The Vampire & Her Witch

Hugo and the other captive knights didn’t have to wait long before a polite knock sounded at the door, followed by a dapper and refreshed looking Sir Ollie carrying a basket loaded with ingredients.

”Gentlemen, I hope you’re hungry,” Ollie said with a bright, guileless smile. ”I know that some of you had a rough time of it last night so I brought plenty,” he added, lifting up the overflowing basket as if to emphasize his words.

”Like I’d eat anything you put in front of us after you poisoned our men,” Sir Rain spat. ”Goes to show that you can dress a kitchen-boy up like a knight but that won’t give him the common sense that the Lord of Light gave to squires and pages.”

”Sir Rain,” Carwyn said, frowning at the belligerent knight. ”Remember that we’re guests here.”

”It’s fine,” Ollie said, raising a hand and shaking his head. ”Sir Rain and Sir Hugo have every reason to mistrust me,” he continued, setting the basket on the table and beginning to unpack it, laying fresh carrots and onions, thick smoked bacon, close to a dozen hen’s eggs and many more ingredients on the table.

”It’s true that I poisoned the food we fed to their men the other night,” Ollie explained. ”The potion was simple, it caused no harm other than putting the men to sleep until we could bring them here, but it was still an underhanded and dishonest way to treat your men.”

Ollie had agreed with the plan because it meant they wouldn’t have to risk a fight. Between himself, Lady Ashlynn and Sir Marcell, they could have overpowered Owain’s men easily. The risk that someone would get hurt in the process, especially people who were effectively bystanders like the Guild Masters or even Ollie’s men from the village.

No, it had been safer for everyone to do things they way they had and the outcome likely wouldn’t have been any different, but he could understand Sir Rain’s resentment.

”This is exactly why I offered to come cook for you, here, in your own chambers, instead of asking Georg to prepare you one of his special meals,” Ollie explained. ”Maybe in time, you’ll be willing to taste real Eldritch cooking prepared by a genuine master, but until then, I hope we can at least break bread together as knights. The rest can come later.”

”You don’t mind if we inspect your ingredients for poison, do you?” Hugo asked, looking carefully over the meat, eggs, vegetables and seasonings that Ollie had brought along. He didn’t know anything about being a poison taster and he had no idea how they were supposed to check even if the flame-haired young knight agreed, but he didn’t know how else he should proceed.

Between Sir Rain’s belligerence and Sir Carwynn constantly looking at him for direction, the poor Steward felt like he had to do something to take control of the conversation. Something that indicated they wouldn’t just roll over and accept what Ollie said as truth but at the same time, refrained from insulting their powerful host. After all, even if Sir Ollie said that he wanted this to be a meal together as knights, Hugo hadn’t forgotten that the other man was also the Cypress Witch.

”Of course I don’t mind,” Ollie said warmly as he began to open jars, sliding them across the table one at a time. ”This one is salt,” he said, offering it up to Hugo to inspect and taste if he wished. ”And this one is ground longpepper,” he explained.

As Ollie presented each ingredient, Hugo made a show of carefully examining it. Some things, he simply looked at, holding it up to the light streaming in through the window as if he was looking for discolorations. Other things, those that were familiar to him like salt and longpepper, he pinched between his fingers before touching a tiny portion to his tongue.

At first, he felt like something of a fool doing it, but Sir Carwyn seemed to be visibly relieved to see his scholarly lord taking the lead in ensuring the safety of Sir Ollie’s ingredients and the young knight who had come to cook for them didn’t seem to take any offense at his actions. Whether that was because the young man accepted them as valid or he chose to protect Hugo’s dignity, the scholarly knight didn’t know, but he was thankful either way.

Under Ollie’s patient explanations, the tension in the room slowly melted and by the time the scent of bacon sizzling on a pan hanging over the hearth filled the room, even Sir Rain’s reticence began to melt. It wasn’t until Ollie had piled up several plates of food and set them all on the table, however, that anyone said more than a few words to ask about his ingredients under the auspices of ’inspecting them for poison.’

”You were once a cook in Lord Owain’s kitchens, weren’t you?” Hugo asked delicately. Having only entered Owain’s service after the incident where his predecessor died and Ollie fled the summer villa, neither he nor Sir Rain had any real memory of Ollie but the thin connection gave him something to latch onto in this strange, demonic fortress.

”Is this the sort of food you’d cook for Lord Owain?” Hugo asked, pointing at a grilled pancake formed of mashed potatoes and carrots blended with a copious amount of spices before it was fried in bacon fat. ”It looks, unusual.”

”This one is a bit of an experiment,” Ollie admitted as he took a bite of his own potato pancake. ”I learned it just recently from a member of the Scaled Clan visiting from High Fen City. It’s better with the herb sauce they make but it’s still very good on its own.”

”I’ll stick to normal food,” Sir Rain said stubbornly, pushing the potato pancake to the side and reaching to the center of the table to dish himself an extra portion of bacon and soft scrambled eggs. ”You’re not going to trick me by serving up one of your witch’s brews disguised as food.”

”Sir Rain,” Ollie said with a heavy sigh, holding up a hand before either of the other knights could intervene. He’d promised Ashlynn that he would take care of these men and more than that, he’d told Marcel that he would get the answers from them that the vampire wanted without resorting to more forceful means.

Right now, Ashlynn was hurting and there was absolutely nothing Ollie could do to help her. But he could do this. He could tend to the captives they’d taken and he could get her the information she would need to plan the next stages of the war. When she was ready for it, he would show her that she didn’t have to take so much on her own shoulders because she could rely on him and the rest of the coven in her absence.

But right now, Sir Rain’s constant badgering and petty snipes were spoiling both the mood and his efforts and he was out of patience for it.

”Sir Rain, I’ve done my best to be polite,” Ollie said, staring at the man with frigid eyes. ”I’ve made allowances for the fact that you’re captives here and you were deceived along the way. I’ve even done my best to treat you as your own man instead of an extension of Lord Owain’s wickedness.”

”But at some point, enough is enough,” Ollie said as he rose to his feet. Taking a deep breath, he fought to keep himself calm as he uttered the words Thane had insisted he learn, even though he’d never thought he’d have a reason to use them.

”A knight can endure countless blows to his body, but his honor cannot be impugned,” Ollie said formally. ”Since you cannot accept my courtesy or hospitality in good faith and insist that I’m scheming against you, then prove your accusation by strength of arms or still your tongue.”

”A duel?” Sir Rain said, nearly choking on his eggs as he stared at Ollie in shock. ”You’re challenging me to a duel of honor? You really are just a kitchen-boy with his head stuffed full of nonsense, aren’t you?”

”Accept or refuse,” Ollie said firmly, refusing to back down from the challenge now that he’d issued it. His heart thundered in his chest and his palms were slick with sweat but he held his ground, standing tall and proud on the spot where he’d issued his challenge.

”Well, since you’re offering up your own head,” Sir Rain said with a mocking sneer. ”How can I refuse to claim it?”