Ovrek let off a great bellow and gave chase, like a wolf scenting blood.
The swordsman made to thrust back at Cenric.Cenric deflected, but before he could counter, Ovrek was there.
The king came swinging his woodcutter’s axe with a roar, hacking in a wild frenzy.Land Waster—that was what they had called him in his younger days.
Perhaps these men should have remembered just who they were trying to kill.
The swordsman retreated, trying to find his footing.Pieces of stray firewood rolled under them, littering the ground in a treacherous maze.
Ovrek roared, but stumbled, tripping over a log.The king went down with a bellow of rage.
The swordsman saw his opening and dove for Ovrek, sword raised to strike the king’s head.
Cenric slammed into the swordsman, his stolen blade punching through the man’s ribs and out his other side.He shoved the man over, kicking the man’s sword away as the enemy warrior collapsed, blood gushing out his mouth.
Whirling back to where they had left Dagrún and Egill, Cenric stood over Ovrek with his bloody sword.The jarl and his son still appeared worse for the wear.
Egill vomited as he tried to stand, the force of the heaves sending him back down.
The king scrambled back to his feet, cursing the whole way.He righted himself, barreling straight to Cenric.“I had that one!”he roared.
Cenric shifted his gaze to the jarl and his son, currently gasping in a pool of their own vomit and blood.“You can have those two.”
Ovrek spun around, face crimson.Red trickled down his temple, probably where he’d hit firewood when Cenric had shoved him out of the way.“You!”he roared, picking up the woodcutter’s axe again, advancing on the two gasping men.“You swore oaths to me.I fed you from my table.I made you rich!Before me, you were nothing but a polecat stealing scraps!”
Cenric watched for signs of other attackers as Ovrek marched over to Egill.Voices clamored and it seemed that some of the thralls had taken note of the fighting.
Ovrek began kicking Egill, raving with all the fury of a madman.“You want to be an eagle?I will cut out your lungs and give you wings!”
Snapper charged back up the hill with several warriors racing after him.The men spilled into the space between the thrall huts.The thralls themselves fled, disappearing because they knew what was best for them.
Cenric!Snapper cried.Cenric?
I’m fine.Good dog.
Snapper yipped at that, tail wagging.
The warriors took in the sight of two dead men, Cenric with a bloody sword, and their king kicking a vomiting jarl next to his gasping son.
“Lord?”one of the men called, eyeing Cenric suspiciously, gripping his own spear a little tighter.
“Take these whoresons!”Ovrek roared, thrusting a finger at the bloodied jarl underfoot.“Put them somewhere miserable until I think of how to punish them.”
Warriors moved to collect Egill and Dagrún, grabbing the men by the arms and hauling them roughly to their feet.Two men moved toward Cenric, weapons drawn.
“Not him, you stupid swineherds,” Ovrek snarled.“Cenric was more useful than the whole lot of you.”The king finally seemed to be calming down, recovering from the sheer outrage of the whole ordeal.He rubbed at his forehead, wincing.
Cenric studied the sword in his hand, examining the balance of the blade and the wrappings on the hilt.Kelethi, if he had to guess.It was a good weapon, but he would be glad when he got his own back.
Ovrek’s men hauled off the offending jarl and his son.Ovrek spat on the corpses and yelled for the thralls to throw the dead men in the sea.They would be denied burial, their spirits left to wander the endless depths of the sea god’s realm for eternity.
“Why did Egill want you dead?”Cenric asked, watching as the jarl was dragged off, hardly able to stand on his own.
“Half the islands are in outrage,” Ovrek growled.“Men are saying I don’t revere the First of Fathers.But I do!As much as any anyone on these rocks.”Ovrek blotted the blood from his temple.
Cenric had to wonder just what Ovrek had done.Dagrún had mentioned something about yew in Ovrek’s flagship.Did that have anything to do with it?
“Did you enjoy that?”Ovrek snapped, glaring bitterly.
