Page 97 of Oath of the Wolf
“Tolvir?”Ovrek paused, snapping his gaze down to his son.He grabbed the atheling’s shoulder.“Tolvir?”
Tolvir coughed, eyes flying open.His eyes were bloodshot and teary, and he might need healing there, too, but he was alive.He grabbed his father’s arm.“Father,” he choked.He spoke Valdari, but the meaning was clear.“Father?”
Ovrek dragged his son up, pulling the boy into a rough hug.He squeezed so tight, Brynn was sure she heard Tolvir’s ribs crack.
The boy wheezed, choking out a string of words in Valdari.
“Careful!”Brynn reached up, fingers finding the back of Tolvir’s neck so she could keep feeding power into him.
Ovrek ignored her.He released Tolvir, squaring the boy at arms’ length.He asked Tolvir something, sounding concerned.
Tolvir nodded, though he still coughed.
Ovrek smiled, his forked beard swaying as he did.Then he shook Tolvir with a force to rattle stone.“Stupid boy!”Ovrek roared.“Determined to get yourself killed.”
“I’m still healing him,” Brynn protested.
“Well, be quick about it,” Ovrek ordered.
“Cenric!”Hróarr ran toward them, his huge frame barreling out of the dark.He spoke a hurried string of Valdari, then looked to Vana.“There’s fighting in the town.Some of our men and some of theirs.Another band of them is headed this way, most likely to finish us off.”
A rumbling sound at Brynn’s back startled her.Snapper stood with his tail stiff and hackles raised, glaring down the dark expanse of trees that stretched beyond Istra.
A great flapping, cawing, shrieking sound rose from the trees as thousands of black shapes momentarily blocked the stars.The birds were fleeing the forest, flying up from the trees and frantically seeking safety.
“What’s that?”Cenric shifted beside her, coming closer.
Several voices chattered in Valdari at the strange sight.
Chills shot down Brynn’s spine as she reached out with her power, straining to feel what living things moved through the dark.There was the usual golden haze of life, but within it, tainted, poisonedkaflared into her awareness.Two sources, one large and one massive, larger than any animal she had ever encountered before, but both moving toward them.
“The monsters from under the tree,” Brynn whispered, icy fear washing through her veins.“They’ve escaped.”
16
Cenric
Badthing,Snappersentto Cenric.Bad thing coming.
Cenric had no doubt.He glanced over to Brynn, kneeling beside Tolvir.“Can you sense them?How close?”
Brynn didn’t look up from her work.“Close.”Her voice shook.“I expect just a few hundred paces from the edge of the town.”
Cenric adjusted the spear in his grip, watching the dark line of trees.
Hróarr let off a hearty string of curses.“Egill’s men are heading this way, too.”
They were grievously outnumbered, and it was about to be worse.
“I need an axe!”Ovrek bellowed.He would not let his enemies take his blood without a fight.
Tolvir scrambled up beside his father, wheezing even as he tugged away from Brynn.She let him go.
Cenric spotted Hróarr speaking with Vana before pushing her away.At Cenric’s feet, Snapper whined, attention still on the darkness of the trees.
“One crisis at a time,” Cenric sighed.If Egill’s men had returned to finish them off, they might not live long enough to worry about the monsters.
“Draw up!”Ovrek bellowed, taking control.“There are weapons on the dead men at the front of the hall.On your feet!”
