Freedom Among Slaves: A Mage's beginning
Chapter twelve: Luck is Fickle
Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Age, Bioware or EA.
Author's note: This chapter is mostly about Ostagar, though I tried to avoid unnecessarily repeating the games plot. There is a bit about Aveline, and at the end Anders and Hawke come up.
This is an important milestone for this story, because I finished the first notebook I was using to write it! I do have another though, and as promised in the summary, this story will continue until the start of Awakening.
I would appreciate if people could vote on the pairings poll on my profile. Seriously, the future chapters of this story could change depending on what people vote! VOTE! Anyway…here's the chapter.
"Let's get to the Tower of Ishal and light the beacon, Duncan is counting on us!" Alistair had to shout to be heard over the sound of the battle below.
Bethany nodded. Her feet were spread wide in an attempt to maintain balance on a bridge being shaken by rocks hurled from catapults and Darkspawn Emissary spells. A soldier ran past her to take a fallen comrade's place manning one of the ballistae.
Alistair grabbed Bethany's hand and pulled her along as he ran, carefully skirting the craters left by boulders and grasped the lower half of her robes and hitched them up so she wouldn't trip.
Mages are not built for running.
They reached the other side of the ridge and, taking one look at Bethany, Alistair said they could walk the rest of the way.
Bethany started when Alistair drew his sword.
Oh, of course, he can sense the Darkspawn.
Bethany relaxed when she realised that the ex-Templar wasn't about to turn his weapon on her.
Well…she wasn't much of a threat anyway. Most of Bethany's spells were just pure blind instinct.
The day she'd shown magical talent had been the day she'd been recruited into the Wardens. It had only been a few weeks ago.
She'd probably been sent to the tower of Ishal to keep her out of a battle she wouldn't be able to survive.
And Duncan had said she had potential.
Aveline had lost her shield, so she resorted to using her one-handed sword with both hands. The pommel and crossguard dug into her fingers, but that was the least of her worries.
The small force of soldiers, Grey Wardens and Mages was being overwhelmed. They'd been fighting for what seemed like an Age.
Aveline glanced up. The signal still wasn't lit. The Darkspawn had committed to their attack. The troops needed Loghain's forces now or they'd be annihilated.
Why couldn't the Grand Cleric have swallowed her pride and let the mages create a fireball in the sky or something? Just why?
Aveline clamped down on the thoughts before they could take root.
She glanced up again. To her relief she saw the light at the top of the Tower of Ishal.
She kicked a Hurlock back with newfound strength, running it through with her sword when it fell over a Genlock.
We might actually win this- oh, no.
To her horror Loghain's forces quit the field. She could see them in the brief flashes of light from spells the mages were casting.
He just left us to die! And his men obeyed? That traitorous, backstabbing-
Aveline was jolted out of her mental rant by ungodly screaming to her right.
An Ogre threw a broken mass of flesh to the side. It landed near her and she saw a glint of gold plated armor. King Caillan.
The Grey Warden, Duncan she thought his name was, brought down the Ogre, but one lok at him and she knew he could not be saved. His torso was covered in blood, and more was being coughed up by him. His lungs were probably punctured by a rib.
They were losing.
Aveline made the only rational decision in her circumstances.
"Fall back!"
Alistair turned toward the stairs, drawing his sword. He settled the weight of his shield on his other arm, taking a defensive stance in front of Bethany.
Darkspawn had followed them up the tower, just far back enough that Alistair hadn't been able to sense them.
Archers.
If he moved they'd kill Bethany for sure, but if he didn't…
Alistair swallowed.
Arrows and crossbow bolts found their way through the chinks in Alistair's splintmail.
Alistair staggered, then fell.
His eyes remained open however.
He saw the Darkspawn get burned to a crisp by one of Bethany's spells.
She knelt beside him and he could vaguely hear her yelling at him not to die on her.
Alistair's glazed over eyes widened fractionally in horror as a Genlock snuck out from its hiding place near the stairs. It took careful aim with its crossbow.
He couldn't move or speak to warn her.
Alistair saw the head of the bolt protruding from her torso, felt the bloodspray, heard the roars of a dragon- a dragon?
Alistair's luck couldn't get any worse.
Anders looked at Hawke. They'd been let out with some of the other mages to walk around the Circle tower.
It would have been a kindness if it hadn't been for the storm.
"We'd have to be crazy to swim across Lake Calenhad in this." She whispered, mindful of the Templars watching them.
"I've done it before. Just stick close to me." Anders replied under his breath.
Hawke smiled at him.
"Good thing neither of us is completely sane."
"That's the beauty of this plan; they won't expect it. They didn't even realise it was a bona fide escape attempt the first time I tried."