The Vampire & Her Witch-Chapter 1252: The Lessons Liam Learned (Part Two)
"Father," Liam said, facing the aging baron directly as he carefully selected his words. "To conquer all of Hanrahan Barony, Lady Ashlynn lent Dame Sybyll her Second and Third armies. The Third Army dispersed across the barony, capturing every village with the exception of Raek, because Sir Carwyn had already taken Dame Sybyll’s side in the dispute between her and Ian Hanrahan."
"The Second Army," he continued. "With the help of Lady Ashlynn’s lady-in-waiting, Heila, and her apprentice, Lord Hauke, were able to capture Hanrahan Town in a matter of hours, and it only took one of Lady Ashlynn’s four armies. Sir Ollie," Liam said, turning to the young knight next to him. "I know there are four armies, but the power of each is different, and Lady Ashlynn has other forces at her disposal besides," he said for the benefit of the knights at the table.
"Just how much of her strength did she commit to the Battle of Hanrahan?" Liam asked.
"That’s... hard to express," Ollie said, scratching his chin while he felt the weight of everyone’s stares pressing down on his shoulders. Liam had already explained that it took only one out of four armies to completely overwhelm the defenses of a baron’s fortified town, but to say that it represented a quarter of the Vale’s power wasn’t accurate at all.
"Two, maybe three parts in twenty of our current strength," Ollie said, though he didn’t sound confident. "Enough to counter Inquisitor Diarmuid, Sir Tommin, and Loman Lothian, plus the ordinary defenders of Hanrahan, but not much more than that."
"You, you can’t be serious," Sir Brennus said as he clutched at his cup of wine hard enough for the surface of the dark, burgundy liquid to tremble in the cup. "To overcome the defenses of a fortified town like Hanrahan, you need at least five, if not ten times the numbers. That’s why we’ve been able to garrison our hamlets with as few as twenty men."
"With a good palisade wall and watch towers, they can easily hold off fifty to a hundred demons," the veteran knight said, glancing at his son Cadeyrn to make sure the young squire remembered his lessons about this. "The defenses of Hanrahan are much better, with curtain walls, stone towers, and hundreds of men under their banner. To capture it in just two hours, with only two to three parts in twenty of her strength..." Brennus said. "Sir Ollie, you aren’t exaggerating for your liege lady’s benefit, are you?"
"We took the Summer Villa with a force of thirty," Ollie said bluntly. "But if I’m honest, we could have done it with a dozen men. By your math, they should have been able to defend against at least a hundred men with the forces they had, but it didn’t work out that way in the end."
"Lady Ashlynn favors the use of elite, highly trained and well-equipped soldiers," Liam offered, skirting the issue of how ’elite’ and varied those soldiers could be.
"I know you think I’m brave, Lady Eira," Liam said gently. "But my only contributions to the Battle of Hanrahan came after, when I helped in the healer’s tents and sat on Dame Sybyll’s court to judge Ian Hanrahan and Loman Lothian for their crimes. Even then, they would have achieved much the same results with or without me."
"Son," Loghlan said, holding up a hand to stop Liam from saying anything further while he pressed his fingers into his temples. "Did I just hear you say that Dame Sybyll not only judged her cousin, Baron Ian Hanrahan, for his crimes, but Loman Lothian as well? What crime did Loman commit, and who gave her the right to sit in judgment of him for it?" 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮
At this point, no one at the table knew what to think of the tale that Liam was telling. If it weren’t for the fact that he wasn’t known for exaggerating or fabricating things, they would have thought he was trying to deceive them, though no one could imagine what kind of goal the young lord would have to manufacture such an outlandish tale.
One thing was clear, however. Liam had crossed a line that it would be very, very difficult to come back from. In Lothian March, the only person who could have sat in judgment over Ian Hanrahan was Bors Lothian, and no one in Lothian March could sit in judgment over Loman Lothian.
If Loman had committed a great crime, he would have been afforded the right to stand trial before the ruling council of dukes, and even if they judged against him, he could still have appealed to the king. As the son of a marquis, he had that right.
No one present disagreed with Dame Sybyll’s decision to move against Ian Hanrahan and to bring him to justice, but the way Liam spoke, it sounded like the man had been captured alive, which meant that he should have been brought to trial. Yet that hadn’t happened, just like Loman hadn’t been brought before the ruling council.
This kind of transgression wasn’t the sort of thing that the dukes or the king would overlook. If Liam had simply been a witness to it all, or even if he’d fought in the battle, that would be one thing. But sitting on Dame Sybyll’s court... that was crossing a line.
"Loman was guilty of sacrificing seven acolytes of the Church," Ollie said, stepping in for Liam, who was bearing the weight of not only his father’s gaze but the gazes of the senior knights at the table as well.
"Loman burned up the lives of his own followers with his sorcery," Ollie continued as he swept his gaze across the knights and ladies sitting at the table. "And he unleashed a ritual that killed or injured enemies and allies alike, directly slaying not only Dame Sybyll’s soldiers but the defenders of Hanrahan as well."
"Sir Padraig," Ollie said, looking directly at the slender knight. "Your brother-in-law is lucky to have survived Loman Lothian’s recklessness. If Lady Heila hadn’t stopped him, and Lord Hauke hadn’t protected enemies and allies alike from Loman’s sorcery, many, many more people would have died, and your brother-in-law could have been among them."
