Page 61 of Soul of Fire

“Fine, sorry, yes, Tormund is a traitorous fiend.”

“He was supposed to report in yesterday,” I repeated for the nineteenth time while pacing around the floor of the archives.

Ingmar and Serrilda had found several maps, but the elderly Chaosborn who managed the archives had nearly had a heart attack when we suggested moving them, so we relocated our research there instead.

“Is it possible they’re too far?” Serrilda suggested, her eyes focused on the map before her. “Perhaps that’s why Kindra can’t reach them.”

“Or maybe they fell off the edge of the world,” Ingmar mused. “Hope springs eternal.”

“If you’re concerned, ask Viggo.” Serrilda frowned at the edge of the map. “Look here. There’s a section missing.”

I craned my neck over Serrilda’s shoulder to see what she was pointing at.

The map looked perfectly normal and intact to me.

“Look at this edge.” Serrilda pointed to the top edge of the map, where Stormhold loomed over the rest of the human realm. “Compare it to this edge.” She pointed to the section that ended with Kaldvik and went no further. “Do you see how uneven the paper is?”

I had to get ridiculously close to the map, but she was right—there were tiny filaments of parchment sticking out unevenly, as if the paper had been folded and carefully torn, rather than cleanly cut.

“That could be from how it was stored,” Ingmar suggested.

“Could be.” Serrilda looked unconvinced.

“Why would someone tear off part of the map?” I asked, frowning over the raw edge. “What’s out here that they don’t want us to see?”

“Something dangerous.” Serrilda’s gaze met mine. “Or something powerful.”

I stood and stretched my neck, reaching out to Kindra.Can you ask Viggo and Asger to check in? I need to know if they have seen anything worrying or run into the exiled reirhold.

Kindra snorted as if she had been waiting all day for me to ask.Of course.

I rolled my eyes as I felt her warmth dim a fraction. It always happened when she spoke with other dragons, and I always hated that I wasn’t privy to their conversations.

“Whoever altered the map must have been a Dragehersker.” Serrilda continued. “Maybe Einar himself.”

“Pity we can’t ask,” I murmured.

Ingmar snorted, and I turned to them in question.

“Oh, sorry. Thought you were making a joke.”

”Ireallydon’t want to fly out there,“ I sighed, looking back at the missing edge of the map. “We’re already short-handed here, and I don’t want to leave the scar unpatrolled. It’s grown by sixteen dragon-lengths in the last two days alone.”

“Sixteen?” Ingmar looked horrified. “How?”

“No idea.” Serrilda answered for me. “Nothing has come through it since the attack last week, but it seems to be creeping—or rather, racing—toward the sea.”

“What do we do when it gets there?” Ingmar asked, turning a worried look on me.

I shrugged. Fuck Arik for leaving me in command. This was so far above my pay grade it was higher than Kindra could fly.

“We patrol the sea? Take shifts on the shore?” I let myself relax against a wooden bookcase. “Our only job is to protect Stalheim. If the odemarksdyr make it there, we’re in deep shit.”

“Imagine the paperwork,” Serrilda said seriously.

Her eyebrow twitched slightly, a sign of amusement, and I huffed a laugh.

Asger says his reirhold is on schedule, Kindra reported.Four days from Kaldvik and no sign of the other reirhold yet.