The Dalish Commander (The Daughters of Thedas Book 2)

22: The Wending Wood

Soundtrack:

Blackened Roots ~ Adrian von Ziegler (The Wending Wood)

I could smell charred wood when we entered the Wending Wood. Along with sensing the taint. As we walked along the path, we came across scavengers and bandits picking through a few wagons. One saw us and warned the others before they fled. We approached the ruined wagon. What hadn't been destroyed had probably been stolen by scavengers.

"Not to belabor the point or anything," Anders said. "But I think this caravan was attacked."

"Thank you, Ser Obvious," I quipped. "Never would have figured that out on my own."

Oghren snorted a laugh.

"Well, just thought you should know."

Tristan sniffed the ruins. I frowned as I looked at the caravan more closely. It looked like it had been smashed to bits. I could think of a few things that could do that: an ogre, an Emissary, or a Sylvan. And it could be any of those three.

"I can safely say that this is not the work of bandits," I said. "But I cannot rule out Darkspawn or Sylvans."

"By the Stone, I hate those things," Oghren said. "They always pop out of nowhere. Like Shrieks."

I chuckled. As we moved deeper into the forest, we were ambushed by the bandits and scavengers we saw earlier and easily defeated them.

Then we heard screaming. "The trees! The trees have come to life! Run!"

I knew they spoke of Sylvans and we charged forward. Only this wasn't any Sylvan I had ever seen. The bark was charred and it looked to still be on fire. And it was attacking the bandits. We defeated both and I examined the charred Sylvan, Tristan sniffing it over.

"I have never seen a Sylvan like this before," I said. "Something fell is going on here."

"Darkspawn?" Nathaniel asked.

"Possibly. I do sense the taint but it's faint, as if it's on the edge of my range."

~~~

As we crossed a bridge, we ran into another bandit. Surprisingly, he didn't move to attack us. "Out of my way!" he said. "I need to get out of here!" He was in a panic.

"Calm down," I said. "What's going on?"

"Calm down? I can't calm down! She's after me!"

"Who's after you?"

"The Elf!" He turned around and searched the trees. "She makes the trees come alive! All we wanted was some easy money from the caravans, but —" He cut off when we heard the trees creaking. He slowly backed towards me. "Maker help me! She's here!" I sidestepped to be out of the way when he fled. "Got to get away!" Sure enough, he started running without bothering to look where he was going.

I frowned. An Elf? I wondered if one of the Keepers was trying to run off humans to protect their camp. I didn't have to wonder long. On a ridge above us, roots suddenly appeared and a Dalish Mage appeared when they disappeared. I recognized her but I couldn't place her name or her Clan at that moment. Her blond hair was set in a neat bun and she wore the elaborate vallaslin I'd come to expect from Keepers and Firsts. When we last met, at the Arlathvenn, she was a First.