BioWare owns all but what I made up, etc, etc, etc which are just too long to list all of. : )
Well they are on their way to raising more soldiers to depose Anora, but also working on getting rid of Tevinter from their shores. Of course we still have Master Ignacio to meet with and a little relationship mending still to be done with our favorite Antivan assassin.
Please continue to let me know what you think, it really helps the thought processes, and I love having things you all say to add to the story. Again I thank those of you who have written reviews, I really appreciate you taking the time out of your busy lives to do so. : )
Blessings!
"I can't believe you, how do you not get yourself killed taking in former enemies?" Alistair's voice sounded in her ear. "I mean really, the Antivan assassin, then a whole group of former Antivan assassins. Now you have a Tevinter mage and a bunch of Anora's men!"
"Clean living?" Kai asked him sweetly, and laughed when he huffed into her ear.
It turned out that the Tevinter mage, Verina, they had picked up with the wagon heist bore no love of what Anora and her people were doing. In fact she hated it, all of it. What they were doing to the land, killing the Dalish, especially when they had enslaved the villagers and their children. She'd been causing mischief herself, freezing the metal of the saws so they became brittle and broke, same for the chains holding the great logs together, causing them to break and allowing the logs to tumble apart. Wagon wheels and axles would break at bad times, small things here and there to cause problems. When she'd seen what Kai and her Scath were doing, she wanted to help. It was sheer luck that she'd turned at the last moment and the arrow had missed killing her. She'd been going to stand up to stretch and started to slip on the wet boards of the wagon. It was that slip, and that alone, that kept the arrow from lodging in her throat.
It was Verina's information about how the villagers were gathered together at dusk and forced back to the warehouses in Gwaren along with the intelligence from the Scath on the layouts of those warehouses that had Kai and her group waiting on the darkening docks for the townsfolk to be secured for the night. It was also her hope to use the soldiers who were willing to follow her to their advantage. They unloaded the wagons and covered the logs with the camouflaged nets so that Caled and his men could return to the logging camp as though the wagons had been unloaded in Gwaren.
Verina agreed to accompany them to add veracity to the story that they had been attacked by the Dalish again and that the dead and wounded were left back in Gwaren. Verina's own wound added to the "truth" of the story. Kai hoped it would give the soldiers time to spread the word about the Theirin line and the cause to remove Anora from the throne among their own back at the camp.
Caled assured her that almost all were disgusted by what was going on, Fereldans held honor higher than anything, and this was not honorable. Add to that no one seemed to like Anora much unless they were her sycophants, those who weren't toadies were mistreated, underpaid and their families were threatened, just like Kylon's men. The few that were her loyal followers were men and women of higher rank who were getting special favors and rewards from her. They would fight with the Tevinters, Caled estimated there to be about thirty, altogether.
Caled told her that number also included a particularly nasty piece of work named Bardock who was in charge of all the Fereldan soldiers. Bardock and a Tevinter mage named Eudokia, who was the representative for the Imperium's interests here, were the leaders of the operation. Caled warned them that Eudokia was a cruel and vicious woman who enjoyed torturing the town mayor just for amusement. Bardock apparently liked the lady's tastes and company. They were staying in the mayor's house on the hill, and all but three of the high ranking officers would be there too. It seemed that they liked to enjoy good food and fine drink while the townspeople starved and the soldiers made do.
The plan was to rescue the villagers first; if any could fight, they would be welcome. Mostly, Kai wanted them safely out of the village and into the Dalish camp. The elves, despite their misgivings about shems, agreed that this problem, like the Blight, was bigger than all of them. They would give the villagers a safe haven until Kai could get them all dispersed to the Bannorn, the arlships and even Highever as she had done with Kylon and his men.
So, Kai and her group sat behind crates and piles of logs that had yet to be loaded onto the three waiting Tevinter ships. Kai had intel that only one ship was half full as of yet. It seemed to Kai that their timing, while not perfect, was fortuitous as more of the forest could have been lost, a lot more. They heard the wagons with the villagers drawing up to the warehouses, they were waiting until the soldiers had put the villagers in the warehouses, just to be safe in case fewer men than Caled thought would be on their side and more fighting ensued.
Kai snuck a quick look around the pile she was sitting behind and watched the men with torches as they made the villagers file in, she recognized some of Swiftrunner's pack. She waited until them soldiers closed and locked the doors of the warehouses, watching for Caled who moved the torch he held in the prearranged signal. Kai motioned to the Scath, to come out of the shadows.
All but the three men that Caled had indicated wore shocked expressions as weapons from all sides were drawn on them, one was a mage in Tevinter robes, "What is the meaning of this, do you know with whom it is you fool?" the bald man spat out at her.
"Tevinter scum who thought they could buy hunks of my country and enslave a village?" Kai asked with mock sweetness.
"You barbarian bitch!" was all the man got out before a thrown dagger lodged in his mouth. He gurgled and went down like a sack of beans.
"'Barbarian bitch' am I, well, this barbarian bitch just made your life a lot shorter, you should have stayed in Tevinter." Kai looked at the other two men, dressed in expensive armor, "You sell out your country and countrymen for what, for that viper on the throne, for money, for fancy armor and weapons?" She felt ill, Kai motioned for the Scath to release the villagers, "Even the children?" Kai made another motion with her hand, and the men in question followed the mage in pools of their own blood.
She turned to the villagers, "You are all safe, and 'The Silver Griffon' has sent us here. I ask those who can fight to fight with us, we must clear the village and then disperse. You will be safe in the Dalish camp. They have kindly agreed to give you all a warm safe place to stay until we can get you to the Bannorn, arlships, and Highever."
"We have to leave Gwaren?" one of the villagers asked in a frightened voice.
"Yes, but I promise, only until Anora is no longer queen, the Theirin line lives, it will be done. But until then, Gwaren must be abandoned. Anora must not know what happened here. If you stay, she will send more men to find out why, she is mad with power, do you really want to see what she will do when she finds her plans have been thwarted yet again?"
"How do we know this is true, you say that the Theirin line lives, you tell us we must trust you, how?" another voice asked from the crowd.
Kai took off her hood and her veil, grabbing the torch from Caled so they could see her face. She heard a little gasp rippled out from the group, some of them must have seen her in Denerim when she made her appearance on the balcony of the Royal Palace. She heard the murmurs and snippets of "but she is dead," and "we saw her fall."
She smiled at them, "As you can see, I am not really dead. Anora thinks that I am, and I need to keep it that way a bit longer. I also assure you that the Theirin lines lives; I gave birth to the true Hero of Ferelden's children. They are at the Dalish camp right now." She moved around so that all of them could see her.
It was Swiftrunner and his pack who all came to stand beside her, "It is true, she is the one who saved us, we will fight with you, lady. We will take back our home."
Alariel came forward to put a hand on Swiftrunner's shoulder, "I too say this is the woman who saved my clan, we would not be here otherwise. We would not be offering you our camp to stay in if not for this woman. We need to stand together or all will be lost." Alariel looked at Swiftrunner and smiled before turning her gaze to the villagers, "Those that can and want to fight, we have arms for you. Those who cannot, and the children, my clansmen will take you to the camp. You will be safe, I swear on the blood of my clan."
The villagers began to separate into those who were going to the Mayor's house and those going with the elven escorts. Several of the villagers grabbed arms and armor off the fallen soldiers. One young woman grabbed a sword, strapped on a helmet and with a cocky grin went to stand with Kai's group.
They all made their way with Scath rogues scouting the way ahead to the mayor's house. Kai sent some of the Scath to the house earlier to get ropes into position to climb the walls and to remain at the tops of the walls until the signal was given, others were to position themselves on the rooftop. The guards at the gate were lured out, and dispatched by the Scath. Some of the villagers put on their armor and took their posts. Kai and the others began sneaking into the yard from the front gate in small numbers and hiding in the shadows.
She found herself leaning against a wall crouched below a window where light shone onto the grass in the yard. She was joined by Keiron a moment later, he grinned his big goofy grin, which reminded her of Argus when he sat with his tongue lolling out. In fact, Argus was sitting next to him doing just that, they could be brothers. Keiron grinned harder when she rolled her eyes at him, "You are the most amazing woman I have ever met. You know, we could die tonight, I would hate to leave this world without out at least tasting those perfect lips once before I go." He leaned in, and Kai put her hand on his face and pushed him away.
"Don't you ever leave off?" Kai whispered to him.
"Not when it involves winning a prize like yourself." He whispered back, and just grinned again as she blushed. Then, he did a crouching run to the other side of the building to get into position.
Kai just huffed to herself and shook her head. She looked at Argus, "The next time he tries something like that, pin him to the ground and lick his face off." Argus did a silent bark and lolled his tongue out more in what looked like a doggy laugh.
"I hope you mean only when we are not about to engage in battle, my dear Grey Warden." Kai almost started, she had no idea Zev had come up behind her. She looked into his amber eyes, which shone in the light of the window, he actually looked amused for once. It had been a while since she had seen him like this., Maker, how she missed it.
She looked at him and smiled, "Shall we crash their party?"
He smiled back with some of his usual warmth, "Si, I think it is rude they did not invite us." Kai grinned and gave the signal for her Scath to enter the building and the battle was begun.
The fight was long and drawn out, it spilled out onto the grass of the walled-in yard. Kai felled one man with a two-handed slash to his neck, almost taking his head off. She turned and saw Naseel trying to fight a woman in mage clothes who was casting a spell which sent frost snaking along the girl's leathers, Naseel started to collapse.
"NASEEL," Kai heard herself yell, she started to run forward heedless of those who got in her way. One man she simply cut across the face as she went by, two others came at her from opposite sides, and she leapt up doing a forward tumble over their outstretched blades which they then embedded in each other, their target was already gone, back up on her feet and running forwards. She felt a burning sensation across her back, but she flipped her daggers in her hands, driving them behind her and hearing a surprised grunt as they found their mark in a soft, unprotected abdomen, without looking back, she rushed on, reaching the mage and Naseel just as Eudokia was about to cast another spell at the young elf.
"Hey, bitch, why don't you dance with me instead?" Kai cold-cocked the woman, she was so angry, all the stress of everything she had been through, including her worries about Zev and herself, finally come to a boil. The mage went flying to the ground, no finesse, no grace. Kai simply walked over to the fallen woman and put her booted foot on Eudokia's neck before grabbing her head, twisting it and breaking it with a sickening crunching sound. The woman's eyes just stared in amazement, even in death. The detached part of her mind that always sat back in these moments wanted to giggle at how anti-climactic a death that had to be for the witch.
Kai turned and went to Naseel, the girl had frost on her armor and some of the skin on her face and hands had cracked and bled from the cold, her left arm dangled uselessly at her side, but she was conscious and alive. She smiled at Kai, "Thank you, Scathach." Kai smiled back at her and touched the girl's cheek.
Kai looked around to find that the battle was over. There were bodies everywhere. All of her friends were standing, sporting various injuries. Some of the Scath and villagers were sitting, but all seemed to be alive at least. Keiron had a gash on his head which was bleeding down his ear, and he was holding his ribs with one arm wrapped around them, but he was grinning at her again as he murmured to Zev, who was standing nearby bleeding from various cuts himself, "Isn't she magnificent?" he gestured with his sword, and Kai looked at the swath of bodies she had made getting to Naseel, snorted and leaned over and emptied her stomach.