Chapter 132: Unpleasant Surprises

I spent one very long, very trying week at Soldier’s Peak. I had meetings with Levi, Avernus, Faren, Jowan, and Mhairi. Avanna, being both older and more experienced than Mhairi, should have been put in charge of the guard at the Peak, but Mhairi’s organization and effectiveness had impressed both Faren and Levi. And Avanna had requested, instead, to become my personal bodyguard, and the head of Alistair’s and my personal security details. It would be her job to find and screen applicants to work with her, as she would need help to cover the both of us, potentially day and night when we were on the road or away from home.

I wondered what Alistair would think of having a security detail. Who am I kidding? He’s going to hate it, even if everyone else agrees it is necessary. I wasn’t entirely comfortable with the idea either, but couldn’t really come up with a valid argument against the combined pressure of Loghain, Levi, and Avanna.

Avernus was doing research – slowly, with his advancing age and declining health – and Jowan was learning much from him. The unlikely pair of mages had developed a bit of a paternal relationship, which made Avernus seem much less ghoulish, and much more human. Avernus didn’t have anything new he needed me to know, so the meeting was short, though he listened curiously to my retelling of my fight against the Archdemon’s general. He was incredulous that the Fereldan Wardens had separated from Weisshaupt; his shock wasn’t surprising, given that his degree of ruthlessness seemed to match theirs. But when offered the choice to leave and go to Weisshaupt, he immediately, resolutely refused.

“I won’t survive the journey, most likely,” he explained, his voice whispery with age. “Besides, I’ve been here for two centuries. I’m not leaving now.”

I was introduced to many of Levi’s extended family, and they all seemed like good people. In return for a small salary and a place to live and work, Levi’s brother Mikhael agreed to outfit the guard with weapons and armour if I provided the raw materials; when he wasn’t doing that, he was free to do private commissions. His work was exquisite, and like Wade who’d moved to Amaranthine, I knew he’d have no shortage of patrons. Numerous other Drydens were either merchants, bringing in the much-needed supplies, or working in the Keep itself.

My quarters were a surprise, inside Soldier’s Keep: there was a small wing set aside for me, with four bedrooms, a small dining room, a sitting room, and a couple of other empty rooms I would be able to put to whatever use I chose. My bedroom was large, with a massive four-poster bed – I wondered how they’d gotten that through the tunnels – as well as two comfortable chairs by the hearth and a bathing room. My window had a lovely mountain view, actual glass in the pane, and a thick velvet curtain to keep in the warmth. There was a private balcony, with thick well-sealed doors to keep drafts out; being on the backside of the Keep, it would be a lovely, private retreat where no one could see me, though the cold air would prevent me from using it often. A second bedroom was attached – presumably in case Alistair and I chose to sleep apart, which would never happen if I had anything to say about it – but I kept the adjoining door closed and locked. There was a guard assigned outside my wing to keep out any unwanted visitors, and a maid who would be dedicated to me when I was in residence.

All alone in the large room and luxurious bed, I was miserable and lonely.

It took me most of the time I was there to convince the maid Levi had hired – an elf named Maeve, who was probably ten years my senior, but looked twenty, thanks to a hard life – to call me by my first name and stop curtseying every time I turned around, but it was worth the effort. She was both funny and very down to earth, and I knew I’d need someone like that to keep me feeling grounded in the years to come. She shared the local gossip with me, to my amusement. I convinced her to spread the word, both to the servants, the guards, and anyone else she could think of, that abuse would not be tolerated – not towards elves, women, children, or anyone else. I wasn’t convinced they were likely to come to me with concerns, but I thought Maeve, who appeared to have warmed up to me considerably, would at least try.

Loghain, Bel, Jowan, and Faren spent some time sequestered and talking ‘Warden business’; the two dwarves were shocked to see the man who’d supposedly been banished to Orlais, but seemed more grateful than bothered. When the four of us met, Faren mysteriously suggested I ‘gear up’, and then refused to tell me anything else until I had changed into my armour, my daggers sheathed at my hips. He led the rest of us through a warren of corridors, dusty and long-unused, and down several sets of stairs until we were clearly well below the Keep’s normal basements. I glanced into as many rooms as I could as we passed, seeing mostly dilapidated furniture thrown haphazardly about, combined with boxes and crates that had so much dust they were barely recognisable. Clearly we’re going to have our work cut out for us...

I followed the dwarf past dungeons and areas of collapse that were completely inaccessible, before finally reaching what he’d obviously been aiming for all along: an enormous, round, metallic door built right into the wall of the keep.

“A Deep Roads entrance?” I paled, looking at the intricate mechanisms – intact and apparently functional, thank the Maker – and then back at the dwarf, who shot me a grim smile.

“Couldn’t very well be a Warden facility without access to darkspawn, now could it?”

I sighed, slumping back against the wall behind me. “Is it secure? Will it need guarding?”

“Nah, it’s safe. I went a ways down the tunnels, just to see what was there – couldn’t sense any darkspawn. Don’t think this entrance has been used in centuries.”

“Well, that’s something. So I’m going to be living with a Deep Roads entrance in my basement? Fabulous.”

“There’s something else, though.” Faren turned and pulled on the lever that would open the massive door.

I fingered the hilts of my daggers. “Of course there is. What now?”

“Easier to show you.”

Grabbing one of the arcane lamps, Faren led us a few hundred feet down a straight tunnel; I couldn’t feel any nearby darkspawn, though as all Deep Roads tend to, the sensation of the taint radiated from the very walls. At the first branch, we turned right, ducking through a narrow opening into a vast chamber. The ceiling was high, though compared to the length and depth of the room, it felt close anyway. The far walls were barely visible even in the bright lamp-light.

It took me a moment to understand what I was seeing as I looked around the room: there were bars, some forming boxes and some from floor to ceiling, many rusted and some bent or fallen entirely. Cages, I realised. Dozens of them. Small ones, the size of a mabari, maybe, and larger ones big enough for a person – or hurlock, judging from the corpse shrivelled up in the corner of one – as well as two massive structures with extra-thick reinforced bars, big enough for...

Ogres. Someone had, at some point, kept ogres in cages. What in the ever-loving hell for?

I looked around a bit more; there were tables covered in paper near one of the smaller cages. I tried picking up a piece, only to have it fall to dust in my hand. The few intact sheets left on the table were so yellowed with age as to be unreadable.

“Was this Avernus?” I asked, still shocked.

“He says no,” Jowan replied. “When Faren showed me this, I asked. Said it’s been down here longer than he’s been alive, which, given he’s two hundred years old, is saying something.”

“What the hell went on here?” I wondered.

Faren, pointing at what looked suspiciously like an arena, shrugged. “No idea, but figured the bosses would want to know.”

Slowly we returned to the keep, my mind racing with possibilities. “And you found nothing else?”

“Just empty tunnels,” the dwarf replied. “I went far enough I couldn’t sense Jowan anymore, and figured I’d better come back.”

“When all the Wardens are here, maybe we can mount an expedition,” I speculated. “For now, leave that door closed, you hear me?”

Bel, Jowan, and Loghain, the three Wardens who would be left behind, all nodded. Faren closed the dwarven door with a resounding bang.

Loghain cleared his throat. “I’d suggest you clean out and block off these rooms, and post a guard at the end of the hallway. These doors may be solid, but if darkspawn ever got into the keep...”

I nodded resignedly. “What’s one more guard patrol?”

As we headed back up to my office – a large room with a desk, hearth, and small sitting area – Faren told me he’d spent some time exploring the mining tunnels leading to Soldier’s Keep as well. “Most of ‘em are dead ends,” he explained. “Miners hoping to find a vein, and failing, or veins already mined out. Two or three lead to viable ores – I marked those ones. If you could hire some miners, Mikhael would have all the materials he needed. I saw iron, veridium, silverite ... even a bit of aurum.”

That’s certainly good news ... I was hoping we wouldn’t forever be reliant on Cailan’s charity.

“Excellent. Wonder where I can find miners?”

“Orzammar. There’s plenty of surface-caste miners. I’d write to that Smith-caste fellow you have making those bola-launchers. He’d know.”

I slept poorly that night, dreaming of mad scientists, darkspawn experiments, and ogres. I woke screaming, grateful I’d convinced Maeve I didn’t need her to stay in the little room set aside for servants. I had an enormous, comfortable bed – but without Alistair in it to chase away my nightmares, I was miserable. It didn’t help that my period had come – though I supposed the timing of that wasn’t terrible, at least.

The next day I toured the rest of the fortress, Levi showing me the wings he’d converted into barracks for my guards, as well as the areas set aside for Wardens. There were single rooms, each with beds and wash stands, like those we’d stayed in before, but he also showed me a wing currently undergoing renovations of what would eventually be little apartments for families, some with two or three bedrooms, all with small sitting rooms. And there were several more floors and wings he hadn’t yet begun clearing, making me wonder just how many Wardens had once been stationed at Soldier’s Peak.

Over the next few days, Levi and I made plans for the rest of the Peak. After some discussion with Mhairi and the soldiers, we decided to build a small tavern and inn where the old, dilapidated buildings had been torn down; it would provide entertainment for the men, as well as places to stay for visitors who couldn’t – or wouldn’t – stay in the Keep. When we discussed who would run it, I had a brilliant idea, and resolved to speak to Oghren about Felsi when I returned to Amaranthine.