The Vampire & Her Witch

”It’s good that you understand,” Ashlynn said, keeping one hand on his cheek as she raised the other hand high. Emerald energy spilled from her hand, flowing over Ashlynn and Tommin like a waterfall cascading over smooth stones, and when next she spoke, her voice resonated with a power that echoed off the walls of the courtyard like a proclamation from on high.

”Willow’s tears upon the wounded fall,

Mend the flesh and bone, one and all...”

As she spoke, the energy flowing around her and Tommin took shape, transforming into a mighty willow tree with a trunk that completely enveloped Ashlynn while its ephemeral branches gently swayed over Sir Tommin’s battered body.

Heila had done what she could for the wounded knight, but with so many people in need of her healing, she’d done little more than resolve the most life-threatening of his injuries. Several of his bones still bore cracks, even if they hadn’t broken, and his torso under the tunic Ashlynn had torn was a mass of bruises. Now, however, the gentle energy of the willow tree tenderly caressed each of those wounds, smoothing cracked bones like a potter working with soft clay, and wiping away bruises as though they’d only been painted on.

”Where light has burned beyond the Willow’s strength to bend,

Let true love’s tears soothe hurts I cannot mend.”

Healing Tommin’s eyes, restoring what the Holy Light Blade had taken from him when his faith failed, would require a price that Ashlynn was unwilling to pay for a man like Tommin. She knew all too well from the days when she faced the trial of the Ancient Willow that even for her closest friends, the price to heal some wounds might be too high. But even if she couldn’t restore his sight, she could still wipe away the searing pain in his eyes that the Church’s ’holy’ weapon had left him with.

Around the courtyard, everyone watched with a sense of awe, wonder, and varied amounts of surprise as Ashlynn summoned the power of the forest to heal the wounds of the man who had once buried her alive.

The tree Ashlynn had conjured did more than just heal Sir Tommin’s wounds. Even as Ashlynn focused all of her attention on carefully controlling the energy flowing through the ethereal willow branches, a rain of emerald green willow leaves fluttered around the courtyard, falling on the people witnessing her miracle and carrying a trace of the same healing energy she used to mend Tommin’s broken body.

Loman touched the stump of his shoulder in silent wonder as he felt the aches and pains of the long carriage ride fading away, leaving him feeling as refreshed and renewed as he would have if he’d just climbed out of a soft bed instead of a carriage seat that he’d spent close to an entire day in.

All around him, people had similar reactions, testing their joints and feeling their bodies as the fringes of Ashlynn’s healing witchcraft eased the hurts that Lady Heila had been too overworked and exhausted to tend as well as the Willow Witch would have wished. And this, they realized, was only the effect of being nearby while the Mother of Trees focused on healing the broken, battered man before her...

Heila smiled in deep satisfaction, watching with pride as Ashlynn reached out to the Willow tree to complete the healing she’d begun back in Hanrahan town. Across the courtyard from her, Ollie smiled in relief, relaxing for the first time since the carriages had arrived in the Ancient Fortress with their prisoners.

If this was the decision she’d arrived at, then perhaps he’d been wrong to be so worried about her reaction to Sir Tommin. Maybe it was only her closest family, like Jocelynn, who could wound her enough for the powerful witch to truly lose control.

”I thought Lady Heila was the Willow Witch,” Diarmuid whispered to the flame-haired knight when he saw the young man relaxing. ”So, what kind of witch is Lady Ashlynn if she uses the power of the Willow as well?”

”Lady Ashlynn is the Mother of Trees,” he said, confirming Diarmuid’s suspicions and delivering yet another surprise to her one-armed brother-in-law, Loman. ”All trees bow before her Dominion,” he explained with a proud smile of his own. ”Why else do you think the Eldritch address her that way?”

”So, she really is,” Loman whispered as he watched the miracle of healing taking place before him. ”Not just a witch, but a Great Witch... the Mother of Trees...”

On the cold flagstones of the courtyard, Tommin’s mouth worked soundlessly as he tried to understand the sensations coursing through his body. All of the aches and pains that had made the journey so torturous were fading away one by one, leaving him feeling whole and hale for the first time since he buckled on his armor to fight against the Crimson Knight.

Even the lingering burning pain in his eyes faded away, as though a soothing rain had extinguished the flames that should have spelled eternal torment as a punishment for his failure.

”Why?” Tommin asked, raising his head to look at Ashlynn with his sightless eyes. ”Why would you heal me before the end? I don’t deserve your mercy...”

”The man you are today doesn’t deserve mercy,” Ashlynn agreed as she reached out to take Tommin’s hands in her own, slowly helping the confused knight to his feet. ”But at some point in your life, the man you were was worthy of Rosie’s love, and the love of your son Tonnis,” she said. ”Somewhere along the way, something happened to that man, and everything that’s happened since then has made a mockery of what came before.”

Privately, she didn’t know if the words she’d spoken were true or not. Tommin had served at Owain’s side for much of his life, and not once in that time had Tommin felt that Owain had crossed a line that made him unworthy of Tommin’s service.

Tommin hadn’t done anything when Owain’s nearly annual attempts to earn glory by fighting against the Eldritch produced dozens of casualties among his commoner soldiers. He hadn’t resigned in protest when Owain abused the women he vented his lust on in the brothels he visited. Even when Owain exacted brutal vengeance on people he felt had somehow slighted him, Tommin continued to serve like a man who had learned to become selectively blind long before he was physically blinded.

Her act of mercy didn’t come from a belief that Tommin had been a good man, a good husband or a good father... But she wanted very badly to believe that even a man as flawed as Tommin could transform himself if he had the chance. More than that, she wanted to believe that she could turn away from her need to destroy someone who had hurt her so badly that she still suffered from nightmares...

Tommin didn’t deserve this chance, but she was going to give it to him anyway. Not for his sake, but for her own.

”So listen carefully to my judgment,” Ashlynn said sternly. ”Because I haven’t forgiven you for what you have done to me, and I’ve forgiven you even less for the way you’ve hurt your family. Family is precious,” she said, glancing briefly at the one-armed figure of her brother-in-law before she turned back to Sir Tommin. ”You should struggle to be a person who is worthy of their love.”

”Now, everyone, listen closely,” Ashlynn said, speaking to everyone in the courtyard who was watching this moment unfold. ”You will not speak of this moment to anyone. If you cannot swear to keep this secret, then leave now before I pronounce his sentence. I will not have word of this reaching Lady Rosie’s ears or anyone else’s...”