The Vampire & Her Witch

Five. Five witches with a sixth on the way. And one of those witches was a Great Witch. A Great Witch who had been married to Owain Lothian. Owain Lothian, who had cheated on his wife to sire a child with his mistress. A Great Witch who had raised four armies to attack Lothian March and had already captured one of its ten baronies...

And now, that very same Great Witch had sent one of her witches here, along with their son...

Liam could see his parents putting the pieces together rapidly. Their faces grew paler by the instant, and their eyes shook as they combined the bits and pieces that they’d already heard with the knowledge that Lady Ashlynn was a Great Witch with a full coven of other witches....

”The march is doomed,” Loghlan said softly when he reached the only conclusion that was possible given everything he knew. ”There won’t be anything left of it but smoldering ash once the Church hears of this. They’ll send Exemplars... the Saint himself even. Anyone and anything that has been ’tainted’ by the witches will be put to the torch...”

His son had warned him that it was a heavy secret. Liam had tried to convince him to speak privately. Sir Ollie had piled on as well, but still, Loghlan thought he knew better, and he insisted on addressing this with his full court of knights and their ladies. They’d even allowed Lady Eira to stay in the hopes that sharing this secret of Liam’s would help her draw closer to their son and to become the sort of woman he could confide in.

Loghlan had been prepared to contemplate treason with his son... There were precedents for rebellions that could be resolved by shuffling titles and borders between lords. It wasn’t inescapable doom, and the Dunns had long chafed at the shackles placed on them by their Lothian lords and even the king himself.

Treason could be managed, especially with a Holy War on the horizon. It was clear that the Lothians were struggling as rulers in the March, and the lack of real progress against the demons despite a century of wars was damning proof.

If Liam had arranged with Lady Ashlynn to topple the Lothians in exchange for a chance for the Dunns to ascend to the throne of the March, Loghlan might actually have welcomed the news, especially as Lady Ashlynn seemed like such a powerful ally.

Alternatively, if the plans Liam brought looked unreasonable or unlikely to succeed in a way that would allow them to reconcile with the king afterwards, then Loghlan and his court would have worked to convince Liam to abandon the foolishness in order to chart a more reasonable course.

Or, at the very least, they’d have asked to meet with Lady Ashlynn directly to see if a better path forward could be found. She was, after all, a few years younger than Liam and still inexperienced. Unless she had venerable advisors of her own, it was likely that there were opportunities for more experienced aristocrats like Loghlan and Mairwen to improve her odds of achieving an outcome that would be not only satisfactory but beneficial to everyone on her side of the uprising.

But treason was one thing. Heresy was another. There was no forgiveness in this life for heresy. According to the Church, only after a heretic was purified by flames could they hope to struggle to redeem themselves in their next life...

”The Church isn’t as fierce as you might think,” Liam said, snapping his father out of his thoughts as he began to pile on the blasphemy. ”Loman Lothian is the Disciple of Exemplar Domas, and he’s said to be on the verge of becoming an Exemplar himself one day. It’s just that Lady Heila, Lady Ashlynn’s lady-in-waiting, was able to overcome Loman’s sorcery effortlessly.”

Liam’s words were meant to be reassuring, but the instant Loghlan heard them, his throat went dry, forming a lump so solid that it was impossible to speak. His son hadn’t just sat in judgment of the son of a marquis; he’d sat in judgment of the Disciple of an Exemplar.

Loghlan didn’t know how to respond to his son, but his hands moved automatically, bringing a goblet of wine to his lips in order to buy him time to think, just as he’d done in countless gatherings of the Lothian Court. Only this was far, far more serious than anything the Lothian Court had ever met to discuss.

Fortunately for Loghlan, while the baron struggled to sift through his rapidly swirling thoughts and the maelstrom of feelings in his heart, one of his knights was steadier, quicker to recover, and accustomed to saying what his lord couldn’t.

”The Church has more than just Exemplars and the Saint to send,” Sir Brennus said cautiously. ”They have hundreds of Templars and Inquisitors, plus everyone who is supposed to be coming from across the sea for the Holy War... Lord Liam,” he said, looking at the young lord with an unreadable expression.

”This,” Brennus said in somber tones. ”This won’t end well... For anyone.”

”It’s true that the Church has powerful forces,” Liam acknowledged. ”But who ever said that Lady Ashlynn and her coven were the only powerful people among her forces. Lady Ashlynn might have gone into exile without friends or allies, but she’s acquired plenty of both since then.”

”Starting with the woman we all grew up calling the Demon Lady of the Vale,” Liam said, sending another wave of shock rippling across the table. ”Her Eternity’s proper name is Nyrielle, and among the Eldritch she’s known as the Harbinger of Death,” Liam explained, laying out the fearsome title in as neutral a tone as he could.

”And just like Her Dominion, Lady Ashlynn, isn’t alone,” Liam added, looking directly into his father’s worried gaze. ”Lady Nyrielle has a number of powerful ’progeny’ of her own, including Dame Sybyll Hanrahan... or, as you would have heard her called, the Crimson Knight of Airgead Mountain.”