The Vampire & Her Witch

”I don’t want to chase anyone away, but sometimes, it happens anyway...”

The words pierced Jocelynn’s heart like an arrow shot from a bow, and for a moment, the tears she’d just forced back threatened to spring forth again. For a man who had been the hero of the battle against the darkness of the Lothian throne to sound so broken and alone... What kind of cruelty had he suffered to feel so lost?

”Well, I’m not going anywhere, unless you make me,” Jocelynn said, repositioning herself so she could lean up against the mast beside him with the packed lunch between them. ”So, let me keep you company until we reach Maeril. Albyn said you wanted to sleep in the carriage so, since I won’t be able to talk to you then, we might as well chat a bit now.”

”If, if I’m not disturbing you, that is,” she said as she realized that she had no idea how hard it was for him to summon and control the wind that propelled them upriver at such a tremendous speed. ”If you need to focus...”

”No, it’s not that,” Ollie said, shaking his head as he wiped the stray crumbs of bread from his heavy, fur-trimmed cloak. ”The sapling is helping,” he said, pointing at the nearby tree before reaching for the tankard of warm ale. ”The winds are calmer once they’ve passed through its branches and it’s easier to keep control.”

”I, I may not be good company right now, though,” he said, pressing his lips together as he searched for a way to explain how he felt. ”You heard the voices in the wind, didn’t you?”

”I did, until I came close to you,” she said. ”But you kept me safe from them, just like you kept me safe from Owain that night,” she added as the slightest blush appeared across her cheeks. ”So, thank you. For then and for now. For keeping me safe.”

”I think it’s the sapling more than me,” Ollie said, taking a heavy swallow of the warm ale to cover up his discomfort at the unearned praise. ”But, um, you’re welcome. For the other night, I mean. I’m glad we got to you in time. If we hadn’t... I know it would have broken Ashlynn’s heart, and she’s suffered so much already, I couldn’t bear to see her hurt again.”

Ollie’s words were meant to be modest, Jocelynn was sure of that, and there was no malice in his tone, but still, hearing him mention how much Ashlynn had suffered prodded at a very tender wound. After all, much of Ashlynn’s suffering was a result of Jocelynn’s actions, and she knew that painfully well.

For several moments, the pair sat in silence while Ollie moved on to his second piece of Everything Bread, followed by the boiled eggs. When he got to the spice cake, however, he split it in two before passing half over to Jocelynn.

”You should have some,” Ollie said. ”I think I know where Master Jean got the recipe for this one, and it’s very good,” he said before taking a bite and nodding in appreciation. ”Mmm, it’s heavier on the cloves and the mace, but it’s very good.”

”Thank you,” Jocelynn said, awkwardly accepting the spice cake from his hands and taking a small bite to sample the intense flavour of the soft, slightly bouncy sponge cake. ”Mmm, it is good,” she said, nodding in appreciation. ”Did the recipe for this come from the famous ’Ambassador Georg’?” Jocelynn asked, remembering how her sister had described the Master of Kitchens in Nyrielle’s castle.

”It’s not his, exactly,” Ollie said after taking another bite of cake. ”He said he only added a hint of cardamom to his father’s recipe, but the essence is the same. Keeping the oven heat consistent so it stays soft from edge to edge and getting the batter to be smooth are the hardest parts, and Master Jean did great with all of that.”

”You really were a kitchen boy, weren’t you?” Jocelynn said, giggling in surprise as the heroic knight and powerful witch praised another man’s handling of an oven and cake batter. ”When we get to the Vale, will you cook for me and guard me, too?”

”Sure,” Ollie said, as if it weren’t anything special. ”I’ll even teach you how if you want to learn,” he offered. ”If you join the coven, you’ll have to learn how to cook eventually. I’ve been teaching Virve a bit and Lady Nyrielle, too. No reason that I can’t teach you.”

”You’ve been teaching the Lady of the Vale how to cook?” Jocelynn said, staring at Ollie with her mouth open until she closed it sharply with a click. ”Isn’t she more than a hundred years old? How is it that she’s never learned until now if she wanted to?”

”She never had a reason to before Ashlynn came to the Vale,” Ollie said with a shrug. ”And it’s hard for her to be around fire after what happened to the Vale when the Lothians attacked and burned it to the ground. She does it so she can cook with your sister,” Ollie explained.

”Can you tell me what kind of person she is?” Jocelynn asked, shifting slightly in her position, leaning up against the mast so she could pull the cloak closer against the chill in the air. ”Is she, um, is she nice?”

Nice seemed like a strange word to apply to an ancient vampire, but Jocelynn couldn’t think of anything else that captured what she was really asking about without coming out and directly asking if Lady Nyrielle would hold a grudge against her for what she’d done to Ashlynn.

”She can be,” Ollie said. ”And she can be cold. I only met her a few times before she and Ashlynn went across the mountains, and a few times after they came back. She’s been helping me learn how to control some of my powers,” he said, gesturing at the glowing motes of jade green light drifting in the wind. ”I guess you could say she’s nice.”

”So you had to stay in the Vale by yourself while my sister was gone?” Jocelynn asked gently. ”You were all alone among the Eldritch for more than half a year?” Was this why he said that he didn’t mean to chase people away, but sometimes it happened anyway? Had something happened between him and Ashlynn to make her leave him behind?

”I wasn’t alone, and I wasn’t lonely,” Ollie said, shaking his head. ”I, um, I helped your sister escape from the Summer Villa after she had to defend herself from Sir Kaefin. I didn’t do much really, I helped her find a side gate that no one paid much attention to, but when Ashlynn and Lady Nyrielle asked me what I wanted for a reward, I said I wanted to be a knight...”

”That’s when I met Sir Thane, one of Lady Nyrielle’s progeny,” Ollie explained, sounding more animated than he’d been the entire time. ”I stayed behind to train with him, and I made so many friends along the way,” he said, taking a heavy swig of ale. ”Friends I work hard to protect and take care of because they’re precious to me.”

”Will you tell me about them? Jocelynn asked, shifting uncomfortably on her seat on the ship’s deck but refusing to move from her spot. ”I’d like to hear about them, or your village in the Vale or... Or anything really,” she said in a quiet voice. ”If, if you don’t mind...”

”I don’t mind,” Ollie said, moving the remains of lunch aside before reaching out to Jocelynn and pulling her close so she could lean against him instead of the ship’s wooden mast. ”Better?” Ollie asked as he extended his cloak to wrap around her slender shoulders, too.

”Mmm,” Jocelynn said, snuggling close and leaning into his warmth. ”Tell me everything.”

”Well, I guess it started with a pot of soup...” Ollie began as he started to tell the tale of the first of many ’tests’ Sir Thane had prepared for him.

The ship sailed on for hours more, winding its way up the River Luath as Ollie told his meandering tale. The wind whipped around them both, but the entire time, the only voice Jocelynn heard was Ollie’s until the combination of his soothing tone and the rocking of the ship lulled her off to sleep, nestled against his shoulder.

Ever since her first night in the Lothian dungeons, there had been nightmares waiting to ambush her every time she closed her eyes to sleep. Last night, Ashlynn had rescued her from those nightmares, and today, Jocelynn found that Sir Ollie could protect her from them too...