59. Maddy
Chapter 59
Maddy
W hen I reach the vault it is already sealed, Kain and Sigrun gone.
"Where are you?" I ask in my mind automatically, and I'm thrilled when his answer comes right away.
"The springs. Bathing. Please, gods, tell me you can join me."
Drawing in air, I regretfully tell him I can't yet. "Where is Sigrun? Freydis wants to speak with Ishild."
"They are being held in the Battleyard."
"Thanks."
"You're welcome. And princess?"
"Yes."
"Eat something before you see me. You're going to need your strength."
"Oh gods," I mutter aloud, trying not to squirm where I sit. Freydis looks at me, concerned, and I shake my head. "Kain says they are at the Battleyard. Come on."
Erik is tied to a post with the same chains I saw on Kain before when we reach the sandy arena. Ishild is huge beside him, bound with hundreds of much larger chains to multiple posts.
Valdis and Harald are both with Sigrun, talking quietly. They stop when me, Thyrvi, and my sister approach.
"Freydis wants to offer to turn Ishild back into a fae with the tiara." I'm quiet enough that the prisoners can't hear me.
Sigrun raises one brow, Valdis frowns, and Harald glares at Erik across the sand.
"You may speak with her," Sigrun says indifferently, and leads us to the prisoners.
Erik's eyes burn with hatred. "You ruined everything," he spits.
"You murdered another Valkyrie," I reply coldly. "Or at least instructed a spiteful little shit to do so."
He bares his teeth. "Tell me what you wouldn't do for that fire-fae you're in love with."
"Enough." Sigrun's soft voice carries more weight than a shout. "Your motivations matter not, Erik. You betrayed your fellow Valkyrie. You will be punished."
Freydis steps forward, speaking to Ishild, whose huge head is bowed. "I want to prove that I am not my mother. I think I can help you."
Slowly, Ishild raises her head, huge eyes on Freydis.
My sister swallows. "But first, I need to know how you were turned into a Frost Giant."
Ishild's beautiful voice fills the arena. "I was captured by a Frost Giant shaman during battle. Brynhild left me for dead." Erik's face tightens with anger and what might be regret. "Erik had to use the magic that was available to him—the magic still seeping from the body of the shaman he'd just killed." She closes her eyes a beat. "Some magic should not exist. I think we both know that now."
"You regret my bringing you back?" Erik's voice cracks. When she doesn't answer, his facade crumbles. "Please, my love, please do not tell me you regret it."
"You've brought me back over and over, Erik. I'm living on borrowed time, and it won't be Valhalla's halls I end up in when it finally ends."
"Do you want me to try to turn you back into the fae you once were?" Freydis asks softly.
Ishild regards her carefully. "To live out a life of incarceration?"
"Yes," Sigrun confirms.
With a long sigh, Ishild shakes her head. "I've been a Frost Giant so long now, living amongst them, I had no idea how revolted I would be by the thought of a magic than can enslave them." She turns to Sigrun. "Swear that tiara will never be used to control the Frost Giants again, and you may end me now. I'll put up no fight."
Erik chokes out a heartbroken sound.
"The tiara will be secured," Sigrun says. "The Ice Court sisters have no intention of using it while they rule."
"Good."
"But I have no authority to end your life, Ishild. Do you wish to serve your sentence in the Frost Giant realm?"
"Yes."
"Ishild!" Erik cries. "After everything we've done, after everything we've tried to achieve?—"
Sigrun cuts him off. "You now know it was all based on lies. You, Erik, will lose your wings, and unlike Kain, you will not be given a prison so fine as Featherblade."
His face twists. "Where will you send me?"
"Somewhere only those who murder their fellow Valkyrie in cold blood go." She advances on him. "You will experience the suffering you've inflicted on others. And you will spend every minute of the rest of your life alone."
I thought I'd feel satisfaction at Erik's punishment, but the scene turns my stomach. Lies, deceit, pain… All of it was for love.
I wrap my arm around Freydis and turn her gently away. She nods, and together, we walk away.
"It's over," she whispers.
"We're free," I say, gripping her hand.
"Madivia!"
I turn when I hear Valdis call my name. She's flying after us, down the path.
"Nice wings," she says when she reaches us, and I smile.
"Thanks."
"Toren and Pehn are tending to those injured in the feasting hall, and there is food and ale there."
"I'm not injured."
She drags her eyes pointedly over my body, and I look down.
I'm covered in burns. Shallow burns, few of them blistering, but my usually pale skin is red, and bruised everywhere it's not.
"Oh. What in Thor's name is in that stuff Sigrun gave me?"
Valdis barks a laugh. "Yeah, that'll numb the pain. Go get fixed up, Maddy. The others will want to see you too."
I want to see Kain. But healing myself first is a good idea, and he himself told me to eat. "Did everyone make it back from the Frost Giant realm safely?"
"Yes. Including your friend with the shriek wings." Valdis smiles.
Nobody was hurt. Kain is no longer cursed. Sarra is okay. And my sister and I are free.
I was expecting the feasting hall to have a somber atmosphere, filled with injured and confused fae.
I was wrong. There is a full-blown celebration when I enter.
Roge is playing music in the corner, while Garda and Henrik dance, Martom and Birgit right behind them.
Everybody is bruised, dirty, and battered, but the energy couldn't be more uplifting. Rooks are singing, clanging tankards of mead and ale, val-tivars are flying around the room, and Garda's bear swipes up meat joints from the end tables.
"You got your wings!" Eldith spots me, her green wolf bounding beside her as she runs over.
I beam at her. "Thank you for coming to fight."
Her grin widens. "It's the most fun Lauf and I have ever had," she says.
"You risked your life."
"That's what we're here for. That's why we came to Featherblade." She holds up her tankard and shouts, "We are the next generation of Valkyrie!"
The room erupts in cheers, and then the other rooks spot me. Rather, they spot my wings.
They surround me in seconds. Questions, cheers and congratulations ring through the hall.
"Give her some space," a gruff voice says from the hall.
Harald strides into the room, and the rooks all cheer him. "All hail the mighty berserker!"
The sadness in his eyes recedes, just a little. "Somebody get me an ale," he roars. "And then listen while Maddy tells you what happened."
I look at him, startled. The room falls silent, and Freydis, still by my side, gives me a small push.
"Well, Kain didn't do it," I say.
More than a dozen faces stare at me expectantly.
I let out a long sigh.
"Can I eat while I tell you? And would someone with a snake mind taking a look at these burns?"
It takes me most of an hour to tell everyone everything that happened, leaving out the parts that are very much my business, or mine and Kain's.
I fill my belly with cheese and ham in that time, and Pehn's snake makes short work of the burns.
"Where's Sarra?" I ask Eldith when the other rooks have run out of questions.
"She's with Toren in the Healing Wing. His snake went crazy when it saw her, and they think her new magic might have something to do with earth-fae healing or something."
"Huh." I stand up.
"Are you going to see her?"
I shake my head. "No. Not yet." I look at my sister. "Freydis, are you okay if I leave you here with Eldith? Harald or Valdis can find you somewhere to stay tonight."
She nods, sipping on a mead and smiling. "Of course. Go to him."
Butterflies explode in my stomach.
Finally. Finally, I'm going to him.