Chapter 22 Cenric
Cenric
“We’ll see to all that.” Now that the exhilaration of victory was wearing off, Cenric started to feel the strain of the past hour or so. Weariness was taking over. Snapper? he sent out.
Cenric? the dog’s answer came faint, but eager. Brynn?
Brynn, Cenric answered, assuring the dog she was safe. Vana?
Vana, Snapper answered. Snapper protect Vana, he confirmed proudly.
Good dog.
Snapper’s pleasure echoed across the distance.
Cenric and Brynn trudged onto the beach to find the king’s band of warriors staring at them. Ovrek stepped forward.
“You greedy bitch!” Ovrek shouted. It was hard to know if he was serious or not, but he spoke Hyldish, intended for Brynn. “Had to take the beast for yourself?”
Cenric bristled. Why did people keep calling his wife a bitch? Was he going to have to kill Ovrek after all?
“Wulfwir is headed this way.” Brynn cast her gaze to the burning expanse of wooden structures around them. She shifted closer to Cenric. She was unsteady on her feet, they both were, but she watched straight ahead. “Cenric.”
Ovrek’s gaze sparked as he hefted his axe once again. He called to his men back up the beach and they fell into formation.
Wulfwir burst from the darkness, red eyes flashing in the dark. The creature lunged for the men.
Hróarr’s voice rang out over the beach. “Wall!” he roared. “Shieldwall!”
Cenric almost dove forward at the familiar call, the order driving home years of practice when obeying that command had been a matter of life and death. Only Brynn’s weight against his side reminded him that he was now unarmed, and some things were best left to his cousin.
Ovrek made to charge forward, and join the fray, but he had left the line to come toward the beach. Now the line closed without him, meeting Wulfwir head on.
Wulfwir seemed to realize the serpent was dead and attempted to flee. Javelins pelted it and this time, they were not so easily plucked out.
Cenric saw Wulfwir go down as the men fell on the beast. It fought back, struggling and kicking. One man went flying, hitting the sand some twenty paces off.
Wulfwir disappeared under a wave of bodies as Hróarr led the attack. Cenric shifted, looking to Brynn. Would she need to deal with this one, too?
Brynn touched his arm. “Hróarr will be fine,” she assured him, as if hearing his thoughts. “I think this one is personal.”
A roar went up, but not from the beast. A shape burst out of the melee—Hróarr carrying the severed head.
His cousin was splattered in blood and gore with cuts and gashes on his chest, torso, and arms, but he was standing while the Wulfwir lay hacked to pieces.
As the tight press of warriors withdrew, Cenric could see that they had hacked its legs off to keep it from running. It seemed the beast hadn’t been able to heal severed limbs.
As Hróarr and the men celebrated, Brynn and Cenric were left with the king, standing a short distance away.
Brynn pulled her wet stockings and boots back on, steadying herself against Cenric. “I think some of Tullia’s men are still about.”
“Word will spread of her death soon enough,” Cenric answered.
“Is she dead?” Brynn sent a probing gaze toward Ovrek.
“Probably.” The king showed no feeling at the words. “Her ship is one of the ones burning on the beach and no one saw her retreat.”
“I don’t think she would have retreated,” Brynn said.
Cenric had to agree with that. Tullia had been committed to her course. She had too much of her father in her.
“She should have been born a son.” Ovrek looked back in the direction of his burning hall. “Why did the gods not make her a son?”
Cenric didn’t know what to say to that. From the burning town and the hard-fought battle, being a woman had never stopped Tullia.
Ovrek was the only one who had been limited by her being a daughter, not Tullia and certainly not the hundreds of men scattered across the city who still battled in her name.
Cenric! A grey shape leapt from the darkness. Cenric! Brynn!
“Snapper!” Cenric stepped forward to meet the dog.
“Snapper,” Brynn sighed, sounded relieved.
The dog whined, slobbering his tongue over Cenric’s cheek before bounding to Brynn and leaping up to try licking her face. Cenric! Brynn!
“Can Snapper find Esa and Kalen?” Brynn asked. “Can he find Guin?”
“He should.”
Brynn gripped his arm. “We must find them. Vana, too.”
Brynn was right. Tullia’s forces were defeated, and both monsters were dead, but the danger was not past.
“Hróarr!” Cenric shouted. “We’re going to find Vana and the others!”
Hróarr dropped the head of his defeated foe. Jogging toward them, he held onto his bloody axe. “Vana?”
“We’re going to look,” Brynn said.
“I’ll come with you.” Hróarr’s jubilation was gone. He looked to Ovrek.
“Go.” The king turned back to the light of his burning hall. “I should make sure my daughter is among the dead.”
Cenric wondered if Ovrek would kill Tullia if he found her alive. Would the king slay his own flesh and blood? His firstborn? There was a time when Cenric would have never even asked the question, but he was not so sure now.
He turned back to Snapper. Find Kalen.
Kalen. Snapper sent back an image of the boy. He let off a bark, bounding ahead.
Cenric needed to find Vana, Esa, and Guin, too, but it was easier to give the dog one set of instructions at a time. Not to mention that Snapper was already getting caught up in the screaming and the riot of noise and smells.
Snapper led the way, tail wagging. He leapt over the debris and flotsam of the beach, only growing solemn when they came across bodies.
Some people were still alive, and Brynn stopped, trying to help those she could. Others were past her skill and Cenric had to pull her away. He was sure that only the thought of Esa and Kalen allowed her to abandon her efforts.
“Kalen!” Cenric shouted, searching the darkness. “Kalen!”
Hróarr jogged beside Cenric, bloodied axe in one hand. “Vana!” he roared into the smoke.
Shouting as they ran down the beach, Cenric finally spotted a familiar ship with its deer heads in place on the prow. It seemed that Hróarr’s ship was intact, if nothing else.
The Wolf Star had been unanchored and a deep groove in the sand stretched back several paces, as if someone had tried to push it out to sea, then been stopped.
“Kalen!” he shouted. “Where are you, boy?”
A body lay on the sand in front of Cenric and he feared the worst for a moment, but as they drew closer, he realized it was a Valdari man. The stranger’s neck had been sliced open in a clean wound, almost like…
Kalen! Snapper sent the name with an image of the boy crouched beside the ship. Kalen!
Cenric followed the sound of whining as Snapper licked the boy’s face, hopping and dancing in the sand with glee. “Kalen?”
“Lord?” Kalen sputtered. His voice came from the shadow of the ship, hesitant.
“Are Vana and Esa with you?” Cenric called.
“Vana!” Hróarr barreled toward the sound of the boy’s voice. “Where is Vana?” he demanded.
“Hróarr!” The pale woman flew from the darkness, meeting him in a tight embrace.
Hróarr pulled her against him, cradling her in the shelter of his body.
“Esa?” Brynn stepped forward, voice shaking.
“She’s here, lady.” Kalen reached back to pull Esa out of the shadows.
Esa emerged, looking shaken by the light of the fires, Guin clutched in her arms. The puppy squirmed, squeaking for Brynn.
Brynn caught her ward in her arms, Guin clutched between them. Brynn stroked the girl’s hair, pressing her cheek to the top of Esa’s head. “I’m so glad you’re safe. Both of you.”
“You too, lady,” Esa whimpered. “We were so frightened when we saw the fires of the hall.”
“Daven and the other thanes went to find you, lord,” Kalen said. “We thought for sure you were dead, but then Vana found us, and we dared hope.”
Cenric saw no sign of his men. “Where are Daven and the others now?”
“Still searching for you, lord.”
Istra was burning. Confusion and chaos reigned. It was unlikely that Cenric would be able to find his men in this mess, and he’d probably have to wait for them to return to the ship.
Cenric assessed the dead man on the sand, then Kalen. “Good work, son.” He pulled the silver ring from his right arm and passed it to the boy. He’d given one to Kalen before, but he deserved another for saving Vana and Esa.
“Thank you, lord.” Kalen inclined his head, not taking the ring. “But that was Esa. She used her magic.”
Brynn shifted away from Esa, one hand on the girl’s arm. “Esa?”
The girl nodded. “I did it, lady.”
Cenric passed the arm ring to her, and she took it in a shaking hand, not seeming to understand what was happening. “For your courage.” Cenric tugged an iron ring from his left arm and passed that to Kalen. “For your honesty.” Cenric took in the damage done to the city of Ovrek’s dreams.
“There will be no invasion of Hylden,” Brynn said, stating the obvious. “Not this year.”
“No.” Hróarr kept one arm around Vana.
Too much damage had been done. It would take years to recover from this, at least three, if Cenric had to guess.
Ovrek would build back, that was his way, but it would take time.
Anything could happen in three years. Anything at all.