All Roads Lead To You (A Skyrim Romance Mod fanfic)

Chapter Twelve

Karnwyr, who had opted not to follow Bishop into the Keep, appeared silently at Bishop's heels as he and Aruna made their way towards the market. Aruna looked down at the wolf and smiled a little.

"How did you come to tame a wolf?" she asked Bishop.

Bishop rolled his eyes, "he's not 'tamed', ladyship. Karnwyr is not a pet."

"I meant no disrespect," she said, without a trace of irony, "I suppose what I meant to say was, why does he stay at your side like he does and not behave like the wolves of the forest? Has he been with you a long time?"

He eyed her, "yes, he's been with me a long time. Since he was a cub. He trusts me, and I trust him, and he's smart enough to know not to go around getting himself killed by attacking villagers or eating their chickens." Bishop looked down at the wolf and reached out to scratch Karnwyr's head, "no one means more to me in the world than this wolf."

He looked up to see Aruna gazing at Karnwyr with a distant look in her eyes. Bishop thought she seemed a little sad.

"I envy you," she said, finally meeting Bishop's gaze, "to have a friend that you can count on so completely...it's a rare thing."

"Come now, ladyship," Bishop said lightly, feeling a little uncomfortable, "don't tell me the legendary Dragonborn doesn't have any friends."

"Of course she does. Who doesn't want to be friends with the Dragonborn?" Aruna smiled at him, "besides Ondolemar, the rest of the Thalmor, Daedra, the Forsworn, dragons—"

"Point taken," Bishop said.

They spent the rest of the day wandering around Markarth, buying supplies and exploring. Bishop realized he hadn't actually ever investigated Markarth much; it had always been a place to stop for supplies or ale while hunting in the Reach, and the last time he was there he'd been a little too drunk to properly appreciate it. Now that he was sober and could explore it more thoroughly, he decided it was, in fact, every bit as much of a dump as Riften. Aruna acted as a sort of sardonic tour guide, pointing out the place where she'd fought off a Forsworn who attacked a woman right in front of her, then pointing out the Talos shrine where she'd found the body of the man she'd been helping to uncover a plot involving Forsworn and where she'd subsequently been arrested, then she pointed out where the prison was in which she'd been held, had killed the head of the Forsworn insurrection and barely escaped with her life.

Bishop gaped at her in disbelief, "and all of this happened only weeks ago?"

"Yeah," she said, stretching sleepily, "it's been a busy month."

He laughed incredulously, "you don't say. And the guards just let you walk?"

"Well," she said with a sly smirk, "not exactly...your buddy Thonar Silver-Blood found out what I did and convinced the guards that I was a friend to Markarth. He even gave me his family ring...or, at least that's what he said it was. It fetched a good price in Riften, in any case."

"Wait a minute," Bishop said, "you're friendly with the Silver-Bloods?"

"No," she said, a sour look crossing her face, "that bastard Thonar was the one who had me arrested in the first place, and his idea of making it up to me was not having me killed and giving me a trinket. Believe me, I have no love for the Silver-Bloods. But I suppose they're better than the alternative...that's what I tell myself, anyway."

"Why in Oblivion did you involve yourself in that mess in the first place?" Bishop asked.

"Because I'm a suicidal fool, remember?" Aruna said with a wry smile. Then her smile faded and she frowned, "I don't like it here, to be honest. I had to do things that I still feel a great deal of guilt over, and I don't think there were any good choices to be made at the time. I wish I'd never even heard of Markarth."

"You and me both," muttered Bishop. He looked up at the sky to gauge the time of day, "what do you say we make camp outside the city tonight? A bedroll on the ground is probably more comfortable than those stone beds at the Inn."

She looked thoughtful, "that's not a bad idea. I don't have any more business here, and the sooner we leave this place, the better."

Night fell on the mountainous Reach and a bitterly cold wind came with it. Bishop, Aruna, and Karnwyr found shelter from the wind in a rocky alcove at the base of a mountain a few miles down the road from Markarth. Aruna and Bishop took turns tending the fire and keeping it alive as they ate a meal of dried meats and bread. Bishop had intended to share his meal with Karnwyr and was surprised when Aruna pulled out a small parcel wrapped in oilcloth, which turned out to be a couple of grilled pheasant breasts that she offered to the wolf. Karnwyr took them from her gently, then slunk behind Bishop to eat. Aruna noticed Bishop watching her and shrugged.

"I bought too much earlier," she said, "it would spoil if someone didn't eat it. Sorry I didn't offer it to you, first."

He shook his head, "and I thought I spoiled him. So I take it you like animals, ladyship?"

"Sure," she said, "I spent a lot of time around animals as a child. My father had a farm back in Cyrodiil and when I wasn't doing chores, I roamed the forests nearby, watching for deer and foxes and rabbits. Wolves were a rarity since my father hired men to patrol for them," she poked at the flames with a stick, "once, while I was wandering around, I stepped around a tree and there was this wolf, standing right in front of me. She was very thin, like she hadn't had a good meal in weeks. She tried to growl at me, but she was too weak to fight or run and she knew it. I went back to the house and stole a couple of chickens my father had just slaughtered for our dinner. I took them back to the she-wolf. She didn't hesitate for long before she started to eat. She was so hungry. I kept my distance so I wouldn't scare her off, but I remember that she kept looking up at me...like she was trying to understand what my motives were."

She fell silent as she gazed into the fire.

"What happened to her?" Bishop asked.

"One of the farmhands saw me taking the chickens into the woods and told my father," Aruna said, "so my father sent one of his wolf hunters to see what I was doing. I didn't even hear him. One minute, I'm watching the wolf finish off the chickens, the next minute, there's an arrow in her chest and there's blood everywhere," she frowned, "she didn't die right away. My father's hired man had to pick me up and carry me back to the house because I wouldn't leave her. To this day, I remember how her cries of pain seemed to echo off the trees. She died alone and she suffered the entire time. He didn't even have the decency to put her out of her misery."

They watched the fire in silence for a long time, the only sound from the crackling flames and the wind howling through the mountains.

"Do you still speak to your father?" Bishop finally asked.

"No," Aruna said tersely, "I...haven't seen my family in a long time," she finally looked up from the flames, "do you have any family, Bishop?"

"Not anymore," he said, his voice flat.

The conversation stalled then, and neither of them got much sleep that night as the wind howled around them, prying echoes of long-dead voices from their respective buried memories.