The Vampire & Her Witch

Chapter 1727: Uncertain Futures

While Adala and Charlotte spent the evening becoming better acquainted with the desires lurking in their hearts, aided by a bottle of Bors Lothian’s best wine, another group of people gathered in the fading light of the day with a few ’liberated’ bottles of their own.Erling Fayle still wore the heavy fur cloak and somber, dark tunic that he’d worn to attend the lighting of pyres at sunset. The event had been attended by most of the lords and ladies currently trapped within the manor, but it wasn’t until he stood in the central courtyard, looking at the pyres, that Erling realized how heavy the toll had been the night before.

Baron Preden Saliou held the highest status among those who had fallen, but his pyre was flanked by four knights, including Sir Franc Kermeen, and a massive pyre that held the bodies of more than two dozen Lothian soldiers.

No one had seen a funeral like this since the War of Four Templars. Once a knight was wrapped in his layers of padding, chain and plate and set upon his warhorse, he was all but impervious to the attacks of ordinary soldiers, and when even a single knight fell in battle against the Eldritch, it was considered a great tragedy. To lose four in one night, and a sitting baron as well, was nearly unprecedented in the history of the march.

There were a few who protested, demanding that they be allowed to take the bodies of the slain to the great temple in the heart of Lothian City rather than holding such a solemn funeral at Lothian Manor. Lady Ashlynn flatly refused to even consider opening the gates of the manor, and High Priest Aubin had made his position clear.

"A distance of a thousand paces or a thousand leagues doesn’t matter to those beginning their journey to the Heavenly Shores," the white-haired priest said. "We honor them with our presence and our words, not with the place from which we light the pyre."

Personally, Erling suspected that the people clamoring about ’propriety’ were actually just looking for a way to escape the manor before the Eldritch delegations arrived, and from the way Lady Ashlynn responded, it was clear that she suspected the same.

Compared to the grand spectacle of Bors Lothian’s funeral, Baron Preden Saliou’s service felt much more humble and considerably more solemn. Bors Lothian had died when the realm still believed itself to be on the cusp of a war that had yet to begin. Preden Saliou’s death reminded everyone that, to the Eldritch, the old wars had never really ended.

"I hate that this is what it took," a deep, masculine voice said, pulling Erling out of his thoughts. "But I think that Telent and Onen finally understand what we’ve been facing at the borders all these years," Reynold Aleese said as he unfolded a simple camp chair to take a seat.

After the funeral, Erling had asked both Wes and Reynold if they wanted to join him for a drink to talk about their respective meetings with Lady Ashlynn. Both had agreed readily, but neither Reynold nor Erling had felt like returning to the stuffy confines of Lothian Manor just yet.

Given the choice, Erling would have preferred to ride out to the hills with a view of the river and a clearer view of the stars that were just beginning to peek through the thinning clouds, but since no one could leave the manor grounds, the trio made do with a patch of ground in the inner bailey near the west wall.

"I think this goes a bit beyond what you’ve been facing at the southern border, Reynold," Wes said, stepping back from the small fire he’d built to ward off the chill of the night air while they drank. "If this is Lady Ashlynn’s idea of ’minimizing losses on both sides’, I hate to think about what she and her forces could have done if they’d had a mind to slaughter."

"True enough," Reynold said as he retrieved a bottle of wine and several goblets from a simple leather satchel. "For years, the raids have felt more like we’re playing at war than fighting one. This, this is something none of us were prepared to fight."

"I just hope the Kingdom realizes that they’re not prepared to fight her either," Wes said, accepting a cup of wine from Reynold. "I don’t think my people are any more prepared for war than Telent or Onen’s people are, but we’re right up against the border with Keating. At least things should be quiet in Aleese now that your former enemies have become our new allies."

"That might be true for Erling’s southern border," Reynold said as he handed the youngest baron a cup of wine. "He seems to have a longstanding arrangement with the Horse Lord, rather, with High Lord Dirar, that protects his southern flank."

"You should get the same treatment now though, shouldn’t you?" Wes said, raising a brow at the young lord from Aleese. "Now that we’re on the same side, I would think that you have little to worry about."

"Lady Ashlynn wasn’t so sure," Reynold said with a heavy sigh as he poured his own cup and took a long, deep drink of the potent vintage. The wine was rich and bold and burned a bit as he swallowed it, but the warmth the wine provided did very little to melt the icy claw that had gripped his heart since his meeting with his parents and Lady Ashlynn.

"How much do you know about this High Lord, Erling?" Reynold asked.

"Almost nothing," Erling said as he settled on a camp chair of his own. He positioned himself as close to the fire as he could, more to cling to the light that pushed back the darkness than for the limited warmth it offered. "I made an ’arrangement’ years ago with a go-between, one of Lady Nyrielle’s progeny," he said, finding the unfamiliar names and titles coming more easily to his lips than they had just hours ago. "Other than this ’Wolstan,’ and Marcel, I haven’t met with any of the forces of the Vale of Mists."

"That’s just it," Reynold said after taking another swallow of the heady wine. "According to her Dominion, High Lord Dirar isn’t part of the Vale of Mists. He answers to no one but himself. He’s an ally of the Vale, but while Airgead Mountain surrendered their throne to Dame Sybyll, High Lord Dirar technically rules a different nation," Reynold explained.

"Lady Ashlynn says they’ve invited him to join us in a few days," Reynold said. "But she warned my father that there was blood between Aleese and his horde... And that he might want to settle old debts before discussing anything new..."