Hermes had seen battlefields freeze before ... The smell of death, the stillness that followed a slaughter.
But this was different.
It was as if the whole world had been turned to stone.
Every man on that blood-slick shore had stopped mid-swing, mid-shout, mid-breath. Even Glasán himself looked stunned, staring at the raider in front of him as if expecting the man to snap out of it any second.
But he didn't. None of them did.
Except Hermes and Apple. They stood in the middle of it all, perfectly fine.
Sirentone didn't work on those who shared it. And they both did ... Apple's version taken from Somner after he'd drained him dry. But neither twin moved a muscle. They simply stood, pretending to be caught under the same strange spell, curious to see what Glasán would do next.
Somner, meanwhile, was halfway through a one-handed duel with a raider while lazily inspecting his fingernails.
