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“Herrick.”

He froze with his hand on the doorknob but did not turn.

“We are stepping out of the safety of this house to escape the city, and I don't know if I should really trust you. I don't know where this journey will bring me, but if I feel that you are leading me somewhere I cannot go, I will not follow. I will damn the consequences and find my own way to silence Helvig forever. Not because I want to but because I have to. Before it kills me.”

She paused.

“If you try to stop me from leaving, I will end you.”

Herrick slowly turned to face her, and she spied a glint of the ruthless warrior she knew he was in his eyes.

“Is that meant to be a threat?”

“It’s a promise. I will always choose his death before my life.”

Herrick looked at her carefully. She found herself dreading the words he was going to say as she saw the question enter his eyes.

“Will you ever tell me what happened to you,minn eldr?”

She felt her eyes go dead.

“No,” she said, walking out of the house and into the beckoning unknown that lay beyond the threshold.

Maude was curled up in a big leather chair by the fire with an open book in her lap. Her long hair was still dripping down her back and onto the leather chair, leaving stains on the smooth surface. Mama was going to scold her for being so careless, but she could only keep reading her book. Bryn was also reading in front of the fire, casting glances over her shoulder to Maude and causing her orange hair to dance in the firelight.

Maude ignored her younger sister, focusing on the part of the book that involved a battle between the hero and the villain of the story. She always dreamed of being the hero in her life; she would help the young and poor while vanquishing the enemies of her house. The story was getting to the pinnacle of tension when her mother walked into the room wearing a silk dressing robe and slippers.

“Girls, it’s almost time for supper, and you're both just lazing about. Get dressed before he hears of your impertinence,” their mother scolded in her soft and girlish voice.

“Mama, I’m at the best part of the story! Can’t I skip supper?”

“You know your father wouldn’t be happy.”

Maude felt it was an understatement, but she sighed and gave in to her mother’s warnings and dressed for supper. She sat at the vanity while her mother picked up her hairbrush, running it through Maude’s tangled hair.

“Brynna, run to your room and dress now. I need to speak with Maude.”

“Yes, Mama.” Her sister's soft voice came from behind Maude as she left and went down the hall. Her quiet footsteps faded as she got further away from Maude’s bedroom. For a few minutes, only the sound of her mother’s humming and the brush scraping against her scalp filled the room.

“Tell me about what you were reading before I entered,” her mother asked.

Excitement thrummed through Maude as she recited the story that had captured her attention.

“It was about a healer who became a shieldmaiden and now ventures in search of her missing family after she awoke to them having been kidnapped during the winter solstice. She goes on a journey to find them and meets a warrior who is also searching for his family, and they fall in love on their quest to reunite with their families. When they finally find them, they see that the king, who was always so kind to them, was actually evil. They fight him in the end for their family’s freedom and win, but the warrior she falls in love with dies in their escape. The shieldmaiden vows to avenge him and escapes with both of their families.”

Maude had become more animated as she told her mother about this exciting story about love and friendship during war.

“I want to be just like the shieldmaiden when I am older,” Maude sighed.

Her mother,who had been braiding her hair into a coronet at the top of her head, paused and grabbed Maude by the shoulders to turn her.

“Listen to me very carefully, my light. These are only stories to escape to when the world drags you down. Life is not as simple as it is for the shieldmaiden in this story. You are a child and don’t yet understand the realities of your circumstances. If you let your father hear of such wishes…” She trailed off. “Promise me that you will keep your fantasies to yourself.”

“Mama, I’m thirteen. I’m practically grown now. I don’t understand why you are telling me this,” Maude replied, annoyed that her mother did not seem to enjoy the story from her book.

“Just promise me that you will always keep your mind sharp rather than in the clouds. Love, like the ones in the stories, does not have a place in your reality,” her mother said sharply. Something in the way she had spoken to Maude made her nod her head in promise.

Later, in the dark hours of the night when Maude was supposed to be asleep, she finished her book and thought back to what her mother had made her promise. When her mother had spoken to her in such haste, Maude had seen a single tear fall from her eyes before her mother had wiped it away. She didn't understand what had made her mother so anxious, but she had made a promise and intended to keep it.