CHAPTER 905: NOT SAFE (PART ONE)

"How exactly are you going to track down these insidious demons who vanish like mist and pillage as they please? How are you going to make my barony safe again?"

Loman had only just taken his seat at the high table when Baron Hanrahan’s provocative words rang out across the hall, stilling tongues and drawing all eyes in the great hall to the young lord, along with the Inquisitor and Templar who accompanied him.

It was a topic that Loman was prepared to discuss, one that he’d spent several days considering and debating with Sir Tommin and Diarmuid during the extended trip from Lothian City to Hanrahan Town.

But it was also a plan that required Baron Hanrahan’s support, and Loman realized too late that by pressing the baron over the matter of the common folk in the outer quarters of the town and the baron’s tithes, he’d squandered his opportunity to take advantage of the baron’s attempts to curry favor.

"Your barony will never be safe so long as demons can hide in their nests and burrows in the wilderness, Baron Hanrahan," Loman said as he quickly marshaled his thoughts and went back on the offensive. "So long as demons infest Airgead Mountain, your barony will not be safe. So long as the Horse Lord roams the Southern Steppe, your barony will not be safe."

"And so long as the Demon Lady of the Vale haunts us on every front," Loman added with a pointed gaze that swept over the knights and officials sitting at the high table. "Your barony will never know peace or safety."

"Well said!" Inquisitor Diarmuid said before either Baron Hanrahan or Head Priest Germot could say anything to counter the young lord’s words. "These new demons are a threat we must purge from your lands with Holy Flames until nothing remains but consecrated ashes, but putting an end to this threat will not make Hanrahan Town or the Barony ’safe’ from the demons. Not the way the lands of Keating Duchy, the Holy City, or the Royal Capital are ’safe’ from demons."

At the center of the high table, a slight frown appeared on Baron Hanrahan’s face as he felt the young Lothian Lord and the Inquisitor snatching back the momentum of the conversation by acting like they were priests speaking to a congregation.

Glancing down the length of the table, the baron met the gaze of one of his knights, making a subtle gesture with the knife that he’d been using to pile slices of roast venison on his plate and nodding slightly in the direction of the young girl sitting next to the knight before pointing subtly at Loman.

It was obvious to the baron that Loman intended to whip up an atmosphere of fervor for fighting demons before pressing him to lend his men to the fight, but Ian had been playing this game far too long to fall into such an obvious trap, especially when he had pawns who could speak up for him, and the first man he chose knew his lord well enough to know what was expected of him.

"Every man of the frontier knows that we’re never truly safe from the demons, Inquisitor," a sandy-haired knight with a long, well-trimmed beard said with a touch of defensiveness in his voice. Sir Thorryn Quarrie was too young to have been more than a squire during the War of Inches, but the bright-eyed girl who looked to be ten to twelve years old looked at him with eyes that sparkled as if she was gazing up at a great war hero.

"We’re all prepared to fight in the coming Holy War, to drive the demons from our lands at last and claim our rightful place as the masters of everything from the sea to the mountains," the bearded knight continued. "But the demons in the wilderness haven’t strayed away from their nests in numbers like these for as long as I’ve been lord of Tremlan Village."

"My people are worried that they won’t be safe behind the village walls this winter," Sir Thorryn added with a deep scowl as he wrapped a protective arm around his young daughter, using her like a prop to remind everyone at the gathering about the tender children who could only depend on the adults in the room to keep them safe from the ruthless demons.

At the center of the table, Ian Hanrahan smiled and gave a subtle nod of approval while he savored the rich, earthy flavor of the venison that was even more intense when combined with generous amounts of dark mushroom gravy. As he chewed, he gave a subtle sign to the knight who sat furthest from him, though the message clearly didn’t land as well as it had with Sir Thorryn.

At the end of the table, the youngest knight in Hanrahan Town nodded in silent agreement as he wrapped a protective arm around the equally young woman sitting next to him, joining Sir Thorryn in making a display of someone weak and vulnerable who needed protection from the demons. Sir Niall Hane hadn’t even been born yet when the War of Inches ended, and his face was so smooth and fresh that it was clear the young man didn’t need to shave more than once a week.

Normally, he wouldn’t yet be considered the lord of his village, but when the winter chills claimed his father’s life last year, he’d been left with no choice but to assume the mantle of lord of Kyanden Village. The past year had been so hard that there had been several moments where he wanted to quit, but when he finally rode into Hanrahan Town with his village’s autumn tithe, he finally began to feel like all of the hardship and suffering had been worth it.

Once word got out that Sir Niall had come to Hanrahan Town not just to bring his tithe, but to search for a wife in either Hanrahan Town or Lothian City, there had been no shortage of charming young women who were eager to spend time with him, and several families had approached him about making investments in Kyanden.

The young woman sitting next to him hadn’t been the first to make a move, but she’d been the one who most stirred his heart, and he was eager to bring her back home to his village, but she would never marry him if demons destroyed that village before he could even propose!

Seeing that the young knight was too inexperienced to step in and speak up, Ian resolved to have words with the young man about what he expected from him in return for his efforts to play matchmaker with the town’s wealthiest families.

A few words of concern about trying to start a family while demons raided with impunity, or even an admission of being afraid to take his prospective wife home to his village right now, would have gone a long way to making the threat feel even more dire, and the young knight had the least reputation to lose in admitting to fear at his age.

But it seemed like Baron Hanrahan had overestimated the simple, inexperienced country knight, and so he gestured to an older, more seasoned veteran who sat much closer to him to step in next.

Pawns would be pawns, after all, the baron thought as he saw understanding in the eyes of the old man he’d chosen to make the next move. If one pawn failed to advance, he only needed to push out the next one in order to clear the way to his inevitable victory over the young Lothian Lord who would soon learn that even a future Marquis needed to be careful about provoking his barons.