The Vampire & Her Witch-Chapter 687: Illuminating Carriage Ride (Part One)

Despite traveling by little more than lantern light in the thickening fog, the luxurious carriage moved swiftly through the night. The team of horses was exceptionally well trained, and Marcel was more at home in darkness than most people were in daylight.

More than that, the vampire expanded his Cloak of Darkness to encompass the team of horses, granting them the same vision in darkness that he enjoyed as a result of Nyrielle’s gift. In the darkness of a moonless night, not even Thane could have driven at the speed with which the carriage under Marcel’s control moved, and they would reach the ancient fortress with at least an hour to spare before sunrise.

Within the carriage, Ashlynn reached into a small compartment, retrieving three wooden cups that had been carved to resemble oak leaves folding over each other. After passing one to each of the guild masters, she poured herself a small measure of the deeply fragrant honeyed wine that had also come as a gift from Lady Erna before taking a small sip to buy herself some time to organize her thoughts.

"Some of the things I’m going to say may shock you," she warned Isabell and Tiernan. "You might want to prepare yourselves," she said, though in truth, she wasn’t sure how anyone could prepare themselves for what she was about to say. "Just know that I consider you both to be good friends, and I don’t intend to deceive you or hide things from you. You can ask questions and I’ll do my best to answer them," she said.

"My Lady," Tiernan began, only to correct himself and address her in the same familiar tone that Isabell had used. After weeks of watching his every word when he was in the company of Owain Lothian and the frontier lords, it was refreshing to be called a friend and allowed to speak informally, but his shoulders carried far too much tension from tense negotiations to relax into informality as easily as Isabell seemed to. "Ashlynn. I don’t know how much more you can shock us after the performance you just put on."

"I’ve seen your father do similar things at court," the burly ironmonger said while scratching the stubble on his chin with a thumb. "But I think even he would be impressed at how you juggled so many different audiences at once. By the end of it, you gave Owain’s men a vision of a wonderful life in your village, the likes of which they would never find at the end of decades serving your husband."

"At the same time," he continued after taking a sip of the smooth, sweet wine. "You put the fear of the Holy Lord of Light so deeply into them that I think they’ll burst into flames at the thought of betraying you. I don’t remember you being so skilled at manipulating people’s hearts like that, but it worked well on a crowd of commoners, and you bowled right over top of Sir Rain and Sir Hugo as well. If I didn’t know better, I’d say you’d been taking lessons from an orator... or maybe a conman," he said, though it wasn’t entirely clear if he meant the words as praise or not.

"I have been studying," Ashlynn said with a light smile, taking no offense at the strong man’s words. Just like the banquet the night before had been intended to shape the hearts of the leaders among the Eldritch community in the Vale of Mists, tonight’s tribunal had given her an opportunity to shape the hearts of the knights and soldiers who ’escorted’ Isabell and Tiernan into the wilderness. fɾēewebnσveℓ.com

"I’ve had good teachers this past half year," Ashlynn added, staring briefly at her reflection in the cup of wine in her hand before taking a large swallow and pushing forward with the hardest part of what she had to say tonight. "But that’s getting too far ahead. I need to start at the beginning, with why Owain tried to kill me and how I survived being buried alive."

Both Isabell and Tiernan sat up straighter in their seats as Ashlynn cut directly to the heart of one of the biggest secrets she held. While Isabell had heard from Jocelynn about the mark of the witch on Ashlynn’s body, she’d kept that knowledge to herself, refusing to speak of it even to Master Tiernan until she could speak with Ashlynn herself.

But while she knew why Owain had attacked her, she had no idea how the young lady had survived Owain’s attempt to kill her, especially since she had never once done anything in Blackwell City to suggest she had mystical powers.

"Owain had a reason to try to kill me," Ashlynn said as she looked from Tiernan’s weathered face that bore a number of small burn scars from years spent catching sparks in a foundry to Isabell’s gentle, faintly lined visage that spoke of years spent both studying and raising her children. "I was born with the mark of the witch," Ashlynn said slowly. "And the night of my wedding, someone told him about it."

"Impossible!" Tiernan said, his face scrunching up in disgust. "You might have a mark, my lady," he said quickly. "But many children are born with marks. But you’re a grown woman now. If you were really a witch, you’d never have been allowed to grow up. Who would tell such a wicked lie?" the ironmonger asked as his face began to turn a dark shade of red as the fury boiling in his belly threatened to boil over.

"My lady," he said, forgetting his attempts to be informal as fury consumed him. "Who is telling such slanderous tales? Tell me and I’ll make sure they learn the error of their ways," he said, wrapping a meaty palm over his fist and cracking his knuckles. As a father, he would never let anyone slander his daughter like this, and the idea that someone had slandered Lady Ashlynn and spread such slander to her husband was almost as bad as a threat against his own family!

Isabell, however, had an entirely different reaction. In fact, the news didn’t seem to shock her at all as she gave Ashlynn a long, evaluating look before taking a deep shuddering breath and forcing herself to ask the question that had consumed her ever since she put together Marcel’s statement that Ashlynn had survived with Jocelynn’s confession about the mark of the witch.

"And?" Isabell asked in a voice that felt flatter and more strained than any other time Ashlynn had heard her speak. "Are you a witch? Is that how you survived what Owain did to you?"

The most uptodate nove𝙡s are published on fr(e)𝒆webnov(e)l.com