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Maude turned her attention back to the draugr in front of her and how Liv was taking a bigger bite of it than she should. She saw what Liv was going to do before she moved, and the draugr , with his dead glare, anticipated the same thing.

Time slowed as Liv feinted a jab with her dagger and moved to swing her arm around the draugr’s neck, axe flashing in the torchlight.

At the last second, the draugr , its moldy clothing and stark white skin bloated and peppered with barnacles snapped its arm out to snatch Liv by the throat faster than Maude could have thought possible.

Stagnant seawater dripped from its extended limb as a crustacean skittered from inside its sleeve down its side, disappearing into the tattered clothing.

Maude sprinted forward as she withdrew her weapon, sword flashing in front of her to slice through the draugr strangling her friend. With one hand on its rusty rapier, the draugr exchanged blows with Maude effortlessly as she tried to disarm the monster long enough to free Liv.

It didn’t matter how hard Maude fought against the creature; its need to defend the Caverns was clearly strengthening it.

They moved further from the group the longer Maude battled this undead prick while Liv tried to kick out her long legs to catch the draugr unaware and make it drop her.

Soon, they were far enough away that anything said would be between Maude, Liv, and the undead monster she desperately tried to slay.

With one quick slash, the draugr slammed her blade out of her hand, forcing Maude to withdraw her bow and arrow. Without missing a beat, the draugr had its rusted rapier under her chin, but not before Maude had an arrow aimed right at its decomposing hand that was wrapped around Liv’s throat.

“Go ahead and kill me,” Maude said through her teeth as she glared at the draugr . Liv kicked her legs toward Maude to get her attention, but Maude ignored her. “It’s of no consequence if I die. So kill me.”

The draugr studied her, its white eyes hazy as it glanced over her. She gave it a mocking smile.

“Just know I never miss my target, and Liv will rip you apart once I’m dead,” Maude finished.

“You have no shot,” it croaked.

Maude only raised an eyebrow as she drew back her arrow further.

The creature was silent for a long moment, the commotion of their friends behind them falling away to nothing.

“There is always one that does not leave these Caverns whole,” the draugr’s eerie voice whispered, hoarse from disuse.

Chills wrapped around Maude’s body at the sight of her friend suspended in the air by the creature as panic’s limbs constricted around her heart.

“Or at all. Who shall it be tonight? The nomad who holds revenge in her heart?”

Its milky eyes dragged over Liv’s form before it continued, eyeing their friends next.

“The inflamed Heir that is shrouded in darkness?” Its eyes shifted to Maude. “The grounded dreamer who becomes more enchanted with Hela’s blossom each passing day? The brother’s driven further from salvation with each day spent surrounded by rage?”

Maude bared her teeth at the creature as its empty gaze shifted from person to person. “Or should it be the fair-haired maiden who has no real place in this world?”

Liv thrashed in the grip of the draugr , her dark skin growing purple and then ashen as the creature kept its grip tight around Liv’s windpipe. She was running out of time.

A heaviness settled on Maude at its words, the same feeling as when she had run from her fate and her home all those years ago. She couldn’t let any of them die. The resolution settled in her like a stone sinking to the bottom of a raging river.

If someone was not going to make it out of these Caverns, it was going to be Maude, not the people who had been strong and brave against the tyranny of a crooked kingdom.

The tunnels were silenced as her decision lifted a heavy weight from her shoulders, lightening her step as a plan formed in her mind. Warmth trickled down her spine as the torches flared around them, a presence wrapping itself around her as Maude stood to her full height.

The rusted rapier sliced into the delicate skin at the base of her throat as she drew back on her bow, her eyes never leaving the undead creature’s milky gaze .

“We are all leaving these caves. Alive ,” Maude said as she shot forward, forcing the draugr to pull his sword back in surprise.

The arrow Maude had been aiming at the draugr’s wrist shot forward, slicing through waterlogged dead flesh and tendons, forcing the creature’s grip on Liv to slacken.

Seeing her window of opportunity, Maude extended her hand before she snapped her palm shut and yanked her closed fist back to her, the ropes of wind from her galder tightening around Liv’s flailing form and yanking her from the dead creature's loosened grasp.

Just as Liv managed to land on her feet, chest heaving with the air her lungs had been deprived of, another shrill scream sounded around them all. Maude saw Eydis moving slower than before in her periphery, the jerking movements of her body signaling that something was wrong.

The draugr in front of Maude chuckled once before Liv stood and separated its head from its neck with her axe, silencing it forever.

Maude took off toward their gentle friend, Liv close behind her. Blood was flowing alarmingly fast down Eydis’s left arm, and it was hanging limply at her side while she tried to swing her staff with her other arm. Her already pale face was turning gray.

“Cover me,” Maude shouted to Liv before running to Eydis.

“Go,” Liv said through gritted teeth, her axe flashing toward yet another draugr that sprinted towards her. Rage burned in her gaze, and Maude knew then that she would never want to be on the receiving end of Liv’s anger. Again.

Maude released arrow after arrow to slow the draugr darting for her, but the only way to kill them was to behead them.

She slid beneath the legs of a draugr Liv was fighting, making Liv jump to avoid crushing Maude.

When she stood again, she snagged the sword hanging off the back of Liv’s belt and pivoted in place to face the draugr Eydis had been fending off .

Slicing through bloated neck tissue and muscle belonging to the undead guards of this Hel on earth, the monster in front of Eydis fell to its knees, its head falling in front of it and rolling toward Eydis.

“Maude,” she said weakly, swaying on her feet. Her staff dropped to the ground, the bloody pointed tip clanging against the stone floor. The sound rattled something deep in Maude’s gut as she saw just how much Eydis had been bleeding.

She rushed forward to catch Eydis and helped lower her to the ground, where she could inspect the wound on her arm. A large tear in the muscle of her arm that began with a bloody crescent shape that belonged to teeth had been gouged into her bicep.

“They came out of the walls,” Eydis whispered, eyes fluttering. “I thought I had this one until my staff got caught in the tight space, and it lunged forward.”

Her caramel eyes darted in every direction until they settled on Maude’s face.

“Don’t you dare, Eydis,” Maude snapped, grabbing her friend's face and shaking her.

Dull eyes looked through her when Maude finally stopped shaking her. With one hand, she ripped the bottom of her shirt off, thinking to herself how she could have any clothes left at this rate if she kept having to bind others' wounds. Maude said as much to Eydis, who cracked a weak smile.

“You’re pretty funny when you want to be, Maude,” she said, her voice as thready and weak as her pulse. “I’m going to miss that about you.”

She ignored the farewell that Eydis was trying to make as she continued wrapping tight bandage after tight bandage over the bloody wound. It didn’t matter how much pressure she put on it; the blood soaked through each strip of linen within seconds .

“I know that you’ll look after my Hakon,” Eydis continued, looking past Maude to find the man she had given her heart to. “Don’t let him grieve forever. He will be a wonderful King of Rivers, but not if he is stuck in the past with me.”

“You are going to make it out of this cave, Eydis,” Maude said, instead tying the linen tight around Eydis’s arm above the wound to try and stop the bleeding long enough to heal it. “I do not permit you to die here. Do you understand me?”

“As you order, Your Highness,” Eydis whispered, a weak smile faint on her pale lips. “But if I do die, I need you to know that I’m so glad I met you as Maude. Our people need a leader; they need you to lead them out of the darkness and fear they know so well.”

Maude’s vision blurred as she tried to stop Eydis from bleeding out in the dank tunnels beneath the sea. Eydis deserved to make it out of this Hel-hole and have a life filled with friends and family.

Her younger brothers, who were too little to understand why their sister would never come back, needed her to be there for them. To protect them, just like she was now, by leaving them behind in safety.

“Lead our friends and loved ones from underneath your father’s rule to freedom,” Eydis whispered, eyes fluttering shut. “Only you and Herrick can do it. That’s why you found each other.”

Maude spared her friends a glance before she continued working on Eydis.

Hakon was closest to her, keeping himself a barrier between her and the draugr .

Herrick swung his battle axe through the neck of the draugr he had been fighting, killing it permanently.

Liv and Gunnar were facing off together against the biggest beast of them all.

Maude finished tying the last bandage above the bite and then quickly spilled her canteen over the skin to inspect the damage. The wound was still bleeding, pulsing rather. Arterial .

“Fuck, okay,” Maude said, cleaning off more of the wound just to be sure. “Eydis, I have to burn the wound, or it won't stop. I’ve slowed it a bit, but it can’t wait.”