The Vampire & Her Witch

While most of the lords and ladies in the room quietly accepted Ashlynn’s declaration that men and women would have the right to choose their own marriage partners, and a few young women even seemed to be celebrating the fact, not everyone accepted her decree so easily.

”Your Grace,” Telent Rundel said as the shock started to die down. ”Forgive me, but I’m not certain that such a rule can be made in the Kingdom of Gaal,” he said, adopting a tone that a tutor might use to correct a student who had given the wrong answer during a lesson.

”Ever since the Shield Breaker Rebellion, a lord has had the right to set the terms of his children’s marriages,” Baron Rundel said patiently, spreading his hands as if he were helpless before the kingdom’s laws. ”And a lord may also make arrangements for his vassals in order to preserve the peace and prosperity of the realm.”

”This has been the law of the kingdom for more than a hundred years, your Grace,” he concluded. ”Accepted by the Church in the Holy City. It isn’t so easily set aside.”

Several people at the high table shifted awkwardly as Telent Rundel appeared to rebuke the young marchioness as if she were a wayward pupil. She had rejected the title of ’Saintess’ last night, but everyone in the hall had witnessed her miracles, and no one had forgotten the way she defeated her husband in a sacred duel.

Some eyes shifted to High Priest Aubin, wondering if he would weigh in on the matter, but the white-haired priest had already declared his support for Lady Ashlynn, kneeling before her and pledging to help make up for the crimes the Church had committed. He was already prepared to break with the Church over far more important matters than the kingdom’s marriage laws, and he said nothing now.

”So what?” Ashlynn asked, frowning at the oily baron with his slicked-back hair and his well-oiled mustache.

She doubted that his rebuke about the kingdom’s marriage law had anything to do with his own intentions for his children or the children of his vassals. Telent was aiming at a larger prize, and his attempt to pull her down was a move for position. Perhaps he thought that he was being clever and setting a trap for her, in which case, Ashlynn was willing to play along long enough to let him expose himself.

”I think it’s important that we conduct ourselves in a way that aligns with the King’s decrees and the Kingdom’s laws,” Baron Rundel said smoothly, either oblivious to or deliberately ignoring the barb in Ashlynn’s bluntness.

”I’m not a legal scholar, your Grace,” Telent continued as he adopted an air of false modesty. ”But I have a cousin who is a baronet in the Royal Court who is familiar with many such matters and he has always been willing to advise me in times of need.”

”I would be happy to offer my services as an advisor, your Grace,” Telent offered, sounding like he was doing her a great favor. ”And of course that includes making use of whatever connections I may possess in the Royal Capital to advocate for your interests, particularly as it pertains to matters like marriage.”

”Oh?” Ashlynn asked, raising a brow at the baron who seemed determined to hang himself. ”And just what do you think you would be advocating for as it pertains to marriage?”

”I’m certain my husband was just referring to your intentions to challenge the existing laws,” Baroness Brighde said, flashing her husband a warning look while she stepped on his foot under the table. ”The Shield Breaker Rebellion predates even the Second Crusade. I think that your Grace is right to challenge such an antiquated tradition,” she said, grinding her heel into the bridge of Telent’s foot.

”I’m certain that Telent can help your petition find its way through the labyrinth of the Royal Court’s bureaucracy,” Brighde offered. ”He’s very capable at things like that, you know.”

”Ah, is that what you meant, Baron Rundel?” Ashlynn asked, keeping her voice as mild and sweet as fresh milk. ”You’ll help me change the kingdom’s laws to suit my desires?”

”This, um,” Telent said awkwardly as he found himself caught between his wife on one side and Lady Ashlynn on the other. ”There are limits to how much influence I have, even with a cousin at court,” he said quickly. ”I, I doubt that the king will be willing to change a law that has proven so useful to the royal court over the years,” he added, refusing to take the escape path that Brighde had cleared for him.

”But I could, um, I could begin circulating a name for you, Your Grace,” Telent offered. ”After all, the first name people hear linked with your own is the one they’ll remember most when the time comes to make that most important decision. I can, I can help you find an outcome that would be more to your liking,” he said, sweat breaking out on his brow as Ashlynn’s emerald gaze grew both heavier and sharper.

”And just what ’important decision’ is going to be made that I will need your help with?” Ashlynn said in a voice that was colder than the winter winds outside the Great Hall.

”That, um, your Grace,” Telent said awkwardly as he found himself forced to give an answer to something that should already have been made obvious by the conversation they’d had so far. He took a deep, steadying breath and tried to summon back up the demeanor he’d started with, that of a wise elder offering counsel to a young pupil who just happened to hold a position of superior authority, but he found it difficult to manifest even half of the confidence he’d displayed when he first spoke.

”Your Grace,” Telent continued, pushing on despite the warning look his wife was giving him. ”Now that the Lothians have fallen without any heirs to the throne, you may hold the throne for a time until the King decides who should rule the march,” Telent said.

”At that time, since you are a widow without children, he may require his chosen successor to marry you,” Telent said, speaking as if it were only common sense. ”That way, there would be a sense of continuity within the march, and you would be the bridge between the last marquis and the next,” he said, placing extra emphasis on the last six words.

After all, in Telent’s view, Lady Ashlynn’s ’rule,’ such as it was, would only last until winter ended and messengers could arrive from the royal capital with the king’s decrees. At that point, the king was likely to appoint a new Marquis, and while Telent himself wouldn’t be able to marry Ashlynn in order to claim the throne, his eldest son, Dousan, was close in age to the current Marchioness should the king desire to promote one of the local baronial families to the position of Marquis.

More likely, however, the king would select someone from among the counts and viscounts that served the royal family, or he would be forced by the Ruling Council to select from among the descendants of the current dukes.

If it was the former, then Telent still had friends and allies there he might be able to pull into position, but if it was the latter, then he would have to rely on Brighde’s connections in Keating to make any kind of move.

Either way, Telent’s point stood. Lady Ashlynn’s authority over the march was as thin and as fleeting as the winter snow, and soon, whatever she ’decreed’ would be undone. The more trouble she made now, the harder it would be to find herself in the king’s good graces when the Crown selected the next ruler of the march, but with someone like him at her side to advise her, the worst outcomes could certainly be avoided...

Yet, for all Telent’s words should have hung above Ashlynn like a headsman’s ax, she seemed to be completely unbothered by what he’d just said. She even started to laugh, as if he’d told some great joke, while Baron Loghlan Dunn looked at him with eyes overflowing with pity.

”Baron Rundel,” Ashlynn said, smiling at the oily baron the way a fox smiled at an unguarded coop full of hens. ”I think you may have the wrong impression of what it means for me to claim the throne as marchioness.”

”The Verdant Hills are mine by right of marriage and by right of conquest,” Ashlynn said firmly. ”From this day forward, we are no longer subjects of the Kingdom of Gaal.”