49. Maddy
Chapter 49
Maddy
A full-scale battle has unfolded below, and my heart stutters in my chest when I see that it is not just the three Valkyrie who have come to fight.
The rooks from Featherblade I've trained alongside for weeks are scattered amongst the previously neat lines of Frost Giants, and they are wreaking havoc.
Eldith's emerald wolf moves like a living flame, leaving trails of green light as it weaves between Giant legs. A massive club swings down, missing Eldith by inches as she rolls away. Lauf leaps, fangs sinking into icy flesh, giving her precious seconds to scramble to safety. Blood runs from a gash on her forehead, but she moves with determination as she shoots vines from her hands.
Garda's black bear, though barely larger than a wolf, fights with terrifying ferocity. It targets joints and weak points, its compact size letting it dodge devastating blows as it climbs all over the Giants' huge bodies.
A Giant's hand catches Garda, lifting her into the air, but her bear launches itself at the creature's face, claws finding its eyes in a manic scrabble. They fall together, Garda rolling to her feet in a practiced move.
Henrik's eagle screams a warning as a volley of massive arrows darken the sky. Henrik dives behind a boulder, but not fast enough—one grazes his shoulder, spinning him around. His eagle retaliates, diving with impossible speed to rake its talons across a Giant's face. Blood runs down Henrik's arm as he nocks an arrow, but his aim is perfect.
Martom stands in the center of three Giants, magic flowing from his hands in waves. Two monsters charge him at once, and he freezes one solid, but the effort leaves him doubled over. The second closes in, and Roge's golden wolf leaps into the air so fast it's a blur, catching the small ice-fae and knocking him out the path of a lethal stamp. Staffan's massive, shaggy brown bear crashes into the roaring monster, and Roge's wolf flies back, snapping and biting at its feet as Staffan and Roge fire arrow after arrow into its face.
Valdis' black wings cut through the gray sky as she rains arrows from above. A Giant's hand clips her wing, sending her spinning, but she recovers fast. Below her, Harald has given himself fully to berserker rage, his massive form nearly unrecognizable as he tears through Giant ranks. Blood runs from countless wounds, but his bear magic makes him almost unstoppable, more chaos and destruction around him than anywhere else on the battlefield.
Except, perhaps, where Sigrun stands. Her white wings spread magnificently behind her as she wields her legendary spear. The weapon blazes with ancient magic, each strike leaving trails of green light. When three blue-haired commander Giants converge on her, she doesn't retreat. Her spear becomes a blur of motion, and though one blow catches her side, she barely seems to notice.
I'm mesmerized, and I know if Thryvi were watching this, she would already be halfway down the mountainside. And I'd be right there with her.
I yearn to join the fight with every fiber of my being.
I am supposed to be down there, with them, taking down our enemies. Risking my life for the safety of all.
"Freydis," I say, struggling to tear my eyes from the spectacular fight to look at my sister, "I have to help them. Thyrvi and I, we've trained with them. We're a team. I have to be down there."
Freydis' eyes are filled with fear, but she nods. "I know better than to try to stop you when you look like this."
But then another voice shouts my name, and I spin around, heart soaring.
"Maddy!"
"Sarra?"
Landing on the ledge, then running toward me, is Sarra.
Landing.
How is she…
My mouth falls open in stunned shock.
She has wings.
Sarra has huge, leathery, red-veined shriek wings.
Thoughts come to a complete stop as I stare, transfixed. "How…"
She crashes into me, wrapping her arms tight around my body, and the spell is broken.
"Sarra, gods, I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry."
"Erik did this, not you."
She feels different. She smells different.
She is different, I think, staring over her shoulder at the massive wings protruding from her back. Guilt kicks me from every angle, raining down through my body, and I choke on a sob.
"I gave you the staff. I gave you the feather… If you'd never met me, never shown me kindness…"
"Then I wouldn't have wings," she whispers. "I would never have known what it felt like to fly. I wouldn't be seeing in the world in colors I didn't know existed. I wouldn't be able to sense life that human eyes cannot see."
I step back and stare at her. "Really?"
She nods. Her eyes still look just like her own, warm and wide and brown, filled with intelligence.
"I'm not in any pain anymore, and my body is no longer disfigured. I just have these." She jabs a thumb over her shoulder. "And I think I've only touched the surface of what I can do. This is a new kind of earth magic, and it's extraordinary." Her voice is breathless with excitement, and I'm bursting with hope.
"Do you… feel like a shriek?"
She shakes her head. "No, and I don't feel like a monster either. No desire to eat flesh or tear people apart." She gives me a wry smile. "Not yet, anyway. I can just hear and see and sense things everywhere that I never could before. And I can fly. Maddy, it's beyond incredible."
I smile at her, still scared to hope this might work out. "Oh gods, Sarra, I… I don't know what to say."
"Don't say anything," she replies. "Kain wishes he could be here to fight. To help you."
My chest constricts at the mention of his name. "I have to get back to him. But we need to get the tiara first."
"What tiara?"
"The tiara of Skadi, an Ice Court royal heirloom. My sister and I have been trying to fix it for years because legend says it has incredible ice magic within it. We thought it might heal me."
"Erik took you because he thought you had it?"
"Yes. Freydis told them I did to buy time." Sarra glances at my sister, and I continue quickly. "She's been on my side the whole time, lying to my family and trying to help me."
Sarra's frown breaks, and she smiles at Freydis. "She's missed you," she tells her.
Freydis swallows hard. "Thank you for taking care of her."
As I swallow a lump forming in my throat, an icy voice breaks the moment.
"How touching."
We all whirl.
My mother, Erik, and Ishild stalk across the ledge toward us, backed by two Frost Giants and Inga and Brunnin.
I call Thyrvi, and she roars as she materializes.
I use the noise to mask my desperate whisper to Sarra and Freydis. "Find the bag with the tiara. I'll distract them."
"This ends now," my mother says, and Freydis and Sarra scatter, taking cover behind crates. Neither have magic. Neither can fight. But I can.
"You're right," I call back. "It does."
It's just me and Thyrvi again, opposite a Valkyrie, a queen, three Frost Giants, and an eight-foot fire bear. But I'll give it everything I've got.