Page 95 of Oath of the Wolf
“Was he hurt?”Cenric demanded, sounding genuinely concerned.
“No more than the rest of us.”Hróarr turned his head, coughing briefly.
“So where is he?”Cenric shot back.
Hróarr grated his response.“I don’t know.”
Even Brynn knew that Ovrek would want to confront his enemies.
Cenric glanced to Brynn and even in the poor light, she could see her thoughts reflected.They needed Ovrek alive.At the moment, their only alternative was Tullia, and she had just tried to smoke them like fish for winter.
Cenric turned, jogging back to where Brynn had made the hole for their escape.Brynn trotted after him, the crisp evening air stinging her scorched lungs.It was a drastic contrast to the oppressive heat and smoke of the fire.
They reached the back of the hall to find Vana standing over a bedraggled and soot-stained gaggle of survivors.At least a hundred people had been inside the hall when it had been barricaded closed, but Brynn saw fewer than fifty now, counting Hróarr and the men who had come to join them.
“Where is the king?”Cenric demanded, looking to Vana.He shouted something in Valdari, raising his voice, presumably repeating the question.
“He went back in,” Vana rasped.
“Back in?”Horror and fear infused Cenric’s words.If not for the amber light of the flames, she was sure he would have gone pale.
Beside them, the fire was still consuming the hall.Despite what Brynn had done, smoke was still filling it, just more slowly.
Vana stared toward the burning hall.“He went back for his wife and son.”
Brynn thought she must have heard wrong.
“That’s madness.”Cenric shook his head.
From outside looking in, the hall had become a pit of black smoke broken by flashes of firelight.It was a deathtrap and if anyone inside wasn’t already dead, they would be soon.
Brynn pulled her mantle tighter around her shoulders.She focused on the burning hall, trying to sense inside with her power.“Someone is coming out.”Brynn straightened.“Someone—”
With a roar, Ovrek burst from the jagged hole carrying a limp form over his shoulder.Warriors rushed forward to pull him free, dragging him and his motionless cargo several steps from the blaze.
Ovrek collapsed on all fours, bellowing angrily between coughs.He surveyed the limp form beside him.
Tolvir lay unmoving.
“Sifma?”Ovrek searched the faces around him.His eyes landed on Vana.“Sifma?”
Vana shook her head, eyes shining with tears by the firelight.
Ovrek staggered to his feet, still wheezing.He stumbled back toward the burning hall.
Cenric and the other men stepped forward to block him.
Ovrek swung his fists.There was a thud and one of the men stumbled back, but the others rushed the king, tackling him to the ground.Ovrek collapsed under their weight, pinned even as he cursed and fought to crawl back into the burning death trap.
Something snapped and a burning beam collapsed over the entrance, blocking the way back inside.
Brynn’s chest clenched at the finality.She could still feelkainside, bodies still alive or perhaps newly dead lying strewn around the burning structure.They were so close and yet there was nothing she or anyone else could do to help them.
Ovrek seemed to realize that, too.After several moments, the men let Ovrek up and he stumbled back to the limp figure of Tolvir.
The boy’s chest still rose and fell, but it was weak.
“Tolvir,” Ovrek rasped and rested a hand on his son’s shoulder, shaking as if to wake him.“Tolvir!”
