Page 84

She trailed behind the group, Herrick matching her pace so exactly that soon they were alone behind their friends.

Maude paused on the top of the last hill before they reached the long boat and watched as Gunnar, Liv, Eydis, and Hakon got the longboat into the abnormally calm waters.

Herrick stopped at her side, their hands loose at their sides.

All she had to do was flex her fingers, and they would touch.

The weight that had sat on her shoulders ever since she crossed the city limits increased ten times over the closer she got to the Caverns. The nagging feeling that they were going the wrong way grew. Maude didn’t know what they would face inside, but it didn’t feel worth it anymore.

Overwhelmed, Maude turned toward Herrick .

“Herrick,” she began, but he faced her and cradled her face in his hands, tilting her up to look at him. She reached up and put her hands on his forearms, about to push him away when she stilled.

Herrick’s face was more serious than she had ever seen before. The light from the full moon was being covered by passing clouds, casting his face in shadows. His golden brown eyes stared intently back at her, all the unspoken emotion clear in his gaze.

He ran a thumb over her lips to stop her from continuing, the calluses on his palms scraping against her cheeks with the movement.

“No goodbyes, minn eldr ,” Herrick said to her quietly, the silence of Ljosa amplifying his words. “We will overcome any dangers lurking in these Caverns and speak later.”

Maude mutely nodded. With a tenderness that shattered Maude’s shriveled black heart, Herrick leaned forward and kissed her softly.

A thousand promises lay in his kiss. A thousand words that only she could understand.

The clouds parted then. Bright light from the full moon cascaded over them as they shared this quiet moment before the chaos of the night ahead of them. Maude pulled back a fraction to study Herrick’s face once more, just as he studied hers.

The moment was broken when Hakon called out to them.

“Come on, before we lose the calm!”

Herrick released her. His hand ran down one arm all the way to her fingers, where he finally parted from her and headed down to the shore. From her spot on the hill, Maude could see her new friends all working together as they teased each other and laughed despite the stress of their task.

A small kernel of her fire flared in the center of her chest, the warmth spreading out to her limbs as she watched them all .

For the first time in her wretched, lonely existence, Maude felt at home. Peace.

The unfamiliar feeling was gone in a flash, as fast as it had arrived, followed by dread as she prayed and hoped to the gods that they would all make it out of these Caverns tonight.

Hope. The foreign feeling expanded in her chest.

The warmth that had sparked at the sight of her friends was hope for a new life, a new start, a new family.

And that hope had been quickly expunged with the dread of their mission tonight.

Scanning the ground around her, Maude promptly gathered a few herbs and plants before she pulled the rock salt she always kept on her belt.

She dug a shallow hole in the sand and quickly tore apart the bits of nettle, yarrow, and mugwort before placing them into the makeshift basin. Maude poured the salt around the herbs in a circle and tunneled into herself to draw on her galder, sparking a single flame over her fingertip.

Doubt crept into her mind.

She had never been very religious as a child and had never taken the holidays and solstices seriously.

Maude had always felt the gods had abandoned her to the whims of her father, so she never felt much like worshiping them.

Now, however, she struggled to find the right words to call on the favor of the gods.

Closing her eyes, Maude pulled on the words that formed in her soul rather than the words of prayer from her past.

“Odin, I call upon you. Allfather and Keeper of Valhalla, I seek protection from you for my friends tonight as we set out to right the wrongs committed in our world,” she began, her voice a whisper.

“I have never looked to you or the others for guidance, and it feels selfish to do so now… but these are good people. This is not for me. They do not seek glory or vengeance like me; they seek to help your people. ”

She paused, feeling the noise around her fall away. Slowly, Maude lowered her flaming fingers to the half-formed altar in the sand containing the herbs of protection. They quickly sparked, the ashes rising into the atmosphere at a rate Maude had never seen before.

“Guide them down the right path,” Maude continued, her eyes opening to the full moon shining above her. “Guide them down your path and let them see the rising sun.”

Silence pulsed around her once, twice, before it dissipated, and the sounds of her friends launching the longboat rang in her ears like a death knell. Maude rose from her kneeling position in the sand.

“No goodbyes,” she said to herself.

With one last look over her shoulder toward the north, Maude walked to the longboat that would carry them all to the entrance of the Knotted Caverns and whatever dangers lay inside.

The ocean was still as their boat slid across the surface, sending ripples out and alerting any life beneath the water of their presence.

The full moon illuminated their path toward the Caverns, highlighting a small beach on its shore big enough to dock a boat on.

Their group was silent and observant of their surroundings, any small sound catching their attention.

Maude felt the boat beneath her slide onto the sandy beach as they quickly crossed the small distance from Ahland’s shore.

They disembarked efficiently, spreading out onto the sands to search for any raiders that may be hiding there.

Weapons drawn, they cleared the beach before searching for a way to get to the hidden entrance of the Caverns.

The smooth stone of the island twisted and curled in on itself, making it difficult to find a stepping point to climb up the rocks. Maude had her bow drawn with an arrow already in place, watching everyone's backs as they scoured the Cavern's surface .

“Over here,” Herrick’s low voice called out from the shadows.

Hakon followed his brother’s voice.

“I can’t see a gods damned thing,” Hakon muttered, Gunnar huffing in agreement.

Maude sighed, snapping her fingers and creating three fireballs to hover over their group.

“You could’ve just asked, you know,” Maude snarked, her face serious but her voice teasing.

“But where is the challenge in that?” Hakon said, a charming half smile appearing.

“There is a staircase just up ahead,” Herrick continued, ignoring them all. “It’s hard to see from here, but once we're on it, I think the moon will be more than enough light to get us up to wherever they lead.”

“That’s comforting,” Liv remarked. “Let’s take the mystery steps up then.”

She waved her arms forward as if she would push them all up the stairs.

Maude stifled a laugh and shook her head, following Herrick.

Eydis was in front of her, her hair covered by a hood similar to the way Maude wore her mother’s shawl.

Noticing her attention, Eydis glanced at Maude for a moment and gave a shy smile.

“It makes so much sense to wear a hood if you have bright hair like ours,” Eydis commented. “I just followed your lead.”

Eydis nodded to Maude’s clothing. Her mother’s shawl was wrapped around her waist as it always was, with the hood up to cover her crimson hair. Though it was braided and pinned behind her head, Maude kept the hood up to keep her anonymity as well in case her father had more spies watching.

The thought sank in her gut like a stone. They needed to be quick about retrieving the dalkr Hela .

“I like it,” Maude said, swallowing her anxiety. “The look suits you.”

They reached the top of the winding staircase quicker than Maude expected. At the top, they found a flat space with archaic runes scratched into the surface.

Careful not to step on any of the carvings, they searched for an opening or a doorway into the Caverns.

Herrick remained close to Maude after they cleared the stairs, becoming her shadow as she ran her fingers across the smooth wall.

Grooves were etched into the swirling stone, but none that gave Maude the idea that there was an opening hidden within them.

“I can’t find anything,” Liv grumbled after thirty minutes of searching. “We’re running out of time.”

“It’s not even midnight, Liv,” Gunnar reminded her.

Maude ignored them. She stood in the southeastern corner of the rocky enclosure, her back to them. Herrick stood close behind her but was looking up into the sky, tracking the movements of the moon.

An awareness washed over her, like the one she felt in the temple. Out of the corner of her eye, to her left, she noticed a spot where the two walls met. The crack in them was irregular, and Maude had the strongest inclination, which was to run her finger over the seam.

At the highest point of the wall Maude faced, the runes for all six elements were carved in a straight line. In the moonlight, the runes seemed to pulse with life before shadows covered them again like the symbols had been absorbed into the stone.

Reaching up above her, Maude placed her finger as high as it could reach. She began to run her finger down, but a strong hand caught her wrist before she could continue.

“Maude,” Herrick said from behind her, his chest up against her back. “Don’t do that, it could be a trap. ”

“Do you feel it, too?” Maude asked, her glazed eyes never leaving her hand.

“Yes,” Herrick shuddered. “And it doesn’t feel friendly.”

“I think this is the way in,” Maude replied quietly.

Herrick paused for a moment before he reluctantly released her wrist.

“Be careful,” he warned.

Behind her, she could feel him withdraw his axe with one hand, his other hand staying close to her waist, prepared to pull her out of the way if it was a trap. Her friends gathered around behind her as well, weapons at the ready. Herrick squeezed her hip to signal her to continue.

Pulling her finger down the seam again, her hand was almost eye level with her when she felt the pad of her finger snag on something sharp, pricking her finger.

Without missing a beat, she continued her path down the seam, her blood shining on the rock in her wake. When Maude’s hand reached where her waist was, the pressure from the awareness lifted and disappeared. She stopped and waited, withdrawing her hand and wiping the small cut onto her pants.

At first, nothing happened. Herrick began to relax behind her while she readjusted her grip on her bow.

Then, the moonlight shifted slightly in the sky.

Shining onto the corner where Maude’s blood was drying, the moon illuminated the dark red line until it glowed as bright as the stars.

Herrick took a step back, his hand going to Maude’s waist to pull her with him.

The ground beneath them began to shake, and a high-pitched grinding sound deafened them.

Before Maude’s eyes, a crack big enough for an adult to get through opened from where she had run her finger over.

Maude raised her bow and drew back, pointing it at the pitch-black opening once the sound subsided .

When nothing rushed out, Maude took a hesitant step forward and directed one of her fireballs into the opening to light their path with a wave of her hand.

Maude looked over her shoulder to Herrick and her friends. Grim resolve was all that showed on their faces. Gunnar nodded to her from where he stood at the back of the group, the wooden sticks wrapped in cloth and doused in oil already in hand.

He began to hand them out, a few bundles to each of them except Maude. With half a thought, Maude lit their torches, marveling at her absolute control over her galder now.

She let out a long breath before she turned back to the small opening of the Knotted Caverns. The emptiness that radiated out of the hole in the rocks echoed deep inside Maude, a familiar and disturbing feeling.

This is wrong , Maude thought. We shouldn’t be here .

Swallowing her doubts and trusting in the path she had chosen, Maude led her friends into the darkness.