The Dalish Warden (The Daughters of Thedas Book 1)

12: Alistair's Revelation

The top of Redcliffe Castle appeared over the trees. Alistair stopped and turned to me. "Look, can we talk for a moment?" he asked. He seemed a bit anxious. "I need to tell you something I, ah, should probably have told you earlier."

"I'm not going to like this, am I?"

He gave a nervous laugh. "I don't know." He rubbed the back of his neck and looked down. "I doubt it. I've never liked it, that's for sure." He looked back up at me. "Let's see, how do I tell you this? We're almost at Redcliffe. Did I say how I know Arl Eamon, exactly?" We'd had a conversation about the Arl at some point on the road. I'd wanted to know about the man that Alistair had so highly regarded. Although, he didn't hold him in as high regard as Duncan.

"You said he raised you," I answered.

"I'm a bastard," he said suddenly, deciding to stop beating around the bush. The words rushed out of his mouth. "My mother was a serving girl at Redcliffe Castle and she died when I was born. Arl Eamon took me in and raised me before I was sent to the Chantry." He paused. Was Arl Eamon Alistair's father? "The reason he did that was because...," He started hesitating again. "Well, my father was King Maric."

I just know the surprise showed clearly on my face. And I hoped my jaw hadn't dropped all the way down. Grey Warden Alistair was really Prince Alistair Therin? No wonder he never gave me his surname.

"Which made Cailan my... half-brother, I suppose."

Somehow, I managed to find my voice. Alistair's revelation had thrown me for a loop. A prince!

"So...," I managed to say. "You're not just a bastard but a royal bastard?"

Alistair laughed, seemingly relieved I wasn't yelling at him. I had no right to really. "Yes, I guess it does at that. I should use that line more often. I... would have told you, but it never really meant anything to me. I was inconvenient, a possible threat to Cailan's rule and so they kept me a secret. I've never talked about it to anyone. Everyone who knew either resented for it or coddled me. Even Duncan kept me out of the fighting because of it. I didn't want you to know for as long as possible. I'm sorry."

Was that the reason Cailan had sent Alistair to the tower with me? To keep his brother out of the fighting? Did he have more faith in my skills then I thought he had? Had he even known Alistair was his brother? So many questions and the only ones who may have known the answers were dead.

"But you thought Arl Eamon might out you and I would be angry for not hearing it from you?"

"I guess you could say that..."

Then I thought of something else. Something that could prove to be a problem.

"Does Loghain know?"

"Why wouldn't he? He was King Maric's best friend. I don't know if that means anything, though. I certainly never considered the idea that it might ever be important."

Being the bastard child of a king whose legitimate son had just been slain leaving him the only living child of said king wasn't important? On second thought, had Cailan survived Ostagar there would be no reason for this knowledge to have been important.

"Arl Eamon eventually married a young woman from Orlais, despite all the problems it caused with the king so soon after the war. He loved her a great deal. Anyway, the new Arlessa resented the rumors which pegged me as the Arl's bastard. They weren't true but they existed. The Arl didn't care. But she did. So off I was packed to the nearest monastery at age ten. Just as well. The Arlessa made sure the castle wasn't a home to me by that point. She despised me."

Now that his true identity was out in the open, he thought I needed to hear the whole story. Or he was just letting his words run away with him. He tended to babble sometimes.