Page 162 of Kingdom of Embers and Ruin

“Saddle up,” he ordered his friends.

By the time Herrick reached the walls surrounding the city, the pulsing of his fatemark had begun to burn incessantly.

Where is she? Which way would she go?

They had arrived from the east, choosing to bypass the south entrance to the city and head toward the east and north gates instead. Scanning the walls for any signs of Maude, he noticed a blood bay mare grazing at a nearby oasis that was outside of the northern gate.

“There,” Herrick said, pointing out the mare.

After what felt like hours, they arrived at the northern gate, where they could hear the clashing of metal. Signaling to his friends to prepare themselves, Herrick spurred the stallion into a full-out sprint. A flash of red that shone like blood rubies in the dying sunlight appeared on top of the wall, the familiar indigo of a shawl highlighted in the setting sun.

Maude.

Herrick watched as Maude rose from her crouched position after evading an attack from a Flame Soldier. Splattered across her vengeful face was the blood of the soldiers she had already cut down. She sliced her axe once across the belly of the soldier she was fighting and pivoted to catch the sword of another soldier behind her, stabbing her short sword up into his gut.

Herrick thought that he had never seen such rage and despair blend so beautifully on one person's face.

As she continued to cut her way through the crowd of soldiers throwing themselves at her, Herrick knew he had to move to help her. Struck stupidby how fluidly she moved through each attack, he was reminded that Maude was a warrior before she was anything else. She had been born and bred to be a Warrior Queen.

Maude was rage, passion, vengeance, and power all combined to create the most complicated person Herrick had ever met. And he loved her fiercely, even if she couldn't let him.

Making it to the gate, Herrick leaped off his horse and rolled into a run that put him face-to-face with the soldiers attempting to shut the gates early in the wake of Maude’s attack. Getting through the threshold of the gates, Herrick turned to his left, where stairs would bring him up to where Maude was still fighting off two soldiers.

“Go!” Liv shouted from where she had faced off with one of the soldiers with Hakon.

Needing no more encouragement, Herrick took off up the stairs. Every soldier he met fell under the blade of his axe. Blood sprayed with every hit, coating him in it, the taste of metal drenching his senses. The rush of battle swelled in him, the roaring in his ears from seeing Maude under attack transforming into stark clarity as he raced up her.

By the time he made it to the top of the wall, Maude was sprinting toward another small group of soldiers as she made her way north toward the palace. Herrick followed her, the clashing of his friends fighting behind him, signaling that they still lived.

Maude ducked, avoiding a swing of a soldier's axe, and spun with her short sword extended. She sliced through two soldier's tendons in their ankles, bringing them to their knees as she stood. From behind, she cut their throats and silenced their screams of pain. Herrick came up behind Maude quickly, the need to be close to her relaxing a bit in her presence, as he brought his blade through the thick neck of the soldier, aiming to sneakup on her. Taken by surprise, though, Maude pivoted with her sword held over her head to strike him down.

Their blades clashed together above them, halting in place with the force of their collision. Surprise and dread flashed in Maude’s eyes when she saw him.

“What are you doing here, Herrick?” she almost shouted, panic overwhelming her features as she pivoted, looking over her shoulder to see more soldiers flooding the walls.

“I came to help you, Maude,” he said incredulously. “Why else would I be here?”

She grit her teeth and shoved his blade from hers as the first soldier came up behind her. She stabbed through his breastplate with a force that rattled even Herrick before she extended one palm and closed her fist.

The soldiers, robbed of the oxygen from their lungs, collapsed as they tore at their necks, searching for an obstruction that was not there. Fist still clenched in front of her, Maude looked over her shoulder at Herrick. He tried to keep the shock off his face at her brutality, but she saw.

“This is who I need to be, Herrick.” She nodded her head toward the soldiers beginning to pass out, their faces purple. “I don’t need you. Leave.Now.”

“Why are you trying to do this without me?” he asked, stepping toward her. “We had a plan; we were supposed to do this together.”

“It needs to be this way,” she said bitterly, releasing her fist as the soldiers fell still. “He created a monster. Now, he will have to deal with the consequences of molding me in his image.”

She turned away from him and began to sprint toward the palace again, heading toward the eastern gate that separated the palace from the city within the outer walls. Herrick followed her, refusing to allow her todisappear again so soon.

Before she could make it down the stairs, Herrick grabbed her forearm.

Maude retaliated instantly, as she always did, by slamming the end of her axe into his stomach. Grunting from the impact, his hold on her slipped, but now Maude was furious, and she did not hesitate in fighting him off. She slammed an elbow back, intending to smash in his nose, but he caught it and twisted her around so her back was to his front.

“Maude, stop,” he panted, trying and failing to restrain her.

“No,” she growled, slipping from his hold.

They faced each other, weapons drawn and breathing heavily.

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