Page 104 of Oath of the Wolf
“The she-troll,” Hróarr confirmed.“We killed her.”
“How did you kill her?”
“Had to take her head off,” Hróarr explained.“No other wounds would affect her.My sword was practically useless.”
Cenric cast a knowing look to Brynn, though his question was for Hróarr.“How did you take the creature’s head off without a sword?”Her husband had seen her rip men’s heads off and even decapitate her mother using spells.
Brynn held his gaze, confirming with her silence.
Cenric’s jaw clenched in the light of the burning hall.It seemed he had figured out she’d saved his cousin’s life right before he’d pushed her into the thrall pit.No doubt the two men would have a loud and physical confrontation if they all survived this.
“You just have to behead them quickly.”Hróarr notably did not meet Brynn’s gaze.
“But we can kill these?”Cenric straightened.
“They heal from anything that doesn’t kill them,” Hróarr said.“Any blow that doesn’t kill only slows them for a moment.”
Brynn considered their options.Running away was always feasible, but even if she could convince her husband to flee, they had no clear path to the ships.The monsters were closer to the ships than they were, and she had no idea where Esa, Kalen, Guin, and the rest of their people might be.She didn’t want to leave them behind.“The Wulfwir is too large and too tall for most men to reach its neck.”
“A spear through the heart might work,” Hróarr suggested.
Brynn wasn’t sure, but it might.
“We attack it the way we do bears,” Ovrek offered.“Trap it and strike it from two sides.”
Brynn briefly hoped Ovrekhadkilled that bear he’d sent as a gift to her and Cenric.“It would be dangerous.Even more dangerous than a bear, but it might be possible.”
“And the other one?”Cenric jerked his head toward the beach.
“I didn’t get a good look at it,” Hróarr admitted.“But we might be able to kill it the same way.”
“You won’t.”Brynn watched the direction she could feel the beast coming.The being she felt approaching was too large, too tall.Its neck would be thicker than three men could reach around.
From this distance, it was hard to tell, but she could swear she saw red eyes like pits of fire flickering amongst the trees.Or perhaps it was just the burning town below.Regardless, the Wulfwir was nightmare enough.The serpent was beyond anything Brynn had ever imagined.
That one would almost certainly need to be killed withka.Brynn would need help.If she had five or so mature sorceresses, she might be able to do it.Even if she was able to find Esa, Lena, and perhaps another sorceress thrall or two, Brynn doubted that would be enough.
Brynn had once channeled enough power to flatten grown trees and deepen a riverbed.That was the kind of power she would need to fight the serpent, but that had been after drawingkato herself for several hours.She would need another source.
There was the field of dead bodies, theirkaseeping out into the earth.But Brynn would need to be touching their blood in a great pool if she was going to draw power fast enough.
The screams down below grew louder.The warriors around her stomped, restless.They would move soon, and she needed some way to fight the serpent, some plan, even an inkling of one.
Brynn beseeched the waxing moon overhead.Eponine, help me,she prayed silently.Eponine, help me.
The moon’s beams shone down, glinting off the waves lapping along the beach.The sky and the sea remained unaffected by the chaos and butchery on shore.Several ships bobbed in the waves as people either sought safety or perhaps some of Tullia’s men retreated.
The sea.
Kainfused the waves as surely as it infused the trees and the forests.It was a vast, seemingly endless expanse of rippling power.
Brynn had never tried drawing from the sea before, but she had never needed to.Llyr, god of the sea, and Eponine, goddess of the moon and sorceresses, were said to have a strong friendship.Brynn could only hope Llyr would permit it under the circumstances.
A roar split the night air.After the noise of battle and fleeing animals, Brynn wouldn’t have thought that anything could be heard, but the beast proved her wrong.
The clatter of hooves and the rush of animals died down.All the animals that could had fled.
A scream of fury that seemed to come from the very bones of the earth broke the sky over Istra.
