Chapter 14 Cenric #2
Cenric bowed as he knew that was what his old mentor wanted. The king might be indebted to him now, but a king was still a king. None of his rewards, not even those that were earned, came without a debt attached.
Brynn had been a gift from another king who had also expected Cenric’s loyalty. Now it seemed that keeping her was indebting him to Ovrek.
The king turned his attention to his warriors. “Bring me Egill’s men. I want them all in this pit before the sun sets.”
Cenric returned his attention to Brynn. “Can you walk?”
“Yes.” She clung to his chest as if she was hiding from the Valdari men. Perhaps she was.
Cenric guided her back toward their tents. Brynn scooped Guin up in her arms, clutching the little dog to her breast.
Ovrek bellowed an order, and two more warriors broke off, falling in behind them. Brynn was still under guard, it seemed.
“What happened here?” Brynn asked, still gripping his arm. She watched as the king headed away from the thrall huts toward the beach, followed by most of his men.
“Egill and his son tried to kill Ovrek.”
“Those two men thrown in the pit?”
“Yes,” Cenric confirmed. “At least two of their men were a part of the plot, but I killed one and Ovrek finished off the other, so we won’t be hearing their version of the story.”
“You fought?” Brynn’s grip on his arm tightened.
“It wasn’t much of a fight,” Cenric said. “I wasn’t armed, but I managed.”
Brynn took in a shuddering breath.
“I saved the king’s life.” He felt a little pride at that, but not as much as he should have. The words felt tainted, somehow. Boasting was as much a part of being a warrior as hunting or feasting, but for some reason, Cenric was not entirely sure he had done the right thing this time.
Brynn stroked his arm as if reassuring herself he was real. “Good.”
An odd sensation of relief filled Cenric’s chest at that. Surely if Brynn approved, he had done the right thing. He wondered if the plot against Ovrek had anything to do with the murder of his concubine. It did seem convenient.
Profaning of the Grandfather Yew seemed to be why Ovrek now faced betrayal. But it might be a mere foretaste of chaos and discord that would follow the tree’s destruction.
Cenric glanced at the two Valdari warriors trailing them. He didn’t know these two or if they spoke Hyldish. He didn’t want to risk it until he had the opportunity to speak with Brynn in private.
“Lady! Lady Brynn!” Esa came running, breathless, with Kalen jogging after her.
“Esa!” Brynn reached for her handmaiden, grabbing the girl in a tight embrace, though she kept her hold on Cenric.
“Lady, I was so worried. We both were.” She looked to Kalen. “Two of Lord Hróarr’s thanes just returned, and we feared the worst, but before Lady Vana could send out a search for Lord Hróarr, we heard he’d come back.”
Esa was confused and using Hyldish terms, but Cenric didn’t bother to correct her.
“Where are Hróarr’s men now?” Cenric asked.
“They were trying to find help, but with the attack on the king, they were having trouble,” Esa panted. “I think Lady Vana went to the queen.”
“Lord, the men told stories.” Kalen’s face was pale as he glanced at Brynn. “Stories of monsters and dead trees.”
A cloying feeling of dread bubbled up in Cenric’s gut. “Let’s keep moving.” He kept his arm around Brynn’s waist. He could feel the impatience from the men following them.
“Yes.” Brynn shivered.
Their odd little band continued toward the camp between Wolf Star and Hróarr’s ship by the water.
Shouts rose from farther down the beach and Cenric was torn. A part of him ached to join in the hunt. There was violence to be done and something deep in his bones wanted to be a part of it. This was the way of things—insults must be avenged and blood repaid.
The men of Egill’s household were all culpable. Their lord had turned traitor, so they would all pay the price. Their women that were here would be divided amongst Ovrek’s men and those that had stayed at home had best flee before Ovrek’s warriors reached them.
It was just the way of the world. The way of Valdar.
They reached the tent pitched against the side of Cenric’s ship that Brynn and Cenric had shared before that disaster last night. Kalen and Esa had set it aright.
Ugba and Anders were the only men of Cenric’s thanes present at their camp. They said the others had gone to join the hunt for Egill’s men. That was just as well.
Ovrek’s warriors waited at the edge of the camp, posted as guards, but giving them the illusion of privacy. Hopefully, this time these two knew better than to leave their posts because some boy told them to.
Brynn sat outside their tent, leaning against one of the front braces as Kalen stoked the fire.
“Lady.” Esa knelt at Brynn’s feet. “I found this in the queen’s garden.”
Cenric glanced over.
Brynn accepted a sprig of some plant with purple flower bulbs from the girl. “I thought so. Thank you, Esa.”
The girl bowed and set to finding dry clothes for her mistress.
“What is that?” Cenric nodded to the plant.
Brynn surveyed the sprig with a kind of fatalistic acceptance. “Pennyroyal.”
“What you think poisoned Gistrid?”
“Yes.” Brynn let off a sigh that seemed to come from her very bones. “It seems we have much to discuss, my love. Where should we start?” Guin lay in her lap and Snapper curled against her side.
Cenric exhaled, lowering himself to the ground where she sat near the fire. He kept his voice low, careful so as not to let the warriors hear them. “The monsters you saw. What of them?”
Brynn shuddered. “A creature that was wolf, but not a wolf.” She watched the flames as she spoke. “Too big and…wrong. Another creature in the form of a burned girl.” Brynn squeezed Guin tighter against her.
A sinking feeling pooled in the pit of Cenric’s stomach. “A girl, you said?”
“I was able to take her head off.” Brynn’s gaze grew vacant. “I’m not sure what happened. Another being seemed to crawl out of her corpse—a creature with scales and misshapen limbs. But she’s dead. At least, she didn’t chase us. The scaled creature vanished. Like smoke.”
Cenric wasn’t sure what to make of that.
“That one spoke to me.”
“It did?” Cenric shifted at that. His talking dogs were one thing, but talking fiends were another. “What did it say?”
“It knew I was a sorceress. She said that the tree had been weakened, which had allowed her and the Wulfwir out.”
“I think Ovrek cut down pieces of the Grandfather Yew to build part of his ship.” Cenric felt sacrilegious just saying the words.
“I see.” Brynn did not seem surprised. “Your cousin hinted at that, I think.”
Cenric briefly wished that his uncle was still alive. Hróarr’s father would have thrashed him within an inch of his life. Who else knew Ovrek had done this? It wasn’t as if the king could have done it alone. A good number of men must have helped him.
Dagrún had also confirmed the tales right before the assassination attempt. It made sense why Egill and his son would become oath breakers. Even if they had not known the Father’s Foes still lay beneath the roots of the great yew, they had known of Ovrek’s desecration.
“The burned girl said other things, but most of it didn’t make sense.” Brynn’s gaze turned vacant. “She said they were children of the moon, but I don’t think she meant Eponine.”
“What other moon is there?” Cenric was no Istovari, but he had seen the night sky often enough to know.
“Moreyne.”
“The Dread Mother?” Cenric wanted to argue with that possibility, but under the circumstances, couldn’t.
“She was Eponine’s sister,” Brynn explained. “There were once two moons.”
Cenric knew Moreyne only as the cursed goddess, the one that fell from grace. She had been trapped in the Dread Marches by the other gods at the beginning of time. Her children were evil spirits, warped, bodiless creatures forged from shadows and spite. “Does that tell us how to kill them?”
Brynn considered it a moment. “No. I know as much as you.”
“We don’t need to know everything to kill them.” Cenric tried to sound encouraging. “You killed one, which leaves only one, yes?”
“There was also a giant scaled creature, I think some manner of serpent.” Brynn’s voice shook, as if she hardly believed the words herself. “It was still trapped within the roots of the dead tree, but I don’t know for how much longer.”
“A serpent?” Cenric’s dream from last night burned hot in his memory. “Did it have red eyes?”
Brynn cast him a curious look. “I didn’t get a look at the serpent’s eyes, but the other two did. Why?”
“I had a foretelling,” Cenric admitted. “I thought it might be an ordinary nightmare, but…” He shook his head. “I saw a giant serpent making its way through Istra while the town burned.”
“Oh.” Brynn seemed to wither with dread.
“You were there.”
Her gaze sharpened.
“I heard you call my name and then I woke up.”
A serpent, a she-troll, and a wolf. What if the First of Fathers had not been as thorough in his defeat as the legend claimed?
“They had all been trapped under the tree, according to the girl.” Brynn ran a hand over her face. “Are we supposed to deal with this on top of everything else?”
“You and Hróarr said they wouldn’t cross the boundary stones,” Cenric pointed out.
Brynn seemed to deflate, slumping beside the fire. “There were powerful spells cast over that circle. The Grandfather Yew’s ka was feeding them.”
“Spells?” Cenric had attended the sacrifices to the Grandfather Yew a few times in his life. It was a holy place, but of course, he hadn’t been able to sense anything magical about it.
“Is it possible that the First of Fathers was a sorcerer?” Brynn asked.