The Vampire & Her Witch

It took a few moments for everyone to settle back down before Eamon began his tale again. Many people, whether they were members of Ashlynn’s group or people who had come with the Guild Masters and Owain’s knights, were still whispering to each other in hushed tones as the grizzled hunter began to speak again.

”Like I was saying,” Eamon said. ”Lord Owain ordered us to accompany Sir Broll to hunt down Sir Ollie and Lady Ashlynn and we caught them near the fall of night. But that’s when Lady Ashlynn told us all who she was, and what Lord Owain had done to her and how, erm, how Sir Broll had helped to conceal the crime. Then she challenged him to a Trial by Combat right there in the forest with the Holy Lord of Light to bear witness,” he said, glancing nervously over his shoulder at Ashlynn as he spoke.

”You’re telling us that Lady Ashlynn defeated Sir Broll in single combat?” Sir Rain said, staring at Ashlynn before frowning at Eamon. ”Sir Broll was a stronger fighter on foot than I’ve ever been and even skilled swordsmen struggled to overcome that powerful ax of his. How did a little lady like Lady Ashlynn manage to defeat someone like him?” Rain asked incredulously.

”Meaning no disrespect, Lady Ashlynn,” he quickly added as if worried that offending her would provoke her into sending Marcel to take his sword away from him or something worse.

”I can speak to that if your lordship wishes,” Daithi said. ”I was there that night as well and I was in command of the men serving under Sir Broll,” he explained. ”I watched the duel from start to finish and I agree with Sir Rain, Sir Broll was a much more skilled fighter than Lady Ashlynn.”

”Then how did she win?” Sir Rain asked, leaning forward on the wagon’s tailgate and looking intently at the constable. ”Are you telling us it was divine providence from the Holy Lord of Light, favoring the righteous in a sacred trial by combat? Those laws are ancient and even I know that they’re the last resort of a guilty man!”

”Ancient or not,” Daithi said, standing his ground and refusing to back down to the blustering knight. ”The laws are still on the books and Lady Ashlynn won the duel. Sir Broll over committed and got his ax stuck in the ground and Lady Ashlynn severed his hands clean off. He’d have bled to death even if she didn’t deal a killing blow,” he said.

”Your lordship might not believe,” Eamon added with a gleam of religious fervor in his eyes. ”But I saw a miracle that night. Whether it was divine providence that trapped Sir Broll’s ax or that lent its might to Lady Ashlynn’s sword, she proved her virtue with her very next orders.”

”Orders?” Sir Hugo asked, confused as to who exactly Lady Ashlynn would have had to issue orders to. Sir Ollie? Or was the hunter implying that his men submitted to her command as soon as Sir Broll fell? ”What orders did she give?”

”Sir Ollie said we almost caught them, but Lady Ashlynn had soldiers of her own waiting in the woods. She could have commanded them to kill us after the duel but she didn’t.” Eamon explained. ”She took us all as captives and brought us away instead of killing us.”

”Nadf, mmmrrr, dmns!” Darragh shouted into his gag, struggling for the first time since the testimony had begun. Fire burned in his eyes as he watched Eamon acting like they’d encountered simple, ordinary soldiers rather than a dozen Horned and Clawed demons that proved that Lady Ashlynn had become a heretic who needed to be killed. At the very least, people needed to know that Lady Ashlynn was dangerous, but he couldn’t say any of that. ”Mrrrms hrrmmm!”

”Enough of that,” Daithi said sharply, kicking the bound man in the back of his knees and driving him down onto his knees in the soft damp soil of the camp. Grabbing a fist-full of Darragh’s stringy, wet hair, the constable pulled back sharply until Darragh felt like he was about to fall over, suspended only by the tearing pain on his head. ”You don’t interrupt!”

”Apologies, Eamon,” the constable said as he restrained the prisoner. ”You can continue.”

”The only one to die that night was Sir Broll,” Eamon said, nodding his thanks to Daithi. ”She spared every single one of the rest of us. Even though... even though we’d spent the whole day hunting her and Sir Ollie. She didn’t hold it against us even once.”

When Eamon spoke, there was a combination of genuine respect and deep reverence in his voice that couldn’t help but move the hearts of the common soldiers under Sir Rain and Sir Hugo’s command. After all, it was the fate of a soldier to live and die by the decisions his lord made and no one expected mercy if the knight leading them fell in battle, but to hear Eamon tell it, the only person Ashlynn had taken any action against was one of the men who buried her alive!

”I’d have killed the lot of them,” one man whispered to his neighbor. ”Or staked them out as food for the demons in the hills. No way I’d have let them live after hunting me.”

”But couldn’t she just let them go?” the man sitting next to him asked. ”Is it any kindness if you just become a prisoner afterward? I think I’d rather go down fighting than rot away in jail.”

”Don’t look like these men are rotting away though, does it?” a third man said, leaning forward from the row behind the first two. ”Don’t look like they’ve suffered much at all to me.”

”huuu, rmsd, ummrannd,” Darragh murmured in furstration against his gag while he listened to the audience. Leave them out as food for the demons? They’d been handed directly over the demons and were forced to depend on them for everything if they wanted to live! They were made to eat demon food, sleep in the demon castle, watched over by demon guards! How was that not suffering? ”Mmm, mffds, ee,” he muttered darkly, glaring at the crowd who he was certain would side with him if he was just allowed to tell his side of the story!

”And how about your life since then?” Ashlynn asked, completely ignoring Darragh’s struggles as she focused on the attitudes of the crowd and the two knights who served Owain. They were slowly starting to bend, like wood that had been exposed to hot steam, but they were far from ready to be reshaped just yet, and to get them where she wanted them, there were still other things they needed to hear tonight.

”What kind of life have you and Darragh been living in Sir Ollie’s village, Mister Eamon?” Ashlynn asked. ”And Mister Daithi, you as well. When you were taken captive, were your lives so terrible that any man would have fought tooth and nail to escape? Were you tortured and abused so badly as to form grudges that could only be answered by death?”

”Is there anything, anything at all about the way you men and Mister Darragh were treated that would excuse his treachery tonight?”