As the cloud drifted in front of the moon, only the flickering of the torches in the darkspawn's hands stood out in the darkness that followed. The Mabari gave a low growl and crouched closer to the ground with his teeth bared. Leliana reached out from where she was lying flat and laid a hand on the dog's neck, willing through her fingers that he be quiet. The animal turned his head and pushed at her hand with his nose. He seemed confused by her behaviour.

The patrol of henlocks marched past without stopping. After a few minutes it became clear that the trio had not been detected.

"It seems strange to be hiding from darkspawn rather than kicking their asses, no?" Zevran's long exhale of breath contradicted the flippant remark. It was the third group of darkspawn they had avoided in just the last hour.

Leliana didn't respond as she got to her feet and stretched, trying to regain some of the warmth that the damp ground had absorbed from her body. Without either moonlight or firelight, the soft glow of the lights from Denerim behind them were the only point of reference. They had been travelling for hours now and yet made very little progress. She hadn't expected to find darkspawn this far from Redcliffe and initially they had fought any they had come across. A lone genlock here. A handful of hurlocks there. But the groups had become more frequent and in larger numbers. Eventually Leliana and Zevran had been forced to take as much as they could carry from the saddle packs and set the horses free. It was easier to dodge darkspawn on foot rather than attempt to disguise both horse and rider in the rocky foothills.

The Mabari whined at her side and she stroked the top of his head without glancing down.

"Leliana." Zevran stepped next to her so that they were standing shoulder to shoulder, looking down on Denerim. "It it doubtful that even our fearsome Warden could have made it past this number of darkspawn on her own."

"She must have." The Bard shook her head without taking her gaze away from the city. "Why else would there be darkspawn here if not because they sensed a Warden?"

"Which only makes my point more likely."

As the contrast between Leliana's unwavering faith and Zevran's steadfast pragmatism began to clash, the Mabari lifted his nose into the air and started sniffing. He tensed and both Leliana and Zevran reached for their weapons but the dog only let out a whine and trotted away from them into the blackness of the night. Zevran cursed under his breath and let out a low whistle. The Mabari responded with a loud bark.

Fumbling about in the gloom, the pair stumbled in the direction the bark had come from. As they neared whatever the dog had found, he bounced towards them with tongue lolling out before disappearing back into the shadows. The cloud which had obscured the moon drifted onwards and in the emerging moonlight the silhouette of a dead tree with its rotting branches stretching up towards the sky became clearer. The Mabari was pacing up and down beside it, whining and growling as he went as if he couldn't make up his mind how to judge what he had found.

"Hush," Zevran hissed at the dog. "Do you intend on alerting every darkspawn in the area that we are here?"

"Zevran, look!" Leliana broke stride from the elf as she made out the additional silhouette next to the tree.

It was a horse. Trembling and with the whites of its eyes showing, it pawed at the ground with its front hooves. As the Mabari patrolled near it, the horse flared its nostrils and snorted. With ears laid flat against its neck, it jerked its head and tugged at the reins which had become caught around the leafless branches.

Leliana shooed the Mabari away while Zevran caught hold of the bridle and began murmuring to the creature in Antivan. It took a few moments but the horse calmed itself enough to allow Leliana to approach the saddle bags still attached to it without fear of being kicked.

She made a nauseated noise as she touched the flap of one of the bags. It was soaked in something. Dark, sticky, fouling smelling; darkspawn blood. She cast a look at Zevran who gestured towards the speckled spots along the neck of the horse and across its shoulders. More darkspawn blood.

Leliana forced herself to rummage through the saddle bags and didn't know whether to be relieved or disappointed with what she found. "Some food and health poultices."

"It hasn't been here long. If he," Zevran jerked his head at the Mabari who was now sat watching them from a little distance, "could scent it then so could darkspawn."

Leliana rested her hand on the horse's neck, careful to avoid any of the splatters but keen to touch the only link she had to what she hoped was Elissa. She glanced back at the Mabari. "Maybe he knows."

"Leliana..." Zevran guessed what she was implying. "You understand that finding a horse who has clearly bolted is not a positive sign, yes?"

"Is this Elissa's horse?" she ignored Zevran and addressed the dog.

The Mabari gave a bark and wagged his tail.

"See?"

Zevran shook his head with a scowl. "The horse will have bolted towards home. If it is here then Elissa is even further ahead of us."

Despite his growing irritation, the elf didn't have the heart to voice what he was sure Leliana already knew. With the number of patrols they had passed, it was almost impossible to think that none had sensed the taint within Elissa and hunted her down. And the lack of concern showed by the patrols suggested an absence of any Warden let alone their particular one.

Leliana continued to touch the horse, identifying with the tension which still filled its body. Even so many hours later, the closed expression with which Alistair had looked at her was still fresh in her mind. Grief-stricken at the loss of his mentor yet intent on honouring Duncan's name with a clumsy eagerness, Leliana had never expected to see such a look on the young and inexperienced Templar she had met in Lothering. It haunted her in a way she hadn't expected.

Maker knew she could never hate Elissa. But in that fleeting moment in the stables, Leliana had come as close as she could to that feeling. Her own experiences in Orlais meant that she understood the significance of what they had found as well as Zevran. But she was no longer chasing the young Warden for Elissa's own sake.

"I said I would find her."

Zevran's tone was gentle but the words were blunt. "You may not like what you find."

"But I will have found her."

Zevran untangled the reins from the branches and slipped them back over the horse's neck with a sigh. "Very well. But since we are intent on heading into almost certain death, may we allow ourselves to do so at a gallop?"

Leliana's reply was simple but heartfelt. "Thank you."