Leia’s toes always drew warm squiggles in the dust when she was lost in her thoughts. On this particular occasion, there was a complicated labyrinth scrawled unnoticed beneath her and the old wooden fence. Was Ichor, the new lamb, really trying to catch her eye? Did the grubby ball of fleece somehow know what Leia was thinking? Her mind felt addled by the unusual presence of the sweet smelling dust also hanging in the air.
Leia hadn’t named the lamb Ichor. That was Tom's idea of a joke. Ichor. Dead. Or soon to be, if the Dawkspawn horde really was approaching. Dead, like the rest of them, human or animal or… what was that caged beast? Tom had called it “Qunari”. Tom had thrown stones at its downcast shoulders and it hadn’t even flinched.
She looked towards the village. Where was Tom? Although she tried not to spend her days mooning over her handsome friend, who fell in love every other day but never with her, Leia’s recent preoccupation bordered on obsessive. What would he do when the horde arrived? Would he take up arms? Would he run? Would he die defending some beautiful village girl who would then weep for him until she died of old age?
Leia leapt lightly down from the fence, disturbing the dust, and tried to encourage Ichor to drink from the muddy waterhole. There was much to be done. She would be busy until her father returned. The house would be neat, the farm would be well tended and there would be broth quietly bubbling on the hearth, just the way he liked it. Leia knew her father would be unimpressed to find Ichor lazing on the blanket under his soup but it wouldn’t matter. He was going to return.
“Want to come and talk to the Qunari?”
“No.” Leia tried to mask a stab of fear by walking a little more quickly. Tom had been late to escort her into the village but her irritation turned to fright with every step closer to that cage. Their feet kicked more dust into the air.
“It’s going to talk to me, I just know it.” Tom was practically skipping alongside her as she made her way into the village. How could he be so lighthearted? “I’m going to teach it to play a game.”
“It hasn’t said a word to anyone, Tom, not even to the Revered Mother. Why would it talk to you?”
“Oh come, Leia. It must be bored.” Tom suddenly stopped walking. “Where does it go to the toilet?”
Despite herself, Leia laughed. She twirled about and appraised Tom’s sun touched body. He was tall and lithe, almost androgynous, an appearance uncommon amoung Lothering’s young men who were usually either fat or well muscled. Tom didn’t always eat and not just since food was scarce. She ached for him.
Leia felt a familiar shock of guilty pleasure as Tom caught up to her and took her arm. She had to hop slightly to match his long strides as they set out again. “Aren’t you worried it’s dangerous, Tom? It slaughtered … well you know, and no-one even knows why?”
“Worried? Scared of a caged beast? I’m more worried that the Darkspawn will kill it before I’ve had a chance to make it answer for what it did.” Tom had stopped walking again and Leia was surprised by the sudden passion in his voice. “But first I’m going to teach it to play a game.”
Leia left Tom at the cage, studiously averting her eyes as she passed quickly by. Provisions were becoming difficult to find in the village but she knew which few of the market gardeners would afford her uncommon generosity, even the occasional sweet or scarf. She refused a small but deadly looking trap Barlin, sweet in his way, tried to press into her bag. “To set outside your door when those big rats come after your supper, my dear.”
When Leia found Elder Miriam she was bent over a small garden with some tired looking strangers. “It is a dusty morning, child.” Standing up straight caused her to sway slightly on her feet. “Have you eggs for us?” Leia helped her to sit and then counted out a share of eggs.
The old woman began to ask her a question but then stopped and asked another. “Have you enough food for yourself, dear?”
No, he hasn’t come home yet. “Yes, thankyou Sister.”
“And have you enough food for your animals?”
He will come home. “Yes, thankyou Sister, and lambing has been plentiful this season.”
“Yes, well. You may be faring as well or better than the rest of us.”
All by myself. Leia remained silent. Faring better than you all by myself, you mean. Clasping the Elder’s hand and with a smile, Leia left to continue on her errands. Trips into the village were often tedious, especially when there was so much to be done, but she intended to uphold her father’s good name until he returned. He was going to return.
When her bag of eggs and cured mutton was finally filled instead with oranges and a new lamp, Leia returned to the cage. She tried not to notice the way Tom was reclining in the dust, idly poking the beast’s back with a stick. The way he immediately jumped up and fell into step with her suggested he’d had little luck coaxing the Qunari to talk to him. He turned back only briefly to throw the stick at the cage. “Let’s go, Leia.”
“Boy”. There was a commanding quality to the voice that made both Leia and Tom immediately stop walking but neither turned around. “Boy.” The Qunari spoke a second time, slightly softer, and a few passing townspeople started to edge away from the cage. A couple openly stared. A passing farmer stopped himself from breaking into a run. Leia’s eyes remained fixed on the dusty road heading out of town to her father’s farmhouse and her afternoon’s chores.
Slowly, Tom dropped Leia’s arm and turned around. “I’ll play your game, Boy.” The abrasive Qunari utterance was coming from high above Leia and she guessed that it was standing now, and tall. She couldn’t discern the emotion in its voice when it spoke again, but it didn’t speak with humour. “I spy, from my cage, something beginning with D.”
Leia felt Tom’s hands clutching at her waist and he was pushing her forward. “Darkspawn.” He choked on the word. “Darkspawn.” He cried louder. “Run.” The cry of “Darkspawn” was immediately echoed by surrounding villagers and borne away from the caged Qunari and the two friends like ripples on a pond. Dust filled the air as people began to move. A faraway horn began to sound.
“Where will we go?” Leia could feel Tom pushing her in every direction. He was panicking. Why hadn’t she decided where to run before now? Why hadn’t anyone told her what to do? She had known the Darkspawn were coming. She knew now that she hadn’t believed it. “Shall we go to the Chantry?” Tom stopped.
“No way. They’re Ichor.” Ichor. Ichor was at home next to the hearth. Leia started to run. “Wait. Where are you going?” She turned around once to make sure Tom was following her. He was. Behind Tom she saw a cloud of red dust rising from the outlying camps and the Qunari breaking open his cage as if it were a toy made of twigs.
Her father kept wine in the near constant cool of his cellar, which had been painstakingly dug out under the farmhouse. It wasn’t large, but it didn’t have to be. Tom was waiting below cradling her lamb as Leia balanced on the top of the short ladder. Her shaking hand bent backward to pull the woolen carpet over the trapdoor as it closed. Darkspawn were stupid, weren’t they? How long would they have to wait?
Silent hours passed and then heavy, uneven footsteps suddenly rang out from the floor above and Tom was forcing her down against the cellar wall. His eyes, wet with tears, were shocking to Leia in the muted candlelight. Something clattered to the floor and something else was broken in a splintering crash. More footsteps. What was broken could be mended. When her father came home the house would be neat and there would be broth quietly bubbling on the hearth, just the way he liked it.
As quickly as the clamor had begun, it ended. Tom was still pushing her against the cold stones and she could feel him shaking gently. Leia wanted to comfort her friend but found she couldn’t make her arms move around his body or indeed, move at all. After a moment, Tom rolled away and then reached out to trace a slow line from her armpit to her hip with his long fingers. Then he met her eyes and smiled. Then he kissed her.
Leia awoke with a slight pain in her temple as Tom was pulling on his boots. Standing, he smiled. “It’s morning, Leia. We’re alive.” She thought Tom’s smile was a little different. Remembering, she felt a nervous warmth spreading to her cheeks. “Leia, I’m sorry.”
You’re sorry? “It’s alright.” As soon as the words were out she wanted them back. What did he mean? She had wanted this for so long.
Tom took her in his arms. “You know I don’t feel…well, I don’t love you.” For the first time, the touch she so craved felt wrong. She was a fool. “There was a Darkspawn in your house. And I was a little drunk on your father’s wine.” He laughed. Why did he laugh? “Do you want me to go?” No. She nodded. “I’ll have a scout around and see where everyone is. I’ll plant my boot in a Darkspawn corpse for you.” Tom squeezed Leia’s arm. “When I come back, we’ll talk.”
Sometime later, Leia was resting on the old, wooden fence near the waterhole holding Ichor loosely. Someone or something approached slowly through the heavy, dusty air but Leia didn’t care to move. Too tall for Tom. It was the Qunari warrior. He was leaning heavily on his right leg and splattered with blood. Leia wondered if the blood was Darkspawn, Qunari or human.
“What is that?” he asked, indicating the pattern at her feet. “Some kind of human, toe art?” Leia smoothed over the dirt with the ball of her foot.
“You are just a child. Why are you sitting?” Numb, Leia couldn’t find words to answer him. She drew Ichor a little closer. “Are you unaware of what has happened here?”
Please, take me with you. “Please, go away.”
“Something beginning with D wasn’t Darkspawn. Your friend was a fool. What could stir up a dust like that but a moving army?”
Leia didn’t meet the Qunari’s eyes. When she looked up again there was only dust.
Modifié par Firky, 24 mai 2010 - 10:50 .
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