Chapter 13 Brynn #2
Brynn searched around them frantically. It was irrational, but some deep-seated instinct told her they were being watched.
“We only come here to leave sacrifices, as the First of Fathers commanded.”
If that was true, then the First of Fathers must have been a sorcerer. An incredibly powerful one, at that. He’d created a prison held in place by the life force of the yew tree, but just what had he meant to imprison?
“Something is wrong,” Brynn whispered.
“This place is sacred and even the wild animals will not come here.” Hróarr pointed to Guin, even now writhing in Brynn’s grip. “Even your pup wants to leave.”
“If no animals come here,” Brynn choked down a lump in her throat, “what has been chewing on those bones?” With a shaking hand, she pointed to a large cow’s femur, cracked open with the marrow gnawed out.
Hróarr followed her gaze. His expression shifted, a flicker of what might have been fear before he turned back to her. “It’s time to go.”
“What lies here?” Brynn demanded. “Do you know?”
“The Grandfather Yew.” Hróarr sounded annoyed.
“Not the tree,” Brynn shot back. “What’s under the tree?”
Hróarr held out one hand, marching toward her as if he intended to seize and drag her back to the horses.
“It’s moving,” Brynn gasped.
Before Brynn could decide what to do, a shriek rang out from the direction of the horses. Brynn and the men looked up to see the horses gone as well as the men who had been left behind to watch them. Brynn’s heart beat faster and fear prickled the back of her neck.
One of Hróarr’s men said something in Valdari. Hróarr answered and then another man pointed back toward the trees.
Hróarr returned his attention to Brynn.
“What happened?” Brynn asked, though she doubted she’d get a straight answer.
“The horses must have fled, taking my men with them.”
Brynn looked down to Guin. The puppy’s full attention was on the stump of a tree across the clearing. She had gone quiet, her ears pricked and whole body rigid. Afraid of what she would see, Brynn followed the puppy’s line of sight.
She saw nothing at first, but then one of the shadows moved. The shape seemed to unfurl like a sail, limbs unfolding from around its body as it shambled out of the cover of the fallen trees.
The creature had brown fur, triangular ears, and a long snout.
It seemed not so much a wolf, but the nightmare of a wolf.
The creature was too big, rising to perhaps ten feet or more.
Its front legs were much longer than its back legs, making the creature shamble awkwardly.
Shaggy brown fur hung off the creature’s body, draping so that its forelegs almost seemed to have wings.
Crimson eyes took them in as the creature lowered its head, sniffing at the air.
“Wulfwir,” one of Hróarr’s men gasped, adding something in Valdari. “Wulfwir!”
“What is it?” Brynn asked, her voice coming out as little more than a gasp.
“It can’t…” Hróarr trailed off. “It can’t.” He slipped back into Valdari, speaking to his men.
Brynn’s throat went tight. She could swear those eyes were focused on her. Whatever this creature was, it was staring at her.
The creature lumbered toward them.
Guin growled, shifting in Brynn’s arms. Her fierce snarls turned into frightened whimpers as she snuggled closer against Brynn’s ribs.
Hróarr drew his sword as did his men. “Use your sorcery on it,” he ordered Brynn.
Brynn was already drawing on her power, but in truth she wasn’t sure if she would be able to stop this thing. Its ka was wrong. Whatever it was, this creature was not meant to exist. “There’s another one,” Brynn gasped, glancing over her shoulder. “Somewhere close.”
There were two others, one much larger under their feet and another smaller, but seemed to be moving quickly. Brynn could not see either of the other two, only this frightening lupine aberration.
The large wolf monster broke into a gallop, springing across the ground far faster than its awkward body should have been able to. It did not seem to run so much as to pounce. It bounded across the open space, springing around the tree stumps with an unnatural speed.
Brynn lashed a spell at the creature, creating a whip of power. Her blow hit the creature in the face, making its head snap to the side. Blood splattered, but then the creature spun back around.
Before their eyes, the creature’s skin bubbled and popped as it mended, seeming to boil back into wholeness. Brynn had never seen anything like it. It was much like seeing a wound healed with ka, but also wrong in some way.
Regardless, the creature was upon them within a few thundering beats of Brynn’s heart. The creature lunged for Brynn first.
Brynn slashed at it with another spell, stabbing for its soft underbelly this time. She struck, though the hair hid the sight of her strike.
The creature coiled, howling as it shrank back. Because of the creature’s unwieldy proportions, it had to crouch down to use its jaws. The motion was awkward, strained, and the creature stumbled as it tried to bite her.
Hróarr and his men set on the creature with their swords, stabbing for its flanks and legs. They were brave, if nothing else.
The creature batted at Brynn with its forepaws, trying to knock her over. It smacked her in the back and Brynn went down, gasping as the air was knocked out of her.
She just managed to keep from crushing Guin as she went down. Brynn struck a stump, but rolled onto her back, facing the creature once again.
The jaws came down, diving straight for her.
Brynn blasted straight up with her power, straight into the creature’s face. Her power hit the monster in the side of its jowl, and it shrieked, squalling with a sound like a thousand dying pigs.
Blood splattered as the creature backed up, away from Brynn. It must have decided she wasn’t worth it.
Hróarr stabbed at the creature’s flanks. The monster spun around, diving for him. It caught his arm near the shoulder and lifted him off the ground. Hróarr yelled, but it was like seeing a crab in the beak of a seagull.
Hróarr spouted a slew of Valdari words Cenric used only when he was particularly angry. Hróarr stabbed furiously at the creature, flailing in its grip ineffectively.
The monster turned and bounded away.
Brynn sent lashes of power after the monster. A spell caught the creature in the back, ripping through its fur and leaving a bloody gash along its spine.
The creature stumbled but kept its hold on Hróarr.
The two remaining men raced after the monster, but it was too fast. How did it move so fast with that crooked gait?
The monster raced away, eating up the ground with its misshapen limbs. The monster slowed and disappeared, diving downward into the earth. Hróarr’s bellows of fury echoed across the empty clearing.
Brynn’s heart raced. Should they go for help or chase after Hróarr? They didn’t have the numbers to fight that thing, but Hróarr would probably be dead in moments.
Guin yelped at her feet, whining and crying. The puppy caught the edge of Brynn’s dress in her teeth and tugged, as if begging Brynn to flee. Gone was her earlier bravado.
Brynn scooped the puppy up in her arms, staring to where the monster had taken Hróarr.
His two men chattered in Valdari, pointing to where the monster had disappeared with their lord.
Brynn reached the nearest man and shoved Guin into his arms. “Go back to Istra,” she ordered, pointing back in what she hoped was the direction of the town. “And take my dog with you.”
The man stared at Brynn without comprehension. He’d glared at her with suspicion earlier, but it seemed he now appreciated her ability to repel monsters. She didn’t know his name, but he was one of the men who had visited Ombra with Hróarr in the past.
“Cenric. Tell Cenric.” Brynn stepped away from the men toward the direction the monster had disappeared with Hróarr. “You go!” She pointed again. “Take my dog back to Cenric and tell him what happened. Tell Ovrek what happened.” Even if Brynn was hardly sure what had happened herself.
“Wulfwir.” The man shook his head.
“Is that the name of that thing?” Brynn pointed in the direction it had gone. “Wulfwir?”
The man nodded, eyes wide.
Brynn took a deep breath. Her husband had never mentioned that Valdar was haunted by beasts with tainted ka and red eyes. It seemed like the sort of thing he should have mentioned. “Go,” she repeated, pointing in the direction of Istra even as she headed after the monster.
“Hróarr,” the warrior protested, taking a step after her.
“I’ll get him,” Brynn promised, even as her whole mind screamed that she was insane. “I will get him, just go!”
Hróarr might already be dead, but she had to try. She had to at least try. For Cenric.
Brynn hated leaving Guin with a stranger, but the puppy had a better chance of surviving this way. Hopefully, the men would do as she told them.
Lifting her muddy skirts, Brynn ran across the field with its maze of stumps and exposed roots. It had taken the monster mere heartbeats to cross this way, but she had to run for what seemed to be forever. They needed more help. She might not be able to do anything.
But Hróarr didn’t have time to wait for help. He probably didn’t even have the time to wait for her.
Brynn finally reached the spot where the monster—Wulfwir—had disappeared. A burrow sank down into the earth, like what a fox or a rabbit might have, but at least a hundred times bigger.
Hróarr’s sword lay beside the opening, where it had been dropped on the way down. Dark patches of blood stained the earth and Brynn could only hope that was from the wounds she had inflicted on the Wulfwir, not from Hróarr.
A man let off a yelp at Brynn’s back. Hróarr’s man had dropped Guin, shaking his hand.
Guin hit the ground and barreled after Brynn, whining and crying. It seemed she was determined to stay.
Brynn waved to the men to go. They were warriors and proud ones at that, but the Wulfwir seemed too much for even them.