Chapter 12

“So, my Thane, what do you think Delphine will tell us when we get to Riverwood?”

We were talking as we left Whiterun. “She’ll probably have some detailed plans figured out whenever we finally get there.” Lydia started when I turned left at the intersection instead of right. “But she’ll have plenty of time.”

“We’re not going to Riverwood, then?”

“Not just yet. And it’s not that I don’t trust Delphine, I do. It’s just...” I paused in both speech and in step. “I ... I don’t think I’m ready. Take that farmer over there. He has crops in his field, but to put them there, he has to make sure his plow is in good condition, so he can break the soil. There’s just so much that I should know that I don’t, so many things I should be able to do that I can’t. And I want to see if Arngeir is telling the truth about that word of power.”

I started walking again. “It may sound silly, especially considering I’ve been here for barely a week, but I feel that this is where my future lies. And I need to see more of this land, experience the people, see the cities, without there being some secret agenda behind what I’m doing. Delphine has been waiting for thirty years for the chance to hit back at the Thalmor. I don’t think a few days will hurt anything. Right now, I can’t help but feel that if my mother had stood up to the Imperial Council, it’s possible that the war may have been avoided.”

Lydia took my arm. “But if that happened, then we would never have met. And you are the best thing that’s ever happened to me in my life.” There wasn’t much response I could give to that, so I simply gave her a careful hug and gentle peck on the lips.

With that we continued walking north. To my left, I could see the back side of Dragonsreach, high on the cliffs above. It would be impregnable from an attack on this side. A small dirt road led off to the east, and seemed to end in a large outcropping of rocks. It didn’t look like there were any houses that way, so I decided to stick with the main road. As we passed the watch tower, I saw some Thalmor ahead, escorting a prisoner.

One of them looked at me with disdain. “Move along, citizen. You’re interfering with official Thalmor business.”

“Oh, really? And what exactly are you doing in Skyrim?”

“We’re making sure your Emperor wasn’t lying to his elven masters when he agreed that the Empire would give up false gods and foolish beliefs.”

“Really?” I grinned. “Do all Thalmor have such high opinions of themselves?”

“That we are superior to men is an established fact. For example, take this belief in Talos. The ninth divine. Certainly you don’t believe in such things. Or perhaps there’s something you’d like to confess?”

“I can worship whoever I want.”

“Incorrect. You can worship whatever gods you like. But Talos is a man, and only a heretic would think otherwise. And so you will die a heretic’s death!”

“Don’t think so, bitch!” I shouted. “FUS RO DAH!” She went tumbling backwards through the grass and weeds, coming to a stop against a pile of rocks. I charged after her. She was gibbering in fear, trying to get to her feet. Two swings with my sword cut her down. I turned and rushed back to help Lydia, who was engaged in close combat with the other two elves. I saw the glow of healing as Lydia took a potion.

I got behind one of them and cut her down. The other elf tried to cast a fire spell. I charged her, smashed her in the face with my shield, and laughed at the expression on her face as my sword ended her life. I looked around for the prisoner. He was crumpled on the ground as well. One of the two elves that had been fighting Lydia had killed him before engaging her.

The Thalmor armor would be valuable, so we quickly stripped them so we could sell it later. The armor was very light, considering how good it would be against normal weapons. Not as good as my own armor, but still incredibly strong. A smith would pay well for it. Continuing onward, we found there was a wagon on the side of the road. A very pale man wearing the apparel of a jester was complaining to a guard. The jester had an incredibly whining voice that grated on my nerves.

“Agh! Bother and befuddle! Stuck here! Stuck! My mother, my poor mother. Unmoving. At rest, but too still!”

“What’s your problem, fool?” I asked.

“Poor Cicero is stuck. Can’t you see? I was transporting my dear, sweet mother. Well, not her. Her corpse! She’s quite dead. I’m taking mother to a new home. A new crypt. But ... aggh! Wagon wheel! Damnedest wagon wheel! It broke! Don’t you see? And poor Cicero has no tools nor the skills to fix it even if he had them.”

“If I could get you some help to fix your wagon, would you be okay?”

“Oh, yes! Go to the farm, the Loreius farm, just over there. He has tools. He could help Cicero. Convince him, and Cicero will reward you with coin! Gleaming, shiny coin!”

I held up a finger. “We’ll be back in a bit.” We walked away from him. Lydia looked aghast at the mad jester. “My Thane, we should not get involved with that madman.”

“Normally I’d completely agree with you, my dear. That voice...” I sighed. “But we’re going to talk to this Loreius and have him help that man.” At her look of confusion, I continued. “I’m not sure exactly where he’s going with that coffin – and a coffin it truly is, you can see where the lid on the protective box came askew when the wheel broke and fell off. But I also recognize that coffin from a description my mother gave me. You ... By Sithis I hate saying this, but you don’t need to know more at this point, my shield maiden.”

Her face paled at my comment. I hoped she’d understood the clue I’d given her in my words, as technically I was not a member of the Dark Brotherhood, even though my mother at one point had been their Listener. Sometimes too much knowledge is a bad thing.

It took some doing, but I was able to persuade Loreius to help Cicero. I told Cicero that he would have his help, and quickly left the madman beside the road. I feared I would run into him again at some point.

I saw to the west, standing right beside the road, two mammoths. That meant there was a giant nearby, and since I didn’t have a death wish, we moved off the road a bit to the east. I saw a cave ahead, hopefully someplace we could shelter for the night.

A large wolf came loping at us from the cave. I readied myself, shield raised, to take his leap and then kill it. To my surprise, the wolf did leap on me – and knocked me on my rear. Over the growls as the wolf scratched and tore at my armor, I heard Lydia yell, “Ice wolf!” This larger and tougher version of the regular wolves we’d encountered so far had managed to knock my sword from my hand as well. Lydia hacked at it from behind while I pulled my dagger and finally disemboweled the thing.

Lydia extended a hand to help me get back on my feet. From behind her I heard the sounds of bees, as a spriggan emerged from its hiding place inside a tree and hit her in the back. Lydia went sprawling to the ground, with the spriggan clawing at the back of her armor. I did the only thing I could think to do, and shouted, with my voice aimed just over Lydia. My Unrelenting Force shout caught the spriggan in the head, flinging it back into the rocks by the cave entrance. I could see Lydia reaching for a potion of healing, so I knew she was still alive. Reaching down, I grabbed my sword where it’d fallen and attacked the spriggan. It was trying to recover, but couldn’t get back to it’s ... limbs ... fast enough to deflect my blows.

I helped Lydia to her feet. She was hurt but the magic in the potions I’d made helped heal her physical wounds. “Let’s get in here and out of this weather,” I said. “But we’d better be careful, there may be more inside.”

I readied my bow and the two of us carefully entered the cave. There was enough moonlight shining in through a hole in the roof of this cavern that I could easily see two more wolves ahead of us. Fortunately the wind was blowing from inside out, so they didn’t smell us. I quickly dispatched both of them with arrows.

The cave had apparently at some point in the past been a part of a Nord tomb. There was ancient dragon statue along one wall, with three badly decayed draugr corpses half buried in snow near it. As we examined the cave, amazed that there were small trees inside here as well, another spriggan came from hiding to attack us. This tree-like creature was larger than the one that had attacked us outside. I put two arrows into it, but they didn’t appear to hurt it much, so I switched to my sword.

Lydia moved in to attack the spriggan, and with one blow it knocked her to the side and down. Fearing that it would kill her, I jumped between them. My sword was hacking bits and pieces of the woody structure of the spriggan from it, but that wasn’t enough to stop it from landing a crashing blow to my helm. I think if I had been wearing anything less of an armor, it would have crushed my skull. As it was, the blow still sent me reeling. I grabbed for a potion with my shield hand but missed, as I was stunned.

Running backwards from the spriggan, I moved around the statue to keep some distance from it while I tried to get my senses back. The spriggan followed me, trying to land another blow. It hit the statue and knocked a small chunk from it instead. That gave me an opening, and with my remaining strength I swung with everything I had left. My sword cleaved the head of the spriggan in half and it fell, dead.

I flung my sword and shield aside, staggering to where Lydia lay. Thank the gods, she was still breathing. Now that I had time, I was able to get a potion from my pouch and lift it to her lips. The green glow of healing encircled her body, and her eyes flickered open. “Oh, I feel like I got hit by giant. That hurts.”

“You’re not the only one. Here, drink this potion as well.” I gave her another potion to drink while I used my magic to cast healing upon myself. Since we weren’t in dire need of combat I could take the time to do it right. I recovered my sword and shield from where I’d thrown them. There was a fallen tree that Lydia and I gathered branches from, so that I could make a fire. We were both exhausted from the combat and then the healing. The warmth of the fire in the cold felt so good, I fell asleep quickly.

Early the next morning we broke camp and left the shelter of this cave. Rather than doubling back to the road, we continued through the woods. A couple of wolves were on the prowl, but they quickly learned that they were the prey, not the predator. After running into their larger cousins in the cave, I was more than happy to see these normal sized wolves.

We came across the road again and turned east to follow it. I was surprised to see an inn along the road. Damn, if I’d known this was here, we wouldn’t have had to spend the night in a cold cave. “Let’s get something warm to eat, and rest for the morning. I don’t know about you, but I’m still sore.”

“I agree with you, my Thane.”

We entered the inn and were quickly greeted by the innkeeper. “Welcome, travelers, to the Nightgate Inn! I am Hadring, at your service. Food, wine, and rooms are available. How can I help you?”

“Mead, food, and a table to sit at and rest for a while are all we require at the moment.”

He served us and then hovered nearby while we ate. The only other customer, sitting by himself in a corner, ignored us. “So, Hadring, since it appears you’re busy with so many other customers, what can you tell us about this area?”

“I’ll have you know I have plenty of customers. Well, not so many as in years past, but even now I have a paying customer staying here that has my bills covered for quite some time. Some kind of writer, and he’s an Orc if you can believe that. Peaceful one, though, just goes down to the lake, samples the wine, and keeps to himself. And of course old Fultheim over there, just drinking away a lifetime of bad memories.”

I felt some of the aches starting to subside as we rested while we ate. That’s the main downside to magic healing. Obviously it’s necessary in serious combat, but it puts a strain on your body that only time can truly heal. So I decided to continue talking to Hadring.

“Obviously, we’re new to this area. Actually, I’ve only been in Skyrim a short time. I’m trying see as much of the countryside as possible. Is there anything you can tell me about the area?”

“Certainly, young lady. One of the reasons my great grandda built this inn here was because the road outside is the main path that links Dawnstar and Whiterun with Winterhold, where the mages college is, and Windhelm. Having the lake outside for fresh fish and water always helped, and once this war is over, I expect traffic to pick up again. Just north of here is an old Barrow, and there’s a pass through the mountains that leads past a shrine to Arkay. Couple of old caves in the area that have dangerous animals in them. And there’s the old Dwemer building up on the ridge, of course.”

“Thanks for the information. This is good cabbage stew, by the way.”

“I’m glad you like it. I was using a recipe that my wife left before she went to visit family in Solitude, but ... well, honestly, the Orc gave me a batch of herbs he says he found along the lake and now it’s a lot better. But don’t tell my wife that.”

We made a little more small talk about the status of the war and rumors about dragons. After a couple of hours inside, I felt much better. I settled up our tab and then Lydia and I headed back out.

The weather was warmer, although a light snow covered the ground. There was a light breeze blowing further up the mountains, but the visibility just outside the inn was very good. It was easy to see the Dwemer building, standing on a hill overlooking the road. The top of the old Barrow was just visible over the rocks and trees. Once we got to the road, it seemed that we couldn’t have a day in our journey without running into a small pack of wolves. I’m certain that was a side effect of the war, without constant travelers taking small game to eat while going traveling, the population of four legged predator has grown.

Very soon there were two less wolves to trouble the realm, and I even recovered one of my arrows. After that, by comparing where Arngeir had marked my map with where I gathered we were, we approached the entrance of the cave where the Word of Power was supposed to lay waiting. Looking at the ruins around the cave entrance, I realized that this wasn’t a natural cave, but another Barrow. “Oh, good, another Barrow full of draugr,” Lydia said with a bit of sarcasm.

“Now, now, I’m sure this won’t be the last ... DOWN! Stay still!” We both ducked as a huge shadow went overhead. Rolling into the shadows of a rock wall rising from the ground, I watched as a dragon passed overhead. It may have seen something, but not us, as it circled several times, roaring in frustration at not actually having a foe. Lydia was quivering, ready to do battle, and I held my hand out to her. I whispered, “Calmly, my dear. Not at this time. We’ll do battle with the dragons again soon enough.”