Page 130 of Kingdom of Embers and Ruin

Liv and Maude had argued that she should utilize a smaller weapon as the Caverns would hold narrow spaces, but Eydis insisted on her staff, claiming she was more comfortable with it than a dagger.

Once the full moon rose into the sky, they departed the temple as one. Minutes ticked away at a more rapid pace than felt normal as they made their way toward the shore, as if time was becoming impatient with their pace. Herrick was close behind her, his rain-soaked scent wrapping around her and calming her rapid heart rate.

They had not spoken to each other since their tryst on the overlook. Herrick had helped Maude secure her bow to her back before they left, and the gesture told Maude that their silence toward each other would be broken soon.

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 hergalder,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.

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