Exhaustion was starting to ache in her bones as the fight continued well into the afternoon. She had tried to limit which types ofgaldershe used as she fought but eventually concluded that no one was paying close enough attention to her to notice she was wielding shadow and lightgalderas well as the four elements.
Ahead of her, Herrick grabbed one of his soldiers by the tunic and shouted instructions in their ear before releasing them and turning to a shieldmaiden drenched in death. The first soldier turned back as soon as Herrick released him and started barking orders at the soldiers around him. As one, they turned and sprinted back for the camp. The shieldmaiden copied the first soldier's actions, her soldiers turning from the battle as well.
Wave after wave, groups of Rivers Soldiers escaped the bloodshed.
Herrick had called a retreat. They were losing.
At her far right, Bryn continued to cut into the Flame Soldiers, who seemed to multiply every time she blinked. At her left, Hakon hovered nearby. He had not left her periphery the entire time they fought the Flame Army, and she was grateful for it. They seemed to keep finding each other, their souls searching for the similar vibrations of their beings without realizing it.
A deep navy, almost violet cord glowed between them, tying them together in ways Dahlia did not yet understand. Just as that thread between her and the Rivers Heir pulsed, a silver and lilac one that was wrapped around the navy and violet cord seemed to shudder gently as they entwined with each other, fusing to become a gorgeous multicolored entity that brought tears to Dahlia's eyes even if she didn't understand why yet.
She followed the silver cord through the crowd until her eyes met silver irises. They watched her with an intensity that made heat curl low in her belly even as she slid her dagger across the carotid of a Flame Soldier who thought to catch her unawares.
From where she stood, Dahlia could see that Baldr was working hard at diverting the Flame Soldiers from attacking them. He was using his gift of sleight of hand to fight Rivers Soldiers: dealing harmless blows while behind his back, he was sending his soldiers flying in opposite directions of the fighting and setting ablaze certain Flame Soldiers who were enjoying the bloodshed a bit too much.
Just like she had taught him.
She started to grin as she became lost in him for a moment, her heart swelling painfully because of how much she missed him when her shoulder began to burn.Separated from her body, Dahlia looked down at herself and watched as a blade wreathed in flames aimed to cut through her. She turned at the last second, but she was too late. The blade cut through her leather armor, the fabric melting into the wound as she screamed.
She locked eyes with Baldr again, but his wrathful focus was on a soldier next to her as he yanked him away from her with shadows she did not know he possessed.
Shadows? She thought to herself as a thin but strong arm wrapped around her waist, holding her weight.He shouldn't be able to wield shadows.
Dahlia's last thoughts were of thegalderthat her beloved Baldr had wielded to save her from certain death as Bryn carried her to safety. Darkness overwhelmed her as a realization dawned on her, a familiarity she couldn't identify before that plagued her, suddenly making perfect sense. It was lost to the blackness of her subconscious before her eyes could roll to the back of her head.
53
Herrick had never felt this tired before. The fight was finally starting to leave him and his friends as they held off the soldiers between the four of them. The Elven soldiers were the only ones who remained at their side— with Maude gone, they would continue to follow the orders she left for them. Protect her friends.
Glancing over his shoulder, Herrick tried to see if most of their fighters had successfully escaped. All he saw were piles of the dead— both Flame and Rivers— scattered across the open field that was all mud and graveyard now.
A high-pitched scream came from his right. Looking for copper, Herrick scanned over Bryn to see if she'd been gravely injured. Only the scream did not come from her, but Dahlia. Across her shoulder was a large slice whose edges sizzled from the heat of the blade that had done the cutting. The Flame Soldier moved to attack again but was yanked back by a dark rope from behind. It was gone before he could really register what he had seen.
Arm outstretched before him, Baldr twisted his fingers until the air around the Flame Soldier's neck forced a piercingcrackto echo around them.
Their gazes clashed across the fighting, and Herrick shuddered as Baldr's unusual silver eyes boiled with fury. He'd helped Dahlia from suffering another attack—they really did know each other. Then Herrick saw what Maude must have seen when he was fighting Baldr on the ship's deck. At his side, hidden from Helvig, Baldr was working to disable his own soldiers to help them. All at once, Herrick's intense hatred for him an for what he'd done to him seemed to leave him. In his place, he felt something akin to understanding. Not quite forgiveness, but something like it.
Baldr and Bryn nodded to each other as she wrapped her arms around Dahlia's waist to keep her from falling.
"She can't fight like this," Bryn shouted to Herrick over metal crashing on metal. "I need to get her out of here!"
"Go!" Hakon replied.
Herrick noticed his brother seemed to fight with more ferocity than before; his eyes panicked now when they had been cool before.
"We'll follow when we can," Herrick agreed, bringing his axe down on the breastplate of a soldier who he'd snared their ankles in vines to trip them.
Bryn disappeared with Dahlia, half-dragging the Elven toward the city center. Both women looked over their shoulders as they retreated but the Elven quickly succumbed to her injuries.
"So help me, Allfather, if I don't see your stubborn ass back in Veter soon, I'm coming to get you, Herrick," the Helvig Heir shouted back to him. She sounded like Maude when she spoke like that.
"I believe it!" he replied with a laugh. "Now go!"
Some of the Elven split off to go with Bryn, while the rest stayed with Herrick and Hakon. They fought in tandem, a dance they both knew after training togethersince childhood. Eventually, they moved on instinct; Herrick would slice while Hakon parried. When Herrick jabbed, Hakon would cut.
Together, they penetrated a bulk of Helvig's forces as the few Elven soldiers behind them covered their backs.
In the last few months, Herrick had watched as his brother loved and lost, picked himself up from destitution, and became the man he always knew would be: a King. Emotion burned in his chest for his older brother, the leader he had proven to be even in the face of death, war, and sorrow.
