"Rosie and Tonnis Pyre," Ashlynn said without waiting for Hugo to respond. "Evidently, my husband felt betrayed by Sir Tommin’s choice to join the Templars after he buried me in the wilderness. He wanted Tommin to watch his family suffer and die in the cruelest way he could imagine while the Church was helpless to save them. Perhaps he thought it would break Sir Tommin’s faith," Ashlynn said, shaking her head at Owain.

Sitting at the Blackwell table, High Priest Aubin shuddered at the thought of what it would have done to a man as devout and troubled as Sir Tommin to learn that his family had suffered such a cruel fate as retribution for leaving his lord’s side.

Lady Ashlynn wasn’t wrong that the Church would have been helpless to rescue Tommin’s family from the Spider Demon Venom. Even he, with the support of a dozen priests and three dozen acolytes, would have struggled to change the fate of someone inflicted with such a cruel poison, and the longer it went undetected, the more impossible it became to treat.

As a Templar, Tommin was supposed to have severed his ties with the family he’d formed before he took his vows, but no man, not even the wielder of a Holy Light Blade like Sir Tommin, could turn away from a family that he’d loved. To watch the Church fail to cure his family... it might have destroyed one of the strongest Templars in the whole of the frontier.

And it would have happened over one man’s petty grievances and his feelings of betrayal...

"You’re too cruel, Owain," Ashlynn said, her emerald eyes flashing in the candlelight of the Great Hall. "I have my own grievances with Sir Tommin for burying me alive, but even I wouldn’t go after his wife and son."

"No, but you’d slaughter your way into this hall for your grievances with me," Owain retorted. "Don’t act like you’re any different..."

"Don’t pretend that we’re the same," Ashlynn snapped, refusing to let him compare her assault on the manor to what he had done to women and children. "Even a child knows the difference between poisoning innocents and fighting against soldiers, and you are no child."

"You are a wicked, cruel man who has brought ruin to everything he’s touched," Ashlynn said, giving vent to the fury in her heart at last. "And I will not allow you to get away with it any longer! I’ve already rescued Lady Rosie and Tonnis and cured them of the poison," she said, shocking the hall once again. "And now, it’s time for the court to render judgment on your crimes."

"Owain Lothian," Ashlynn said formally, her voice echoing off the stones of the Great Hall. "You are accused of patricide, murdering your father and the lord of this march in order to seize the throne. You are accused of magnicide, attempting to murder your own wife and having your knights bury her alive."

"You are accused of dozens of lesser crimes against your own vassals and the common people of Lothian March and Blackwell County," she continued as the fury within her chest mounted. "You are a vile, contemptible man who is unworthy of the headsman’s axe, and you should hang for your crimes!" 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

"So what say you?" Ashlynn said, turning to the lords and ladies sitting at the High Table. "You have heard the evidence of his misdeeds. If we continued for another dozen days, we could fill up each one with even more... Have you heard enough? Are you sickened enough by what you’ve heard tonight?"

"Do you need to hear anything more?" Ashlynn asked. "Or can you pronounce his guilt so we can rid ourselves of this pestilence before he harms anyone else?"

"I’ve heard enough," Wes Iriso said, standing from his seat at the table. He reached out with one hand, resting it on Sorcha’s shoulder, and received a nod of approval in response. She had been hesitant in the beginning because she thought they couldn’t afford to risk offending the Inquisition, but now, she and her husband were of one mind.

"I’ve heard more than enough," Wes continued. "My lords and ladies," he said, turning to address the court. "I have never..."

"Still your tongue!" Owain snapped, interrupting the baron he’d once considered his greatest rival with a sword. "I’ve had enough of this. I will not stand for this slander from the tongue of a witch!"

Owain didn’t have to meet the gazes of the men and women sitting at the table to know how many of them were ready to turn against him. The moment Serle Otker had shifted his stance it became clear that he’d lost what little support he had.

But so what?

What need did he have for any of these fools?

On the field of battle, precious few of them had ever ridden with him, and still, he’d achieved victory after victory by nothing other than the strength of his sword, and he would do the same today.

"Since none of you fools can see that you’ve been taken in by a witch’s deceit, then I demand a chance to prove my innocence," Owain shouted. "I demand a trial by combat, as is my right! Send forth your champion, Ashlynn," he said with a sneer on his lips as he looked at the flame-haired knight who had already admitted he wasn’t a match for Owain with a sword.

"And may the Holy Lord of Light defend the righteous," Owain said, turning his gaze to Ashlynn, hoping to savor the look on her face when she realized that all of her schemes and all of her ’evidence’ was worthless when she had to prove her case with steel against the greatest swordsman of the current generation.

"I don’t need a champion, Owain," Ashlynn said calmly, as though she had always expected things to arrive at this point. "I’ll meet you with my own blade," she said, drawing the elegantly crafted falchion from her side and pointing directly at his chest.

"Tonight you breathe your last, Husband."