Page 32

Back stiff, Maude placed her strung bow across her lap, her knuckles white against the dark polished wood, refusing to brace herself against Herrick in any way. Maude looked ahead to their small group, secretly pleased that she didn’t have to share a horse with anyone else.

Not that she would never admit that to anyone, especially Herrick.

The mare they were riding took off at a quick trot, catching up to the group before they got too far ahead. The friction that resulted from the burst of speed had Maude’s backside rubbing against Herrick’s front, and it became clear how much he was enjoying the movement.

“You are disgusting; how does this turn you on?”

“With you,minn eldr, everything turns me on,” he laughed.

This is going to be a long day, Maude thought to herself as his laugh reverberated through her and down to her core.

Six hours passed before the group felt comfortable enough to stop and rest. Six hours of being enveloped by Herrick’s scent and body, of internal struggle to keep her burning from surfacing and giving away her feelings. She had tried to sit as stiff as she could, but it caused more friction between them than when she moved with him and the mare. To Maude, this was almost worse because she could feel how easily they moved with each other and how comfortable she was when her thoughts drifted away from her.

As soon as they had stopped, Maude jumped from the horse and took a few steps away from Herrick to breathe the dry desert air. Gunnar started to build a small fire while Liv walked the horses a short distance to graze from the oasis nearby. Hakon was speaking in soft tones to Eydis, clearly sore from the long ride and going through some similar stretches to relieve her muscles. Herrick jumped down from the horse and watched Maude ignore him while he pulled the saddlebags off the horses.

He hadn’t spoken very much to her beyond those first few words this morning, opting to remain observant of their surroundings rather than flirt with her. Maude told herself she didn’t long for the back-and-forth banter between them as she walked over to Gunnar and took a seat on the hard ground next to him.

“How far are we from the Bone Chasm?” She asked him, pulling out some dried strips of beef from her pack and handing him some. He accepted the pieces with a grateful nod.

Maude felt at ease with Gunnar. Maybe it was because he never seemed to look at her like anything but a warrior, or maybe it was that he neverflinched from her scarred face. No matter what the cause, Maude was comfortable with him and his kind blue eyes.

“We are about a day's ride away from the narrowest crossing point. We will continue south, going around the chasm where the ground meets again, through the Dead Waste, and then south toward the Kingdom of Light,” Gunnar explained.

“Won’t the Dead Waste be dangerous for such a large group?” Maude asked, biting into the jerky. “I’ve never been through, but I’ve heard thedraugrare usually out in full force there.”

“We’ve navigated through the Waste many times before, but on the chance that thedraugrappear, we will be ready for them. Bandits are more likely to interfere with us than thedraugrwill.”

Maude nodded her understanding and looked up to see Hakon and Eydis sitting on a fallen log together, deep in conversation. Hakon was showing her his water magic, filling a small hole he had dug with clear water and then dispersing it into the sand, creating a ball of water, spinning it, and then turning it into solid ice. Eydis studied his movements with an almost comical level of concentration.

Maude knew if Eydis had paper and a pencil, the young woman would be scribbling notes furiously on it.

Looking further beyond the couple, Maude saw Liv sparring with an invisible opponent in the sands close to the oasis. She watched her bob and weave through a set of exercises and stances so fluidly that she could’ve been Elven. She had always had a light grace about her, but it was more apparent when she moved like this.

“I could use a hand, Maude,” Gunnar huffed.

Turning her attention back to Gunnar, who was still struggling to start a fire, Maude laughed a bit to herself and leaned down to blow onto the twigs Gunnar couldn’t seem to light.

From her breath, a stream of golden flames flooded into the space beneath the wooden sticks they’d found and erupted into a warm, crackling fire. Satisfied, Maude sat back again and looked at Gunnar only to see him with a bemused expression.

“How long were you going to let me play with those sticks before you helped me?” He laughed.

“Only a little bit longer,” Maude replied, cracking a half smile.

Gunnar’s smile broadened at the sight of hers, his small chuckle turning into a full belly laugh. Herrick appeared next to her and sat quickly next to Maude, his cooling presence rubbing against her skin like a cat.

“It’s good to know you can literally breathe fire,minn eldr.Remind me not to piss you off again any time soon.”

“You have a talent for pissing this girl off, my friend; I wouldn’t count on it being too long before you get under her skin again,” Gunnar chuckled, pulling out the large desert lizards they had hunted on the way here to put onto the spit over the fire.

Maude chuckled at Gunnar’s observation, the movement causing her to move against Herrick’s arm. The blissfully cold shock that ran through her body at his touch was intoxicating to Maude. She fell too easily into its embrace.

Standing quickly to prevent herself from completely getting lost in his presence, she said to the men as she started pacing, “Tell me about this weapon. If I don’t like what I hear, I’m leaving tonight.”

Herrick looked up at her as she paced the fire they sat around, contemplating whatever it was he saw on her face. If he knew that she was pacing to stop herself from being so close to him, he did not say.

“When we were in Veter, we heard rumors of a weapon that could cut down the greatest warrior and send them to Hel instead of Valhalla, even if they died in battle. The villagers called it thelaevatein, the cunning knife.This name was unfamiliar to our group, so after some more digging, we found that thislaevateinalso goes bydalkr Hela,” Herrick started slowly while Maude stopped pacing at the familiar name. She tried to slow the onslaught of memories the name triggered, the countless lessons on their people’s history that she and Bryn had to sit through.

“I’ve heard that name before,dalkr Hela. The legend around it says it’s a dagger made by Hela herself in the fires of Helheim; it was lost centuries ago,” Maude commented quickly, turning to hide the emotion she knew she had shown on her face. “It’s supposed to be the strongest weapon in the world; it can kill anything and anyone.”