Page 160 of Kingdom of Embers and Ruin

What puzzled him was how abruptly she had left. He reviewed every interaction before she had gone up to their room alone and could not find anything that stood out other than how she had looked when she came back from the bar.

Her face had been pale, the healthy tan that was ever present in her face was drained entirely, and the scent of ash was on her fingers. Something had happened that had prompted this flight. Once he had regained his senses, he had gone to the window and climbed to the roof to find a long rope that ran down to a rooftop further into the city.

Maude had not been the one to set this up; she had been with him for the better part of the last few days.

Back inside, Gunnar and Liv were coming up with a plan to chase after her while Hakon leaned against the door, hostility radiating from him in tense waves.

“She’s gone to Logi,” Herrick announced to his friends, cutting off whatever they were saying. “She’s gone to kill Helvig.”

“How do you know?” Hakon asked, a bite to his tone that Herrick had never heard before. “How do you know she hasn’t been playing you all this time?”

“Because I know,” Herrick muttered, unwilling to share Maude’s story with them.

“Herrick is right,” Liv agreed. “We need to go after her.”

“Why would she go without us?” Gunnar asked, his face paler than before. “She knew we were still planning on going to Logi.”

He had continued to look sicklier over the last few days. Gunnar may have been putting on a smile, but Herrick could see that he was ill and trying to fight what he’d been feeling silently. Herrick eyed him for a moment. Gunnar gave him a look that said Not Right Now.

“I don’t know,” Herrick admitted, his mind still spinning.

“We have to stop her before she gets too close and ruins our plans,” Hakon said, turning to leave.

“She won’t ruin anything. If she gets close to him, she can end him,” Herrick replied, his anger at his brother's tone leaking into his words. “We go find her andhelpher.”

Hakon froze.

“You still want to help her after this?” Hakon asked, his tone disbelieving as he turned to face Herrick. “She’s left you here and taken that damned weapon with her to do only the gods know what. How can you trust her after this?”

“I trust her with my life,” Herrick said quietly. “I know there must be more to why she left here in a hurry. Whatever it is, it doesn't matter. I will find her and help her.”

Liv and Gunnar each nodded their agreement. Hakon only turned around and went downstairs. The sun was beginning to rise, and the purple rays of dawn were beginning to penetrate the sky.

“She can’t be far ahead of us,” Herrick began to say when a largeboomechoed through the city, rattling the stone buildings.

Herrick pulled himself out the window and climbed to the roof again; Liv was close behind him. He could smell the smoke before he could see it. Rising over the western gate of the city was a thick black curtain, the opaque color obscuring the western horizon.

Maude.

“She’s burned through the gate,” Liv said, her eyes squinting. “I think she may be on horseback. I don't know how else she would have gotten to the gate that fast.”

Liv called down to Gunnar, whose head was still poking out of the window, to gather horses for them. Herrick continued to stare out over the thick plumes of smoke. Her fire was beginning to crest over the tops of the buildings, the flames harmlessly flickering against the stone.

“Why isn't her fire dying down?” Herrick muttered to himself.

“Herrick, we have to go if we’re gonna catch up to her,” Liv said, tugging on his arm.

He nodded but looked over the high flames one more time.

Something was wrong.

An hour later, with four horses gathered in front of the still burning gates, Herrick and his friends tried and failed to put out the raging flames Maude had created.

“This is impossible,” Hakon huffed, the stream of water shooting out of his palm deflecting off the flames.

“She can’t still be doing this,” Liv said, studying the wall of fire.

It moved like it had a life of its own.

---