31. The Blackened Battlefield
"What is taking them so long?"
Kazar's impatient hiss, barely audible over the sounds of battle in the distance, only heightened Felicity's anxiety.
"Something is wrong," Marnan whispered, craning her head through the leaves to try to see the tower from their hiding spot in the foliage.
"Perhaps we should take the initiative." Meila's voice floated down from above them. She was perched somewhere in the trees to watch for the signal.
"No," Marnan said through gritted teeth. "If we attack without the added threat of Loghain's men, half the horde will turn around and crush us."
"Bring it on," Kazar growled.
Felicity was shaking, by now. The rain was colder than any she'd experienced before, in her short time out of the Tower… seeping into her robes and through her shoes. Her ears and nose were numb with it, despite the hooded cloak she had pulled over her head. There was some weak ice salve in her pack, but she was loathe to use it for something so mundane, when there was the possibility of encountering emissaries wielding frost spells in the near future.
That was, if the beacon would light. What was taking Alistair and the others so long?
"Marnan," Felicity whispered, "you don't think they encountered trouble, do you?"
"Da'halam! It's lit!"
"What?"
Meila's voice revealed her relief. "The beacon was lit just now!"
Marnan sighed. "Thank the Ancestors." Felicity heard shifting as the dwarf pushed up from the undergrowth.
Felicity did her best to extricate herself, stifling a groan. Her limbs ached both with cold and with crouching down for so long. Through the gloom, she could see Kazar's petite form stretching as he stood next to her. Presently, Meila dropped out of a tree and joined them.
"All right. Our job is to cull the horde from behind," Marnan said, fixing a helmet over her head. At some point during their stay at the camp, it seemed she'd gotten a suit of plate armor made for herself. "Target emissaries and lieutenants as a priority, and don't make targets of yourself by just attacking wildly."
"Yeah, yeah." The elven mage rolled his eyes. "Can we just go kill stuff now?"
"Kazar, she's talking mostly to you," Felicity pointed out.
Marnan turned toward her. "Felicity, I want you to try to keep out of sight as best you can. I have a feeling things could get pretty hot. I don't want you needlessly endangering yourself."
Felicity nodded, more than happy to comply with that.
Meila deftly strung her bow and nocked an arrow. "I am ready."
"Good." Marnan sighed, hefting her axe. "Let's move out."
The four of them ran through the foliage of the Wilds, heading around the base of the Ostagar cliffs, toward the sounds of battle. It wasn't long before they broke through the trees and came upon the sight of the darkspawn horde slicing hard through the Ferelden lines. Felicity peered through the rain, trying to figure out who still stood, but she couldn't tell from this distance.
Meila was the first of their group to attack, her arrow catching a hurlock emissary mid-spell. Then, Kazar lit up the darkspawn with fire, and it was all Felicity could do to fling the occasional sputtering spell bolt and wait for the inevitable.
And there it was… a group of archers near the downed emissary turned to them, and the four Grey Wardens ducked behind cover as arrows filled the air around them. Kazar shortly responded in kind, and ice streaked across the ground the darkspawn stood upon, freezing their legs in place, making them easy targets for Meila.
A force of darkspawn melee fighters broke away from the horde to come toward them across the rain-dampened ground, only to be scattered by a well-placed fireball. A handful stood back up despite scorched skin, and kept the charge. However, Marnan stepped up to meet them with axe swinging, well before they got to the ranged Wardens.
Felicity felt another rain of arrows rush past them, and reached over to touch Meila on the shoulder, giving her a burst of healing that closed up the new gash on her upper arm. The Dalish elf nodded her thanks.
Kazar grinned gleefully not far off, fire and lightning shooting from his fingertips to the point of excess. The younger mage never had had much grasp on the concept of mana conservation. However, Marnan's plan seemed to be working: the elven mage was decimating the darkspawn back line. The field was now set ablaze in several places despite the rain, and blackened darkspawn corpses littered the ground in their corner of the horde.
An enemy's lightning spell streaked through them, making Felicity yelp with both surprise and burning pain. Immediately, she pushed a healing spell through herself to repair what had been burned, then hurried around to do the same to the other three. Kazar growled and responded in kind, sending lightning of his own to the emissary who had attacked them.
Marnan killed the last of the current darkspawn wave, and raised her axe again as more broke away from the horde to head toward them. "Where in the Ancestors' name is Loghain?"
Felicity jerked her head up, realizing that the reinforcements should have been here by now, crashing into the horde from the other side. But she looked around and only saw more and more darkspawn emerging from the forest behind the horde. It seemed the darkspawn army in front of them wasn't even the entire force their enemy had!
"Marnan," Felicity hissed, pointing to where it appeared the darkspawn were getting reinforcements, rather than the king's men.
"Might of the Paragons! What is this?!"
Suddenly, a yelp sounded from next to them, and Kazar stumbled back three steps, wavering on his feet. Felicity rushed forward to help steady him, only to see, to her horror, an arrow shaft sticking out of his upper chest, just under his collarbone.
The elf's lithe finger's gingerly touched the growing red spot around the shaft. "I'm…I'm bleeding?" Kazar stuttered in shock, color draining from his face.
Felicity surged healing into him, but dared not remove the shaft. It went in deep… so deep that it may very well poke through the other side, and puncture some vital organs along the way. She couldn't heal all that… not in time to save him, not without proper bandaging. Perhaps not even then.
"Marnan!" Felicity called, holding Kazar upright as the other mage's legs buckled. She looked over her shoulder, only to see the dwarf engaged with another group of darkspawn that had broken off toward them.
Sparks fizzled feebly from Kazar's hands. "Stop that! Save your energy!" she scolded, though she wasn't sure whether he heard her, with his eyes glazing over like that.
"Come," Meila's voice spoke, and the Dalish elf moved to keep the slumping elf upright from the other side. "We must get him to safety, or he'll perish."
"Agreed," Marnan gasped, shoving the last of the darkspawn to the ground and cleaving its head in two. "We must retreat," she said grimly. "This battle is lost, and we'll just die dashing ourselves upon the stone if we don't."
Felicity cast a look over the battlefield, hoping to see Loghain's men crushing the horde, or the king's men pulling off a miraculous victory. But all she saw were more black, tainted shapes. Many of them approaching… far too many to hold off without Kazar.
"Move out!" Marnan said.
When she felt Marnan's hand push at her lower back, Felicity wrapped one of Kazar's arms around her shoulders, and Meila did the same with the other arm, and both started running through the foliage with the young elf dangling between them.
Kazar stifled a shriek behind clenched teeth as they started moving, and Felicity poured more creation magic into him, doing her best to knit up whatever internal damage that arrow shaft was causing. They needed to find safe, dry ground before she could address it properly, but this should at the least keep him going.
Theoretically, anyway.
Hearing the roaring of the battle continuing behind them, Felicity could only stumble through the underbrush with the others, hearing the grunting of pursuit behind them and hoping that Alistair and the others would at least get out of this mess alive.