The Dalish Commander (The Daughters of Thedas Book 2)

8: Leads

The next morning, while Oghren and Anders bantered with each other in the mess hall and I discussed business with Varel, I ran into Captain Garevel.

"Captain Garevel, correct?" I hoped that was his name. We'd met briefly once on the night of the Darkspawn attack and the Joining.

"Yes, Commander."

"This is the new Captain of the guard, promoted the night of the attack," Varel explained.

"What can you tell me about the attack on the Vigil?" We sat down at a table together. I saw the surprised glances from the soldiers from the corners of my eyes, no doubt they were surprised to see their Commander and Arlessa sitting in the middle of the mess hall with the common soldiers and not at an officers' table.

"My predecessor, Captain Rullens, and much of the senior staff were inside the Keep proper at the time. How they met their fates is unknown. All we know is Darkspawn swarmed the Keep."

"Where did they come from?"

"I spoke with Voldrik afterward. It's his belief, and I concur, that they came from the Keep itself. The deep cellars go very deep indeed. Voldrik suspects the Darkspawn found a hidden route into the Keep." That was disturbing. And something I would need to look into. My "look into" list was getting longer by the second.

"Do you know how many soldiers survived the attack?"

"Barely any, truth be told. And, as you know, none of the Wardens. But there are many soldiers still out patrolling the roads between here and Amaranthine. We can recover from this."

"There was a Darkspawn that I encountered that I'd never seen before. One that spoke."

"That... is disturbing. But all throughout the lands, we've heard rumors. Tales of new Darkspawn... terrifying ones, forged out of nightmare and shadow. Something grave is afoot."

I nodded in agreement. I hadn't come across anything about talking Darkspawn just yet in Duncan's journal, but I had discovered how'd he'd come to join the Wardens and that he and Maric were friends. It was really the first insight, aside from his larger-than-life legend, I'd had about my father-in-law.

"There was something else I wanted to speak to you about. An urgent matter."

"Go on."

"The Orlesians -- Wardens, I mean-- began gathering information while they were here. The most promising lead they found was a wild tale a couple of hunters told." This should be good. I knew from experience that hunters tended to tell tall tales about their hunts, but sometimes there were grains of truth in their tales.

"And what did they claim?"

"These hunters, Colbert and...," he searched his memory for the other hunter's name. "Well, the other one... claimed to have stumbled across an entrance to the Deep Roads. Darkspawn all over the place, they said. And this was before the fiends appeared throughout the entire Arling. The Wardens were just about to send someone to track down Colbert."

"Where is he?"

"Colbert and his friend are in Amaranthine. Probably amongst the refugees outside the city gate." Garevel stood, his empty plate in hand. "I have the duty roster to go over. If you'll excuse me, Commander."

I nodded, dismissing him.

"You seem disturbed," Varel noted.

"I am. I can't understand why the Darkspawn aren't retreating underground like they've always done. I haven't been able to find this happening before."