"You're awfully familiar with these routes," Hakon said as he just narrowly missed being found by the next patrol.
"Icreatedthese patrols," Bryn huffed as she caught her breath. They were almost to Sigurd's house. Hopefully the man would let them in, unexpected as their arrival was. "Whoever replaced me was obviously too lazy to redraw their paths. We got lucky."
"The gods are with us tonight," Liv whispered, her words heavy in the darkness they hid in.
Maude ignored the shiver down her back, the way the words seemed to ring true in the night.
"Come on," Bryn said, her voice shaking slightly.
On and on, they ran, winding between shadows and hugging the walls of the alleys, until the buildings leading up to The Broken Bones Pub appeared. Maude had just quickened her step in her haste to get to Sigurd's house when Bryn clamped an arm around her chest and quickly covered her mouth before she could make a sound.
A moment later, it became clear why.
"Any fugitives found being harbored in your home will be subject to trial before the High King, ending with execution," a soldier recounted. "If you are hiding any illegalvitkiin your home, you will be subject to the same punishment. You have no say in this mandatory search. Step aside."
"No, this is still my home, and you have no proof I am doing anything illegal," Sigurd said, his voice harder than Maude had ever heard.
The sound of a struggle skated into the alley they hid in before the door slammed into the wall with a loudbang. Through the thin walls surrounding Sigurd's house, they could hear soldiers combing through the living space.
Liv silently crept toward the back gate that hid the private oasis from public view, the watering hole a protected secret amongst the poorest of citizens living in Logi. Maude followed to see what Liv was doing but quickly realized her plan when the oasis shuttered before her very eyes, the thickgalderof Liv's glamour transferring from her body to the clearing. The bright green shrubbery and the trickling water of the secret paradise quickly turned to ash and dust, the space holding nothing interesting to the naked eye.
If Maude looked close enough, she could see the pulsinggalderbelonging to Liv in the air around them like it was a living, breathing entity. Until now, she had never seen Liv use anygalderand was thoroughly impressedwith her ability.
After what felt like an eternity, the soldiers left Sigurd's house, presumably in shambles. Liv dropped her glamour, thegalderdissipating into thin wisps, revealing the oasis in all its glory once more. Hakon helped Liv stand as Bryn and Maude moved through the back gate toward Sigurd's house. Before her sister could take another step closer to the sanctuary that Sigurd could provide, a curved blade of a small axe butted up against Bryn's throat from the shadows.
Maude withdrew her own axe before anyone else could intervene and held it up to Sigurd's own exposed throat.
"Sigurd, my old friend," Maude purred, the point of her dagger pressing into the man's abdomen and forcing him to go rigid. "If you don't take that blade off my sister's neck, I'll be forced to gut you in your own home. The gods look down on that, and I could really use their favor right now."
Sigurd's ice-blue eyes swung wildly between Bryn and Maude, the former holding her hands up to show she was unarmed. He looked the same as the last time she saw him: neatly braided silver blonde hair and thick beard. Black paint was smudged around his eyes, the same way he wore it when he was planning to open the fighting pits up, but lingering in his gaze was an exhaustion that hadn't been there a few weeks ago.
"Sisters, eh? I should've known," Sigurd said, not lowering his blade. "Did you know that your sister was not just a Flame Soldier but the Lieutenant General?"
"Not anymore," Bryn said through her teeth, never taking her hazel eyes off Sigurd's blade. "A lot has changed."
There was a beat of silence before Sigurd lowered his axe. Maude slowly lowered her blades but kept them loosely in her hands.
"So it seems," he said before looking over Bryn's shoulder at Hakon and Liv. "Better come inside, don't want the Elven to be spotted."
Liv's hands flew to her ears, the delicately pointed tips flaring a deep maroon before Liv snapped her glamour back into place. They all hastily entered Sigurd's home and spread out in the living space, the open flooring beneficial as tension continued to rise.
Now that Maude had a moment to inspect Sigurd, she could see that he was walking with a slight limp and was sporting a busted lip, the blood pouring freely down his chin and landing unceremoniously on his white tunic. Her friend had seen better days.
"Sit down, Sigurd," Hakon offered, moving out of the way.
"I'll do what I like in my own house," Sigurd snapped, the sound harsh.
An awkward silence permeated the air of the destroyed living room they all sat in, a lone candle flickering against the new darkness that had descended on the city they had left behind all those weeks ago.
"What's been happening?" Liv asked from the stairs where she sat.
He released a long sigh that spoke to the current climate of the city they'd left behind in a hurry.
"Where do I start?" he said quietly.
They all waited with bated breath to see what Sigurd would reveal. When he finally spoke, their collective dread saturated the room with every word.
"Since an attack on the palace a few weeks ago, the Flame Soldiers have been running tight patrols through the city and combing through the markets forvitkimore than usual," Sigurd said, the man's voice growing angry. "They've been more ruthless than I thought possible. Slaying children on the spot for any sign ofgalderwho resist arrest, the parent's screams echoing through the city. Raids are more frequent; the pub has been closed down a few times now. The King has levied taxes until those who are hiding thevitkiin this city are desperate enough to start to turn on others."
