CODEX
Faulds – bands of armor to protect the thighs.
Skirmishers – light troops used to screen an advance, retreat or protect the flanks
Bastard Sword – a 'hand and a half' sword, longer than a longsword, shorter than a two hander
Pavise – mobile wooden shield used by missile troops
Mantlet – larger pavise, used by more than one person
Sabatons – armor for the feet
Bodkin arrowhead – armored piercing
Bill Hook – pole weapon with an axe head, spike and hooks to bring down cavalry
Armet – full helmet with a visor
Gorget – throat guard
The Bannorn on the Estates of Bann Telmen
Teyrn Lohgain's council of war gathered in the grand tent in the darkness for the final assault that would sweep all of the Bannorn under his iron fist. The only thing missing was the Teyrn himself. "All is ready, Ser Cauthrien," the lead miner said, his arms and face covered in sweaty dirt. "On your word, we'll detonate the grenades, which will break the beams…the whole mine will collapse along with the south wall."
Cauthrien was tired – she had barely slept a wink overnight and the stress was eating at her like a vulture. For the first time, she was in command of the whole army and it was Loghain's trust in her that drove her to demand perfection in every detail. "What of the other mines?" she barked impatiently. "You said the other two would be ready this morning."
"My lady, we are still ahead of schedule. The regent will probably only have recently arrived in Denerim. We'll have that wall down for him well before he returns."
"You'd better, churl. His Grace entrusted me with this siege. Do you know what that means?"
"I do, my lady," the miner said with a sigh. "We await your word."
"Bring down the wall in ten minutes. Do not fail, do you understand me?"
"Yes, yes," he said and waved his hand as he walked back to the mine entrance. She didn't like how the men treated her. She should command the same respect as the regent. After all, she had earned it fighting by his side. Somehow though, she knew deep down that captaining the guard was a whole other matter from leading the army. There were so many details…so many factors from the range of the trebuchets to the personalities of the knights. She wished for Loghain's booming voice to guide her now, but he was in Denerim, crushing the coup and the Warden's hopes.
She turned to the assembled war council and saw doubt in their faces. She had to push through this or else what kind of a knight was she. She had heard that there were desertions since the regent left and there were discontented rumblings in the ranks over her abrupt and harsh manner. This moment needed a confident face. "Bann Pelham, form up your infantry in a shield wall at the south. Ser Sinton, have the pikemen back them up. Bann Moutan, I want the siege tower and ladders on the west wall. We go in less than ten minutes."
In the battle, Loghain would be out there, near the forefront and so would she. She picked up her barbute helm and wiped the fatigue from her face. It would be over today and then, they could all rest. She pulled the leather straps of her scabbard over her shoulder and secured them over the armored faulds on her waist. The clink of her spurs jingled on the ground as she walked into the predawn mist. It was such a small thing that should have long since passed, but she treasured that sound – the sound that signified knighthood. From nothing, Ser Cauthrien had the honor to save the life of the great hero of Ferelden and then fought her way up to become the commander of Maric's Shield, Loghain's personal guard. It was not easy as many of the nobles looked down on her still, but the teyrn had never failed to put his faith in her. Receiving her spurs from him had been the proudest moment of her life.
Cauthrien walked over to stand beside Bann Pelham, a man she found arrogant and distasteful, but he was important to the regent's war effort. They waited in silence and she thought of Loghain…alone without her. When this was over, he would come back to her. She knew that it was just the stress of the war that kept him at a distance. Yes, it was the stress…and the guilt. He did what he had to do, she told herself. Sometimes, you have to do terrible things to do the right thing. Somewhere, in the back of her mind, she felt for Lady Cousland, but the woman now threatened everything that she held dear. The Warden would destroy Ferelden for the sake of something the girl could never get back.
She missed Loghain. She missed him terribly. Not the regent, not the teyrn, but the man. She pressed her lower lip into her upper one and squeezed the handle of her sword. Then, a roar shook the earth and the ground trembled. Stones from the south wall wavered as if they had turned into liquid and the battlements and ramparts crashed down as the mine blew. "Now, to victory! Into the breach!" she called as she drew her bastard sword.
The shield wall surged forward as rocks flew into the gaps in the castle defenses. Cries of dismay from the defenders fueled Cauthrien's fire. Skirmishers deployed to the flanks of the infantry, firing crossbow bolts from behind pavises and mantlets. Arrows and bolts arced back, pouring down like a rain shower. Shafts soon stuck out of shields, making the advancing infantry look like a moving pincushion. Soldiers held shields both in front and on top, making the formation into one giant tortoise, intent on destroying the rebels. A few of the darts found targets, causing men to fall out of line, only to be replaced by another man. As the shield wall reached the base of the wall, troops broke formation to rush up the rubble into the breach. From an adjacent tower, a stream of flaming oil and molten iron poured down, splashing on the attackers. The screams were horrific, but still, they pressed on.
Just behind the front line, Cauthrien stepped over debris and smoldering bodies. A man reached out to her, the flesh of his arm and face melting off. She couldn't stop. "Keep moving! Keep moving forward! The castle is ours! Up the steps to the tower. Take out that tower!"
Her men swarmed up the stairs under a hail of fire and bashed in the door to the tower. Soon, the enemy fire slackened and then died away altogether. Infantry charged along the battlements, sweeping Telmen's archers from the walls. "Blessed Andraste, thank you. His Grace's trust in me was not misplaced."
As the first glow in the eastern sky appeared, shrill horns sounded behind them, catching Cauthrien's attention. She climbed the steps on part of the ruined wall and looked out. She couldn't believe her eyes. It was as if ships were sailing on land. "What the…?"
"It's those damn knife eared Dalish!" Bann Pelham said. "We should have exterminated those vermin long ago."
Two catapults and numerous tents were already burning and they watched a trebuchet collapse on some of their men, crushing a supply wagon in the process. Horses and mules bolted in panic, running over other people. The strange landships flitted about, drawn by what seemed like elk, elves firing arrows and casting spells. Damn, not now. Not when she was so close. It felt like she had been awake for a month, but she could not falter at this point. "Bann Pelham, lead the assault home. I'm going back to deal with this."
Cauthrien scurried back over the rubble, noticing that the burned man was now still. "Ser Sinton, bring the pikes with me! We have to stop this attack." The ranks of long shafted spears opened and reversed, moving to the sound of battle. She pointed at a squad and then aimed them at one of the landships. "Ser Sinton, stop that one!" she yelled and the knight and ten troopers peeled away and ran at the ship, skewering the elk that pulled it. The ship veered and then crashed, hurling the elves onto the ground. As Sinton split one elf's head with his axe, Cauthrien pointed at a group of her archers.
"I see a weakness. Flaming arrows at the sails, now!"
Fiery shafts flew into the crimson silk sails, setting them alight. This was having an immediate affect, slowing the landships and causing elves to fight the blazes instead of fighting men. Cauthrien noticed that the Dalish arrows were having little effect now that more heavily armored soldiers were arriving and the barbed tips were almost useless against the knights in plate. The tide was turning. She snapped her fingers and ten more pikemen fell in behind her as she charged another landship. The sharp tips of pikes drove into the elks as the ship's sails burned. Other soldiers formed a human pyramid next to the ship and troops clambered up. Cauthrien stepped on the back of one man, holding her sword in two hands and thrust up through the leather armor of an elf. "Up and over, men!"
She pulled on the rail to climb into the ship and an elf came at her, shouting some of his gibberish. She pushed her hand up and draped her blade over her head and shoulder. The elf's sword clanged on hers and deflected into the railing. Cauthrien immediately followed up, swinging around her head, driving her blade through her attacker from collar bone to hip. At close quarters, her armored men had a huge advantage and it was simply butchery at this point.
As the first rays of morning light touched the land, shrill horns sounded again and the landships turned about and fled towards the sun. Cauthrien breathed a sigh of relief. She could now turn her exhausted body back to Telmen's castle and finish the job. Her armor felt as if a boulder had been tied around her neck and she pulled off her barbute to lighten the load for a minute. The sound of approaching horses forced her to look over and wipe the sweat from her eyes.
"Ser Cauthrien, we must pursue and destroy those knife eared fiends." It was Ser Sinton, now mounted on a massive warhorse.
"No, Ser, we must finish the siege. Then, we'll go after the Dalish and bring justice to them."
Sinton became impatient, waving his war axe. "We must finish the elves now or else they will fade back into their rotting woods and snipe at us forever. I heard them crying to their filthy gods that the Warden had abandoned them. Now is the time, Cauthrien. If you won't lead the men, I will!" he demanded and the knights around him cheered their approval.
Cauthrien looked back at the castle, now swathed in the morning light. Pelham's men still assaulted the various towers and the inner keep. Arrows and boiling oil still rained down on the attackers. The issue was still in doubt. Worse, pursuing a mobile enemy was difficult at best and the regent had taken nearly all of the light horse with him. But, she realized it was the best chance to knock the Dalish out, once and for all…and without the Warden's help. The pressure was on to make a decision. The knights and Bann expected her to be aggressive and crush the enemies of the crown. "No, Ser, I will lead us," she said and hopped down onto a warhorse, setting her sabatons in the stirrups and setting her barbute back in place. "Follow me!"
She put spur to horse and the cavalry and faster infantry followed the limping landships to the east. Dalish stragglers were ridden down like bugs and the heavy horse pounded on towards the ships, which were now throwing up clouds of dust in their wake. With most of their sails burnt, the Dalish were falling behind, allowing the giant armored warhorses to gain. The forest was ahead now and she had to stop them before they reached the tree line and faded into shadows. "Pick up the pace! We've got to catch them quickly!"
As the line accelerated forward, Cauthrien watched the dust clouds around the Dalish and something felt wrong, terribly wrong. There was something moving behind the dust…something big. "Wait, slow up, Ser Sinton!"
"What? Are you mad or just frightened? Look at them! They are beaten and we cannot let this opportunity go," he shouted and then rose up in his stirrups. "Knight's of the regent…Charge!" Thunder rattled the ground as hundreds of hooves pounded on the earth and banners and bright streamers signaled the glory to come.
"Dammit, Ser Sinton!" she called, but her voice was drowned out in the wave of cavalry. Then, the landships suddenly veered left and right in orchestrated unison, opening a gap in the center, just before the forest. Were they turning to fight when escape was so near? The dust in the middle settled and Cauthrien's jaw dropped open. Ranks of dwarven pikemen stood there like a forest of steel, anchoring the center. Above their army flew the banners of Orzammar along with the black banners of the Legion of the Dead. Guarding each flank were squadrons of Redcliffe knights and men-at-arms along with a gang of Circle Mages. Cauthrien reined in her horse violently, letting Sinton and the other knights forge ahead for the moment. She had to look around and understand the situation. She watched the knights charge for the middle and the dwarves began pounding their shields together, creating a deafening din.
Longbow shafts darkened the sky for a second and then fell among the knights. These were not barbed Dalish tips, but bodkin heads made into a tiny sharp point. Shafts snapped through steel plates and armored horses, sending knights tumbling head over heel onto the ground. Still, the cavalry pressed on. A young woman with black hair twirled her staff over her head and the dust swirling among the knights burst into flames, causing horses to rear amid panicked screams. Still, the knights charged. "For Loghain!" they yelled in unison, the pounding of hooves making it seem as if the whole of the Fade was emptying of demons. Surely, this rag tag force would break and run from a charge of heavy horse, the greatest chivalry in Ferelden.
Then, banners rose over all of the rebel ranks, included the flanking landships. They were blue banners with the Rampant two-headed Griffon, Argent – the sigil of the Warden Commander in Ferelden. And beneath, a woman, mounted on a black warhorse, waited patiently among her friends for the enemy to arrive. The woman's armor appeared to be made of shiny blue glass and bits of dragon scale and her tabard was blue with none other than the two headed Griffon. This was the Warden.
Still not moving, Cauthrien gasped. "Dear Maker, the Warden does have an army…a real army." She tried shouting to recall Ser Sinton, but her voice was swallowed in the raucous of the charge. Lances lowered from armored arms over armored horses within a stone's throw from the dwarves and men of Redcliffe. From seemingly up out of the ground, the enemy raised pikes and bill hooks as if a forest were sprouting from the earth right there. Sharp stakes pointed out of the soil to trip or catch horses. This was a prepared and determined foe dug into a defensive position. Cauthrien put her hand over her mouth – there was nothing that she could do to stop this.
The long pikes outreached the lances and their tips pierced through horse and rider, punching great holes in the knights' armor. Horses reared and fell as the line of cavalry shattered on the line of pikes and stakes. The charge was spent and the enemy, unbowed. Thrown riders rose and tried to fend off the wall of sharp steel that was now advancing on them. Still mounted, Ser Sinton lopped the head off of one of the pikes and then whirled his axe around to cleave the helm of the wielder. "Rally around me!" he shouted. His horse kicked a dwarf in the face, knocking him back into his fellows and then it spun, brushing aside two others. Sinton buried his axe into the chest of a dwarven legionnaire, giving his men time to reform and remount.
Cauthrien waved frantically to her men behind her. "Get the pikemen up here! Bring up the archers, now!" As the infantry hustled to get into the fight, the landships sailed into range and unleashed a volley into her lightly armored bowmen. She could see a brown-haired elf in one ship, urging her people back into battle. Cauthrien let out a frustrated cry – they had been set up. She could almost admire the sacrifice that the Dalish had made to deceive them…almost since their lives were at stake now.
She was about to direct an attack on the elves when the Warden rode forward into the fray alongside her pretender prince, Alistair. Behind her, a bronze-skinned Qunari and a walking statue ran into the melee. At the gallop, the Warden skewered a knight with her lance and then let it go as the knight tumbled out of the saddle. Two of Cauthrien's men on foot rushed up and swung at the Warden, hoping to knock her from her horse. With a brush of her hand, her sword seemed to appear from nowhere and, with a stroke, she shattered one man's blade. Another swing cut through the second man's armet helm like it wasn't even there. A final thrust went right through the first man's gorget, coming out the back of his neck. It all happened so fast that the two men fell at the same time. The Warden held her sword up and a light shone from the tip like a star. What, in the Maker's name, was this weapon?
Her archers falling around her with barbed arrows sticking out of them, Cauthrien spurred her horse towards the Warden. She had to get her knights out of there. Star sword or not, she would fight her enemy and die to save Loghain's honor. As she rode up, she could see the Qunari hewing down two men at a time and the golem beating men into the ground, yelling, "Squish," with every blow. Just ahead, Ser Sinton charged anew, hacking the golem and knocking a chuck of rock away. The Warden rode at him and he dodged her cut and then leapt onto her, the both of them crashing to the ground. Cauthrien accelerated towards the two – if they could kill the Warden, there was still hope for victory.
The girl rolled away as Sinton put his axe into the ground where she had been and she sliced up at his head, cutting off only the antlers on his armet when he dodged back. He yanked the axe up and swung again, but the Warden sidestepped and clove his arm clean off at the elbow…through armor, flesh and bone.
Cauthrien tried to press through the mass of men to get to Sinton, but the pretender prince hauled him to the ground and all sight was lost of the knight in the chaos. Another knight rode up to her and hurled his helmet away, his eyes full of panic. "We must retreat! We are beaten!" he screamed. She looked around to see knights running and riding in all directions, heedless of the enemy. The Dalish and the Warden's light cavalry flitted nearby, throwing volley after volley into their ranks. The regent's army was nearly surrounded.
Two men fell in front of her, pierced by the bodkin arrows of the Warden's archers and Cauthrien's gut tightened as she tried to think. They were all going to die here if she couldn't think – the Warden was not famed for her mercy. The girl's heightened sense of vengeance was as well known as Howe's sadism. They had to make a break for it.
"You men, follow me!" she shouted and rode at only gap in the circle around them. Grabbing a spear that was sticking out of the ground, she rode hard for their one chance to escape. The Dalish leader's landship moved to intercept and the black-haired mage hurled a bolt of lightning from her staff, frying one rider. The leader waved her staff and brambles of thorns rose from the very earth, snagging another rider, but Cauthrien leapt her mount over it. She could see the Dalish preparing another round of spells and she flung her spear into the lead elk, piercing it through the neck. It crashed to the ground, knocking the others over and the landship slammed into the carcasses, knocking the elves to the deck and shattering one mast. Cauthrien leapt her horse over the fallen timber and fled with a handful of riders.
Ser Cauthrien was numb the rest of the day as the army gave up the siege of Castle Telmen and retreated to safety in friendly Bann Ceorlic's estates. This was a disaster. They started the day as masters of the Bannorn and ended it with one third of the regent's army annihilated. Nearly all of the heavy horse and a full two regiments of pike were gone along with all of their supplies. This was a disaster. She could envision so many of her friends and her comrades, their heads on pikes to satisfy a girl's vengeance…if the stories were true. She hoped that they weren't. Maybe the Warden would find it in her heart to show mercy.
A voice sounded in her ears, seemingly miles away. "Ser…. Ser Cauthrien, we are beyond the pursuit of the Warden. Let me take your horse, ser."
"What? My horse? Yes…yes, do."
She slid off of the saddle and onto the ground, only then realizing how much pain she was in and how exhausted she was. With a flick of her hand, she knocked her barbute off of her head and let it lay where it fell. She staggered away, right past a valet with a pitcher of water and headed towards the grand tent that was meant for the regent and his war council. She stopped for a moment at the tent opening, but then went around to the side where her legs gave out and she wobbled to the ground, held her hands to her face and let a river of tears flow through her fingers. The teyrn would never forgive her.
Then, a hand touched her hair and Cauthrien looked up with a start. Through watery eyes she saw her lord, looking down at her. "Forgive me, Your Grace," she said, stifling a sob as she grasped his hand.
He knelt down and wiped the sweat and soot from her face with a damp cloth…his own sash of office. The hard lines of his features and his hazel eyes softened. "There is nothing to forgive. The fault is mine and mine alone. You kept the honor of the regent." His usually booming voice was now soft and sincere.
Cauthrien held onto his arm like an infant, rocking back and forth to get a hold of herself. She tried to speak, but no words would come.
With strong arms, he picked her up, armor and all and carried her to his tent. He laid her down on his cot gently and stroked her hair. "Rest now. Rest well. There will be another day."