Brynn made to step forward, but Cenric grabbed her arm.“Tolvir is still alive.I can help him.”
“You already tried helping that concubine.Besides…” Cenric grimaced and by the burning light of the hall, Brynn thought she saw his thoughts.Not only might Ovrek still blame her if Tolvir died, but it might be best if Tolvir died.
This way, Ovrek would never have to learn of his son’s betrayal.In some ways, it was best for everyone.
Ovrek must not have seen Brynn.He knelt over his son, shaking the young man.He muttered in Valdari, low phrases Brynn didn’t need to recognize in order to understand.“Tolvir,” he whimpered, the rest of his words too quiet to be heard over the crackle of the fire and the murmuring voices around them.The king’s shoulders moved.At first Brynn thought he was coughing, but no…Ovrek was weeping.
Male voices demanded blood.Women echoed their outrage, crouched over loved ones and gathered around limp forms on the ground.
All around him, the first king of Valdar’s people were in chaos, but he knelt over his son, weeping.
Ovrek was a hard ruler, selfish, often cruel, and he would happily burn Hylden to the ground if he had his way.But Brynn had cried those tears, too.Like Ovrek, she had knelt over a motionless body, calling a boy’s name between her sobs.
Cenric still held Brynn back, but she tugged against him, urging him to let her go.
“Tolvir is his son,” Brynn whispered, rasping as her voice cracked.It must have been the smoke.“His only son.”
Cenric’s expression softened a little at that.“Brynn.”
“Please.”Brynn’s attention was on the weeping warrior king.“Please?”Cenric was right that she was risking herself by doing this.Everything she had done for these people had backfired so far, but…she wanted to try.
Cenric muttered something but let her go.
Brynn knelt across from Ovrek on Tolvir’s other side.
The king stiffened, looking ready to push her away before he recognized her.“Sorceress.”
“Roll him on his side,” Brynn ordered.She pushed Tolvir so that he was facing away from her, lying toward his father.She slid one hand under the boy’s collar, her fingers splayed over his bare skin.His chest hair was sparse and thin, a reminder of how young he still was.
Cenric stood at Brynn’s back, spear planted by his feet—a guard over her as she worked.
Brynn reached into the boy with her power, feeling out the damage done by the smoke.It was not unlike the damage done by poison.Smoke was a poison in its own way.
“Can you save him?”Ovrek asked the question more like an accusation than a plea for help.
“I’m trying.”Brynn closed her eyes.
“Save him,” Ovrek ordered, as if he could intimidate her power into working.
Cenric said something to Ovrek in Valdari.
The king shot his gaze up to Cenric, lips curling in anger.
Brynn would sort them out later.She focused on the motionless atheling before her.
The inside of his lungs had been badly damaged.If she’d had to guess, he had joined the group of young men who had tried breaking through the main doors and so gotten the worst of the smoke.
She suspected there was still plenty of smoke and soot in his lungs, but for now she just needed to repair him enough so that he could keep breathing.Brynn seeped her power into the young atheling, focusing carefully.
Cenric and Ovrek shot words back and forth.Cenric was still holding a spear, but Ovrek did not seem to care.He growled back, despite being the one kneeling on the ground.
Yes, Ovrek was definitely a king whether Brynn liked him or not.
Her husband and Ovrek argued in Valdari.Cenric was probably still angry about her being accused of murder and telling the king exactly who he had to thank for being alive right now.
Ovrek gave a sharp retort, shifting as if he would stand.
Tolvir gagged, curling in on himself as he drew in great wheezing breaths.
