Maya was at Odin’s side now. They clung together. Jack Odin kissed her and swore that they would never be parted again.
“Until death—” Maya said and raised her lips to his.
He shivered. It was a promise and an assurance that might be kept too soon. The fires could not burn much longer. Grim Hagen’s power over the Lorens might be questioned after the havoc that had been wreaked in the city above. But Hagen and his white-skinned soldiers could still fight. And Grim Hagen’s hate was hotter than the fires that were now dying out in the tunnels.
Ato joined them. He had proven himself a general. Outnumbered all the way, he had broken Grim Hagen’s lines time and again during that awful night.
“I think we had better wait behind the barricades and make our last stand upon the balcony,” he said. “We can’t defend five entrances at the same time.”
Odin agreed.
“Some of Maya’s people are unarmed. We still have a few of the Lorens who joined us. They are good fighters. Better than the Lorens who are with Grim Hagen. Apparently, he drew his following from the weakest among them.”
“Aye,” Val the Loren agreed. He had fought near Ato’s side all through the night, and his lean left hand was rubbing two deep cuts across his chest. “They have already had enough. But they have asked the wild things of the moss-country to dine with them, and now they can’t get rid of their guests. If Grim Hagen and his soldiers should die, they would give up in a minute.”
“Are your men still armed, Val?” Odin asked.
“Aye. They know to hang on to their weapons.”