Frina smiled when she saw Ulfric on his throne, and sprinted all the way down the great hall to approach him. She knew that Roggi was somewhere behind her, most likely disapproving of her eagerness, but she didn’t care.
“We did it, sir!” she said, smiling. “We took Fort Snowhawk. It was quite the battle. I’m glad they weren’t expecting us or it would have been a lot worse for us than it was.”
To her disappointment, Ulfric did not look directly at her. He gazed over her head, down the hall. But he did smile, just a tiny bit, before he spoke.
“Tullius must be getting nervous. Taking Hjaalmarch, we’re practically in his back yard now. As soon as we’re able, we’ll march on Solitude.” He glanced down at her then, finally, and smiled warmly; but he looked away again quickly.
“You’ve become a true hero of Skyrim. I number you among my kin. You shall now be known as Storm-Blade. The love of the land and the people flows from your heart even as death for her enemies flows from your hands. On behalf of the sons and daughters of Skyrim, on behalf of all that is righteous and true, take this token of our appreciation for your service.”
To Frina’s astonishment, Ulfric handed her a set of armor. She turned it over and over in her hands, marveling; for he had given her a set of armor like his own and like that which Galmar wore.
I can’t wear this. It’s far too heavy for me. But I will keep it, and treasure it because it was a gift from Ulfric. Kin. He called me kin!
“Thank you, my lord,” she murmured. She looked up at Ulfric, feeling a bit breathless. Will he ask me to stay again? Will he? Her mind played the memory of the kiss he’d given her; she could almost feel it, still, on her lips. What would it be like if…
“Now then, Ulfric, you’ve given Frina the praise she deserves – what about your trusty old dog?” Roggi’s chuckle interrupted her train of thought and she stepped back, blushing.
Ulfric looked Roggi squarely in the eyes, and smirked. There was always something odd about the way he looked at Roggi, she thought, but she couldn’t quite figure out what it was.
“Yes, yes, Roggi. Thank you for your service as well. As always. I’m sure the battle hung in the balance on your being there.” There was the slightest edge of sarcasm in his tone.
Frina was afraid that Roggi would be angry at that but to her surprise, he snickered. “Oh, I don’t know about that, Ulfric, but I am glad that you sent me there. It was good to be in the thick of things. I think that one or the other of us might have been coming home to you on the back of a cart of corpses if we hadn’t both been watching out for each other.”
Roggi smiled at Frina; and she smiled back, knowing that what he said was the absolute truth. It had been close calls on both sides. She glanced back at Ulfric and to her complete surprise saw an expression just short of anger flit across his face. It was only for a moment, but the anger confused her.
Who is he angry with? Roggi? But why?
“I’m pleased that it turned out well in the end. And yes, Roggi, I am most grateful to you for your part. Now then,” he said, turning again to Frina. “You’ve no time to glory in your accomplishments. We’re gathering for our final assault on Solitude, and I need you there. Report to our camp in Haafingar.”
Frina was embarrassed to realize the extent of her disappointment, and fought to keep it from showing on her face. There would be no quiet dinner with Ulfric this time, no embrace, no…
“Yes, sir.”
“Have you heard from the Dragonborn, Roggi?” Ulfric asked with a testy edge to his voice. “He picked a terrible time to leave. We need him with us for this final push.”
Roggi shook his head and frowned. “No, and I’m worried. My contacts in the Rift say that he was there but left. He hasn’t been seen since. I’ll send a courier back to Falkreath. If he makes for anywhere it’ll be to our house on the lake. With any luck we’ll be able to get him here before things get desperate.”
“We will never be desperate, Roggi,” Ulfric said, frowning at him. “You should know better than that.”
Roggi gave him a lopsided grin. “Well, maybe. But I know I’m a lot older than I used to be, and I’m pretty sure that means you and Galmar are, as well. Listen, I came really close to losing out there this last battle. Really close. If Frina hadn’t been there to pick off the archer I’d have been a goner. I think we need every bit of help we can get and if it happens to be that of the guy who killed Alduin, more power to us.” He shook his head. “It’s not meant as any offense to you, Ulfric. I’m just looking at the reality of things. None of us is a young man any more. He is.”
“Yes, and I can imagine you’re very well acquainted with that,” Ulfric muttered just under his breath.
Frina froze. That was a rude thing for Ulfric to say. Very rude. And she’d seen Roggi angry and heard him at his worst, and the very last thing she wanted to see was these two men that she cared about fighting. But to her relief, Roggi simply chuckled.
“You know I am,” he said. He turned to Frina. “So, shall we go get something to eat and then head out again?”
Frina looked up at Ulfric, hesitant. He didn’t meet her gaze. She sighed. Whatever foolish hopes and expectations she might have been harboring vanished. I’m so stupid. He doesn’t want me, not now, not after I was silly the last time. What did I think? That the rightful High King was going to come sweep me off my feet like in some ridiculous fairy tale? He likes me, that’s all. He likes me and I remind him of Briinda, and she’s the one he really wanted. Damn me for being so silly.
She forced herself to grin at Roggi.
“Yes. Let’s go,” she said, and started for the doors.
Behind her, she heard Ulfric’s low rumble but couldn’t make out the words. She heard Roggi’s lighter tones responding, but again couldn’t tell what he said. She heard him running to catch up to her.
“So what did he say?” she asked, not looking at him.
“He told me to look out for you,” Roggi answered. “I told him that I would.”
“I don’t need someone to look out for me,” she grumbled. Treat me like a child? I don’t need anyone.
“Oh, I don’t know,” Roggi answered smoothly. “I need someone to look out for me. Like I told Ulfric. I’m an old man.”
She slipped a sideways glance at him and realized that he was grinning at her. She couldn’t help it, couldn’t stay mad; instead she swatted at him.
“Oh, you. Let’s find that courier before we forget.”
“I wouldn’t forget, trust me. I wasn’t kidding when I said we need Dar with us. But the other thing we need, both of us, is a decent night’s sleep. I’m sure Ulfric won’t mind. And even if he does, I don’t care. We can’t fight at our best if we’re tired.”
Frina took a quick mental inventory of her body and realized that yes indeed, she hurt in a dozen places and was bone-weary. I probably would have had one drink and fallen asleep on Ulfric’s table. That’s how tired I am. Silly me.
They were sitting at the bar in Candlehearth Hall when Roggi said, quietly enough that nobody else could hear, “Don’t put too much stock in how Ulfric acts when he’s sitting on that throne. Trust me. It was pretty obvious to me that he thinks you’re more than a little bit special.”
Frina jumped a bit and stared at him.
“What? Obvious how?”
Roggi gave a quick chuckle and sighed, seemingly paying closer attention to his drink than to her. “Don’t forget. I’ve known him for a long time. Everything he does is obvious to me. He likes you.”
Frina turned her attention back to the meal in front of her. Internally, though, she smiled.
He likes me.
__
Frina walked through the Stormcloak camp and approached Galmar’s command tent. Not far beyond it she could see the gigantic arch of the Dragon Bridge, one of the most vital structures in Skyrim, reaching across the Karth River. This Stormcloak camp was nestled next to the river along the peninsula of Haafingar, below the level of the roadway running from the town of Dragon Bridge to the capital city of Solitude. She was happy to have finally made it. She was equally happy that she and Roggi had both been in their civilian armor. This was the very seat of the Imperial presence in Skyrim, and every person on the roads was stared at, given a once-over, suspected of being a spy.
And that’s exactly what we are, isn’t it? Until we start fighting we’re just nothing but a couple of Ulfric’s spies and might as well have bright red targets painted on us, front and back both.
Galmar was leaning over the map, muttering to himself, as she approached. He looked up and turned to face her.
“The Empire would have us become their slaves, as they have become slaves to the Thalmor,” he said, almost snarling. “I will not live as a slave. Nor will I die as one.”
“I agree, Galmar,” she said.
“So do I,” Roggi muttered, coming around to stand at the far side of the table, and leaning over the map. “You may not have liked everything I’ve ever done, Galmar,” he added, earning a raised eyebrow from the commander, “but that’s one thing you and I definitely agree on.”
“And so do I,” a low rumble answered from just outside the tent. Frina whirled in surprise at the sound and smiled when she saw the solid figure in black armor.
“Dardeh!” she cried. “You’re back! Thank Talos!”
“Dar,” Roggi said, a huge smile breaking across his face. “The courier found you?”
Dardeh didn’t smile. In fact, Frina thought he looked particularly grim.
“Yes, he did. I needed to rest a few hours or I’d have come as soon as he found me.” He turned back to look out across the camp. “It’s bad out there. I passed what was left of another battle. I hope to never see anything like that again. So tell me, what are we doing next, Galmar?”
“You’re going to the fort. Fort Hraggstad. All of you. Meet the brothers preparing for the attack. Once you’ve wiped out the Imperials we’ll garrison the fort. And then,” he said, breaking into a grim smile, “things will get really interesting. For all of us.”
“It’s already interesting,” Dardeh muttered. “Just like that old curse: ‘may you live in interesting times.’ I could do with some dull.”
He turned and walked away from the tent, Roggi on his heels. Frina hung back; and, as she had suspected might happen, Roggi and Dardeh melded into a kiss. She could see them talking, Roggi’s head nodding as Dardeh told him whatever it was he’d needed to say. Then both of them broke out into brilliant smiles and hugged each other. Roggi approached the quartermaster, and Dardeh waved to Frina.
“Dardeh, you look different,” she said, grinning at the wiry coils of hair that were no longer in tight braids.
Dardeh ran his hand up over his head. I wonder if he realizes how often he does that, she thought. It must be a nervous habit. It’s cute.
“Oh, heh. This. Yeah, I don’t know, it just felt like time to let it breathe for awhile. Or something. Who knows,” he said with an embarrassed grin. “Lydia would be having a fit if she could see me. Anyway, I’m glad you two made it through the battle all in one piece.”
“Well it was a lot tougher than I expected, Dardeh. Let’s just say we’re all awfully glad that you’re with us again, now.”
“Thanks. And I’m much better for having done… what I did. It had to happen. Well,” he said, looking around for Roggi, “I guess we’d better get up there. The sooner this is done … the sooner it’s done.”
Frina giggled. “Yes, indeed.”
Fort Hraggstad was on the other side of Haafingar’s central ridge from their current location, and it was going to take a bit of careful travel to get there. In fact, as soon as they started up the steep slope out of the camp, they had to stop and take cover behind trees; for a patrol of Imperial soldiers was heading past them on its way to Solitude. Once the patrol had passed, the three of them scurried west down the road and then north along the path that led past the gigantic shrine to Meridia. They’d almost reached the top of the hill when Frina spied a figure in the distance, still far enough away that it might not have spotted them.
“Over here!” she hissed at Roggi and Dardeh, and then dropped off the roadway on the left, climbing up over the rocks to its side. She drew her weapons and got far enough off the roadway that she could take cover behind trees or stone if needed; for it wasn’t clear who she’d seen. It might possibly be more Stormcloak soldiers on their way to join up with the attack force; but it might just as easily be a patrol of Thalmor or Imperial soldiers. Frina didn’t feel like taking a chance either way.
There were just enough trees between them and the roadway that she was able to clamber up the stony slope without being seen. When she got to the crest of the hill she could see the fort, at the end of a paved path across the high east-west road that hugged the ridge line. All they needed to do now was to reach the rest of the force. She led them down to the roadway, behind one of the stone walls lining its southern edge.
“You are but a dog and I am your master!” came a cry from down the road, near the place she’d seen the figures earlier.
Great. Thalmor.
“Is someone there?” Roggi said, turning just as a blast of frost struck him in the face. It wasn’t the arrogant Justiciar but one of the common soldiers, a mage, who had run right up to them.
“Kill him!” Dardeh growled; and the next thing Frina heard was the sharp, metallic, ear-piercing sound of Dardeh disarming the man with his Voice.
Frina drew her bow and tried to line up a shot at the soldier but Dardeh’s bulk was between her and the target. It didn’t matter, though, because he brought his sword down in a vicious blow that ended the man. Just past them, Frina saw Roggi slicing open his own assailant. She stepped back out onto the roadway and swiveled, looking for her target. There was the Justiciar, casting a warding spell in front of himself; she grinned and took aim at him, only to get blasted by a gout of flame coming from her left from another mage. She released the arrow blindly and cried out as her brows singed and her hair sizzled.
“Aahh!” Dardeh screamed as the flames struck him as well.
Frina couldn’t really tell what was happening. She heard Roggi taunting the Justiciar. She saw the blur of black as Dardeh rushed past her. She drew her hand weapons and ran to where she thought she saw the Justiciar, took a few wild swings through the oncoming flames, and heard Roggi snap “Watch it!” as the back side of her pick met resistance. She squeaked and pulled the weapons back; absolutely the last thing she wanted to do was injure Roggi.
And then it was over. The Justiciar and his thugs lay on the roadway, and all three of them were casting minor healing spells, even Roggi. She frowned; the scent of burned hair filled her nostrils still.
“I’m so sorry,” she said, moving to stand beside Roggi. “I didn’t intend to hit you…”
“Don’t worry about it,” he grinned. “I need to practice this thing more often anyway. Use it or lose it, you know?”
“That’s been my experience,” Dardeh said, casting as he went. “Never thought I’d use so much magic in my lifetime. Now I don’t dare leave home without this healing spell.”
A couple of moments later, Frina nodded down the road. “I think the Stormcloaks are around this outcropping, on the other side. We’d better get moving. I think they’re waiting on us.”
The sun was nearly down by the time everyone had assembled east of the fort. It looked to Frina as though it should be fairly easy to take the place; the towers were broken and there were places where the walls had partially collapsed and might be climbable. But it was dark, and instead of making a risky approach they circled around the outcropping they’d been hiding behind and attacked the fort head-on.
Even though it was dark, there was enough light cast by the aurora that Frina was able to target an archer atop one of the two intact towers near the fort’s entrance while another Stormcloak did the same for the archer on the other side. She picked away at him: two arrows, three, four – and finally the figure dropped. Someone in front of her hacked apart the barricade blocking the fort’s interior, and they all rushed in. Just as the first Stormcloaks cleared the doorway there was an enormous sound from behind her; and she looked back to once more see Dardeh, eyes flashing and a wide grin on his face, wrestling with his helmet before rushing ahead to join the rest.
“Enough of this!” he growled as he barreled into the first Imperial soldier he met. The man went flying.
Frina would have liked to see what happened to him, but there were arrows flying in from the right. She looked up and saw a pair of archers, one in a mostly-dilapidated tower on the far corner and another just overhead. She started peppering them with arrows, in sequence, first one and then the other. Other Stormcloaks near her were doing the same thing, yelling insults at the Imperials as they went; and it wasn’t long before the walls were clear again, at least for a moment. Off to her left, somewhere in the dark, she heard Dardeh: “Die, damn you!” and the earsplitting sound of his disarming shout. But she couldn’t hear Roggi, and that had her worried.
Frina broke away from the ranged fight and swung around into the courtyard. Then she laughed.
“I’ll rip your heart out!” came from just to her right. She heard the juicy sound of a sword ripping through flesh, and then watched Roggi race past her toward his next target, a soldier blocking the door to the fort’s interior.
I shouldn’t have worried.
Frina pulled out her axe and pick and raced along behind him, turning right where he’d gone straight across the courtyard. There were far more potential targets than she would have liked to see; but she took a deep breath and raced for her first, an archer at the foot of a ramp up to the walls. He was turning to aim his bow at her when she cut him down with a few efficient swipes. Just behind him, tucked under the scaffolding that held the ramp, was another archer. She ran up the ramp a few steps, long enough to cast a quick healing spell, and then raced down it again to find that Roggi and another Stormcloak had him all but down.
“I cannot best you,” the man moaned.
“Right,” Frina said, finishing him with a quick axe blow.
There was a confusing moment of respite then, all quiet on either side of her. The bulk of the action seemed to have moved to the back of the fort and up onto the walls; and as she raced for the stone staircase to join the rest, two Imperial swordsmen came barreling out of the shadows to greet her. She began sweeping their path with both weapons. The first of them took a nasty blow to the shin and stumbled back, while his fellow stepped ahead and ended up with all of the spikes from her very carefully sharpened war pick in his stomach. He dropped, soundlessly; and while the first wounded man attempted a swing at Frina she had damaged his legs too much; she knocked him off-balance and slit his throat with her axe when he fell.
She heard footsteps behind her and turned just in time to watch two more Imperials rush up the stairs in front of her. She wasn’t able to stop their swords from catching her, one across the thigh and the other in her left arm; and she hissed with the pain, gritted her teeth, and swung both weapons wildly, hoping to fend off another attack. Her head was spinning with the pain, and she began to see spots of light around the edges of her vision.
Don’t pass out. Don’t pass out. If you pass out it’s over.
And then she cringed, ducking down low, as the enormous force of Dardeh Shouting caught both of the Imperials. One went flying off the stairs and landed somewhere below; the other lost balance and fell forward, face-first, onto the stairs, where she slammed her axe down across the back of his neck. She turned and ran up to the wall and into the darkest corner she could find, casting healing on herself and pulling potions out of her pack to speed the process.
By the Nine, that was the closest call I’ve ever had. Thank Talos for Dardeh, or I’d be dead right now.
She didn’t dare wait long in one place. As soon as she could move, Frina stepped back out onto the wall. An Imperial soldier with a torch nearly ran into her, face-first. She stared at him for the smallest of moments, wondering what sort of fool lit himself up for the enemy like that, before swinging her pick into his torso so hard that he fell sideways off the wall and landed hard on some jagged rocks just beneath. She didn’t want to think about what his body might look like when they came to drag it away.
There was a lull in the action then, just for a moment, and Frina ran back down onto the courtyard wondering where the enemy was. From atop the wall, off to her right, she heard Dardeh disarm someone yet again and headed in that direction to find herself in the middle of three more soldiers. One of them was picked off by a distant archer before he could get to her. The second ran up on her left; she whirled into him with both weapons and took him down easily. The third sank an arrow deep into her shoulder.
Frina shrieked and ran back down into the courtyard, and just outside the walls of the fort, mentally screaming at herself not to flee, to get back into the action. She knew, though, that she had to get the arrow out, had to heal herself, or it would be over before she even approached the next Imperial soldier. She leaned against the cold stone walls, gritted her teeth, and yanked the arrow free, screaming when it ripped its way back out through her flesh. It was all she could do yet again not to pass out. It took several minutes, any number of potions, and all the healing magic she could muster before she stood, took a sip of water, and headed back into the courtyard.
It was almost over. The screams and taunts, the clashing of weapons, were all much farther apart and fewer in number than before. She slipped out of the doorway just in time to witness a terrifying scene: Dardeh rushed several Imperials in the center of the courtyard and Shouted. It wasn’t the disarming shout this time, or the one that would send a man flying; no, this time a huge ball of flame erupted from Dardeh and spread out to envelop all three of the soldiers.
“Ahh! It burns!” one of them screamed.
Frina didn’t want to stick around to watch his end. She slipped around the corner to her right and found a pod of three Imperials, all of whom looked bloodied and shaky. One of them picked up a quarterstaff, snarled, and made his best attempt to swing at her; but none of them had enough energy to mount a decent attack and she was mostly whole. The first of them, at her feet, went limp almost instantly; she turned left and blocked the quarterstaff with her axe while peeling open the archer’s ribcage with her pick. Then she turned to the wobbling quarterstaff wielder and took him down.
“No more! I yield! I yield!” the bleeding archer cried. She snarled at him and drove her pick through his skull, then spent several long moments wrestling her weapon free.
It was all but finished. She heard Dardeh calling out, “where are you?” and a few shrieks of pain as the last of the Imperial forces tried to escape and were caught in spite of their best efforts. Frina ran around the suddenly-quiet perimeter of the fort, looking for stragglers, sensing that there were still more and not being able to see them. She went up into one of the supposedly-empty towers, feeling uneasy.
Clustered behind a low wall at the top of the tower was another group of badly injured, panting Imperial soldiers. In a moment of exquisite timing, Dardeh, below on the wall, yelled “Bah! I’ll get you!” just as she sprinted into them. It took only a few moments for her to finish them all off, as they were barely alive to begin with. She looked down at what she’d done, grinned, and was slipping her weapons back into their sheaths when Dardeh stuck his head up from below and said “Nicely done.”
“Where’s Roggi?”
“Down here,” he called. “I’m fine, don’t worry. It’s going to seem like a long trek back to Galmar, though. Probably be full daylight by the time we get there.”
Frina trudged down the stairs, slowly, to meet them, and was happy when Roggi pulled her into a warm hug. “You did well, little sister,” he whispered into her ear. “I’m proud of you.” Frina found her eyes misting over, and she held him as hard as she could for just a moment.
She smiled up at him once he released the embrace. “Thanks, Roggi. You know, when I was a little girl, all I wanted in the world was for you to tell me something like that. It really means a lot to me.”
Roggi smiled back at her. “Well, I mean it. You’re fierce. I saw you get hit by that arrow and I thought it was all over, and I couldn’t come to you because I had a guy with a sword trying to give me a close shave.”
Dardeh, standing nearby, harrumphed. “Let’s get going,” he said, his face set in a deep scowl.
Roggi looked at Frina for a second, startled, then frowned at Dardeh. “Now just a minute, you. Come over here,” he said, grabbing Dardeh by the arm and dragging him toward a corner of the courtyard. “I don’t care if you’re the Dragonborn or not, I have some things to say to you.”
Frina was confused, but she stepped away far enough that all she could hear of their exchange was the angry rise and fall of their voices. Dardeh would gesture, and say something, and Roggi would shake his head, leaning in with his taller body to loom over Dardeh for a moment. Dardeh waved in Frina’s direction. Roggi’s voice rose; he stepped forward and grabbed the front of Dardeh’s armor. For an awful moment she thought they were going to come to blows.
And then Roggi kissed Dardeh.
It wasn’t a kiss of relief, like the one she’d seen them exchange when they’d killed the dragon. This was, at least to her inexperienced eye, a passionate kiss, a greedy kiss, one that looked as though it would swallow the both of them whole. She felt herself blushing, and turned away, moving toward the doorway of the fort.
I’ve never seen anything like that between two men before, that’s for certain. I wonder if anyone will ever kiss me like that. She reached up and touched her own lips, and thought of her moment with Ulfric, and felt herself becoming very warm wondering what it would be like to share the kind of exchange with him that her dear brother was having at that moment. Then an odd thought flitted through her mind.
Is Dardeh jealous… of me? Did he think there was more to that hug than just a hug? By the Nine. I surely hope not. I love Roggi to bits but he’s my brother and nothing more.
She heard Roggi clearing his throat behind her, and the squeaking and clanking of Dardeh’s heavy armor. Roggi walked past her, not meeting her questioning gaze, and said “Let’s go;” but she noticed his high color even in the dim light of the gathering dawn.
Dardeh walked past and looked at her. He grinned, and winked.
___
Galmar was delighted to see them back intact, and told them to get a few hours of rest.
“Good job. Ulfric was right about all of you. I’m glad you’re with us.” Then he cracked his knuckles and broke out into a wide, eager smile, his eyes twinkling with excitement.
“We’re taking the city,” he said. “Once you’ve had some rest, meet the forces assembling near the gates. This is it.”
“We’re taking… Solitude?” Frina blurted out. Of course we’re taking Solitude. How stupid of me.
“Aye,” Galmar rasped. “The capital of Skyrim. And then it will be over.”
Frina couldn’t help but break out into a smile, herself.
And then, Ulfric will be High King.