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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 never flinched 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 the draugr are usually out in full force there.”

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

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 the laevatein , the cunning knife. This name was unfamiliar to our group, so after some more digging, we found that this laevatein also goes by dalkr 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. ”

“Yes, that’s what we thought. The villagers had heard rumors of it from trading merchants that had passed through the Dead Waste.

These merchants had reported that the dagger had been lost for centuries until they had heard of it being seen in the Knotted Caverns off the shores of Ljosa.

Only one man made it back from the Caverns, and he was bordering on catatonic, so there were no details on what they faced there.

We plan to head that way and stop through the rebuilt village of Dagsbrun to resupply before finding a boat and making our way out to the caves. ”

“Seems too simple; it feels like you're missing information. It can’t possibly be there after it has been nothing more than a legend for centuries,” Maude interrupted, skepticism furrowing her brow.

The excitement of even the possibility of the weapon being in that cave made Maude want to jump on her horse and race there immediately. She attempted to be more calculated than that, however, so she dosed herself with a healthy amount of doubt before continuing.

“You all are going on the word of a few traveling merchants to find this laevatein , which sounds like a trick just from the name the villagers gave it. The cunning knife? I don’t believe it exists. I can’t risk exposing myself like that based on only your belief in the truth of these strangers. ”

“I know trust is a bit of a foreign thing to you, minn eldr , but most of the world runs on an honor system.”

“It just seems too good to be true,” Maude muttered, continuing to pace around the fire.

“I agree with you on that. I also believe that there must be a way to bring down the cruel King of Flame. He has ruled unchecked for too long and has caused so much imbalance in his kingdom. The people are restless and angry; they need a reason to believe their families will survive,” Herrick said to her as he stood in front of her, forcing her to stop pacing.

“How could you possibly know what the people of Logi are feeling?” Maude asked him, looking up into his golden brown eyes that held firm in their belief of a path to freedom.

“I spent a lot of time with them over the past few years. I’ve spoken to them when we smuggle them out of the city.

I see how scared they are and how angry they have become over the injustice of the class system the king enforces.

I see that they are tired of hiding their galder from the world and that it hurts them to be unable to feel the rush of the elements being channeled through them,” Herrick said as he created a sphere of water to envelope them both, blocking out the rest of the world.

“I see how they accept their position in the world with no fight until they are unfairly brutalized in the name of the King. I see them quietly fighting their allotted existence by hiding an oasis from the nobility, by working together in underground rooms to practice their galder , and by fighting in pits to make a fair living to provide for their families.”

Herrick touched her cheek with two fingers and ran them down the side of her face.

Maude shivered as his touch radiated inward to the very center of her being.

Unnerved, she stepped back and willed her fire to the surface.

A pulse of her flame pushed through the sphere of water he was still holding around them, steam billowing around them in heavy wisps .

“The people won't rise against Helvig; they don’t have any hope of his defeat,” she said as she stepped away.

“If we find this dagger, they will have hope,” Herrick countered, taking a step closer to her.

“Even if we did find it, Helvig would know as soon as it was in our hands. He has spies everywhere.”

“He doesn’t have spies in the fallen Kingdom of Light. We could still smuggle the dagger into the city.”

“Assuming it actually exists,” Maude argued.

“We will find it,” Herrick said firmly, determination sparking in his golden irises in the evening light of the desert.

Maude looked at Herrick again, studying his earnestness. He truly believed this dagger had appeared out of thin air in this cave and that he would find it. That she would help them.

“Give me a reason to trust that this dalkr Hela is in that cave,” Maude finally said to Herrick.

Gunnar continued to cook the lizards over the fire but was clearly paying close attention to their exchange, while Liv had joined them around the fire but was stone-faced and silent.

Hakon and Eydis were still enraptured with each other and their galder lesson, the world around them had ceased to exist.

“You don’t have to trust the rumors, but you can trust me , Maude,” Herrick said quietly, looking deep into Maude’s eyes, into her very soul.