The Vampire & Her Witch

”If even Lady Ashlynn was taken alive, then we should continue the search,” Mairwen said firmly. ”We should venture into the wilderness and investigate this village. If there’s even a chance that Liam is being held there...”

”I know we should,” Loghlan said, wrapping his arms tightly around his wife and pulling her close enough that he could rest his chin on the crown of her head. ”I know we should, my love, but we’re almost out of time.”

The summons to Lord Owain’s ’grand ceremony’ had found them a few days ago, and the language of the summons was very clear. If the summons had opened with ’Your presence is requested,’ then Loghlan might have found a way to refuse the ’request’ so that he could tend to matters involving his missing son. Even if it had contained the more strongly worded ’Your presence is expected,’ it could have been evaded, though the consequences of doing so might have been more extreme.

For the funeral of a Marquis, the latter was the most strongly worded summons that Loghlan would have expected. A funeral was important, as was a coronation, but they were both ceremonial duties, much like the memorial for the missing Lady Ashlynn Blackwell... Yet there had been no invitation for Mairwen to attend Lady Ashlynn’s memorial, not even a gently worded ’your presence would be welcome’ that could be easily ignored and carried little expectation that she’d actually show up.

But when Owain summoned his vassals, he issued a strongly worded summons that began with ’Your presence is required,’ giving his vassals no room to evade the summons. Moreover, he was required to bring as many of his knights as possible, though at least Lord Owain had been willing to acknowledge that the demon raids on Dunn created an immediate threat to the barony, which would excuse the attendance of half of his knights.

The message underneath the summons was clear enough that it didn’t need to be written. There would be a funeral, a wedding, a coronation... and a war council. If it had just been the first three, Loghlan might have pushed his luck with the new Marquis, but when it came to the last item, he really couldn’t be absent, especially when demons threatened his domain so directly.

”We’re already pushing things,” Loghlan said gently but firmly. He took a deep breath, inhaling Mairwen’s faintly floral scent like it was a tonic to soothe his frazzled nerves and forced himself to admit the truth he’d been running from ever since the summons arrived.

”We’ve been on the road for a week, moving slowly, and searching as we go,” he said. ”We have an idea of where Liam may be, but no proof of it. If we knew he was there, I’d order the men to move at first light, and we’d attack the village with every man under our banner, no matter the danger. But... is that really the right thing to do?”

If he charged forward in haste, he could be delivering his knights and soldiers into the jaws of a demon trap, and he had no way to know it. He prayed to the Holy Lord of Light that Liam was alive and well, and that he could hang on for just a little bit longer, but there were more lives than just his son’s that depended on the choices he made, and he couldn’t be foolish.

Loghlan moved to the tent’s entrance, pulling back the flap to look out at the camp beyond. Their household guard was settled in around smaller fires, their horses picketed nearby. The men were ready to move at a moments notice, but the scouting force that he’d assembled in order to search for Liam had swelled considerably when he was joined by three more of his knights, bringing the total to five, along with their wives, children, retainers, and all of the supplies needed to make a journey of several days from Dunn Barony to Lothian City.

His knights and soldiers could move quickly, but the rest of the caravan would need time to pack, to load horses and wagons, and to organize themselves for the remainder of the journey. There were more than a hundred of them, just in household staff

”If we don’t set out for Lothian by midday tomorrow,” Loghlan continued, letting the tent flap fall closed again, ”we won’t arrive in time. And if I’m not there when Lord Owain takes the throne...”

His voice trailed off without completing the thought, but they both knew what he meant. Things were already strained between the Lothians and the Dunns because of their family’s efforts to expand the holdings of the barony. Worse, because Liam had taken Owain’s brother, Loman, along with him during his most recent campaign against the demons, the next Marquis likely believed that they’d supported his brother’s bid for the throne over him.

As sterling as Owain’s reputation might be before the common people, the lords of the march understood all too well how petty and vindictive the man was known for being. Failing to appear when they were summoned could have disastrous consequences, for them personally and for their barony.

”So we abandon the search?” Mairwen asked, her shoulders sagging slightly, though her chin remained lifted in stubborn defiance. ”We ride for Lothian to bow and scrape before a boy-lord while our son might be suffering in some demon’s prison just a day’s hard ride from where we stand?”

”Gently, my love,” Loghlan cautioned, letting the flap of the tent fall shut as he returned to his wife, gently cupping her face with both hands as he stared into her troubled eyes.

”We don’t abandon anything,” Loghlan said. ”We attend the damned ceremony, we fulfill our obligations, and then we return here as quickly as we can. We’ll leave a scouting force behind and let them investigate the village where we think they may be holding Liam,” he promised. ”By the time we return, our men should know whether we’ve discovered a demon’s nest or not, and how many soldiers it will take to attack it.”

”If Liam is there, we’ll get him back,” he swore.