“Really? Must you even ask?” All the nights he’d whispered comfort to her were cut away by the blades hidden between his words. “Don’t bother lowering yourself to trouble with me.”
“What?” Vhalla blinked at the caustic tone. He’d known, hadn’t he known all along, how it was between them?
“I know you’re rather busy attending to the demands of the royal family.” The statement was harmless enough, but the way Daniel said it.
“Don’t do this,” Vhalla snapped. She wasn’t going to let him make her feel guilty for Aldrik. For the bliss they’d shared. “You knew how it was between us.” Vhalla didn’t clarify who she meant by us.
“You misunderstand me,” he mumbled.
“No, I understand you perfectly.” Vhalla grabbed up her small pile of clothes and chainmail from the corner she’d been occupying. “I understand you’re presuming too much from simple comfort.”
“I was just comfort? Well, isn’t that something I could brag about, being the comfort of the first woman the Fire L—”
“Don’t you dare.” Vhalla inhaled sharply, staring down daggers at him.
Daniel blinked at her, as if catching himself. As if logic and reason suddenly snapped back into place, locking down the jealousy he’d been letting get away from him. He moved to touch her.
Vhalla turned quickly and plunged into the night air. Of everyone, thoughtful Daniel was the last person she expected judgment from, and it hurt. She pursed her lips in frustration, and her feet quickened beneath her, carrying her faster and faster from him.
“Vhalla, wait! I’m sorry, I don’t want it to be like this.” The flap of his shack door swayed behind him. “I didn’t—” The words stuck in his throat when Vhalla didn’t stop. “I didn’t mean it, Vhalla!”
She didn’t look back. She didn’t want to let him see the confusion in her eyes.
IT SOUNDED AS though Daniel was going to pursue her, but only for about ten steps. Vhalla kept her eyes forward, her nails digging into the chainmail buried within the bundle of clothing. In frustration, she threw the bundle into the closet military storehouse she could find, all but the chainmail Aldrik had crafted.
Vhalla wiggled into the armor, glaring at the soiled fabric. It wasn’t hers. The clothing had been pulled off the dead bodies of soldiers and given to a communal pile Vhalla had been forced to leech off since arriving in the North. It was a pile she’d weeded through with Daniel.
Nothing was hers anymore. Her name had been taken and given, time and again. Her appearance had been borrowed. Even her magic wasn’t hers to use at will.
She rubbed her eyes with her palm, suddenly feeling exhausted. Vhalla wondered what would happen if she ran. She had already proven she could be faster than anyone else with the wind underneath a horse. If she left, would the Emperor catch her?
Vhalla gazed at the camp palace in the fading light. Her feet had been carrying her toward it on instinct. Even when she was fantasizing over the idea of fleeing, she moved toward to the man who held the chains that ensnared her—just to be near his son.
The Bond she held with Aldrik was stronger than any threats the Emperor could make. Yet despite that resounding truth, the chainmail felt heavy on her shoulders. Aldrik had promised her it would never be easy, but she wasn’t sure how much longer they could keep fighting before something broke. What would the cost be, when all was tallied?
“Can you at least tell me where she is?” A small commotion at the entrance to the camp palace distracted Vhalla.
“We don’t know the whereabouts of the Windwalker.” The guards couldn’t have been less interested in helping the dirty-blonde Southerner seeking entry.
Vhalla paused, standing at the fork that would carry her around to the back of the camp palace and Aldrik’s window.
“I’m trying to return her things,” the woman explained. “Can I at least bring them here?”
“Do we look like help to you?” The other guard yawned. “You know none of us want this job ...”
“Listen.” The woman took a deep breath and puffed out her chest. “You two are going to help me find the Windwalker. She’s gone long enough without her armor, and I know she’ll want it back.”
“And we told you—”
“You have my armor?” Vhalla called, halfway across the distance.
The woman turned, and a vague recognition crossed Vhalla’s mind at the sight of the woman’s face. She had been one of Vhalla’s doppelgangers. The woman stared at Vhalla like a frightened doe, suddenly stumbling over her words. “It-it’s you.”
“Do you have my armor?” Vhalla repeated.
“I do.” The woman nodded.
“I do! At my tent.”
“Great, you two run along now.” The guards shooed them.
Vhalla shot the offending guard a pointed glare at the wave of his hand. She was surprised when it actually gave the man pause, and he quickly snapped to attention under the weight of her stare.
“You’re really her.” The woman peered at Vhalla from the corners of her eyes as they headed in a direction of camp Vhalla had yet to wander.
Vhalla was less shy about sizing up her companion. “Her?” “Vhalla Yarl,” she spoke as if the fact should’ve been obvious. “We’ve met before,” Vhalla reminded her.
“That didn’t really count though,” the woman mumbled. “You were ...”
“A mess.” Vhalla laughed bitterly at the other woman’s shock toward her self-depreciation. “I lost a dear friend that night.”
Mentioning Larel flashed pain across the scar on Vhalla’s memory. But it felt like the right pain. It felt like a pain that was turning into a bitter ache that would make her stronger, not the crippling sort she’d been wallowing in before.
“I know. I’m sorry.”
“You know?” Vhalla asked skeptically.
“You, her, the Southerner, the lady ...” It took Vhalla a moment to realize her companion was speaking of Larel, Fritz, and Elecia. “You were the Black Knights.”
“The Black Knights?” Vhalla laughed.
“That’s what the other soldiers called you.” The woman was laughing, too, realizing how silly it sounded as well. “The Black Knights, the start of the dark prince’s personal guard.”
“That’s an interesting thought ...” Vhalla smiled tiredly. She couldn’t imagine Aldrik creating a rival to Prince Baldair’s infamous Golden Guard. “What’s your name, by the way?”
The other woman paused, as if surprised Vhalla didn’t know it. The woman didn’t know Vhalla had made it a point not to learn the names of her doppelgangers. They became people when she did, they became deaths that could hurt and inspire guilt.
Then again, Vhalla inwardly cringed at the memory of the Emperor’s Windwalker look-alike. Dead, shot down, and left to rot in the jungles of the North. She hadn’t known that woman’s name, but the guilt remained. For better or worse, Vhalla realized, she had too much of a soul left to ignore sacrifice. The least she could do was learn the names of those who were making that sacrifice.
“Timanthia,” she said with a small cringe. “But I hate that name; Tim is fine.”
“Tim, then,” Vhalla affirmed with a nod. They’d come to a stop before a small tent.
“I’m glad I could get your armor back to you.” Tim began rummaging through the inside of the tent, passing out the scale mail.
Vhalla ghosted her fingers over the steel. It felt almost warm, as if Aldrik’s forging fire still lived within it. Tim allowed Vhalla a moment, stacking the gauntlets and greaves between where Vhalla knelt and the tent.
“I know it’s important,” Tim’s voice had dropped to a whisper. Vhalla’s eyes flicked up, clearly hearing the underlying current that there was more to be said. Tim paused, caught in conflict at Vhalla’s expectant stare. “He told me he’d made it for you.”