The Vampire & Her Witch

No one spoke on the ride back down the hill.

The carriage rocked and jolted over the frozen ruts of the road, and the jade-green curtains swayed with every bump, letting in occasional slivers of pale winter light. Outside, the afternoon had begun to fade. The sun hung low over the mountains, and the shadows of the bare trees grew longer as they stretched the snow in the hollows.

Eira sat beside Jocelynn with her hands folded in her lap, and she did her best not to stare. Sir Ollie had said they should think of a visit to the Ancient Oak like visiting an elder, but nothing had prepared her for what actually happened beneath the mighty tree’s boughs. Clearly, the princess hadn’t been prepared for it either.

Jocelynn hadn’t said a word since they’d climbed into the carriage. She sat very straight, her back not quite touching the cushions, while her gaze stayed fixed on the window as if the passing trees held the secret to dealing with the Ancient Oak’s message.

A folded handkerchief lay in Jocelynn’s lap. She’d knotted the corners when she folded it around the broken bits of acorn and the small twig that had carried the Acorns to her. Since taking her seat in the carriage, she never once looked down at it.

Across from them, Ollie watched her with a furrowed brow and pale eyes full of worry. Every so often, he opened his mouth as though he were about to speak, and every time, he closed it again without a sound.

Eventually, the carriage made its way back to a properly paved road as Harrod guided the horses back toward Vale City. No one had given him a destination, but it wasn’t hard to guess that he should point the carriage toward the ancient fortress beyond the city. If he was wrong, Ollie would let him know.

”We could stop,” Ollie said at last, so quietly that Eira almost didn’t hear him over the sound of the wheels clattering over the cobblestones. ”For today, I mean.”

Jocelynn’s gaze stayed on the window, but the corners of her eyes grew tight when Ollie broke the silence, and her hands tensed on the handkerchief.

”We can go back to the tower,” Ollie went on. ”I’ll make something light for supper. You can rest, and think about the Ancient Oak’s message. What happened under that tree...” He hesitated, rubbing the back of his neck. ”It’s a lot. For anyone. You don’t have to do anything else today.”

For a long moment, Jocelynn didn’t answer. The carriage rolled past a stand of dark hemlocks, and their shadows flickered across her face like the slats of a fence.

”Or, maybe it would help if Isabell joined us?” Ollie offered. ”She hasn’t spent as much time among the Eldritch but...”

”No,” Jocelynn said, shaking her head. She understood what he was doing. She’d seen her father do the same thing often enough when confronted by one of his daughter’s tear-filled faces.

Rhys Blackwell would sail to the ends of the earth for his daughters, but when there was nothing for him to mend or challenge for him to face on their behalf, he invariably called for Maela’s help. Now, Ollie was doing much the same thing when he suggested Isabell.

”Jocelynn...” Ollie said, blinking in surprise at her terse rejection.

”No,” Jocelynn repeated, and this time she turned away from the window to look at him. Her eyes were still red-rimmed, and her face was pale, but her voice didn’t waver. ”I have three days, Ollie. Less, now. If I go back to the tower and sit with this until supper, I’ll still be sitting with it tomorrow morning, and I’ll have lost a whole day.”

Jocelynn’s hands tightened, ever so slightly, on the handkerchief in her lap.

”I understand the Ancient Oak’s warning,” Jocelynn said. ”I’m not going to pretend I don’t. I can’t run from it, and I can’t let it stop me from doing everything else I need to do before the trial. I need to think about what it means,” she added. ”But I can do that tonight, when I have time to myself to think.”

”Right now, I still have questions that I need help answering,” Jocelynn said. ”If I let the Ancient Oak’s warning stop me from trying to answer those questions, I think I really will fail, so I have to keep going.”

”If I am doomed,” Jocelynn concluded. ”If there’s really no hope, at least I’ll have spent the next three days trying my best,” she said, wiping the moisture from her eyes as she gathered up the shattered remnants of her resolve and pieced them back together again.

The determination she formed might not have been as strong as it had been when she finished her breakfast with Sir Ollie this morning, but it was enough to propel her forward, and right now, that would have to be enough.

Ollie studied her for a long moment. Then, slowly, he let the worry drain from his expression as he focused on doing what he could to help Ashlynn’s little sister.

”All right, then,” Ollie said. ”Where do you want to go next?”

”I want to speak with Aspakos,” Jocelynn said. ”I don’t even know what kind of witch I could become. What’s possible, what isn’t. I don’t mean to diminish you, Ollie; you’ve taught me so much already, but he knows more about power than almost anyone, and...”

Jocelynn paused, and for the first time since they’d left the hill, her eyes flicked down toward her lap before she caught herself and looked away again. ”And maybe he can help me find an answer to the Ancient Oak’s question too. But even if he can’t, I still need to speak with him, and the sooner I do, the more time I can spend thinking about what he tells me.”

”All right,” Ollie said as he gave Jocelynn a smile that looked almost proud. It was a smile that filled Jocelynn’s heart with a small measure of warmth, just enough to push back against the cold pit of despair that had formed in her stomach since receiving the Ancient Oak’s warning.

The ancient fortress rose ahead of them out of the deepening dusk, its towers dark against the fading sky. The carriage passed beneath the outer gate, rolled through the bailey, and came to a stop inside the inner walls, where a low stone building stood with its back against the curtain wall.

A plume of smoke rose from the workshop’s chimney, and its shutters stood wide open despite the cold, letting a warm, orange glow spill out across the frozen cobblestones.

Even before they reached the door, Eira could hear voices inside.

”... not going to offer up anything useful, then shut your beak and let me work in peace and quiet.”

”Since when did you ever need peace and quiet?” a second voice said. ”Weren’t you always the one saying that your hands knew what to do, even when you didn’t?”

”That was before I sired my first litter of brats and lost my ability to think about my work in every idle moment of the day,” the first voice responded. ”So if you want to disturb my peace and my work, you can at least earn your cup of wine by taking a look at this inscription and offering up some of your ’great wisdom.’”

”Maybe later,” the second voice said as Jocelynn, Ollie and Eira approached the door to the shop. ”But at the moment, we have company...”