"Is something funny?" she asked darkly, her voice nearly unrecognizable even to her. "I like to laugh; fill me in."
Just as she spoke, Bryn, Dahlia, and Hakon all entered the grotto, looking more exhausted than ever. She pushed them to the back of her mind, bringing her entire focus to the man still chuckling in front of her even as his face turned a deeper shade of purple from all the blood rushing to his head.
"What's funny is how you all think you've got some leg up on the High King," he laughed. "Things that are happening now have been put in motion years ago. There is nothing you can do that will surprise him anymore."
"Oh, I can think of a few things," she said, pulling her hood down and exposing her featuresto him.
He quickly stopped laughing as he recognized her. "You're the Heir."
"I was," she agreed.
"But you're dead."
Maude patted her hands down the front of her body before looking back up to him. "I don't feel dead."
Fear clouded the man's eyes as he took her in.
"It seems the gods aren't quite done with me yet," she finished as a crack of thunder shook the walls around them.
The weather outside the grotto had taken a turn for the worst based on how Bryn looked like a drowned rat. Already, Maude could feel the tides shifting in the water the soldier hung over like the gods were angry with the disappearance of the children and this soldier's humored response to the news.
Like the water was swirling in her bloodstream, hergalderawakened at the strength of the sea. She could feel more than see the rough current that would drag someone under the surface and out to the deepest depths of the ocean. The furthest wall had a small gap between the water surface and the black depths beyond, confirming Maude's suspicion.
Since Herrick had taken over the questioning, the man's clothing had been stripped until only his skin was exposed, small gashes that bled slowly from each one exposed to the salt in the air. What made Maude's stomach turn was the man's arms, which ended in bloodied stumps now rather than his two hands.
She quickly glanced around the room but found no evidence of the mutilated limbs. Maude imagined that the swirling vortex of currents had long since swallowed his hands. Blood dripped slowly and steadily from the sergeant's wrists until the black water below him greedily lapped up the viscous fluid that drained the life from him. Payment to whatever drowned god that lived in this forsaken place.
Had Herrick done all this? The man who just escaped his own torture?
And people thoughtshecould be ruthless.
"Is Helvig responsible for the disappearance of those missing families?" she asked, her voice as sharp as theleifrHelablade on her hip.
The smile that carved through the soldier's mangled face was crazed. "Yes."
This time, Bryn spoke.
"How is he getting to them?" she barked.
The sergeant only continued to smile. "He is all-powerful."
"Kidnapping families from beyond the borders of another kingdom is punishable by death," Hakon offered, his teeth grit together as he stood at Herrick's side.
When they were angry like this, they looked more like brothers than ever before.
"It is all his kingdom," the sergeant replied, his tone near reverent. "Everything is his to take."
"He's delusional," Dahlia offered quietly, her clinical gaze focused on the man who spoke about Helvig like he was a god amongst men.
Finally, Maude asked the question she wasn't sure she wanted the answer to.
"What does he want with them?"
Everyone seemed to hold their breath as they waited to see if the deranged man would answer. He had been pushed so far beyond what the human body was capable of handling, and there was no reason for him to tell them anything. But clarity gleamed in the man's eyes as he focused on Maude, a shiver running down her spine.
"Thevitkiare a plague on this continent, stealing thegalderfor themselves and their brats," he seethed. "The High King is doing to them what should have been done the momentgalderappeared in non-noble bloodlines: exterminating them and taking thegalderback for those who deserve it."
The sergeant's hatred permeated the cave they stood in, the vitriol that spewed from his mouth an unending stream of loathing that threatened to consume them all.
