The Vampire & Her Witch

”Dame Sybyll conquered all of Hanrahan in a single day,” Liam said, his voice steady despite the discomfort he felt about pressing this point. ”From the Town of Hanrahan to the smallest village, she claimed everything in a matter of hours. She defeated their soldiers, killed or captured their knights along with a force of Templars and the Temple Guard, and established herself as the new Lady of Hanrahan before the sun rose. What’s stopping Lady Ashlynn from doing the same to us?”

”We do have several advantages over the Hanrahans,” Sir Brennus pointed out, once again playing the role of an oppositional voice, only this time he did it for his lord’s heir rather than for Lord Loghlan. ”We have more soldiers, more knights, and all of them are better equipped and better trained. The Hanrahans were also taken off guard, unaware of the threat posed by Lady Ashlynn and her forces. Now, thanks to you, we’re much better informed.”

”We also have more recent experience in battle,” the veteran knight added. ”Your campaigns this summer and the past few years have blooded our soldiers and given them both confidence and the skills that accompany their victories,” he said, recognizing the young lord’s efforts and their results without attempting to curry favor by overly praising them. ”The Hanrahans hadn’t fought a real battle in years before Dame Sybyll arrived.”

”And our fortifications are stronger,” Sir Padraig pointed out, though he seemed hesitant about saying it. ”I respect my brother-in-law, but everything he’s told me about Hanrahan speaks of miserly rule with watch towers left unmanned, wooden palisades left in place until they rot, and a shortage of everything from arrows to armor.”

”The Hanrahans couldn’t put up as much of a fight,” he concluded. ”But if we had to survive a siege in Dunn, we could last for weeks while we awaited reinforcements from the Kingdom and the Church.”

But even as the knights offered their reassurances, Baron Loghlan was shaking his head slowly, his expression grave. He looked at Liam, and there was an understanding in his eyes that suggested he’d already reached the same conclusion his son had.

”Those things don’t matter,” Loghlan said quietly, his words falling like stones into still water. ”If Lady Ashlynn’s forces are as strong as Liam claims, if she has witches and vampires and Eldritch warriors at her command, then the advantages we have would only buy us a day or two of struggle. The outcome would be the same in the end.”

He paused, letting that sink in before expressing the final, terrible conclusion he’d arrived at when he forced himself to consider Liam’s question.

”Or, it could be even worse,” Loghlan said. ”Because if we fight back, if we force her to send her armies after us instead of accepting her offer of alliance, she would have no reason to be generous with us. We’d be conquered enemies instead of valued allies, and the terms she would impose on us would reflect that.”

The silence that followed Baron Loghlan’s words was stifling. No one moved, no one spoke, and the only sound in the tent was the soft crackling of the candles as they burned lower, marking the passage of precious time they didn’t have to spare.

”You’re right, Father,” Liam said, leaning forward as he saw understanding reflected in the eyes of his father’s knights, even if it wasn’t mirrored in Lady Cerys’ gaze. ”We can’t resist Lady Ashlynn’s forces if she decides to conquer us. But that’s exactly why her offer is so generous, and it’s exactly the reason why we need to accept it now rather than waiting.”

He could see the confusion on several faces around the table, so he pressed on quickly.

”The most valuable thing we can give Lady Ashlynn right now isn’t our soldiers or our knights or even our territory,” Liam explained. ”It’s time. Right now, at this very moment, Lady Ashlynn’s focus is on the Lothians. She’s preparing to move against Lord Owain, to stop his wedding to her sister, Jocelynn, and to prevent him from taking the throne. That’s where her attention is, that’s where her resources are concentrated, and that’s where she needs to strike quickly before Owain can rally the march against her in order to consolidate his power.”

Liam tapped on the map, first on Lothian City and then on Dunn Barony.

”If she had to conquer us first, it would take time,” he said. ”A day, maybe two if we resisted. But that’s time she doesn’t have. Every day she spends dealing with us is a day that Lord Owain has to prepare, to call in favors, to summon troops from across the march. It’s a day that the Church has to organize a response, that other barons have to choose sides and position themselves...”

”Time is the most scarce resource Lady Ashlynn has right now,” Liam said, looking directly into his father’s eyes. ”And that’s exactly what makes it so valuable.”

As he spoke, he could see understanding beginning to dawn on his father’s face, and on several of the other knights as well.

”By allying with her now, by giving her our support without forcing her to conquer us, we’re giving her the time she needs to focus on her real objectives,” Liam continued. ”That’s worth more to her than our soldiers or our territory or anything else we could offer. And that’s why the terms are so generous. Because she knows that time is running out and she can’t afford to waste any of it dealing with us.”

Liam straightened up, looking around the table at each person in turn.

”But time is a delicate commodity,” he said, his voice taking on an urgent edge. ”It spoils quickly, and the chance to profit from selling it is fleeting. That value only exists right now, in this moment. If we wait, if we try to stay neutral, or if we refuse her offer and force her to come back later, then the time we could have given her will already be gone.”

”She’ll have had to deal with the Lothians without our support,” Laim said, painting a grim picture of what would happen if they squandered this opportunity. ”She’ll have had to divert resources to watching our border and worrying about what we might do. The opportunity will have passed, and we won’t have anything as valuable to offer her as the time we can give her right now.”

”That’s why Sir Ollie only gave us an hour,” Liam said, and his voice carried a note of finality. ”That’s why Lady Ashlynn is pushing for a decision tonight rather than waiting for letters to go back and forth over the course of days or weeks. She’s preparing to move, and she needs to know where we stand so she can factor us into her plans.”

”Right now, at this moment, we can help her the most and gain the most from it,” he said as his voice took on a passionate insistence. ”But if we let this opportunity slip by, it will never come again. We’ll have missed our chance to be valued allies, and we’ll become just another problem she has to deal with when she has the time to spare.”

The silence that followed Liam’s words was different from the silence that had come before. This wasn’t the silence of confusion or fear or uncertainty. This was the silence of people who had finally understood the true nature of the choice before them, who had finally grasped both the danger they faced and the opportunity they’d been offered.

Baron Loghlan sat back in his chair, his eyes distant as he processed everything his son had said. His hand found Mairwen’s again, and she squeezed it gently, offering him the support he needed in this moment of decision.

”Time,” Loghlan said softly, almost to himself. ”The most precious commodity in the world, and the only one we can truly give her that she can’t simply take for herself.”

He looked at Liam, and there was pride in his eyes mixed with a sort of sad understanding. His son had grown so much, had learned so much, and he’d come out the other side of the crucible as a stronger, more capable lord than he’d been just a month ago. Liam understood the choices before them and the consequences they faced for the decisions they might make, and now Loghlan could see that his son wasn’t advocating for Lady Ashlynn because he’d been dazzled by the promise of riches or personal power, but because he fully comprehended the situation they were in.

Glancing to his side, Loghlan saw the same understanding along with a glow of pride reflected in Mairwen’s eyes. They’d both spent several long days and sleepless nights searching for their son, fearing for the worst, but when he returned to them, he’d grown by a notable measure, and he was pressing forward on a path that they could respect.

It might not be an easy path to follow, but Liam was right. Lady Ashlynn’s forces would wash over Lothian March like the floodwaters of the River Luath, and nothing in Dunn Barony could stop that from happening. But at least Liam had found them a boat to pile into, and he’d even found a current that could carry them to greater heights if they could navigate the crush of the rapids.

”You’re right, Son,” Loghlan said, his voice growing stronger as he made his decision. ”You’re absolutely right. The time to choose is now, not later. And if we’re going to choose, then we choose to stand with Lady Ashlynn!”