Page 103 of Oath of the Wolf
“No,” Brynn panted.“Just…dizzy.I think I’m still recovering from the smoke.”
Cenric supported her as best he could, holding onto her.“Fearsome creature.”He kissed her forehead.“Magnificent, magnificent woman.”
Brynn rested her head against his shoulder.“They’re coming,” she whimpered.“They’re still coming.”
No sooner had she spoken than a howl went up over Istra.Cenric wasn’t sure how he’d heard it over the noise around him.
But for a moment, the whole world seemed to stop and look toward the darkness of the forest.
Brynn’s fingers dug into Cenric’s arm.“I don’t know how to defeat them.”
“We’ll figure it out.”Cenric chose to believe they were meant to win.
By all accounts, they should have all died inside the hall.They should have died in that battle.Surely the gods hadn’t spared them through all that just to have them die a few hundred paces closer to the beach?
Then the screams began again.
17
Brynn
Shrieksfilledtheairlike a great cacophony.A dark shape rushed past, then another and another.Black specks flitted overhead, fluttering as fast as their tiny wings could carry them.
A larger shape barreled past—a horse dragging the fence post it had been tied to.Several pigs followed, along with flapping chickens, and a host of screaming sheep.
The hundreds of animals of Istra were fleeing.From the sparrows to the cattle.
Cenric grabbed Brynn.Hróarr followed and they raced along with the victors back to the burning hall to avoid being trampled.Most of the animals avoided the flaming structure.
“What is happening?”demanded Ovrek.“What madness is this?”
“Have you ever wondered why the animals never ventured near the Grandfather Yew?”Brynn asked, out of breath after their run.
The king’s bright eyes fell on her.Splattered in blood with several cuts to his cheek and upper arms, he was a terrifying sight, but Ovrek was no longer the most frightening thing on this island.“Speak, sorceress.”
Cenric shifted at Brynn’s side, his attention also on the king.Brynn didn’t doubt that if it came to it, he would attack Ovrek to protect her.
“The Grandfather Yew was planted to protect Valdar from evil.”Brynn glanced to Cenric as she spoke.“When the tree died, it let the evil out.”
Whether the monsters had been drawn here by the noise of battle, or the glut of fresh blood didn’t matter.They were here now.
Hróarr turned to Ovrek.“My king—”
“This is some trick.I don’t believe you,” Ovrek said, closing on Brynn.
Cenric inhaled at her side, but Brynn spoke first.
“You may believe what you wish, lord.”Even without the pounding of hooves and the flutter of wings, Brynn could feel the rush of animals fleeing from this place.Would Snapper and Guin flee with them?
Beyond the animals, she could sense the burning infernos that were the Wulfwir and something larger.Something bigger than any animal she had ever imagined.
Brynn had heard stories of whales, great beasts larger than ships that sprayed water from their heads with fins larger than a man.Even that did not quite do this thing justice.
How could a beast even grow so large?How was it not crushed by the weight of its own bones?
“They can be killed.”Hróarr shoved into Ovrek’s line of sight.“Blades didn’t seem to hurt them, but they can be killed.”
“You killed one?”Ovrek’s attention shifted from Brynn.
