"Save our trophy for last, kill the rest!"
The words pierced Hauke's heart like a knife. This was his fault. He'd just started to feel the barriers between them beginning to melt as they celebrated catching an enormous sturgeon when the Tuscans hurled stones shattered everything around them. They were going to kill his new friends, just to get to him.
A second behind that thought, however, his panicked mind processed the other thing the Tuscan leader had said. 'Old man Paulus didn't lie.' The Tuscans had come for him, yes, but it wasn't his fault. Elder Paulus had sold them out. The realization chilled his heart, bringing an icy calm to him as his fear vanished, replaced by a cold, crystalline rage.
"Hauke," Virve, said, watching the young Frost Walker struggle to process what was happening. "Can you hurl spears of ice, or do anything else to break up their group? We can't fight them all at once or we'll be overwhelmed."
