Asunder (29 page)

            There were charred corpses inside. He didn't want to look at them. The entire city stank of death and smoke. His heart wouldn't stop thumping in his chest, and he wanted to scream.
What is happening?

            And then he saw them. The same sort of monster he'd seen in the badlands, things with pale flesh and tainted hearts. They ran into view, carrying crude swords and shouting their bloodlust. But there was something wrong with them, too. He didn't hear the music, that insistent melody with its tendrils reaching out for him. They were shells and nothing more.

            But they saw Cole. It took a moment for that to register as the monsters pointed at him. They roared and pounded the ground with their swords, and then charged.

            The first he slashed across the throat with his dagger. He hadn't even realized he'd drawn it; he'd reacted instinctively, and there it was. Black ichor spurted from its neck, and it gurgled as it stumbled past him into the shop. The second swung its sword and missed, the blade chopping into the burnt doorframe and sticking there. Cole slashed its arm, forcing it to let go of its weapon, and then spun around with enough force to plunge the dagger into its sternum.

            It collapsed with a bestial cry, but already others were coming. Too many. Cole turned and ran. He darted through the shop, leaping over the dead bodies and escaping out of a collapsed section of the back wall.

            He had no idea where he was going. He heard the wailing cry of the creatures behind him as they gave pursuit, and that only made him run faster. He charged through winding alleyways, through choking black smoke, and past frightened people who cowered from him as he passed.

            Eventually Cole spilled out onto some kind of square, drenched in blood and gore. A battle had occurred there— bodies of dead soldiers lay scattered about, most of them human and all of them wearing colors he didn't recognize. Their throats were cut, their limbs hacked apart. One man no older than he lay nearby, his tongue swollen and purple, horrified eyes staring up at nothing. The smell made Cole want to vomit.

            A scream of terror in the alley behind him forced him to move. Across the square was the opening to a larger street, one that wasn't completely choked with flames. That could be a way out. Cole picked his way across the square, stepping between the bodies as quickly as he could.

            He was only halfway across when he heard the savage cry of discovery. He turned back and saw the creatures spilling out of the alley now, dozens of them charging into the square with wild abandon.

            There was no way he would make it in time. Cole gripped his dagger tightly, sour sweat pouring down his face. He looked at the dead soldiers, wondering if he should take one of their shields . . . or perhaps a sword? He'd never used either, and those things didn't seem to have helped the soldiers.

           
Die like a man.
The command wormed its way through his head. Where did it come from? He'd heard it somewhere, and now it made him clench his teeth. He tensed and waited. The creatures ran toward him almost slowly, as if running through murky water, but it wasn't true. He was the one who slowed.

            And then there was an explosion.

            Cole stared in stunned disbelief as a great burst of fire sent the creatures flying. They sailed through the air, arms flailing, and hit the ground hard. All of them were burning, screaming horribly.

            "Cole!"

            He turned toward the sound of the voice . . . and saw Rhys running into the square. The other mages were with him, the old woman and the red- haired one, and Knight- Captain, too. A great statue made of stone and crystals lumbered behind them, something Cole would normally have been startled to see. Today it was just one more piece of strangeness to heapupon the others.

            "Rhys?" he asked quietly.

            Rhys stared at him, mouth agape in shock. Knight- Captain stared as well, although her expression was far more wary. She held her sword at the ready, as if concerned Cole might run at them and attack. It was the furthest thing from his mind.

            The other two mages walked toward the creatures still standing. They held out their staff s and unleashed bolts of power. The blasts scattered the pale monsters, and that's when the stone behemoth rushed past the mages. It pounded the ground with both fists, hard enough to send out a shockwave that toppled the rest of the monsters to the ground.

            A few more bolts of fire and lightning and the monsters finally fled. They picked up their weapons and abandoned their dead comrades, disappearing back into the alleyway. Cole watched them go, having never moved from the middle of the square. In the quiet that followed, punctuated only by the distant sounds of fire and screaming, he realized everyone was staring. At him. They could all see him.

            Rhys took a step closer, but Knight- Captain reached out and stopped him. "Cole, what are you doing here?" Rhys asked, perplexed.

            "I know you didn't want me to follow you . . ."

            "No, how did you get
here
?"

            Cole felt nervous. He wasn't used to having so many people looking at him, and they weren't
doing
anything. He desperately wanted to hug Rhys, beg the man's forgiveness. . . . He'd pictured this reunion so many different ways, but never like this. "There was music," he said quietly. "It was so loud, it filled me up and took me here. But I don't know where here is."

            "This is the Fade," the old woman said. He'd never gotten a close look at her before. She might have seemed like a kindly grandmother had it not been for those sharp eyes. They looked right through him and sized him up, and there was something else . . . something behind them that made Cole shiver. He didn't like it. He almost wished he were invisible again. "The realm of spirits," she continued. "And this is a dream, of sorts. I believe it might be mine."

            The red- headed mage frowned. "Your dream?"

            "Denerim. This is the capital of Ferelden, and we are in the middle of the Blight. This is the battle when the Archdemon was slain and the darkspawn at last routed."

            "But that's a good thing."

            The old woman's face sagged, and for a moment she looked tired. "Look around you, Adrian. This was a nightmare. The victory came at a terrible cost, and has haunted me ever since."

            They did look around, at the burning buildings and the terrible blackness roiling in the sky. The screams made Cole shiver. He didn't want to stay in this square, standing among so many dead bodies. If this was a dream, why couldn't they just wake up?

            The walking statue lumbered over, its stony face twisted into a scowl. "The old mage has brought me into the Fade again. I didn't like it the first time."

            Old Woman nodded, sighing. "It wasn't intentional, Shale. It seems everyone was drawn through the Veil, rather than just me."

            The statue turned its glowing eyes toward Cole. "And this one, as well? Shall I squish it now? It looks unpleasant."

            Rhys suddenly snapped out of his stupor. "No!" he cried. "Leave him alone!"

            "We don't know what he is," Knight- Captain said. "T ink about it, Rhys. Nobody can see him, but suddenly he's in the Fade? Right where you are? Don't be a fool."

            "He's
not
a demon."

            "I don't know," Old Woman said uncertainly. She stepped toward Cole, and he backed away. He still held his dagger, and now he began to wonder if he would need to use it. "I don't sense he's a spirit, but what does that mean here in the Fade? I didn't sense those creatures chasing him as spirits either, but they certainly weren't darkspawn."

            A moment of tense silence passed, and Cole looked at Rhys. "Are . . . you still angry at me? I only wanted to protect you."

            "You can't protect me, Cole. That's why I told you to go back."

            "I couldn't."

            Red Hair glared at Cole angrily, though as near as he could tell she always looked angry. Her voice penetrated like knives. "Why couldn't you?" she demanded. "Do you have
any idea
what you've done to Rhys?"

            He backed up another step, but she pursued him. "I didn't mean to do anything to Rhys," he said quietly.

            "And what about the mages you murdered? Did you not mean that?"

            Cole felt as if a hole were opening underneath him. How could he explain it to her, when he was barely able to explain it to Rhys? She didn't know those people he'd killed, the tormented ones in their cages, and she didn't know him.

            "This is the murderer." It was Knight- Captain who said that. She did not look surprised, but instead disappointed. She glared at Rhys. "You didn't mention that."

            "I . . . thought you overheard."

            "You should have told me yourself."

            "So you could do what?" he demanded harshly. "You barely believed me as it was. You would have thought I was lying to you, in order to look innocent."

            She stared at him, and then slowly nodded. "You're right." Then she turned toward Cole and drew her sword. "Demon or murderer, there is only one solution."

            Cole jumped back, crouching low. He didn't want to run off into the city again, where those pale creatures were surely lurking, but he also didn't want to leave Rhys after spending so long searching for him. Knight- Captain was pretty, and seemed nice for a templar, but he knew why she was here. He wouldn't let her do that, any more than he'd let her kill him.

            "Stop!" Rhys ran up and grabbed Knight- Captain by the shoulder.

            Red Hair shook her head at him. "Don't, Rhys. How else do you think this is going to end? Why would you defend a murderer?"

            Rhys seemed unable to answer. From his look of uncertainty, the way he glanced at Cole with that lingering question in his eyes, it was clear what his answer would be. Cole desperately wanted to defend himself, to prove to Rhys that he was still the man's friend, but he didn't know how. Nothing had ever felt so painful as watching Rhys slowly release Knight- Captain's shoulder now.

            "I believe the matter is settled," she said, turning with a grim expression toward Cole. He prepared himself, tightening the grip on his dagger.

            And then the world shook.

            A deafening roar sounded from the sky, so loud it beat down upon Cole like a physical force. It drowned out everything. He covered his ears and doubled over, his head threatening to explode from the pain. The sound seemed to go on forever, and only when it finally stopped did he dare to look up.

            Cole had seen pictures of dragons before— there was a faded mural in the White Spire's archive, and it showed a dragon surrounded by a group of knights with great spears and nets. It seemed to struggle against its attackers, but was heavily wounded and losing the battle. Cole had always thought it looked noble, a beast wrongly hounded by men that refused to see its savage beauty.

            That dragon was nothing like this one. The dragon that filled the dark sky was a behemoth, and it didn't have a body covered in smooth scales. It was all muscle and sinew, eaten away by worms that writhed just under the surface. Like someone had taken rotting flesh and constructed a dragon out of it.

            "The Archdemon!" Old Woman cried in horror.

            There was no time to react. The dragon descended onto the square with the force of an earthquake. Cole tried to dive out of the way, but the massive wings of the beast beat once and sent a hurricanelike wind sweeping through the square. He was lifted up, along with many of the dead soldiers, and flung through the air. He slammed against a stone wall, hard.

            The world spun around him. Cole found himself on the ground, gasping for breath and wincing at the pain running through his body. He felt disoriented. There were people yelling, but he couldn't tell where they were. Somebody shouted, "Get out of the square! Quickly!" but he had no idea who.

            The dragon roared again, louder this time. It was little more than a giant black mass to Cole, the smoke being sucked into the square by its beating wings almost too thick to see through. He scrambled to his feet in a panic, glad not to have lost his dagger, and looked around for Rhys.

            T ere. Three barely discernable figures in robes sprinted across the far side of the square. The dragon reared up, its serpentine neck curling. It then lunged forward, belching a blast of black flame from its mouth. Cole watched in horror as the mages were engulfed, and for a moment he thought they were surely dead. Then as the smoke cleared he saw Rhys down on one knee— the man had erected a shimmering shield of magic, and that had protected them. Even so, the shield was buckling under the strain. Rhys crumpled to the ground.