Chapter 960: Sybyll Stalks Her Prey (Part Two)
"H-halt!" an aging guardsman said as he rushed to position himself between the guests and the terrifying figure in crimson armor who had just shattered the doors to the great hall. Only two of his companions stepped forward with him after seeing their barricade destroyed in a single blow, but the guardsman couldn’t bring himself to look away from the skull-like visage of the Crimson Knight’s visor long enough to berate his remaining n into joining him.
"Run!"
"Out of my way, wench!"
"Aaaaa!"
Chaos enveloped the great hall as several guests rushed toward the side door that servants used to bring food from the kitchens, pressing up against each other as they crowded into the narrow passageway. So pushed and shoved, others bodily flung servants aside in their haste to reach what now looked like the only path to escaping this nightmare.
"DO. NOT. MOVE!" Sybyll shouted loudly enough for her voice to echo off the stone walls. "If even one of ye leaves this hall, I swear I’ll put an end ta yer families by night’s end. So all of ye can just stand right where ye are, an’ answer
questions if ye wan’ ta’ survive this night."
Hearing Da Sybyll’s shouted command, everyone in the great hall froze where they were. So stood stiff as statues with one leg still in the air as they dared not take even a single step toward the door they’d rushed for. Suddenly, in a single heartbeat, the hall had gone from the loud chaos of people scrambling to escape to the deathly silence of a tomb where so didn’t dare to even breathe.
"Where is Ian Hanrahan?" Sybyll asked as she swept her gaze over the assembled elites of Hanrahan Town. She saw the wealthiest of rchants and their daughters, even a young lass who looked like the daughter of a knight, but there wasn’t a trace of Ian Hanrahan or his son Bastian to be seen anywhere in the hall.
"He, um, that is, er, he..." the guardsman stamred, visibly shaking as he felt the shadow of death hovering over his shoulder. He wanted to answer, he wanted more than anything to say the words that would take this demon away from the great hall. But he couldn’t. He couldn’t put even three words together to say ’he’s not here’ under the intense pressure he felt from the blood-stained knight who filled the great hall with nace.
"Lord Loman had him arrested," an attractive young woman said from one of the tables near the front of the hall. Her companions were all cowering under the table, but she had believed to the very last mont that Lord Loman would co to her rescue or that he would protect them from the demons.
They had been able to see his luminous arrows sailing through the night sky to smite demons in the distance and even witness his duel with the strange snow demon as it approached the keep. It was only now, however, when the Crimson Knight herself stood among them that the woman realized Loman had been outmaneuvered. While he protected them from the demon-witch, the knight had taken advantage of the distraction to reach the great hall.
"Lord Loman gave him to Sir Dollin to guard," the woman said, trying to be helpful enough that the horrifying, demonic knight would leave. "Sir Dollin took the Lord Baron and his son, Bastian, to the guest rooms as prisoners," she said.
"Oh?" Sybyll said, raising an eyebrow behind her visor. "So he’s a prisoner now. That’s convenient. Who are ye girl? What’s yer na?" Sybyll asked in the most neutral tone she could manage. The pain of her wounds still tornted her and she was starting to fear that she would never know peace again after confronting Sir Tommin’s Holy Light Blade but that didn’t an she had to take out her fury on the slip of a girl who had likely been dragged to this gathering as an offering from her father to one powerful man or another.
"M-my na?" the willowy woman said, stamring at last as the Crimson Knight focused on her. "I’m called Cossot, your, um, your ladyship," she said hesitantly, uncertain about how she was supposed to address the demon knight without offending her. "I’m a nobody, really," she said. "My father is..."
"Yer father isn’t worth two snips if yer the one speakin’ an’ he’s cowerin’," Sybyll snorted. "But yer a useful one. I’m fetching
cousin an’ I’ll drag his sorry arse back ’ere soon enough," Sybyll said. "Until then, Cossot, yer’ in charge o’ these folks. Keep them here, keep it orderly, an’ be ready ta’ tell
who they all are when I return."
"An’ Cossot," Sybyll said at the pale-faced woman who was trembling in fright as she suddenly beca the center of attention. "Ye have nottin’ ta’ fear from tha n in this hall," she said in her best attempt to be reassuring. "If any man lays a hand on ye that shouldn’t, ye just tell
’is na an’ I’ll see ’is hands removed from ’is arms fer tha’ cri o’ touchin ye," she said as she panned her gaze across the great hall.
"The days when tha’ n o’ Hanrahan can bully a woman just because they’re stronger or richer are over," Sybyll declared as she glared at several of the noteworthy and wealthy n in the great hall, many of whom she knew as patrons of the town’s brothels. "The sooner they learn that, the better!"
"Yes, your-your ladyship," Cossot said, dropping into the deepest, most reverent curtsy she could manage and nearly tipping over in the attempt to pay proper respects to the powerful demon who had chosen not only to spare her, but to take her into its service, at least for the mont.
Her heart hamred in her chest like the demon war drums beating outside the town, and for several breaths, she didn’t dare to move, waiting for the dread Crimson Knight’s permission before she did anything.
"It already left," Roseen whispered to her friend from the place she’d been hiding under the table. "You aren’t bowing to anyone anymore."
"You! Shut up, you!" Cossot said, her face heating in embarrassnt. "And get out of there! If I have to serve that demon, then you have to help !"
"What? What did I do?" Roseen protested.
The two won’s bickering finally broke the tension in the hall, at least enough for the frightened attendees to move again, but this ti, none of them were willing to take even half a step toward the doors. The image of the fierce knight was just too overwhelming and there wasn’t a single person among them who didn’t understand that their bodies would present even less resistance to her powerful axe than the barricade had.
At the high table, a young girl, barely twelve years old, tugged at the sleeve of the young lady who had kept her close ever since the first warning bell sounded.
"Miss Rufina," Drema Quarrie asked hesitantly now that the Crimson Knight had left. "If she’s here, do you think... do you think my father is... is..." she tried to ask, only for her voice to break in a half-stifled sob.
"I don’t know," the elegantly dressed young woman said, holding tightly to the young lady’s hand. "Sir Thorryn is a brave and strong knight but... if he had to fight the Crimson Knight, then he’s probably..." she said hesitantly, finding herself every bit as unable to finish the statent as Sir Thorryn’s young daughter had been.
At the sa ti, she wondered if Sir Niall was still alive, fighting out there in the west gate plaza. The arrows of light had ceased to fall from the sky, but she had no way of knowing if that ant the battle was over or not, and even less way of knowing what had happened to the knights who were fighting in the plaza.
All she knew was that the man who had asked her to accompany him for an evening of feasting had ridden off to face the most terrifying thing she’d ever seen while the Baron who lorded over their town cowered within his keep. And when she realized that, a slight smile started to form on her lips.
She wouldn’t say that she loved Sir Niall, she’d only t him a few days ago, but she already knew that he was ten tis the man Baron Ian Hanrahan would ever be. And sohow, the notion of the Crimson Knight catching the cowardly Baron who had given her no shortage of lecherous looks even while she attended to Sir Niall... it didn’t seem like the worst thing that would happen tonight.
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