The Vampire & Her Witch

Chapter 1688: What is Justice?

"I demand justice for my father!"

Sir Hunold’s demand echoed through the Great Hall, eliciting a few rumbles of support as other knights nodded in agreement. Others, however, were baffled by the demand.

"Who does he want justice from?" a wife asked her husband. "Lord Owain died for what he did; the Abbot is dead too..."

"He’s not trying to demand justice from High Priest Aubin, is he?" a young knight asked his father.

"The Church has deep pockets," the older knight answered. "Maybe Sir Hunold thinks he can force them to pay out reparations of some sort..."

But while some were puzzled about Sir Hunold’s intention, others were more interested in how their new Marchioness would respond to the demand.

"If someone did this in Bors’ Court," an aging knight told his younger peers. "He’d have thrown them out of the hall until they learned how to write out a petition. Bors never tolerated this nonsense."

"You have to admire the size of Hunold’s stones for doing this when her Grace asked people to remember the dead," another knight said. "After what she did to Lord Owain last night," he said, placing one hand over his right eye. "I don’t think I could defy her like that..."

Ashlynn, however, wasn’t surprised by the demand. She’d expected someone to reach this point eventually, whether it was now or when she began to formally hold court after breakfast. Still, anticipating the outburst and handling it well were two different things and she allowed the hall to descend into murmurs and speculation for several moments while she gathered her thoughts before responding to the outburst.

"The dead deserve justice," Ashlynn said, holding up a hand to silence the hall as a slight smile tugged at the corners of her lips. "If the living don’t grant justice to the dead, then the dead have no choice but to come back and claim it for themselves."

She said it lightly, but the entire hall felt a chill race down their spines at her words.

Owain’s crimes had been known to his father and likely several other important figures... Perhaps even the king had known that Owain tried to murder his wife on their wedding night. How different would things have been if justice had been done afterward? If Bors had been willing to punish his own son, would Lady Ashlynn have needed to assault the manor to claim justice for herself when she ’returned from the dead?’

"The dead deserve justice," Ashlynn repeated. "But what kind of justice are you demanding? The man who murdered your father is dead, as is the head of the order you expected to protect you. The rest of the Inquisitors who answered to Abbot Recared have a year to make amends for their failures and their crimes or they will share their abbot’s fate. So, what kind of justice are you seeking?"

The question is one that Hunold should have been expecting. If a man was going to demand justice, especially a knight who was responsible for dispensing justice in his own village, then he should know what that justice looked like. But when Ashlynn asked Hunold, his response was anything but reasonable.

"High Priest Aubin should have done something to stop the evil witchcraft before it could take any lives, but he did nothing," Hunold said. "It’s no different than a knight who stands aside when there are demons at his village gates, and he should be punished just the same!"

"Hunold!" Baron Telent Rundel snapped from his seat at the Center Table as his vassal crossed a line that almost everyone in the room knew should never be crossed. It was one thing to say that the Church had failed them... Even a man like Telent could make a statement as factual as that. But to accuse a High Priest of negligence that amounted to cowardice or treason...

"Your Grace," Telent said, turning to face Ashlynn. "Please, forgive my vassal for overstepping; I’m certain he didn’t mean it. Let me pull him aside to hear his grievances. We can present a proper petition for your judgment later, when he’s had time to mourn and..."

"No, my Lord," Hunold interrupted, slamming a meaty fist into his palm to punctuate his words. "I meant what I said! We all count on the Church to protect us from dark witchcraft. We offer up ’donations’ to ensure that they protect us and care for us. They have so much of our gold, they can cover their buildings in it."

"I collect a tithe from my people, and I keep them safe from the demons who roam the frontier," he said, thumping his chest proudly even though the last time he’d seen a ’demon’ had been twenty years ago while he was still a young knight following his father in the War of Inches.

"I have a duty to my people and the Church has a duty to us. They have to honor that bargain or... or..." he sputtered, his face turning red as he fumed and his tongue outran his mind.

"So you want the church to give up a portion of the wealth they’ve collected from you?" Ashlynn said, raising a brow at the sputtering knight. "Is wealth the only justice you seek?"

"I don’t want their wealth," Hunold snapped. "Wealth can’t give me my father back! My father was a brave man who fought the demons on Airgead Mountain, and he shouldn’t have had to die like this," he said as images of the previous night’s chaos flashed through his mind. "He should have died at home, with his family, in peace... Not looking so frightened and helpless... And the Church should have protected us..."

"I see," Ashlynn said calmly. "So you don’t want the Church to pay you for their failure; you want to see someone from the Church suffer, because your father suffered. You think High Priest Aubin could have protected you from the thing the Lothians had wrought... But answer me something, Sir Hunold," Ashlynn said, leaning forward and looking at the pot-bellied knight with piercing eyes.

"If there were enemies at your gate, would you have expected your father to ride out against them?" Ashlynn asked. "Or would you have asked him to stand guard over the women and children in your manor while you rode out?"

"So long as there was breath in his lungs, my father wouldn’t have turned away from his duty," Sir Hunold said, frowning at the question Ashlynn had asked. "Whether he stood on the line or defended the rear, he would have..."

"He would have done what he could, and not a bit more," Ashlynn interrupted. "You keep acting like High Priest Aubin could have protected you or anyone else from what happened last night, but could he?" Ashlynn asked pointedly.

"You saw what it took to break that throne," Ashlynn pressed. "It was no easy matter to destroy something that had endured for so long and gathered so much power over so many years," Ashlynn explained. "So what more could the High Priest have done?"

It was a fair question if one understood the powers the Church actually possessed. Anyone who understood the forces at play last night would understand that some things were simply beyond reach, especially for a man like Aubin who was approaching the end of his years and had little that he could sacrifice in the name of performing ’miracles.’

But that was also part of the problem, because the common people of the march didn’t understand the Church’s limitations or the sources of their power any more than they understood what had really happened when Owain Lothian grasped hold of a power he didn’t understand in his attempt to finish what he’d started with Ashlynn on their wedding night.

"Your Grace," High Priest Aubin said, breaking his silence at last and standing up from his seat at the Center Table to address the grieving knight. "I have never been one to hide from the responsibilities of my office, even when they weigh heavily on me," he said.

"Last night, it’s true that I failed to act," the High Priest said, bowing his head low. "So let me offer a measure of justice for your father," Aubin said, raising his head and turning to face Ashlynn. "With your permission, your Grace, let me tell him the truth..."