The Vampire & Her Witch-Chapter 680: A Better Life (Part Two)

Sitting on the wagon’s tailgate, Hugo’s mind worked rapidly as he imagined the picture that Eamon painted for them. He didn’t know where this village was, but Eamon was a man of the wilderness, so if they’d been given poor lands and left to eke out a meager existence, he was certain that the hunter would have mentioned it. But from the sounds of it, they’d been settled in a place that was just as promising as the lands that the Lothians had been trying to offer to Guild Masters Isabell and Tiernan.

For a new knight like Sir Ollie, one who was establishing a village on his own lands, it was normal to collect a fee of several gold sovereigns from each person who wanted to settle in their village. That fee would provide a deed to the land their cottage was built on if it was substantial, ten gold sovereigns or more, or a lease if it wasn’t, but the fee paid to the new knight was rarely less than one or two sovereigns, and that was just the fee for the land. It didn’t include any of the costs of materials to build the cottage or settle in the village.

Yet, the way Eamon told it, the villagers had simply... simply given it to them! Out of pure gratitude. And not once did he mention paying taxes or tithes to receive all of this wealth. Already, Hugo noticed some men among the soldiers brought with them muttering in jealousy at Eamon’s good fortune. A few had even asked their neighbors if they thought there might still be room in this village where a man could go off to hunt or fish and his neighbors would weed his garden for him.

It sounded like a common man’s dream, so much so that Hugo began to wonder if there was something hidden about the village that Eamon wasn’t telling them. Some dark secret that would explain how people who the hunter had described as ’refugees’ in the beginning could become so welcoming in such a short period of time.

"Cmdfas, ummmersan?" Darragh muttered. Just last night, he’d been forced to dance with a Snake Demon! A Snake Demon who had wrapped her tail around him and embraced him like she was going to squeeze him to death, or crush his bones so he couldn’t fight back before she hauled him back to some dark room to mate with him. He’d never felt so helplessly overpowered in his entire life, even when they’d been locked in the cells of the Vale’s ancient fortress!

But it didn’t matter, because Eamon had become a full fledged heretic who even enjoyed the time he spent dancing with a Snake Demon. The old man had learned their language and made small talk with them for Light’s sake! But still, the people would hear none of this because no one would let him tell the truth!

"You’re not the only one," Daithi said, shoving Darragh down before placing a hand on the older man’s shoulder and giving him a firm, almost brotherly squeeze. "Lady Ashlynn made us all an offer after she took us prisoner," Daithi added, facing the trio of knights and allowing Eamon to take over restraining the struggling Darragh so he could do as Lady Ashlynn had asked and tell his own story about how they were treated.

"So long as we showed that we were trust worthy, she’d find a way to bring our families to live with us. Sir Marcel kept that promise for her while she was away," he explained, turning to look out at the assembled soldiers and servants.

At this point, the men sitting on the rough hewn logs were all leaning forward with expressions of eager anticipation as they waited to hear if Eamon and Daithi had been the only lucky ones. But this Daithi person, since Lady Ashlynn had called him a Constable, perhaps his rewards had been even greater, the people thought.

After all, a constable served just beneath a knight and could enforce the laws within the village. It was a position of real power, so surely he’d received lavish rewards to go with that title. Already, visions of a small manor, maybe with a house servant of his own, or an acre or two of fields danced through their eyes as they tried to imagine this miraculous village where, if a man worked hard and helped his neighbors, he could have the kind of life that most men could only dream of.

"It was hard, being away from my family for months," Daithi admitted as he thought back on the first few months of his life in the Vale. "But now, I get to watch my little one playing with other children in the village and her smiles are worth more than any amount of silver or gold," he said with a faint smile tugging at the corners of his lips despite the seriousness of the moment.

"We might not have much money yet, but just like Eamon and Darragh, we have a house to call our own and the land it sits on too. I thought, serving in a knight’s guard, becoming a sergeant and such, I thought that was as far as I would ever go but... I’m living a better life now. We all are."

"Sir Ollie is a kind man," he added, turning to face the trio of knights and bowing his head in gratitude. "It isn’t easy to raise up a village from nothing, and he’s had more than a few challenges, bringing together so many different kinds of folk who have lost almost everything. But he’s always been out there next to us, whether he’s hauling timber for homes or cooking meals to feed the workmen, he never lorded over us."

"Sir Ollie understands what it’s like to work hard for everything you have," Daithi praised. "And I can’t fathom betraying him after everything he’s done for us, everything he’s given us. Even those of us who used to be his enemies, he’s more than earned our loyalty. And the whole time, as hard as he worked, he always said that he was just doing what Lady Ashlynn would have wanted him to. That he was caring for us the way he knew she would."

"So, this betrayal of Darragh’s... I just can’t understand it."

"Thank you, Mister Eamon, Constable Daithi," Ashlynn said with a warm smile for both gentlemen before she turned to face the trio of knights sitting on the wagon’s tailgate.

"As Mister Daithi said, there was a time that Darragh was one of my husband’s men," she said as she looked at Darragh’s cold, shivering figure and his smoldering, resentful gaze as though he had become a proxy for Owain and all that he had done to her. "If he had held fast to his loyalties, he could have remained a prisoner. Men of conviction would rather suffer as an enemy than pretend even for a moment to have become an ally."

"But Darragh didn’t take a principled stand," she said coldly. "Darragh was given an opportunity to change his allegiance and he took it. He took it and he enjoyed the benefits of a good life that came with it. And then, as soon as he had an opportunity to plant a knife in our backs, he did, and in the process, he put everything we are building at risk."

"This kind of treachery," Ashlynn said darkly. "There’s no forgiving it!"

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