Page 4 of Kingdom of Embers and Ruin

Dull black hair was braided into a long, overlapping, complicated rope pinned behind her head. The back of her neck was a dark tanned tint and showed the tips of another tattoo’s black ink that disappeared beneath her shirt. Posture impossibly rigid, she turned to face him. Loose strands of hair that had escaped from her braid framed her heart-shaped face, full cheeks, and pointed chin flushed with exertion.

Furious black eyes stared back at Herrick, her pink mouth a tight line and nostrils flared. But the most noticeable feature on her stunning face was an old scar that ran from her left temple to her hairline and then down across her eyebrow, narrowly missing her left eye and continuing down her cheek until it ended at the corner of her mouth. Herrick barely registered what familiar shape the scar resembled before his mind was silenced.

The deep maroon slash across her face was jagged and uneven— as if she had struggled when she received it.

Some primal instinct roared at him to hunt, maim, anddestroythe person who had inflicted such a thing on someone. Maude noticed his gaze, and her cheeks flared red as soft orange light flickered around her silhouette. When he looked down, he saw Maude’s arms were wreathedin flames, confirming what he had suspected about her. Herrick stepped forward, hand almost outstretched and about to speak.

However, he would never know what words might’ve come out of his mouth because, at that moment, the shouts and cheers of gamblers turned into screams of panic. Chaos ignited in the room asvitkiand commoners attempted to escape the den containing the illegal fighting pits. The Kingdom of Flame’s soldiers had arrived and rushed through the open stairway, weapons raised and flames dancing around them.

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Herrick’s attention was reluctantly dragged from Maude’s face as he heard Gunnar call his name. He saw a flash of braided silver-blonde hair intertwined with familiar blue and green threads fall out from under the cloaked shoulder of a hand reaching down for him. Moving with little thought, he reached up toward the weathered hand to help him climb from the hole in the ground where Herrick thought he was having the most interesting fight in his life.

As Gunnar pulled him up, Herrick looked over his shoulder as if he couldn’t stand to walk away without seeing where the short-tempered pit fighter went. All around them, the intimate space of the fighting pits exploded into mayhem. Most of thevitkistood their ground against the soldiers, giving others a chance to flee as they fought with their limitedgalderabilities. Small fights broke out around the underground fighting arena, the cries of men and women from both sides of the struggle saturating the atmosphere around them as all types ofgalderwere wielded.

Between the ropes of fire, gusts of wind, and the occasional ice arrow, bar patrons ran toward the hidden underground exit Sigurd was ushering others through. The pit runner had donned a black mask and cloak that only revealed his piercing blue eyes so he could remain unknown to the intruders. The soldiers giving chase were getting snagged in roots and vines that had subtly surfaced from the packed dirt below their feet. Herrick noticed that Sigurd was directing the crowd with one hand while his othermoved in time to the new roots winding their way up the legs of the trapped soldiers.

Sneaky bastard, Herrick thought with grim amusement.

Scanning the crowd as Gunnar shoved him toward where their friends waited, Herrick saw that Maude had lifted herself out of the pit and was currently dodging fireballs from some of the soldiers who had split off from other fights as soon as she surfaced. She was moving impossibly fast, weaving between the soldiers and bar patrons trying to force their way out to freedom. Herrick tracked her to the long bar, where she could no longer avoid the soldiers and was forced to engage with them.

Herrick felt himself being dragged away to the dark corner of the room, where a secret opening behind a broken wood panel on the wall cleared into a passageway leading to the house next to The Broken Bones Pub. Why wasn’t she fighting back with the flames he saw her wield in the pit? They had extinguished at the first cry of terror like they were never there. She had clearly never meant to show Herrick her fire, but by this point in the soldier's invasion of the fighting pits, it didn’t matter if it meant she could get away. She was well beyond the barriers of thegalderblocking wards now.

His last view of Maude before he was shoved through the crack in the wall by Gunnar was of her spinning out of the grip of one soldier while another was sneaking up behind her, ready to knock her unconscious. Herrick could do nothing as he saw the man drive the pommel of his sword into the back of her head, causing her to drop to the ground. Then, the darkness of the passageway enveloped Herrick, and he was left with the image of Maude lying prone on the dirty ground burned into the back of his mind.

Maude had pulled herself out of that pit to find pure pandemonium. The gamblers and thevitkipanicked when the Kingdom of Flames soldiers began cutting people down left and right to gain entrance to the fighting pits, but they quickly refocused and fought against the invasion. While raids were not uncommon, she had never seen such violence during a raid. She needed to get out of here before they caught her and needed to go unseen. She remembered her hood was gone now, her features on display for the world to see, and her mother’s shawl still in the hands of that stranger. A wave of awareness passed through Maude, and like something tapping on her shoulder, she felt her opponent’s gaze as she ran through the crowd, trying to get to her weapons.

Herrick, his friend had called him. She ignored him.

She was then stopped short by a soldier who had swung his axe in front of her just before she got to the bar. She jumped back, arms up to avoid getting cut. She regained her balance and ducked under another swing of his axe in one fluid motion, withdrawing her dagger from the hidden sheath on her thigh. Maude could feel her fire starting to boil her blood.

Not here, not now, she willed to hergalder.

Wrestling to control the rising wave of flame building inside her, she punched out her fist and connected with the soldier's wrist holding the weapon, causing him to drop it. Her dagger swiped out towards his throat only to be stopped by his hand grabbing her forearm before she could spill his insides onto the packed dirt. Her skin started to radiate heat, her thoughts spiraling out of control. Memories barreled through Maude at the sound of a woman in the fighting pits screaming.

The ground rushing up at her. The burn of metal dragging across her face. A woman screaming her name.

Maude couldn’t let go of hergalder,even if it was killing her. She wouldn’t allow herself to explode.

The soldier twisted her arm to get her to let go of the dagger, but she only went with the motion and spun them both, allowing her arm to go free. When she stood up, she felthisstare on her again. Maude couldn’t help it; she glanced over her shoulder to find him. But before she could see anything, pain exploded behind her eyes, and everything went dark.

When Maude awoke, she knew only the heat and sweat that ran rivulets down her spine. Stiffness and aching shot through her skull as she lifted her head and found herself in a hot cell beneath the ground, the heat of the midday sun blaring through the barred window on the ceiling above her. Pulling the hot, stale air into her lungs, Maude took quick note of anything potentially broken and bruised before she assessed her surroundings while she ran through the events of last night.

Raids had happened before, but the pits moved so frequently through the city that it was hard for the soldiers to pin down. This one had been different; they were looking for someone specific. Maude shoved away the anxiety that thought provoked to deal with her current predicament as she had woken to find herself at the mercy of the Kingdom of Flame’s prison.

The prison in Logi was located underground in the city's main square, with cells dotting around the perimeter of the square. Each cell was small and cramped, with a barred window on the ceiling that opened to the busy streets of the capital city.

The heat of the Kingdom of Flame’s sun blaring into these cells was its own type of punishment as prisoners awaited the farce of a trial they would receive. Alternatively, those passing by the cell beneath their feet were encouraged to throw things, poke fun at, or even piss on those chained beneath the opening in the ceiling. Thankfully, the latter had not occurred to Maude when she was unconscious. Her arms were chained above her,making her shoulders stiff and sore while her ass hurt from sitting on the hard ground. She supposed it was better than getting pissed on, trying to find the grim bright side.

Tilting her head up to look out the window, she could only see the bright sun. The blaring light incited a wave of dizziness and nausea that caused her to shift to her right to retch on the floor. Unable to wipe her mouth, Maude spat onto the ground to clean the taste. She hated feeling like this, vulnerable and trapped. When she was close to burnout like this, any slight discomfort felt amplified. She had used too much of her strength last night to smother her fire, but afterhehad ripped her hood from her and exposed her face to the world, her rage took complete control over her.

But then the Flame Soldiers appeared, and Maude had to focus her anger on escape. Fighting that soldier without hergalderhad taken too much energy. To avoid imploding and destroying the entire pub with everyone in it took everything she had left. Had she done that, it would've told the soldiers exactly who she was, and she would not be in this prison but somewhere much worse.

Thanking Tyr for small victories, Maude laid her head back against the red dirt wall she was chained to and closed her eyes. She needed to find a way out of this hole before someone recognized her. A shadow passed over her face, blocking the heat for one blissful moment.

“Imagine my surprise finding you here when I was taking a stroll through the marketplace,” a lazy voice spoke above her.

No.

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