Page 108

Liv twisted her fingers together as she leaned against the railing of the longship a few times before pushing off it and pacing up and down the deck again.

The early rays of dawn were peeking out over the water, painting the world in pastel colors that were way more optimistic than Liv was feeling at the moment.

"We're going too slow," she called to Gunnar and Aeric as they navigated the helm of the ship.

"The storm delayed us," Aeric replied calmly. "We're almost there. I suspect by mid-day."

She swore a few choice words at the gods and how they threw that storm in their path.

They would have been in Veter by now if it had missed them.

Something was swirling deep in her gut, something that felt wrong.

Though she tried not to associate that with Bryn, Liv begged and prayed to the Allfather that she was safe.

But something had gone wrong. She'd felt the world shift under her feet, like it grew colder somehow.

Sigurd and Astrid had opted to sail with them, along with the burly man who worked as a blacksmith named Finn, when Liv offered them the choice.

They'd had kissed their children goodbye and left them in the hands of Thora.

Liv was glad their children would remain safe; they had lived through enough horror.

To describe Finn as having a strong personality would be understating it.

He had gotten along easily with the other Elven they sailed with, launching himself into the hard work it took to sail a longship as soon as his boots hit the deck.

Aeric and Gunnar had taken an immediate liking to the blacksmith.

Sigurd had shown up with scores of people and Finn was acting as a sort of right hand man to the pit keeper.

She worried about how he would react to Bryn and Maude's involvement in the resistance.

Liv wasn't about to take away someones chance at a fight though when Finn had mentioned that he and a few other vitki were interested in taking a bigger part in the fighting.

But as for the pit keeper and his wife, Liv tried to be more understanding.

They had just found each other again; how could they risk all they had gained to jump right back into the fight?

When Liv asked as much, Astrid had been the one to respond.

Her hair had been braided into two thick ropes that ran over her head until they hung over her shoulders, her soft, wool gowns traded for fighting leathers the Elven favored.

The healers in the palace had been working to help bring her back to her full strength before the imprisonment, and whatever tonic they had sent with her was working.

Already, her hair was thicker, her muscles were stronger, and she had filled back out to the powerful woman who had already proven to be more than an even match for Sigurd.

"For years, we lived and lost under the thumb of a tyrant.

We kept our heads down because it seemed like the smart thing to do.

Wait him out and pray for better days. But once we had been separated, the only thing that kept us both going was knowing we could make it better for others if we kept fighting," she said softly, her arm wrapping around Sigurd's waist.

He looked down at his wife, his face beaming and brighter than the sun itself. Liv's throat tightened as she watched the unfiltered love and joy pour out of her friend.

"I do what I can now because when it mattered, I didn't do enough," he murmured, never tearing his eyes away from Astrid. "Those words brought me back to you, elskan minn ."

When Sigurd finally tore his gaze away from his wife, the ice blue of his iris was clearer than she had ever seen.

"Just because I got my family back doesn't mean the job is finished," he said to Liv. "So we'll keep fighting. But now, we do it together. "

She nodded, reaching out to grasp Sigurd's forearm. "Let's finish the job. I'm sure Herrick and the rest could use our help right about now."

As soon as the words left her mouth, a strong wind battered them and their sails.

On the breeze, floating in front of her, was a folded paper in the shape of the sun— a small burst of fire harmless to the dry paper shot out in spires from the center where the note was hidden.

Dahlia used to send Liv notes like this when they were children in Nida, except the scent that was attached to the flames was that of desert lavender.

She snatched the paper up and unfolded it, scanning the contents of the letter.

Without wasting another moment, Liv tucked the note into her back pocket and used all of her strength to redirect the winds until they were pushing the longship faster than the rest of the fleet they led. They were out of time.

Bryn stared at the space where Maude had disappeared. She'd just… vanished in a cloud of shadow.

She'd blinked, and her sister was gone.

Herrick was breathing heavily at her side, his eyes wide as he tried to search every open inch of the space. He wouldn't find her anywhere near them; Hela had taken Maude's body and gone. Only the goddess knew where.

A horn sounded from outside the tent. Soldiers outside scrambled to their posts as drums beat and hastened them along. She could hear Hakon giving orders, his voice growing louder the closer he got to Herrick's tent. All around them, sound exploded in messy tempo while they sat in shocked silence.

Maude was gone, and now Helvig was at their door, banging on the drums of war so that they'd meet them on the killing field.

And Liv, Gunnar, and Aeric weren't going to make it there in time to help them.

The catastrophe that was their fate unraveling before her very eyes only further paralyzed Bryn. How were they supposed to manage this? How were they supposed to help Ahland when everything kept going from bad to worse with every step they took in the fight against her father?

Suddenly, the fight ahead of them felt as futile as the fight against her father for the fate of Ahland.

For how long would they have to rage against those who would see the world burn?

When would it end? With their deaths in the name of martyrdom?

With Helvig's head on a spike as their continent devolved into chaos?

How was she supposed to face her father without Maude at her side? Without her kind and gentle-hearted sister who had buried that part of herself and hardened her heart to the world in the name of self-preservation because she had seen something in their society that everyone else had missed?

Bryn's throat clogged as her eyes burned. Oh gods.

Hakon entered the tent before she could crumple in defeat, his hair and eyes wild with adrenaline as he looked for his brother. He scanned the tent and found Bryn and Herrick sitting side by side on the ground in front of Svend's cooling corpse.

He called their names, but the words sounded muffled to her, far away and nonsensical.

Someone shook her shoulders, and her head snapped back hard enough that it pulled her back to the present.

Dahlia was crouched in front of her, assessing her with those otherworldly eyes that seemed to catch everything.

"Bryn, you have to snap out of it," the Elven healer ordered, her voice sharper than she had ever heard it before. "We are needed at the front."

Hakon was shaking Herrick out of his stupor at her side, but the General could only stare forward.

"Where is Maude?" Dahlia asked, alarmed as she must have felt Herrick's shock mirroring Bryn's. "What's happened?"

"She's gone," Herrick whispered as his eyes came back into focus. "Hela took her after she killed Svend."

The Elven placed her hand over her small mouth as she sat back.

Bryn numbly explained what had happened, what Svend had confessed to before Maude had gutted him, giving Hela the last grip of control she needed to overtake her sister.

Hakon stood, pacing in front of the tent opening, his hand on his sword for several long minutes until he finally spoke .

"So what?"

That got their attention. She and Herrick both got to their feet, each of them reaching for their weapons on their belt. Dahlia immobilized them before they could do anything to harm the Heir of Rivers.

" Bastard! " Bryn shouted at him through her teeth.

"I just mean that there is nothing we can do about that right now," Hakon replied calmly.

He stopped in front of his brother. "Those soldiers out there need you to lead them into a fight they probably never expected to happen in their lifetime.

They need their General. And I'm sorry about Maude; I want to find a way to help her too, but she isn't here right now— you are. And we need you ."

Gods damn it. He was right.

Herrick seemed to realize it too, deflating as his brother's words settled on them all. "When did you go back to being so sensible?"

They all chuckled, but Hakon glanced at Dahlia, a motion so quick that Bryn would have missed it if she hadn't been watching.

"When I realized I had been acting like a complete ass to everyone who needed me," Hakon said, placing his hand on his brother's shoulder before meeting Bryn's eye. "Forgive me."

Bryn only nodded; she was too numb to do anything else. That night had taken too much from her, and now they were due to lead soldiers into battle. And all without the reinforcements from the Kingdom of Shadows.

"We need to send word to Liv and Gunnar," Bryn finally muttered to Dahlia. "Tell them that the battle is starting and that we need them to get here as soon as they can."

The Elven nodded once before turning to scribble the missive onto a torn piece of paper.

When she folded it up into the shape of a sun with small paper spirals coming out from the center, Bryn twirled her fingers over the paper to sprinkle some embers from her galder so the paper sun would burn like the real thing without destroying the paper.

Her own message to Liv that she was okay even if she felt like crumbling into a thousand tiny pieces .

When the note was sent, and they were dressed for war, the four of them exited the tent and headed toward the field Herrick's men had sequestered for the fight.

Quiet calm hung in the heavy dew that clung to the atmosphere as it charged with the fight to come.

Energy swirled above them as the gods prepared to watch this battle play out like a personal production of their subject's woes.

Bryn directed her hatred up into the clouds, hoping it reached the sick bastards as they used their suffering as entertainment.

Maude was right— the gods were cruel, and they should never have placed so much faith in them.

Before, Bryn would have taken the time to clear her mind of everything but the goal ahead. Formations and strategy would have taken the forefront of her thoughts. Before, she would have slipped into the cruel Lieutenant mask that shielded her in more ways than she cared to admit.

But now, she was hollow as her sister's lack of presence threatened to consume her. Now, haze clouded her mind as she searched for that fire in her heart to aid her in this fight.

She came up empty.

They cut through the many formations of Rivers Soldiers, poised and ready for the fight ahead. Slowly, Hakon started to bang his sword against his shield, breaking through her haze. Each dull bang of the metal against wood reverberated in Bryn's soul.

Thump, thump, thump, thump.

Every beat matched the rhythm of her heart, forcing it to calm as Hakon's message was sent to the entire army in waves that overwhelmed the swirling energy of the gods above them.

Thump, thump, thump, thump.

Other soldiers copied the Heir of Rivers, their swords and axes pounding against their shields, the spears digging into the frozen ground, adding to the frenzy of sound that had broken out amongst the army.

Thump, thump, thump, thump .

Every beat cleared the haze in Bryn's mind until she looked out over the army she had been groomed to lead with clear eyes.

In front of her were the men and women she had trained to defend her father.

They were strangers to her now. Enablers of the tyrant her father was, proof that his mad ways could be inherited.

But she was proof that there was always a different path if one so chose.

Brynna Helvig was a changed woman after everything she had done and sacrificed for Ahland, including her love and happiness. Today, she fought for those she had lost and those she had gained. Today, she fought for Ahland.

For Revna.

For Maude.

For Liv.

For herself.

Bryn picked up her axe and brought it down on her shield, the vibration pulsing all the way through her body until the adrenaline in her blood was sparking fires in its wake.

Her axe caught flame as she held it above her head and shouted over the raucous Rivers Soldiers, " Vali! "

A chorus of soldiers echoed the battle cry. " Vali! "

Bryn grinned at the front line of Flame Soldiers as their already pale faces drained of color.

" Vali! " she shouted again, her call to the god of vengeance hoarse and guttural.

" Vali!"

Soon, the entire Kingdom of Rivers seemed to reverberate with their call to Vali as their weapons pounded against shields until the very ground shook with their power.

Each row of soldiers they passed grew louder as Bryn kept her call to Vali loud enough to break the sound barrier above them until the entire army was drowning out the Flame Army.

As Herrick reached the front, they all stopped until they stood side by side.

Bryn raised one hand in a closed fist above her. As one, the Rivers Army silenced.

Stillness enveloped them as the gods listened in. But no one spoke .

The General of Rivers only raised his axe into the air over his head and let out a battle cry that ignited something in Bryn's body, begging her to respond with her cry. He charged forward, and the rest of them followed as they met Helvig's army at slaughter.

Behind her, a wave of shouts followed them, all screaming the same thing.

"Til Valhalla!"