Page 140 of Tears of the Wolf
“This.” Brynn looked at the carnage scattered across the riverbank. “The Istovari won’t leave me out of their games. More will come.”
“Then we’ll kill them, too.” Cenric said it like a vow, like he was daring the Mothers to try it.
“For what?” Brynn shook her head, leaning against him.
Cenric was solid, steady as he dragged her closer, holding her up as her legs buckled. “For freedom. For peace.”
“And throw away all these lives?” Brynn stared down at her hands, stained with her own blood mingled with Neirin’s.
More would come. She was too valuable to be allowed to go free. If what her mother had said was true, and the Mothers had been planning this for generations, they would not allow her toescape even now. If not her, then perhaps her children—if she and Cenric had any.
“If they come against us, they throw away their own lives,” Cenric growled. “You owe nothing to the people who would enslave you.”
Those words seemed selfish, strange. Her whole life she had been told what she owed her family, her mother, her people, her kingdom. Cenric was the first person besides Aelfwynn to say the world owed her something, but perhaps it did. It at least owed her a choice. The right to choose her own destiny.
“Oh, love.” Cenric looked her over. “You’re shivering.”
“The water was cold.” And the fire of those spells had warmed her for only a moment.
“You’re covered in blood.”
“The cuts are mostly healed,” she mumbled. “I will be fine.”
“Brynn.” Cenric rubbed her back, tucking her against his shoulder. “We’ll get a fire going and get you into dry clothes. Then we’ll get you home and I’m never letting you out of my sight again.”
Brynn wanted him to take his armor off so she could feel his body heat better. She was cold, sore, and weary from using so much magic.Kasped the body’s natural healing process and could grant extra strength, but it did not fix exhaustion.
She was numb. So much death. So much blood.
She’d killed Neirin and her mother and the riverbank was littered with corpses—all of the sorceresses and their men.
“Any more of them?” Edric sounded just a little too cheerful as he yanked his hatchet from the skull of a dead man. He pulled something shiny from the man’s belt pouch, inspecting the silver coins appreciatively.
“You said we could keep whatever treasure we found,” grumbled one of Olfirth’s thanes.
“Ho, friend. I killed this one,” Edric quipped.
“No fighting.” Olfirth lumbered up to the two men, glaring between them. He carried a bloody axe.
“Indeed.” Edric divided the coins he’d taken from the corpse. “What do you say we share?”
The strange thane snatched the offered half with a grumble, leaning over to rummage over other bodies.
“Esa.” Brynn pushed away from Cenric, alarm rocking through her at the memory.
“Esa?”
“They left her tied to a tree upriver.”
“I’ll look.” Edric gathered up his hatchets and looked to the thane he’d just shared silver with. “Care to help?”
The stranger looked to Olfirth, but the old man nodded.
Edric and Olfirth’s thane headed upriver at an easy jog. Esa had been left close to the river. It should be easy enough to find her and bring her back.
Brynn wasn’t sure she had the strength to heal the girl just yet, but she would as soon as she could. Brynn’s mind moved slowly. Perhaps she was in shock, but she turned to the old warrior a few paces away. “Olfirth?”
The old thane inclined his head in the ghost of a bow. “Lady Brynn. I’ve never seen a ship ripped apart before. Most impressive. I was looking forward to taking it, but that was impressive nonetheless”
