Tears of the Wolf (Wrath and Weeping #1)

Chapter 29 Cenric

Cenric

Cenric’s thanes were dead.

They found the four men lying in puddles of blood, throats cut and still warm. Whoever had attacked them had done so in the early morning hours when they were most tired, close to the end of their watch.

Edric swore, crouching beside the body of Handal, a man who had supported Cenric from the first days of his return. “Olfirth?”

Cenric wished it was Olfirth. It would give him an excuse to fight the old man instead of suffering through awkward dinners, but he didn’t think so.

He had four new widows to care for and at least six children between them. But who was to blame?

As they made their way back across the field, Cenric spotted a familiar figure rushing toward them. He dared to hope for just a moment, but then Kalen’s face came into view.

The boy arrived breathless, face betraying that he had bad news. “Lady Brynn is missing, lord.”

“Missing?” Cenric spoke the word slowly, sure he had misheard. A sick dread tightened in his chest. The foretelling of her pale, lifeless body flickered before his eyes.

“Esa is missing, too.” Kalen made a coughing sound. “That’s her maid.”

Cenric looked across the cattle pens. Someone had broken the fence in multiple places before driving the animals uphill toward the village and the field with the camped Valdari. “Where are the Istovari? The sorceress Selene?”

Kalen glanced over his shoulder. “They left yesterday, lord.”

“They took her.” Cenric raked a hand through his hair. “They created a diversion and took her.”

“Are you sure?” Theodren, one of his thanes, glanced around at the damage. “After seeing what she did to that Valdari, I doubt anyone could have taken her.”

“Are you saying my wife left me?” Cenric demanded, whirling on the man.

Theodren flinched. “No, lord.”

“Cenric.” Edric’s tone was level, but stern. A warning.

Cenric shook his head, taking a step away from Theodren. “She was taken.” She wouldn’t have left me , he thought silently. Not after last night.

Last night had been too intimate. She’d let him see her fears, secrets, and desires. It had been more than baring her body, she’d bared her soul.

The memory of his foretelling flickered across his thoughts—Brynn drowned on a beach, and her hands tied.

“Where’s her puppy?” Cenric whirled on Kalen.

“Her puppy?”

“Her puppy wasn’t there when I woke this morning. Where is it?” He still hadn’t heard from Snapper.

“I’m not sure, lord.”

Cenric spun back to Edric. “The rest of you get back to the village and post guards. We might be attacked again. I will join you shortly.”

“Cenric…” Edric looked between his lord and the house back up the hill. “If she has been taken, we can’t chase after enemy sorceresses.”

Cenric knew that, deep down. He didn’t have the men to attack Brynn’s mother and her entourage. Before the attack, they would have been hard-pressed on such short notice, but now…

In the vision, he had been searching alone on that beach. Was this why?

He didn’t know how to fix this. What could he do?

If his village had been attacked, he would have known what to do. If Brynn had been taken, he would have known what to do. Faced with both, he was torn.

“Go! I will either join you or send word soon. Kalen, help Edric.” Cenric ran back toward the longhouse. He crossed the field not sure what he would find or even what he hoped to find.

There was still time to change the foretelling. Cenric refused to believe otherwise.

He reached the longhouse to find a number of the Valdari being tended by the household girls. Water had been brought to clean away blood, bones were being set, and wounds bandaged.

Cenric skirted the outside of the longhouse, marching along the outer wall. Snapper? he called out, searching the tall grass. Have you found Guin? Cenric wasn’t even sure what it would prove if he found the pup, he just knew Brynn would have worried about her and it was something to do .

Pup.

A low whine drew Cenric’s attention.

Snapper crouched beside the corner of the longhouse, lying with his tail thumping softly. He pawed at the edge of the wall, letting off a snort.

Cenric jogged over to the dog and dropped to his knees. The puppy had crawled partially under the corner of the house, making a small burrow for herself.

She growled as Cenric reached in, grabbing her by the scruff of her neck to haul her out. She whimpered in his grasp, tail wagging meekly as soon as she was in the daylight.

“Where’s your mother?” Cenric asked, feeling like a fool.

The puppy whined, pawing at the air. She was young, but Guin should be communicating by now.

Brynn wouldn’t have left her behind. Even if she had taken Esa, she wouldn’t have left Guin.

Cenric tucked Guin into one arm. She squirmed for a few moments, then went still against him.

Snapper woofed, curious.

Cenric petted the puppy, trying to think. There was so much to be done.

He needed to see to the damaged houses. He needed to help round up the lost cattle. He needed to see that his people were safe. But most of all he needed to rescue his wife.

How?

He didn’t have enough men. He didn’t know where to start looking. If Selene and her people were strong enough to overpower Brynn, what chance did he have?

In the foretelling, he had found her on the beach, which must mean she was being taken out by sea. But it would take him time to comb every beach alone, time he didn’t have.

Cenric marched into the longhouse, the puppy still tucked under one arm. Inside was abuzz with the work of people helping the injured and the wounded.

Brynn would have been able to help.

Brynn.

Cenric returned to their bedroom and dumped Guin back in her basket. She howled in protest, then settled down.

Puppy! Snapper leaned over the basket, licking the puppy comfortingly.

Cenric could chase after Brynn alone to find her dead or he could abandon her. How to change his vision? What could he possibly do differently?

He grabbed his tunic and pulled it on. He finished dressing, hands moving out of habit.

Choices usually seemed easy to him. One option or the other. But right now, he hated both.

Would taking Snapper or more of the dogs with him be enough? They were Morgi’s animals, but somehow, he doubted it.

Cenric sank onto the bed and dropped his head into his hands, groaning. “Damn it, Morgi,” he growled, cursing the goddess under his breath. Why did her warnings have to be so vague? Why hadn’t Brynn listened to him? Why—

“Cenric?” At her voice, he jumped.

Rowan? Snapper trotted over to greet her, seeming confused.

“Rowan.” Why had she followed him here? Cenric rose off the bed, pacing away from her.

Rowan shut the door to the bedroom, closing them off from the rest of the house. She briefly acknowledged Snapper before turning back to Cenric. “I heard Lady Brynn had disappeared.”

Word traveled fast. Cenric grimaced, raking a hand through his hair. “She was abducted.”

“I see.” Rowan looked away, like she knew this wasn’t her place anymore. Why was she even here?

Cenric inhaled sharply. He hadn’t spoken properly to Rowan, not since she had left his house for the last time, and their relationship had breathed its final, shuddering gasps.

Rowan looked toward the empty hearth. “I have received an offer from one of Olfirth’s thanes. His name is Evred.”

“Olfirth?” Cenric wasn’t sure why she wanted to discuss this now.

“Yes.” Rowan pointedly did not look at him or the bed. “He’s well-respected in Olfirth’s household and has been given his own farm. I plan to accept.”

“I see.” Cenric paced, adjusting his collar, his belt, unable to keep himself still. He was already agitated, but having this woman here, this former lover who he still didn’t know how to handle, made it worse. He had been alone with her in this room many times, but he didn’t like it now. This room was Brynn’s place.

“Would you have married me if the baby lived?” Rowan blurted out the words in a tumble, as if they had been sticking to her throat and she had to force them out.

Cenric stopped. Rowan had a miscarriage in the early spring. She hadn’t been very far along, not showing yet. In a way, the pregnancy hadn’t felt real to him. There hadn’t even been a body to bury. But perhaps it had felt more real to her.

Cenric would have acknowledged the child, of course. Raised them in his household, certainly. Maybe there was a right answer to give Rowan. Maybe there was something compassionate, something considerate, but Cenric chose to answer honestly. “No.”

Rowan’s eyes closed and the tension in her face eased, almost like she was relieved.

Cenric shifted, realization setting in. “You thought I blamed you for the miscarriage?”

Rowan shrugged, still not meeting his eyes. “I wondered.”

Cenric exhaled a long breath. “We were a bad match.” He shook his head.

He was a Valdari in all but name and an alderman. Rowan was the daughter of a modest former thane who had never left the shire of Ombra. Cenric had been fresh from Ovrek’s war, eager to prove himself, and convinced a strong sword arm was all it took to be a leader. More than that, he had been lonely, and Rowan had been awed by the attention of her alderman.

She had smoothed many of his rougher edges and he had expanded her horizons, but it was not enough. In the end, neither of them had been able to give what the other needed.

Had she left him, or had he sent her away? Cenric wasn’t sure.

When she had told him she was going home for a few days, just to be with her family, a part of him had known it was over. Their nights together had become fewer and further between until one day Cenric found himself promising to pay her dowry whenever she found a husband—not him.

“We were a bad match,” Rowan softly agreed.

Cenric wasn’t sure what else to say. This was too much on top of everything else.

“What Lady Brynn did.” Rowan paused, then continued. “When Olfirth came with his thanes? I could never have done that.”

“What are you saying, Rowan?” Cenric tried not to snap at her, but he was on edge and his wife was still missing.

Rowan straightened, like she was a warrior bracing for the impact of an enemy shield wall. “You need her.”

Cenric hadn’t expected that, but Rowan wasn’t done.

“I was…unkind…when she first came to us.” Rowan clenched her hands in front of her. “I can’t be friends with her. I won’t be friends with her, but she helped my father and sister anyway. She helped my family. She’s already helped people across this village. Protected people across this village.” She inhaled a long breath and met his gaze. “You need to get her back.”

“How?” Cenric demanded, all his frustration exploding out of him in that one word. “How should I do that? I don’t have enough thanes. Those I have, I need to guard the village and gather the cattle, or we risk a lean winter. Hróarr is injured as are most of his men. It’s just me. What exactly am I supposed to do?”

Rowan retreated until her back hit the door. She had gone pale, shrinking before his anger.

Snapper whined, stepping between them. Cenric?

Cenric realized he had been advancing on her and took several quick steps back. He hadn’t meant to take it out on her like this.

Rowan spoke, her voice barely above a whisper. “What would Brynn do?”

“Something clever,” Cenric muttered. “Something I’m not thinking of.”

“And what are you not thinking of?”

Cenric wanted to hit something. How was he supposed to know that?

With that wagon, Selene’s people would have to take the roads. That would mean going through Olfirth’s lands to reach the sea.

What had Brynn said to him? That men only cared about their pride. That meant Brynn would do something he was too proud to see.

Something humiliating, but possibly effective.

“You’re going to marry one of Olfirth’s thanes,” Cenric muttered, scratching the stubble on his chin.

“Yes.” Rowan frowned.

“Olfirth has thanes.” Cenric braced himself. This was going to sting, and he hated it. If this had happened even a few days ago, he wasn’t sure he would have tried it, but this was Brynn. And he was desperate.

Rowan still sounded confused. “He does.”

Cenric snatched his helmet off the stand on his side of the bed. He set it aside as he grabbed the mail shirt and pulled it over his head.

He had a plan, a desperate one, but a plan nonetheless. Cenric rarely wasted time after he made a decision.

“You know what you’re doing?” Rowan sounded hopeful.

“Have my horse saddled. Tell Edric I’m going to Olfirth.”

Rowan opened the door and fled, leaving it open.

Cenric tied on his greaves, reinforced with steel slats, and his bracers reinforced with the same. He had no idea if they would help him against a sorceress, but they might help him against her guards. There was something cathartic in moving and having a course of action again. He buckled his sword belt over his armor, reaching for his wolf helm next.

Go? Snapper asked, tail wagging.

Go, Cenric answered.

By the time he strode out in his full battle gear, the longhouse went quiet. No one spoke, but the household girls and the injured Valdari stared.

Selene had killed his thanes and taken his wife. Cenric was going to make her pay.

Cenric headed straight for the stables where Gannon was already saddling up Bada. Cenric murmured a blessing on Rowan for her thoroughness.

“Going somewhere?” Edric called, trotting up on his bay steed in his own lamellar armor, helmet under one arm.

“I’m going to ask Olfirth for help,” Cenric said, though the words tasted like bile.

Edric’s nose wrinkled at that. It was one thing to ask help from a friend like Hróarr, but it was quite another to seek the help of a man who’d been your unspoken enemy for nearly two years.

The peace with Olfirth was new, and Cenric suspected it was still more an alliance with Brynn than himself. This would be seeking aid from a foe.

“Well, I once swore that if you died fighting, I’d die with you.”

“You have Gaitha to consider. And the people.”

“Gaitha can take care of herself,” Edric scoffed. “Who do you think saddled my horse? And Theodren has gathering the cattle under control.”

“We might be going to our deaths. If Olfirth doesn’t kill us on sight, the sorceresses might.”

Edric rested his spear on one shoulder. “Ready when you are, lord.”

Cenric stifled his grin at that. He took Bada from Gannon and used a stump to mount the chestnut stallion.

Bada snorted, prancing under Cenric as his rider mounted. He heard the jangle of mail and recognized the battle sound.

“Do you know the way to Olfirth’s farm?” Edric muttered.

Cenric had only been there a few times, but he knew it was somewhere along the main roads. “This way.” He turned Bada toward the southeast and nudged the stallion into a canter.

Go! Snapper cried with glee, loping alongside them.

Edric followed close behind.

Olfirth’s longhouse was massive, aged, and weathered. Cenric had to admit, begrudgingly, that it was fine even compared to his own.

At the sight of two warriors in full battle regalia charging along the path, Cenric heard shouts of warning go up. Gritting his teeth, he reined Bada into a walk.

Edric slowed his horse behind him. The animals snorted, tails wringing.

Olfirth’s longhouse was situated atop a hill overlooking a collection of homes surrounded by a wooden palisade. The gate was open, probably so farmers and household servants could go about their work. It was still the middle of harvest season, after all.

Cenric rode all too slowly up the path to Olfirth’s home. He came to a stop in the yard before the main entrance, surrounded by the thane’s barns and grain stores.

Unlike when Olfirth had ridden to Cenric’s hall, this was still early in the morning. The men had not yet left for the fields. Cenric felt Olfirth should see that as a courtesy, but from the way the old man glared at him, Cenric doubted that was the case.

Olfirth stood on the steps of his hall, arms crossed, feet shoulder width apart. He had no armor, but his axe rested on the ground, leaning against his hip.

Younger thanes surrounded him, carrying swords, spears, and axes. They might not be armored, but they did outnumber Cenric and Edric almost ten to one.

Predictably, Snapper rushed up to them, tail wagging. The men ignored him.

“Young wolf,” Olfirth grunted, raising his chin. “I believe my invitation was for more than a week from now.”

Looking at the old man’s face, Cenric almost changed his mind and turned around.

But this was for Brynn.

Cenric wasn’t sure what to say, so he acted instead.

He dismounted and handed his reins to Edric. Turning back to Olfirth, he removed his helm, tucking it under one arm.

An armored warrior on horseback was nearly untouchable. A bareheaded man on foot was much less so.

Olfirth’s brows rose, arms still folded. “I cannot wait to hear your explanation for this.”

Cenric gritted his teeth, holding back every retort that sprang so readily to his tongue.

Brynn.

His dead warriors.

He would worry about his pride later.

“My people were attacked this morning.” Cenric managed to keep his tone level.

Olfirth grunted. “Raiders?”

“Sorceresses.”

Something flickered in Olfirth’s face for just a moment. Something like surprise.

“They stampeded the young aurochs through the village. My four thanes guarding them were found with their throats cut.”

“And you suspect your new wife did it?”

“No,” Cenric snapped, perhaps a little too sharply. “She was with me when they were murdered.”

Olfirth glanced to one of his men, a fellow with an axe by the door. The man gave no visible reaction, but Olfirth looked back to Cenric. “It’s a shame. My sympathies. But it wasn’t us.”

“I know.” Cenric nearly yelled the words, then took a deep breath, steadying himself. This wasn’t going well, but what had Brynn said? Most people were reasonable.

“Then why are you here, young wolf?” Olfirth exhaled a long breath, cocking his head to the side. “In full battle-gear, no less?”

“They took Brynn.” Cenric didn’t know what else to say.

Olfirth gave no visible reaction, though several of his men looked to him for guidance.

Snapper, realizing he would not be getting any pats from the men, trotted back over to Cenric and plopped down.

“I have heard much of this new wife of yours.” Olfirth drew out each word slowly. “She’s a king’s daughter, isn’t she? Hardly the usual wife of a northern alderman. One who isn’t even invited to meetings of the Witan.”

Cenric fought to keep his calm. He could trade insults with Olfirth another time. “The sorceress Selene has been trying to persuade her to leave for days. They fought. My wife told Selene to leave.”

He couldn’t explain Morgi had warned him of this. There wasn’t time and he wasn’t sure Olfirth even believed stories of his family’s gift.

Olfirth glanced to the man with the axe again. “The sorceress Selene asked permission to pass through my lands. She has a ship meeting her at an inlet near the coast.”

Cenric’s heart leapt, even as it sank. Selene was here somewhere, but time was running out. They needed to stop her before she made it to the open water.

“You think she took Lady Brynn against her will?”

“I know it.” Cenric braced himself. “But I don’t have the men to hunt them down.”

Everything in Cenric screamed against the admission of weakness. He hated to tell his rival he lacked warriors right now, that they were vulnerable. It felt almost like he was betraying his people by confessing their weakness.

Olfirth’s thanes eyed him suspiciously, but Cenric kept his attention on Olfirth. This would be the old man’s decision. Cenric waited, hating everything about this.

“I don’t like you, young wolf,” Olfirth grunted. “You’re arrogant, impetuous, and far too prideful for someone so inexperienced.”

Cenric clenched his jaw until his teeth ached. If the old man wanted to trade insults, Cenric had a long list on the tip of his tongue.

Olfirth stroked his beard, like he was thinking. “You remind me of myself when I was your age.”

Cenric frowned at the same time several of Olfirth’s thanes looked to the old man. They were like hounds readying for their master’s call.

“I don’t like you,” Olfirth repeated. He heaved a great sigh and uncrossed his arms. “But I am a sentimental old man. And I’m quite fond of your wife.”

Cenric didn’t dare hope. He kept his eyes locked on the old man until Olfirth stepped back into the hall.

“Battle gear and spears,” Olfirth ordered his thanes. “We’re going hunting.”

Cenric glanced to Edric. Already, he had changed his vision just a little. He only hoped it would be enough to save Brynn.