The Vampire & Her Witch

By the time they reached the top of the hill, Sir Gavin and Sir Cynwrig were helping Ollie climb into the bed of the cart where Lady Cerys lay sleeping. Ollie could manage a few steps on his own when absolutely necessary, but it clearly took tremendous effort, and both knights stayed close enough to catch him if his legs gave out.

Despite his obvious exhaustion and despite the way his hands shook and his face had gone pale with strain, Ollie kept his spirits visibly high. He even managed a smile for Cadeyrn when the young squire hurried over to help steady the cart as Ollie climbed aboard.

”Thank you, Cadeyrn,” Ollie said, flashing the best smile he could manage at the young squire. ”You’ve been working hard this morning, haven’t you?” Ollie asked as he took in the young man’s coat of mail and the light arming sword at his waist. Clearly, the squire had been assigned heavier responsibilities today than just helping with his father’s armor or managing a cart for Lady Cerys.

”It’s not too much,” Cadeyrn said, flushed with pleasure at the praise, while at the same time feeling very small after hearing what Sir Ollie had done to save Lady Cerys. ”I just did what needed doing, though,” he added awkwardly. ”Nothing deserving of praise from you, Sir Ollie.”

”That’s what makes a good knight,” Ollie said, settling himself carefully beside Lady Cerys’s sleeping form. ”Doing what needs doing, even when it’s difficult or frightening. You must be getting close to standing your vigil,” Ollie added, pausing with a brief grunt as he settled into the cart. ”Do you know what virtues you’re going to swear to uphold yet?”

”Um, my father says that any knight in our family must take Duty or Loyalty as one of our virtues in order to be a good vassal,” Cadeyrn started. ”And I think a knight has to have Courage and Strength,” he said. ”But, but I haven’t decided about the rest.”

”Mmm,” Ollie said, nodding as he thought back on his conversations with Thane about virtues before he swore his oaths as a knight and pledged to uphold the five virtues that would define his knighthood. ”Duty or Loyalty, you know the difference?” Ollie asked.

”Upholding Duty means doing what must be done,” Cadeyrn said automatically. ”But Loyalty is the reason you do those things for the person whom you have pledged to serve.”

”Not bad,” Ollie said, smiling at the young squire. ”You’re well on your way to being Sir Cadeyrn,” he praised.

”What, what about you, Sir Ollie?” Cadeyrn asked with bright, shining eyes. ”Is there a virtue that you think is important for a knight to serve?”

When Cadeyrn asked, both Sir Gavin and Sir Cynwrig perked up their ears, wondering how the young knight with the antiquated, or at least old-fashioned, training would answer. Selecting a virtue was a deeply personal decision for every knight, and knowing which ones a man had selected as the most important pillars of his knighthood could tell you a great deal about the man.

”Hope,” Ollie said as he relaxed into the soft blankets in the cart. ”If I succeed at nothing else, if I can give people hope for tomorrow, then I’ve done something worth doing.”

Morwen felt something tighten in her chest at the exchange. Ollie was a young knight, but when he encountered younger men on his path, whether it was Cynwrig’s son, Dalwyn or her own younger brother, he seemed to feel like it was important, even when his strength was fading, to encourage them on their way.

They were small things, to be sure, but after the miracles he’d performed, no one who received his encouragement would take it as something small. Instead, she expected that her brother would soon have lengthy conversations with their father about ’Hope’ and how a knight could give people hope for tomorrow.

If Ollie had said or done these things yesterday, when he first arrived in camp, Morwen might have suspected that he was a well-trained young lord, skilled in using small actions to influence the people around him. She might even have wondered if he intended to win over Lord Loghlan and his court by building friendly relationships with their children.

Now, however, she realized that this was just who Sir Ollie was. He was too tired to put on airs, and after seeing the miracles he worked, the notion of playing petty games of influence seemed far too petty. Instead, she saw that Ollie meant what he said. He wanted to offer people hope for tomorrow, whether that was by healing an injured woman or encouraging a future knight.

He was a good knight. A good teacher and role model for her brother... He was a good man, and one she wouldn’t mind getting to know better.

”Hope is a good thing,” Cynwrig said as he climbed into the cart to sit next to his wife. The horse that he and Ollie had ridden out here already had a lead connecting him to the cart, but without a saddle, the last thing Cynwrig wanted was to become the victim of another fall. ”And you’ve certainly brought it to Dalwyn and me,” he said as he helped his son climb into the cart.

The trip back to the camp was slow and careful, with Cadeyrn walking ahead of the horse to guide it over the rough terrain while the rest of them rode alongside. Morwen found herself stealing glances at the cart, noticing the way Sir Ollie’s eyes kept drifting closed before he forced them open again, and the way his whole body seemed to sag with exhaustion even as he tried to maintain an upright posture.

He looked like a man who had been through a long sickness and was only just beginning to recover. But every time someone expressed concern, he waved it off with reassurances that he’d be fine once they reached Maeril. He said that Lady Ashlynn would take care of him and that he just needed a bit of rest, and he’d be as good as new.

Morwen wasn’t sure she believed him. But she also wasn’t sure what else she could do except trust that he knew his own limits and that Lady Ashlynn was as capable as he seemed to believe she was.

And if it turned out that Lady Ashlynn couldn’t work a miracle of her own to restore Sir Ollie... then Morwen was determined to volunteer to care for him until he was well enough to care for himself.