Page 84 of Blood of Ancients

Corym slapped him on the back, echoing the wolf’s own movement, making Sven cough with surprise. “Don’t fear, Sven Torfen. We will find a rite of passage for you.”

Everyone laughed but Sven, who grumbled to himself about how we were all useless bastards, or something to that effect. “I hate each and every one of you,” he muttered, bowing his head in shame and embarrassment.

I beamed over at Corym, catching him smiling coyly, as if realizing he’d done a good job of solidifying himself with the group.

Elf or not, he was one of us.

It had to be the first smile he’d shown in weeks.

He never ceased to surprise me. Corym was starting to joke around with us, showing a softer side. And he’d only just been released from his prison. He was a remarkable man, able to put the past behind him without a second thought, to always move forward.

I could learn a lot from him,I thought, threading my fingers into his as we walked toward the ladder that would bring us aboveground.As I did before, when I was his “prisoner.”

My smile widened, and his did too. His expression was marred by the bruises on his face. As if I hadn’t already mentioned it enough, he really did resemble Arne right now with his beautiful face a mess of bruises and bumps.

Arne had looked the same when Sven and Grim beat him for betraying me. It hurt as much to look at him as it did to look at Corym now.

The Ljosalfar did not wallow. The excitement on Corym’s face was clear now—he was going to beoutof Vikingrune Academy,withme, and a step closer to his homeland once we reached the portal.

We all knew it would be a trek to get there. I trusted no one more than these men. I still didn’t understand or trust Kelvar’s part in all this, or his motives, but he was an outlier.

I spoke on the subject as we neared the ladder, stepping up beside him. “Gothi Sigmund is allowing this, sir? I don’t understand.”

“The Gothi gave me jurisdiction to choose my company. You are all here for a reason, whether that be tracking abilities, familiarity to our subject, and another inexorable truth.”

I gave him a confused look. “What’s the inexorable truth, Hersir?”

He looked me dead in the eyes, serious as a heart attack. “When push comes to shove, Ravinica Linmyrr, I know you four will fight harder for Magnus Feldraug than anyone else in this academy.”

Chapter 23

Ravinica

THE FIRST DAY OF TRAVELINGwestward was the worst. The wind was a wailing banshee, the sky a dumping grounds. White puffs of breath left our lips and noses like snorting bulls.

Corym lagged from his injuries. I stayed beside him the entire time, not willing to race to keep up if it meant he was left behind.

Once my other mates noticed Corym’s struggles, they slowed their pace, to the chagrin of Hersir Kelvar.

“The quickest way out of Hel isthroughit,” the Whisperer yelled over the scalding winds. “And make no mistake, cadets, Hel is where we are.”

As “Races & Realms” had taught me, Hel was the region of death where evil men and women passed through to get to Niflheim, the cold, dark, misty world of the dead. Hel was also the goddess who ruled over Niflheim.

Some studies conflated Hel with Niflheim, calling them one and the same—two regions of the same world—while others said one was underneath the other. Our acolytes didn’t know for sure, because none of them had been to either.

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