The Vampire & Her Witch

”You may find it hard to believe,” Liam said in answer to his mother’s question. ”But the first move that Dame Sybyll’s army made was to blanket Hanrahan valley with snow.”

”Snow?” Loghlan said, finally shaking himself free of the spiralling thoughts of doom at the hands of the Church and the Inquisition now that Mairwen had pulled the conversation onto a different track. ”You’re saying that the strange weather we’ve seen recently really was caused by demons and... and witches...” he said, his voice growing quieter as he looked from Ollie to the bone and ivory knife on the table.

”Don’t use the term ’demons,’” Liam said quickly with an apologetic look at Sir Ollie. ”They prefer to be called ’Eldritch’, and they consider the term ’demon’ to be an offensive insult. If you can remove the word ’demon’ from your lips before you ever meet with them, it will benefit you greatly,” he said, remembering all of the cold looks he’d received from Lady Heila and the other Eldritch people whenever he slipped.

”As to the weather, I’m saying that about Hanrahan,” Liam said very carefully. He didn’t know what had caused the freak storm the night that so many of Lady Ashlynn’s forces attacked the hamlets of Dunn, raiding their herds for hundreds of head of livestock. It might have been witches, or it might have been a coincidence. He’d never asked, in part because he was terrified of the answer, so for now, he focused on what he knew.

”But why would you want to cover Hanrahan in snow?” Lady Esme asked from the far end of the table. ”I would think that would make it harder to fight, wouldn’t it? Horses would struggle in deep snow, soldiers would be cold... Everyone would want to huddle up where it’s warm and even your own men wouldn’t want to fight in the snow.”

”That last part is why they did it,” Liam said, smiling at the young lady from Riverstone. ”It was a move to keep the townsfolk indoors. Dame Sybyll was afraid that people would spill into the streets to resist when her army arrived. She hoped that, even if they did, the snow would at least delay the arrival of crowds or mobs, giving her forces time to seize Hanrahan Keep. For the most part, it worked...”

Liam went on to explain other elements of the battle he’d glossed over before, including Hauke’s creation of an ice shield to protect everyone fighting in the plaza from Loman Lothian’s rain of luminous arrows, and Lady Heila’s healing of the wounded before she left to stop Loman’s attack.

”Afterwards, when Inquisitor Diarmuid gave the order to the forces in the plaza to surrender,” Liam said, moving on to what his mother had really asked about. ”We sent the wounded defenders to the Church to receive care and healing, but Head Priest Germot refused them, claiming they’d been tainted by witchcraft, so we received the wounded of both sides of the battle in the same tents...”

Liam went on to explain how he’d been pressed into service by Lady Heila’s squire, Emmie, along with the many different concoctions, salves and potions for healing that Lady Heila had prepared before the battle.

”Lord Liam,” Lady Isolde said, placing a hand on her husband, Sir Gavin’s shoulder. The very same shoulder that had been so badly injured by Sir Rain’s lance two years ago still caused him occasional pains. ”You’re saying that Lady Ashlynn’s lady-in-waiting prepared enough medicine to heal both sides of the battle, and that they gave it freely?”

Sir Gavin had lain in bed in pain for three days as the wound to his arm grew worse. The physicians had removed every splinter of wood from his injury that they could, but they had begun to fear that a sickness had settled into the wound along with splinters of wood they could not find.

Marquis Bors had sent his own personal physician, the talented Master Hess, to tend to Gavin’s wounds, but even the famed master didn’t have high hopes. While Gavin’s life might not have been in danger, Master Hess was afraid that they would need to cut away more and more flesh in order to find and remove the remaining splinters and to treat the diseased flesh. The treatment, he claimed, would be even worse than the wound, and Sir Gavin would likely lose the use of his arm.

In the end, it had been Isolde who gathered up the gold they’d brought with them to the tournament, along with a few of her personal treasures, to make an offering at the Temple of the Holy Lord of Light, entreating the priests to send one of their best healers to save not just her husband’s arm, but his ability to live as a knight.

Until now, she’d never regretted her decision, no matter how much of a hardship it imposed on their family in the years to come, and she’d never thought that things could have been any different, but when Lord Liam spoke of the healer’s tents of the de-, of the Eldritch, he made it sound like everyone received the same kind of care that she’d sacrificed so much to obtain for her husband.

”The Eldritch are like that,” Liam said, nodding his head at Lady Isolde. ”Or, rather, Lady Ashlynn and her coven are like that, and the Eldritch who follow her embrace her ways. I’ve seen Lady Ashlynn heal one of her bitter enemies as well, a man who had wronged her greatly enough to deserve death. Yet instead of claiming his life, she healed his wounds and sent him into exile.”

”They showed you these things for a reason, Son,” Loghlan said, massaging his temples with one hand while he tried to absorb everything he was hearing. ”Sir Ollie, I mean no disrespect to you or your lady, but I’d like to ask for your honest answer to this question. Not as a knight or as a witch, but as a man who grew up in the march and was once a man of Gaal,” the baron said, choosing his words with care.

”Can you do that?” Loghlan asked.

”I make no promises, Lord Loghlan,” Ollie said, holding up his hands in a gesture that implied that Loghlan’s request might push too far and that the young knight intended to push back. ”But if I can answer,” he said, lowering his hands to the table. ”Then I will.”

”You’ve lived among the, erm, the Eldritch, for months,” the Dunn baron said. ”You’ve seen what they’re really like, not just when they’re taking someone around to impress them, but the truth of their lives and their methods.”

”Tell me, Sir Ollie,” Loghlan said, drawing a deep breath and looking directly into the young witch’s pale eyes. ”Do the Eldritch people truly live better lives? This kind of generous care and kind treatment even of their enemies... We’ve been fighting the Eldritch as long as I’ve been alive... as long as the Kingdom of Gaal has existed.”

”So can you tell me that, in spite of all that has happened, the Eldritch truly have hearts filled with kindness and compassion for their enemies?”