Page 135 of Tears of the Wolf
I like Mildreth,Aelfwynn added quickly.She saw how you always left offerings for her and her children’s graves. She’s grateful.The impression of Aelfwynn’s snicker came from thevoice.She has a large stick she’s been saving for when Paega gets here.
Brynn would definitely not have imagined that.
Will you wake up now?The humor of Aelfwynn’s voice was gone, replaced once again by annoyance.
Yes.
It seemed that agreeing was all Brynn needed to do.
Her awareness slammed back into her body and with it, pain. A burning sensation seared through her chest, her throat, and radiated down her back.
She was underwater, just as the voice had said.
Survival instinct took over and Brynn thrashed. She scrambled for the surface, but she couldn’t reach it. She was caught in the current, rushing along too fast, being swept out to sea.
Cenric’s vision was coming true. Brynn was going to drown with her arms tied, just as he had seen.
Large hands seized her roughly from above. Someone caught her elbow, yanking so hard it nearly jerked her shoulder out of socket. A male voice she didn’t recognize shouted overhead.
“I have her!” the stranger called. “I have Lady Brynn!” It was a man with most his face covered by a helmet.
Brynn coughed and hacked. Her arms were still bound but the collar was gone. She was nowhere near where she’d last seen.
A dog barked, frenzied and fearful.
They appeared to be on a beach lined by pine trees, a rocky expanse with black sand stretching in both directions. She could see the mouth of the river, but it seemed she had been swept out along with the rest of the remains of the ship that bobbed and floated on the waves.
The dark-haired stranger sloshed out of the water, dragging her along as the rope tied around his waist guided him back to the shore.
“Who are you?” Brynn’s voice came out as a croak.
“I’m Evred, thane to Olfirth.”
Brynn’s half-drowned mind caught up as he dragged her ashore, hauling her onto the beach like a sack of eels. “Olfirth?” She collapsed on the muddy riverbank, gasping and choking.
A black and grey shape slammed into Brynn, slobbering a rough tongue over her face.
“Snapper?” Brynn coughed.
Snapper barked at his name, batting at her nervously.
“We wouldn’t have found you if not for the dog.” Evred crouched beside her, looking her over as he removed the rope from around his own waist. It seemed several men on the shore had helped pull him back out of the river’s rushing flow. “The water is shallow here, but the current is fierce. Deadly, if you’re not careful.”
“Best be going,” another of the men said. “There’s a fight upriver from the sound of it.”
“Cenric,” Brynn gasped. She pulled in magic and this time,karose to do her bidding. The ropes were made of flax twine and though the fibers had been dead a long time, they took in her power and with a little guidance melted off her in wet clumps.
Brynn flailed as her arms came free, wincing as feeling rushed into her strained chest and shoulders. She pulled in moreka, letting it settle around her joints and muscles. The ache lessened, but she would probably be sore for some time.
“Why didn’t you do that sooner?” Evred wondered.
Snapper whined, nosing at Brynn’s side.
Brynn stumbled to her feet, sand squishing between her bare toes. She’d lost her boots in the river. “Where is Cenric?” She faced down the three armored thanes in front of her.
Where was her mother, for that matter? Esa was back upriver and—
“Where is my husband?” Brynn whirled on the three men, spotting their horses tied behind them up the beach.
