Brynn was terrified.She was walking straight toward a monster, but she didn’t know what else to do.
“Do you have a plan?”Cenric asked.
“I think so,” Brynn said.“I am going to try and draw it into the water.”
“The sea?”
“I’m not sure it will work,” she confessed.“But I have an idea.”
Brynn’s uncertainty didn’t seem to trouble her husband.“Alright.”
18
Cenric
Everythingwasinchaos.
Thralls worked to carry buckets of seawater to put out fires.Animals that had not been able to flee cried out in panic.
Around them, everything Ovrek had worked for was going up in flames.The carefully constructed storehouses, the barns, and even the remaining animals from the sound of it.
As he coughed on smoke, Cenric suspected Ovrek’s dream of conquest would not be realized this summer—if ever.
The darkness of night and the vast expanse of the sea stretched to their left and burning embers floated in the air from the buildings to their right.
Brynn moved beside him, hands at her sides and face set ahead, toward the hulking shape of the serpent as it smashed into storehouses and snapped at shapes on the ground.
Cenric tripped over a body, fearing it might be a friend, but couldn’t tell in the anonymity of the dark.
“Cenric!”Brynn’s warning came as a man in armor barreled toward Cenric, bearded axe raised over his head.
Cenric skirted back, adjusting the grip on his spear.“Ovrek!”he shouted, just in case these might be allies.“We fight for Ovrek!”
“Tullia!”came the defiant retort.
Three more men in full armor charged after the first.These must be stragglers.The battle seemed petty in comparison to what now stalked the streets of Istra, but these men must not think so.
Nothing for it, then.
Three of the men charged Cenric, probably counting on the advantage of being armored while he was still dressed for feasting.The last man barreled for Brynn.
Cenric dodged the first swipe of the axe, then the second.He caught a spear thrust on his shield.
A body hit the sand—the man who had charged Brynn lay with his head half-severed.
Cenric’s three attackers turned, startled.They must not have known Brynn was a sorceress.Two of them spun, diverting to her.
That was enough.Cenric jabbed the nearest man with his spear, catching him in the space between his helm and the collar of his chainmail.
The stabbed man stumbled, collapsing as he gasped and choked.It would take him some time to die, but he wouldn’t be getting up.
Scrambling, Cenric turned to help Brynn face the remaining two men.
Cenric fell on the nearest enemy, his spear slamming into the man’s side, just above the hip.His spearhead didn’t go through the armor, but it did knock the man off balance.
Brynn took the opportunity to strike at their fourth enemy.She feinted to the left, seeming to stumble.
Cenric’s heart dropped as her foe stabbed for her side.The next moment, Brynn dodged, a spell ripping through the man’s cheek in an explosion of teeth and blood.
