The Vampire & Her Witch

”May their love be eternal and their domain never fall!”

”May their love be eternal and their domain never fall!”

”May their love be eternal and their domain never fall!”

The toast that Thane started echoed off the walls of the great hall until it felt like the ancient fortress itself would shake apart with all of the cheering, stomping, tail slapping, and applause that greeted the couple emerging from darkness.

”Everyone,” Nyrielle said, holding up a hand and infusing her voice with the thinnest thread of power to command silence. ”Thank you,” she said, as her face heated slightly at the feeling of such a genuine outpouring of support. Unlike the applause that came only after she’d chastised the crowd when they’d introduced Ignatious, Heila, Zedya, and Lennart, this time, none of the smiles she saw on people’s faces felt forced, and when they cheered, they cheered from the heart.

”My darling Ashlynn has given me a dowry like no other,” Nyrielle said as she wrapped an arm around Ashlynn’s slender waist, pulling her close and holding her tightly by her side as she addressed the crowd. ”Soon, we will begin weaving greater ties between the Vale of Mists and the High Pass. We will stand together against the flames of the Church and its Inquisition,” she said loudly.

”But we will also support them against the raiders, looters, and grave robbers who have preyed upon them for far too long,” Nyrielle promised as she looked at Ritchel’s emaciated figure sitting among the other guests of honor. ”From today forward, let it be known that the High Pass is under our full protection and we will visit swift death on any who would threaten its people or their honored dead!”

Sitting on the ground next to Ritchel, Ipiktok placed a heavy, woolly hand on the former lord’s shoulder, leaning over to speak quietly while the great hall erupted into another round of applause.

”I know that my people have hunted yours many times in recent years,” the mercenary captain said. ”I will not apologize for what they have done. Those men saw you as worthy prey and treated you as honored foes. But even if we sharpened our tusks by hunting your people, we would never dare to hunt within the Harbinger of Death’s territory.”

”I will see to it that word is sent back to the northern isles,” Ipoktok promised. ”Some hunters may not hear the message, but most will learn of this within a year’s time. Your son may have sold his throne for Her Eternity’s protection, but her name alone will save many lives,” he said. ”So, whatever you think of his actions today, know that he hasn’t sold his throne for nothing.”

”Do I look so pathetic now that even Tuscans take pity on me?” Ritchel said, glaring at the looming Tuscan warrior. ”There was a day, not long ago, when I would have fought you for the insult.”

”Haha,” Ipiktok laughed. ”Then, when the witches have finished healing you, I will give you that fight. But I didn’t say what I said out of pity for you. I said it out of respect for your son,” he said.

”I know,” the former Frost Walker lord replied, grabbing his goblet of wine and draining half of it in a single swallow. ”He did what I never could. As the Eldritch Lord of the High Pass, how could I choose to end our clan’s dominion over the frozen peaks? My own people would never accept it from me, and I would have had so many contenders for my throne that even if I could defeat the first one, the subsequent challenges would have exhausted me to death.”

”But Hauke never held the throne,” Ritchel explained. ”He simply refused to accept it from someone who took it from him rightfully. He’s still young, and as strong as he’s grown, everyone knows that he isn’t yet ready to rule. Some may resent him for what he’s done. Some may even flee to other peaks or trek to the mountains in the west, and our distant cousins. But most will understand that this is for the best,” he said. ”Even if it is a bitter pill to swallow.”

There was a part of Ritchel that wished he could take on even that burden for Hauke. If his people treated him as the sinner responsible for the fall of the High Pass and placed all their blame and resentment on him, then Hauke could live an easier life among their clan when he returned to the High Pass in five years. But the blame he shouldered for the disaster that occurred when Nyrielle’s army arrived in the High Pass was already the most he could shoulder. Everything else would fall to Hauke to face.

”I would be proud to have a son like him,” Kaisen said, finding the courage to join the conversation after finishing two large goblets of wine. ”My sons would never, could never, should never even think of thinking of something like this at your age. Their age. His age,” he said, frowning and shaking his head as the words didn’t quite seem to come out right. ”How old is your son now?”

”This will be his sixteenth winter,” Ritchel said, chuckling at the father of the Willow Witch, who had clearly taken several shocks from the revelations of his heroic daughter’s deeds and her chosen companion. ”And I am proud of him. He’s overcome things I could never have faced, and he still fights his hardest for his people. I just wish I didn’t have so much to be proud of, but I’m afraid he won’t receive the peaceful years of rest he’s earned after overcoming so much.”

”The years ahead may be bitter and hard,” Aspakos acknowledged as he sipped his wine, peering into the reflection on the surface of the dark red liquid as though he could see something there that was invisible to everyone else.

”But they will be brighter in the end because of your son. He will not disappoint you and he will never fail his people,” he added sagely, as though he had already seen the young lord’s great achievements come to pass.

When Aspakos spoke, several people at the table turned to stare at the Dark Feathered sorcerer with the broken beak, setting down their goblets and turning away from the cheering crowd with expectant looks on their faces. After all, many people could say what Aspakos just had, but when one of the Sorcerers of Sundered Earth spoke, it meant something different entirely....