David Gaider - The Calling

“I don’t know who that is.”

“My wife, the Queen.” He tried to keep his voice flat. From Duncan’s curious glance, he suspected he wasn’t very successful. “She died. Three years ago, now.”

“I’m sorry,” Duncan said earnestly. “Did you love her?”

“I did. I do.” Maric cleared his throat, studiously looking ahead. “There was another woman before her, however. An elven woman by the name of Katriel, the very one who led us to Ortan thaig when I was in the Deep Roads. She saved my life, but when I found out she was a spy and had cost us the battle at West Hill, I killed her. I ran her through.”

Maric could feel the lad’s speculative look, and was suddenly glad for the dim light as he was sure his color was rising. Why he was suddenly talking about this, he wasn’t certain. He had never talked about it to anyone before, not since it had happened. Perhaps he was being foolish.

“I’d heard about that,” Duncan said carefully. “Some of it, anyway.”

“No doubt. Loghain made sure word got out, so everyone knew that justice had been done.” He turned and looked at Duncan directly. “My point is that it wasn’t justice. I was furious and felt betrayed. I felt responsible for all the people who had died because I was the one who trusted her. I couldn’t forgive her. I murdered her, and I never regretted anything more in my life.”

“Oh.”

“We all make mistakes, Duncan. Some of them are going to cost others dearly. What’s important is that your intentions were good, and that you learn from what you’ve done.” He attempted a wan smile. “I wish I’d known that a long time ago.”

They walked side by side for a time, both of them staring off into the shadows in awkward silence. Finally the lad looked at him, and for a moment Maric could have sworn the lad actually looked bashful. “Thank you,” he said quietly.

Maric nodded and smiled. There was nothing more he could say.

“Hold!” Genevieve suddenly shouted from the front.

They all stopped, Kell drawing his bow and nocking an arrow almost instantly. Utha was ahead of them and gestured to the others to join her. They moved up, and as Fiona cautiously brightened the white glow from her staff, what the dwarf had found was revealed.

An entire section of the cave ahead of them had collapsed, and was almost impassable. What was far more important, however, was that past the hole in the cavern wall appeared to be a section of the Deep Roads. It would require them to climb up the rubble and squeeze through a fairly narrow aperture, but the signs of dwarven architecture beyond were unmistakable.

“It’s a way back,” Fiona breathed.

“I thought it seemed like we were headed up,” Duncan said, and Utha nodded her head in agreement.

“Are there darkspawn up there?” Maric asked.

“No,” Fiona offered, the faraway look in her eyes telling him that she was casting out her Grey Warden senses. “Not nearby, anyhow.” The elf tapped the onyx brooch attached to her chain shirt. “It looks like the gifts from the Circle are proving their worth. We’ve lost them for the moment.”

Genevieve seemed unconvinced. “Perhaps,” she frowned, “though it is odd. Normally they swarm like a horde of bees when disturbed.” She drew her greatsword, the blade flashing in the staff’s glare, and approached the rubble cautiously with it in hand. Waving for the others to follow her, she began her ascent.

It was a slow pro cess to get through the hole in the wall. In the end, they needed to clear some of the rocks at the top of the pile to make room for those with bulkier armor. Utha was the first through, and she gave the all clear from the other side.

It was good to be back in the dwarven passages, Maric thought. He noticed almost immediately, however, that the signs of darkspawn corruption had returned. There was an almost marked transition from the natural caves they had just left. Why was that? Was there something about the Deep Roads that made them more susceptible to this strange infestation? There he saw the familiar trails of black filth and the clusters of fleshy sacs lining the walls. The crumbling statues, too, looked much like every other part of the Deep Roads they had been to. They could be anywhere.

Genevieve looked about grimly. “Do you recognize anything?” she asked Maric.

He shook his head.

“Then we proceed.”

They traveled for hours, Genevieve pushing them mercilessly, as if she expected an attack from the darkspawn at any moment. The other Wardens, however, seemed content that this was unlikely. They had slipped the noose, as it were, and if the darkspawn were searching for them anywhere it was back in the network of caverns they had just left. This appeared to bring no comfort to their commander, who became more tense the longer they traveled.

Twice they passed tunnels that branched off from the main route, the entrances marked with great stone archways. Utha signed that these were abandoned thaigs, though any indication of which ones they had been was now scoured away by time and the encroachment of darkspawn corruption. The dwarf stood at the entrances and stared sadly into the shadows beyond, clenching and unclenching her fists. Maric had to wonder what it must be like for her, to know your people once ruled a great empire that had been reduced to a shadow of its former self.

Much later they came upon a section of the Deep Roads that had mostly collapsed into the caverns below, leaving a gaping chasm filled with little more than cobwebs and darkness. The wall on one side remained intact, along with a narrow ledge at its foot just barely wide enough to walk along. They eyed it with suspicion, but Utha seemed convinced that it was well enough supported that they could cross it one at a time, if there was anywhere to reach. The light from Fiona’s staff was not enough to extend all the way to the other side. They could only assume that there even was another side.

Genevieve went first, overriding objections by saying her armor was the heaviest present. If they couldn’t get her across now, they wouldn’t be able to do so later. Kell tied a length of rope around her, but Maric doubted the rope would even hold her properly if the stone on the path gave way. It offered little more than peace of mind.

Still, she went across without a moment’s hesitation, flattening herself against the wall and sliding slowly along the ledge until she disappeared into the shadows. The rope represented their only indication that she had not fallen. Quiet minutes passed as they watched the rope carefully and Kell slowly let more and more of it out. Just when it looked like they were about to run out of rope, it jerked sharply. Twice. She was across.

Maric was one of the last to go, and it was an experience he was not likely to want ever to repeat. Slowly sliding along the narrow ledge, one barely got any indication that there was even a floor beneath. In that darkness it felt like he was suspended, and that he would pitch forward into the vast pit before him at any moment. He couldn’t see how deep it went, but he could feel it. He needed to stop once, pressing his head against the wall and closing his eyes to keep the world from spinning around him. Only the insistent tugging of the rope kept him moving, inching on toward the pinpoint of light on the other side.

When he finally stumbled off the ledge, he was sweating and trembling. Kell grabbed him and Fiona ran up. The warm glow of her staff was probably the most welcome sight he could possibly imagine.

“Are you all right?” she asked, concerned.

“I didn’t fall in,” he chuckled.

The elf frowned severely at him. “Is that a yes?”

“Err … I suppose so, yes.”

She snorted derisively and turned on her heel, walking away. Maric glanced askance at Kell and the hunter merely shrugged. He couldn’t explain it, either.