Chapter 193: And Puppies Made ... More Than Three

Our period of calm couldn’t last, of course; it never seemed to in Thedas. Blessing and a curse, I suppose. The next thing to disrupt our orderly lives couldn’t be just one thing, though; it would have to be two, happening at exactly the same moment.

It started with barking. I was sitting in my office working on the never-ending stacks of paperwork Levi kept finding me – half the time I wondered if he was just trying to keep me busy rather than actually giving me anything useful to do – when a furry, brown, nearly flying object came careening into the room, barking twice.

“Prince?” I stared down at the mabari in confusion as he sat in front of my desk, barking again.

When I made no move to get up or otherwise react, he raised his head and howled, loud enough to make me cover my ears with a curse.

Before he’d even finished, there was a crash and someone else came falling through my doorway. After a moment of scrambling, one of my soldiers – one of the two who’d been guarding the door to our quarters when I’d left in the morning, whose name I could not remember – stood before me, fidgeting ruefully even as he tried to hush the dog beside him.

“I’m sorry, your Highness!” he gasped. “Little bugger ran out of the room like his tail was on fire and I couldn’t catch him. But Jaro asked me to come get you. He said it’s time.”

“Time?” I quirked one eyebrow in confusion. “Wait, time? Lady?” I leaped out of my seat and rushed towards the door. “Time! What are we waiting for? Let’s go. Oh, soldier, please find the Commander and Warden Donal and send them to my quarters right away.”

I didn’t stop to hear the man confirm my orders, instead bolting through the door and following Prince down the hallway to the stairs. Another soldier approached me as I jogged, trying to get my attention, but I gestured in the direction I was going and slowed only slightly.

“Walk and talk,” I offered, too worried about Lady to stop for anyone.

“Your Highness, please, I have news.” When I didn’t stop, he waited a few moments and then rushed to catch up. “There are visitors in the tunnels,” he continued, his voice rather higher pitched than it had been a moment before.

I frowned even as I kept walking. “Well, they’re going to have to wait. Show them to the sitting room near the main hall and I’ll get to them when I’ve got time.”

The outright panic in his voice finally shook me out of my worried thoughts. “I can’t!”

I stopped, facing the young soldier directly, trying to muster my patience. “Why not?”

“It’s the King, your Highness! You can’t just leave him waiting like that!”

I dropped my face into my hand, pinching the bridge of my nose in frustration. “Of course it sodding is,” I muttered, trying not to roll my eyes at the horrified gasp of the man standing in front of me. “That man has the worst bloody timing.” I didn’t usually swear, but the conflicting duties tore at me and I couldn’t seem to help it.

Thinking frantically, I finally made a decision. “Look, bring him up to my quarters when he gets here. I don’t have time to meet him downstairs, but I’m sure he’ll understand. Just tell him we have an emergency, and I’ll explain it when he arrives.”

The soldier didn’t look happy – terrified was probably closer to the truth – but he saluted and turned to head back downstairs while I angled up. By the time I reached the little room where Lady stayed, Donal and Jaro were there attending to my dog while Alistair watched from a little distance. I heard Donal swear, and then the turquoise glow of his healing magic lit up the room.

“What happened?” I gasped breathlessly. “Is she okay? The puppies?”

Donal turned and stood, the glower he had been giving Lady still clear on his face. “She bit me!” He was clearly incensed, holding one hand with the other though the only sign of injury I could see was a tiny trickle of blood on his wrist.

“Barely a nip,” Jaro muttered, and Prince barked once.

I blinked. “So ... they’re okay?”

Jaro chuckled, and Donal grumbled incoherently and brushed past me to get to the wash basin in the corner. I edged closer to Jaro and Lady, happy to see Prince pacing by her side. My new dog looked exhausted, lying on her side, her legs twitching in discomfort, her breaths fast and shallow. She spared me a quick glance as I knelt beside her, but then put her head down and whined, a piteous sound I never wanted to hear again. I could see her belly moving – a contraction, I realised – and suddenly a pool of fluid spread across the floor from somewhere underneath her. I jumped, worried, but a glance at Jaro had me relaxing again – he smiled broadly and stroked Lady’s head, murmuring encouraging words.

I sat with her for a while, watching as contraction after contraction wracked her body. I stayed near her head, worried about getting in Jaro’s way, knowing I had nothing helpful to offer at the other end. Donal had stuck around – despite his wound, which was likely to his pride more than his hand – but found himself a chair and a book, leaving Alistair, Jaro and I to watch Lady labour. At least, until I heard a commotion in the corridor outside.

“Oh,” I whispered to Alistair, embarrassed to have forgotten, “your brother is here.”

He jerked upright from where he’d been slouching against the wall. “My what?” His gaze went from me to the door, which was propped only slightly open.

I flushed. “I was told Cailan was arriving right as I was called to come up here. I meant to tell you, but I got ... distracted.” I rubbed Lady’s ears with my fingers, feeling guilty. She whined pitifully, and my guilt abated somewhat.

Wide-eyed, Alistair looked at the door again and then back at me.

“Go,” I reassured him. “Tell Cailan what’s happening and give him my apologies. You can come back later if you want, or just hang out with your brother.”

Alistair mouthed the words ‘hang out’ with a quirky grin, and I chuckled. He winked at me and then left, closing the door behind him, leaving me with Donal, Jaro and the two unhappy dogs.

Watching my dog suffer through the labour was difficult, though Jaro’s calm confidence helped. Alistair returned sometime before the first puppy was born, Cailan at his side, and all of us watched in awe as one after another, six adorable, wet, furry puppies emerged. Lady licked them enthusiastically as each one was born, then Jaro tied off their cords and dried them carefully with a blanket, before placing them against Lady’s belly once the last one had arrived. I barely even noticed him dealing with the afterbirth, too busy staring at the babies as they tussled with each other to reach one of their mother’s teats and latch on.

I’d never seen newborn puppies, though I’d understood they were usually tiny, hairless, and blind; this was not at all the case with the puppies in front of me. Their fur ranged from nearly black to blond, and bushy tails on three of them were the only indications that they weren’t full-blooded mabari. They were stumbling around like drunks, but they could actually – sort of – walk, and their eyes were open. They were a little bigger than one of my hands, maybe six or seven inches long, and a couple of pounds each.

All except one, that was. “What’s wrong with that one?” I asked, pointing at one dark brown puppy that was nearly half the size of the others, and wasn’t walking – it was barely moving. While the other puppies were squirming all over each other to suckle, it was crying sadly by itself. Prince began licking it gently, nosing it towards Lady’s stomach with each swipe of his tongue.

“Runt,” Jaro replied, his tone odd. I glanced at his face to see a sad expression that looked completely out of place on the normally cheerful teen. He took pity on the little thing and lifted it to where it needed to be, holding the other puppies back so it could feed.

“What does that mean?” I felt sick at the worry I could see on his face.

“Sometimes this happens – less to mabari than other dogs,” he told me. “The other pups steal all the food from one as they’re forming, and it doesn’t grow as well as the others. This little girl isn’t as developed as her brothers and sisters.”

“But ... that’s okay, right? Now she’s out, she can just eat and she’ll be fine?”

His expression didn’t change. “Maybe. We can try.” He looked up at me sadly. “Most runts are abandoned by their mothers. Don’t get your hopes up.”

Once the puppies were fed, and Lady and Prince were settled with the sleeping pups, we all crept out of the room to collapse in our sitting room. Jaro and Donal excused themselves, leaving Alistair and I with Cailan.

“Well this is a surprise!” I grinned at my brother-in-law after accepting a warm hug. “Couldn’t have sent a warning or something?”

He chuckled. “What would be the fun in that? Besides, I told you I’d be coming.”

“You just didn’t say when. Not that you’re aren’t welcome, of course.” Alistair wrapped an arm over my shoulders with a sigh, and we all relaxed in front of the hearth for a quiet moment.

“Where’s Blake, anyway? I thought he’d be with you.” I looked around as though he might be hiding somewhere waiting to startle me.

“I left him in Denerim,” Cailan sighed. “I didn’t want to put him in danger. But I miss the little scamp! He’s probably rearranged the entire Palace while I was gone. He’s got the entire staff eating out of his hands, that one.”

“So ... Kirkwall?” I finally asked.

Cailan rolled his eyes. “Ridiculous.” He stared into the fire morosely for a while before continuing, “I am glad I went. I’m sure you think I shouldn’t have, but...” He sighed. “People were dying. And all because everyone was so afraid of the Knight Commander that they couldn’t take care of themselves without her. Kirkwall’s guard is embarrassingly small and holds no real power, the Viscount was a puppet, and the Grand Cleric liked to pray for wisdom while refusing to do anything to help. If we hadn’t been there when the riots started...”

I reached over and patted his hand. “I know exactly how messed up Kirkwall is, believe me. I wasn’t happy you were at risk, but I am glad you were able to help.”

Cailan looked from me to Alistair with one raised eyebrow. “I thought she was going to yell at me.”

“Me too,” Alistair agreed. “Not that you wouldn’t have deserved it. But I’m sure she’s just glad you returned safe.”

“She is sitting right here,” I complained, and they both laughed. “No, but seriously. If you’d gotten yourself killed, I would not have been pleased with you. But I can’t argue with your results.”

“It was a near thing.” Cailan’s smile turned wry. “A mob nearly overwhelmed us when we tried to help the Viscount. It seems the Wardens end up rescuing me far more often than is reasonable.”

“So we heard. And it wasn’t just the Wardens, from what I was told?”

“Ah, so the Hawke family did arrive, then?” he asked. I nodded, gesturing impatiently, so he continued, “Your Anders has some remarkable friends.”

I grinned. “Remarkable friends who were horrified to be meeting the King, I’d wager.”

He laughed. “Less than you’d think. Not that Varric and I will end up as close friends, I don’t expect, but they were all very polite.” He sighed. “Are they alright? I know Ma—uh, that is, Serah Hawke won’t be happy if her family came to harm on the way here.”

“They’re fine. You can see them tomorrow if you like – I suspect Leandra would be ecstatic that the king was thinking of her.” I looked at him suspiciously. “And her family.”

He nodded. “I assume they told you the details about the Knight Commander’s death and the aftermath?” Cailan looked relieved when Alistair nodded. “Good. Enough about Kirkwall. Tell me about your trip – Fergus didn’t say much. You came back with some new scars, brother.”

Alistair and I took turns telling Cailan about our trip to Lhanbyrde – the Crow attack, Llomerryn, and what we learned on Lhanbyrde. We left Larius and Arathea out of the story, minimizing Alistair’s injuries, not wanting Cailan to feel stuck between us and the Chantry.

“Fergus didn’t tell you any of this?” I asked, puzzled.

“No. He seemed ... I don’t know, grumpy? He wasn’t very talkative. All he said was that they confirmed that you probably truly are a Cousland.”

An unexpected warmth spread through me at that, and my eyes welled with stupid tears. Maybe one day we really can be siblings.

Alistair squeezed me silently and distracted Cailan while I pulled myself together. “Where is our good Teyrn now, then? I wondered if he might come here with you.”