The Vampire & Her Witch

”I see,” Ashlynn said with a slow nod. ”Help me up,” she asked, reaching out for Ollie’s support as she stood up from the base of the cedar tree before walking over to the tree that stood directly adjacent to the open grave. Her eyes slid over the grave, barely seeing it as she focused instead on the tree with exposed roots that was directly adjacent to the grave.

”You helped me that night,” she said, leaning down and gently caressing the tree’s root that had helped to pull her from the sodden earth. ”I never thanked you,” she said as she drew the knife from her belt and pricked a finger, spilling a single drop of potent witch’s blood before dripping it on the root of the mighty cedar tree.

The drop of blood splashed on the tree root in a brief flash of dark crimson before sinking into the soft wood and vanishing completely from sight. Moments later, the tree seemed to shiver and shake, its branches swaying in a wind unfelt by the other trees in the forest as new strength infused its aging limbs.

”I need a favor from you again,” Ashlynn said softly as she returned her hand to the roots. ”I’m looking for someone who is fleeing through the forest,” she explained as she closed her eyes and focused on her connection with the forest that had not only helped to pull her from the earth, but sustained her life until she could reach the safety of Nyrielle’s carriage.

”Through cedar’s web of trunks and roots,

Let forest senses show me the truth.

Each footfall felt, every movement revealed,

Through leaf and bark, let nothing be concealed.”

Ashlynn’s awareness of her own body fell away, and she nearly toppled over before Ollie caught her and held her close while her senses blended with not only the cedar tree she’d thanked, but all the cedar trees within several leagues of where she stood.

Her senses stretched and expanded, seeming to seamlessly blend the sensitivity of the cedar’s roots like long, slender toes feeling everything through the thick socks of the earth. At the same time, the sound of wind whispering through branches and the slenderest of cedar needles filled her ears as though she could hear everything moving through the vast forest.

For a moment, there was too much all at once, and her magic nearly overwhelmed her senses, but she slowly focused on each individual sensation in much the same way she’d learned to master her enhanced senses after becoming Nyrielle’s Seneschal. With exceptional focus, she was slowly able to pick out individual creatures, people, and groups moving through the forest.

Her own camp was the first thing she noticed, with several people moving about and talking, it was impossible to miss, especially when they were so close. But as she extended her senses further, she had to carefully sift through every slight disturbance in the forest, encountering everything from wandering foxes to a slumbering bear before she caught a trace of a human figure, racing along the ancient roadway toward Lothian March.

”I found him,” Ashlynn said as she opened her eyes, blinking rapidly as she fought to readjust to the sensations of her own body before dusting the dirt off of her forest green skirts and looking back in the direction of their camp. ”He’s staying alongside the road and running fast.”

”I’ll get horses,” Ollie said quickly as he helped Ashlynn to stand. ”He can’t have gone far. I’m sure we can catch him if we ride fast.”

”Don’t,” Ashlynn said, placing a hand gently on his shoulder. ”It’s dark, and even if you can ride in the dark like this, Daithi and the others don’t have even simple sorcery to rely on. Besides,” Ashlynn added with a dark gleam in her emerald eyes. ”Darragh is headed straight toward Marcel. Whether it’s deliberate or he’s just using the old road to move quickly, there’s no way Marcel will let him slip past.”

”Instead,” she said as she began to walk back toward the camp. ”There are men who have been poisoned, and we should care for them. Did you learn to purge toxins during your trial?” she asked lightly.

”No,” Ollie admitted, looking vaguely sheepish. ”I learned how to nurture growth and how to fight back, but healing wasn’t really on my mind.”

”In that case, this is a lesson for you as well,” Ashlynn said as she led him back toward the waiting camp. ”I learned a great deal from big sister Amahle and even more from Talauia,” Ashlynn explained. ”By the time Marcel arrives with our deserter and our guests, we should have everyone feeling even better than they were this morning,” she said.

Thankfully, as poisons went, the flatleaf nettles were far from the worst thing in the forest that Darragh could have used to facilitate his escape, and Eamon had warned people off before they drank too much of the tainted water. Some weak legs and uneasy stomachs were the worst of what people suffered before Ashlynn arrived to purge the poison from their bodies.

”Eamon,” Ashlynn said with a warm smile as she faced the grizzled and scarred hunter who was responsible for discovering the plot in the first place. The fact that he had once plotted against her was something she could accept from a person who had once been a lifelong enemy of the Eldritch, and she saw no reason to bring up his past plots when he had never once acted on any of them.

Instead, she was far more interested in the man he’d become since he had clearly put down his schemes and moved to stand solidly on her side.

”Everyone here owes you a debt for discovering Darragh’s treachery tonight,” Ashlynn said. ”Is there anything your heart desires that I can reward you with?”

”Your Holiness,” the aging hunter said, kneeling awkwardly at her feet. ”It’s my fault for encouraging Darragh to plot against you in the beginning. Finding this... its just me cleaning up my own mess. I can’t take a reward for that.”

”No, it’s more than that,” Ashlynn countered directly as she glanced at the other humans who had joined her on this trip. ”Whatever you might once have said when we were enemies, you ceased to be our enemy long ago. When we accepted you as an ally, a friend, and a neighbor, we gave you our trust, and today, you haven’t let down that trust, for myself or for Sir Ollie.”

”If you were conflicted at all, you would probably have let him go, wouldn’t you?” Ashlynn asked with an eyebrow raised. One look at the older man’s face was all she needed to know that she’d judged him correctly. ”You spoke up, Eamon. You did the right thing, even though he was once your friend. Doing the right thing by the knight who guards your home and the lady he serves, even when you have to speak up against your own friend... It’s not an easy thing to do, is it, Eamon?”

”No, your Holiness,” Eamon said with eyes that glittered with unshed tears. ”It wasn’t easy.”

”It will get harder still when you next see him,” Ashlynn said. ”The direction he’s fleeing, he’s almost certain to be captured by Sir Marcel, and when that happens, I may need to call on you and Constable Daithi to restrain him,” Ashlynn said pointedly. ”When that happens, can I count on you?”

”Yes, your Holiness,” Eamon said, swallowing the lump that formed in his throat while his heart raced at the notion that the saintess he had come to revere would be relying on him for anything, even if it was something as small as helping to restrain a captive. ”You can count on me,” he swore solemnly.

”Good,” Ashlynn said as her ears caught the faint sound of horseshoes striking the stone roadway and the creaking of carriage wheels drifting on the wind. ”Because I think it won’t be long now before our guests arrive,” she said, scowling at the way Darragh’s treachery had tainted the reunion with Master Isabell that she had been so dearly looking forward to.

”And when they arrive,” Ashlynn said. ”I intend to settle Darragh’s matter before we do anything else. I can forgive much,” she said in a voice that was both darker and colder than any tone that the gathered humans had ever heard from her before. ”But traitors cannot be allowed to live!”