The Vampire & Her Witch

While Isabell chatted with Heila and Georg, listening to both of her Eldritch hosts as they told stories about their time spent with Ashlynn while savoring both Georg’s simple cooking and his more refined offerings, Ashlynn sat in a pile of cushions in the circular room at the top of her tower, enjoying a simple breakfast of her own as she prepared to face the day.

Heila’s gift of a hangover potion had been like a gift from the heavenly shores, and Ashlynn promised herself that she would thank the diminutive witch properly for it as soon as she had the chance to do so. She also silently apologized to her close friend that she’d been too hungover to ask how Heila’s evening had gone when she brought Ignatious home to properly meet her family.

Even though Ashlynn had only said a few words to Heila’s parents at the betrothal celebration, the impression they left on her that night was good. She was certain that Ignatious had handled himself as a perfect gentleman, and even if he hadn’t, his position as one of Nyrielle’s progeny should have made up for any missteps or lingering fears about his past as an Inquisitor. The night had likely gone very well, but that didn’t mean Ashlynn wasn’t eager to hear the juicy details from her closest friend in the Vale.

Isabell’s arrival, on the other hand, brought several different things to mind that she was eager to hear about, but she firmly made herself wait to press her friend for information. She had received reports from Marcel, and she was aware of many happenings in Lothian March, but the things Marcel could tell her couldn’t match up with what Isabell knew.

After all, Marcel had never been able to come close to Jocelynn. He could only surmise from a distance and deduce from second-hand information. He had never spoken with her, either in Owain’s presence or alone. But Isabell had, and Ashlynn wanted more than anything to ask for news of how her sister was doing.

But just as much as Ashlynn wanted to hear from Isabell, she was afraid of what the other woman might know. After all, Ashlynn was certain that Jocelynn knew who had betrayed her, and if Isabell had gained her sister’s confidence, then Isabell might know as well.

The question had haunted her for months, and for months, Ashlynn had indulged in countless speculations and formed innumerable theories about who might have betrayed her and why. In the end, however, she was left with only two likely candidates... and Isabell’s arrival might very well reveal which of them it had been.

She hoped that she was wrong. She wished, more than anything, that it had been someone who was a stranger to her. Someone her family trusted, perhaps, or even a random person who had glimpsed what they shouldn’t while she was unaware, but Ashlynn knew how unlikely it was for such a person to gain Owain’s trust.

When she took all of the unlikely options away, she was left with the only two people in her family who might have a reason to act against her... and she loved them both more than she could put into words. The thought that one of them had all but sentenced her to death was enough to freeze her heart and tie her stomach in knots so tight that it was impossible to eat.

”Mother Ashlynn,” a deep, feminine voice called as Virve ascended the spiral stairs into the room atop the tower. ”The first pigeons have arrived with reports from the raiding parties. Commander Bassinger asked me to bring them to you,” she said as she took a seat at the low, circular table in the center of the room.

”Would you like to hear them now?” Virve asked as she retrieved a rolled-up piece of parchment from the pouch at her waist. ”Or should we wait until Ollie and Heila can join us?”

”Don’t forget Hauke,” Ashlynn said as she pushed thick porridge around her bowl with a wooden spoon. Virve’s arrival was the perfect excuse to put off thoughts about her family, but the ghosts that haunted her refused to be shoved back into their box as easily as she wanted to, and her appetite would likely remain their captive for the rest of the morning.

”Hauke will be part of the coven once his seed arrives,” Ashlynn said, placing a hand over her chest and feeling the faint pulse of magic from the most recent seed she’d placed there.

It hadn’t been long since she’d presented Virve with the seed from the Ancient Oak, but time was too precious, and Ashlynn had decisively chosen the next seed she would nurture, even though she didn’t yet know if the person she intended to bestow it on would accept it. The time to find that answer wasn’t far off either.

”In general, we should include Hauke any time the coven gathers, and Talauia as well,” Ashlynn said, taking a deep breath and trying to shake off the feeling of being surrounded by deep pits that her mind could fall into and worry endlessly. She had plenty of worries and twice as many unresolved questions and lingering doubts, but right now, she needed to focus on things that were more immediate.

”But they don’t need to be here just to hear reports,” she said as she managed to force her stomach to unknot itself enough to take a few sips of tea, even if it was no longer warm. ”What’s the news from our first raids?”

”The Mongrel Horde were the most successful,” Virve said after giving Ashlynn a long, searching gaze. Clearly, her lady wasn’t feeling well, but unless Ashlynn wanted to open up and share, Virve wasn’t about to press. Sometimes, what a person needed most when they had troubles was a job to do, and if Ashlynn wanted to focus on the war instead of her other problems, Virve wasn’t about to say that she shouldn’t.

”There weren’t any casualties among the horde, not even serious injuries,” Virve continued as she unrolled the piece of parchment. ”They met with scattered resistance in the Dunn Hamlets. They killed three of the Dunn’s captains, one each in Kitcher’s Fell, Sooner’s Reach, and Horse Thief Lake. Otherwise, they only killed a few watchmen, shepherds, or ranchers. All of them report that they left living witnesses who saw them clearly enough to describe them.”

That last bit was one of the most important parts of Ashlynn’s plan to provoke Marquis Bors or Owain into rallying the eastern barons to join the brewing conflict. It wasn’t enough to execute successful raids. They needed to give Baron Dunn something to truly be afraid of, and the twisted figures of the Mongrel Horde would be the stuff of nightmares to demon-fearing commoners.

”How about their main mission?” Ashlynn asked as she stood to prepare a fresh pot of tea. ”Were they able to return with livestock?”

”Much more than you might think,” Virve said as she checked over the notes from the messenger birds. The messages the birds carried were very short, but Commander Bassinger had fleshed out many of the details before sending the report over to Ashlynn.

”Evidently, Commander Tausau’s Mongrels have practiced a form of sorcery that makes beasts passive and docile,” Virve explained. ”They used to use it so they could sneak past watch animals and herds to prey on farmers and common folk since High Lord Hamdi forced them to ’hunt’ the people they fed from. But the sorcery they used worked well for keeping herds and flocks quiet and compliant while they led them away from farms.”

”The numbers are all here,” Virve said, tapping the roll of parchment with a claw. ”But they took more than a hundred head of cattle, more than twice that of sheep, and a surprising number of egg-laying hens that they stuffed into sacks to carry away.”

”That’s good to hear,” Ashlynn said, pouring a cup of fresh tea for herself and another one for Virve before she sat back down and asked the question that had been gnawing at her since Virve started her report by focusing on the Mongrel Horde. ”You said the Horde did well. How about the raiders attacking the market-day caravans in Hanrahan Barony? The gladiators and the woodsmen?”

”They suffered losses,” Virve said bluntly, not bothering to sugar coat the news at all. ”But they also achieved a unique success, or at least, they’ve come very close to achieving it,” she added. ”There’s something that one of the captains has asked for Lady Heila’s help with...”