The Vampire & Her Witch

While Charlotte and Adala reveled in the wonders of the changing world and Erling united with friends to face the challenges of their new world, others were searching desperately for a way to escape it.

The sun had set long ago by the time Valeri Leufroy made his way through the quiet halls of the manor’s guest wing, but even now, servants hurried through the halls on a myriad of missions for the residents of the hall.

There had been no feast tonight, though an evening meal had been served in the Great Hall for those who sought the comfort of each other’s company. Betrys had gone, and she’d taken Tulori with her.

”I think it would be for the best if you took your meal in our chambers,” Betrys said sharply when Valeri moved to join her. For a moment, it looked like she intended to say more, but then she seemed to think better of it, turning away from her husband of many years and asking her son to escort her to dinner instead.

There was a time when Valeri could have counted on her to gather up gossip from the women of the court at times like this. She was always good at ferreting out what had been said behind closed doors between husbands and wives, and the things she’d learned over the years had helped him to navigate the treacherous waters of the Lothian Court for years.

This time, however, she didn’t look like a wife that was preparing to do her duty to support her husband’s efforts. She looked elegant and graceful, despite the ravages of the Lothian Throne’s witchcraft, and when she looked at him... She looked like a noblewoman who had found someone using her flower garden as a chamber pot.

After she left, Valeri considered summoning his knights to join him for an evening meal. His chambers in Lothian Manor held a small dining room that could host a few men for a meal. In the end, however, he’d chosen to eat alone, using the time to think of a way out of this mess for himself.

Those thoughts had brought him here, to the door of a man he’d considered an enemy in the Lothian Court for more than a decade. Now, he thought as he rapped sharply on the door, the thing that had turned them into bitter rivals might be the only chance of escape he had.

”Baron Leufroy,” an aged manservant said politely, bowing when he opened the door. ”My lord isn’t expecting visitors at this hour. May I suggest you return in the morning?”

”Stuff it, I know he’s still waiting up for his lady,” Valeri snapped. ”Fetch your master; I’d speak with him before she returns.”

”I’ll tell him that you’d like a word,” the servant said stiffly, leaving Valeri standing in the doorway while he went to fetch his lord.

”What do you want at this hour, Valeri?” Telent Rundel asked a few minutes later when he finally emerged from his bedchamber. From the look of his neatly buttoned doublet and his immaculately slicked-back hair, the birch-thin baron had yet to settle down for the night, which meant he’d left Valeri cooling his heels in the hallway just to irritate the older man.

”A few words, Telent,” Valeri said with a pointed look at the manservant lurking in the shadows behind his lord. ”In private.”

”It’s late,” Telent said. ”I’ll be bedding down once Brighde comes back with the boys...”

”This won’t take long,” the Leufroy baron insisted. ”Surely you can spare a quarter hour for an old friend.”

”Old friend,” Telent snorted. ”When my friends come calling in the dark of night they at least bring a bottle of fine wine with them. Or some of that cider you’re always boasting about,” he said, shaking his head at his peer who had fallen so far in the span of a few days.

”Fine,” Telent relented, gesturing for Valeri to step into his chambers. ”Since you’ve come calling, I’ll show you a bit of hospitality, so you remember what it looks like,” he said before turning to his manservant. ”Decant a bottle of strong red for us and give us the room for a quarter hour.”

”Yes, my Lord,” the servant said politely before arranging a small pitcher of wine on a table between a pair of comfortable armchairs. The old man’s movements were stiff with age, but carried the precision of many years of dedicated service as he carried out his lord’s instructions. Within a handful of heartbeats, Valeri was finally alone with his longstanding rival.

”A quarter of an hour,” Telent said, dropping into one of the armchairs after glancing at the candles burning on the mantle. ”Say your piece and be done with it.”

”So this is what you call ’hospitality,” Valeri said, taking a sip of the full-bodied red wine and sighing in contentment as he settled into his own chair. ”At least your cellars are good.”

”You didn’t barge in here in the dark of night to compare notes about our cellars,” Telent said. ”Don’t think I won’t toss you out when the flame reaches the candlemark or if Brighde comes back from the chapel early.”

”Oh yes, I know you would,” Valeri said, rolling the goblet of wine between his fingers and watching the candlelight reflecting on the dark liquid’s surface. ”You’ve turned yourself into such a loyal puppet for your lady-wife since you married. A person could almost think that Rundel was ruled by its baroness.”

”Watch your tone, Leufroy,” Telent said sharply. ”A man who has all but lost his barony to his daughter has no room to talk about how I manage mine with my wife.”

Valeri’s hand froze, nearly sloshing wine over the rim of the goblet with the suddenness of his movement as his fellow baron’s words struck home. He’d actually tried approaching his daughter earlier this evening to see if he could straighten things out with her in the hopes of salvaging something from this disaster...

But when he’d approached the chambers where he’d heard she was staying, he found himself blocked by a pair of Blackwell knights who seemed to have no compunctions about setting hands on the baron of Leufroy if that was what it took to prevent him from seeing his own daughter.

Valeri had left that hall to the soft sniggers of nearby servants, turning his already sour mood to pure, distilled vinegar as he made his way here, to the last man he could possibly rely on to escape this nightmare.

”Don’t be so certain about that, Telent,” Valeri said as his gaze turned hard. ”I could say plenty of things about how you and Lady Brighde manage your barony and how you cast your votes at court. But maybe I shouldn’t be saying those things to you,” he said pointedly.

”Perhaps the person I should be talking to is our new Marchioness,” Valeri said. ”After all, I’m sure she’d be interested to know how hard you’ve worked to undermine Lord Bors on behalf of Duke Argidir.”

”Tell me, Telent,” Valeri said, leaning forward in his chair. ”How do you think a Great Witch like Ashlynn would respond to knowing that your marriage to Brighde came with a set of puppet strings, and that the road to your recent rise was paved with Keating gold?”