The Vampire & Her Witch

"Be mindful of the reddish sausages," Carwyn said, hoping to keep the atmosphere from growing too heavy and pointing to the pile of sausages on one side of the platter that he'd just passed to Lord Liam. "They're very spicy if you enjoy that sort of thing. Otherwise, the brown ones have a good flavor but they won't leave you reaching for water the way the red ones will."

"What are those?" Liam asked, pointing with his fork at a basket full of some of the most delicate and artful pastries he'd ever seen before he started spearing the dark red sausages and piling them on his plate. "They look amazing."

"Master Georg has been sending a basket of pastries with our morning meal," Hugo said with a slightly guilty look. "I'm afraid I've already taken the onion tart today, and Sir Carwyn favors the dill scones, but the others are all just as good. There are even sweet ones stuffed with a fruity, creamy cheese and dusted with sugar," he added helpfully.

When Liam bit into the spicy, red sausage, his eyes widened in surprise at the rush of rich, fatty juices that flooded his mouth, coating his tongue in an intense explosion of flavor that not only included an intense, peppery heat, but sharp notes of garlic and mustard seed as well. Chewing the tender, almost bouncy sausage opened up even more flavors along with the pores of his face and the sinus passages in his nose as well.

Immediately, he turned to the dish of pastries, chasing down the spicy sausage with a large bite of a soft, pillowy pastry filled with a pale lavender cream that reminded him of blackberries in summer with the slightest kiss of something tart that helped to prevent the cooling cream from becoming cloying.

"You see why Sir Carwyn warned you about the spicy ones? You'll get a better idea of Master Georg's artistry tonight," Hugo added as he sat back in his chair with a slightly anxious expression on his face. "Lady Heila said that Lady Ashlynn wants to speak with us over dinner tonight. It sounds like she's been very busy since Sir Rain and I were 'invited' to be her guests, so if she's making time for us, it must be something important."

"Important enough for Lord General Thane to fetch Lord Liam personally," Carwyn said with a somber expression as he spooned sweet, red jelly onto a piece of warm, crusty bread. "Lord Liam, we don't get much news here. Has anything happened in the past week that we should know about? Something that might explain why Lady Ashlynn wanted you here badly enough to send the Lord General after you?"

"Wait, stop," Liam said, setting down his utensils and looking between the two knights in absolute confusion. "I'm utterly lost. Is this the Summer Villa? I knew the quality of goods were better in Blackwell County than out here on the frontier but I never imagined she'd had so much shipped all the way out here," he said as he carefully reevaluated their surroundings.

The view out the window was shrouded in fog and he couldn't see much beyond the tops of trees extending above the fog, but if Lady Ashlynn was here, then where else could he be other than the Summer Villa?

"And the people you mentioned," Liam continued as he tried to sift through the conversation that he still didn't entirely understand. "Sir Ollie and Dame Sybyll? Are they knights visiting from Blackwell County as well? But what is this about a Lord General? That sounds like the sort of title only His Majesty could confer…"

"Lord Liam," Hugo said with a heavy sigh. "I've been trying to think of a good way to explain this to you since the Lord General dropped you off just before dawn and I still haven't come up with a 'good' way, so I'll just tell you. But I have to warn you, no matter how shocked you are, you can't do anything foolish here."

"Lady Ashlynn has already made it clear how unimportant we are, just by the way she's ignored us for nearly a week since we arrived," he said firmly. "And when it comes to the soldiers here… Even if we had ten men as brave and as skilled as Sir Carwyn with all of their weapons and armor, we would stand no chance of accomplishing anything. The only weapon you have here is this one," he said, tapping on his temple. "So make sure you use it well."

"Out with it then," Liam said impatiently. He'd only met Lady Ashlynn on a few occasions and when he last encountered her in the Summer Villa she'd struck him as an exceptionally mild individual that one could almost call timid. But the way Hugo was talking about her, she sounded more like a reigning monarch than a soon to be mother.

"What is it that has you two so spooked?" Liam asked as his heart began to sink. He'd been ready to dismiss Hugo's warning as overblown, after all, the man had never been known for his courage, but seeing Sir Carwyn nodding solemnly along with the Hanrahan bastard made Liam take back his words as the seed of genuine fear began to take root in the pit of his stomach.

"Lord Liam, this castle isn't the Summer Villa," Hugo said carefully. "It's the fortress of the Eldritch Lady of the Vale of Mists. Carwyn, Rain and I… we didn't escape the Eldritch raids. We're 'guests' of the Eldritch rulers of the Vale."

"And Lady Ashlynn," Hugo said with a face that had gone slightly pale while his hand trembled enough for his fork to rattle against his plate. "Lady Ashlynn is one of the Great Witches of the Eldritch world, the Mother of Trees."

"That's why any news you have to share from outside is so important to us," Sir Carwyn added as he rested a hand on the shaken young lord's shoulder. "Lord Hugo has been trying to piece together what's going on and what Lady Ashlynn may be planning, but without enough information, we're making too many guesses."

"So, please," the knight from Raek Village said with eyes that held a great deal of worry. "Can you tell us what has been happening in the march? And do you, do you have any news of what's happened to the people in my village?"