Page 110

Herrick had never felt this tired before.

The fight was finally starting to leave him and his friends as they held off the soldiers between the four of them.

The Elven soldiers were the only ones who remained at their side— with Maude gone, they would continue to follow the orders she left for them. Protect her friends.

Glancing over his shoulder, Herrick tried to see if most of their fighters had successfully escaped. All he saw were piles of the dead— both Flame and Rivers— scattered across the open field that was all mud and graveyard now.

A high-pitched scream came from his right.

Looking for copper, Herrick scanned over Bryn to see if she'd been gravely injured.

Only the scream did not come from her, but Dahlia.

Across her shoulder was a large slice whose edges sizzled from the heat of the blade that had done the cutting.

The Flame Soldier moved to attack again but was yanked back by a dark rope from behind.

It was gone before he could really register what he had seen.

Arm outstretched before him, Baldr twisted his fingers until the air around the Flame Soldier's neck forced a piercing crack to echo around them.

Their gazes clashed across the fighting, and Herrick shuddered as Baldr's unusual silver eyes boiled with fury.

He'd helped Dahlia from suffering another attack—they really did know each other.

Then Herrick saw what Maude must have seen when he was fighting Baldr on the ship's deck.

At his side, hidden from Helvig, Baldr was working to disable his own soldiers to help them.

All at once, Herrick's intense hatred for him an for what he'd done to him seemed to leave him.

In his place, he felt something akin to understanding.

Not quite forgiveness, but something like it .

Baldr and Bryn nodded to each other as she wrapped her arms around Dahlia's waist to keep her from falling.

"She can't fight like this," Bryn shouted to Herrick over metal crashing on metal. "I need to get her out of here!"

"Go!" Hakon replied.

Herrick noticed his brother seemed to fight with more ferocity than before; his eyes panicked now when they had been cool before.

"We'll follow when we can," Herrick agreed, bringing his axe down on the breastplate of a soldier who he'd snared their ankles in vines to trip them.

Bryn disappeared with Dahlia, half-dragging the Elven toward the city center. Both women looked over their shoulders as they retreated but the Elven quickly succumbed to her injuries.

"So help me, Allfather, if I don't see your stubborn ass back in Veter soon, I'm coming to get you, Herrick," the Helvig Heir shouted back to him. She sounded like Maude when she spoke like that.

"I believe it!" he replied with a laugh. "Now go!"

Some of the Elven split off to go with Bryn, while the rest stayed with Herrick and Hakon. They fought in tandem, a dance they both knew after training together since childhood. Eventually, they moved on instinct; Herrick would slice while Hakon parried. When Herrick jabbed, Hakon would cut.

Together, they penetrated a bulk of Helvig's forces as the few Elven soldiers behind them covered their backs.

In the last few months, Herrick had watched as his brother loved and lost, picked himself up from destitution, and became the man he always knew would be: a King. Emotion burned in his chest for his older brother, the leader he had proven to be even in the face of death, war, and sorrow.

Hakon still had a long way to go in his journey— they all did— but Herrick was proud to call him his brother.

Opposite the field, Baldr still worked to keep soldiers away from them, but the fewer there were, the more Helvig seemed to want to rush forward and finish the fight. Herrick could see him arguing with Baldr, the horse he sat atop whinnying from the excited energy his rider was experiencing.

Eventually, Baldr seemed to be out of arguments, though, because he gave Herrick a look of weary caution. With one hand, he waved them off, the desperation in his eyes clear even from across the battlefield.

But it was too late; they had already come this far. He would not back down now in the face of his continent's greatest threat.

"Til Valhalla, brother," Hakon grunted, his breaths coming faster and faster as his exhaustion started to take hold.

Before he could respond, Herrick saw the blade aiming for his brother's neck.

He was too far to get to him in time; he flung out a rope of earth at the soldier swinging the death sentence but missed.

He shouted a warning to Hakon to get out of the way, but no matter how many times he tried to find a way out for his brother, it was too late.

Hakon turned, the flash of the sword in his periphery catching his eye. Except he didn't look death in the eye; he faced his brother instead. Indigo eyes filled with acceptance held his while all he could do was wait for the sound of flesh severing.

Only it never came.

Herrick glanced at Baldr, unsure why his attention was brought to his sworn enemy despite his reluctant acceptance of his help.

In the silver and grey shade of the spy-turned-Flame General's eyes, there was a slight widening of panic as he watched Hakon about to meet his death.

Herrick would catalog the strange reaction to evaluate later because as soon as he turned his attention back to his brother, the loud thunk of metal on wood resounded around them as Hakon was thrown to the ground.

Standing where his brother had been was their father, his two-handed axe holding off the Flame Soldier's sword by the smooth wooden handle.

Before Herrick could react, his mother snuck under the upheld weapons and stabbed her sword up into the chest of the soldier who had almost taken Hakon's life .

She kicked the dead man off her blade as members of their guard flooded into the fight. His mother rushed to Herrick's side as their father helped Hakon off the ground, both pulling them out of the way of the fighting back toward the city.

"Mother, what in Odin's name are you doing out here?" Herrick asked, his jaw slack as she continued to pull him away from the fighting with a strength he didn't know she possessed.

"You have forgotten, my sons," she said with a smirk. "That I was also a warrior before I was Queen. I had the same training as you both."

"Why do you think she wins all of our disagreements?" Father snorted as he ran behind them, his attention split between them and glancing over his shoulder to see if they were followed.

The clang of fighting grew further and further away the faster their parents hurried them through the deserted streets of Veter.

All around them, the once lively city where their citizens had lived happily and peacefully was silent except for the sound of their footsteps on cobblestones.

Soon, they reached the false shop front that housed the tunnels Mother and Grandfather had created all those years ago.

They entered the small space, finding Bryn and Dahlia waiting by the entrance of the tunnel.

The Elven looked healthier, her skin less pale than when she'd been on the field.

Though her cut remained, the bleeding had stopped and she was being bandaged up by one of the Elven soldiers.

Bryn nodded to them as they entered before she continued pacing, her nervous energy filling the room.

"Ships from the Kingdom of Shadows of all places arrived about an hour ago after taking out the small Flame fleet that had parked itself on our shores," Father said, his eyebrow raising as he looked over Dahlia and the other soldiers.

The female's glamour had disappeared when the Flame Soldiers blade had cut her— her galder moving to healing her rather than hiding her.

"It wasn't our secret to tell," Hakon replied as he moved to crouch onto one knee in front of her, taking over the wrapping of her shoulder.

Herrick nodded in agreement while looking over to Bryn. Since Maude couldn't speak for herself, her sister would have to explain .

Bryn rolled her eyes but turned to face his parents.

"Maude is my half-sister. It turns out our mother had fallen in love with the King of Shadows, Aeric, before going to Logi.

She managed to pass off Maude as Helvig's daughter, but she isn't. She is half Elven and the Heir of Shadows.

Aeric agreed to aid us in this fight against Helvig, which is why Liv and Gunnar helped guide his fleet and army here. "

The explanation was succinct and covered all the important information even if it left out a lot of their story. He was sure that Bryn wasn't comfortable with telling Maude's story for her, but there was no other way to explain the presence of the Elven.

"Leave it to Sylvi to find a way to bring the Elven out of hiding," Mother sighed as she shook her head, a small smile appearing on her face.

Bryn went to say something in defense of her mother, but his mother spoke instead. "I only mean that if anyone could do it, it was your mother. I'm glad she found love after everything she sacrificed for our kingdom."

Satisfied, Bryn nodded, but her face hardened slightly before turning away. His mother stepped forward, grasping her hand and pulling her back to face her before brushing her knuckles over the Helvig Heir's cheek.

"And even if your conception was not born of passionate love, Sylvi loved you just as much.

She wrote to me about you both , and she saw so much of herself in you, Brynna.

Go on knowing that even if your father is who he is, you are your mother's daughter first, and that makes you part of this kingdom as well.

You will always have a home in the Kingdom of Rivers. "

Maude's sister looked small for the first time since Herrick knew her as his mother hugged her tightly.