Cenric glanced up to the sky, judging the horizon.“I recommend you act quickly.”
“Cenric!”Sifma shouted after him, but he was already walking away.
Frustration grated inside him as he walked back toward the camp where Brynn waited.Her life was at stake.She would be far better suited to this than he was, but she didn’t speak the language and all they had was him.
Cenric kept his outward reactions restrained.Sifma might call his bluff, she might not.Either way, he was playing a dangerous game.Would threatening the Valdari queen work?Only time would tell.
At his side, Snapper woofed happily, tail wagging.
15
Brynn
Inthelairofthe monsters, Brynn had been terrified.Somehow, sitting outside the tent she shared with Cenric, she did not feel much better.The two guards Ovrek had assigned to her loomed not far away.
Esa had found her dry clothes and a bread cake with sheep’s cheese.Guin hopped around the ground, flipping a scrap of rag into the air and pouncing on it as it came down.
Kalen tended to the fire, quiet and solemn as he did.The boy kept glancing up the beach, probably watching for Cenric.
Ugba and Anders checked the same parts of the ship again.They paced back and forth, trying not to be obvious about staring at Ovrek’s two Valdari.The other thanes were still helping hunt down Egill’s men.
Cenric was going to have to make hard choices.He wouldn’t want to make them, but he would have to.Brynn had been accused of murder by the most powerful woman in these islands.It was the word of a foreigner against the word of a beloved queen.
It was rational, and some would say wise, for Cenric to let Brynn take the blame.They’d probably kill her, but Cenric might be able to spare his own standing with the Valdari.It was the best option to save him and his people.
Brynn tried not to cry.Hróarr had turned on her, despite her saving his life.Vana thought she was guilty and so did all the other people who might have been her friends.
Brynn was sinking into this web of mistrust, suspicion, and blame.What a fool she had been.What a wretched fool.
It was late and even the summer sun began to dip toward the horizon.So much and so little had changed in the past day.Brynn wrapped her shawl tighter around her.Why did everything always have to go wrong?
Then there were the monsters in the forest.They would be free soon, but she didn’t know how soon.
More than an hour after Cenric left, Brynn sensed a man approaching their fire with a dog-sized shape at his side.
Snapper leapt into the middle of their campsite first, pouncing on Guin.He grabbed one end of the rag she’d been playing with and the two of them wrestled for it.Guin growled, digging in her little paws and fighting to take it back.
Cenric stepped into view a few moments later, striding past the Valdari guards without a word.He settled down beside her, facing the fire.One hand rested on her lower back, but he still didn’t speak.
Brynn watched him, clenching her hands into her shawl.It was going to be bad news, she was sure of it.
“Ovrek wants you to join us in the hall tonight.”
That was not the news Brynn had been expecting.“The men Ovrek sent to the Grandfather Yew?”
Cenric shook his head.“I asked around on my way back.They have not returned, but everyone is more concerned with Egill.Ovrek wants to search for them in the morning.”
Brynn bit her lip, feeling sick.She suspected what had happened and from the look on his face, Cenric did, too.“Ovrek is doing nothing?”
“I don’t know what he can do,” Cenric admitted.“The Grandfather Yew was planted to protect Valdar from evil.It’s older than living memory.We can’t simply replace it.”
Brynn forced herself to remain calm.“He needs to do something.The monsters are breaking free.”
“He’s distracted by the murder attempt.Egill and his son were caught, but at least thirty of their men are missing.”Cenric exhaled a long breath, looking to Kalen.
“All is quiet, lord,” the boy said.
Cenric smeared a hand over his face, shoulders slumping on a slow exhale.“I have done what I could for the other situation.At least what I could think of.”
