Sisters of Tevinter

Must Come Down

       "Dragon!"  Came the low, keening scream. 

       People were running in every direction, terrible wingbeats swooping closer, a tritone of a howl and a distant roar shook snow from rooftops, the very ground trembled. A horrible, twisted shape passed over the mountaintops, blocking out the moon. 

        Then the fire began its terrible rain. As if poured from a massive goblet over Haven, roiling flame caught on thatch and flesh. Screams and scorching wind blended together in a horrific blaze. Jor's ears rang, her heart jumped into her throat as she watched the village around her begin to burn. 

          "Get to the Chantry!" Cullen bellowed, yanking a young soldier to her feet and shoving her in the direction of the chapel. 

          Jor jounced her leg, her hands open helplessly. She was unarmed but for her dark dagger in her boot, the rest she'd left in her cabin. But- "I'll be right back!" she shouted to Cullen as he rallied his forces and got them moving. 

          He gave her a curt nod as he shouted orders over the roaring flames. Heat bit at Jor's skin as she shouldered her way through wind, her hair whipping around her face and stinging her cheeks. She came to the blacksmith forge and threw herself against the door, the singed and crumbling wood falling inward with a snap and a thud. Amongst the dropping embers and creaking timbers Jor snatched Tandem from the crafting table and turned away, running back through the snow. She heard the deafening, papery inhaling cry of the dragon as it passed overhead once more. It was the largest she'd ever seen, she recognized none of its markings-- and that's what scared her the most. 

           Fleetfooted and buzzing, she skidded to a halt beside the commander. "That's Samson- he won't make this easy!" He was calling to a knot of lieutenants hurriedly passing buckets. "Close the gates!"

           They dropped what they were doing and charged off in separate directions. Jor heard the creak of steel and iron as a portcullis was dropped over Haven's double doors. Cullen turned stricken eyes to Jor. "They have us pinned, the least we can do is make them work for it. Come-" He grasped her hand and they ran together through the snow, dodging burning wreckage and leaping over bodies. 

             People were sprinting, crying, slipping. Jor caught sight of the potions master with his leg pinned beneath a fallen beam. She released Cullen's arm and knelt to heave the massive timber from the man's limb, unable to hear his screams over the din of everything else. She shoved the wood aside and hoisted him to his feet. Cullen had a young man in dented armor slung over his shoulders, hunched under their weight. "Hurry!" he urged, and they staggered towards the mountain. Fire erupted across Haven's wooden battlements, bodies and wreckage were tossed like blackened ragdolls towards the sky. There were shouts, screams, clashing blades. The templars had breached the gates. 

            Commander and Herald made it to the steps of the Chantry, where Cassandra was beckoning for them to hurry. Soldiers rushed past them, carrying wounded and barrels of something that looked suspiciously like pitch. Jor hoisted the unconscious potions master over her hip and set him in a bale of hay in the echoing stone hall. Haven's citizens were barricading doors, shouting, jostling, pushing. 

             "Is everyone here?"  The scholar roared over the noise. "Where are the wounded?" 

              A booming bark echoed off the halls as Dane plunged through the crowd, ears folded back, stump of a tail wagging. Kaisen materialized beside Jor in a flash of red hair. "We grabbed who we could." 

         Cassandra dragged a bench into place beside one of the side doors, adding to the growing barrier. "What are the templars doing here?"