They made their way cautiously back towards Honnleath, but there was no one in the square. Pausing in the shadow of Moira Tirsden's house, they listened for a moment. The afternoon was wearing on, noise muffled by the softly falling snow. But protests and screams could still be plainly heard, coming from the direction of the blighted field. Leto and Rose broke into a trot, no longer bothering to conceal themselves. Amalia followed behind.
Under a grey and lowering sky, there on the edge of the blighted field were the mercenaries and the people of Honnleath. The citizens of Honnleath numbered fifty souls. There looked to be almost that many mercenaries. They were separating the villagers into two groups at sword point, the women and children in one, the men in the other.
"Venhedis!" Leto exclaimed. It sounded like a swear word. "They're going to kill all the men!"
"Fuck! No time!" said the erstwhile amiable Mistress Rose.
They had been spotted. Amalia could see a group of archers, who'd been aiming at the villagers, shifting their focus to the little group of three. Amalia knew that she wasn't close enough to throw a spell that would reach them, and took a breath and held it in anticipation of being skewered.
Leto was suddenly charging towards the mass of men with a blinding turn of speed, and he was glowing blue all over. Rose ran forward three steps, stopped and lifted her staff and her other fist high. The range was too far for Amalia, but apparently not for her. She brought them down and it was as if a mighty hand from the sky had smashed down upon the archers. They were flattened against the ground and only a couple tried to regain their feet.
Rose switched stance, waggling the black staff in a circular motion. Blue light grew beneath the mercenaries on the left side of the villagers. She then changed focus to the right side and did some other sort of glowing blue light spell on the others.
Amalia was confused about exactly what the spells had done, until she noticed that the mercenaries on the left were unable to lift their feet at all, and the ones on the right were moving as if in slow motion.
Meanwhile, Rose was still busy, advancing even closer. She raised the staff on high and fire roared into being around her. She sent it forth with a gesture and Amalia saw for the first time what a Firestorm looked like, the great balls of flame falling from the sky and striking the mercenaries, while leaving the villagers untouched. Then lightning came tamely to Rose's hand and those mercenaries who weren't covered by the Firestorm were treated to a Tempest, jerking and crying out as lightning shocked them to death. The villagers broke free and began to scatter, gathering up children and running as fast as they could.
Men were dying, dropping in their tracks like slaughtered cattle. The blue force spells gave out and some of the mercenaries who were still standing charged towards their tormenters. They never reached them. Rose did the spell that had brought the wooden balls together. It worked on men as well, knocking them off of their feet, whereupon she slammed them again with that horrible smashing hand, Fireballed and Petrified and froze them. Leto had moved between them and Rose as well. He killed three men with one sweep of his huge sword, his lithe body making an incredible leap up into the air. They were literally cut in half. A man better armored than the rest who must have been the captain closed with him. The captain was also a two-handed fighter, and the two of them began exchanging blows.
A couple of the mercenaries broke back towards the road. Amalia ran after them, firing staff blasts. She managed to freeze the farthest one before he got out of her range and shot the other one dead with repeated blasts. Then she dealt with the frozen one, just as he was thawing out.
And Rose was not yet done. She was cycling back through her spells, crushing and burning and shocking the mercenaries, keeping them pinned and contained with her Force spells. Amalia finally understood the logic behind Rose's training as she watched the battlemage move effortlessly from one spell to another, punctuating major spells with precise staff blasts, taking her enemies in turn in the most efficient way, analyzing threats and removing them in order of their level of danger. Wilhelm's granddaughter added her own staff blasts and freezing and fire spells to the mix, mostly on the outside edges of things, dealing with those that tried to escape.
It hadn't taken more than a couple of minutes for fifty men to meet their deaths. The last was the captain, who folded over Leto's arm, which had glowed blue and thrust itself through his chest. Amalia finally understood why the Chantry hated and feared mages so much. Those fifty men had never had a chance against two mages and an extraordinary warrior. There were few mages as powerful as Rose, but those mighty ones had brought doom on all of the mage-born, even the minor talents that populated Honnleath.
One by one, Rose's area spells faded away, the Tempest last to go with a final snarling sound. The afternoon grew quiet again. Leto shook the captain's body off of his arm with a horrible nonchalance, flicking it again to remove some of the blood and gore. Then he began stalking through the piles of bodies like some sort of deadly black crane, peering down at them. Amalia saw the great sword arch arch up once, and come down, skewering one of the mercenaries. But only once. Rose had apparently done her work well.
Some of the villagers had fled entirely, but most were at the edge of town, watching, Matthias at their head. Rose planted her staff and leaned heavily upon it. Leto was there in an instant.
"You're not hurt, are you?"
She shook her head. "A bit done in, is all. I haven't done that much magic all at once in a long time. How about you?"
"I am unharmed." He looked at the pile of dead bodies. "They should have brought more men," came his dry comment. Rose laughed, apparently unmoved by the carnage she'd created.
"I'm rather glad they didn't!" Seeing Amalia watching, she smiled wryly. "See what I mean, Amalia? It is like muscles." Amalia nodded and Rose gave her a concerned look, the cold, intense stranger gone. "Are you all right, dear?"
"I…I think so. What were they going to do?"
Her father was walking towards them now, most of the Council trailing behind him and the rest of the village behind them. "Cull the villagers, at a guess," said Leto. "They wanted to make sure there was enough food for them to eat through the winter. Kill the able-bodied men, the potential trouble-makers, and keep the women and children around as servants and…amusements."
"I think Leto is right," Matthias said as he walked up. He held out his arms and Amalia ran into his embrace. "I was a fool to try to talk to them. But Travis and Rousell tried to fight and they were killed. I hoped to defuse the situation."
"In a lot of circumstances that would have worked, Matthias," Rose said mildly. "And except for Amalia, none of you are offensive mages of any power. I'd like to know where these bastards came from though, in case there are more of them."
Farrin Marsh joined them. "I'm wondering," he said. "Last time I was in Serrenfield, there was talk of some mix-up to the north in the Bannorns. A couple of banns hammering each other with mercenaries. The King's army went in and sorted it out. These fellows might have escaped from that. I never thought to mention it because it was so far away. I didn't think it signified anything to us."
"Then there could possibly be more," Matthias said, his brow creased. "We should keep a watch. And someone needs to go to Arl Teagan, tell him what transpired here."
Patience Murray spoke then, her voice urgent. "And we have to find Ric and Charity! They've not been seen!"
"Your children are at my house, Patience, under the bed in the guest bedroom." Rose fished in the pouch at her belt and brought the other key out, holding it between gauntleted fingers. Patience approached and took it carefully, looking wide-eyed at Rose's accoutrements. "Bethany and Briar are with them. I'd appreciate it if you'd stay there until I can get back."
Relief flooded Mistress Murray's face. "Of course, Rose! Thank you for looking after them!"
"Ricard, Berk, go with her," Rose said, in a commanding voice it would have been unthinkable to question. "Just in case there are some more stragglers out there. In fact," and she raised her voice to carry to the onlookers. "Nobody should go out alone for the next little bit. Twos at least. Threes is better." Murmurs of agreement came from the crowd. "Does anyone here need healing?"
"I'm on that, Rose," the midwife called. "You've more than done your share. Get back to that baby of yours."
Mistress Rose rolled her shoulders and winced. "I think I will. This thing is getting tight. I need my little suckling pig."
"On behalf of the Council and all of Honnleath, we thank you and Leto, Rose," Matthias declared. "We owe you our lives. And Amalia too, of course," he added, his eyes both proud and worried as he looked down at his daughter.
Rose just nodded and turned, headed for home in the Murrays' wake, Leto striding along at her side. From behind them, a cheer arose from the people whom they'd saved.
"Rose lied to us, Father," Amalia said as she watched them go from the shelter of his arm. "She said she wasn't a battlemage. But somehow I can't be sorry that she did."
"I know, butterfly. What was it she said? 'a little bit of Primal, a little bit of Elemental, a little bit of Force'?" He looked at the pile of dead men. "Some 'little bit'! But I think I know why she did it. I suspect that's not the only thing Rose Thornwell has not been truthful about. Including what Leto Thornwell actually is. I've never seen the like of what he did out there."
"What are you going to do about it?"
"The Council will meet, and decide. Though for my part, the Thornwells have a home here so long as they wish to stay. But it's not entirely my decision. And we have other matters to deal with first."
Coris Blaylock and Farrin Marsh set off for Redcliffe to talk to the arl. The remainder of the villagers, Leto included, gathered up the bodies and carried them off to a barren ravine, after looting them of any useable metal or items. When they'd all been laid out, words were said over them by Matthias. Then Rose, dressed as a villager once more, Firestormed them repeatedly until they were little more than brittle bone flakes and ash. A combination of her Force spells and human and horse muscle levered rock and earth down over the remains until they were decently buried. By Mid-summer, it would be difficult to discern that anything had been buried there at all.
Aside from the two fatalities and the odd bruise, wrenched limb or slash, Honnleath's inhabitants had suffered little harm from their run-in with the mercenary band and the mercenaries had been too busy rounding people up to indulge in looting or rapine. Travis and Eiric Rousell were burned with all due ceremony, the pyre aided by both Rose and Amalia. A post-ceremony wake brought a great deal of closure to the community. When it was done, the village seemed to have returned to its usual placid, peaceful self.
Except that the villagers no longer regarded Rose and Leto in the quite same way. They were treated with an odd mixture of deference and wariness. The Thornwells were very aware of this and seemed to be unmoved by it. They went about their usual business in the village as if nothing had happened.
One night, at the village sewing circle, Deanna Shadwell broke down and asked the question that most of them had been dying to ask Rose.
"Rose, does it bother you, that you killed those men?"
Dead silence fell. Rose, who was currently nursing Bethany with a shawl thrown over her shoulder, looked up.
"Bother me that I killed a bunch of murdering louts who were about to slay all the men in the village, then spend the winter raping you all and your children?" she said mildly. "Not in the least."
"How many have you…" Patience Murray trailed off.
"How many people have I killed?" Rose filled in. "I don't keep count." She looked to be engaging in some mental calculations for a moment. "The death toll is in the thousands by this time, I would guess. Though there were some monsters and undead mixed in there as well." The women of the circle exchanged wide-eyed glances.
"You were a mercenary too, weren't you?" Amalia asked, feeling a bit disloyal as she did so.
But Rose did not take offense. "I was. But even mercenaries have choices about which contracts they take. I always tried to take the ones that helped people. Even though sometimes those people had next to nothing."
That didn't sound so bad. Goody Aoife changed the subject to the superiority of her gooseberry preserves over all others and the resulting argument all but banished the conversation from the goodwives' minds. For a time.
Amalia continued to come to Rose for lessons, which became even more taxing and demanding in their scope. She did not question the reasoning for that-the village was keeping a watch, lest more mercenaries come their way.
Rose herself was pushing her magical muscles. She would go out to the blighted field every couple of days and do the Firestorms and Tempests, the Force spells, all the big battle spells. She was careful to spread them over the entirety of the field and not do two in succession in the same place. "You can fuse soil to glass if you do enough Firestorming," she said when Amalia questioned her about it.
"Will I ever be able to do a Firestorm?"
"I think that you will, when you're a bit stronger. You can do Fireball, and that's the next step up to it. You're stronger than you know, Amalia." Rose's brow creased as she tried to explain. "It's a bit different, with the big spells. You almost have to yield in a way, when you're summoning, to bend beneath them. But not too much, or you'll crisp or shock yourself. You sort of lure the power in. Then, once you've coaxed it to you, you can seize it and send it out. It's hard to describe."
"Did your father teach you how to do it?" Rose had mentioned her father's training methods more than once, usually when Amalia complained. He'd apparently been a worse taskmaster than Rose, difficult as that was to imagine.
"Maker, no! I wasn't as far along as you are when he died. I picked the rest of it up on my own, using his old grimoire. My first Firestorm was an act of desperation, in the heat of battle. Giant spiders. I have a…thing about spiders and there were a lot of them." She grinned. "I don't recommend that way of going about it at all. It took weeks for my hair to grow back."
It took two weeks for Blaylock and Marsh to return from Redcliffe. After they'd had a good meal and a bath, a Council meeting was called in the old windmill. When everyone was gathered about the library table and a couple of side tables, mugs of good Honnleath beer in their hands (save for Rose, who had cider), the two men gave their news.
"Arl Teagan thanks us for taking care of those men," Farrin Marsh said. "They were survivors of that bannorn business, and he'd been chasing them all over the arldom. In fact, there was a bounty on 'em and he's sent that with us." Blaylock produced a sizeable bag of coin. Murmurs of approval came from the Council members.
"We were thinking we might put it towards one of those newfangled reapers and another team for the town," the smith said, "But of course, that's up to the Council."
"We'll discuss that in the budget meeting," Matthias said with a nod. "Did the arl say if we could expect any more trouble?"
"He doesn't think so," Marsh responded. "As far as anyone knows, that lot was the only bunch as got away-the King's men were thorough. They'd come so far south out of desperation. But we might want to keep a watch up for a while just in case."
Matthias nodded. "Is there any other news?" Marsh looked at Blaylock for a long moment, then produced a printed broadside.
"There's this. Coris picked it up at the Chantry. There was one on the Chanter's board, and when he said that his village Chantry didn't have one yet, they gave him another. Said they're spreading them to every Chanter's board in Ferelden."
A REWARD of
TWO HUNDRED SOVEREIGNS
Offered for information leading to the apprehension of the
Apostate known as ANDERS, guilty of the destruction of the Kirkwall Chantry and the murder of the Blessed Elthina, Grand Cleric of same, as well as the murders of numerous other worshippers and clergy.
ANDERS is a man in his thirties, tall and thin, with fair hair and brown eyes.
Also, a REWARD of
ONE HUNDRED SOVEREIGNS
is offered for information about the location of the apostate HOLLY HAWKE, sometime known as the CHAMPION OF KIRKWALL.
HAWKE is a woman in her mid-thirties, of middle height and build, with fair hair and blue eyes. She may be in the company of one or more of the following:
ANDERS
ISABELA, a privateer from Rivain. A woman of middling to heavy build, dark-skinned, with black hair and brown eyes.
MERRILL, A Dalish. A small elf, pale-skinned, with black hair and green eyes, with Dalish tattoos upon her face.
FENRIS, A Tevinter elf. Tall for an elf, with dark skin, white hair and green eyes. Fenris is tattooed over much of his body.
If you should have any information about any of these persons, please report it to the nearest Chantry or Templar barracks. The Maker and His Bride Andraste bless us all.
The broadside was passed around the table. As each Council member read it, their eyes turned to Leto and then Rose.
"Rose," Amalia heard herself saying softly, "You're the Champion, aren't you?"
Leto had shoved his chair back to get room to move, but Rose seemed unperturbed. She had been nursing Bethany and moved the baby up to her shoulder to burp her. When she was done, she answered Amalia.
"I have that dubious distinction, yes."
Hubbub broke out. The Champion! Here! Matthias permitted it to go on for a few moments, then raised his hand for silence.
"One of the things that we wished to cover at this meeting was the fact that you misrepresented yourself when you first came to Honnleath, Rose," Matthias said. "We are well aware of what you have done for us, but wanted to know what the truth of the matter was."
"I've been expecting as much since the battle, Matthias." She smiled, a wry, self-deprecating thing. "And I will point out that a hundred sovereigns would go far towards getting more horse-drawn equipment for the town. Or towards putting up that communal storage barn everyone was wanting."
"You think we're so lost to gratitude as all that, Rose?" snapped Marsh. "I voted to let you stay in the town when I thought you were a whore. Now you've saved us all! Why would we turn you in?"
The Champion's eyes lit with amusement. "You voted for me, Farrin? I would never have guessed!"
Marsh's seamed face reddened. "Figured I'd better," he muttered. "Everyone else was so keen on having you."
"But not so keen now, I take it," the woman who was actually Holly Hawke said. "I can't blame you all one bit. Fenris and I will leave if you like-the road is nothing new to us. There are no hard feelings in the least. No sane person wants the sort of trouble we can bring down on them. Amalia, I'll give you the farm. It will be a very nice dowry."
"No, Rose! I don't want you to leave!"
"The mercenaries were the first trouble we've had since the darkspawn," Matthias noted. "We really are off the beaten track here. It was just a really bad bit of luck that they came here. It would have been much worse luck had you and Leto not been here. And there are those of us who would have our own difficulties with Seekers or Templars, should they come here. Honnleath is supposed to be a refuge."
"Really, Rose," Moira Tirsden sniffed. "I could be offended! Just when we were going to get to work on your healing spells!"
"You've been a good neighbor, Rose," Patience Murray said, "And you kept my children safe. You don't need to go."
"Leto's been a big help to me," the smith said. "Don't know who I'd get to help if you all left."
Everyone started talking at once then, and had to be gaveled back to order by Mathias.
"Before we make any final decisions, I'd like for Rose-or Holly-"
"-Rose will do," the Champion put in.
"-I'd like for Rose to tell us just how she found us in the first place. You said the Hero told you? Is that true?"
Rose nodded. "It is. I'd been on the run for a couple of years since the fall of the Chantry in Kirkwall."
"I noticed that the broadsheet didn't say anything about apprehending or arresting you," Ricard Murray said.
"I'm not responsible for blowing up the Chantry. But I suspect that they want to talk to me about Anders, and I don't know where he is now. I'm also not particularly interested in being put to the question, Tranquiled, or shoved into a Circle, any or all of which could happen if they got their hands on me." Sympathetic murmurs of agreement at that.
"We were married in Llommerryn," Leto put in in his deep voice. "We've got the marriage certificate to prove it. There is a …friend of Hawke's who is good with creating identities. We were there for about six months when we got word the Chantry had picked up our trail. Rose had just discovered she was pregnant. So we found Isabela, took ship with her and headed for Ferelden. Hawke…Rose…wanted to go home to have the baby."
Rose took up the tale. "We ran into a terrible storm and the ship grounded on the Amaranthine coast. As chance would have it, we were greeted by the Warden-Commander himself. He took us to Vigil's Keep in secret and let us recover there. He also helped Isabela repair her ship. When we got to talking about where I could spend the rest of my pregnancy that would be safe, Cyrill suggested Honnleath. But he told me that I needed to pretend to be a minor power, that you folks were frightened of powerful mages. That was agreeable enough to me-I couldn't work magic then in any event and I was done with fighting. So he gave us a map to this place, and we bought a wagon and team and drove down here. Isabela and the others sailed off their own way. I don't know where they are or what has become of them at this point." Her face became pensive as she contemplated her friends.
"I can't fault the Hero," Matthias said with a shake of his head. "It turned out to be a very good thing you were here."
"If it makes you all feel any better," Rose said, "Arl Teagan knows that I am here. And King Alistair does as well."
"You've met the King?"
"Oh yes. He summoned me to him when he was visiting in Kirkwall-I met Teagan there for the first time as well, though he wasn't the arl then. And Cyrill sent for the King when I arrived at Vigil's Keep. They're both willing to hide me from the Chantry."
"The arl seemed very unsurprised about what had happened to the mercenaries," Blaylock said. "I wondered about it at the time."
'The King even offered me a place at court, in the open, because he's just about had it with the Chantry, but…" Rose sighed. "I'm done with conflict, much less being the cause of it. I just want to grow a nice garden, figure out how to make gooseberry preserves better than Aoife's," a laugh ran around the room as Aoife protested, "and be able to go out on a summer's day and take my daughter fishing down below the mill."
"Not that fish thing of yours again…" Leto muttered. Rose's hand that wasn't holding the baby covered his, and he bent his head in her direction.
"But as I said, I'll understand if you all don't want any part of us," Rose continued. "My father raised us on the run. We never stayed in any place for long until we reached Lothering. It's not entirely a bad life. I have good memories of my childhood, and I can see to it that Bethany does too."
"How is it that Leto does what he does?" Matthias asked. "I've never seen anything like that."
"I was a slave to a Tevinter magister," came the deep voice. "He tattooed me with lyrium to give me these abilities, to make me the most dangerous bodyguard in Minrathrous. When I escaped, he sent slave hunters after me for years, trying at least to get the lyrium back from my cold corpse if he couldn't apprehend me alive. I was on the run continuously. I couldn't stop in any one place too long-until I went to Kirkwall and met Hawke. She helped me fight the slavers off, then his best apprentice Hadriana and finally Danarius himself, when he came after me."
"You killed a Tevinter magister, Rose?" Matthias exclaimed. Shocked mutters ran around the room.
Rose shrugged. "Hardly the worst fight I've ever had. He was overly arrogant."
"And the Arishok?" Amalia couldn't help but ask.
"That was…not exactly as heroic as they paint it." Rose actually blushed. "I ran like crazy to keep out of his reach, laid Force spells on him and froze and petrified him to keep him off of me and made him chase me through a lot of the big stuff. It took a while, but I wore him down eventually. Briar helped." The mabari, who was off to the side of the room out from under foot, whuffed in a pleased tone. Scattered chuckles sounded.
"I think we know enough to go on with," Matthias said firmly, quelling any further requests for Champion stories. It's time to vote. Rose, Leto, if you'd like to go upstairs…"
"I've got no trouble with them knowing how I'm voting," Farrin Marsh grumbled. Other villages chimed in as well.
"Bethany is asleep," said Rose, her hand stroking the baby on her shoulder. "I'd hate to wake her. And we don't mind knowing how people voted either. As I said, no hard feelings. I did lie to everyone, and I am a bit of a storm crow."
"Just a bit of one," Leto agreed. The Thornwells exchanged one of those looks.
"Very well then," Matthias conceded. He rapped the gavel once on the table. "Because they substantially misrepresented themselves as to their true identities and abilities when the first vote was taken, the motion before the Honnleath Village Council is whether we should allow Leto and Rose Thornwell, who are actually Fenris and Holly Hawke, the Champion of Kirkwall, to remain in our midst as members of our village. All in favor, raise your hands."
A forest of hands rose towards the ceiling.
"All opposed?"
Not a single hand was raised.
The gavel rapped once more. Amalia's father was grinning. "The ayes have it. Thornwells or Hawkes, you are welcome here in Honnleath for as long as you care to stay."
Amalia would have thought that self-possessed Rose Thornwell, that the Champion Holly Hawke, slayer of hosts, would get up at that point and give a gracious, stirring speech, as befitted a hero. The very last thing she would have expected was that Mistress Rose would break down and burst into tears.
Leto's arm slid around his wife and child, and his head bent over them for a moment. Then he looked up at the villagers.
"No more running, then," he said. "Here we stand."