CODEX

Din – someone who has died

Uthenera – waking dream. Also, an elven poem

Aravel – a Dalish land vehicle

Halla – a horned animal, larger than a deer and companions to the Dalish

The Bannorn on the Estates of Bann Telmen

She could hear her own breath in the darkness of the predawn hours. It was useless to sleep at this point and all Lanaya did all night was toss and turn. The new Keeper's mind raced with so many doubts and questions. Could Zathrian have been saved? Did she have any right to be the Keeper of these proud people? How would those proud people fare in open battle today? Every time she envisioned the coming fray, her mind would show her nothing but carnage and destruction. She and the Warden had gone over the plan too many times to count, but still….

"Can't sleep either, huh?"

Lanaya nearly jumped out of her skin. "Oh, Merrill, you scared me."

Merrill's black hair and Dalish tattoos were just barely visible in the distant light of lamps. "Sorry, Keeper. I'm scared too. I haven't been this scared since I tried to find the Eluvian."

The Keeper tried to put on a brave face, but it wasn't working. "Merrill, I've held it together since Zathrian fell, but this is open war now. I have no experience leading us in this sort of thing. The enemy shemlen before us and the Darkspawn behind…did I make the right decision to stand by the Warden. Maybe we should have gone north to the Free Marches."

"No, the Warden is a good person. I see it in her. She reminds me a lot of that Duncan fellow. Duncan tried his best to save Tamlen and Theron Mahariel, poor din. But now, Ariane is a wonderful hunter, one of the best with sword I've ever seen...other than the Warden. They'll help us to be victorious, right? And Hahren Paivel, he knows enough to keep us safe, doesn't he? I do love his rendition of the Uthenera. Plus, the Warden gave us her promise. I trust her, you know. Oh, I'm rambling again, aren't I?" Merrill said, looking down.

"It's okay. I needed someone to talk to. I'm not sure I can do this," Lanaya said, unable to dispel that cold prickly in her gut. "Zathrian would have known how to handle this."

"But Zathrian is not here, Keeper. You are."

The Keeper chuckled and put her arm around her fellow mage. "You're right as usual. Come, it will be light soon enough. I best rouse the hunters."

They slipped back through the trees to see Ariane and some of the other hunters, seated on the forest floor, stringing bows and sharpening swords and daggers. Ariane had several quivers of white feathered arrows laid out and was applying poison to their barbed tips. "Andaran Atish'an, Keeper."

"Lethellan," Lanaya said with a bow. "You didn't have to get up so early. I was just coming to wake the clan."

As always, the hunter was proud. "I didn't want to oversleep and have the shem miss the edge of my blade. Besides, Fenarel kept kicking me…and his snoring, ugh. Best to get up and prepare."

The Keeper couldn't tell if Ariane were faking or not, but she didn't seem to have an ounce of fear in her. She wished she could have the hunter's confidence. "Well, I shan't waste any more of your time then. I'll go and see to the final preparations of the aravels and the halla."

"Already done, Keeper. Elora spoke to the halla earlier. They are ready for what lies ahead. We are ready."

Lanaya felt a hot flush in her cheeks and nose and she turned away to wipe her eye. This clan…these people were the finest she'd ever met. They deserved a better Keeper than she. She couldn't let them see her like this. "I…I…thank you."

"Keeper," Merrill said quietly. "When Zathrian fell, you held us together. The clan would have fallen apart and run if you hadn't been there with the Warden. We will follow you."

The Keeper was speechless. All she could do is force a smile and nod.

It was Ariane, who broke the silence. "Well, don't we have some shem to teach? What are we waiting for?"

Silent as the forest, aravels moved around the trees, drawn by faithful halla. One by one, hunters and mages boarded, stowing weapons and armor and potions where they could be readily used in battle. Ariane hopped up onto one aravel and then turned and extended her hand to Lanaya and Merrill. "Come on up. The view is fine from here."

Just over the whisper of wind in the leaves, Hahren Paivel sang the words of the Suledin, the Dalish song of endurance.

"Time was once a blessing
but long journeys are made longer
when alone within.
Take spirit from the long ago
but do not dwell in lands no longer yours."

"Be certain in need,
and the path will emerge
to a home tomorrow
and time will again
be the joy it once was."

Lanaya closed her eyes and put her hands together, asking Mythal to protect them. The Dalish had to endure, but the path to a new home would be through fire and steel.

The fleet of landships slid from the woods and onto open ground where the predawn sky was still full of stars. It was this quiet time that Lanaya loved and she breathed in the cool air, closing her eyes for a moment. Would this be the last time that she saw her beloved trees? Then, she turned back to the crew of the aravel and lifted her hand. "Raise the sails! Raise the sails! The Dalish go to war!"

Rising masts pulled crimson silk into the air and the wind caught the sails, driving them on at a blinding pace. Off in the distance now, the Keeper could see the bright orange flames of a siege in progress. Tiny fires hurled through the sky at a dark castle, bursting into sparks upon the walls. Campfires ringed the defenders, a sure sign that they were surrounded. In mere minutes, the scene of carnage grew and Lanaya could see one of the castle's walls down with men pouring through the gap. Ladders and some great tower, covered in leather and iron, were up against another wall. Molten liquid poured from towers onto metal clad shem below. Elsewhere, fantastic wooden structures hurled flaming rocks over the battlements. The Keeper's gut tightened, almost cutting off her breath and her hand shook for a moment. "Aneth ara, what sort of hell is this that the Dread Wolf has brought us to?"

Lanaya balled her fist and looked to the rear to face the fleet. There was no turning back from this precipice. "Now, Dalish. Swift as the wind, silent as the forest, fierce as the fire, steady as the mountain!" she yelled and she could hear bowstrings being drawn around her.

Just as the sky showed a small glow in the east, soldiers of the shemlen turned, their eyes and mouths full of surprise. Arrows flashed past the Keeper and snapped into the soft bodies of men just emerging from sleep in the tents. Merrill aimed her staff and one of the siege engines exploded into flaming rope and shards of wood. Soldiers quickly began to sound the alarm. "To arms! Enemy to the rear!"

The fleet slid past burning and falling tents and Lanaya saw men rushing at their aravel. An arrow lodge in the planking in front of her and another whooshed past her head. She flung her staff in their direction and thorny brambles sprung up around the shem, engulfing them. She shot another spell into another group and the men screamed and ran as if the Dread Wolf were on their tails. Still, more soldiers were coming at them and the keeper held out her open hand and then closed a fist, pulling a massive wooden siege weapon down on them. The great wooden arm of the weapon pounded on the ground, scattering men like toys and then splintered into a shower of wood. A shard of the wood slashed across Lanaya's cheek and she blinked for a second, holding her face.

"Are you alright, Keeper?" Merrill asked, bracing her with had hands.

"Keep fighting, Merrill, keep fighting! Don't worry about me!"

Merrill took her staff again and twirled it around, hurling rocks from the ground into the shem. Tents and wagons blazed around them and Lanaya lost sight of much of the fleet. She saw a group of pikemen skewer the halla of one aravel and it tumbled over, throwing the occupants on the ground. The landship bounced and then landed on three of the Dalish, scattering broken planks all around. "No!" the Keeper called, but it was too late for them. Surviving hunters tried to rise, but a knight in silver plate, covered in a tabard emblazoned with a wyvern, ran up to one of the Dalish and put an axe right into his skull.

"Archers, take that shem out!"

Barbed arrows flew out from their aravel, but Dalish arrows were meant for hunting, not for armor and the tips broke or deflected off of the knight's plate. The man ignored the pelting and swung his axe in a wide arc, severing the head of another hunter. Lanaya let out a cry of frustration as they moved out of range. She wanted to will the halla to come about, but they quickly had problems of their own. Flaming arrows tore through their sails and the crimson silk burst into fire. She aimed her staff up and sprayed the flames with an icy mist, dousing the inferno, but it was too late. Ashes of several of the sails flew off and the aravel slowed to half its speed.

"Where is the Warden?" Ariane shouted at the top of her lungs. "Where is the Warden?"

Nearby, another aravel had come to a stop, its halla dead and its sails burned. Shem scrambled up the wooden planks and hacked the Dalish to bits. Then, their aravel jolted, hitting something and everyone was thrown hard to the deck. Lanaya could hear yelling and she shook her head to see hands on the railing and then soldiers pulling themselves over the planks. Ariane clove her longsword into the neck of the lead shem and then drove her point into the eye of the next through his visor. "Ar tu na'lin emma ni!" the hunter cried as she hacked off the arm of another soldier. Indeed, there was much blood on her blade.

Other hunters fought as more shem poured over the sides. Two soldiers seized an elf and flung her over the rail where a man with a mace crushed her chest as she lay on the ground. A crossbow bolt found another hunter, its shaft going clean through his neck. Blood sprayed on Lanaya and she blinked, stunned by the carnage. "Mythal, protect us," she whispered. Then, she saw a soldier raise an axe over her head.

As if only a golem without a mind, she thrust her staff at him and unleashed a torrent of lighting right into his face. The man collapsed at her feet, but she kept the power flowing, letting the arcs of electricity connect to all of the metal clad shem on the aravel. With a nearly feral cry, the Keeper poured it on until she was drained. Nothing but smoking heaps of flesh remained of the shem on the aravel now.

Lanaya's breath came in ragged gasps and sweat rolled down her face, coating her feathered jacket in a glistening sheen. She was spent. Looking around, more and more soldiers were gathering and horsemen were riding to their flanks. "We must fall back, Ariane. I'm sorry…we must fall back. Sound the horns."

A shrill note pierced the air as the sun peeked up above the horizon and the fleet turned about and fled before the pounding of the hooves of shemlen cavalry.