Cenric picked up one of the bundles of tent poles with Daven.They handed it up to where Kalen and several of the younger men worked to arrange their goods on the deck.
Kalen never complained, a fact Cenric was coming to appreciate more by the moment.Maybe he should give the boy another silver ring just for that.
Snapper watched over Guin, who appeared to have found a mussel shell farther down the beach.
Brynn and Esa worked to roll up the tent canvases and pack up what remained of their small camp.Lena, the thrall girl, helped them with her head down, jumping at commands and skirting to obey even soft-spoken Esa.
Brynn had asked Ovrek if she could take all of Tullia’s Hyldish thralls back to Hylden.Unfortunately, Ovrek had already given all the surviving thralls along with the other goods in Tullia’s household to the jarl Ingmar.
Ingmar had been the one to rally his men and attack when he realized Ovrek’s hall was burning.He deserved a reward.
Cenric went to Ingmar with Hróarr and offered to buy the girl.“My wife is fond of her and wants a translator,” had been his excuse.He had not mentioned to Ingmar or anyone else that the girl was also Istovari.
Ingmar had relented.Brynn being so obviously in Ovrek’s favor likely hadn’t hurt, either.Ingmar had given Lena as a gift to Brynn, under the condition she did what she could to heal several of his men who had been injured in the battle.
Around them, Hróarr’s men worked to load the ship.They were a few men short after the battle over a fortnight ago.Hróarr’s band had taken losses, though it could have been worse.
Several of the storehouses had been burned down or partially burned down.Thralls were still sorting through the rubble of many of them.
Stakes had been driven into the ground in front of Ovrek’s burned hall.Atop the tallest one was Egill’s head, with the heads of his son and warriors staked on the others.Nails had been driven through their mouths to hold them in place.Seagulls and crows had pecked their skulls nearly clean, leaving patches of scalp and jowl behind.
Tullia might have been buried with honors, but none of the other traitors had been.That was Ovrek’s way.That was how the King of Valdar dealt with his enemies and how the warriors of Valdar and Hylden had dealt with enemies for generations.
Ovrek was gathering men to storm Egill’s lands in the coming days.Cenric knew he would lay waste to everything and kill or enslave everyone he found.
If the survivors of Egill’s family were smart, they would flee somewhere far, far south.Somewhere far enough that Ovrek couldn’t be bothered to chase them.But Cenric doubted they would flee.People always tended to deny their doom until it came upon them.
“Faster!”Hróarr bellowed, calling to all of them.“The tide waits for no one!”The large Valdari man paced around his ship, checking the hull and inspecting the vessel from prow to stern.He still seemed unsure that Egill’s men hadn’t tampered with it, but they’d found nothing wrong.
Cenric’s men had found nothing wrong withWolf Stareither, aside from a few scratches from the failed theft attempt.
“Ovrek!”Someone shouted the name the way they might call out a sighting of a whale while at sea.
Cenric turned to see the king.
Ovrek no longer walked about Istra alone.Two warriors flanked him, men from his personal household.It was a concession the king had not wanted to make, but his remaining jarls had worn him down.
Vana trailed a short distance behind, a servant at her back.She was different, somehow.Grief had made her paler, leaching color from her cheeks and lips the way Cenric had seen in men who lost too much blood.
“Ovrek.”Hróarr stopped hurling bags at Tolvir long enough to bow, not a hint of shame.
Tolvir came to the edge of Hróarr’s ship, looking down.“Father?”
Ovrek nodded up to him.“Farewell, son.I hope you will have much to tell when you return.”
Tolvir straightened just a little.“Yes, lord.”
Ovrek turned his white head toward Hróarr.“Teach him well.”
“I will.”Hróarr spoke the words solemnly, like a vow.
The king seemed like his usual self, though there was a shadow over his every word, lurking in the corners of his eyes.Who could blame him?He’d lost so much in a single night.When the Valdari king reached Cenric, he extended his hand.They clasped forearms.
Come next summer, Ovrek had promised to send settlers to farm the empty lands and reap new harvests.With Brynn, their flocks and herds would be kept healthy, and Ombra would be strengthened.
Cenric would send an annual tribute of ten adult pigs and three pots of honey back to Ovrek.It was a pittance compared to what Ombra owed to Aelgar every year.Cenric was surprised Ovrek had agreed to so little, but it was the spirit of the gesture, more than the amount.It was an acknowledgement that Ovrek had the right to tribute at all.
In exchange, Ovrek was to stop raids into Ombra.He was far more confident he could do it than Brynn and Cenric were, but it was a good deal for Cenric thus far.Even if some of the people of Ombra might not like the newcomers, many of them already had Valdari kin.And they had accepted Cenric as alderman, so perhaps there was still hope.
