The Dalish Commander (The Daughters of Thedas Book 2)

31: Freeing Kal'Hirol

Soundtrack:

Glory to the Brave ~ Sprint Music

We passed through a pair of massive doors and into the middle of a battle between two fractions of Darkspawn. They were too busy killing each other to notice us at first.

"Press the attack!" a Disciple cried. "Go! The Lost is mine!" He ran down a hall and several noticed us, forcing us to defend ourselves. We were hard-pressed with both factions not only attacking each other but us as well.

"Sigrun, you never told me what the ceremony is like," Anders suddenly said.

Sigrun sighed. "It begins with chanting and toasts. Then we bid our families farewell. Then, wailing and tears."

"That does sound like a funeral. How depressing."

"Anders, why do you think they're called the Legion of the Dead?" I asked. "They join to die and regain honor for themselves and their families."

"We're not the Legion of Jaunty Pub Songs," Sigrun added.

"But think how much easier recruitment would be if you were."

I saw Velanna roll her eyes and I shook my head, a smile playing at my lips.

~~~

After killing a lot more Darkspawn, we came across Dailan's ghost again. This time he was standing in front of a stone tablet. "I cannot let them be... forgotten...," he said. The ghost of an ogre appeared then, charging at him. "No!"

It rammed into him sending him into the wall. It then brought its massive hands down and I had no doubt that was what had killed him. The ogre roared before it and Dailan's ghostly body disappeared, leaving behind a broken skeleton. We approached the tablet he'd been standing in front of. I still hadn't learned how to read Dwarven. Branka's journal had, surprisingly, been written in Fereldan.

"Sigrun, Oghren." They stepped forward and studied the tablet.

"'May the Stone remember the defenders of Kal'Hirol, who were born casteless and died warriors.'" Sigrun read. "'Died warriors'? He... he wanted them to be remembered as warriors. Warrior caste. And look... he carved their names into this tablet. All of them. We can't just leave this here. We have to find some way to honor the memory of those who died here."

"Well, it's too heavy to carry, Sigrun," Oghren said.

Anders stepped forward, going through his pack. "The one thing besides healing that Wynne taught me that actually stuck was to always carry parchment and pencils." He pulled out the parchment and set it on the ground and handed me a pencil, before kneeling and beginning the tracing. "If we can somehow get these tracings to Orzammar..."

"The Shaperate can put them into the Memories," I finished. "Brilliant idea." It took us several minutes but we finally had the tracings and stored them carefully in Anders' pack. I was the grateful look on Sigrun's face.

~~~

We seemed to be going deeper into the earth the farther into Kal'Hirol we traveled. And the deeper we got the more Darkspawn we fought.

We came across a blacksmith's equipment and Oghren stopped. "This anvil must be pretty old," he said, running his fingers across it. "They make them differently nowadays..." I could see the memory in his eyes and I knew he was thinking about his first wife. "Branka once explained it to me but I'll be a nug's uncle if I remembered what she said, crazy harpy." He sighed and I placed a hand on his shoulder.