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He turned and left before she could order anything else of him.

The vines of the scattered greenery in the halls began to bend toward him as he walked away from his mother, following his heightened emotions as he tried to outrun his disgust. Herrick successfully forced the rise in his emotions down into the depths of his heart by the time he breathed the ocean air outside the palace .

The barracks were empty when Herrick arrived at his office.

Choosing a smaller room at the base of the building, Herrick had maintained to his soldiers that he wanted to be close to them should they need him for anything.

The small space was nestled into the corner of the barracks, with the entire back wall behind his desk open to the cliffs that overlooked the sea.

The gardens that lined the pathway to the cliffs and down the beaches provided privacy for his office and allowed him to still feel connected to the life around him through his galder .

The walls of his office were sparse, his desk containing reports and lists of recruits for the Kingdom of Rivers armies.

Herrick walked to his desk, pushed aside all the documents littering its surface, and chewed over what his mother had said to him about Iona and her family.

While he knew that what his mother suggested was plausible, he did not believe it.

His instinct told him that this was not a natural occurrence that could be explained away through infidelity.

Galder didn’t randomly show up in family lines, but this fire had manifested itself in a child from Veter when children in Logi were scarcely gifted with fire these days.

Something about this incident nagged at Herrick.

Possibilities circled him endlessly as he continued to imagine what could have caused this fire to appear in this child.

In the people’s court today, while he had been distracted with thoughts of Maude for most of it, what he had generally been hearing from the people was that they felt confined to Veter.

Because of the treaty, some of the people of Veter thought they were sequestered from the world.

They expressed the desire to leave the confines of Veter and explore neighboring towns.

The Queen had denied any requests, stating that the Kingdom of Flame was still patrolling the lands surrounding its kingdom in search of any weakness in the Kingdom of Rivers' defenses. She had stressed that they were safer in Veter. Most had dropped the subject, but Herrick could see on the faces of some that they were not satisfied with her response. What Herrick had learned about the restrictions set within the treaty that kept the two kingdoms apart from each other had remained firmly in the front of Herrick’s mind this morning.

It seemed he was not the only one who chafed against the limitations set in place two hundred years ago.

Herrick leaned forward in his chair and ran his hands over his face.

Thinking back to the family who brought their son to court for guidance, Herrick started to connect the many people who had asked to leave Veter and this child with fire galder .

The people of Veter who asked to leave reported feeling secluded, feeling cut off from the rest of Ahland.

Herrick wondered if the gods also felt this way, and it was now bleeding into their world.

As children, they were told the gods control who receives the gift of galder and that it was their gift to the people of Ahland.

Before he could finish that idea, a knock sounded at his door.

“Come in,” Herrick said, clearing the events from this morning from his mind for the moment.

Herrick’s Lieutenant General entered his office and bowed.

“Sir, I have reports for you to review about the defenses around Veter,” Svend said stiffly as he handed Herrick a folder.

Svend was an old friend of Herrick's when they were children. They had grown up together and trained side by side. Once, they had been as close as brothers, but as they grew older, Svend had become more competitive. He had felt that he would be a better General for the Kingdom of Rivers than Herrick could be and had attempted to win the position for himself when Herrick’s aunt had retired from the title.

Svend had challenged Herrick’s birthright and had ultimately lost in their duel. Herrick felt that Svend had fought honorably and awarded him with the Lieutenant General position, but their friendship had never recovered from the intense jealousy and disdain Svend harbored.

“Thank you, Lieutenant,” Herrick responded.

Before he could stop himself from disobeying his mother’s orders, he said to Svend, “Lieutenant, I need you to station soldiers around the farms by the northern bridge. Report any abnormal activity to me before the Queen.”

Svend bowed stiffly, cutting the sign of respect short as if he couldn’t bear the maneuver.

If he had wanted to, Herrick could punish him for the disrespect.

But that had never been Herrick’s way of leading.

Choosing instead to end battles with his words rather than a deadly hand had served him well so far.

It was because of this reason that Herrick found himself unable to order the soldiers to bring in the child if he showed any signs of earth galder .

Standing, Herrick made his way to the back of his office and out into the garden path.

He could hear the waves of the ocean rolling lazily onto the shore from where he stood.

Herrick closed his eyes and sat on the ground in the comfortable sounds of the garden, happy to feel the rich soil beneath his fingers.

The gentle sound of the ocean and chirps from nearby songbirds lulled Herrick into a calm state quickly.

He was happy to be home, even if his entire world had crashed around him when he arrived.

Hakon was absent during the people’s court, and while their mother had made no mention of it, Herrick knew she was upset with him.

As if his thoughts had summoned him, Herrick heard the familiar cadence of his brother's steps coming up the pathway leading to his office.

“Mother is upset you missed court today,” Herrick said as he kept his eyes closed .

“Why do you think I’m hiding out here?” Hakon responded gruffly as he sat next to Herrick.

They were silent for a time before Herrick spoke.

“I don’t know how long I can cover for you, Hakon. I know you don’t want to go through with this ball, but you have a duty to show up for your people.”

Hakon was quiet, offering no excuses for his behaviors. Herrick couldn’t stand on any high ground over his brother, seeing as he was struggling with a similar problem involving the Heir of Flame.

“I know,” Hakon finally said. “I just can’t find it in me to sit next to them and listen as they go on about how family is important and how we always have a choice in our life when it’s clear we don’t.”

Herrick had nothing to say to that. Hakon’s words were so like Maude’s, how there was no real choice in their life and no control over what they might want for themselves.

Herrick had said their fate was chosen for them, but their free will remained intact, and Maude had called him foolish.

Now, Herrick found himself agreeing with her.

Seeing his brother rebel against his fate, Herrick felt that Maude had been right all along.

“Where is everyone today?” Herrick asked instead.

Hakon heard what Herrick was asking.

“Liv and Maude are training again and beating the living Hel out of each other,” Hakon began as he let out a chuckle. “Gunnar is with them, offering bits of advice and generally annoying them both. Eydis is in the conservatory, sketching some of the lilies growing there.”

His brother's voice was thick with emotion as he spoke of Eydis.

When they were all at The Broken Axe, Herrick had seen how enamored his brother was with Eydis.

They both seemed to gravitate toward each other, one always within reach of the other, glances exchanged when no one was looking, affectionate touches in the darkness of the late night .

Herrick finally opened his eyes to the midday sun and placed a hand on his brother's shoulder, the unsaid words passing between them. They sat in companionable silence, watching the sea turn purple and then black as the night raced toward them from over the distant horizon.

Another day over, another day closer to the Betrothal Ball Hakon wanted to outrun.

Herrick wondered if Maude had planned her escape yet.

He wondered if he should escape with her.

The brothers sat in the privacy of the gardens and ruminated on the women in their lives who seemed to muddle everything they thought they knew about themselves as the sun set and the waxing crescent moon rose.

Maude took long drinks from the glass of water she had poured for herself after her training with Liv and Eydis that morning.

She had been working herself to the bone, trying to push Herrick from her mind.

After Eydis had joined them from wherever she had been hiding, they had trained all day, Gunnar offering his advice and unwanted comments intermittently to Liv and Maude as he instructed Eydis on how to fight with the staff she had taken a liking to.

Eydis was a quick study and naturally fell into a rhythm using the long staff, landing more than a few hard hits on Gunnar.

Her laughter chimed around them as she learned, and when she focused, the concentration she put into the study was near comical, but Maude admired her even more.

Eydis had taken all the recent changes in her life in her stride and never backed down from the challenges.

She had seen no sign of the brothers and had been relieved when she had heard the people’s court was taking place that morning, effectively tying them up for the day .