The Vampire & Her Witch

For a moment, Telent Rundel was completely still. But while his body froze, his mind raced, desperate to find an answer to a single burning question: How much did Valeri Leufroy know?

Telent had always been an outsider to the inner circle that Bors Lothian had built during the War of Inches. He’d been forced to find his own avenues to power, and that had begun when he married the daughter of Duke Argidir Keating’s youngest aunt.

He’d known all the way back then that the match his own cousin had made for him came with a price. The Ruling Council didn’t trouble themselves with the affairs of a frontier baron’s marriage without reason, so when he’d received a letter asking him to visit Corven Barony in Keating before entertaining any matchmaking within the march, he’d known that he was caught up in someone else’s scheme.

Argidir had attended the matchmaking banquet personally, and his pitch had been impossible to ignore.

”The Lothians have made promises they cannot keep for generations, Telent,” the duke had said. ”They have you all scrambling over each other to become the first counts of a Lothian Duchy that may never exist. You could spend a lifetime risking your life and the lives of your knights for a dream that would never come true...”

”Or you could open your eyes wider,” Argidir suggested. ”And find paths to advance your ambitions that don’t require a victory over demon hordes. Hordes that halted a crusade, broke the Lothian’s back and compelled the Church to spend the lives of countless Inquisitors and Templars for a hundred years without claiming more than a few inches of land.”

Argidir’s offer hadn’t been subtle. There were limits to how much he could be seen to favor a baron in a distant march. If, on the other hand, that baron had married the daughter of Argidir’s youngest aunt, then his sons would be the duke’s cousins and favors could easily flow to them. Favors like an enrollment to the Royal Academy in Gaalen, just waiting for his eldest to leave in the spring, or admission to Keating’s own academy for his youngest son when the time came. Favors like investments in Telent’s armory to ensure the ’safety’ of the duke’s young cousins against the demon hordes.

In exchange, Brighde brought home notebooks filled with Telent’s notes from closed meetings of the Lothian Court twice a year when she visited her ’ailing’ parents. She also came back the march with instructions, written by the duke or his Steward, directing some of Telent’s actions within the march.

It was an arrangement that had gone on quietly for years, using only the most trusted of agents, members of his own family or Brighde’s as messengers. The chances of Valeri Leufroy discovering any of the details of what he’d done were incredibly small.

And yet... Valeri’s resources were anything but ordinary. While men like Telent had to hire common serving staff to build their network of spies within other noble houses, Valeri had befriended the Inquisition, harvesting the fruits of their reign of terror and torture across the entire march. No one knew what secrets lay in the notebooks compiled by men like Percivus, but if anyone outside the Inquisition had glimpsed their contents, it was likely to be Valeri Leufroy.

”What do you want, Valeri?” Telent said sharply when he arrived at the conclusion that some risks might prove to be too great. ”Speak quickly or not at all.”

”I knew you’d see reason, given the right motivation,” Valeri said with a smile as he leaned back into the armchair. ”Even enemies can unite against a greater foe. So long as you were scheming against Bors for your masters in Keating, you and I could never be friends. But now, my interests and yours are aligned.”

”There’s no future left for me in this march, not right now,” Valeri admitted. ”I need to escape, and when I do, I need to go somewhere. I could go anywhere, Crew, Trevarthan, even Gaalen,” he mused. ”But I think I could be the most useful to the duke in Keating,” he said.

”And what use does Lord Argidir have for a washed-up baron who’s lost his lands?” Telent scoffed. ”Don’t over-sell your value, Valeri.”

”You shouldn’t underestimate me, Telent,” Valeri said, waggling a finger at the younger baron. ”I have leverage enough over the other lords and knights of the march to create opportunities for Duke Argidir to exploit, and I know enough about the defenses in the passes and the lay of the land to guide his forces in successful assaults.”

”I also have the favor of the Inquisition,” he added. ”And while that’s been rendered useless here, it still carries great value in the rest of the kingdom.”

”All of which requires you to reach Keating in order to be useful,” Telent said, pursing his lips as he saw where Valeri was headed. ”So why are you talking to me? If you need to be smuggled into Keating, shouldn’t you be talking to Serle? This sort of thing is better suited to him.”

”Serle sold his soul to that witch in order to be appointed as her ’Lord Ambassador’ to the High Fen, whatever that’s supposed to be,” Valeri said, shaking his head. ”You think he wouldn’t sell me out as well if he thought it’d help him turn a profit? You might be a dog who barks for his master, Telent, but at least you’re a loyal hound.”

”Serle will turn his belly up at the slightest threat,” Valeri said in a voice that dripped with contempt. ”And he wags his tail for whoever has the deepest pockets. Even if he’d turn on Ashlynn, I could never afford the price he’d ask in exchange.”

”But you, Telent,” Valeri continued as his tone sharpened. ”You still stand to profit considerably when this is all over, and I can give you some of the secrets I once held in order to do to Lady Ashlynn the sort of things you once did to Lord Bors. Let me help you rise as a hero who weakened the witch’s empire from within, and you’ll reap tenfold what you spend on helping me escape to Keating.”

”What do you say, Telent?” Valeri asked, extending a hand toward the younger lord. ”Do we have an arrangement?”

”We don’t,” Telent said, ignoring the other man’s hand. ”Not yet,” he added a heartbeat later. ”Go back to your chambers, Valeri. Go try to make amends with your wife. I’ll talk to Brighde in the morning and you’ll have your answer by tomorrow night.”

”Of course, of course,” Valeri said as he stood. ”But don’t take too long. By the time the demons arrive, it will be too late... for both of us,” he said as he opened the door. ”Don’t let indecision take this opportunity away from you, Telent; it will not come again.”

Once the door closed behind the fallen lord, Telent spent several minutes sitting alone in the flickering candlelight, watching the flame burn down while his mind churned with possibilities. The flames didn’t hold any answers, and by the time Brighde returned from the chapel with their boys, he had yet to arrive at any decisions.

But things would be clearer in the morning, once he’d shared his thoughts with her. Then they could bear the weight of their decision together, for better or for worse, whatever it came to cost...