The Vampire & Her Witch

”Who else will stand with Baron Loghlan Dunn?”

Ashlynn’s words were still echoing off the walls of the Lothian Great Hall when Erling Fayle stood to speak.

”I will stand for justice,” Erling said, shifting his gaze between Ashlynn and the Inquisitors lying on the floor of the Great Hall. ”I won’t pretend to know anything about the crimes that Lord Owain is accused of, but I’ll hear the evidence of them with my own ears. But first, the men of the Inquisition acted recklessly and ruthlessly, and they endangered the lives of my vassals’ families,” he said, turning his gaze to the wives and children of the knights who still stood with Ashlynn’s men.

”I owe my vassals justice for what was done,” Erling said. ”So long as we can hold the Inquisition to count for their actions tonight, I stand with Lady Ashlynn.”

”As do I,” Wes Iriso said as he stood from his chair. Next to him, Sorcha pursed her lips in worry, but she said nothing. This was the Wes she’d fallen in love with all those years ago, the one who stood firm for what he believed in and fought with every ounce of his strength to do what needed doing.

She just wished it wasn’t always so dangerous for him. After all, even though no one was fighting at the moment, the current situation was far, far more dangerous than when Wes had taken up a sword or a lance at a tournament to fight for the gold they needed to fund her village. At least then he’d had a real weapon and a suit of armor...

Now, he would have to rely on his words to win a victory, and while he might have had very few rivals with a sword in his hand, the other barons were every bit as skilled at using words as weapons as Wes was, if not more so.

”I know I’m not the only one who thought that Lord Owain’s plans seemed strange,” Wes continued, addressing the other barons of the court. ”A hasty funeral, a wedding mere days after the supposed ’death’ of his wife, to her younger sister no less, and a coronation all at once without waiting for His Majesty to bless his ascension...”

”We’ve been lied to, my lords,” Wes said, glaring at the lord sitting on the oak throne. ”We’ve been told that Lady Ashlynn was carrying Lord Owain’s child and resting in the Summer Villa, only to have died in a demon raid, but not only is she alive, but she also was obviously never with child.”

”The roots of this stretch back further than the recent demon raids,” he concluded. ”And I for one want the truth of it!”

”We have the truth of it,” Valeri Leufroy said, standing from his own seat. He gave a brief bow in Owain’s direction before turning to face his fellow barons across the hall.

”Lord Owain has seen proof that Lady Ashlynn bears the Mark of the Witch, and he tried to protect us from her witchcraft,” he said firmly. ”Lord Owain has always fought to keep the march safe from demons. He fought as his father did, continuing a hundred years of proud Lothian tradition of defending us all, even when it meant he had to protect us from his own wife.”

”Look at her!” Valeri said, pointing a finger at Ashlynn that trembled with rage. ”Look at her knights and the blood on their armor! How many have died to her forces, just tonight? How many more will she try to kill before the night is over?”

”There is one lord who rules in this march,” Baron Leufroy said firmly. ”That lord is Owain Lothian, and if he calls for justice, then the men of Leufroy will stand with him to deliver it. And if he calls for war,” he added. ”Then we will fight by his side, no matter who stands against him!”

Beside him, Adala scooted away, putting as much distance between herself and her father as she could. She should have known that he would do this... He was still grieving for Bors, so how could he possibly stand against his best friend’s son?

But her father was wrong... and now Adala was afraid that her family would pay the price for his decision to make the wrong stand.

Two tables away, the oldest baron in the hall slowly made his way to his feet with the help of his grandson, Riwall, as he turned to address the hall. Baron Preden Saliou’s figure was bent with age, and the last of his hair had long since fallen from his head, but when he addressed the hall, there was a weight to his words that only came with many long years of watching bitter conflicts embroil the Lothian Court.

”I have served three generations of Lothian Marquis,” Preden said slowly. ”I have seen them make mistakes, but I have never seen them waver from their duty or their honor. I trust the son of Bors Lothian,” he said, pausing for a moment to cough as the effort of addressing the entire great hall strained his voice.

”I trust the son of Bors Lothian to set aside his personal interests,” the old baron continued a moment later. ”I trust him to be an impartial judge of facts, even when he must judge the men under his command. The matter of the Inquisition’s carelessness must be addressed,” he said, acknowledging the youngest baron in the room. ”But I believe the Marquis should discipline them for their mistakes.”

”Remember,” Baron Saliou added. ”There are demons in the dark. We are at war. War is no time for squabbles and politics; it is a time for unity and certainty. Marquis Owain is the defender we need right now,” he said, turning his eyes to the grandson who would soon be called on to fight in the next war. ”We must ensure that whatever we decide, we do not lose the march to the real enemy beyond our walls...”

Baron Saliou’s words settled over the hall like a thick, gloomy fog. Some people looked to Owain on his throne and the Inquisition on the floor, wondering if they really could keep them safe from the demons this time. Others looked to Ashlynn, Sir Ollie, and High Inquisitor Ignatious as they asked themselves if the other side of this conflict might be even stronger defenders of the march than Lord Owain would be.

At the Otker table, Serle Otker drummed his fingers rapidly on the polished wood of the table as he waited for one of the other barons to make his move. With three barons supporting Lady Ashlynn and two supporting Lord Owain, he could smell the opportunity taking shape, but it wasn’t ripe enough yet.

With four votes of the court still outstanding, the decision could go either way. All three other barons could throw their support behind Lady Ashlynn, in which case, supporting Owain would only gain him the resentment of the victor in this opening round. Of course, the court could still rule against her, declaring her a witch and fighting her until the bitter end, but Serle didn’t think that was likely if two-thirds of the court chose to stand with her.

If all three of the remaining barons broke for Lord Owain, then throwing his support in at the end would look trivial. There would be nothing to gain from it at all, but Serle doubted that Owain could win such sweeping support, especially from men like Rundel and LeGleau, who were notoriously indecisive.

The real question in Serle’s mind was which way Baron Tybal Aleese would go... If the man who had fought at Bors Lothian’s side and supported Owain Lothian’s campaigns against the Horse Lord in the Southern Steppe continued to support the Lothian Heir, then Serle could likely break the tie, and that would be the time when his vote would become the most valuable commodity he would likely ever sell.

He just had to wait a few moments more for his opportunity to ripen...