In The Common Room
A slight bloom had crept over Lady Jastian’s cheeks while she listened to the others’ tales. Her movements careful and controlled, she poured another half cup of mulled wine and took a cautious sip, savoring the spices’ flavor. Her speech was also slower, her expression thoughtful, as if the locals’ anecdotes and the spiced drink had summoned forth troubling memories. The lady rose to her feet, raising her ceramic cup as if she planned a toast. Her left hand clenched the back of her chair, steadying her as she spoke. “Should any of Sir Braford’s ill-starred band yet tarry among the living, it would be no kindness to have them bide longer for succor! Let us venture forth on the morrow, our steeds caparisoned and ready ere dawn’s first light.”
Gazing around the room, she saw enthusiasm on a few faces, but others looked more reserved. Winthrop’s uneasy reaction particularly caught the noblewoman’s eye. Jastian’s tone grew more grim, her plea more impassioned. “Some of you may think me in my cups, a woman driven by whim or caprice. Others may be afeared that I know naught of the goblin-kindred, or that I would serve my followers ill, leading them into the goblins’ traps like coneys caught in a hunter’s snares. Banish such unworthy phantasms from your minds! ‘Tis not I who bargained with the subhuman wretches, bringing woe upon my house! Know you not that such creatures lack a true soul, hungering only to deceive and steal? Commerce with such brutes can only bode ill!
“I am the Wyverntongue, and I have not yet met the one who could master me! Of a surety, no goblin ever shall! Familiar am I with the treacheries of goblin-kind, for I have studied their ways and even mastered their uncouth tongue. If it is fitting that I do so, I may treat with the wretched creatures, but ‘tis more like that fire and sword shall purge them from their hidden lairs. Let you of stout heart venture forth with me, discovering what we may of Sir Braford’s fate. If ‘tis as dark as I fear, may the gods grant that we bring justice to those who wronged him.” Raising her cup, the lady saluted the others in the chamber, then gulped down the remaining wine.
Turning toward the stairs, Lady Jastian’s measured steps were almost steady. “We ride at dawn!” she intoned as she mounted the narrow stairway.