The Vampire & Her Witch

”Speaking of putting men to use,” Owain said, turning back to Sir Rian and moving on to a topic that was objectively more important, even if he would prefer to hear more details about how the traitor’s family was suffering under the effects of the Spider Demon venom. ”How are those ship captains we brought back from Blackwell City? Have you managed to break their pride yet and show them the error of their ways?”

”Those men have spines like the masts of their ships,” Rian said, shaking his head slightly. ”They won’t break, but I’ve taken the wind out of their sails and run them thoroughly aground. I’d say they’re almost ready, and the armorers have finished outfitting them as well.”

Jocelynn’s idea to recruit seasoned commanders from the merchant fleet of Blackwell Harbor had seemed viable on the surface, and Owain was desperate enough to gain the support of potential knights who could actually fight that he’d been willing to entertain Jocelynn’s suggestion. While he was in Blackwell City, he’d entertained dozens of applications from interested captains and he’d personally dueled with several of them, selecting only the five best swordsmen to accompany them back to Lothian March.

The problems had started as soon as he tried to prepare them to fight as knights against the demon hordes they would soon go to war against.

All of the men were talented swordsmen, all of them were strong, fit, and capable, and every one of them had killed pirates and worse in the course of their storied careers. But none of them had ever fought in more than the lightest of armor. On the open sea, heavy armor could become a coffin, dragging a man to a watery grave if he was knocked overboard during a fierce battle, and these men avoided burdening themselves with as much fervor as they avoided reefs and shoals under the water’s surface.

In Lothian March, however, Owain had no need for men who could fight aboard ships. He needed knights who could ride into battle wearing armor thick enough to resist the claws and horns of demons, and these men moved with the grace of a farmer’s scarecrow when they donned a suit of plate over chain and their padded gambesons. They’d been so hopelessly incapable of fighting that Owain had handed them over to Sir Rian to break down until they were ready to be rebuilt in the form of proper knights.

”We’re running out of time to prepare them,” Owain said, scratching at the faint stubble that had sprouted on his chin since the night before. Already, some of the Eastern Barons were beginning to arrive in Lothian City at his father’s invitation. The fact that his father brought Loman along to receive them only made matters worse in Owain’s eyes.

Of course, it could have been excused as simple convenience. Two of those Barons had arrived to visit while Owain was still touring with Jocelynn and the Guild Masters in the countryside. But the most recent had arrived just last night, and still, Bors chose Loman to accompany him, telling Owain that he should focus on his own matters rather than becoming distracted by visits from vassals his father considered to be ’old friends’.

”Turn the captains over to me,” Owain said after musing for a few minutes. ”From now on, I intend to train them personally for two hours every morning, here in this courtyard,” he announced.

With his father pulling in the older Barons, Owain felt an ever-growing pressure to demonstrate his dominance among the younger generation that would be the true leaders in the Holy War to come. By Midwinter’s night, when the young knights of the march gathered in Lothian City to stand their ceremonial vigils, Owain wanted his batch of new recruits to stand equal to or greater than any of the old Baron’s heirs in attendance.

Besides, if he made a show of training the men that Jocelynn had asked him to recruit, he was certain that she’d repay every hour he lavished on them with more of her own sweet indulgences. Lately, it had been all he could do to hold himself back from ravishing her when she sat in his lap during their meals or massaged his aching muscles after a strenuous workout, but the anticipation that their encounters built within him would only enhance the sense of victory when he finally conquered her body.

”Only two hours, my lord?” Sir Rian asked, pulling Owain out of his musings and returning his attention to the present. ”I’ve been drilling them at least six hours a day. They won’t wear out in just two hours, even if they have to wear full armor to train.”

”Two hours of my personal instruction is already a luxury few others can receive,” Owain said, waving an armored hand dismissively as if he couldn’t be bothered to spend more time with these former captains. ”Besides, they have other work to do. They might be failures as heavy cavalry, at least at the moment, but they are all disciplined and capable commanders. It’s time to assemble troops to fight under their command.”

”My lord,” Hugo said, scratching his head in confusion. ”The garrisons are already assigned to captains who have served your father for many years. Where, where would you like me to find the men to assign to these new captains?”

”The harvest is over,” Owain said simply. ”Press one hundred able-bodied men between the ages of sixteen and twenty-five from the surrounding farms. Their strong backs aren’t needed for harvest, and with the rest of autumn and all of winter to train, they can be proper soldiers by spring.”

”The local knights won’t like you pressing their bondsmen,” Sir Rian pointed out. ”Especially not when they have to raise their own soldiers for the Holy War. They’ll protest to your father if you don’t send the men back to their farms for the spring planting.”

”It doesn’t matter,” Owain said confidently. ”It’s just one hundred men. But, if it will ease the burden on some of my father’s most loyal knights, then take a third of the men you press into service from the lands overseen by the Pyre family,” he said, as though he’d just come up with something particularly clever.

”After all,” Owain added. ”It’s not like Tommin’s brat will live long enough to inherit his father’s lands... There won’t be anyone left in charge of his village come spring to complain about the unfairness of it all.”

Finally, he thought as he watched his loyal retainers leaving to carry out his orders. Finally, things were starting to fall into place as he designed. Soon, the Black Merchant’s assassin would strike at the Lothian family itself, and Owain would be able to set aside worries of his brother snatching his throne from him forever.

Then, all he needed to do was tidy up matters at the Summer Villa with the imposter masquerading as Ashlyn,n and he would be able to move openly on her far more compliant younger sister.

The road to get her hadn’t been easy, but soon... soon, he would have everything he desired in the palm of his hand, and then nothing would stop his rise.