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Herrick signaled to the deckhand to take over the helm now that the wild anchor turn maneuver was complete before heading to stand at Maude's side.

Black sails billowed in the distance— the stillness from their ship unnerving in comparison to their bustling deck.

They joined their friends, the stress thrumming between all of them putting Maude on edge as she stopped at her sister's side.

Herrick ignored everyone. Walking to the edge of the landing they stood on, his golden eyes narrowing, he reached up to the iron around his throat with one hand and traced it gently.

Maude shivered as she watched the caress, so similar to how he would trace patterns over her skin.

She wasn't sure he was even aware he was doing it.

She went to his side, opening her mouth to see if she could somehow start to repair what she was already shattering with her bloody hands, when Herrick stiffened.

"He's there," Herrick said quietly, cutting through the humming chatter around them. "Baldr. The General of Flame."

"How can you be sure?" Liv asked.

Herrick was quiet for a moment as he stared at the black ship that grew closer and closer. Without responding, he shouted to the crew, "Prepare to board; we give no quarter."

The crew of Elven and vitki burst into motion again— voices shouting and weapons clanging against shields as they painted runes onto their skin for luck and said their last prayers to the gods for glory in battle.

Herrick turned to her and Maude could see before he spoke that his eyes were haunted.

Except there was a lining of something else in the gold hue…

Fury. The type of fury Maude usually burned with.

She nodded her understanding to him, reaching for his hand and squeezing it gently. At first, Maude wasn't sure if he would snatch his hand back or not, but as he gripped her fingers tightly, she let out a deep sigh before unsheathing her sword and axe at her side.

Bryn grumbled as she pulled her axe free and grabbed a shield from the railing of the ship, "It can never just be a normal day for us, can it?"

"Where's the fun in that?" Liv asked, mirroring Bryn's movements, a cheeky smile on her stunning face.

Bryn snorted but didn't respond, moving to Maude's side instead.

Liv was her shadow, only a half step behind her.

Maude glanced at her sister and raised her eyebrow at how close the Elven stood to her, but Bryn only shrugged slightly, her pale cheeks flushing a dark pink.

Maude stifled a chuckle. They would figure out their attraction eventually, but there was nothing Maude could do or say to hasten the actions of two of the most stubborn people she knew.

"What is our plan here?" Hakon asked, his voice the same flat tone that he'd taken to using recently .

His brothers voice seemed to have cracked through Herrick's brooding because the man at her side only uttered three words in response.

"Baldr is mine."

A deathly promise whispered between his words.

That man had put Herrick through some of the most unspeakable horrors if the marks on his skin were proof of anything.

And didn't that just put Maude in a slaughtering kind of mood.

Shadows blurred the edges of her vision, darkening everything around her until she could see only the black sails of her father's ship—the chains they represented.

Never again.

As they neared the ship, Maude's body buzzed with energy.

Shadows twined at her fingers, wrapping lovingly around her arms, their caresses tickling her skin.

She glanced down to see the shadows wrapping around the silver tattoo she and Bryn shared from their blood oath and noticed how they mimicked the shadow movement exactly.

Storing that information to speak with her f— Aeric about later, Maude looked up and saw the entire Elven crew and vitki had gathered in front of her and Herrick, their solemn faces filled with anticipation.

She had already put them through so much bringing them on this journey.

Maude knew the Elven on this ship treated her with such high regard because they knew who her birth father was, but she was uncomfortable with this new role and was still accepting that the King of Shadows was who he said he was.

It was clear they looked to her as their leader in this battle, the unofficial role clear in their attention, but she had never led anyone or anything before.

This was never a role she wanted— she had run from the responsibility a decade ago and now the gods were forcing it upon her again.

Herrick, used to leading soldiers into battle, saved her from her internal spiral and spoke first to the group of men and women before them.

"The cruel King Helvig has sent soldiers to slaughter us, to bind us in chains and throw away the key for their amusement.

But we are free men who don't answer to his treachery.

Pray to the Allfather for glory and focus not on the possibility of capture but rather the singing of our steel on theirs as we cut them down for trying to shackle us again. "

The freed prisoners stood a little taller as Herrick spoke, their anger sparking in various forms of galder .

The waves sprayed a little harder, the oil lamps flared a little brighter, the wind cut through the sails a little more viciously, and vines climbed and coiled around the mast of the ship with deadly thorns the size of Maude's thumb.

"On the wings of the Valkyries, we ride to victory or we ride to our glorious deaths, but not into chains. Never chains," Herrick finished.

The crowd below them banged swords and axes against shields, and staffs pounded on the deck they stood on.

As one, they turned their eyes to Maude, and the moment she had been dreading arrived, towing all of her past panic and trauma with it.

The air stilled and the ocean calmed as if even the gods wanted to know what she would say now.

She had no honeyed words for them, only the truth.

"If I know Helvig, he's sent his most ruthless soldiers. To them, this is an execution," she said quietly, the Elven and freed prisoners alike leaning in closer to hear what she said. "Let's show them how wrong they are."

She stepped off the short platform that held the steering for the ship and waded through the crowd of warriors that parted for her and Herrick until she stood with Hakon and Yuri.

The Elven inclined his head at her and his eyes sparked with a respect Maude didn't feel she deserved.

Savage grins welcomed her as they all banged on their shields again, surrounding Maude like a sheath that she would burst from as a leader and not just a rogue Heir on the run.

The thought horrified her.

Rain poured down on them, soaking her down to her skin and plastering the loose hairs around her face to her forehead, but Maude did not feel any of it.

She could only feel her mind going quiet, the way it used to before any fight.

Without having to look, she knew that Herrick stood to one side and that her sister had joined her on the other side while Hakon and Liv stood behind them.

And still, they all banged their weapons against their shields.

"Prepare to broadside!" Hakon shouted as the wind picked back up and the rain drowned them above water .

Thunder crashed, shaking Maude down to her very bones.

Behind her, the crew of Elven and vitki continued shouting until the enemy ship came parallel to them.

Opposite them, the rows of soldiers became clear through the heavy rain.

Their stillness sent a shiver of warning down her spine.

Something in Maude's chest pulled her forward, the same sensation she had when she felt she was being pushed toward her fate. She tried to embrace it.

"Till Valhalla," Maude said evenly, not raising her voice over the cacophony of shouts and cheers. She kept her eyes on the Flame Soldiers as they turned as one to face them.

"Till Valhalla!" Herrick echoed, his shout ringing across the entire ship deck, followed by repeated shouts of the battle charge from their fellow warriors.