The Vampire & Her Witch

Adala hadn’t known what to expect after the events of last night. She still couldn’t entirely believe that she’d taken a stand against her father in the middle of the trial that would reshape the march for generations to come.

Afterward, Isabell had asked her to stay close to the Blackwell knights, and Sir Elgon Prowell had been a perfect gentleman as he escorted her back to the chambers where the Blackwell knights had stayed just down the hall from Lady Jocelynn’s chambers.

”Courage in a crisis is an amazing thing,” Sir Elgon said as he cleared one of the two bedchambers so she could have a space to herself. ”But if your legs go to jelly afterward, or your stomach rolls like a dinghy in a storm, just know that that’s normal even for men like me.”

”Thank you, Sir Elgon,” Adala said as politely as she could manage. ”If I have any trouble...”

”I know, I know, you won’t,” he said, shaking his head as a patient smile formed on his lips. ”I have a daughter of my own, you know, just a few years younger than you. I don’t think she’ll ever be as brave as you were tonight, but if I’d seen her do what you did, I’d tell her how proud I was that she stood up for what was right.”

”It’s not right to have to stand against your own kin like that,” Elgon told her. ”But now that you have, if you need someone to talk to, well, I’m here,” he finished a bit awkwardly. ”Just ask.”

Adala had thought that would be the end of things between her and the Blackwell knight. She’d gone to bed that night with a chair wedged in the door, just in case, and despite the exhaustion that accompanied the previous night’s events, she’d lain awake for hours before sleep finally claimed her.

When she woke, however, the Blackwell knights had yet another surprise for her.

”You, you retrieved my things from my family?” Adala asked when she saw the neatly stacked travel chests in the sitting room in the morning. ”How... why?”

”You need them, don’t you?” Sir Elgon said with a shrug. ”Your father might not be too happy about it when he finds out, but the household staff didn’t take much convincing,” he said as if it weren’t a big deal. ”One of the chambermaids packed up your things for us, so if anything’s missing, let me know, and I know the face of the woman to talk to...”

And just like that, Adala found herself a little bit less lost and untethered than she’d felt the night before after making the decision to stand against her family. She might be living a life in exile, but at least she’d managed to leave home with more than the clothes on her back. And, from what Master Isabell had said, Lady Ashlynn might even find some kind of place for her in her court...

So when Adala followed Sir Elgon and the other knights from Blackwell to breakfast that morning, she’d expected to be given a place to the side while events unfolded. Eventually, after the important matters had been dealt with, assuming Lady Ashlynn had any time for minor matters, she might have gotten a few minutes of her time to find out what would happen to her now.

She’d never expected that, once she arrived at breakfast, her father would be exiled from the High Table, or the Center Table rather, or that Lady Ashlynn would ask her to sit beside her during the feast.

”You don’t have to look so nervous,” Ashlynn said quietly as she gestured for Adala to take a seat next to her at the only table that still had chairs. Every other table in the hall had had its legs cut down to sit low on the floor among piles of cushions, but the Center Table still stood high and proud, though every chair at the table had a fur stole draped across it in an approximation of the coziness of the lower tables.

”When it comes to business, just speak your mind,” Ashlynn said. ”But before then, it’s just breakfast, and we’re all just people,” she said, smiling at Sir Ollie and Master Isabell along with the other lords and ladies who were making their way to the Center Table.

”You say that, Your Grace,” Adala said as she took her seat. ”But most people can’t perform miracles or fight men like Lord Owain or...” Or any of a dozen other miraculous things that Lady Ashlynn had done last night to take control of her own destiny in a way that Adala had always dreamed about and never managed to accomplish.

Adala was accustomed to thinking of herself as sharp and accomplished, at least among her peers. But next to Lady Ashlynn, who was only a few years older than her, it was hard not to feel overwhelmed. That feeling only grew stronger when she looked at the quiet, capable intelligence that lurked behind Master Isabell’s silver-rimmed spectacles or Sir Ollie’s strong, steady presence that even experienced lords like Loghlan Dunn seemed to defer to.

In fact, everyone who had come with Lady Ashlynn last night seemed to be a bit extraordinary in their own ways, and it left Adala feeling much smaller and less sure of herself than she was used to being. The feeling was distinctly uncomfortable, but it was also entirely different from the pressure she was used to facing at gatherings like this. Men like her father pushed her down to make themselves feel more capable and accomplished, even if they weren’t. But Lady Ashlynn and her people didn’t need to push anyone down... They just stood up and towered like giants who didn’t know how to make themselves small.

”Maybe that’s true,” Ashlynn said with a gentle, welcoming smile. ”But I had to learn everything I did last night. On the night of my wedding to Owain, I was powerless and helpless, and that’s why he was nearly able to murder me,” she said as her gaze became momentarily dark.

”Since then, I’ve learned to fight for myself,” Ashlynn said as the shadows seemed to melt from her gaze. ”I wouldn’t suggest that anyone learns the way I did. The past nine months have been... Intense,” she said, covering up what must have been tremendous effort on her part with an even greater understatement. ”But if you want to learn to fight for yourself, you can.”

”I don’t think I could, your Grace,” Adala said as she glanced at the lords and knights gathered at the table. ”But I don’t think I could ever wield a sword like you did last night. I don’t think there are more than a dozen women who could,” she said, choosing the sword as the most obvious example of things that were beyond her reach. The miracles that Lady Ashlynn had performed were even more unimaginably beyond her.

”That’s up to you,” Lady Ashlynn said gently. ”Whether it’s the sword or other things, if you want to learn, then I’m happy to find a teacher for you. Hugo’s cousin, Dame Sybyll, is one of the people who taught me how to fight in armor, and she’s an incredible warrior.”

”You don’t have to give me an answer today,” Ashlynn added as the rest of the guests found their places and settled into their strange seats in the hall. ”Just spend some time thinking about what you really want out of life, because for women like you and me... The world will have many more options than it did a year ago.”

Before Adala could ask what Lady Ashlynn meant by that, the first woman to rule Lothian March directly as Marchioness stood up from her chair, holding up her hand to silence the chatter in the hall as she prepared to address her court for the first time...