Chapter 975: Puppets on Strings

The Hanrahan great hall was filled with the sounds of Eldritch laughter as the leaders of the Second Army heard Ian Hanrahan’s ’threat.’ On the dais, Sybyll and Heila exchanged an amused look while Hugo and Liam Dunn both looked at the captive Hanrahan baron with eyes full of pity.

"Cousin Ian," Sybyll said, holding up a hand to call the hall to silence. It took a few moments for even the most disciplined Iron Tusk infantry to still their shaking bellies, and a few moments more for the anxious, murmuring people of Hanrahan to quiet down after that, but once the hall was quiet, the Crimson Knight looked down on the captive baron from atop the throne that had once been his and spoke in a tone that was filled with scorn.

"Ye might think yer lords an’ masters are mighty enough ta’ ride ta yer rescue, or at least ta’ avenge ye, but do ye’ think we really came all this way an’ didn’a expect some kind ’o response from tha’ rulers of tha’ march?" Sybyll asked, raising a crimson brow at the lord in chains.

"Her Dominion expects Bors or Owain will be forced ta’ respond ta this an’ her other attacks," Sybyll said with a predatory grin that fully revealed her fangs. "She’s already taunted tha’ Lothians wit’ her raids, an’ look what they did?" Sybyll said, pointing at Loman Lothian’s tattered figure. "Bors Lothian sent her two gifts, an’ I just had ta’ come collect ’em fer her. Ye think she won’t be pleased when Bors responds ta’ tha’ black eyes an’ bloody nose she’s just given ’im?"

Loman flinched when Sybyll pointed at him, but that reaction was instinctual. The more the Crimson Knight spoke, the more pieces fell into place in his mind, and with each one that clicked into place, the expression of horror on his face grew graver.

"She, she planned for this?" Loman muttered in disbelief as he stared into the vampire’s bloodthirsty crimson gaze. "The Demon Lady of the Vale, she raided the farms in Dunn and the caravans in Hanrahan to provoke my father?" Loman asked as he turned his gaze to Hugo Hanrahan and Liam Dunn, where they sat on the dais.

"You traitors!" Loman spat as he glared at the two young lords. "Did you sell your people out to the demons because my father wouldn’t send men to defend your hamlets, Liam?" Loman asked. His chains clanked and rattled as his whole body trembled in fury. "Or were the farms the demons raided just your sacrificial offering in order to bait my father into sending me out here to ’investigate’ the raids?"

"It wasn’t like that, Loman," the heir to the Dunn barony protested. "I might be sitting up here, but I’m a prisoner, just like you are. They captured me in Maeril Village before I even made it home, just like they took Sir Rain, Sir Carwyn, and Lord Hugo! We never did anything to betray anyone!"

"You didn’t," Hugo said from his seat beside Liam. "But I won’t pretend my hands are clean when they aren’t. I might not have made the plans, but I offered up what I knew, and I led soldiers tonight..."

"Ye led soldiers to stop riots an’ ta’ keep tha’ peace," Sybyll interrupted before her young cousin could say anything further. "I told ye b’fore, yer a good man, Hugo. One who does his best fer his people, even when tha’ lords above ye want otherwise. Ye’ve been beatin’ down too much b’fore but I won’t have it now. Don’t let these people tar you as a traitor when yer doin more fer Hanrahan ’an yer swine of a father ever did."

"After all," Sybyll added, turning a menacing glare at the shackled lord. "Ye aren’t the sort who would murder his own aunt just ta’ cling to a throne that don’t belong to ye."

Sitting next to Heila, Diarmuid’s eyes flicked rapidly between the two young lords, filing away every word and subtle gesture. Hugo at least sounded genuine when he confessed to supporting the demons in their schemes, but there was something furtive in Liam Dunn’s eyes, and his protest came too quickly, almost as if he was hoping to plaster over something else before suspicion could land on him.

Beyond that, when Sybyll spoke up for her young cousin Hugo, there was something in Liam’s gaze that looked... longing. As if he wished for the same sort of praise to be bestowed on him, and from the set of his jaw, he felt determined to do... something. Diarmuid just didn’t have enough pieces to understand what, but there was clearly more going on between the young Dunn lord and Dame Sybyll than he was admitting to.

But now that Diarmuid knew the young lords were involved in all of this, he started to see a pattern emerging in a number of events he’d witnessed since his arrival in Lothian March. Perhaps this grand scheme had started with the murder of Sir Kaefin, or rather, perhaps the murder had been one of the first moves in the much larger scheme that was playing out now.

If the Demon Lady of the Vale wanted to put Sir Hugo in place as Owain’s Steward, then sending one of her witches, the woman called ’Lynnda’ to kill Sir Kaefin suddenly made a great deal of sense. Until now, no one had been able to offer a convincing reason why the demons would send an assassin after such a minor figure.

But if Hugo Hanrahan had been their agent from long ago, perhaps ever since Bastian Hanrahan recovered, when Hugo was once again relegated to the status of ’spare heir’, then killing Sir Kaefin to create an opening for Hugo to exploit suddenly made much more sense. Especially when Diarmuid considered that the Demon Lady of the Vale had a sympathetic figure like Dame Sybyll, who shared a plight similar to Hugo’s, to recruit him into their ranks.

"It’s like a web woven by a spider," Diarmuid murmured as his eyes shot back over to the young lord sitting next to the Hanrahan bastard who had already confessed to conspiring with the demons.

Liam Dunn’s campaign over the summer had enjoyed levels of success unmatched by any other attempt at expansion in recent history. So much so that Diarmuid had discussed the events of the summer with Loman Lothian several times once he’d returned from the Holy City. When they spoke, Loman had mentioned more than once that they found demon villages abandoned and evacuated ahead of their advance, and that the demons seemed more interested in wounding the Dunn soldiers than slaying them.

At the time, they’d thought that the demons were afraid of the growing strength of the Dunn army and that they were lashing out in the only ways they could out of a sense of cruelty and spite. They thought the demons wanted to bleed the Dunns as much as they could before they fled in fear... but what if they were putting on an act the whole time?

With Loman present to heal the wounded, the demons only needed to inflict light injuries to put on the appearance of a battle while their allies, the Dunns, claimed glory for their victories! Without Loman present, they never could have put on such a convincing charade, but with one of the greatest healers in the March to ensure that casualties were kept to a minimum, Liam could send his men into carefully prepared ’ambushes’, and arrive at empty demon villages that had been ’coincidently’ evacuated just hours before their arrival!

And then, when the demons launched their most daring action yet, they sent Liam Dunn to attend the meeting of the Lothian Court. Ostensibly, he was there to plead his case for his Barony and the support they needed, but what if it had been a trap all along? If they had sent men to Dunn Barony instead of Hanrahan, would they have fallen into an even worse trap?

"Yer right about one thing, Cousin Ian. Tha’ raids were intended ta’ be provoking," Sybyll said as she leaned back in the throne, assuming a relaxed, languid posture as if she wasn’t concerned about the response the attacks had provoked at all. "But wrong about who yer enemy is. My Mistress, the one you call the ’Demon Lady of The Vale’ is only lending her support ta’ the woman who’s responsible fer all this."

"Yer real enemy is one of yer own makin’" Sybyll said with a brief glance at Heila and Hauke. "The woman ye’ should be afraid of is one of tha’ Great Witches, tha’ Mother of Trees herself," Sybyll said with an amused grin. "An’ so far, yer all dancin’ like puppets on strings every time she tugs on ye.’"

"So, Cousin Ian," Sybyll said, returning everyone’s attention to the captured baron. "If yer’ hopin’ fer’ a rescue, ye’d best give up on that now. When Her Dominion comes ta’ claim what’s hers, nottin’ in Lothian March will stop her. Not that ye’ll be alive ta’ see it, Cousin Ian..."