There and Back Again Ch. 143

I led my group past a few more abandoned rooms, finding nothing; we came to a dead end in a room with a large training arena, and turned to head back towards Alistair. I left half of my soldiers -- two of them -- in the hall where I'd last seen Alistair, and took the other two with me to find my husband.

I wandered past a similar bunch of rooms, more offices and closets, and found a long hallway with what must have been private officer living quarters. The doors were open, the rooms empty, and we kept going. There was one larger chamber with fresh darkspawn corpses, and when I stepped into the next hallway, I could hear steel crashing against steel -- fighting! Worried about my husband with only two soldiers of his own, I rushed down the hallway, daggers in hands, ignoring the side rooms he had obviously cleared on his way.

I ran through an open doorway just in time to see Alistair take a shield to the face; he rebounded away from a hurlock with a rather impressive tower shield, and fell to the floor. The soldiers with him were back to back desperately fighting a group of three genlocks. With a cry, I leapt over Alistair's prone form, ducking down and around the hurlock who was going in for the kill; I dug one of my daggers into his armpit and, when he reared back with a scream, I slashed at his exposed neck with the other. Black blood spurted out of the wound as I yanked my dagger back, and it sank to the ground clutching its ruined neck. I glanced at the soldiers -- who'd been rescued by the two following me, and were fine -- and then quickly dropped to the ground at Alistair's side.

He was conscious, his hands working to push off his dented helmet; his face bore an angry red patch on one cheek that would bruise impressively later. "Void take it, I liked that helmet," he whined, and I laughed, wrapping my arms around him as he slowly sat up.

"Are you dizzy, Love?"

"I'm okay. Skull's too thick to hurt me," he joked, and I giggled, the verging hysteria ebbing as it became clear he really was fine. "Nice job, by the way, Lady Theirin." He nodded to the dead hurlock.

I grinned. "Knew those hours of training would be good for something." I scrambled to my feet and held out my hand. "Need a hand up?"

When all of us were up, after a quick survey of the soldiers to make sure no one was too badly injured, we turned as a group to head further down the hallway. We turned a sharp corner to see a steep flight of steps leading down. I went first, Alistair and the four soldiers on my heels, but I'd gone only halfway down when I heard more sounds of fighting.

"Think this meets up with the door Alim and Justice went through?" I wondered aloud as I signalled everyone to be careful, and then hurried down the rest of the stairs.

"Who knows?" Alistair puffed as he rushed behind me. "Honestly, I've lost my sense of direction -- we could be right outside Bownammar for all I could tell."

"At least you've still got your pants, dear," I laughed softly and turned at the bottom of the stairs, a thick wooden door in front of me blocking my progress. Making sure Alistair and the others were ready, I reached out and pulled the door open, allowing the seven men to precede me into the room beyond.

I followed behind, and then stopped, stunned. There were probably a dozen darkspawn corpses, some still twitching, scattered around a room that held a couple of rough tables with chairs, some weapon racks, and little else. It was a blood bath. Black ichor dripped down the walls and off the chairs, entrails and other unidentified remains puddled under the tables, and in the middle of the mess stood two absolutely filthy, blood-spattered Wardens I wasn't sure I'd ever see again.

Conrad and Rolan.