Alistair cautiously followed Loghain to the edge of the vast sinkhole, not liking being so close to the drop, especially after Podge having told them the day before that the stone was still unstable. But he didn't want to hang back when Loghain was so clearly unconcerned about it. He just hoped the commander was right.
The commander. He couldn't even remember when he'd first started thinking of Loghain by that particular term. Other than that it had to have been fairly recently, and he hadn't even been aware of the change in his thinking that allowed him to do so. There was a time he'd have seen applying that title to Loghain as some sort of betrayal of Duncan, and everything Duncan had been and stood for. But... it wasn't. Loghain was, if anything, very much like Duncan in how he perceived and carried out his role of Warden-Commander. Which was, in many ways, a deeply disturbing realization for Alistair to be adapting to. There was so much he'd admired in Duncan, so much he'd hated in Loghain... Was it Loghain who had changed, or just his own perceptions of him? Considering the question made him uneasy. He put it aside for another time.
Loghain was standing silently, just looking at the huge pile of dusty rock far below, an odd expression on his face. Alistair looked back and forth between the two, wondering what Loghain was seeing that he wasn't. Some memory it evoked, perhaps; he didn't think Loghain was actually seeing the pile. He waited a while, then cleared his throat; they didn't have all that long until everyone would be leaving, the charges set off to collapse the tunnels and deny the darkspawn any further easy exit from here.
Loghain glanced his way, then sighed and stepped back from the edge, before leading the way back to where they'd left their horses. "I suppose we'd better get back to camp," he said, but still took a moment to stand and scratch the stallion's nose before mounting up.
"Have you thought of a name for him yet?" Alistair asked as they continued on toward camp.
"Hmmm? Oh, the stallion. No, not yet. Why? Have a suggestion?"
"No, not really. Just curious."
Loghain smiled slightly, and patted the horse's neck. "I really do need to think of something. He deserves a name as magnificent as he is. Something better than 'the stallion' or 'Silk', or whatever lengthy string of Antivan names and words his pedigree actually lists him as."
Alistair nodded, then patted his own horse's shoulder. "I like Brunnera. It has a nice sound."
Loghain gave a short laugh. "Do you know what it means?"
"I didn't know it had any meaning," Alistair admitted.
"It's an old word – Tevinter or Avvar, I forget which now. It's the name of a kind of flower found in the mountains. A low-growing plant all covered with little blue flowers. Though in the common tongue it's the shape of its leaves it gets its name from, nothing to do with the flowers; it's called heartleaf."
"Oh," Alistair said, and thought for a moment. "I still like the way it sounds," he said after a while, and patted the gelding's shoulder again. When he looked up afterwards he thought he caught a glimpse of a slight smile before Loghain looked away.
Crunch bounded out of the bushes, startling the horses slightly; the stallion more than the gelding, Brunnera having had more exposure to the mabari so far. Loghain scolded the dog for it; Crunch looked hangdog for a moment, then dropped back to walk alongside Alistair's horse, tail wagging and almost prancing with enjoyment. Just watching him brought a smile to Alistair's face. "He certainly likes it around here, darkspawn or no darkspawn."
"He's probably been chasing after rabbits," Loghain said. "He likes..."
"...to give them to people. Yes, I know," Alistair said. "Thankfully I wasn't his favourite person to give them to."
"No, that was Morrigan," Loghain agreed, and smiled, giving Crunch a look. "Doubtless Crunch thought that someone who could turn herself into a bear would appreciate some nice ripe carrion."
Crunch barked once in response, the blur of his quickly-wagging tail stub and lift of his ears making it clear that it was a bark of agreement.
The camp came back into the sight, the palisade empty of everything but a few fire-pits and log seats, everything else having been taken down, packed up, put away, or in the case of the slit trenches, filled in. The army, most of the wardens, and the local labour were all gathering outside, ready to head off to the new camp site. To one side stood the group who'd be remaining behind to set off the explosives; the two dwarven engineers, and Oghren's group, all of them with horses to ride in order to get out of the area as quickly as possible once the fuses were lit. Loghain and Alistair would also be remaining, Loghain preferring not to leave the area himself until the last possible moment, just in case more darkspawn did put in an appearance.
"Go join Oghren," Loghain told Alistair, and then touched heels to the stallion's flanks, heading over to say a final few words to Captain Dorn.
Oghren and his men were all looking tired; they'd been up since some time the day before. Jowan had dark bags under his eyes, and Cale and Edrick were both sitting on the ground with their backs against a rock, napping as they waited for things to get underway. It made Alistair wonder why Loghain hadn't told off this group to move with the army, while Nathaniel's group stayed behind. Though perhaps Loghain felt it was better to leave Nathaniel's group split in two as it was, and preferred the group left behind all be experienced wardens. And Oghren, having been the one to bring the engineers here, as well as being a dwarf himself, seem to have a good working relationship with the pair.
Alistair dismounted, nodding greetings to Oghren and Jowan, and tied his gelding with their mounts. He went and leaned against the same rock Jowan was leaning back against, half sitting on its slanted top. Crunch followed him, and nosed interested at Jowan, snuffling at his clothing.
Jowan smiled, and fended off the dog's overly inquisitive nose, then squatted down and dug the fingers of both hands into the dog's ruff, scratching vigorously. "Good to see you again too," he said fondly to the mabari. Which surprised Alistair for a moment, until he realized that of course all the other wardens except the most recent additions would already know Crunch; they'd have had a couple of years at Vigil's Keep to get to know one another. Alistair wondered if Crunch, having been at Redcliffe, remembered that Jowan had been someone Solona knew. There was no opportunity to ask, before Loghain returned, the army – and everyone else – departing, leaving them to see to the explosives.
Loghain tied the stallion near the other horses, then looked around. "Right. We'll split up into two groups for this, an engineer and three wardens in each. Oghren, who would you like to send with Alistair and I?"
"I'll go," Cale said, without even opening his eyes.
Oghren grinned. "I guess I'll send Cale with you," he said.
Loghain nodded. "Right. Cale it is then," he agreed. "Since Alistair and I have the best horses, I suppose my group might as well take the northern tunnel; leave the best two of the remainder for Cale and... Hern, wasn't it?" he asked one of the two engineers.
Hern nodded. "Aye," he agreed, giving the tall horses an unhappy look.
"Let's get in position; we'll give the others half an hour to clear the area. I've borrowed a horn, I'll blow a signal when it's time to light the fuses."
Hern spoke up. "It might be best if the other group delays a few minutes before starting the second timer, since we'll have to pass their position on the way back out. The fuses have a substantial delay before things will start going off, but better safe than sorry."
Loghain nodded. "That sounds reasonable. How long are you thinking?"
"No more than three to five minutes; we want them going off pretty close together, but Kev knows how to adjust the fuse to allow for that small of a difference in lighting times."
"See to it, Oghren," Loghain ordered, then sighed and stretched. "Well, we might as well get down there and in position. Crunch, you stay here with the horses and make sure they don't wander off."
The mabari snorted his opinion of that, but stretched out on the ground to wait for their return.
The trail down into the sink hole was steep, a matter of edging along narrow ledges until they reached the point where they could clamber over the surface of the rock pile. Oghren's group headed over to the southern entrance, just a short distance east of there, while Loghain's group had to cross the sinkhole to the far side, a process that took several minutes to accomplish.
Once they reached the northern tunnel, Hern uncovered the triggering device, which had been carefully hidden away beneath a stack of small chunks of rock. It looked like nothing more than a simple metal box, until he opened the lid and checked the gears inside. Hern took a key-like tool out of his pocket, inserted it into a hole, and wound up a spring, carefully flipping a little metal thing to hold the gears from turning, and then gently closed the lid again. "Ready when you are," he told Loghain, and sat down on a nearby rock to wait.
They all sat, except Loghain, Cale sitting down with his back against a rock and seemingly nodding off again, Alistair sitting down on a larger rock nearby, arms folded across his chest. He watched as Loghain paced back and forth, then walked over to where he could stare into the cave opening.
"I'm just as glad we don't have to go into there," Alistair said after a while, the silence beginning to grate on his nerves. "The Deep Roads have never been my favourite place."
Loghain snorted. "I don't think they're anyone's favourite place, really. Except possibly the dwarves," he amended, glancing at Hern.
"Maybe before the Blights started they were, but that was quite a few years back now," Hern pointed out. "Most dwarves don't see any more of the Deep Roads than the surfacers do. Just Orzammar. I was born in Amarathine City; I never say the Deep Roads at all until after I came to Vigil's Keep to apprentice with the Dworkin brothers. Impressive stonework in them, but not somewhere that I exactly long to spend my time. I prefer sky overhead, not the Stone."
Alistair smiled. "Me too. Some parts are just amazing; the scale of the spaces, or the beauty of them. But mostly it's dark, either too hot or too cold, and swarming with nasty creatures."
"I'll second that," Cale agreed. "The worst part is when you end up on a long run in them and have to scavenge for food," he added, and shuddered theatrically as he levered himself into a more upright sitting position. "Nug isn't too bad, but deep-stalker... ugh!"
"I'd rather have deep stalker than deep mushrooms. No matter how you prepare them, they're so rubbery you have to chew them forever to get a bite down. And the flavour!" Alistair said, and made a face. "Over two years since I last had to eat one and I'd still rather pick bits of lichen off a rock to eat than eat another deep mushroom. They're better than starving, but not by much."
Cale laughed. "I've avoided those so far. Though we had to eat giant spider once or twice."
"Urgh, don't remind me! Zevran claimed the taste put him in mind of some type of seafood. Cryst... crust..."
"Crustaceans," Loghain supplied, turning to look back over his shoulder at them. "He means lobsters and crabs and so forth. Or crayfish."
Cale looked thoughtful. "I wouldn't say giant spider tasted much like any of those. More of a rancid poultry flavour."
"I don't think I want to know how you know what rancid poultry tastes like," Alistair said.
Cale grinned. "Probably a wise decision. Ever tried bronto?"
"Yeah. Not bad, pretty tough though, unless you've got time to spare to let it stew for a long time. Assuming you have any wood for cooking. Or know the lava trick."
Cale's grin widened. "I'm in Oghren's patrol, of course we all know the lava trick."
"Oh, right... he was the one that taught it to us," Alistair admitted, feeling stupid for not having guessed the other wardens would know it already.
"The lava trick?" Hern asked, looking a little perplexed.
"You don't know the lava trick? Wow," Alistair said. "Okay, there's not exactly any great quantity of firewood lying around in the Deep Roads. Odds and ends of old wooden structures, or wood the Legions have hauled in to make barriers, or the darkspawn dragged in to make fetishes and stuff out of, sometimes, but it's pretty rare. But there are a lot of places where there's lava, in channels or pools. So you make sure you have a long chain with a hook on one end in your gear, and a cauldron with a good strong bale handle, and then whenever you can, you suspend the cauldron over lava to use the heat from that for your cooking, so what wood you do find you can save for places where there's nothing else to use. It's a little tricky to do, since you have to find a place where you can hang it without ending up baking important bits of yourself. And keep it far enough from the lava that it's not too hot. Fumeroles work well too, as long as they're not the kind that spit geysers."
"Huh," Hern said, then smiled. "I'll have to remember that if I ever get dragged off on a job involving the Deep Roads again. Though I'm going to hope that I never need to know it."
"I believe it's time," Loghain said, looking up at the walls of the sinkhole to gauge the angle of the sun, even as he pulled the horn free from where it hung at his belt.
Hern grunted, and walked back over to the box, lifting the lid for a moment to shift the position of something inside. The gears slowly started to turn. "That's done it," Hern said as he lowered the lid gently. "It'll light the fuse once the spring winds down."
Loghain nodded, and blew a couple of loud blasts on the horn, then they started back south across the pile of stone. It took long enough that by the time they came in sight of the southern tunnel and the ledge up, Oghren's group was already most of the way up the ledge. Loghain's group climbed as quickly as they could, none of them wanting to linger in the area.
Oghren's group had already ridden off by the time they reached the top. Cale boosted the dwarf up on top of the horse left for him. "Just hold on tight," he said, then tied Hern's horse's reins to the saddle of his own horse before mounting up.
"Right, let's get out of here," Loghain said, and they set off after Oghren's group at a fast pace, Crunch running alongside the horses, Hern looking white-faced as he clutched tightly to the saddle horn. Thankfully it wasn't very long – only five to ten minutes – before they reached where Oghren's group had stopped, well out of range of the area expected to be affected. All of them quickly dismounted, it having been decided that it was undoubtedly safer to not be on horseback when the charges went off; there was no telling how the animals might react to it.
It wasn't very long until they found out. A distant rumble and a slight shaking underfoot heralded the beginning of the explosions. The fuses had been arranged so that they wouldn't go off all at once, but instead in a staggered fashion along the length of the mined sections, from the entrance inwards, so that each explosion cracked the rock nearby, and blew clear stone to make way for the next explosion, which would have much greater effect on the rock than if all the charges went off at once. As a consequence, the rumbling and shaking went on for some time, and all of the horses clearly disapproved of it, either standing with legs stiffened and eyes rolling whitely, dancing around nervously with much whinnying, or, in the case of the stallion and the elderly mare Jowan had been riding, rearing and plunging as they tried to bolt.
Loghain had the stallion well in hand, but Alistair had to hurry over and help Jowan, who was pale with fright as his normally placid horse plunged up and down, almost yanking him off his feet. The mage had at least maintained a hold on the horse's reins despite his fear, and quickly backed off once Alistair took hold of the reins.
The rumbling faded away. The horses gradually calmed down again, though it was obvious from their behaviour that they were all still frightened and nervous from the – to them – inexplicable sound and motion.
"I'd like to see what effect that's had," Loghain said, and eyed the horses, who were still visibly nervous. "We'd better walk until the horses have had a chance to recover."
They headed back the way they'd come, leading their mounts. Through gaps in the trees they could see a cloud of dust rising and dissipating over the forest to the northwest. Apart from that everything looked much as usual, until they finally came in view of the sinkhole itself. The western side of it had slumped visibly, no longer a vertical cliff but a steep slope of rubble instead. The southern and northern tunnel entrances had disappeared entirely, not just collapsed in on themselves, but where they had been now buried under tons of fractured rock where the entire cliff face had cracked off and slid down into the pit. The forested hills to the west also were changed; marked by downed swathes of trees, jumbles of rock and vegetation, and pale slashes of newly exposed stone where areas of the landscape had fractured and dropped as the warren of tunnels and caverns the limestone was riddled with had collapsed.
Loghain sighed. "That whole area is going to have to be searched, to make sure that in sealing the openings here we haven't opened others elsewhere, no matter how unlikely it might seem. But that will have to wait; doubtless the area will be unsafe for some time, until the rock has had a chance to finish settling."
"Give it a week or two and at least one good rainstorm, and it should be reasonably stable," Hern spoke up. "Water flowing down through the areas of broken rock will help with the initial settling, though doubtless it will continue to subside for some time yet to come. But I'll be very surprised if there's a passable tunnel anywhere between the sinkhole and the old north-south road to the west of it."
"Will this have damaged the deep road itself at all?" Alistair asked curiously.
"Shouldn't have," Hern said. "The Ancestors built well, and we didn't mine all the way to the road itself."
"We debated trying to bring down a section of it," Oghren spoke up. "I didn't like all the signs of darkspawn travel along it. But Hern said we'd have needed considerably more explosive charges, and experts to lay them in order to bring down a big enough section to block it; all that reinforcement work along it would have resisted a lot more than this limestone did. Crumbly stuff; might as well be cheese for all the strength it has."
"It would have been a shame to risk damage to the old outpost, anyway," Kev, the other engineer, pointed out. "Lovely bit of stonework there."
"Outpost?" Loghain asked, frowning. "I don't recall anyone mentioning an outpost."
Hern spoke up again. "We saw it when we were exploring with Nathaniel's group, some miles north of here up the old road. There was an old barrier door there, and beside it an outpost cavern – not a very large one – with some beautiful reinforcement work, including a central pillar carved as a figure. We really carve stone like that any more; don't have enough craftsmen for it."
"Not... not a statue of King Endrin Stonehammer?" Loghain asked in a strange voice. Alistair glanced at him and saw the man had gone pale, the blood leaving his face as if he'd seen or heard some shocking thing.
"Why, yes, it was," Hern said, sounding surprised, then frowned. "You have seen this place before."
"Yes, I may have. The floor near the statue – was it disturbed?"
"Graves," Hern agreed. "The Legion of the Dead does that, when they're still in enough strength to do anything for their fallen beyond leaving them for the darkspawn."
"I know. I saw them dug," Loghain said, and dropped the stallion's reins to the ground, then walked a few paces away. "Over thirty years ago now," he added, his voice low and even more rasping than usual.
Alistair felt the hairs on the back of his neck prickle. The flight through the Deep Roads; every child in Ferelden knew at least the broad outlines of that story, even if the fine details had never been recorded by any of the surviving members of it.
Loghain suddenly froze, then spun back around, brow furrowed. "The door, the barrier door; did you leave it open, or close it?"
"We closed it, of course," Hern said.
"Oghren, you mentioned signs of darkspawn travel; small groups going back and forth over a long time, or recent groups, especially any large ones?"
Oghren blinked, confused. "Errr... recent, I think. At least one or two large groups recently, I think. Nathaniel could tell you better, he's a far finer tracker than I am."
Loghain cursed. "Maker blight me... I should have taken a closer look at things myself, or at least thought to question Nathaniel more about what his group had seen instead of just concentrating on the most recent report from Oghren. Did the travel seem particularly heavy in either direction?"
Oghren frowned. "I'm not sure..."
"Southwards," Edrick spoke up. "We may not have gone as far as this outpost you're speaking of, but we saw that section of deep roads. Most of the footprints I saw were of large groups heading southwards, though there'd also been at least one small group northbound fairly recently."
Loghain paled again. "Andraste wept. Quick, to horse – we have to get the army headed south to Gwaren."
"To Gwaren? Why?" Oghren asked, even as Edrick unceremoniously boosted him up into his saddle, Alistair and Cale moving to do the same for the pair of engineers.
"Because this section of road that we've just blocked off has a second exit, which isn't protected by a dwarven barrier door, but only by shoddy human construction," Loghain grated out. "And it's in an unguarded cavern on the outskirts of Gwaren, just a little over a day's travel south. If the darkspawn have been travelling southwards in large groups, they may already be working on trying to break through there."
"And even if they weren't, they're now trapped in this section of deep roads and may try anyway," Oghren exclaimed.
"Exactly," Loghain said grimly. "Catch up with us at the camp," he commanded. "Alistair, with me."