Kingdom of Embers and Ruin, page 52
By now, Revna will have informed you of the gates that will be left open three days from when you receive this letter. Use the time wisely, Maude.
Brynna
Maude traced her finger over the rune Bryn had drawn, the small X with the slightly longer line on the left crossing over the center just to veer off course and the shorter line that never was linear. Gebo.
From her lessons with their mother, Maude was always told that the crossing point of the rune mark symbolized the connection between two souls destined for each other. Her mother had explained that the two lines that met were the lifespans of each person, the shorter one representing the life span that would be shortened from self-sacrifice.
When she saw the rune in her sister's letter, Maude instantly knew that her words were true. She had always told Herrick that those she cared about ended up hurt or dead, that he would end the same way. And he hadn't listened to her. They had been drawn together since her birth, destined to form a bond that would tie them together until one of them died.
She had burned in her fury when she read that her full fate telling had been kept from her. Her father had shared her fate with her despite the laws that the Grand Soothsayer had laid out. Her mother should have told her instead of laying out thinly veiled threats about it. Maude’s rage drove her to abandon her friend's plan to infiltrate the palace, but her love for Herrick also made her leave.
At that very moment when her eyes had taken in the rune, the decision had already been made for her. Maude had to leave Herrick behind to keep him safe, to keep him alive.
She knew he would never understand because he followed his fate so devotedly, but Maude refused to be responsible for his demise. She would not be able to breathe in a world where he was not living.
Love, like the ones in the stories, does not have a place in your reality.
Putting her hand to her chest, Maude felt her racing heart. She tried not to notice the absence of the necklace Herrick had given her. Tried to calm herself by focusing on her breathing. Shadows crept in around her vision as the sun set until even the fire before her was dim. Her breaths started to come in short, painful bursts, unable to fill her lungs with the oxygen she needed to take a full breath.
For the next few hours, Maude lay on her side, succumbing to the panic that had set deep into her bones the moment she escaped through the window. Only once the moon was high in the sky did Maude peel herself off the ground from the puddle of emotion she had drowned in and kept moving.
By the end of the second day, Maude was able to gather herself enough to run through her plan.
Every snag and dip that caused a problem forced her to rethink the strategy until she knew it was perfect. Maude sat between high dunes in the desert, withdrawing the dalkr Hela, careful not to slice through her skin.
The blade was sharp, and its smooth, matte white surface absorbed the moonlight while the black metal hilt cast shadows from its aura. Just like that day in the Caverns, the metal was ice cold despite having been stored in Maude’s boot and wrapped in a thick cloth.
She gently replaced the dagger she always wore at her thigh with the dalkr Hela, sheathing it slowly in case the honed edge cut through the leather protecting it. Maude looked down at her dagger, the dark gray blade reflecting no light but rather absorbing it entirely.
Ancient runes that Maude had never been able to translate were etched into the base of the blade, and the red strip of silk that she had wound around the handle was tattered and frayed. The dagger had been gifted to her by her mother the morning she fled from the palace with instructions to meet her in her chambers after supper. Instead, Mama had died.
During Maude’s fight with her father, a strip of his red silk coat had torn from his jacket after he sliced her face open. She had grabbed it right before she had fallen to her knees to slow her fall. When she finally stopped running, she found the strip in her pocket and decided to tie it around the dagger as a reminder.
Choosing to tie her blade into her belt instead of her boot, Maude stood and saddled the stolen horse. She ran a hand over its neck and made a few soothing sounds. The mare bumped its nose against her shoulder.
“We’re almost there,” she whispered. “It’s almost finished.”
Logi’s outline started to become clearer by noon, the tall golden spires of the palace welcoming her. The black stone stood stark against the orange light from the desert that surrounded Logi, the city's red buildings blazing in the afternoon heat. Maude looked up at what her first home had been and felt only hatred; the toxic emotion that had been swirling in her since she discovered her last fate rune intensified.
They all hid this from her. He made her into a killer. Into him.
Years of staring up at the palace’s black walls looming over her while she planned her father’s demise began to pay off. Years of rage and hate fueled this last chance to destroy the man who made her life a living hell, even after she ran away. The scar she bore from his hand was a daily reminder of how she was exactly the monster he said she was—a daily reminder of the destruction that followed in her wake.
Tonight, she would end the tyranny that ruled over Logi. Tonight, Maude would get her revenge.
32
Herrick had been silent ever since Maude had disappeared. He knew where she was going and what she was going to do, but she had decided to leave him behind. Like with the raiders, she had not given him a choice.
What puzzled him was how abruptly she had left. He reviewed every interaction before she had gone up to their room alone and could not find anything that stood out other than how she had looked when she came back from the bar.
Her face had been pale, the healthy tan that was ever present in her face was drained entirely, and the scent of ash was on her fingers. Something had happened that had prompted this flight. Once he had regained his senses, he had gone to the window and climbed to the roof to find a long rope that ran down to a rooftop further into the city.
Maude had not been the one to set this up; she had been with him for the better part of the last few days.
Back inside, Gunnar and Liv were coming up with a plan to chase after her while Hakon leaned against the door, hostility radiating from him in tense waves.
“She’s gone to Logi,” Herrick announced to his friends, cutting off whatever they were saying. “She’s gone to kill Helvig.”
“How do you know?” Hakon asked, a bite to his tone that Herrick had never heard before. “How do you know she hasn’t been playing you all this time?”
“Because I know,” Herrick muttered, unwilling to share Maude’s story with them.
“Herrick is right,” Liv agreed. “We need to go after her.”
“Why would she go without us?” Gunnar asked, his face paler than before. “She knew we were still planning on going to Logi.”
He had continued to look sicklier over the last few days. Gunnar may have been putting on a smile, but Herrick could see that he was ill and trying to fight what he’d been feeling silently. Herrick eyed him for a moment. Gunnar gave him a look that said Not Right Now.
“I don’t know,” Herrick admitted, his mind still spinning.
“We have to stop her before she gets too close and ruins our plans,” Hakon said, turning to leave.
“She won’t ruin anything. If she gets close to him, she can end him,” Herrick replied, his anger at his brother's tone leaking into his words. “We go find her and help her.”
Hakon froze.
“You still want to help her after this?” Hakon asked, his tone disbelieving as he turned to face Herrick. “She’s left you here and taken that damned weapon with her to do only the gods know what. How can you trust her after this?”
“I trust her with my life,” Herrick said quietly. “I know there must be more to why she left here in a hurry. Whatever it is, it doesn't matter. I will find her and help her.”
Liv and Gunnar each nodded their agreement. Hakon only turned around and went downstairs. The sun was beginning to rise, and the purple rays of dawn were beginning to penetrate the sky.
“She can’t be far ahead of us,” Herrick began to say when a large boom echoed through the city, rattling the stone buildings.
Herrick pulled himself out the window and climbed to the roof again; Liv was close behind him. He could smell the smoke before he could see it. Rising over the western gate of the city was a thick black curtain, the opaque color obscuring the western horizon.
Maude.
“She’s burned through the gate,” Liv said, her eyes squinting. “I think she may be on horseback. I don't know how else she would have gotten to the gate that fast.”
Liv called down to Gunnar, whose head was still poking out of the window, to gather horses for them. Herrick continued to stare out over the thick plumes of smoke. Her fire was beginning to crest over the tops of the buildings, the flames harmlessly flickering against the stone.
“Why isn't her fire dying down?” Herrick muttered to himself.
“Herrick, we have to go if we’re gonna catch up to her,” Liv said, tugging on his arm.
He nodded but looked over the high flames one more time.
Something was wrong.
An hour later, with four horses gathered in front of the still burning gates, Herrick and his friends tried and failed to put out the raging flames Maude had created.
“This is impossible,” Hakon huffed, the stream of water shooting out of his palm deflecting off the flames.
“She can’t still be doing this,” Liv said, studying the wall of fire.
It moved like it had a life of its own.
Herrick remembered the husband and wife in Veter that brought their child to the people’s court, the slaughter in Amsbrook, and the rune ansuz, a sign from the gods that had been given with the lives of the townspeople. The rune that so starkly resembled the scar cutting through Maude’s face. The gods were trying to tell him something; Herrick was sure of it, but what?
Galder was acting stranger every day except when he was with Maude; then their galder worked seamlessly together. If she was his fate and he was hers, why did she run? Why has she been running from her fate? Galder had begun to act up ten years ago, around the time Maude had received her scar and fled from her life and her fate.
Something had happened that day that even Maude did not see, separated from society the way she had been for a decade.
Herrick needed to find her, and together, they would find out what the gods had in store for them all.
Gunnar tried and failed to move some of the dirt from the nearby gardens to try and smother the fires, but Herrick forbade him from trying again when his sickly pallor got worse with every use of his galder.
“It looks like there is an air shield around the flames, both feeding and protecting it,” Herrick observed. “Stand back; I want to try something.”
Everyone, including the guards who were attempting to toss buckets of water onto the raging fire, stepped back. Herrick gathered his focus and thought about Maude, bringing his water to the surface. He remembered how her skin felt against his when they were both sweat-slicked, how her skin burned under his touch as he soothed it with his ice.
He extended one hand to the flames, directing a block of ice into the center of the fire. As if the flames recognized his galder, they parted enough to allow the ice to slip through. Constructing a few more blocks, Herrick was able to pave a walkway between flames that did not burn or melt his ice. Sweat trickled down his back at the effort to place them, but soon, the resistance lifted, and he could breathe again.
“Well done,” Gunnar said, slapping a hand weakly on Herrick’s back.
He looked over his shoulder to his oldest friend, and concern flared in him.
“Gunnar, you have to stay here. You’re not well enough to ride as hard and fast as we need to,” Herrick told him.
“Over my dead body,” Gunnar huffed, swinging onto his horse.
“Yes, that’s what I’m worried about,” Herrick muttered before looking at his friend. “If I think even for a second that you can’t handle yourself, I’m ordering you to fall behind.”
Gunnar grumbled something he didn't catch but ultimately waved his hand in surrender. Herrick pulled himself up to sit in the saddle of the dark chestnut stallion, smoothing his hand over its neck to calm it before leading them all through Maude’s fires.
Once they were clear of the city, Herrick looked over his shoulder and said, “We keep riding until sundown. We’re probably already leagues behind her.”
They all nodded as Herrick launched his stallion into a sprint.
They rode for almost two days before they finally reached the outskirts of the desert surrounding Logi. Herrick rested very little, even when they had to stop for the horses and Gunnar. His friend had suffered another epileptic episode from the strain of riding for so long. Herrick’s need to find Maude and help his friend warred with each other until they were forced to rest for longer than he would have liked.
He could see the journey wearing on his friend, but the stubbornness that shone there was so like Maude’s that he couldn’t stop Gunnar from joining them. He was worried about her, too, just like Liv was. Hakon was the only person who had remained taciturn, suspicion laced in any words he bothered exchanging. He ignored his brother, choosing only to focus on finding Maude and whether he was angry with her for leaving them behind.
It had felt like a betrayal to Herrick, and while Maude was impulsive, he knew she wouldn’t have rushed off like this if there wasn’t a good reason. Maybe it wasn't even a good reason, but one born from spite and anger that he knew dwelled deep in her broken soul. Herrick knew that no matter what the reason, Maude had not used him for any ill gain on her part. But something had happened, and he needed to hear from her lips what was worth leaving him behind.
He felt Liv walk up to where he had been standing, facing where Logi stood in the early morning of the third day since leaving Dagsbrun.
“Are you ready?” She asked lightly.
“Ready?” Herrick asked, unable to peel his eyes from the horizon where his heart was being tugged toward.
“To find out why she left?”
“I’m not sure,” Herrick answered honestly. “I just know I need to find her. I have this nagging feeling that I’m going to be too late.”
“Gunnar looks stronger; we should be able to continue soon,” Liv offered, turning back to the horses.
“Why do you think she left?” he asked before she could get too far.
Liv was quiet for a moment while she considered.
“I think she left because she loves you, and that scares her. I think she’s a complicated woman with trauma to work through. I think she knows you are part of her fate, and she ran from it like she has wanted to since she first fought you in that pit.”
With that, Liv walked away, leaving that thought with him as he continued to stare toward where he knew Maude was now.
She had spent her life running from her fate, and now she had run from him. Maybe Liv was right. Whatever may have come to light most likely scared her, and she ran. But that didn’t make him feel any better or make him any less angry with her. The fatemark on his chest began to pulse. They were running out of time.
“Saddle up,” he ordered his friends.
By the time Herrick reached the walls surrounding the city, the pulsing of his fatemark had begun to burn incessantly.
Where is she? Which way would she go?
They had arrived from the east, choosing to bypass the south entrance to the city and head toward the east and north gates instead. Scanning the walls for any signs of Maude, he noticed a blood bay mare grazing at a nearby oasis that was outside of the northern gate.
“There,” Herrick said, pointing out the mare.
After what felt like hours, they arrived at the northern gate, where they could hear the clashing of metal. Signaling to his friends to prepare themselves, Herrick spurred the stallion into a full-out sprint. A flash of red that shone like blood rubies in the dying sunlight appeared on top of the wall, the familiar indigo of a shawl highlighted in the setting sun.
Maude.
Herrick watched as Maude rose from her crouched position after evading an attack from a Flame Soldier. Splattered across her vengeful face was the blood of the soldiers she had already cut down. She sliced her axe once across the belly of the soldier she was fighting and pivoted to catch the sword of another soldier behind her, stabbing her short sword up into his gut.
Herrick thought that he had never seen such rage and despair blend so beautifully on one person's face.
As she continued to cut her way through the crowd of soldiers throwing themselves at her, Herrick knew he had to move to help her. Struck stupid by how fluidly she moved through each attack, he was reminded that Maude was a warrior before she was anything else. She had been born and bred to be a Warrior Queen.
Maude was rage, passion, vengeance, and power all combined to create the most complicated person Herrick had ever met. And he loved her fiercely, even if she couldn't let him.
Making it to the gate, Herrick leaped off his horse and rolled into a run that put him face-to-face with the soldiers attempting to shut the gates early in the wake of Maude’s attack. Getting through the threshold of the gates, Herrick turned to his left, where stairs would bring him up to where Maude was still fighting off two soldiers.
“Go!” Liv shouted from where she had faced off with one of the soldiers with Hakon.
Needing no more encouragement, Herrick took off up the stairs. Every soldier he met fell under the blade of his axe. Blood sprayed with every hit, coating him in it, the taste of metal drenching his senses. The rush of battle swelled in him, the roaring in his ears from seeing Maude under attack transforming into stark clarity as he raced up her.
