Page 91 of Oath of the Wolf
“Better to die with you than live without you.”Brynn pulled his hands from her face.“But don’t count us as dead yet, my love.”
Brynn had been fearing the worst, but now the worst had happened.That realization brought with it a strange sense of relief.Now she didn’t have to wait any longer, she could act.
Around them, voices chattered with outrage and frustration.Some people howled with despair.Snapper whined and barked, pacing around Brynn and Cenric in a tight circle.
Cenric’s whole world seemed to have narrowed to her.“They have blocked the doors.They will be guarding the outside.Even if we can break through, we are unarmed.”
“A sorceress is never unarmed.”Her eyes stung from the smoke.“But if we die, we die fighting.”
Cenric actually smiled at that, excitement replacing the despair of mere moments ago.“What’s your plan?”
Brynn didn’t have time to explain to him, much less everyone else.“This way.”Leading him, she half-crawled toward the back corner behind Ovrek’s seat.It was solid wood layered and sealed with mud between the beams.To bare hands, it was impenetrable, but Brynn sensed that their attackers were all gathered at the doors, stoking the fires as they watched the exits.
That made sense, but Ovrek’s hall was new.The logs had been cured, but they had been alive not so long ago.Wood was not as workable as leather or sinew, but it kept its memory of life long after leather had rotted away.
“Hróarr!”Cenric yelled, waving his cousin over.
The large Valdari warrior spotted them through the smoke and came to crouch beside them, dragging Vana after him.“Cenric,” his expression was grim, “I’m sorry I called your wife a bitch.”Hróarr did not apologize directly to Brynn, nor did he apologize for pushing her into the thrall pit, but he had spoken in Hyldish, which was close enough.
“Don’t let it happen again,” Cenric clipped back.
Kneeling before the wall, Brynn pulled power into herself and inhaled as deep a breath as she could without choking.She released and her spells sliced through the wood.Her power did not so much cut as melt, pushing the log into separate pieces.She sliced down one side, cutting the logs into sections.
Sparks had begun to shower over the doors and screams filled the room until it seemed it would burst.Everything at Brynn’s back was darkness, hopelessness, and confusion.They had very little time.
Brynn finished cutting a line down the wall, slicing from about shoulder to knee height.Sweat beaded her forehead, and she coughed.
Snapper whined at Cenric’s feet.The smoke was getting to him, too.
Brynn took two steps further down the wall and used her spells to part the logs there, too.The wood was more stubborn on this side, better cured for some reason.
Cenric hovered at her back, sticking close.
“What are you doing?”Hróarr choked.As the tallest of their group, even crouching down, he was the worst off.
Brynn finally finished.Her work was sloppy and haphazard, but this wasn’t about looks.Coughing, she shoved at the logs.She had cut the wood, but the planks were still held in place by the daub packed between them.
“Cenric,” Brynn wheezed.
Smoke had filled the hall.Brynn could barely see anything, but she could sense the bodies around them, sinking toward the ground either to escape the smoke or because they had succumbed to it.
Brynn felt Cenric’s body shift beside her and he slammed his shoulder into the wood.It budged, just a bit.
“Hróarr!”Cenric reached back, grabbing his cousin.
Hróarr must have realized what they were doing.The large Valdari man added his force beside Cenric.They slammed into the weakened wall once, twice.
A crack rang out and both men spilled out, tripping as they tumbled into the clean air of the night.
Snapper leapt out past them, coughing and sneezing.
Brynn couldn’t see, but she caught Vana’s arm and dragged her toward the opening.
Hróarr and Cenric scrambled free, reaching back for them.Brynn wasn’t sure who grabbed her and who grabbed Vana as the four of them tumbled out into the night.
Brynn inhaled the fresh air, the cold breeze rushing into her lungs like the sweetest relief.Coughing, Brynn shoved herself up onto her hands and knees.“Get the others out,” she choked.“I’ll see what I can do about Tullia.”
“You’re unarmed,” Hróarr growled, sounding annoyed.
