The Vampire & Her Witch

Carwyn’s gambit was a desperate attempt to redirect his father’s thinking, confronting the old knight with just one of the many shocking truths that Carwyn had learned since he was taken prisoner by the forces of the Vale of Mists.

His shout wasn’t quiet either, and the men who had followed Sir Rhodri shuffled nervously, each one looking to his neighbors and back to the knight they’d come to rescue as they tried to figure out what exactly Sir Carwyn was talking about. Their Lord Baron had murdered the previous Baroness? When and how? And Baron Aiden had usurped the throne after murdering his brother?

None of them ever came into contact with Baron Hanrahan or his family, but they’d all heard about high and mighty members of the aristocracy who spent more time and wealth scheming against each other than they did helping their own people. A few of them even had grudges with the baron over exceptionally heavy tithes collected in years past, but they’d never thought he was the sort to murder his own kin!

”Father,” Carwyn pleaded in a softer tone that was still very insistent. ”I’ve seen the bearer of the true Hanrahan Signet,” he said. ”I’ve sworn my sword to Baron Brighton Hanrahan’s heir, along with young lord Hugo Hanrahan, and to the people she has pledged her fealty to,” he explained as he gestured at Captain Barsali and Loftur. ”These men answer to her as well.”

Behind him, Barsali and Loftur stood still, holding themselves back from what had obviously become an intense conversation. Loftur did his best to convey what was happening to the confused Captain Barsali but there were too many concepts that were completely foreign to the arena Champion from High Fen City.

A younger brother defeated his older brother to become the lord of a territory. In Barsali’s mind, this should have been a very ordinary thing, but looking at the humans who seemed stunned, pale faced and even slightly ill at the news, something was clearly very wrong with this which left Barsali wondering if the younger Hanrahan had done something forbidden in order to obtain his victory, weakening their territory rather than strengthening it.

He didn’t understand, but that didn’t stop him from peppering Loftur with questions in an attempt to know the human he wanted to befriend better. Meanwhile, Carwyn was doing his best to explain things to his father without provoking the sort of tragedy that would only doom the village.

”I’m sorry, Father,” Carwyn said as gently as he could. ”But during the War of Inches, our family fought for the wrong side, while the person whom we really owed our fealty to fought on behalf of the Eldritch people of Airgead Mountain. We’ve been lied to, and Lord Hugo and I have only just learned the truth.”

”So Baron Brighton had a daughter that we’ve never known about?” Sir Rhodri said, furrowing his snowy brows behind his visor as he carefully considered his son’s words. He hadn’t known what would cause his son to give his allegiance to the demons, but he’d suspected that his son had been beguiled by some form of demon witchcraft.

He’d never in his wildest imaginings considered that his son would confront him with news of betrayal and treachery within their liege lord’s family, or that he would have sworn to serve a different branch of the Hanrahan family.

Lord Hugo Hanrahan’s involvement in all of this only made matters murkier. The man was an acknowledged son of Baron Ian Hanrahan, but he was also a bastard who had only been acknowledged over fears that Ian’s son, Bastian, wouldn’t recover from his injuries. A bastard child of an accused usurper and the daughter of a murdered lord sounded more like a rebel uprising than people with any kind of legitimate claim.

”It doesn’t matter if Baron Brighton had a daughter,” Sir Rhodri said slowly. ”Unless she had a son for the throne to pass to before her father died, she has no claim. And Lord Hugo doesn’t have a claim either. He stands behind Bastian to inherit from Lord Ian, and by all accounts, he’s barely capable of fighting.”

”If this daughter of Baron Brighton had been a son instead, then such a man could contest for the throne,” Sir Rhodri said confidently. ”But never a woman. A lord must be able to lead his men in battle and no woman has the strength of arms to take her place on the field in the nightmare of war.”

Try as he might, he couldn’t understand how his son had been swayed to serve a woman who would still need to yield her claim to the throne to the first male heir with clean hands, which likely meant Bastian. His son knew this, and he understood well that a knight, and every lord above him, must be prepared to fight for their people. His son had proved how much he understood that when he fought a duel with a demon! So where exactly had he gone astray?

”That’s where you’re wrong, Father,” Sir Carwyn said, chuckling at his father’s choice of words. ”You already know Dame Sybyll Hanrahan, and you’ve told stories about her strength in battle for years,” he said. ”It’s just that you didn’t know the name of the person underneath the armor of the Crimson Knight,” he explained. ”But I promise you, Father, she’s far stronger than any knight I’ve ever fought, and soon, she’ll reclaim her birthright.”

”You, you’re saying that the Crimson Knight is a woman?” Sir Rhodri said in disbelief. ”A Hanrahan woman? Baron Brighton’s daughter...” he said as his voice trailed off. ”No wonder. No wonder Baron Ian would never go anywhere near the front lines once the Crimson Knight joined in the war,” he breathed.

”There’s more, much more to the story,” Carwyn said as he kneed his horse forward, riding close enough to his father to reach out and rest a hand on the other man’s arm. ”Let me introduce you to my companions, and then, we can all go home. There’s much, much more to discuss, and I intend to send messengers to summon a member of every family to hear the news from me tonight.”

”I know it will be hard to hear,” he said as he looked at the closed-off visor that stopped him from meeting his father’s eyes. ”It was hard for me, too. But I promise that I haven’t betrayed our family or our village. So, even though our new allies are strange, can you trust me, even if you can’t yet trust them?”

”Can you give us a chance to come home without bloodshed today?” Carwyn said. ”Because I’ve seen how the fight will end,” he added in a voice that was loud enough to reach the villagers who had come out to ’rescue’ him. ”And without someone like Lady Heila here to heal the wounded the way she healed me, I’m afraid too many of my friends would die.”