CHAPTER 1061: BROTHER IN LAW (PART ONE)

The fog in the Vale of Mists covered the Ancient Fortress like a soft, gray blanket, shrouding the tops of the towers in mist and turning the world beyond its walls into a dimly seen illusion. The sounds of horseshoes ringing on the flagstones of the courtyard were faint and muffled, and even the creek of the carriages and the clatter of their wheels sounded dull in the chill, wintry air.

Ashlynn kept the group that had assembled to meet the carriages small. Ignatious had already created a disturbance on more than one occasion by continuing to wear the robes of the Inquisition, and he was one of Nyrielle’s progeny. While she was confident that she could intervene before anyone could do harm to themselves or the ’guests’ arriving in Heila’s carriage, given their unique identities, she’d ordered the courtyard cleared of anyone who didn’t have a strong reason to be present.

Ollie stood beside her, wearing a fine, jade green tunic, embroidered with a cypress tree across his chest that matched his mark of the witch underneath his tunic. He’d chosen to leave his witch’s hat and wand behind, wearing only his darksteel cleaver and Ice Fang as weapons.

He did this in part because he wanted to make it clear that he was present as Ashlynn’s knight, and not a member of her coven, even though the two roles overlapped quite a bit. But he also did this because he didn’t want to confuse the man who had protected his parents from becoming sacrificial scapegoats when Owain accused him of conspiring with the Eldritch in the wake of Ashlynn’s infiltration of the Summer Villa.

Everything that had happened to Ollie afterward had been afterward, and the flame-haired knight didn’t want Diarmuid thinking that he’d been wrong to speak up on behalf of Ollie’s parents when he said there was no proof that the former kitchen boy had ever consorted with witches or ’demons.’

Ollie intended to set the record straight with Diarmuid when they had a chance to speak, he owed the man a tremendous debt, but for their first meeting, he wanted to do what he could to prevent the man from doubting himself. After all, just coming here would challenge Diarmuid’s faith more than any struggle he’d faced before.

Standing behind the Mother of Trees and her Cypress Knight, Rosie Pyre gripped Sionid’s hand and waited anxiously for the arrival of her husband, Tommin. Lady Ashlynn had asked her to say nothing and to wait until she’d had a chance to address the fallen Templar before speaking to him, but now that he was this close, she found herself torn between the desire to rush to the carriage to greet the man who had loved her for many years, and the urge to flee this place before she had no choice but to confront the man he’d become.

"Remember, you can leave any time you want to, and no one will hold you back, not even him," Ashlynn said softly as she watched Heila’s young squire, Emmie, hopping down from her place next to the carriage’s driver as she rushed to put a step-stool in place before the carriage door.

"Am I that obvious, your Dominion?" Rosie said as her face heated in embarrassment.

"Only to someone who feels similar things," Ashlynn said, looking over her shoulder to give Sir Tommin’s wife a reassuring smile. "I’d be lying if I said that there wasn’t a part of me that wanted to leave now, so I can remember Loman the way he was when I last saw him, and that the things that happened since then never did."

"I need to do this," Ashlynn reminded the other woman. "Even if he wasn’t my brother-in-law, he’s still a Lothian lord, still Bors’ son and Owain’s brother, and still my prisoner in this war. I have a duty here, but you don’t. If you want to go, you can go now. Even if you change your mind later, you don’t have to face him when he’s so fresh from the battle," she said.

Heila’s letter had mentioned that Sir Tommin had barely spoken since he was taken prisoner, even when she tended his wounds. It might be a kindness to give the broken Templar time to heal before he had to face his wife and child.

"No," Rosie said resolutely, glancing to Sionid for support before she turned back to face Ashlynn. "Thank you, your Dominion, but if I don’t face him now, I’m afraid I never will. I, I need to see him... and I need to know if there’s a part of him that still cares for me and Tonnis."

"You’re brave, Rosie," Ashlynn said with a slight nod. "And strong. I’ll let you know when it’s time, but if you change your mind before then, I trust Sionid can guide you away. Remember, you’re the one with the power to choose," she said firmly before turning back to face the carriage.

Heila was the first one out of the carriage, and it pained Ashlynn to see her closest friend looking so ragged and worn. Her simple brown dress was rumpled from sleeping in it in the carriage during the ride, and her hair under her wide-brimmed hat had lost its usual luster and the bounce of her soft curls. Dark circles were visible under Heila’s eyes, and she’d clearly faced more hardship in the past week than she had in the entire month before.

Her grass-green eyes, however, were bright and clear, and the smile of relief on her lips was genuine as she met Ashlynn and Ollie’s gazes from across the courtyard. That one look was enough to tell Ashlynn that, for all she’d endured, both during the battle and after, Heila had returned home fatigued, but unbroken by the challenges she’d faced.

Once she was certain that Heila would be fine after a few days of rest, Ashlynn gave her lady-in-waiting a brief nod before she began walking toward the carriage with Ollie following at her side, half a step behind her.

Ollie’s stride was even, and his posture remained relaxed, but his hand never moved far from the hilt of Ice Fang, and a faint, ice blue glow could be seen along the weapon’s ivory hilt. Much like Ashlynn, he didn’t feel like the men in the carriage posed any real threat to himself, or to Ashlynn, or else Heila would have warned them when she emerged from the carriage.

But Ashlynn was about to see her brother-in-law for the first time since Owain tried to beat her to death, and she was about to confront Sir Tommin for the first time since he’d helped to bury her alive. So when Ollie rested his hand on the hilt of the weapon that could help him conjure walls of ice and other barriers, it wasn’t because he expected that he would need to protect Ashlynn from the clergymen in the carriage...

It was because he’d experienced the power of the storm Ashlynn conjured when she learned of Jocelynn’s betrayal, and he knew how dangerous his liege lady could be when the power of the world responded to the anguish in her heart. If he had to make a move to protect anyone, it wouldn’t be Ashlynn he was protecting, but the people who needed to be protected from her.