Page 92 of The Songs of Fate (War of Fate)

Chapter Eighteen

Worse Than Death

The boat glided over small waves, rocking me in a gentle motion. The night sky was so clear, I could see every star in Orion’s Belt. A calm wind carried us further into the Pacific.

Leo’s voice flowed over the deck. “Einherjar are created for one purpose. We are bound by duty to fight the War of Fate, but we can choose the Valkyrie we serve. Most Einherjar naturally choose the Valkyrie who changed them, but not always. I swore allegiance to an ancient Valkyrie named Herja. She shielded me from death when I took a Raider’s sword to the neck defending my family against the Keres. The Keres began ravaging my lands days before.” Leo paused to take a painful breath.

“I had eight sisters. My mother had died years before, and my father not long after her. I was the only son. It was my honor, my obligation, to protect my sisters when the Raiders came to my village. The Raiders burned their way through my village, waiting for their masters to arrive.”

Every word Leo spoke ripped me apart, like glass cutting through the air. I sensed the love, the agony, for his family radiating off him. That explained why Leo was so compassionate—why I was comforted by his presence. He had been raised with eight sisters. He must’ve learned how to work with, love, and live with women, or he would’ve been eaten alive at a young age.

“Keres are a true form of darkness who feed off the souls of warriors. They grow stronger with each kill, and they are ruthless. Once they descend upon a land, they can extinguish the life from worlds in days. They feed off the strength, the loyalty, the valor, the love of a soul. When they feed, the body dies, but the spirit is consumed by the Keres. And on the darkest of nights, they can take an extraordinary warrior and reap everything from their soul except rage. These warriors become Raiders, half-man, half-animal, just like the one you destroyed. They are obedient, violent dogs, only for the Keres to command.” Leo spat the words.

Cri whispered, “There are things worse than death.”

“The night the Raiders came to my village, the screams of panic and fear enveloped the earth as flesh was ripped from their bodies, one hut to the next. Their high-pitched screams deafened any sorry man close enough to see them. Then the Keres came—shadows with milky-white faces—feeding on every soul left.” Leo’s voice wavered. “They started with my youngest sister. As they fed from her, I fought them over and over until a Raider slit my neck open with his blade. I didn’t even feel it rip me open. Then they picked through the rest of my family, and all I could do was watch as the life drained from their bodies and from mine.”

Tears soaked my cheeks. The stars blurred together in the night sky.

“That’s when Ales found me. I was too weak to stand, so he picked me up and tried to find Kara,” Leo said.

“You see, Ales had come through the aether with his Valkyrie, Kara, to protect my world. They had separated when she ordered his legion to my decimated village. Ales didn’t know Kara had been ambushed while leading a group of Einherjar to the capital.” Leo paused to look at me in the darkness. “I saw Ales fall to his knees when he felt her die.”

“Ales found other Einherjar of the Valkyrie Herja, who had also come through the aether to my world. Herja changed me that night, but only because Ales kept me alive long enough for Herja to come to us.”

I thought I had known grief, but Leo had watched his entire family die in front of him. I didn’t understand how he had the will to keep fighting.

Leo’s voice was so light, I strained closer. “When the remaining Valkyries established a stronghold, most of my world had been destroyed. Only a few survivors remained. Ales and I both lost everything we knew in the same night—he lost Kara and I lost my family, my world. I pledged myself to serve Herja, but Ales never pledged himself to another Valkyrie after Kara. He remains unbound, searching for baby Valkyries like you.”

I cleared my throat, needing to find words to help take away his pain. I could feel Leo’s pain deep within me, like a pulsing wound.

Cri had been so quiet, I thought he had started to sleep, until he spoke. “Einherjar can choose to serve another Valkyrie if theirs dies and they still remain. Others choose another path, a much lonelier path.Very few desire to remain unbound—searching hundreds, if not thousands, of years without knowing friends, family, love—searching the cosmos for a faint glimmer a Valkyrie has risen. Without the unbound, baby Valkyries would be slaughtered before they can wield their light well enough to fight a hoard of Raiders. You need to train. You need other Einherjar to serve you so you will be strong enough to destroy them. Ales understands the need for the unbound and was willing to live a thousand lives searching for an awoken Valkyrie.”

“Leave it to Ales to find a way around the rules of searching alone.” Leo laughed. “When Herja died at the hands of the Keres a century after my changing, I was so lost. I couldn’t bring myself to serve another. It seemed like a betrayal to Herja. Ales found me again. He understood my pain, my shame, better than the others and asked me to join him. That was fifty years ago.”

“I’m so sorry, Leo, for your family, for your world.” I looked down at him after I wiped my face dry and laid my palm on his arm.

I turned on my side to face the opposing bench. “What about you, Cri, how did Ales find you?”

“That is a story for other time. We have done enough reminiscing tonight,” Cri said sternly.

His words appeared harsh after Leo had borne his past to us.

The silence stretched out between us. In the presence of strangers, the stillness usually seemed strained and awkward, but tonight it was comforting. I listened to the waves glide over the boat, and I thought about Ales.

If Einherjar loved the Valkyries they served, then Ales must’ve loved Kara deeply. I couldn’t imagine what bonds formed over centuries of loving someone, fighting beside them. The bond must be terrifying to lose.

“How do the unbound find Valkyries?” I asked Leo.

“We are still Einherjar, but our souls aren’t bound to a single Valkyrie, so they are always searching, waiting for the pull of the awoken. It isn’t like reading a map—perhaps more about following the faint longing telling you to stay or go. We can all feel the aether, the energy. It can be intense when we are close, but worlds away, it’s scarcely a whisper.” Leo shrugged. “Ales said he felt you for years but could never reach you.”

I grunted. The man was nothing but persistent. Just like the Valkyrie within me that craved him. Was this the definition of a soulmates—reaching for each other through time and space, and finding each other? I wasn’t sure what Ales thought about it, but my aether practically sang for him when he was near, in my dreams, or in person.

Did it even matter to it what Charlie wanted?

“But you never felt it?” I asked Leo.

“No. Neither did Cri, even though we tried to connect to what Ales sensed.”

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