Rise of the Warrior of Everfen

Chapter 93: Sold

"Don't blame him." Cold Hammer said, voice stoic.

She glared at him and again the anger inside her fizzled when she saw the state of him. Covered in fresh scars that he'd been unable to stop. Broken and shattered arm and hand. Blind eye. His body looked how her soul felt. "Who am I to blame then?" Her words were far less accusatory than she'd intended them.

"I told you. Humans." His lip curled but he he finally took a deep breath and sighed. "I never found Andol in the woods. It was well into the night when I realized I might not find him, not without help and certainly not without daylight. I waited until the morning and began searching again. That's when I found the river and those wretched humans found me."

She watched him and he watched her.

Continuing, he said, "Andol heard the fighting, heard me, and he came with Willow and Larken at his side."

"The pups found him?"

He nodded. "They found him. They were with him the whole night, keeping him warm. Larken came to my aid but Willow stayed beside Andol. He tried to join the fight, but the moment he did, the humans attacked him in return. I don't know how many I crushed, but then one of them got a bad blow on Willow. Once she went down, Andol was wide open with no protection and one of the men grabbed him. I had no choice but to surrender. Erinne, you have to believe there was nothing I could do. They said if I...they'd slit his throat if I didn't surrender." He stepped closer and she was shocked to find guilt in his words and face. "There was nothing I could do..."

His words indicated that whatever had happened next, he felt like he was at fault. "You surrendered?" The only time he'd ever surrendered was when he realized he'd killed her family, that he'd harmed the person he loved. She knew what it took to make Cold Hammer break, and it was those he loved.

When his parents died, he went crazy. In the time following that was when he became known as Cold Hammer. He became a callous, brutal warrior. Love was his weakness and his strength. Knowing he'd broken her the way he'd once been broken shattered him. She remembered walking to him that day in the woods when he was chained, waiting on her to pass judgement. He still thought she was crazy for sparing his life because he'd never spare anyone who hurt him.

Now?

Things were starting to make sense. When he broke, he fought. He killed until he killed the pain. Or at least he tried, but she knew pain like that didn't just go away. If he surrendered, Andol's life had been on the line. If he was broken like this...ancestors, where is my baby?

"I couldn't reach him. I was too far away and Larken went for them. That's when they got her. I told her to run. I thought, maybe, somehow, she could get us help if she survived. They held a knife to his throat and they said they wouldn't kill him if I did as they asked..." his chest shook with the next ragged breath he took. "I guess you could say they kept their word."

Ghaug's voice interjected, full of rage and disgust, "True, they didn't kill him. They just hurt him."

Tears filled her eyes as Cold Hammer gave Ghaug a sharp look and Erinne wiped them away and said, "We thought they dumped your bodies in the river. There were drag marks leading there."

"Oh they did." There was morbid sarcasm in his voice now. "And nearly drowned us before carting us off like livestock for the butcher." His use of the word butcher scared her.

He was right in front of her now, standing even though she was sitting in the chair still. She tipped her head back to look up at him. "Then what?" She was honestly scared to know. Apparently he was scared to answer because he turned to the side, refusing to meet her gaze.