The Vampire & Her Witch

Ever since the appearance of the strange soldier who insisted they were heading into a trap, the atmosphere in the carriage had grown even more tense. Neither Isabell nor Tiernan were able to relax as the carriage carried them farther and farther down the dark, ancient road and the scowls they received from across the carriage didn’t help.

”Master Isabell,” Sir Hugo finally said when he could no longer bear the pressure. ”Don’t you think it’s time that you tell us where we’re going?” Owain’s steward asked as he glanced at Sir Rain. The burly knight might not have said anything, but the displeasure radiating off his stiff posture and the occasional cracking of his knuckles made it clear that the man was on the edge of turning violent.

”If we keep going like this, we might wander into the Vale of Mists by accident,” he said nervously as he glanced out the window for what felt like the dozenth time in the past ten minutes. The night was so dark that it was impossible to see landmarks and he was beginning to lose track of time as the countryside rolled by in the dark but he was certain they were closer to the Vale of Mists than he’d ever come before, and if not, they would be soon.

”Even if the demons have been hiding like turtles in their shells, a turtle can snap at you if you come too close to it,” he said, hoping that these ignorant merchants who had never once encountered demons would listen to common sense that people living on the frontier learned from the day they were children. No one wanted to be anywhere near the Demon Lady of the Vale, especially on a dark, moonless night in late autumn or winter!

”I don’t know where we’re going,” Isabell said curtly as she fought to restrain herself from snapping at the timid knight. She knew he’d suffered at the hands of too many people in order to turn out this way but sometimes she felt like her young son had a greater measure of courage than Sir Hugo.

”Mister Marcel has made arrangements for this evening and I’m choosing to put my trust in him,” she said, though whether she said it to defend the Black Merchant or to reassure herself was difficult to say. Her discomfort didn’t stem entirely from the strange man who had rushed at their carriage, but also at the way Marcel seemed to appear out of nowhere behind him, striking without warning and rendering the frantic soldier utterly senseless in a single blow.

Isabell was no stranger to men who kept order with a heavy strap or a copper banded club, but the precision and speed of Marcel’s silent attack put all of those rough men to shame.

”We should stop,” Sir Rain said, frowning at the merchants who seemed to place so much faith in the young man who was driving the carriage. Perhaps it was because they saw him as one of their own, but even after all this time in the carriage, he couldn’t think of a single reason why they should put so much faith in such a suspicious individual. ”I don’t like the idea of riding into a trap.”

”And you think Mister Marcel is leading us into a trap because of what that man said?” Isabell asked with a raised brow. ”Who was he? He looked like he recognized you as soon as he saw you. Is there something you aren’t telling us, Sir Rain?”

”What? No!” Rain said, instantly offended at the notion that he knew who the other man had been. Only a madman would be wandering about in the dark like this, especially this close to the Vale of Mists and Rain had no desire to be associated with lunatics or fools. ”He was dressed like a soldier. Plenty of soldiers have seen me at tournaments and feasts. I have no idea who he was.”

”Then why put any faith in the notion that this is a trap?” Tiernan asked gruffly. ”Sir Hugo, you’re the one who introduced us to Mister Marcel, don’t you trust the man you went through such great pains to arrange for us to meet?”

”That...” Hugo started awkwardly. ”Mister Marcel is a man with many talents,” he said, choosing his words with care. ”But his methods,” he started to say before his voice trailed off awkwardly. In truth, Hugo barely knew the young man and they had only met on a handful of occasions in order to arrange matters for Owain’s retribution against Sir Tommin’s family. Meeting with the strange youth had never felt entirely comfortable and now, as the carriage trundled along further and further into the night, he only felt more uncertain about the strange merchant’s methods.

”Sometimes, when you make a deal, you can only see it to the end,” Master Tiernan said definitively. ”Whether or not it was a good deal will be clear soon enough. For now, take what rest you can,” he said, leaning back in the carriage and closing his eyes. ”It may be a very late night tonight.”

Silence once again enveloped the interior of the carriage as its occupants shifted nervously, finding positions to rest or gazing out the windows into the dark of night and catching occasional glimpses of the lights of their carriage reflecting off the surface of the River Luath whenever the road approached its banks.

Eventually, they began to hear the sounds of people moving about and Isabell spotted the lights of a small camp clustered around a set of large fires not far from the ancient road. Within the camp, a large striped tent dominated most of the space while a second tent with two of its walls rolled up provided an area for servants and soldiers to rest, though the entire camp seemed strangely active for the middle of the night.

Moments later, as the carriage rolled to a stop and a group of men began to approach the carriage, Isabell realized something else about the camp. While the handsome young man leading the group was dressed in an exceptionally well made tunic with an elegant silver cloak pin shaped like a leaf making it clear that he was a person of some status, the other men in the group wore the same green and blue patterned gambesons as the man named Darragh who had tried to warn them of a trap before Marcel silenced him.

Seeing the strange camp, everyone in the carriage exchanged glances that contained varied amounts of confusion. They had arrived, but where exactly were they... and who were these people?