The ship slammed to a stop.
Everyone toppled off-balance.
Neirin stumbled, slamming Brynn down into the deck. Selene screamed and the sorceresses raised defensive spells. Shouts rang across the deck and the familiar sounds of clanging steel burst around her.
Growling, Brynn dragged still more magic into herself, still pinned by Neirin.
“Stop!” the sorcerer panted, trying to pull her up.
A scream overhead cut him off.
Brynn kept dragging in power. She didn’t care what happened. If she died, so be it, but she would take her mother with her.
The collar buzzed as Brynn continued to feed it magic. It heated, stinging her skin. She braced herself, pulled in yet more power, then released it.
Neirin was becoming frantic even as a battle raged around them. “If you overpower the trammel, it will—”
The collar exploded in a surge of golden light.
Cenric
Cenric crouched on the bank of the river, keeping to the shadows of the trees. The ship had sailed up the narrow inlet and disappeared some minutes ago.
The water had been shallow enough for some of the horses to cross to the other side. Olfirth’s men tied ropes to the trees on the far bank, then crossed back. Under better circumstances, they would have blocked the inlet with stones and logs, but they had limited time.
They used rocks to weigh the ropes beneath the surface, stones that would be small enough to fall free as soon as the ropes were drawn taunt.
Cenric crouched in the shadows of the trees, hands wrapped around one of the lengths of rope.
One of Olfirth’s riders remained mounted, another coil of rope at the ready. His job would be to lash the prow of the ship and drag the craft to the side.
Cenric waited with his shield slung over his back, gripping the rope tight. He caught snatches of voices from upriver. Women’s voices.
Was one of them Brynn?
“This is going to be funny if it turns out to be some harmless fisherman,” Edric whispered at Cenric’s back.
Cenric shot a hard look to his thane.
Edric shrugged. “We were all thinking it, lord.”
Cenric looked back up the river, where he could see the water through the trees. In moments like these, a heartbeat seemed to last a lifetime, and a breath could last an age.
Either they were about to fight at least three sorceresses and their sorcerer bodyguard, or this was all for nothing and Brynn was lost.
Cenric shifted his stance, adjusting his grip on the rope one more time. Olfirth’s thanes gathered around him, all holding onto their own ropes, ready for the fight. Tension rippled through all of them, that kind of excitement tinged with dread.
Olfirth stood beside Cenric, axe resting against one shoulder. He held his shield loosely, waiting.
The trees made it impossible to form a shield wall with any cohesion. Forests were pernicious, cruel battlegrounds that hated everyone equally. Cenric could only hope that the pines would protect them from any attacks from the sorceresses.
Brynn had told him living things were easier to attack. Perhaps the trees would absorb some of the magic.
Cenric?Snapper’s confused question filtered through.
Wait.Cenric didn’t need the dog getting underfoot or caught in the middle of a battle.
“Ho,” one of Olfirth’s thanes called softly.
