When I Look at You (a Dragon Age fanfiction)

Anora

In the hallway beyond, Una paused, holding up a hand. She closed her eyes, trying to remember the layout of the house. She'd never been in the servants' and guards' areas, of course, but knowing where they had come in, she mentally navigated the turns that would take them to the guest room where Erlina had said the queen was being held. The elf had wanted to accompany them, but dressed as she was in keeping with her position as the queen's lady's maid, she would have drawn more attention than was necessary. Not to mention that Una didn't trust her.

Once she felt she was oriented as well as she could be, Una led them down a hallway and around a corner. After a couple of misturns into empty barracks rooms, they came through the arched doorway into the public portion of the house. In all their wanderings, they hadn't met a single person—no elven servants, no guards outside the kitchen areas.

"I do not like this," Zev muttered to her, very quietly.

"No." Una would have liked to think that perhaps Howe's money troubles extended to this lack of servants and guards ... but given Erlina, and Anora, she had to think it was more likely to be a deliberate trap for an unwary Warden. She wished she had thought to ask Leliana to trail them, just in case. Then again, she preferred to have Leliana with Alistair, to counteract his too-trusting nature and safeguard him from any attempts on his life. Una and her party would simply have to keep on their toes.

At last they reached the bedroom wing. As they approached the door behind which Anora was supposed to be locked, Wynne held up a hand. "That does not feel right," she said softly.

"Somethin' in yer knickers, hot stuff?" Oghren gave a dirty chuckle. "I'd love to make you not feel right."

"I'm sure you would," Una said, pushing past him to stand next to Wynne. "What is it?"

"There appears to be a magical barrier of some kind in front of the door." The mage closed her eyes, concentrating. "It's a magic of a type I am not familiar with." She opened her eyes and looked at Una. "Which means, I'm afraid, that there's nothing I can do to counteract it."

"Wonderful." Una glared at the door in front of her. "Zev, any thoughts?"

He shook his head. "Magical barriers are not my forte, more's the pity."

"Pity indeed. Can I approach it?" she asked Wynne.

Narrowing her eyes thoughtfully, Wynne considered the question. "It appears to be more protective than anything else, mostly to bar the door, but I wouldn't get too close."

"How close is too close?"

Wynne shrugged.

"This just keeps getting better and better," Una muttered under her breath as she edged nearer to the door. Raising her voice a little, she called, "Anora?"

"Yes?" The voice was exactly as she remembered: cold, precise, and impatient. "Who is that? Your voice sounds familiar."

"You'll have to place it yourself, Your Highness. Mine is not a name I can shout through a door, not in this house."

There was a silence, then a shocked intake of breath from the other side of the door. "Oh! I ... had not been told you had survived."

"Few people knew that I had. And fewer were alive to talk about what happened in the first place."

"I understand it was a terrible accident."

Una couldn't tell if the sympathy in Anora's voice was sincere or put on, and didn't much care. She snorted in humorless laughter. "Yes. The castle's entire staff accidentally fell on the swords of Rendon Howe's mercenaries."

"Mercenaries?" the Queen asked. Then, in a more business-like tone, she said, "Never mind that. We can discuss history later. I had asked Erlina to bring the Grey Wardens to rescue me. I cannot imagine where she found an ex-noblewoman."

The brush-off of her family's murders and the easy dismissal of herself as an ex-noblewoman infuriated Una. For a minute, she actually considered turning around and walking out of the building and leaving Her Royal Majesty exactly where she was. But the thought of Rendon Howe getting away with one more thing stopped her. "I am a Grey Warden, Your Majesty."

"I thought the Grey Warden was a man. One with— Well, no matter. We can get properly reacquainted once I'm out of here ... but that presents a bit of a problem."

"A magical barrier. Yes, so I've noticed."

"You have? Good. Now you need to find the mage who cast the spell. Almost certainly he will be at Howe's side."

"You don't say." Una couldn't help the smile that spread over her face. "Then I'd better go find Howe, don't you think?"

"I couldn't have said it better myself."

"You stay put, Your Highness, we'll be back."

"Where would I go?" Anora called tartly through the door.

Una wasn't certain if she believed the queen was truly a prisoner, but then, she wasn't certain it mattered, either. She had a job to do and a vengeance to perform, and fortunately for her the two tasks dovetailed quite nicely.

"Now you are thinking like an assassin," Zev whispered to her, offering her a wolfish smile. Una returned it, glad that Alistair wasn't here. He would have understood why she felt the way she did ... but not necessarily condoned the cold-blooded way she was looking forward to Rendon Howe's blood staining her armor.

"This way," she said, pointing down the hall and leading the way toward the family bedrooms.

The halls were deserted, no guards or family. Of course, Howe's family would be in Amaranthine. Una thought briefly of Delilah, whom she had always rather liked, and of Nathaniel, whom she would have liked better if he wasn't constantly bragging. Thomas she had never cared for. He was too coarse and generally drunk by the time he got around to talking to her at parties.

A giggling sound came from a room to her left. Zev held up a hand for quiet and rested an ear against the door, listening for a moment. He chuckled softly as he rejoined her. "A serving wench taking the opportunity to entertain in the family bedrooms. They will not bother us."

"Lucky wench," Oghren said, chuckling low in his throat.

"She wouldn't be if Rendon Howe caught her there." Una shuddered to think what the result of that confrontation would be. "Up here. Zev?" She hoped Howe's bedroom door wasn't locked; Zev's lockpicking skills were coming along under Leliana's patient tutelage, but they weren't quite there yet. And Howe would have a good lock, if he had one at all.

But the door wasn't locked. It swung open easily at Zev's touch. Una shook her head at Howe's arrogance, thinking no one would touch his belongings just because they were his.

"Is he in there?" she mouthed at Zev, who shook his head. She let the elf go first, his sharp eyes on the lookout for traps as he went, but he found none.