Vhalla never wanted her love to be insecure, but there was something almost reassuring of the reminder that he was mortal and felt hesitation and jealousy.
“We were nothing,” she reassured her engaged. “We could’ve been, but we weren’t. I had promised my heart to you.”
A hand released the reins to weave its long fingers against hers. Vhalla sighed contentedly. His fingers traced shapes around her wrist as the rocking of the horse lulled her into a hazy state.
“I will never make you regret that decision. Never again,” Aldrik vowed.
“I promise the same.”
Their trek to the Eastern cutoff was blissfully uneventful. They came across another mostly abandoned town where Fritz, the only Southerner of the group, took the risk to barter for supplies. There wasn’t enough food for any of them and hollow stomachs now tested patience. What helped, however, was Vhalla taking the watches at night. Jax protested vehemently after her being nearly killed by Daniel, but Vhalla was insistent. She’d willingly dropped her sword for Daniel. There weren’t many other people who could elicit such a response.
She spent days sleeping against Aldrik’s back; as a result, she was the most well-rested of the group. Which made taking watches so everyone else could sleep the most logical task. They hadn’t encountered another shelter and were forced to spend more cold nights on the ground.
Not long into travelling together, Daniel began thrashing violently in his sleep. Arms and legs were thrown everywhere as he whimpered and cried to himself. She was reminded of her days following the Night of Fire and Wind and, instead of waking the man abruptly, she settled herself at his side.
Daniel threw a right hook that she narrowly dodged as her palm flattened against his sweat dotted brow. His eyes gained clarity as he realized who she was. Vhalla said nothing, making a soft shh’ing sound and beseeching him with her eyes to go back to sleep. His lower lip quivered, and he stared at her fearfully as she tenderly stroked away the sweat slicked hair from his forehead.
She didn’t lie to him. She didn’t tell him it would all be all right. She simply sat in solidarity, understanding his pain.
The next morning, he had a rough edge. Throughout the day, Vhalla made every effort to remind him of who he was, who she was, where he was going, that he escaped Victor’s clutches. It helped, for a bit, until the whole process repeated itself. Yet, despite all this, Vhalla hadn’t really understood the depth of Daniel’s terror until one late afternoon, a few hours into her watch.
That afternoon, a flash of light in the distance caught her eye. Vhalla stopped as she squinted across the bright snow toward the Great Imperial Way. Raising a hand to shade her eyes, three figures slowly came into focus. Two guards and a beast that crawled on all fours between them. The monster was worse than anything she had ever dreamed, could ever imagine.
A long black tongue lolled from its gaping jowls. Teeth too large to fit in its mouth jutted out at odd angles, razor sharp; inky black saliva oozed between them and dripped onto the road. Talons scraped through the snow, whispering on the stones of the road underneath.
She stood, transfixed with horror, before spinning into motion.
“Fritz,” she breathed, shaking her friend’s shoulder.
“Vhal—”
Vhalla clamped a hand over his groan. She raised her other finger to her lips, whispering hastily behind it, “We need an illusion.”
As she pulled her hand away, Vhalla pointed to the patrolling horrors. Fritz stared with disbelieving horror.
“Fritz, now!” she hissed
“Right.” He crouched down, waving his hands through the air. Vhalla saw the tell-tale shimmer of magic, like heat off stones on a summer’s day, between them and the road.
She woke Aldrik next. “Patrol.”
His dark eyes were immediately alert and awake. They darted to Fritz, who remained transfixed on his illusion.
They slowly woke the rest of the group. Sehra scowled the second her eyes opened, though Vhalla knew from the way her gaze instantly scanned the horizon, that her expression wasn’t because she’d been woken prematurely. Her focus settled on the horror, and she took a sharp intake of air through her nose.
“Sehra,” Za hissed. The archer unslung her bow from across her chest, pulling an arrow from the quiver at the small of her back.
“Hold,” Vhalla beseeched. Za scowled at the order. “Illusion.”
They both looked to Fritz before exchanging another glance. Sehra gave a small nod.
Vhalla turned back to the road. The crystal monsters were almost directly across from the group and showed no indication they had any idea of the travelers bedding themselves into the snow a good stone’s throw away. Everyone seemed to hold their breath.
Then Daniel woke.
Vhalla didn’t know if he woke on his own or if he sensed the tension in the air. Or if Jax had chosen to wake him in case they needed to run. Whatever the case, the result was the same.
The moment Daniel’s eyes caught sight of the patrol he began to shake violently. Vhalla tried to move in the same instant as Jax. She was farther away, he was slower.
A cry of sheer terror rose from Daniel’s throat. Jax’s hand clamped over his mouth so hard he pushed the other man down into the snow. It was cut short, but it seemed to echo through the still forest into eternity.
The beast’s pointed ears perked up, turning in their direction. Daniel remained thrashing on the ground, Jax trying to get him under control. They rolled in the snow.
“They’ve come for me!” Daniel wailed in horror, which made it true.
The beast and walking horrors began running toward the sound. Fritz looked back, panicked.
“Fritz, camouflage Aldrik as anyone else. Aldrik, Jax, Elecia, handle the soldiers. Za, Sehra, the beast. I’ll handle Daniel,” Vhalla ordered in quick succession, praying that the crunching snow under the fast approaching enemy hid her use of names. She didn’t know what connection they had with Victor, but she remembered how the reanimated solider had demanded people to kneel so Victor could see their loyalty.
Jax rolled off Daniel, and Vhalla jumped onto the panicked man. She wrestled with the flailing Easterner and focused on keeping him in one spot while the rest of the group set into motion.
Ice crackled as Fritz abandoned his illusion. Wickedly sharp spears blocked the creatures’ way, stalling them a moment. Za notched an arrow while Sehra raised a hand as Vhalla had seen her do in the Crystal Caverns. A flash of light and the arrow flew like a sunbeam, straight and true at the beast. It struck between the eyes, and the creature dropped dead.
Sehra slumped, panting heavily. Za took a half step in front of her charge, sending another arrow flying. It was followed by fire. Vhalla had never seen Aldrik char something so completely. It was as if he unleashed all his rage in one singular burst. The soldier was blackened.
“Don’t let them take me!” Daniel wailed. “I left the king, the one true king! Don’t let them take me.”
“Stop!” Vhalla cried. The man had somehow turned into an octopus, seeming to sprout limbs by which to throw Vhalla off. She took an elbow to the face and a knee to the gut but held fast. “No one is taking you; you’re going home.”
“They will feed on me! They will eat me!” he screamed.
“Stop!” Vhalla scrambled, pinning him down by sitting on his chest and holding down his arms with her knees. “Look at me.” He didn’t stop thrashing, shaking his head back and forth. “Look at me!” she cried, gripping his cheeks. Spit bubbled out of his mouth from his sobs. “No one is taking you! No one. You’re free! You’re going to Paca, where you will eat candied nuts until you’re old and fat.”
Daniel exhaled white puffs of air as he slowly regained control of himself.
“I won’t let them take you,” she whispered. “I promise.”
He choked on the reply, and Vhalla could only give him part of an encouraging smile before she was heaved off.
Jax tossed Vhalla aside and practically lifted Daniel from the ground. “Do you want to get us killed?”
Vhalla had missed the last soldier falling, but the three attacking monsters seemed dead. Then again, they’d been dead to begin with.
“Stop it, Jax.” Vhalla stood, rubbing her shoulder. “You know he didn’t mean it.”
Jax scowled and sighed. “I know, I know.”
“I’m sorry,” Daniel blubbered. “I-I almost got you killed. I almost. Baldair asked me to protect you, and I almost got you killed.”
“Daniel, it’s all right,” she tried to soothe.
“No. No.” Daniel fell to his knees. “I killed them, I killed them.”
His eyes lost clarity as he fumbled around in his armor. Vhalla recognized the blade he drew as the one he’d held against her throat. But this time, he didn’t turn it on anyone else.
“I will only hurt you again. I will only kill again. I have failed Baldair. I have failed my oath to you.”
Vhalla barely had time to think “no” as Daniel turned the blade on himself. She saw what was happening a second too late.
But it didn’t puncture skin.
Aldrik and the Easterner tumbled head over heels. The Emperor was far more coordinated and faster than the crazed and deranged soldier. In a second, he’d wrenched the blade from Daniel’s grasp and punched him clear across the face with the other hand.
Anger and relief flashed across Vhalla’s chest.
“You idiot!” Aldrik shouted. He grabbed Daniel’s collar with a hand, shaking him like a ragdoll. “You are better than this.”
Daniel wanted to object, but Aldrik wouldn’t let him.
“You don’t think so? Then you further shame my brother and that foolish Golden Guard of his. You prove that he picked weak men, easily broken,” Aldrik snarled. “You selfish fool. She’s trying to save you, and you would hurt her with this?”
Both men looked at the discarded knife, the rest of the group forgotten.
Aldrik sighed heavily, and his shoulders slumped with an invisible weight he’d been bearing for a decade. His grip slackened. “I know,” he was half talking to himself. “I have been there. It feels like there is no other choice. That the world is too heavy, too horrible to ever lessen. I know that you will hate me, hate us, hate her, for not letting you sit here and die.
“But someday, when you are happy and content—and I know you will not believe me when I tell you that you will someday be happy and content again—you will thank us. You will thank us for not letting you leave this mortal coil without a fight because you have more to give.”
“Aldrik . . .” Elecia breathed. Her fingertips were pressed against her lips, and Vhalla watched recognition widen her emerald eyes. The woman understood something about her cousin that she had never been told and could suddenly see a cornerstone of the cage of guilt he’d constructed for himself.
“Promise me you will stay alive,” Aldrik demanded. “Promise me that you will fight that man’s darkness. That you will stand with me in the sun.”
Daniel swallowed in shock, in horror. And something moved back into place. Something shifted in his eyes in the right direction. He nodded.
“I give you my word, my lord.”
CHAPTER 5
Daniel’s horrors, his broken mind, could not be fixed with a word. But there was something magical about his agreement with Aldrik. As they travelled on, he had longer moments of clarity. He spoke in short, clipped sentences with Jax. He broke down less.
He still thrashed in his sleep and avoided Vhalla as though it brought him physical pain to look upon her or the bruised eye she sported. But he remained—mostly—stable. As stable as one in his condition could be.
They finally reached the cutoff to the East. Once more, Vhalla saw a patrol in the distance during her watch. But Fritz’s illusion kept them secret, and this time Daniel kept his breakdown to muttering and rocking.
“We go North,” Za announced as they slowed. It stirred Vhalla from sleep, and she roused from under Aldrik’s cloak.
Sehra held Vhalla’s eyes for a long moment. Vhalla nodded in affirmation. “Our deal will stand.”
“I know it will.” The Child of Yargen did something then that Vhalla had not seen once from her. Her mouth curled into the makings of an exhausted, but sincere smile. “My eyes have seen the truth. You will protect this land.”
“I will.” The vow was redundant and unnecessary, but Vhalla said it all the same. She would release that vow into the world as many times as needed until it became true.
Sehra turned to Aldrik. “Entrusting your heart to this woman may be the smartest choice you’ve made, Aldrik Solaris.”
“I would not disagree.” The Emperor gave a small nod of his head. “I will send word when we arrive in Hastan. I hope you will find safer travels in the West.”
“I keep Sehra safe.” Za sat straighter in her saddle. Sehra gave her handler an appreciative look.
“Shaldan has good stock. We will be fine. I will await your word.”
The two Northerners continued parallel to the Great Imperial Way as the six others went along the Eastern cutoff. Vhalla watched until the thinning forest and glare of the sun off a light dusting of snow obscured them from view.
“Do you think they’ll keep their word?” Aldrik whispered uncertainly the moment she was under his cloak once more.
“I do,” Vhalla affirmed with a nod. “The enemy of our enemy is our friend.” She paused, thinking over her next words. “And those friends may have more to give and teach us than we know.”
“If only that relationship hadn’t stared at sword point,” Aldrik mumbled.
Vhalla squeezed him lightly. “An Emperor for peace can focus on healing those wounds.”
“At the cost of the first fourteen years of my firstborn’s life.”
“Wards are not so uncommon,” she tried to soothe. “I left my home at eleven.”
“Don’t pretend that this sits easily for you.”
She had no response to his bitter statement, so Vhalla simply pressed her cheek to his back and closed her eyes.
The forest continued to thin over the coming days. The snow began to melt and disappear until it was just cold, brown grass being crushed beneath the horses’ hooves. The weather warmed the farther they headed, north and the coastal breezes, unbroken by mountains, kept the ominous gray snow clouds in the south.
The first sight of the East nearly brought tears to Vhalla’s eyes. Hills rolled upon themselves like sails in the breeze. There was an earthy smell that lingered on the nose, rising up from the fertile ground.
They rode away from the road and tree coverage lessened. Should one of Victor’s patrols be in the area, they would stick out above the tall grasses. But there weren’t any further patrols. There weren’t many people at all, and that fact began to deeply worry Vhalla. The road was vacant of carts carrying winter harvests to market. Fields were empty. The first abandoned town they rode through made Vhalla realize the foolishness of her notion that Victor had only permeated the South. The man wanted to rule the world.
She chose to ignore the fear in the back of her mind, thoughts that gnawed on her more each day. She feared that Daniel’s family would not be where he had left them. It was not a far spiral for Vhalla to become worried about her own father. Aldrik sensed her concerns and broached them once while riding, but Vhalla didn’t want to speak of it. It was as though saying the words out loud would only increase their likelihood of being real.
Fate cast a small smile upon her. As they pushed on into the heart of the East, signs of Victor’s tyrannical hold began to lessen. The people had a certain edge to them that Vhalla wasn’t accustomed to seeing. But they still went about their days. They still tended to their fields, and the smell of baking bread hovered every time they passed a farmhouse.
Vhalla no longer hid under Aldrik’s cloak. Her amber-hued skin and nut-colo
red hair blended in with the shades of the East. She was fairer than most of her people, but that came from spending most of her time in libraries and not out in the fields.
The sights and sounds healed Daniel to the point that he actually took the lead. It helped when people began to recognize him. An old man stopped as he was going about his business. A woman called from a nearby field.
Daniel’s voice sounded stronger with every word he spoke, and Vhalla allowed herself a smile. If a random acquaintance could help him that much, she dared hope for what returning to his family could do. Taking him home had been the right decision, she assured herself.
“My home isn’t far now,” he informed the group. “I can go from here.”
“Well, if you insist.” Elecia shrugged.
Vhalla shot her a small glare of frustration. “We will take you there,” Vhalla insisted.
“I-I’ve cause you all enough trouble. Even on foot, it’ll only—”
“No, Daniel,” she interrupted gently. “We will see you to your door.”
All the empty towns and blood-stained homes appeared in her mind. The villagers had told them that they didn’t expect to see any of the guards returning. That the walking horrors had made it this deep into the East and informed the men and women of Victor’s decrees. Vhalla wasn’t going to let Daniel head into the unknown. What if his family had been killed fighting in the memory of a son they believed dead?
The thought remained with Vhalla for the rest of the afternoon as she watched the houses and fields pass. Egmun’s words returned. She had been the key, something to be used, and he had known it from the second he knew what she was. Vhalla massaged her shoulder. Ten lifetimes would not be enough to fix everything for the world she had so wronged.
Daniel’s home was just outside of Paca, right where he said it would be. It betrayed no signs of turmoil; there was no hint of malice or foul play. Vhalla held her breath as the small home grew larger and larger until they were right upon it, close enough to hear the metallic clang of hearth tools.
He dismounted slowly, and Vhalla did the same, remaining a hesitant step behind him. None of them spoke. The peaceful hum of daily life and the soft clanking of stirrups filled the air. Daniel raised a hand to knock, and the wooden door swung open from within.