthy habit, if you know what I mean. And two, sea travel doesn't come cheap. The price I named you was eminently reasonable, a bargain even."
Hawke matched the pirate glare for glare, apparently unconcerned about how Isabela had her effectively cornered in the booth. Fenris tensed ready to leap into action if the raider made the slightest move towards Hawke. "Is that so?" Hawke asked, lifting up her chin in that stubborn manner of hers. "Perhaps we'll shop around then to see if someone is willing to take us for a lower price."
"You won't find one," the pirate claimed boldly.
Hawke's eyes narrowed to thin slits, and she proceeded to call Isabela's bluff. "As the only pair of travelers, of course not. But as a mere addition to a ship that already has cargo…personally I think we'll be able to get passage at a fraction of that cost."
Isabela betrayed no embarrassment at being called out. "So you're going to trust a total stranger with your safety?"
"You're not much more than a stranger to us," was Hawke's response. "And actually you might be worse seeing how we know you through Zev and all."
The pirate huffed loudly and crossed her arms. "Fine. Eight sovereigns."
"Total," Hawke returned.
Isabela grinded her teeth together before replying, "Five. Each."
"With a private room."
"Done," said Isabela. "You drive a hard bargain, kitten," she said, admiration coloring her tone.
The mageling ducked her head, a slight blush to her cheeks. "Zev would have done better," Hawke said.
"Zev would be lucky to walk out of here intact, given how generous I'm feeling towards him," the pirate noted. "But a deal's a deal. I'll take your payment—"
"Tomorrow when we board," Fenris put in quickly. He didn't want to hand over the coin to the pirate only to find that she had left them behind.
Now it was his turn to face Isabela's evil eye. "You can't be serious. It's as Hawke said. I need that coin to finish buying supplies for our journey. Trust me, we don't want to run out of fresh water or food while we're out to sea."
"You're not buying those supplies tonight, are you? We'll meet you at the market tomorrow and hand over our payment then," Hawke suggested.
Isabela rolled her eyes but nevertheless agreed. "Very well. We'll meet up tomorrow. As much fun as it is to look at you darlings—and believe me, you both are absolutely scrumptious—I'm more of a hands on sort of girl. So I'll be taking my leave of you now." She scooted off of the bench and stood up. Isabela stretched once for good measure, her hands reaching towards the ceiling as she emphasized her biggest assets. "Not unless either of you have decided that—"
"No," Fenris said firmly.
"What he said," Hawke added. "So where exactly should we look for you tomorrow at the market?" she asked quickly before the raider could leave.
"Don't. I'll find you. Until then, darlings." Isabela waved her hand at them and strolled off.
By mutual accord, the pair left the inn they had dinner at and sought a cleaner place to spend the night, seeing how they could now afford it. As usual, Fenris left it up to Hawke to negotiate the price, marveling as always at the deal she came away with.
"So are you certain you're fine with us going on a ship?" she asked once they were in the privacy of their room. "I know you're not very big on them."
"I'm not." Fenris shrugged his shoulders. "But if it gets us out of this country quickly and safely, I can deal with it."
"Well if you're not complaining, then I guess I better not try." Hawke pulled a face. "I just hope I don't get sick the way I did last time. I thought I was going to die."
"And you complained mightily about that fact, I am sure."
Hawke gave him a look. "No. I was too busy revisiting breakfast," she said with a sniff. "It's not an experience that I care to repeat."
His mageling had a point. Being on a ship would be bad enough; it would be exponentially worse if he had to deal with the ship making his mageling sick to the point that she couldn't keep anything down. Fenris supposed that it was just as well that Isabela's next job was taking them only to the city of Wycombe. That was just far enough to get them out of Antiva and into the Free Marches.
"But moving on to a less upsetting topic, how much was in that pouch anyway that Zev tossed at you?" Hawke asked.
"I don't know. I didn't count," Fenris admitted.
"There's no time like the present to remedy that," Hawke said. "After all, when I have to bargain for things, it would really help to know what sort of a budget we're working with."
"And how quickly we will need to start taking odd jobs again," Fenris agreed. He took out the coin purse he had received from the assassin. He took a seat at the table in the center of their room. As Hawke settled into a chair across from him, he untied the string holding the purse closed and then emptied its contents on to the table in front of him.
Gold coin after gold coin poured out and on to the table. Hawke's mouth dropped opened, and Fenris shared in her shock. The assassin must have received a small fortune for killing Brax if the amount of coin he had passed on to them was any indication. To Fenris' eye, there was well over a hundred sovereigns piled up before them and maybe even as much as two. On top of the pile was a small square of folded paper.
"What's that?" Hawke asked. She looked at him for permission and then reached over to pick it up. She carefully unfolded it, her brow furrowing as she looked over the paper. "It's a note from Zev," she said.
Hawke started to hand it over to Fenris, but he motioned for her to keep it. "What does it say?" he asked her.
"Well the first part is kind of to both of us. He writes how this the half of the bounty, just as he promised, and that how we're probably surprised at how well being an assassin pays, much better than being a couple on the run," read out loud as she scanned the page. Her cheeks were tinged pink as she read that last part. "Well of course it does as being on the run really isn't a profession," Hawke muttered half to herself.
"The next paragraph is kind of addressed to me," she said. She crinkled her nose as she read it. "Huh. It looks like Zev finally gave me some advice that you would agree with."
"Is that so?"
"He says that in general, I need to be less trusting. In particular, I should be suspicious of strange elves with tattoos, the only exception of course being a grumpy one named Fenris." Hawke looked up at Fenris to gauge his reaction. Though he kept his face blank, apparently it wasn't blank enough. "You do agree with him, don't you?" she noted lightly.
He shrugged his shoulders. "Yes," he replied simply.
"Thought as much. The next part is directed to you," she said slowly. Her gaze flicked over to him, and she started to hand over the letter once more.
"You can read it," he said quickly. "I doubt the assassin has said anything of consequence."
"Um…well first he tells you that you had best watch out for Isabela if we decide to travel with her. He says that in addition to being handsy, she has sticky fingers so you should take precautions with the coin we've received." The mageling frowned. "I wonder why he said that in the part to you rather than to both of us," she said.
"For all his faults, the assassin is observant. He probably noticed how I always held on to our coin."
"I suppose so. He goes on to say that he wishes you all the luck in the world with keeping me safe because you're going to need that. Hey! Zev's lucky he's not here right now because I would—"
"Send a fireball his way," Fenris finished for her. "I know, Hawke. Undoubtedly the assassin knew that's how you would react as well. He's probably chuckling to himself, thinking of your indignation."
"Not helping here, Fenris," said his mageling. "Then he says that you should know that I am most probably inexperienced in—" Hawke's eyes widened, and her entire face turned beet red. She tossed the note over at Fenris, refusing to meet his gaze.
"Something tells me I don't need to know what he wrote at the end. It was vulgar, wasn't it?"
Hawke nodded her head up and down vigorously.
"I thought as much." Fenris folded the note up and laid it beside the pile of coins. "It was too much to hope that the assassin could write a farewell note without getting vulgar," he said. "But Zevran did pay us our share, like he promised, and so I am grateful for that."
"Yes. It would take us longer to get out of Antiva if we had to hunt for odd jobs to do. Especially if the templars are on the lookout for me, like Isabela said," Hawke added with a shudder.
"On the lookout for us," he corrected her. "You need not worry about having to face the templars alone."
His mageling beamed up at him. And just like that his heart started to beat faster and his breath caught. Hawke was always lovely, but when she was happy, she was downright stunning. It took all of Fenris' significant willpower to push down that thrum of arousal her smiling face never failed to provoke.
He coughed nervously as he sought to regain his balance. "In any event, it appears that we have now seen the last of Zevran."
"Yes. Despite everything, that kind of makes me sad," Hawke said, her mouth twisting into a pout. "I…I don't know what to think of Zev. It's hard for me to think of him as a bad person, but the way he misled us and then how he was so eager to turn over those poor children—even now, it seems at odds with his character."
"Zevran is a survivor, and he is willing to do everything it takes to survive," Fenris noted. "That's why he always intended to bring back the Crows' recruits, even though he knows better than anyone else the hardships that lie before them. I imagine that if his survival depended on it, he would turn us over, whether it be to the templars or slave hunters, without a second thought."
"I guess. I just thought he was better than that," Hawke muttered. "Oh well. I can't be right all the time. I suppose I should look at this as a learning experience." She glanced up at him. "And remember not to trust strange, tattooed elves unless they're named Fenris," she finished with a flourish.
Her words lingered with Fenris long after Hawke had retired for the evening. It was nothing short of a small miracle to his eye that she didn't immediately start questioning whether she was wrong about her assessment of his character as well. He couldn't shake the feeling that it was only a matter of time before she saw how he was full of hate and bitterness. Would she run, he wondered. Not that it really mattered. He had told Hawke that she would never be alone and that she would always have him by her side. He intended to keep his word whether she liked it or not.
Author's note: Thanks to everyone who reviewed. Reading what you all think of this fic is always so much fun. :D