The Vampire & Her Witch Chapter 1845: Lords of the Rides (Part Three)

For a moment, Tosha almost took Sveta up on her offer. Her gaze flicked from the stocky, powerfully built boarish woman to Sir Brioc Grenfell, the most stubborn and mulish of the Saliou knights, and she debated the merits of watching him struggle in a bare-knuckled brawl with the sturdy Eldritch woman.

It would have been easier if Sir Wurcon was here, she concluded. The knight of Rablin village had attempted to court her three times in the years since her husband’s death, and while he’d finally stopped and married a young woman from his own village, he still looked at her with a wolf’s eyes whenever they met. But he’d been left out of the Saliou retinue for exactly that reason, and the only men who’d accompanied her were ones she could reasonably trust.

It seemed like a shame to set up one of the knights she’d be relying on to rule Saliou for what promised to be an intense thrashing when the person who would cause her the most trouble wasn’t even here to be cowed by it... But then, she didn’t have to rush into a decision now.

"Lady Sveta," Tosha said. "I admire your resolve and I respect your directness," she said diplomatically. "But we’ve only just met. I think it’s too soon to make a promise. You haven’t even seen the place that would become your home," she said, turning to face Nyrielle and Ashlynn.

"Empress Nyrielle, thank you for introducing me to Lady Sveta," she said with genuine gratitude. "If it’s all right with you and Empress Ashlynn, I’d like to invite her to visit Saliou, to find out if my home can become her home as well. You said we have a year to make decisions... May I have some time? I promise I won’t take the whole year, but a few weeks at least..."

"Take the time you need," Nyrielle said with a smile that was wide enough to fully reveal her fangs. "You can give your answer when you’re ready," she promised. "Does that mean that you’re willing to serve as the Lord Gardener of Saliou? Or do you need time to consider that as well?"

"I don’t know. May I have some time for that as well?" Tosha asked, glancing briefly at Riwal and giving his hand a squeeze. Her son had expected to inherit his father’s throne soon and if she accepted, not only would she be taking the place from him, he might not be allowed to inherit at all if he couldn’t meet the standards of the Empresses.

Riwal was too young to rule, and she knew that she was too inexperienced but... Neither of those things would last forever. The last thing she wanted to do was make a decision that felt right today only to discover that she’d given up too much because she was afraid. At the same time, she didn’t want to accept an offer that might shatter her relationship with her children and then compound the tragedy by failing to rule her people well.

She needed time to sort it all out. Thankfully, her answer seemed to be the right one, at least as far as Empress Ashlynn was concerned.

"I think that’s a much better answer than you would have given a few days ago, Lady Tosha," Ashlynn said, nodding her approval. "If you have questions, my door is open to you, and to Lady Sveta as well."

"Now," Ashlynn continued, turning to the table closest to the central table. "Saliou isn’t the only Ride we need to address tonight. Sir Albyn Dawnbreaker," Ashlynn said with a wide smile forming on her lips. "Perhaps the only thing my late husband ever did that I am in full agreement with is his decision to offer you a knighthood. Hurel isn’t a humble posting either. By rights, were it not for the restrictions placed on marches by the Kingdom of Gaal, it would have become the seat of a barony by now. It deserves to be the center of a Ride."

"What I can’t agree with Owain on," Ashlynn said. "Is assigning a man of Blackwell to a town without a single body of water deeper than a man’s waist. So, rather than name you the Lord Gardener of Hurel, I’d prefer to name you the Lord Gardener of Kermeen."

"Kermeen, your Dominion?" Albyn said, frowning slightly at the unfamiliar name. "Wait, Sir Franc Kermeen’s village?" Albyn asked, recalling the sycophant who had lost Owain’s favor just in time to be placed in Sir Ollie’s path guarding the doors to the Great Hall during Owain’s Grand Ceremony.

"The very same," Ashlynn said. "Like Hurel, Kermeen is a small town more than a village, but it sits on the opposite bank of the River Luath, little more than a day’s ride east of here. The river is swift there, but I’m told that Sir Franc has fewer than a dozen hulls for fishing and transporting goods along the Luath. It seems the Kermeens were more interested in their barley fields and hunting preserves than the wealth flowing past them."

"A mighty current is a dangerous thing to the lumbering hulks on the river, your Dominion," Albyn said with a bright smile on his tanned, weathered face. "It seems I’ll have to find some drums and oars and teach them what can be done with the strength of their backs and the sweat on their brows," he said before turning to face Jocelynn.

"But only if Princess Jocelynn allows me to," Albyn said. "I promised to watch over her, and I won’t abandon her now. I don’t need a title or a town badly enough to become an oathbreaker, and I won’t turn my back on someone who still needs me."

"Albyn..." Jocelynn said, clutching a hand to her chest as she stood. "Don’t refuse this for me," she said, blinking away the moisture that collected in her eyes. "You deserve this. For everything you did and all that you risked to rescue me from the Inquisition... You deserve every bit of this, and I won’t see you lose your reward to protect me."

"Deserve has nothing to do with it, your Highness," Albyn said, shaking his head. "Few people come by what they deserve in this world, for good or for ill, and I deserve a mix of both. What matters is doing what’s right by you, your father and your family. If you need me at your side, or even if you just want me there, then that’s where I belong."

Ashlynn watched her sister carefully, and she could see the struggle flickering across her face. Albyn had been the man who pulled her out of the Lothian dungeons, and Jocelynn would never forget that for as long as she lived.

To see him rewarded not only with knighthood, but with a Ride of his own and one on the banks of the River Luath at that... Jocelynn’s heart filled with joy. But that same reward pulled a pillar out from under her, and she had so few pillars holding her up these days that losing even one left her teetering on the edge of an abyss.

"How about this," Ashlynn offered. "Entrust Jocey’s safety to me for a time while you organize Kermeen," Ashlynn suggested. "I expect that many lords will hold a number of concurrent positions in the years to come, and once you’ve selected your Lord Warden and magistrate, you’ll be able to return to her side when she needs your support."

"And I imagine she’ll want a place to escape to from time to time," Ashlynn added, giving her sister a knowing look. "Even if it’s just to watch the ships set sail with a friend who understands. So, if I entrust Kermeen to you, do you think you could make it the kind of place she’d want to visit?"

"If you can do that," Jocelynn said, dabbing the tears from her eyes with a small cerulean handkerchief. "I promise to visit and to call you away whenever I need you. I imagine I’ll be sailing on the river frequently in the years to come... So, if you can accept a charge from me along with one from my sister... Build a ship for me and serve as my Captain," Jocelynn said impulsively, looking to her sister and receiving a brief nod of approval.

"Well, if you make an offer like that, Your Highness," Albyn said as he dropped to one knee. "Then how can a man refuse?"