The Vampire & Her Witch

”Hauke is cursed,” the dark-feathered sorcerer said, addressing not only Odette but all of the gathered people in the Great Hall, speaking as though he was giving a lecture to a gathering of researchers and scholars. ”He was cursed sometime during the battle, perhaps from the very beginning of the battle.”

”He is trapped within his own mind,” Aspakos continued, raising his voice to speak louder over the sudden whispers and exclamations from the crowd. ”He can see and he can hear, but he cannot control his own body and until this moment, he could not speak. He has been this way ever since Lady Ashlynn used her Severing Knife to free him from the control of the Ancestors.”

”She did this to him?” an outraged voice from the crowd of Frost Walkers shouted. It should have come as no surprise that it came from Darfrir, the young man who had spoken out initially against Talauia before his right to avenge his father’s death was denied to him. Now, it seemed as though he’d turned his ire on the next witch to give him an excuse to vent his bottled-up grief as he once again attempted to gather the support of the crowd to denounce Ashlynn for what she’d done to their young lord. ”She crippled him like this!”

”This is the outcome, young man,” Aspakos said, glaring at the youth with dark eyes that radiated a hint of barely suppressed bloodlust. ”Do not misunderstand and do not interrupt again. You do not wish to anger me and you should wish to anger Her Eternity even less,” he said, giving the young man a not-so-subtle reminder of the person he would ultimately offend if he tried to decry Ashlynn over this affair.

Instantly, the few young men who had begun to move forward to support Darfrir took several steps back, putting distance and as many other people as they could between themselves and the young troublemaker. It was one thing to join in as the hands pushing a spear forward, but none of them wanted to be cut down when the Harbinger of Death decided that the spear should fall into the abyss, never to be seen or heard from again!

”Please understand,” Ashlynn said quickly, before the young man could build momentum among the crowd again. Aspakos thinly veiled threat had intimidated a few among the youths, but what one person said, ten other men thought and Ashlynn wanted to dispel any lingering feelings among those who hadn’t spoken before they could cause problems.

”The alternative was either killing him, or allowing the ancestors to continue using him as their puppet,” she said, omitting the other outcomes where continued attempts to spare him resulted in her own death or worse. ”Severing the ancestors was the best I could do in the time that I had.”

”A warrior understands that decisions made in the heat of battle may not be judged by the same standards as those made while planning for war,” Commander Jannik said, adding his voice to support Ashlynn and glaring at the youths who seemed eager to stir up trouble.

”But I want to be clear about what has just been said,” the dark-furred commander said, looking between Ashlynn and the sorcerers. ”You’re saying that the ancestors whose horns Hauke wore are the ones who placed this curse on him? That he was unable to control his own body for the entirety of the battle?”

”Yes, that’s what we’re saying,” Ashlynn said firmly. ”When I fought him, he didn’t feel like the ’Hauke’ I knew at all, even allowing for anything he had learned while studying with the ancestors. He felt like a puppet on strings, and at times, a poorly controlled puppet. He did break free for a moment,” she added as she thought back on the battle. ”That moment likely saved my life, but after that moment, there was nothing else from him, even when things were at their most desperate.”

”Now, Master Erkembalt,” Ashlynn said, shaking off her memories of the way Hauke had been abused by his own ancestors and focusing on how to help him as she turned to face the artificer. ”Can you replicate what Hauke has done in order to free him?”

”Not likely,” the artificer said bluntly. ”You don’t want me to try either. What Hauke did, it might have cracked his chains a bit, but it also cracked his horn. Look here,” he said, pointing at the tip of Hauke’s iridescent horn with one claw.

”You can’t see them with the bare eye, but if you want to borrow a jeweler’s loop, the cracks are visible, plain as day,” he explained. ”Hot and cold, hot and cold, it cracks anything that’s hard, horns included. If I did enough of that to break his chains, I might as well take off his horn with a saw,” he said, giving Aspakos a pointed look as if to say ’if we were going to end up here anyway, you should have let me do it in the first place.’

”But his mind is intact, and a way can be found to free him from this curse,” Nyrielle said from the throne, inwardly relieved that the worst outcomes had already been avoided. But now, Hauke’s presence presented a host of problems, not the least of which was that he would harm himself further if he felt compelled to speak out when she delivered her judgment.

”Since we know those things, there is no more reason for him to suffer here. He must have suffered greatly to speak those few words,” Nyrielle said formally. ”So I will consider them carefully when I deliver my judgment.”

”For now, Master Erkembalt, please take him away. I trust that you can concoct something to soothe him to sleep?”

”Easy enough, Your Eternity,” the artificer said with a brief, awkward bow. ”I might even have something here,” he said, fishing in an overstuffed vest pocket before moving to a different pocket in his coat and then a pouch at his waist...

”Take him away, Master Erkembalt,” Nyrielle said, suppressing a sigh at the artificer’s antics. ”Let him rest without chains, though his door must be barred. Lady Odette can visit him after we’ve finished here. If she wishes, he may rest alongside his father.”

”Please,” Odette said, clutching at Hauke’s limp hand before forcing herself to let go. ”And, thank you, your Eternity. For being so kind.”

”Don’t thank me yet, Castle Mistress,” Nyrielle said, gesturing for Ashlynn to rejoin her on the dais overlooking the crowd. ”After everything we’ve heard tonight, I’m ready to give my judgment so the dead may rest and so we may decide the fate of the High Pass.”