The enemy warriors drew closer.Cenric could hold off two or three, but not for long.
Brynn punched out with a fist, focusing her intentions down her arm, through her knuckles.Power surged out of her, a golden explosion only visible to her.Magic flared into the fire, too fast and too much for the kindling and the young wood of the great hall to feed.
Heat blasted outward.The men who had advanced on Brynn and Cenric stumbled as fire singed their backs.Even behind the shield, Brynn and Cenric felt the blistering, scorching flames.
Brynn forced the fire to burn bigger, hotter, and faster.The flames needed somewhere to go, and they rushed toward the path of least resistance.The fire washed from yellow to orange, to red, to blue, then white in an instant.
White sparks shot straight up into the night sky.The men who had been standing nearby were engulfed in light so white-hot that it seemed to be starlight.
The whole thing lasted barely an instant.Brynn forced the fire to direct itself outward, spending all its greatest heat.
Darkness descended.
Brynn blinked as her eyes adjusted.The hall still burned, but the kindling had been blasted away.The smoke and fire filtering into the hall would at least be slowing.
The enemy men cried out in confusion and panic.Shadows withdrew around them as their foes fled, probably to regroup.None of them would know what just happened.
Cenric charged for the men now lying on the ground closest to them.He was merciless, furious.
Brynn followed close, staying to his left side, the one most vulnerable to attack when his shield was forward.Heart racing, she gathered more power to herself.
Cenric stabbed for the nearest man, impaling him where his shoulder joined his neck.Another of the flattened warriors tried to rise, hefting his weapon.
Cenric smashed the edge of his shield into the man’s face, thrust with his spear the next moment.
Brynn drewkato herself.As soon as she recovered enough from that first blast, she sent a whip of power toward the fleeing men.She could sense the outline of their bodies, but she had no way of knowing who might be wearing chainmail or any other kind of armor.She sent her power for the center mass of their bodies.None of them went down, but from the cries that rang out in the dark, she hit at least a few of them.
Cenric kept stabbing, finishing off the men lying around them.Her husband might not be able to seeka,but the hall continued to burn, providing enough light to find his marks.
One of the men leapt up from the ground, running after the others.
Cenric made to give chase, but Brynn caught his arm.
“No!”She dug in her heels, stopping him.“Trap.”
Brynn could sense several other figures waiting in the shadows outside the fire, men waiting to attack Cenric if he pursued.
Cenric made a sound of frustration, but didn’t argue.
“They’re fleeing toward the beach,” Brynn said.
Cenric glared after them.For half a heartbeat, Brynn feared he would charge after them anyway.
“Cenric!”Hróarr came rushing after them, a wooden plank hefted like a weapon.He slowed when he saw the bodies of the dead men sprawled in the grass—at least ten, but perhaps more.Brynn hadn’t gotten a good count.Hróarr let off several words in Valdari, including what sounded like the name of a god.“You killed all these?”Hróarr crouched to retrieve a weapon from one of the dead men—another spear.
“Wekilled all these.”Cenric still watched the darkness where the others had fled.
Several other Valdari men from the hall came rushing after Hróarr in the darkness, snatching up weapons from the dead men.Their voices washed over Brynn in a deluge of foreign words.
Brynn hovered close to her husband.These men ignored her for the moment, but she still wasn’t sure they were friends.
The Valdari jarls and other men, those who had followed Hróarr, coughed and choked between their words.They had escaped the smoke and flames, but smoke was a cruel and exacting enemy.It could take hours or sometimes even days to kill and even sorceresses struggled to heal its effects at times.
Beside them, the hall still burned.It crackled and popped as the flames swept higher along with the stench of pitch.
“Where is Ovrek?”Cenric asked, looking to Hróarr.
Hróarr glanced over his shoulder as if expecting the king to be there.“We pulled him out.”
