Page 159 of Kingdom of Embers and Ruin

I’ve been reading mothers journals and discovered something I believe was withheld from you, sister. On the night of your fate telling, Father had become distracted when your third rune was pulled, but Mother heard the full telling. The Grand Soothsayer informed Mother that the King would not care for the rune and that it was her fate to protect you.

I read later that Father had told you of your fate despite the laws of our land forbidding it. And still, Mother did not tell you of this last rune.

I believe it is why your fatemark is so unorthodox. The Grand Soothsayer pulled “gebo” as your final rune and prophesied that you would enter a partnership that would bring a great sacrifice.

I suspect you’ve been traveling with the Kolbecks of the Kingdom of Rivers, and I suspect they have been responsible for many of our people being smuggled to safety. I think that if you are working together, this may be the partnership the Grand Soothsayer predicted for you. I know you have been running from your fate for a long time, but if this relationship is the one that brings sacrifice, I thought it only fair that you should know.

You will make your own decisions, as you always have, in the face of your fate. If sacrifice is part of your fate, then perhaps it is wise to continue this mission on your own. Regardless of how you choose to move forward, my assistance is owed to you in this.

By now, Revna will have informed you of the gates that will be left open three days from when you receive this letter. Use the time wisely, Maude.

Brynna

Maude traced her finger over the rune Bryn had drawn, the small X with the slightly longer line on the left crossing over the center just to veer off course and the shorter line that never was linear.Gebo.

From her lessons with their mother, Maude was always told that the crossing point of the rune mark symbolized the connection between two souls destined for each other. Her mother had explained that the two lines that met were the lifespans of each person, the shorter one representing the life span that would be shortened from self-sacrifice.

When she saw the rune in her sister's letter, Maude instantly knew that her words were true. She had always told Herrick that those she cared about ended up hurt or dead, that he would end the same way. And he hadn't listened to her. They had been drawn together since her birth, destined to form a bond that would tie them together until one of them died.

She had burned in her fury when she read that her full fate telling had been kept from her. Her father had shared her fate with her despite the laws that the Grand Soothsayer had laid out. Her mother should have told her instead of laying out thinly veiled threats about it. Maude’s rage drove her to abandon her friend's plan to infiltrate the palace, but her love for Herrick also made her leave.

At that very moment when her eyes had taken in the rune, the decision had already been made for her. Maude had to leave Herrick behind to keep him safe, to keep himalive.

She knew he would never understand because he followed his fate so devotedly, but Maude refused to be responsible for his demise. She would not be able to breathe in a world where he was not living.

Love, like the ones in the stories, does not have a place in your reality.

Putting her hand to her chest, Maude felt her racing heart. She tried not to notice the absence of the necklace Herrick had given her. Tried to calmherself by focusing on her breathing. Shadows crept in around her vision as the sun set until even the fire before her was dim. Her breaths started to come in short, painful bursts, unable to fill her lungs with the oxygen she needed to take a full breath.

For the next few hours, Maude lay on her side, succumbing to the panic that had set deep into her bones the moment she escaped through the window. Only once the moon was high in the sky did Maude peel herself off the ground from the puddle of emotion she had drowned in and kept moving.

By the end of the second day, Maude was able to gather herself enough to run through her plan.

Every snag and dip that caused a problem forced her to rethink the strategy until she knew it was perfect. Maude sat between high dunes in the desert, withdrawing thedalkr Hela, careful not to slice through her skin.

The blade was sharp, and its smooth, matte white surface absorbed the moonlight while the black metal hilt cast shadows from its aura. Just like that day in the Caverns, the metal was ice cold despite having been stored in Maude’s boot and wrapped in a thick cloth.

She gently replaced the dagger she always wore at her thigh with thedalkr Hela, sheathing it slowly in case the honed edge cut through the leather protecting it. Maude looked down at her dagger, the dark gray blade reflecting no light but rather absorbing it entirely.

Ancient runes that Maude had never been able to translate were etched into the base of the blade, and the red strip of silk that she had wound around the handle was tattered and frayed. The dagger had been gifted to her by her mother the morning she fled from the palace with instructions to meet her in her chambers after supper. Instead, Mama had died.

During Maude’s fight with her father, a strip of his red silk coat had torn from his jacket after he sliced her face open. She had grabbed it right before she had fallen to her knees to slow her fall. When she finally stopped running, she found the strip in her pocket and decided to tie it around the dagger as a reminder.

Choosing to tie her blade into her belt instead of her boot, Maude stood and saddled the stolen horse. She ran a hand over its neck and made a few soothing sounds. The mare bumped its nose against her shoulder.

“We’re almost there,” she whispered. “It’s almost finished.”

Logi’s outline started to become clearer by noon, the tall golden spires of the palace welcoming her. The black stone stood stark against the orange light from the desert that surrounded Logi, the city's red buildings blazing in the afternoon heat. Maude looked up at what her first home had been and felt only hatred; the toxic emotion that had been swirling in her since she discovered her last fate rune intensified.

They all hid this from her. He made her into a killer. Intohim.

Years of staring up at the palace’s black walls looming over her while she planned her father’s demise began to pay off. Years of rage and hate fueled this last chance to destroy the man who made her life a living hell, even after she ran away. The scar she bore from his hand was a daily reminder of how she was exactly the monster he said she was—a daily reminder of the destruction that followed in her wake.

Tonight, she would end the tyranny that ruled over Logi. Tonight, Maude would get her revenge.

32

Herrick had been silent ever since Maude had disappeared. He knew where she was going and what she was going to do, but she had decided to leave him behind. Like with the raiders, she had not given him a choice.

---