Chapter 21 Brynn
Brynn
It had worked. Cenric had thrown two javelins with perfect precision, and the creature was barreling after him, blind but enraged.
Power crawled up Brynn’s legs, her hands, and everywhere that her skin touched water. It was different from drawing ka from the air. Strength came in pulses, much like the rhythm of the waves, but strong and abundant. As her heart raced, each moment passed at once too fast and not fast enough.
“Please, please, please,” Brynn chanted, pulling magic to herself in great surges. “Please, please, please.”
It seemed the only word that could capture her gnawing desperation. Whether she was begging Eponine to help, Llyr to show kindness, or Cenric to run faster, she couldn’t have said. Maybe all three.
Cenric raced toward her, the serpent in pursuit. Now that the creature was blinded, it seemed less afraid of the water.
Brynn drew more power, growing lightheaded with the sheer magnitude of ka rippling through her. She wrapped her spell into a lash, the largest she had ever made before.
Cenric came closer, the serpent gaining on him. Cenric reached a few paces in front of her and skidded to a stop. He met her gaze in the moonlight and grinned.
Smiling at a time like this? What was in Valdar’s air that made men such fools?
The serpent roared toward them. Close. Closer.
Jormanthar opened its mouth, swooping for Cenric.
Brynn released her power straight into its maw. Her spell burst out in a great rush, slicing up into the top of the serpent’s skull.
Its pierced eyes guttered from red to black.
Brynn and Cenric scrambled out of the way as the top half of the beast’s head splashed into the waves. Cenric grabbed her, pulling her to the side as the creature’s neck smashed down the next moment.
Brynn had decapitated it from the jaw up.
The creature’s massive hulk collapsed. It crashed into an incoming wave and splashed Brynn and Cenric backwards, making them lean on each other for balance.
Just like the burned girl, the serpent split.
A mangled phantom with beetle’s wings and a vaguely human shape burst out of the corpse. The creature tried to scramble toward Brynn and Cenric, clawing at them like it might have dealt its revenge, but it flickered out of sight, dragged backwards as if by an invisible breeze.
Brynn leaned against her husband, staring at the dead beast beside them. She hadn’t realized how truly massive it was until she was standing this close.
The thing must be as long as three ships, perhaps larger. Its legs were like tree trunks yet still seemed too tiny to have supported its size.
Cenric trembled beside Brynn. He made a low snorting sound.
“Are you laughing?” Brynn demanded, turning an accusatory glare at her husband.
“You are amazing!” he crowed, grabbing her waist. “Wonderful, wonderful woman.”
Brynn could hardly believe it. “You’ve gone mad.”
Cenric laughed harder at that, pulling her against him. They were drenched in sea water and the blood of the serpent swirled in the waves, staining them both. He squeezed her in his arms.
“How can you be celebrating?”
“My wife just killed a beast that not even the First of Fathers could vanquish,” Cenric said, exultant. “If that’s not worth celebrating, what is?”
“You stood there! Smiling when that thing was chasing you!” Brynn pushed him away, jabbing a finger into his chest.
Cenric shrugged. “I knew you would kill it.”
“And if I hadn’t?” Brynn wasn’t sure why she was angry, but her temper flared.
“Better to die with you than live without you,” Cenric said, echoing her words back to her.
A lump formed in her throat. “Cenric.”
He rested a hand on her back. “Come on, love. Let’s get out of the water.”
Brynn glanced over to the limp corpse of the serpent. She could feel that the poisonous life force that had inhabited the thing was gone. Now it was just an ordinary corpse of an animal, its ka leaching out by the moment.
All the same, she moved past it uneasily. From beside the beast’s haunches, it seemed possible that it was just resting, waiting for the moment to roar back to life.
Brynn and Cenric made their way back onto the shore, soaked in saltwater, serpent’s blood, and caked in black sand. Cenric had not removed his boots or leg wraps and his steps made wet sucking sounds. Brynn walked barefoot, her own stockings, leg wraps, and boots soaked through as well.
These clothes were ruined, Brynn decided.
Needing to have new feasting clothes made for herself and her husband was a small problem in the grand scheme of things.
All the same, Brynn’s mind wandered to where she would find the time to embroider a new tunic for him before Blydmoth. He would need it for the autumn feasts.
She would need Esa’s help…
“Esa.” Brynn pressed her hand against Cenric’s shoulder. “And Kalen. What about the Wulfwir?”