Chapter 988: The Barony Has Fallen

It took time to restore order after the dramatic confrontation sparked by Head Priest Germot. The people were all agitated, and many realized how close they had come to an outbreak of fighting right here in the great hall.

Sybyll wanted to remove Loman and Germot, along with Ian and Bastian, in order to speak to her people in peace, but she didn’t trust the men from the Church out of her sight at the moment. Right now, the safest place to keep them was here, under the collective noses of her most powerful champions.

That would change once she and Heila dealt with them, but until then, Germot joined with the captive Hanrahans and Loman in chains, watched closely by the soldiers of the Second Army and the people on the dais alike.

In order to calm the crowd, Sybyll put her two new attendants to work, sending Cossot and Roseen, along with a pair of bearish servants from the Vale of Mists, to fetch the largest kegs of ale they could find in the keep’s stores. In the meantime, while the harried young women passed out tankard after tankard of Ian Hanrahan’s most expensive ale, Sybyll prepared her own props to address the crowd with.

Finally, the moment to address her people arrived, with only a few hours remaining before dawn would force Sybyll to retreat into a darksteel-lined daybed, secure in the very same underground dungeons where her prisoners would be confined.

"People of Hanrahan," Sybyll said as she stood from the throne and strode forward to stand between two small chests. "I know ye’re tired. Some of ye are scared, an that’s nottin’ ta’ be shamed fer. T’night, tha’ Barony o’ Hanrahan fell. Many were wounded an’ some lost their lives on both sides of tha’ fight," she said, bowing her head low and pouring out several drops of ale on the ground as an offering for the fallen.

"I promise ye justice fer tha crimes me cousin has committed, against me an’ against all of ye," Sybyll promised solemnly. "I will no take his life before a crowd, but his head will adorn a spear in tha’ town square by an hour after sunrise, an tha’ crows may pick clean his bones," she swore.

Here and there in the crowd, a scattering of people cheered, with some dropping to their knees to thank the Crimson Knight for seeing justice done for their missing or lost loved ones. Others, however, kept their lips pressed tight together, waiting to hear the fate that awaited them after the old baron died.

"But it takes more an’ a fallen enemy ta’ start anew," Sybyll said firmly. "First, we must sweep away tha’ old, an’ so we have. Her Dominion sent her Second Army wit’ me ta’ take back me home, but I didn’a just come ta’ lay claim ta’ Hanrahan Keep or this town. T’night, while tha’ Second Army fought here, tha’ Third Army laid claim ta’ every village in Hanrahan save fer Raek Village, as Sir Carwyn has already sworn his sword and his lands ta’ me cause."

"My village!" Sir Thorryn shouted as he shot to his feet. "My wife and home..."

"Tha’ Eldritch are not in tha’ habit o’ slayin’ innocents," Sybyll reminded the panicked knight. "Ye have only ta’ look around this hall ta’ know that. So long as they didn’a do somethin’ foolish," she said with a pointed look at the shackled Head Priest. "Then yer people are safe under tha’ protection of Commander Tausau’s men."

"Protection?" Sir Thorryn said as he wrapped his arms around his daughter, Drema. The young lady was already trembling in his arms as worry that she’d held at bay all night long finally pricked the bubble she’d formed around her heart. Here in the keep, she was safe, and the demons around Dame Sybyll didn’t seem to be hostile.

For the past few hours, she’d let herself believe that everything would be all right and that her father was wrong to mistrust the woman who had only attacked them because she’d been forced to. But she’d never imagined that the very same woman whom she’d defended to her father would also send demons to attack her home!

Now, her knees went weak, and her mind reeled in confusion as she no longer knew what to believe. Only her father’s strong arms wrapping around her kept her from falling to the floor as the world seemed to fall away beneath her feet.

"Protection from what?" Thorryn demanded as he pulled Drema close to his chest. "From the demons who came to raid us? Weren’t those just more of your own men? Our villages were safe when we left them," he said as the anxiety in his heart began to gallop faster than the warhorse he wished he could mount to ride back home this very instant.

"My wife was safe when I left her," he said softly, wishing for the first time since this nightmare began that he’d brought his wife along with his daughter to visit Hanrahan Town when he brought their autumn tithe. If he had, then even if his village burned to the ground, at least his family would still be whole...

In the wake of Dame Sybyll’s attack on Hanrahan Town, no one had thought too much about the smaller raids. The sudden arrival of an organized demon army that attacked with overwhelming strength, followed by the revelation that they were led by the daughter of Baron Brighton, had driven thoughts about other recent events out of their minds.

But now that they thought about it, Dame Sybyll’s forces hadn’t contained any of the demons they’d heard described by the survivors of those raids. There were no armored serpent demons, nor flat tailed demon archers, nor even any of the twisted, misshapen ones who were said to have attacked the Dunns’ hamlets to the north.

Instead, she brought entirely new horrors, giants, wolves, and armored boars that the people of Hanrahan had never even heard of before. So was Thorryn right? Were the raiders more of Dame Sybyll’s own men? Or were they what Lord Loman had once suggested, a different faction entirely that Dame Sybyll was promising to protect them from?

No one was certain, and like Sir Thorryn, their hearts thundered in their chests, desperate for the answers that only the woman in crimson could provide...