"Get away from my sister, Owain," Ashlynn said coldly. "You and I still have unfinished business to settle..."
The silence that followed Ashlynnâs statement lasted for three very long heartbeats.
In those three heartbeats, the great hall of Lothian Manor balanced on the edge of a blade. Hundreds of men and women sat frozen at their tables, their goblets raised or forgotten, their faces illuminated by candlelight that now seemed too bright and too warm for the cold thing that had just walked through the doors.
Then the silence broke, and Baron Loghlan Dunn moved first, before anyone else had collected their wits.
Loghlan didnât know what had happened in the corridors for a gentle man like Sir Ollie to end up covered in other menâs blood. Clearly, things hadnât gone entirely to plan for Lady Ashlynn. Or perhaps they had, and sheâd always intended to rely on the power that Loghlan hadnât realized the young man possessed. Perhaps that was why sheâd been so confident that her assault would succeed even without Loghlanâs help.
She truly hadnât needed anything from him other than helping her enter the city... Sheâd done the rest herself. But even if she had, that didnât mean he couldnât help now. Loghlan wasnât a man who would leave things unclear, and even if Liam had left his own tabard behind so that his father could disavow him if need be, Loghlan wasnât about to take the cowardâs position in all of this.
Under the table, Loghlanâs left hand found Mairwenâs thigh and gave her a brief squeeze as he raised his right hand in a signal that all of his men would understand.
Sir Brennus Thorne was on his feet before Loghlanâs hands had completed the motion. Morwen and Cadeyrnâs father pushed back from the Dunn table with a scrape of wood on stone that cut through the rising murmur in the Great Hall like a knife, and the sword at his hip whispered free of its sheath in a single, fluid motion. He wore no armor, just the fine wool tunic and breeches heâd dressed in for the feast, but the lack of armor wouldnât prevent him from taking a stand.
Sir Padraig Wyndan followed half a heartbeat later, rising from his seat with the coiled intensity of a man who had been waiting for this moment since Baron Loghlan passed him the message that morning. Sir Gavin Ashford was next, and finally Sir Bedwyr Riverstone.
Within the span of a breath, four knights of Dunn Barony stood with their swords drawn in the middle of a wedding ceremony. Their faces were set with a resolve that had nothing to do with the vows theyâd been listening to and everything to do with the woman who had just walked through the doors.
They moved down the aisle toward Ashlynnâs formation, and as they passed the place where Sir Ollie stood, Sir Gavin caught the young knightâs eye. It was just a moment, a quiet acknowledgement between men, but it was clear just by looking at him that the evening had been hard on Sir Ollie.
Gavin gave the younger knight a short, sharp nod that held all the things he couldnât say; the gratitude for what Ollie had done for him, recognition that the younger knight was truly just as much of a warrior as Gavin had ever been, and most importantly, a willingness to help take up the burdens the young man still bore tonight.
Ollie returned the nod, and Gavin took his position alongside the Blackwell knights without another word.
Across the hall, Baron Erling watched Loghlanâs knights move, and his heart hammered against his ribs hard enough that he was certain his mother could feel it through the hand she still rested on his arm.
This was it. This was the moment Loghlanâs message had been preparing him for, and seeing the old baronâs knights draw swords and take their stand beside a woman who was supposed to be dead left Erling with a choice that felt like stepping off a cliff in the dark.
He didnât know Lady Ashlynn. Heâd never met her, never spoken to her, never had any reason to believe that she was anything more than the quiet, unremarkable young woman that the court gossip had described. But he knew Loghlan, and he knew that the old baron wouldnât have taken a stand like this if he wasnât certain that it was the right thing for his family and his barony.
Moreover, now that he saw Lady Ashlynn standing here, he understood why the older baron had been so cryptic with him... This was hardly the sort of thing a man could speak of and be believed! But if Lady Ashlynn stood with the powers who had given his barony safety ever since he made a pact with the raven... then Erling was willing to stand with her too.
"Go," Erling said to his knights, his voice barely above a whisper. "Stand with them."
The knights of Fayle rose and drew their swords, and the murmur in the hall swelled into something louder as the assembled court watched a second barony declare for the woman in the cavalier hat.
Then, from the far side of the hall, a third group of men stood.
Baron Wes Iriso was older than Erling, and he was the father of a very young child. By rights, the safest thing he could do right now would be to stand aside and wait. No one would blame him for waiting to see how things shook out before taking a position of his own.
But the safe thing and the right thing werenât always the same, and Wes Iriso knew Owain Lothian and Erling Fayle well enough to understand what the right thing was. Clearly, there was a great deal he didnât know yet, but if Owainâs wife returned from the dead to denounce him and Erling Fayle was willing to declare for her without hesitating... Wes knew what he had to do.
"Go," he told his knights in a voice that was sharp and determined. "Quickly. Help make certain that Lady Ashlynn has enough men to keep things under control."
"Wes," Sorcha said, her hand tightening on his forearm. "What are you doing?"
"Iâm standing with Erling," Wes said simply, nodding to his own knights.
"You donât even know whatâs happening," Sorcha protested. She had learned to navigate court politics by never committing to anything before she understood the full picture, the same way you never broke stone without knowing where the pieces would fall. "You donât know who this woman really is, or if her claims are true, or what Lord Owain will..."
"I know Erling," Wes said. "And I know Loghlan. If both of them have decided this is worth standing for, then I trust their judgment. I just hope," he added, with the ghost of a smile that did little to reassure his wife."That our young friend knows what heâs getting us all into."
The knights of Iriso only carried ceremonial weapons, but they drew them regardless and moved to join the growing line of men who had chosen to stand with Ashlynn Blackwell.
Charlotte Otker watched it all from her seat. Her tear-streaked face glistened in the candlelight, and the wine her brother had poured for her sat untouched at her elbow. Her hands were clasped so tightly in her lap that her knuckles had gone white, and the breath sheâd been holding since Liam spoke Ashlynnâs name finally escaped her lips in a sound that was halfway between a laugh and a sob.
She didnât understand how this was possible. She didnât know where Ashlynn had been, or how sheâd survived, or how sheâd arrived in Lothian Manor with an army at her back. But she knew what sheâd seen in Jocelynnâs eyes yesterday, and she knew, with a certainty that went deeper than understanding, that whatever Jocelynn had been steeling herself for tonight had just been interrupted by something neither of them could have imagined.
"Charlotte?" Serge said, staring at her with the baffled expression of a man who had no idea why his sister was crying harder now than she had been before. "Did you know about this? Did Lady Jocelynn tell you what was going to happen?"
Charlotte couldnât answer. She could only watch as Ashlynn walked toward the dais where Jocelynn stood, and the tears that ran down her face were no longer tears of grief.
At the Otker table, Baron Serle placed a quieting hand on his sonâs arm and said nothing. But his eyes, older and wiser and far more cautious than his childrenâs, tracked between the armed men in the aisle and the doors theyâd come through, and the calculation behind his gaze was the calculation of a man who understood that the world had just changed.
Right now, he was trying to determine which side of the change would be safest for his family... and which side would pay the best rewards.