[This post is from Thordin’s point of view.]
Thom took a pair of breaths before he looked toward Thordin. “Do you remember running into them before?”
After a moment’s hesitation, Thordin said, “Not consciously, not those two. The other one, though, I know I’ve seen him before and it wasn’t in my life before this one.”
Thom shuddered but shook his head. “I wish we had time to sort out that mystery. Come on. I don’t like the looks of this at all. Think we’ll have time to evacuate some of the others before they hit us?”
“Fuck if I know,” Thordin muttered as the two turned and jogged back toward the gates and the relative safety of the walls. “These people don’t seem like folks we can run from.”
“No,” Thom agreed. “It was—it was just an idle thought.”
Not so idle, I suspect. Thordin grimaced. “We don’t have any good choices.”
The gate creaked open to let them in. A grim-faced Seamus was at the forefront of the group waiting to meet them, his complexion pale.
“How did it go?”
“They have dissention in the ranks,” Thom said. “They went to deal with it but I don’t think that’s going to make them withdraw unless they end up with some kind of full-scale mutiny on their hands.” He glanced toward Thordin, then back to Seamus and the rest. “They’re looking for the Hecate—Matt, too, but mostly the Hecate. They said they want her back. Said they’d give us our lives and leave us alone if we told them where she is.”
“But we don’t know where she is,” Leinth said, her brow furrowing. “How could we tell them something we don’t know?”
“Even if we knew, I’m not sure I’d tell them,” Thom said, glancing toward Thordin. “What about you?”
Thordin shook his head. “No. No, I absolutely wouldn’t tell them. Whatever they’re planning for her, it’s not good and I don’t want any part of it.”
Above them, still perched on the wall, Sif exhaled slowly. “So then we fight.”
Thordin looked up and met her gaze. He nodded slowly. “So we fight.”
Quiet and thoughtful, Thom nodded. “That we will. Spread the archers out along the walls and tell the Hunt to get ready. They’re not going to wait long once they’ve quashed Aietes’s little snit.”
