The Vampire & Her Witch

”Do you still think that Marquis Bors has a chance of winning this war against Lady Ashlynn?”

Hugo’s question hung in the air like a headsman’s axe, ready to fall on Liam Dunn and the young lord struggled to find an honest way to answer it as doubts wracked his mind.

”I know the Eldritch are powerful,” Liam admitted as he looked at the glowing Runic Blade that a single Eldritch sorcerer could use to bend the weather to his will, covering leagues of Hanrahan Barony in a blizzard fiercer than any they’d seen in a dozen years or more. ”But we have powerful warriors of our own, and men who can command the power of the Holy Lord of Light to turn the tide of battles.”

”Remember,” Liam said, holding up a finger to count off the points of the argument that was starting to form in his mind. ”Sir Tommin is in Hanrahan Town and he wields a Holy Light Blade. The men who fought by his side this past summer said that he could cleave through three dem-er, three Eldritch soldiers at once, even when they were hiding behind trees, and he did it from ten paces away.”

Of course, Templars like Tommin who were devout enough to wield a Holy Light Blade were rare, but the same could be said about sorcerers like the Frost Walker lord, Hauke. From everything that Liam had been able to learn in his days with the army, Hauke wasn’t just exceptional for being able to wield the Runic Blade of Eternal Ice. He was a unique Frost Walker with a special iridescent horn that gave him greater power than any of his clansmen.

There was no doubt that Hauke was one of the most powerful champions the Eldritch could send to the battlefield, but humans had champions of their own to counter men like Hauke.

”I haven’t seen Inquisitor Diarmuid fight personally, but I’ve fought beside plenty of Inquisitors in the past, and since he’s come from the Holy City, I expect that Diarmuid’s Holy Flames burn even hotter than Inquisitor Percivus’s,” Liam added.

”What about Lord Loman?” Hugo asked without commenting on the others. ”He accompanied you this summer when you fought against the Eldritch villages, didn’t he? How does he compare to Lady Heila?”

”To Lady Heila?” Liam asked, blinking in surprise at the comparison before he remembered the conversations he’d had with Sir Carwyn Belvin about the way she healed his wounds and the wounds of his men.

When he’d seen the diminutive witch in her armored leather coat, wearing the strange hat that had been crafted from the same sort of armored leather and adorned with half a dozen strange ornaments tucked into the hat band, he’d had a hard time seeing her as anything other than a terrifying witch who would reap the lives of dozens of soldiers with the powers at her command and the whip at her hip.

The prickly aura she radiated only made the impression worse and he felt like he would suffer dozens of cuts all over his body just for coming within a dozen paces of her. To compare her to the calm, kind and utterly devoted Loman Lothian felt almost sacrilegious. But when he considered that she was also the most powerful healer traveling with the Eldritch army, the comparison became much more apt.

”Loman Lothian is the greatest healer I’ve ever seen among the priests of the Church,” Liam said definitively. ”I don’t say that lightly, or ignorantly” he added when Hugo gave him a doubtful look. ”I’m not saying he’s the greatest healer in the Church,” he clarified. ”But I’ve met dozens of Temple Masters, Head Priests, even High Priests in Lothian City, Keating City and elsewhere in Keating Duchy when I was away for school.”

”You studied in Keating, didn’t you Hugo?” Liam asked. ”You’ve probably seen a few of the Church’s great healers yourself.”

”I did study in Keating,” Hugo replied, ducking his head awkwardly in embarrassment. ”But I was the bastard son that my father wanted to hide away in a school that mostly trained merchants to manage ledgers and stewards to oversee estates. It’s not the same as attending the Duke’s Academy in Keating City,” he said pointedly.

”Well, still,” Liam said, stumbling over his words slightly when he realized his mistake, and trying to plaster over it by returning to his actual point. ”I’ve seen plenty of the Church’s healers, but Loman is better than any of the ones I’ve met. He heals things alone that the Church would summon a dozen acolytes to help with, and he barely leaves a scar behind on the men he treats.”

”That only means he’s skilled among his peers,” Hugo countered. ”I haven’t heard you say that he could heal something that Lady Heila couldn’t, but look at her now and remember that she defeated Captain Ipiktok over there with nine more giants at his side, all by herself. Do you think Loman Lothian could do the same?”

”No,” Liam admitted with a heavy sigh. ”As healers, he might be her equal, I can’t say. But as a warrior... I never saw Loman come to the battlefield as anything other than a healer. I know there are priests who can call down spears of holy light to smite their enemies, and Loman might well be one of them, but if he’s capable of those divine miracles, I never saw him create one.”

”What about my cousin, Sybyll?” Hugo asked as he pressed his point. ”You met her last night. Do you really think that Sir Tommin Pyre is her match, Holy Light Blade or not?”

”Don’t, don’t mention your cousin,” Liam said as his cheeks heated in embarrassment. When Liam first laid eyes on the crimson-haired vampire, he hadn’t even recognized her as anything other than human, and for the first time since his darling Illa went missing, he felt a pang of yearning for the most beautiful woman he’d ever encountered.

It wasn’t until he’d made an utter fool of himself, stumbling over his words while he gave a full courtly bow of introduction, that Hugo had introduced her as the dreaded Crimson Knight, slayer of hundreds of men, defender of Airgead Mountain, vampire progeny of the Demon Lady of the Vale of Mists... and Hugo’s own cousin.

”I still can’t believe the two of you are related,” Liam said stiffly. ”She must get her looks from her mother, because you certainly didn’t inherit a fraction of her charm.”

”I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that,” Hugo snorted as he realized the effect his cousin was having on the young lord. ”You know she’s twice your age, though, right? She’s only a few years younger than my father.”

”That... that’s hard to believe,” Liam said as he recalled her smooth, flawless skin and the youthful, almost flirtatious tone in her voice when she spoke. ”But if you want to know how she measures up to Sir Tommin,” he said as he fought to drag the conversation back to safer territory.

”She’s a creature of the night, isn’t she?” Liam Dunn finally said with a heavy sigh. ”No matter how strong she is, Sir Tommin carries a blade that shines with the Holy light of the sun. Against that kind of power, is there anything she can really do?”

As he spoke the words, Liam struggled to understand the web of feelings they conjured in his heart. Part of him felt like he was preparing to watch a tragedy unfold as he finally met a woman who made him forget about his long-lost Illa, only to watch her die in battle against one of the Church’s holiest warriors.

Another part of him hoped that she would triumph over Sir Tommin, giving him hope for a future they could build together if he could convince his father to accept Lady Ashlynn’s offer to join her new kingdom. But for that to happen, he would have to completely turn his back on the world he knew and forsake the Kingdom of Gaal and all that it stood for.

He didn’t know how he should feel about any of it... The Eldritch, the war, the battle ahead or the captivating, crimson-haired creature who he might willingly offer his neck to if only she would ask...

All he knew was that in a few hours time, men were sure to die and he would have to find his answers in the ruins left behind after the battle.