All right, as an apology for waiting so long for the third chapter, I kept working until I got the fourth chapter done, and decided to post it right away. I finally got them through the Tower of Ishal! Next chapter will go to Alistair's POV. As always, thanks to those who favorite and follow! And anyone who'd like to review, even just a few words would be appreciated! Hope you enjoy!
Disclaimer: Bioware owns Dragon Age, etc.
The Tower of Ishal
It had started to rain when they reached the massive stone bridge that spanned the gorge, prompting Ayla to flip up the hood of her cloak. It was her first time seeing the bridge, as the gate from the Korcari Wilds that she'd entered the camp from was on the opposite side of the ruins. She couldn't help but be impressed at the width of the bridge, or how high it was off the ground. She'd never seen anything like it before.
However, the view was spoiled by the fact that catapults were launching flaming balls of rock at the bridge and the defenders lining it, who were doing their best to shoot arrows at the teeming mass of battle below. It couldn't have been an easy job, between the darkness, the pouring rain, and the fact that the bridge shook every time a rock succeeded in hitting it. A small portion of the wall was blown away by a flaming rock as they watched, and two men went down.
Alistair looked back at the two of them. "We have to hurry and get across before this whole bridge comes down!"
"Let's move then!" Ayla yelled back.
As she and Aedan began to follow Alistair as he ran across, keeping to the left side of the bridge in an attempt to avoid both the defenders and the catapults, she wished she could change her form. It would be so much faster for her to get across the bridge if only she dared to do it. But there were two problems with that scenario. One, she didn't even know if her powers worked in this world, and two, she had no idea how her companions or the other soldiers would react if they did work. No, it was better to rely on her human legs for now. Maybe later, once she knew Alistair and Aedan better, she might give it a try.
They were halfway across when Ayla heard the whistling noise, and suddenly Alistair reached back, grabbed her arm, and flung both of them forward. A flaming rock hit the bridge where she'd just been standing, and two more soldiers had gone down in a blaze. Aedan had managed to jump back to safety at the same time Alistair had pulled her forward.
Ayla took a deep breath to steady herself as she looked at the damage behind her. "Thanks, Alistair. I owe you one."
He grinned down at her, a white flash of teeth through the darkness and rain. "No problem, I'm sure you'll pay me back soon enough. Let's keep moving. Aedan, are you good?"
Aedan trotted past them. "I'm fine; now let's get off this damn bridge!"
Alistair and Ayla followed after him as he continued towards the ruins on the other side. Ayla could make out an archway of stone on the other side of the bridge, with a stone wall extending from either side of it as far as the eye could see. Flashes of lightning had started to split the sky to add to the chaos, and every so often, she could catch a glimpse of a stone tower beyond the walls in the blinding flashes of light.
They finally reached the archway without incident, and Ayla caught up with Aedan just in time to hear him mutter something to the effect of, "would've been safer down on the damn battlefield."
The three of them passed through the archway. Just beyond was a bonfire in the middle of a sort of courtyard, with a ramp of stone extending up beyond it. Just as they reached the bonfire, a man in robes carrying a wooden staff came running down, with a wild look in his eyes. "You – you're Grey Wardens, aren't you?" he panted. "The tower – it's been taken!"
Alistair pushed forward. "What are you talking about man, taken how?"
"Weren't Teyrn Loghain's men supposed to have it secured?" Aedan demanded.
"The darkspawn came up through the lower chambers. They're everywhere. Most of our men are dead!" The man, whom Ayla suspected was a mage, was very close to complete panic. His voice almost cracked at the end.
Alistair looked between Aedan and Ayla. "Then we have to get to the beacon and light it ourselves!"
Ayla nodded. "Duncan said that beacon had to be lit. Just because it's not a stroll through the tower anymore, doesn't change our mission."
"Let's get a move on, then!" Aedan looked at the mage. "Are you coming with us? We could use a mage's powers, especially if you've studied healing."
The mage hesitated, then nodded. "I have some healing magic, and I can add flame to your swords, as well. I'll come with you."
The four of them headed up the ramp that the mage had come down, and began making their way to the tower. The tower was at the top of a steep hill, which had several ramps and walkways set up along it for defense. As they continued up, they ran across bands of three or four darkspawn at a time, and quickly fell into a rhythm.
As the only one with a shield, Alistair took point, doing his best to draw the attention of the darkspawn to him. Aedan followed close behind, usually keeping a little to the right to avoid bringing Alistair within range of his swing. Ayla would circle around to Alistair's left, trying to get behind the darkspawn while they focused on Alistair and Aedan, and take them down with quick backstabs or beheadings. The mage brought up the rear, casting flame spells on their weapons and the occasional healing spell if one of them took a wound. The combination was effective; they made it to the doors of the tower without incident.
Alistair pushed open the big double doors, and they entered the tower. Ayla was relieved to be out of the rain; even with her cloak, she was soaked through, and it was miserable work fighting in a storm. At least it was warm out; she didn't want to imagine how much worse it would have been if it had been cold.
"What now?" Ayla asked, pushing back the hood of her cloak.
"The beacon will be on the top floor," Alistair answered. "We'll have to make our way up there. If I remember right, the stairs to the next floor are on the opposite side of the tower from the entrance. We'll have to make our way over there."
Ayla and Aedan nodded, and they began to make their way through the first floor. Ayla spotted a trip wire, and disabled it before Alistair or Aedan tripped it up. She mentally thanked her fellow warrior, Pakal, for showing her his traps and tricks of the trade. Just beyond the trap, they came across a group of darkspawn. Ayla had noticed outside that, like in the Wilds, there were darkspawn that were even taller than Alistair as well as the ones that were shorter than her. In here, there were more of them, and this time, she spotted one of the shorter ones wielding a staff like a mage.
"It's a genlock emissary!" Alistair yelled as he bashed his shield into the first darkspawn that rushed them. "It can cast spells! Try to take it out first!"
"On it!" Ayla responded, dashing around to the left of Alistair and towards the staff-wielding genlock, as he'd called it. She used all the speed her human self could muster, dodging and batting aside swords, and when the emissary flung a spell at her, she rolled out of the way. Coming up at a run, she caught the staff on her left sword and thrust forward with her right, spearing the emissary in the chest. As it gurgled and stumbled, she yanked out her sword and took its head off in a clean blow.
"Ayla, behind you!" Aedan yelled.
She dove to the right and rolled again, coming up with her swords out. As she gained her feet, she noticed it was one of the big darkspawn, which had just swung its sword down where she'd been standing. Before she could even move to engage it, Alistair came up behind it and ran his longsword through its chest, knocked it to the ground, and finished it off with one more stroke.
She took a quick look around the large circular room they'd found themselves in, which was full of flaming rubble and bodies. All the other darkspawn were down already. "You couldn't let me have more than one?" she joked as she sheathed her swords.
Alistair shrugged and grinned. "Sorry, I'm not very good at sharing."
"I'll keep that in mind," she said dryly.
"Nice job on the emissary," Aedan said as he came past them. "Spellcasters can be big trouble if they are left to the last."
"I'll be happy to keep taking care of them if you two have my back," Ayla answered.
"Sounds like a deal," Alistair agreed.
The four of them continued on their way through the first floor. In one of the rooms, they discovered a large hole in the stone flooring which appeared to lead deep underground. Ayla wrinkled her nose. It smelled like death and the darkspawn, that appalling scent of corruption she'd started to associate with them. "That must be how they got in and took the tower." She gestured to the hole.
Alistair nodded. "It would make sense. They like the underground and the Deep Roads. Come on, we're almost to the second floor."
They found the stairs leading to the second floor shortly thereafter, and after battling through another group of darkspawn in the stairwell, made their way through the doors to the second floor. They stopped for a second to catch their breath.
"Maker's breath!" Alistair gasped, leaning over with his hands braced on his thighs. "What are these darkspawn doing ahead of the rest of the horde? There wasn't supposed to be any resistance here!"
"Weren't you complaining that you wouldn't get to fight?" Ayla pointed out. She was leaning against the wall next to him.
"Exactly," Aedan said. "This job is no longer a waste of our time."
"Hey, you're right. I guess there is a silver lining here if you think about it." Alistair winked at Ayla, then straightened up. "At any rate, we need to hurry! We need to get up to the top of the tower and light the signal fire in time! Teyrn Loghain will be waiting for the signal!"
"Right, let's go!"
They continued making their way through the tower, which was much the same as the first floor. They encountered bands of darkspawn roaming throughout each level and room of the tower, and between the four of them, were able to effectively take them out. They also looted all the storage chests they came across for any useable supplies, including health poultices for their wounds and lyrium potions for the mage that was with them. Apparently that was how he replenished his magic use; in Fallor, he would've had to sleep in order to restore his abilities, Ayla mused. Although he seemed to run out of magic use faster than the mages back home.
Finally, they reached the stairs leading up to the top level of the tower. As they paused at the bottom for a brief rest, allowing the mage to drink his potion, Ayla picked up the sound of very heavy footsteps lumbering around on the floor above. As she listened, she felt the hairs on the back of her neck rise, and all her instincts started clamouring again. There was something very dangerous up there.
As she turned to Alistair to warn him, she noticed that he was looking at the door at the top of the stairs as well. His brow was furrowed and his head was cocked to the side as though he were trying to make something out. "Alistair, there's something big and dangerous up there."
He turned to her, surprised. "How did you know that?"
She raised her eyebrows, equally surprised. He'd already known? "I . . . have pretty good hearing. Whatever it is has heavy footsteps, so it's got to be big, and dangerous usually follows big. How did you know?"
He looked away. "Ah, Grey Warden stuff. But yes, it's big. If I'm right, it's an ogre. Which makes it really dangerous. But I think it's the only thing up there."
Aedan had come over while they were talking. "Well, dangerous or not, we have no choice. That's the top floor, and we still need to light the beacon. We might as well get this over with."
Alistair nodded slowly. "I'll go through first again. If it's right by the door, I can hopefully block the first blow with my shield. The rest of you, get in and out of its reach as fast as you can. Duncan told me if you let an ogre get a hold of you, you're dead. So try to keep away from its arms, and we'll see if we can figure out a strategy to take it down."
They nodded, and everyone got their weapons out and ready. Alistair went up the stairs first, and they followed closely behind. He opened the door and went through. Just as Ayla got in the doorway behind him, she saw the huge purplish arm come swinging towards him. Alistair got his shield up in time to catch the blow on it, but it sent him flying across the room into the wall on the other side.
There wasn't any time to hesitate. In the brief window she had, Ayla dashed into the room and to the left, since Alistair had gone to the right, and the huge creature was already lumbering over to where he'd gone down. Aedan followed her. She could only stare in astonishment at the creature – it was over twice the height of the tallest person she'd ever seen, and twice the width as well. Huge horns curled out of the top of its massive head, straight up into the air. Ayla was just reaching for one of the daggers she kept hidden on herself to throw at it to distract it from Alistair, when the mage entered the room and flung a fireball at it.
The ogre roared in anger as the fireball struck, and turned toward the mage. Alistair was struggling to his feet at the far side of the room. The mage tried to run, but not being as fast as the others, he wasn't able to get out of the ogre's reach in time. Just as the three of them got within reach to use their weapons, the ogre picked up the mage in one massive hand and squeezed. With a scream and an unholy squelching sound of bones being broken, the mage died as blood burst from between the ogre's fingers. The mage's broken body was flung to the side.
"Damn you, darkspawn!" Aedan yelled as he swung his greatsword at the back of the ogre's leg. He caught the ogre just above the knee, and the finely honed steel cut right into the flesh, causing another spurt of blood and another furious roar from the ogre as it went down on one knee.
It swung as it went, and the three of them barely rolled out of the way in time. "What's the plan?" Alistair yelled. "We just lost the only person that can attack it from a distance!"
Ayla thought frantically as the three of them swung and dodged out of the reach of the ogre. The only thing that came to her mind was a move she and her brother had used from time to time. It wasn't ideal to use in a situation where she hadn't practiced with the other person, but it was the only thing that came to mind.
Alistair would be the better of the two to help, she decided. Though he and Aedan were roughly the same height, Aedan was a little more slender and wiry. Alistair should have the strength to pull off her brother's part of the move. "I have an idea!" she called to them as they all flung themselves out of the path of the charging ogre.
"What?" They both yelled back.
"Aedan, can you keep it busy for a few seconds? I'll need you to give me a boost in the air, Alistair! With enough height, I should be able to catch it in the chest!"
"What? Are you crazy?!" Alistair exclaimed as he came up next to her.
"It's the only way to get it where we can actually do any major damage," Ayla shot back. "Aedan, can you do it?"
He nodded. "Leave it to me, but make it fast!" He ran at the ogre, and dodged around to its backside to swing at its legs. He began turning it in a circle, as the ogre turned to try to catch him, he would run around to its back again and keep at its legs.
"Okay, Alistair, listen up," Ayla said. "Get in front of the ogre, as close as you can without it catching you, and lean forward a little bit. I'll launch off your back and go at its chest. Make it quick!"
He gave her a dubious glance before he nodded. "If you're sure it'll work, let's go."
The two of them ran forward, just as the ogre turned back to face their section of the room. Alistair stopped just in front of the ogre, leaning forward a little bit to give her a sloped section of back. Ayla turned her swords so the blades were facing back, and took a run at Alistair. She jumped just before she reached him, planting a foot on his back, and he shoved upwards at the same time, launching her into the air.
As she was heading towards the ogre's chest, she managed to get her blades turned around so they were pointing at the ogre. Fortunately, both her momentum and the fact that Aedan was still distracting it prevented the ogre from being fast enough to grab her. She hit it full in the chest, both her swords going straight into the hilt. "Aedan, move!" She screamed as the ogre started to tip backwards.
Aedan rolled out of the way just as the ogre gave another almighty roar and fell flat onto its back with an earth-shaking thud. Ayla rode it down, then dove off and rolled to the side as the ogre reached for the swords in its chest, roaring. Alistair raced forward, skirting around the side of the ogre, and coming up alongside its head, stabbed his longsword straight down into its eye, twisting the point viciously. Just as he did so, Aedan brought his greatsword down across its neck with enough force to bite halfway through. With a final gurgle, the ogre stopped moving and its arms crashed down to its side.
Ayla came back over to the ogre and jumped on its chest, yanking out her swords, before jumping back down next to Alistair and Aedan. Alistair had just pulled his sword out, too, and Aedan was cleaning his.
"I can't believe that actually worked!" Alistair was staring at her in amazement and a little admiration, she thought. "It was crazy, but it worked!"
"Hey, I'm just as surprised as you are," she grinned. "I've pulled that move with my brother a few times, but we've practiced it a lot, and it's usually used to get over a crowd of people, not to fly at an ogre. I never expected it to work so well with somebody I've never tried it with."
Alistair chuckled. "I guess we work well together."
"Hey, Alistair!" Aedan yelled. He'd already crossed the room over to the one window that looked outside. "Do you know if it's time to light the beacon?"
Alistair trotted over to the fireplace that was right beside the window, which would send the fire up to the beacon to light it at the top of the tower. "We've probably already missed the signal, let's just light the beacon!"
Ayla followed him over to the fireplace. Aedan tossed Alistair a torch that was by the window, and he dropped it on the pile of tinder in the fireplace. It lit up with a whoosh, running up to the beacon. Ayla crossed over to the window, looking to see if she could spot the battle. It was nearly impossible to make anything out clearly with the darkness, the rain, and the thunder. All she could see were the torches amid the dark mass below, but she couldn't tell which side was where.
She heard the clatter of multiple feet on the stairs at the same time as the hairs on the back of her neck rose again. She turned back to the door at the same time as Alistair did. It burst open, and darkspawn after darkspawn rushed through.
As the three of them raced forward, weapons drawn, the arrows started flying through the air. The last thing Ayla saw as she felt arrows thud into her flesh and her world started to go dark, was Alistair in front of her, trying to block the arrows with his shield. Then the world slipped out from under her.