Chapter 14

The sun was starting to go down as Lydia and I left Whiterun. “You’re very bad for me, you know. Going to lead me all astray, make me forget things, and end up at some point or the other have me doing all sorts of strange and perverted things.”

“My thane, if you’ll recall, you’re the one who got the jam out and spread it over my breasts and started licking it off.”

“How can that be true? I thought it went well with the honey that you had dripped into my slit and hair and then licked out.”

“Perhaps. In any event, I can’t help but note that now that we’re cleaned, rested, and well supplied, that we’re STILL not going towards Riverwood.”

“You’re an excellent shield-maiden, able to figure out directions even in the dark. No, for some reason I feel like Talos wants me to go this way. I’m not sure why, just some feeling I have, almost like he has unfinished business. And besides, I saw Delphine still wandering around in Whiterun, so she must still be getting things set up.”

“I will follow you where ever I have to, my Thane. Just realize that fort ahead is home to bandits.”

“Oh, I know it is ... for now, anyway. We’re going around.”

Other than the relatively minor detail that we were avoiding the roads and walking in a generally westerly direction, this was no different than our other travels. We found a couple of caves that we didn’t explore, simply marking them on my map for later delving. I found many torch bugs and Luna moths to collect. We ran into the usual groups of wolves.

I was also able to find several Nirnroot plants to gather as well near some of the pools we passed. Several large crabs provided additional alchemical supplies for me when they decided to attack. Quite literally out in the middle of nowhere, there were some ruins that housed a Shrine of Zenithar. Lydia and I discussed as we continued on why the God of Work and Commerce would have a Shrine here, but neither of us could come up with any reason.

We continued on and I realized that we were approaching Rorikstead. As we came into town, I heard the sound of combat. We took cover, readying our weapons. We could see something that chilled our bones. Two vampires and a thrall were attacking the town guard. I decided we could use a reinforcement, and cast the spell that Faralda had taught me, summoning a flame atronach. Our arrows and the fire shot from the atronach quickly killed one of the vampires, but it was too late for the guardsmen.

Then we found ourselves in a battle for our lives. The remaining vampire was escorted by several death hounds that seemed to come from out of nowhere. The hounds attacked the atronach and quickly caused it to dispel, but the explosion from it returning to Oblivion scattered the hounds, allowing me to kill them with arrows. The vampire and his thrall were another matter, and they had Lydia sorely pressed, almost into a corner.

I quickly summoned another atronach, then switched to my sword. Maneuvering around the fight, I was able to get a chance at the vampire. “FUS RO DAH!” He was cursing me as he went flying into a tree. I charged behind him while he wasn’t enjoying his Voice inspired flight, such that when he landed I was able to run him through. Lydia and the atronach were able to finish off the thrall, and we took stock of our situation.

Digging into my pouch, I pulled out a potion. “Here, drink this.” She looked at me, wide-eyed. “Better safe than sorry, love. I’d rather we cure a disease that’s not there than have you end up sucking the blood from my throat some night.”

She took the potion and said, “As you will, my Thane. There are other parts of you I prefer sucking, anyway. And licking. And stroking.”

“Do you ever think of anything else, my shield-maiden?”

She looked thoughtful for a moment. “No, not really. You’ve made me the happiest girl in Skyrim, so as long as we’re alive, why should anything else matter?”

I really couldn’t argue with that, so we gathered what we could from the vampires, making sure they wouldn’t come back to life. I said a small prayer to Mara over the dead guards, who hadn’t stood a chance. I had thought that this was our destination, but I felt the pull from Talos leading me onward, so without stopping in town, we kept going.

We found an old path and started following it. I decided that it would be a good idea to have a flame atronach around just in case we needed it for back-up, and cast the spell again. That turned out to be nearly prophetic. As we turned a corner, a campfire lay off to the side of the road, where a sabre cat was busy devouring a meal. The atronach moved forward, attracting the cat to attack it instead of either Lydia or I. That allowed me to come up behind the cat and quickly kill it.

A sad sight lay before us in the camp. A young Breton woman and a Dunmer man lay ripped to shreds. The pools of blood from their bodies, that which had not already been lapped up by the cat, was already congealed. The campfire had burned down to nearly ash as well, so I guessed they had been dead since sometime yesterday. That made me feel a little better, at least they hadn’t died just a few minutes before we arrived.

I found a journal that the young woman had written, and realized that these two had been running away to be lovers. Well, they were together now. This time Lydia said a small prayer to Mara for their souls.

The hill we were going down was steep, and ended in a small, rather backwater looking, inn. I realized that this was where Talos was wanting me to go. I wondered why I was at Old Hroldan. A man outside was chopping wood. He said, “You’ll be wanting to go inside. Eydis and Skuli will take care of you.”

I shrugged at Lydia, and we entered the building. Behind the bar, a rather worn looking blonde woman stood, directing her son who was sweeping the floor. “Welcome, guests. Old Hroldan is the stone that the Empire’s history is built on. You’ll be wanting to rent Tiber Septim’s bed, I presume?”

“Tiber Septim’s bed?”

“That’s right. In the second Era, Tiber Septim himself led the army that conquered Old Hroldan from the barbarians of the Reach. This was his first known battle and victory, and it happened right here. And this inn has the very bed the great general slept in on his first night as Old Hroldan’s liberator! As good as it was hundreds of years ago.”

I rented the room and bed. Lydia snuggled up behind me. “Do you think there’s anything to this, my Thane?”

“I’m here for a reason. I guess we’ll find out.” I closed my eyes to rest. It didn’t seem but a few moments but I was woken up by screaming. “What the...”

I jumped out of bed, Lydia on my heels and we ran into the main room. Eydis was standing back from the bar in fright. “What happened, I heard screaming?”

“Mara have mercy, that gave me a fright. There’s a ... ghost. Wandering around my inn like it owned the place. I’ve heard stories that Old Hroldan was haunted, but no one’s seen ghosts around here since the Great War.” Her voice got anxious. “He’s from the battle, I just know it. One of Tiber Septim’s soldiers, back from the dead.”

Lydia was watching my back while I talked to Eydis. “Um, my Thane, I think that perhaps he is why we’re here.” I turned and saw the translucent figure, dressed in ancient Nordic armor complete with a horned helmet, sitting in a chair on the other end of the inn.

Only one way to find out. I walked up to the ghost. Before I could say anything, he said, “I’ve been waiting for you, Hjalti.”

“Who are you waiting for?”

“You promised me, Hjalti. You promised me that when we sacked Hroldan, you would make me your sworn brother. And I’ve waited. Even after the enemies arrows dug into my chest and their hammers crushed my bones. I’ve waited. Give me your sword, Hjalti, that we may become brothers as you promised.”

I felt something inside me warm as I told the ghost, “I’ll find your sword.” Going back to Eydis, I told her that this ghost was looking for a sword, and was probably one of Tiber Septim’s men.

“A sword? I remember a legend that Tiber Septim had attacked one of the enemy camps before he came to Old Hroldan. It could be there. Let me mark it on your map.”

“We’ll go there in the morning, after breakfast. This looks like it’s just northwest a bit from Rorikstead. We’re going back to bed.” And we did.

A quick breakfast the next morning saw us off. The ghost didn’t bother us while we were eating, seeming quite content to wait for me to bring him back his sword. A few hours of walking found us back in Rorikstead, only this time sticking with the road. Or at least near it. I tried to stay just off the road in case there were any travelers that we didn’t want to encounter, which had worked before.

The actual terrain didn’t want to cooperate with me, though. We killed a couple of wolves that were also watching the road for travelers, which I had figured we’d run into something. Lydia saw it first.

“My Thane, these hills and rocks are just too steep for us to continue. We’re going to have to get down to the road and follow it.”

I wasn’t happy about it, but we did just that. The view to the north as we followed the road was magnificent, though. We were on a small mountain with the view of the valley below showing Skyrim in all it’s splendor. In the distance, I could see a road and I recognized it as part of our path via wagon from Whiterun to Morthal.

The road crested and I could see the battlements of an old fort. That was where Eydis had marked on my map. “What do you think our chance of success would be simply walking up and asking to gain entrance?”

“Are you crazy?”

“About what I figured as well. Let’s get weapons ready and try to be as stealthy as possible, then, shall we?”

In the distance I could see a woman, wearing feathered armor with an odd headdress and carrying two rather vicious looking swords looking like she had seen us and was trying to sneak up on us. It took two arrows to dissuade her permanently. The fort had an outside balcony level with two guards walking on it. I was happy they didn’t see the one fall that I’d killed.

Rather than simply go through the front door, which didn’t seem like a good idea to me, we were able to climb the hill at the end of the fort and jump onto the balcony. Our armor clinked a little hitting the stone and one of the guards came running to see what had made that noise. She saw us and her eyes widened as she drew back her bow. My arrow passed hers in mid-flight. Hers missed, mine didn’t.

The guard at the other end was more alert and came charging towards us, screaming her war cry, something about Forsworn. Lydia blocked her swords, hitting her in the face with the hilt of her own great sword. The stunned the guard back, then my arrow going into her throat finished her off. We quickly checked to make sure there were no other guards outside. We had two entrances to the tower on this level. I chose the one by the end we’d come up.

There was a mist rising from the floor inside the tower. It was rather creepy, actually, making me think we were going to be jumped by undead or worse at any second. Very carefully we crept through the tower, shadows jumping at us from torches and dim fire bowls. A wide staircase spiraled up.

Partway up the stairs, I could see the back of a patrolling guard. I couldn’t get a clear shot, and settled in to wait. Soon he was coming back down the stairs and literally never knew what hit him. His body slid down the stairs between two sets of barrels placed on a landing. I heard a snap as a trip rope broke. “Quick, to the inside of the stairway!”

We got there just in time, as several boulders came tumbling down. They followed the outside of the stairway, so they missed us. From above, I heard a woman’s sharp voice yell out, “What was that? Tyn, did your clumsy feet trip our trap again?”

I could see her coming down the stairs. I could also tell when she saw the body of Tyn, which was my cue to shoot her. Her body ended up with that of her friend.

The landing above held a couple of beds and a chest, with an open doorway beyond. The staircase continued upwards from there. Another guard was patrolling this stairway, and she was more alert than the previous ones had been. She saw Lydia and began casting flame spells towards my shield-maiden. That was an error on her part, as an arrow proved deadly to her moments later.

The stair landing at the top had a door that led outside. We carefully left this tower. An arrow embedded itself in the doorway next to my head. “Damn!” I saw the other archer and fired back. I didn’t miss. This walkway led to another door on another tower.

After opening the door, the first thing we saw was a large statue of Dibella on one wall. A man wearing a headdress that looked like deer antlers was worshiping in front of it. I could see what looked like a prisoner tied up on the other side of the room. The blue glow from an arcane trap lay in the middle of the room. Taking careful aim, I fired my arrow ... and missed. It flew past him and clattered in the shadows. He started, drawing his weapons and rose to check the noise.

A second shot from me hit him, but it wasn’t instantly fatal. He was charging towards us, screaming a battle cry. A third arrow caught him and proved more than he could survive. His corpse skidded to a halt at my feet. “That was too close, my Thane.”

“At least it looks like he was alone up here. Let me try something, I think it will take care of that trap.” I gave a small shout, “FUS”, which triggered the trapped lightning.

“Here now, what’s this?” I saw something odd about the man as I was checking him out for loot. “Well, Lydia, will you look at this? He wasn’t quite human, not with a Briar Heart in him.”

As we explored the room, I realized that my eyes had played a trick on me. What I thought was a prisoner tied up was instead an altar of some kind, with the internal organs from an animal of some kind stacked on it. Looking at the statue of Dibella, I muttered a prayer to the Lady, for her statue and the shrine before it had been defiled by these people, splashed with blood and bits of animal flesh. Whoever these people were, they were no respecters of the Daedric lords.

In the corner of side room I found a chest. “Ah, this must be the sword we’re looking for. It feels right. But what is this?” I picked up a large ball shaped object, but instead of being round, it had many smoothly faceted sides. If it was a gem, it was enormous. When I held it in both hands, a brisk woman’s voice rang out in the tower.