Free Iduna by Maya Michaels

a village had been burned down. All the buildings and tents were charred skeletons, and bodies lay where they had fallen. There was one survivor—a young girl.
    Her eyes were wild, and she struck out at anyone who tried to calm her. With no options, Vilir bundled her up, and tied her hands and feet to keep her safe from herself and from attacking others. He would bring the girl to the court and would introduce her to Roen. Leder Roen would know what to do.
    He’d never forget that day.
    Roen was sitting on his ice throne that had long ago been lined with cushions, listening to a large group of musicians while many of the Ull danced. Music echoed off the tall ceiling of the hall, and Vilir felt the scene of the decimated village wear less heavily in his heart.
    “Brother, welcome home. How are our lands?” Roen called to him as Vilir approached the throne.
    “Thank you, Leder Roen. They are mostly well, but I bring you sad news and a conundrum. The village of Aysen is burned to the ground,” Vilir said and paused for the gasps in the hall to subside. “All the other surrounding villages appear to be fine,” he assured them.
    “How are the people of Aysen?”
    “All are dead except for this girl,” Vilir said and signaled to have the girl brought in. “She appears to be out of her mind and hasn’t said a word. The girl is a danger to herself and anyone else right now. I don’t know what to do with her.”
    The girl stood awkwardly, her blue eyes blazing. Her hands and feet were still bound; blood dripped from the wounds she’d inflicted on herself as she’d tried to break free.
    “What is your name?” Roen asked, while looking admonishingly at his brother. When the girl didn’t answer, Roen said, “Vilir, remove her bindings. She’ll be more inclined to talk when she is free. No Ull likes to be tied up.”
    Vilir looked from the girl to Roen and back again. Her eyes shown like the blue fire around a hot flame. He could only imagine the intensity of her emotions and wondered for the thousandth time what had happened in the village. He had never bound her mouth, even though she bit anyone who got too close. They kept hoping she would finally talk.
    Even now the line of her lips was tight and firm, as if frozen together.
    “She’s quite unpredictable, my Leder,” Vilir said.
    “She’s just a girl,” Roen said. “Free her, and we will talk with her to find out what has happened and how we can help her.”
    Vilir had cut the ropes binding her feet together first. She’d stood mutely, and he’d felt encouraged that she hadn’t kicked him. He’d held her hands tenderly and cut through the rope. Her expression remained unchanged while she wiggled her fingers one by one, working out the kinks. He had watched her slowly flex her wrists, moving her hands up and down, then rotating them in small circles. She must be working the blood back into her hands, he had thought, and hoped that they hadn’t become too numb. Her fingernails were dirty and long. He’d wished they’d considered finding a way to allow her a hot soak to remove the dirt and grime from the fires and everything else that had happened in her village.
    One second he was watching her small hands, the next he was pivoting to try to catch her as she sprinted toward the throne. She leaped onto Roen as he rose from his chair and made him fall back in the seat. Taking advantage of Roen’s moment of lost balance and surprise, she gouged her fingers deep into his eyes.
    The image of Roen’s tears of blood as he died in Vilir’s arms wavered and blurred in Vilir’s memory.
    He came back to the present, and the woman’s voice singing the closing stanzas. The song was an illusion, but it was also his most fierce hope. Vilir knew they’d been living a false and fragile dream in Ull.
    Senbo had helped him see that.
    Senbo had been the one to show him the hidden magic that the Ull were vulnerable to. And what Vilir was capable of. They wouldn’t be