The Vampire & Her Witch

”My Lords,” Jocelynn said, drawing herself up to her full height and walking out from behind the table she shared with the Lothian brothers to stand at the center of the U-shaped arrangement of tables.

In the flickering light of the chandeliers above and the warm glow of the hearths that ringed the great hall, her skin looked radiant and her soft blond hair shone like spun gold. She’d dressed conservatively for the evening, wearing a dress of pale, seafoam blue that looked faded and aged, as if it had been washed in the waters of the sea and left out to dry.

Combined with subtle silver jewelry, bereft of jewels or pearls, it gave her a more mature presence than her seventeen years and she combined that with every other bit of grace and poise her teachers had instilled in her when she stood before the assembled Lothian court.

”I’m new to Lothian March, and I’ve only just begun to help my brother-in-law with the records, storehouses, and treasuries,” she began. ”I have to thank Head Steward Crozier as well, for his excellent notes and for answering my many questions. Marquis Bors is fortunate to have such a skilled and reliable Steward to oversee the many affairs of the March.”

”We understand your experience is limited and that you’ve had little time,” Baron Otker said from the side, shaking his head at how many words the woman wasted heaping praise on a servant who wasn’t even present for the meeting. But what should he expect from a silly girl who didn’t belong at a formal court anyway?

”Just tell us your estimate for how the losses will impact the march and then we can do as his Grace asked and decide what to do about it,” the portly baron said, gesturing for the young lady to hurry things along.

”Certainly, my Lord,” Jocelynn said, refusing to let Baron Otker’s needling bother her. After months of soaking up Owain’s endless rain of faint, subtle remarks that she was oblivious to one ’important’ thing or another, or that she would understand better ’in a few year’s time’, she’d slowly built up a tolerance for the casual disregard the men of the frontier seemed to have for a woman’s intellect.

It had taken a potent lesson from Isabell for Jocelynn to realize how subtle some of it had been, and that it had begun to make her doubt herself in places where she shouldn’t have. But now that the Master Engineer had helped her to see more clearly than she had since before she first laid eyes on Owain, she wasn’t about to let a small-minded man like Baron Otker disrupt her plans.

”To start from the conclusion, there’s no reason for the march to suffer a setback at all,” Jocelynn said confidently. ”The losses are devastating to the individual hamlet, severe to the individual village, serious to each of the baronies, and negligible to the march as a whole.”

”As such,” she said, turning to face Bors Lothian and bowing her head respectfully before raising her eyes to meet his gaze. ”If your Grace wished to suspend collection of a tithe from Hanrahan Barony until next summer on account of Sir Hugo’s brave service against the flat tailed demons last summer and his continued dedication to Lothian March during Lord Owain’s trip to Blackwell County and ever since his return, then the treasury and the storehouses of Lothian City can absorb the loss.”

”Likewise,” Jocelynn said, turning to nod at Liam Dunn. ”The Dunns have already suffered losses in their campaign against the demon villages during the summer, and were it not for the kind, compassionate assistance of Lord Loman Lothian in healing the wounded, the losses would have doubtlessly been tragic.”

”Yet they suffered them without complaint,” Jocelynn praised. ”And expanded the borders of Lothian March yet again, something no other barony has accomplished in several years,” she said with a pointed look at Baron Otker.

”Is it your position then that the Dunns should be exempt from tithes until next summer as well?” Baron Otker said with deeply furrowed brows. ”I can accept giving way for the Hanrahans, they have always been abiding and understanding vassals to his Grace,” he said quickly. ”They have respected the laws of the Kingdom and the March in letter and in spirit.”

”But,” the portly baron said sharply. ”The Dunns have suffered such great losses by flaunting the rules of king and crown. For years, this court has protested their constant expansion and the construction of these fortified hamlets, pocket garrisons, and miniature villages. There is a reason that our people must be protected by a knight and his soldiers, and the Dunns have suffered for their hubris in believing that they do not need a knight to protect their people.”

”Ridiculous!” Liam shouted, surging to his feet. ”The law limits us just as it limits you. We have raised no more knights than we’re allowed, but we have pushed the demons back further and further each year and we have raised up soldiers to protect our people and our herds. At no time in my entire life have we been attacked by these strange ’Twisted Ones’, nor ever before in the history of Lothian March.”

”To blame us now for suffering from an unprecedented danger is no different than saying that Sir Carwyn deserved his defeat at the hands of these armored serpent demons,” he fumed, pointing angrily at the sketch of the demon who had defeated Sir Carwyn in single combat.

”Sir Carwyn did indeed suffer an unprecedented danger,” Baron Leufroy said carefully. ”But young lord Liam, your circumstances and his are vastly different. By your own admission, your family attacks the demons year after year, constantly provoking retribution for your actions. Bold action is worthy of praise when it succeeds, but when your family takes such bold risks, you must be prepared to suffer the consequences if you have gambled and lost.”

”My lords,” Owain said, tapping firmly on the table to gather everyone’s attention. ”I told you all that Lady Jocelynn would present not just the facts and figures but my plan for resolving the shortfall. Did you all think that I meant that the treasury could bear these losses simply as charity and thanks for the contributions of Sir Hugo and Young Lord Liam?”

”Lady Jocelynn,” Owain said, turning to face the radiant young woman with a charming smile. ”Please explain to them what I’ve told you should be done about the Dunn family’s hamlets, along with the other measures that we should take in order to address the shortage of supplies that we’ll face with less of the Dunn family’s wool to clothe our soldiers and less of their beef to feed our army.”

”Of course, my Lord,” Jocelynn said sweetly. ”My lords, it’s no secret that several Guild Masters from Blackwell County are planning to buy into the peerage as knights in preparation for the coming war. They have been touring in the western lands for some time now and they’re visiting those lands even now.”

”Have you heard from them since the demon attacks?” Sir Tommin said, breaking his silence for the first time since the meeting began. ”I’ve heard that they were surveying the lands near the mouth of the Vale of Mists. There are... unique dangers there,” he said, shooting a brief look at Inquisitor Diarmuid as he spoke. ”Are you certain that they’re still safe after the attacks?”

”We’ve received no word,” Owain lied before Jocelynn had a chance to respond. In truth, he’d sent several of his best hunters and trackers after them as soon as he received word of the attacks but the only report he’d received back so far had been more confusing than illuminating.

The men had found a recent pyre where a single body had been burned. Evidently, the coals of the pyre had still been smoldering when the storm came, and the bones of the soldier who had died hadn’t been completely burned away, but the storm had washed away any tracks in the area to say where the merchants had gone after whatever battle they fought ended.

Clearly, they’d been victorious or there wouldn’t have been a chance to build a pyre for their fallen, but where they might have fled to in order to find safety from whatever attacked them was still a mystery to him.

At the moment, the only solace he had was that the body belonged to a man much smaller than Sir Hugo, Sir Rain or the Iron Monger Tiernan. And it was clearly a man’s body which meant it couldn’t have been Master Isabell either, though Owain’s feelings were more mixed about the fate of the sharp-tongued shrew he’d been forced to deal with for the past half year.

”But even if we’ve received no word, I’m certain the demons wouldn’t have bothered with them,” Owain added confidently. ”After all, the demons seem to have been driven more by hunger than anything else. They’ve stolen sheep, cattle, vegetables, and grain. Our guests from Blackwell County weren’t transporting food or riches, and they were guarded by two knights and a dozen men. They should be more than safe enough, even at the edges of the Vale.”

”Didn’t I already say that I’d had enough of speculation?” Bors interrupted from the throne. ”Young Lady Jocelynn, if you and my son have prepared a plan, then I would hear it plainly. The night is growing long already, and I would have my orders executed at first light.”

”So speak, young lady,” the Marquis said with a penetrating look. ”Tell us how you intend to solve this problem for the March.”