As they had climbed the remaining distance up the mountain to the temple, Herrick slowed his pace to observe the crowd that seemed to thicken the closer they got to the temple. Being around this many strangers unarmed made Herrick uncomfortable, but Aeric had been very clear that no weapons were allowed in the sacred space. Even if someone tried to sneak in a blade, the gates and the gods would not allow the weapon to pass the gates.
Before he could stop himself, the panic from his defenselessness crept up his throat, constricting his airway and forcing him to take more shallow breaths. Soon, darkness started to bleed into his vision as he remembered hanging from Baldr'schains, the burns on his body seeming to throb in response to the memory. The band of iron around his throat grew colder as if it enjoyed sucking whatever calm he had left in his body.
You are nothing without your strength, Prince, the band seemed to whisper into his mind.Your weakness will expose your loved ones to the same fate as you.
Herrick growled as he shut his eyes, swallowing the rising panic that would leave him a useless mess.
You're wrong, he said to the iron band on his throat, the creature that lay in wait inside it, before shutting it out entirely.
As soon as he was able to grip his panic and wrangle it beneath his skin again, Herrick felt heat at his back flare like an open flame. His spine shivered, but not from the pleasure the sensation used to ignite. Now, he worked to swallow his new dread. After all, it wasn't as if she had held her flames to his skin.
He turned to find Maude looking him up and down critically, her green eyes ringed in black clearer the longer they spent time with Aeric.
When she had kicked him out of her bedroom last night, he couldn't even be angry about it. As soon as the words had been uttered into the space between them, he desperately wished to pull them back. Even after the hurt that had flashed across her features, even when that hurt had forced her to kick him out, Maude still stopped with him to make sure he was okay when his rising panic started to overwhelm him.
Though the sacrificial blood still splattering her unearthly face, Maude was the most exquisite woman he had ever seen. Her small mouth was turned down at the corners as she continued to evaluate the panic that grew smaller in Herrick's chest the longer he spent at her side. All he wanted to do was kiss the downturned corners of her lips and taste her cedar-smoked scent on his tongue as he invaded her mouth.
But he couldn't. Not after he had royally messed things up between them last night. Not when it had taken everything in him not to flinch from her fiery presence.
"Time for some answers," Maude whispered as the voices of the crowds around them seemed to dim. "Are you ready?"
Her voice sounded detached, but he knew her better than to think she was so cold about what was about to unfold before them. It didn't matter that Maude was braver than anyone he knew— she was afraid of what would happen next, fearful for him if this band couldn't be removed from around his throat.
"We will find a way to remove this iron," he replied, his gaze intent on hers as she seemed to look past him into Odin's temple. "What about you? Are you ready?"
She paused for a moment before her focus flicked back to him. "As ready as I'll ever be."
You may remove the iron, but I live inside of you now, Prince, it said.You will not be rid of me so easily.
Herrick prayed to the Allfather that the words were false even if he knew they weren't.
Maude entered the temple and was immediately overwhelmed by what she saw.
Standing in a large semicircle that traced the borders of the large temple were carved ash statue renderings of each of the gods. A stream trickled in from under the walls, reminding her that the temple had been builtwiththe natural world, not in spite of it. The statues all stood on their own rock, the glistening black stone similar to the blades on her father's axes. The water from the stream trickled gradually around them until it led to the far back wall and exited under the structure again.
In the center of the large space stood an altar. Ancient, dark wood bowed inward toward the center as the large table drew the focus of everyone in the room. The rough surface was stained, the dark discoloring clueing Maude in to what exactly took place in this room when the doors were closed to all but the seers who lived here.
Suspended in time and space above the altar were orbs containing the six elements: earth, air, water, fire, light, and shadow. The clear glass that encased turbulent grey winds, droplets of indigo water, leaves of emerald green, and flickeringgolden fire were similar to the set ups one would find in temples across Ahland. The light and shadow held Maude's attention above the rest.
White light that seemed to pulse with awareness the closer she got to the altar sat in direct contrast with the swirling black shadows around it, sharing the same space in the center of all the elements. The tendrils of shadow encased in the glass gently whirled around the light that pulsed in the center, their dance a hypnotizing back and forth that Maude had a hard time walking away from.
"There is no light without shadow," her father said behind her, his words muted as a faint ringing buzzed in her ears. "Just as there is no shadow without light. Unlike the other elements that are merely opposites, these two cannot exist without the other."
"It's a nice thought," she whispered as she finally tore her attention from the elements and faced her father. But he was not looking at her, but rather past her to Herrick who hovered at her side, taking in the altar just as intensely as she had been.
When her father's eyes finally met hers, there was a spark of humor and knowing in the swirling silver that she couldn't ignore. He gently patted her shoulder before turning away to stand at the base of Balder's statue.
The pale gray of the ash statues loomed over Maude as she tried to take in the space that seemed to press in on her despite the openness of the temple. The pitched roof that glowed in the midday sun could not be spied from the inside as the rafters above them opened up into a gap a few yards tall to allow the smoke from the burning candles and incense to float up to the heavens. But the uneven floor beneath Maude's bare feet held her attention as she made her way further into the room, Herrick closer to her back than her shadow.
Many others were paying tributes and leaving sacrifices and offerings at the feet of whatever god they needed assistance from. Women were gathered at the base of Freyja's statue, likely all praying for their wombs to quicken with their partner's seed. At her brother Freyr's feet, prayers for a plentiful harvest were made. At Tyr's feet, a raging fire burned where those who left offerings for the god of war would burn them in his flames so that he might hear their call forjustice.
Herrick drifted to Tyr's statue as Maude paused in front of the Allfather. Odin. His altar lay bare as his ravens, Huginn and Muninn, were his eyes in Midgard. The Allfather saw everything and everyone, so no one prayed at his altar or left offerings.
Maude stepped into the stream that ran before Odin's statue, the cold water pulling at her ankles as her toes sank into the rocks and silt, and raised her hands to rest on the ash wood. Energy buzzed beneath her fingers, the smooth surface betraying no source of life other than the sensation in Maude's chest that she was being watched.
"I need to know why I am here. It feels right, like I'm headed in the right direction," she said quietly, her eyes closed as she tuned into the energy beneath her fingers rather than turn away from it. "I've spent the better part of my life running because of what I thought was my fate. I was deceived. But I need to know what your plan is for me."
As soon as the words were out in the world, Maude felt eyes on the top of her head. Slowly, unsure if she truly wished to see who or what had been watching her, she lifted her eyes to the high rafters that allowed fresh air into the temple. At first, she saw nothing, but as her eyes adjusted to the shadows, she spied what had been watching her.
