The Vampire & Her Witch

”You may not need me in order to seize Airgead Mountain,” Isabell admitted smoothly, refusing to back down in front of this young lord’s ire. When hadn’t she seen men blustering that a woman couldn’t be an engineer, couldn’t study the art of warfare, or couldn’t do any number of things she had already done? If she lost her temper every time some entitled man got his testicles in a twist, she’d never have secured her position as master of her guild.

”But you do need someone to help you keep it,” she said, gesturing for the assembled masters to relax and waving a servant forward. Slowly, as if she was in no particular hurry and felt no pressure from Owain or his knights, she took a large, rolled-up piece of parchment from the servant before spreading it across the table. ”This is a simple design for a mining fortress,” she said, explaining the sketches on the parchment. ”It can be built quickly using materials that are available so long as you bring enough laborers to clear trees and construct the earthworks.”

”I’ve consulted with Master Tiernan’s Iron Mongers about what it would take to construct a foundry for the safe smelting of ore within a fortified mining operation,” she added, pointing to sketches for several structures. ”From what I’ve been told, digging out nests of demons can take years, if not decades. With my help, you can begin extracting the wealth of Airgead Mountain much more quickly.”

”And the price you want for this is a peerage?” Owain said with a snort. ”You’ll hide in safety behind fortress walls drawing your maps and plans and expect to receive the same rewards as the real knights who ride into battle?”

”Not every knight rides to war,” Master Sebastion pointed out as he gestured at Sir Hugo with a crystal goblet. ”Your steward there doesn’t look like he’s battle-hardened but I imagine that many of your plans rely on the battle he’s been fighting with that ledger next to him. Half a captain’s battles are the same, whether it’s laying in the right quantity of supplies for a voyage and accounting for spoilage to ensuring the men get paid before they mutiny, there’s more to it than swinging a sword. A battle at sea can be won or lost in the ship’s ledge before you ever set sail.”

”And I suppose you’re looking for a peerage for yourself as well?” Owain said, trying to restrain himself as he looked at the aging former captain. He was glad to see the man had experience leading others in battle but instead of finding an ally in the other fighting man, it seemed like he’d found an opponent who wanted to use clever words instead of openly crossing swords. Perhaps he’d overestimated the man and he’d already gone from bold warrior to old coward.

”No, I want nothing of the sort,” Sebastian said bluntly. ”I’ll need the contents of that treasure chest of yours if I’m going to charter vessels and pay ship’s crews. I have no interest in lands or titles so far from the sea. It’s the others who you might have a chance to barter with, but for me, coin is king.”

”I’ve prepared a draft agreement,” Isabell said, producing a roll of papers bound with a crimson ribbon. ”Lothian March would need to agree to grant deeds to sufficient acreage to most of the masters present, free of charge. In addition, the fees for title that are to be paid to the Marquis are to be waived.”

”Of course, we would bear the costs of paying the tithe to the crown and the construction of our own manors on the lands we are granted, but in exchange for all this, you gain our support as well as an initial round of funding to prepare for a small scale war against Airgead Mountain,” she finished with a smile as she handed him the documents.

”A small-scale war against Airgead Mountain?” Owain said with a brow raised as he snatched the documents from her. Once he held them, however, he couldn’t bring himself to bother reading them and instead shoved them into Hugo’s hands while he seized on Master Isabell’s last statement. ”This is a Holy War. It won’t end with an assault on Airgead Mountain.”

Hugo’s heart sank as soon as he took a peek inside the ’draft’ agreement. The handwriting was smooth and crisp with none of the inkblots that came from someone who was thinking while writing out a draft. This ’draft’ had likely been revised several times before being handed over to a scribe in order to produce an immaculate copy. Compared to his own preparations, it was frighteningly thorough with page after page outlining terms in exquisite detail.

”Oh, we all understand that,” Master Tiernan said, drawing the attention of everyone in the room as he cracked the knuckles of his thick, meaty hands. ”But understand what you gain from signing this agreement, my Lord. It sounds like you give up a great deal up front, but in the end, don’t several of us become your vassals? At that point, as my friend Sebastian would say, we’ve boarded your ship and set sail together. There’s no getting off in the middle of the ocean.”

”Aren’t you selling out your guilds by claiming titles for yourselves?” Owain said, trying to find a way to turn this nightmare around. ”Will your guilds really sign off on this... deal?”

”I’m sure they will,” Isabell said with a slow smile. ”Please, have Sir Hugo review the details in the agreement. There are provisions that support each of our guilds. For example, while Master Tiernan is willing to relocate and personally work on establishing foundries, the mining and mineral rights wouldn’t be in his name at all, they would rest in the hands of the Iron Mongers. Similarly, there are other terms that each of our guilds would insist on to back a venture of this magnitude.”

”Think about it carefully, my Lord Owain,” she said, sitting back in her chair and retrieving a crystal goblet of crisp white wine. ”Discuss it with your steward. Write back to your father, the Marquis if needed. We have time to do this right. If we cannot conclude our business this summer then we can conclude it in the fall. What you’re holding is a proposal for beginning our conversation, not something that you should take as a conclusion.”

”But consider one thing, my lord,” she said, driving the final nail into the coffin she’d shoved him into. ”If this takes too long, you won’t be able to do more than launch a minor offensive against Airgead Mountain next year. I’m sure that we can arrange the funding and enough trips across the sea to gather manpower for that much as long as we conclude things within a month or two. More than that... well, I suppose it’s really up to you how important it is to wage your war next year.”

Across the table from her, Owain glowered fiercely before turning his glare on the young man who had been painstakingly appraising the contents of the chest. He didn’t look like he was finished, but Owain had completely lost his patience with these money-grubbing merchants who thought that they could exploit him to buy their way into the nobility.

”Well,” he snapped, startling the journeyman jeweler. ”Do you have a value for those treasures? I imagine it’s all calculated at that same quarter of its true worth, isn’t it?”

”It, um, it varies, piece to piece,” Cal said, sweat dripping from his brow as he spoke. ”There are a few pieces of ore that I cannot value without smelting them to extract the precious metal, but I know that my lord included them so masters like Master Tiernan could inspect the raw ore, and...”

”Get on with it,” Owain interrupted. ”How much?”

”Fif-fifteen thousand, four hundred sovereigns,” Cal said nervously. ”It, it truly is a chest of treasures.”

”Fifteen thousand,” Owain said darkly. His own estimates had placed it between twenty-five and thirty. These merchants weren’t even giving him half of what it was worth! ”Rian, retrieve the treasures. We’re done here for the day,” he said, standing up from his chair and turning to leave the room.

”Master Isabell,” Owain said, looking at the older woman with a dark glower. ”I don’t know how you came to be included in these talks when you weren’t ever invited. This sort of thing isn’t how business between men is conducted in Lothian March. It would be a shame if your efforts to insert yourself were to cause losses for the men you’ve placed under your spell,” he said, directing his glare around the room at the other masters.

”In that case, it’s good for me that we aren’t currently in Lothian March,” Isabell said with a cold smile. ”When you’re ready to discuss terms,” she said, meeting the eyes of each of the other masters before returning her steely gaze to Owain. ”We’ll be waiting to meet with you again.”