The Vampire & Her Witch

The sky was just beginning to lighten when Milo spotted the rider trotting in the direction of the copse of trees where he and Harrod had met with Ollie and the human nobles the night before.

Ollie hadn’t stayed long after he’d used his witchcraft to pass a message to Lady Ashlynn. In fact, he’d only stayed long enough to receive a reply from Her Dominion before returning to the human’s camp. Before he left, however, he’d made his instructions clear.

”Pass the word to the others,” Ollie commanded. ”Liam and I had to reveal more than we intended to a larger group of people than expected. The noblemen of Lord Loghlan’s Court should know how to keep a secret, but I can’t trust them completely until I’ve spent more time with them, and even that may not be enough,” he said, hanging his head low as he remembered the man who had spent months in his village acting like a friend and ally until he tried to carry word about Ashlynn to Owain at the first opportunity he was given.

”I want to trust my new friends,” Ollie said as he shot a helpless look toward Sir Gavin and Lady Isolde. ”But I don’t know which members of Lord Loghlan’s Court have mastered the skill of saying what you want to hear in public while keeping their true thoughts deeply hidden. They may agree to support Lady Ashlynn now, only to run away in the night with word of our plans. If the Inquisition in Maeril learns of this, or worse, if someone carries word to Owain Lothian, it could jeopardize more than just Lady Ashlynn’s plans... It could also place her sister in danger.”

”I’ll spread the word,” Harrod promised. ”And we’ll keep an eye on all sides of the camp until you leave tomorrow. At that point, we’ll need to return to the Vale,” he said reluctantly. ”We’re already too close to human lands as is. Much closer than this, and we may bump into farmers and ranchers tending their herds.”

Given the choice, Harrod would have preferred to march into camp with Ollie tonight. After all, if they were going to be allies with the Dunns, they might as well learn to get along with the Eldritch now.

But he understood how delicate the moment was, and even though the humans Ollie had brought with him both had positive reactions to meeting a pair of Eldritch warriors, Harrod understood very well that Ollie had purchased their favorable impressions with witchcraft that healed Gavin’s old wound. There were over a hundred humans in that camp, and it was impossible for Ollie to convince all of them to see the Eldritch the same way that Sir Gavin and Lady Isolde did.

”You’ve already done a great deal, Harrod, Milo,” Ollie said, clapping each man on the shoulder before he turned to go. ”If we’re lucky, the night will be uneventful, and you can go home to your warm beds without doing anything besides playing babysitter. If you see anyone sneaking away, though...”

”We understand, Sir Ollie,” Milo said, raising his longbow while his tail softly thumped the ground. ”We’ll stop anyone who tries to spread the word.”

It had been easy to say the night before. They all understood how important it was to keep their movements secret until it was too late for Owain Lothian to slip the trap or harm any more of Lady Ashlynn’s loved ones. But in the early morning light, when Milo finally spotted someone attempting to slip away from the camp, his tail drooped along with his whiskers, and he hesitated to take any action.

”Harrod,” Milo whispered, tapping the horned soldier’s shoulder with his bow and pointing to the rider who was staying close to the riverbank as she approached the copse of trees. ”Take a look.”

Harrod scrubbed his eyes with the back of a sleeve and blinked several times as he stared in the direction that his companion from the Heartwood Clan pointed. The Horned Clan held a distinct advantage when it came to scouting because their field of view was wider, but that also came with a cost; his vision in dim light wasn’t nearly as good as the archer lying next to him in the underbrush between the trees.

”It looks like one of the nobles decided to run,” Harrod said a few heartbeats later. The cloak the woman wore was far too fine for a human commoner, with fur trim and a silver cloak-pin that glinted in the early morning light. Whoever this person was, their identity wasn’t ordinary, and they were likely one of the people whom Ollie had met with the night before.

”I, I don’t want to kill her,” Milo said hesitantly as his hand tightened on the grip of his longbow. ”Can you catch her? Are you fast enough to capture her?”

”If I go now, I can catch up to her, but capturing her?” Harrod said, frowning at his companion, who had never hesitated to strike at humans before. ”It’s too difficult. If I can’t knock her from her horse in a single charge, and she bolts, I won’t get a second chance. I’m fast,” he said without boasting. ”But horses are still faster. Why? Do you want to drag her back to Sir Ollie to question? Are you afraid that she’s told others?”

”She has a child with her,” Milo said, pointing with the tip of his bow. ”See the small legs in front of hers? Her cloak is covering most of the child, but you can also see two clouds of mist forming when they breathe... I don’t want to kill a child, Harrod,” Milo said as his whiskers drooped even lower.

”You may not have a choice... I’ll try to catch her,” Harrod said, adjusting the mace that hung from his hip and loosening the long-bladed knife that lay next to it. ”But if she bolts, I need you to stop her horse. She can’t get away, Milo,” Harrod said firmly. ”Even if she’s brought a little lamb to use as a shield.”

”I know,” Milo said as he shifted his position, moving behind a small bush that offered better concealment from the direction of the rider while still allowing him to keep her in view. ”Go,” he said as he retrieved an arrow from his quiver and knocked it on the bowstring.

”Hurry,” Milo added, praying that his horned companion would be able to stop them without hurting the child. It was a fragile hope, but he clung to it even as he prepared his bow. He didn’t want to harm an innocent, but many more people would be harmed if word got out, including Sir Ollie, and Milo couldn’t afford to take that risk.