Dragon Age: The Masked Empire

by Patrick Weekes

  She had finally warmed up enough to try the soup when Felassan opened his eyes and sat up, his breath quickening as he rose from his magical sleep. “How did it go?”

  “My parents are avenged.” Briala nodded and dipped a spoon into the stew. The spoon shook in her fingers, and try though she might, she could not get it to hold still. The stew dripped from the spoon, and she thought of a trail of red pooling on the floor of the reading room and shut her eyes. It was done. She was done.

  “Good.” He smiled. “Orlesian nobles. Not immortal, like our ancient ancestors, but fairly hard to kill nevertheless. Nicely done.”

  “Thank you.” Briala got the spoon to her mouth, took a bite, and realized that she was ravenous. She forced herself to chew and let the warmth spread out through her with each bite.

  “Are you sure that you’re ready to go back?” Felassan asked after a time. “You’re absolutely positive that Celene will take you back into her house?”

  Briala thought of Celene’s lips crushing hers, and she felt herself flush. “Yes. She’ll take me back.”

  “Then you will do much good for the elves in the palace at Val Royeaux,” Felassan said, and glanced over. “Do not doubt that, da’len.”

  “I still wish I could see the Dalish.” She scraped the spoon against the bottom of the pot, then put both aside.

  “I know.” Felassan smiled. “But Val Royeaux is where you are needed. The Dalish will help as they can. You help as you can. Tattoos upon your face do not make you a true elf,” he added, when she was silent. “Be proud of who you are.”

  Coming up from the water, Briala took in a great lungful of air.

  By the time she finished scrubbing the dirt from her limbs and rinsing the smoke from her hair, her body had gone comfortably numb. She swam, thinking of nothing, then looked up when she felt wetness sprinkle her face. The gray clouds overhead had opened up with thick wet raindrops.

  It turned from a sprinkle to a steady downpour even as she swam back to shore, jabbing her feet on the rocks by the shore. The rain had soaked through her underclothes, and she shivered as she put them on. She pulled on her boots, but carried the rest of her armor rather than wear it wet.

  She had been in Celene’s court for too long.

  Too many years being called “rabbit,” too many years ducking her head and working from the shadows. Too many years of being proud of who she was, a feeling she could cling to like a floating log in a rushing river. It had kept her head above water, but it had never let her steer her own course.

  She would fight for her people, because nobody else would, and Fen’Harel take whoever got in her way.

  12

  Drenched and shivering, Celene watched Briala walk through the downpour through the Dalish camp. Briala was soaked as well, though from her rain-slicked hair, Celene guessed she had gone off to bathe nearby.

  The guards had not offered blankets, though they had moved under an overhang themselves. Though most of the Dalish had retreated to their wagons or erected canvas awnings to protect them and their belongings from the rain, Celene and Ser Michel had been left to the elements.

  The camp had been quiet since well before the rain started. Michel’s return, and the revelation that the camp had been ensnared by the magic of the demon the Keeper had summoned, had cast a pall over the Dalish. The songs and banter had stopped. The combat training had become rote, perfunctory. And in that sad silence, Celene had seen more of the Dalish than she had expected.

  There were fewer than fifty of them, she had realized, and unless there were more children and adolescents playing in the woods, the camp would not be growing larger in the coming years. True, it was but one clan of many, but from what Celene understood, the clans met only rarely, for their own safety. There might only be a handful of other clans in all of Orlais.

  They were the rebel army Gaspard feared, the secret hope of the elves living in the slums. It seemed to Celene a heavy burden of hope and fear to put on so few shoulders.

  The rain had soaked through Celene’s clothes. She was curled up next to Michel, both of them trying to keep warm as best they could. It was getting darker, though the misty haze made it hard to be certain what time it was.

  Briala walked into the camp as though she felt nothing, striding with a noble’s confident grace. She did not even look at the guards until they stepped up and challenged her. She waved away their inquiries with a casual arrogance that made Celene smile, then came to where she lay. The guards seemed unsure if she was a visitor or a fellow prisoner. They shifted awkwardly and moved back under the overhang where they could keep watch and stay dry.

  “They have not given you shelter?” Briala asked, confused.

  “They have other concerns,” Ser Michel said, the words muffled by his split lip and swollen cheek, and Briala flinched when she saw what had happened to his face.

  Celene lowered her voice and quickly shared what Michel had discovered about the eluvians. She had trained Briala well. By the time Celene had finished, Briala was nodding, her big beautiful eyes narrowed in thought.

  “Fast travel across Orlais. An ambush anywhere you desire. Supply lines that can’t even be found, much less disrupted. The demon said it was locked?” She kept her voice low and turned to face Celene, her back to the guards, in case they tried to read the words on her lips.

  “I’m not certain,” said Michel. “He only said that they needed to be awakened.”

  “Whatever the specifics,” Celene said, “something prevents the Dalish from using it.”

  “The demon can unseal the eluvians,” Michel said, “but the Dalish can’t give him what he wants. What it wants, rather.” His words were hard, and Celene saw the fear that hid beneath them. Her champion would fear no mortal man in battle, but a monster from beyond the Veil was different.

  It would prick his pride to show that she saw his fear, so she let it pass.

  “Can we give it what it wants?” Briala asked. Michel nodded without speaking, and Briala frowned in thought. The rain slid down her face like tears. “This could give us leverage with the Dalish. Working together, we could—”

  “Bria.” Celene kept her voice soft, kept her usual ring of authority out of the words. “The Dalish will never work with us. I learned that plainly today. Right now, they are trying to decide whether to turn us over to Gaspard or kill us outright.”

  “But they would not…” Briala trailed off, whatever spirited defense of the Dalish she had started dying on her lips. She had spent time with them, Celene guessed, and learned her own unhappy lessons about how much the Dalish cared for her people.

  “I spent the afternoon speaking with their Keeper,” Celene said. “I offered to help the elves in the alienages. He said that he would rather we all simply die.”

  For a moment, Briala looked as though she would object. Then she stopped, and her head dipped in acknowledgment.

  “Michel,” Celene said, “give us a moment.” With a nod, he scooted over to the far edge of the wagon, as far as his bonds would let him move. Celene immediately felt the cold curl around her from where he had sat, and she shivered despite herself.

  Briala moved in close and wrapped her arms around Celene.

  “Celene,” she whispered.

  Rain had plastered her dark hair to her face, and her tunic and leggings were soaked and gray. Her ears stuck out to either side, rain dripping from their tips.

  She was the most beautiful creature Celene had ever seen.

  “I know you, Bria. All the time we have been together, you have pressed for your people. You turned your back on me because of what I did in Halamshiral, and Maker, I cannot fault you, for I took no pride in sacrificing your people to counter Gaspard.” Still shivering as the cold rain whipped around them, Celene looked out at the wagons. “But these are not your people.”

  Briala’s arms tightened around her. “I know.”

  “They do not care for the elves in the alienages as you do. As they should.”
<
br />   Celene felt Briala shiver around her. “I know. And if Michel can get the demon to awaken the eluvians, then they may agree to help us regardless. The demon won’t help them. They need us.”

  “Do we need them?”

  Celene felt Briala go still, then pull away from her. She looked into the deepness of Briala’s eyes without flinching.

  “You would have us betray them?” she asked. Celene could read nothing in her voice.

  “Betrayal implies a broken trust. They took us prisoner, threatened us with death, and left us here in the rain.” Celene allowed her voice to shake from the cold and saw Briala flinch at the words. “Tell me that they have welcomed you with open arms as a long-lost sister, and I will say no more.”

  Briala shut her eyes.

  “Tell me that, and I will take joy in my love finding her people, even as my breast aches with every heartbeat I live without you.”

  “As does mine,” Briala whispered.

  “Then stay with me.” Celene reached out with her bound hands and touched the fine line of Briala’s jaw, and Briala’s eyes flickered open. “Help me return to Val Royeaux, and I will strike every law that limits your people’s freedom and make you a lady.” Celene smiled. “The Comtess of the Elves.”

  Briala took a breath. “You cannot do that. The lords—”

  “The lords have bickered and dithered and played games with their loyalties, and I am done with those who think I must earn their loyalty while they offer me nothing. Your people deserve better.” Celene met Briala’s stare. “They have no voice in the Dales to fight for them, as our lords and ladies fear. They are not the elves of Arlathan. They are Orlesian. They are mine.” She caught Briala’s shoulder and pulled her gently in. “As you are mine.”

  Their kiss was slow but savage, rough to awaken feeling in lips that had gone blue with chill. Celene felt the heat bloom between them as Briala’s hands slid up Celene’s waist and cupped her face, now warm despite the rain streaming down her cheeks.

  When she broke free, Briala was flushed as well. “I will find Felassan,” she said. “When we create the distraction, you can escape and get to the demon.”

  “Can Felassan be trusted?”

  “I think so,” Briala said. “I can win him over.”

  Then she stood and turned to the guards. “I must speak to Felassan. Get them a blanket, you fools, unless you wish them to die before the Keeper is finished with them!”

  She stalked off carrying a confidence Celene knew she had learned from Val Royeaux, and Celene hid a smile.

  When she was gone, she turned to Michel. “Did you hear?”

  “I believed you wanted privacy,” Michel said, in what was not quite an answer, looking over at her in question.

  “How are you feeling?”

  He forced a smile. “I am prepared to fight whenever you need me, Majesty.”

  “Fight and win?”

  He rolled out his shoulders slowly, wincing a little. “It would be easier had you not ordered me to let their warleader fight me with an ally,” he said gravely, “but I will make do.”

  Just as with the demon, her champion needed his pride. She smiled and let him have it. “I could release you from that order, my champion.”

  “No, no. The elves would talk. We have a reputation to uphold.” Michel grinned, then glanced over at the guards and lowered his voice. “When do we move?”

  Celene looked off into the rain. “Most likely when people start dying.”

  * * *

  Briala left the camp before the guards decided to arrest her, her hands shaking and her heart pounding like a racing rabbit’s.

  She tried not to think of elves walking free and happy in the marketplace, of chevaliers ending their punitive beatings every time the elves complained, of the Chantry inducting elven women into its priesthood. Felassan had told her while hunting that tasting the meal spoiled the shot. She put it from her mind and focused on the task at hand.

  Outside the camp, she retrieved her drakeskin armor and put it back on, ignoring the water squishing through soaked underclothes and the bite of the armor where cold and rain spoiled the perfect fit. Then, ready for whatever came, she hunted.

  Briala found Felassan coming back toward the camp from the woods. He was using some subtle magic, and he was barely damp despite the rain that now, in the twilight, poured down in an almost solid wall of water.

  For a moment, she was uncertain. But she had thought of everything he had said even before she spoke with Celene, and her memory had never failed her before. If she were wrong, she had no arrow in her quiver, and at that moment she needed an arrow desperately. For herself, and for her empress.

  Tasting the meal spoiled the shot. She held up a hand, and as Felassan saw her and nodded, she said, “Michel was spirited away from the camp by a demon that Thelhen summoned. All of Clan Virnehn is terrified.”

  Felassan laughed. “Clan Virnehn has an admirably optimistic view of its Keeper’s warding magic.”

  “What they are doing is wrong.”

  “It’s hardly wrong.” Felassan shrugged. “Unlike mages in the Circle, the Dalish do not think of demons as evil, but as wild animals, dangerous if treated carelessly.” Felassan shrugged. “Now, if you had said that what they were doing was stupid…”

  “They are going to kill Celene and Michel.”

  Felassan leaned down and plucked a small plant whose wet leaves hung limp in the rain. “There’s a small flower that grows in this part of the forest. If left to bloom and die on its own, it stays small and inconsequential, but if it is uprooted, a whole host of flowers will sprout from the area where it was torn.” He rubbed the leaves between his fingers. “I have always loved the idea of life that could only grow from violence.”

  Briala raised an eyebrow. “Is that the flower?”

  “No, this is…” Felassan looked closer. “… itchweed, actually.” He dropped the plant and rubbed his hands on his leggings. “No fascinating metaphors there.”

  Briala wasn’t sure if the Dalish were the special flower and Celene and Michel were the itchweed, or the other way around. The rain dappled little pats of cold across her arms, dripping through her hair, and she decided that she didn’t care. She was tired of being the good city elf who patiently struggled to learn the wisdom of her elders.

  She had seen her elders. They summoned demons and left her people to die.

  “I’m going to rescue Celene and Michel from the Dalish,” she said, and Felassan choked out a laugh. “I’d like your help.”

  “I imagine you would, da’len. Have you noticed my lovely vallaslin?” He pointed at his face, which was still almost entirely dry despite the rain.

  “You once told me that tattoos upon my face didn’t make me a true elf.”

  He coughed. “I was being polite.”

  “Oh, stop.” She snorted. “It’s getting dark, and I don’t have magic that keeps me dry in the rain. We both know you’re going to help me.”

  Felassan was often whimsical, sometimes philosophical, but very rarely frightening to Briala.

  But in the silence after her words had fallen, Briala felt a strange heaviness in the air, and though Felassan smiled politely, it did not twist the tattoos around his eyes like a real smile would have, and his hands had gone still, one of them tucked under his cloak where he kept his staff. He still leaned against the tree, but one leg had shifted, the motion barely noticeable, to give him leverage to kick himself off the tree.

  Only someone who had spent her life training to observe people, someone who knew Felassan’s moods and body language from years of training, would know that he was ready to kill if need be.

  “And how, da’len, do we know that?” he asked, his voice still light and friendly.

  “Because this isn’t your clan,” she said, “and you’ve let slip in a dozen different ways that you don’t care about them, that you’re nothing like them.”

  He kicked off the tree, slow and casual and still smiling,
and cocked his head, looking at her with interest as he began to walk in a slow circle around her. “Continue.”

  Briala did not turn to face Felassan. Her back itched between her shoulder blades, but she did not show her fear. He had taught her better than that. Instead, she held up a hand and raised one finger. “First, you go into a trance to enter the world of dreams. I thought all Dalish did that, but I saw elves sleeping back at the camp.”

  “Only somniari go into the trance,” Felassan said from behind her, “and only mages are somniari. And not all Dalish are mages.”

  “True.” For a moment, Briala thought that it had stopped raining. Then she realized that it had simply stopped raining around her. Felassan was close enough that whatever magic hung around him cloaked her as well. “Second, when you pass by the statues that honor the elven gods, you do not look at them. Most of the clan members bow or nod, but all of them look as they pass by … all except you.”

  “You have not convinced me, da’len.” His breath whispered in her ear.

  “I don’t need to convince you. If I take my suspicions to Clan Virnehn, will they turn on you? How do Dalish elves deal with spies?”

  “In my experience,” he said, “they spend several years debating—”

  “Third.” She lifted another finger. “You just called the Dalish they instead of we, as you so often do.”

  For a moment, there was no sound around her, no rain, no trees rustling in the wind, not even the sound of her own heartbeat.

  Then Felassan shook his head and laughed. “Damn it, I did, didn’t I?” he said as he came around to face her.

  The rain spattered down on Briala, shockingly cold but welcome all the same.

  “Don’t blame me, hahren,” she said, smiling. “You made me this way. You have no one to blame but yourself when you burn your fingers in the fire you kindled.”

  “I kindled nothing,” Felassan said, waving away her words. “I saw a fire that burned brightly already … and would burn itself out if left unchecked. I merely offered guidance.”