Chapter 14 – Vale #2
Though we wore no glamours as we rode through the village, we kept our hoods up as far as they would go.
We earned a few welcoming smiles and curious stares, mostly from females and younglings out doing the end of day shopping, but no whispers followed.
To these fae, we were travelers. Soon enough, though, the rumor mill would turn and the commonfae would learn that their prince and his wife were visiting.
“The coinary.” I pointed up the street to what was likely the most regal structure in the medium-sized village.
“The other one was white stone and had a golden cauldron too—though this one is on the sign, not a statue on the roof,” Neve mused, taking in the coinary. “Do they always look so similar?”
“Leprechauns are a small fae race with massive pride. I think it may stem from the fact that they’re a type of goblin and they know how the kingdoms regard goblinkind.
So leprechauns, having found acceptance, know they have to be the best. They take special care to be consistent.
The insides always look much the same too—occasionally with local art featuring landscapes—but mostly, they’re identical. ”
We reached the coinary and tied up the horses.
Anna and Caelo leaned against the free posts, ready to wait and watch the horses.
Not that their protection was necessary.
No one in their right mind would think of theft so close to a coinary.
That security extended to the horses and sleighs that parked outside their establishments too, for it was all a reflection of the leprechauns’ business.
Rather, Caelo and Anna stayed outside because leprechauns were strict about who they allowed into their establishments.
If one did not have an account, or planned to open one that very day, they were not welcome.
As Neve was my wife, she was allowed inside, as was Caelo, who held an account, but that meant Anna would be alone.
A human alone in this world was always in peril.
“Ready?” I held an arm out to my mate.
She took it, her chin lifted high. “As ever. See you two soon.”
“If anyone passes by, ask for the best inn,” I directed Caelo.
“I can already taste the ale,” my friend replied with a wink.
Arm in arm, Neve and I swept through the front door of the coinary into a long, white hallway that led to a bustling antechamber.
On either side, leprechauns worked at desks.
Each desk looked the same, with a small golden cauldron on the right corner filled with false gold.
Like other coinaries, the leprechauns wore a green tunic, black pants, and shiny black shoes.
The air smelled like all coinaries: dry and like the very metal coins the leprechauns kept in vaults. An area their kind called The Below.
A leprechaun with a long red beard appeared at our side. As expected, he was small, the top of his head coming up to Neve’s hip. “Are you a new client, withdrawing, in need of a loan, or entering your vault?”
“I wish to make a withdrawal,” I said.
Seeing as I was not in Avaldenn, and I would not be staying long enough for leprechauns to transport any valuables through their internal networks, entering my vault would be pointless. Only the coinage, which they kept books on, was accessible to me.
“Very well,” the small fae replied, his narrow-set eyes blinking. “Follow me.”
We walked through the line of desks, and no one bothered to look up from whatever business they were undergoing.
“This is stunning,” Neve whispered.
I followed her gaze up to the many antler chandeliers holding a dozen flaming candles each.
The antlers gleamed so bone-pale they might have been taken from a white hart—the animal symbol of my mother’s house.
However, to kill the white hart spelled death to the hunter, so I guessed that they’d come from a regular stag and had been enchanted to look like the more majestic creature.
“This is Coinmaster Hyknas. She will help you today.” Our escort stopped at the desk on the far side of the room.
“Thank you,” said Hyknas, a female of her kind shorter than the rest, but with a stern face that hinted she was not one to be trifled with. “I have it from here.”
The escort left, leaving us before Hyknas and with mere seconds of anonymity left.
“What may I do for you today?” Hyknas pulled at the hem of her green tunic.
“My wife and I wish to make a withdrawal,” I said, clarifying our union.
“Very well. Place your hand on this cauldron.”
I extended my right hand, calling up my magic as I did so.
The Coinmasters used this same enchanted object in all their coinaries to identify clients.
As long as the fae had opened an account with the leprechauns, the cauldron could name a fae with the smallest speck of magic.
The moment I touched the cauldron, I felt an odd tug beneath the skin of my palm.
The object taking an inventory of my magic.
An inhale of breath told me the leprechaun had read my name, magically scrawled on the other side of the cauldron.
“Prince Vale Aaberg.” Hyknas looked up from the golden pot and stood, only to fall back into a curtsey, “Apologies, I did not recognize you. Nor did I know that the Courting Festival was over, and you were traveling the southlands.” Her dark eyes glinted with excitement when they skirted over Neve.
I didn’t bother to correct her assumption that the Courting Festival had finished.
It might have, but I doubted so. As Roar’s family had once possessed the Ice Scepter, Father would find nothing about the missing Hallows from the nobles at court—though he did not know that.
And until he did, or until he ran out of matches to make, the Festival would continue.
“This must be the new princess,” Hyknas added. “Apologies that you were not greeted as such.”
I refrained from sighing. “We’re only here for the night. Now, might I withdraw from my account?”
“Of course.” Hyknas sat back down and pulled up the ledger enchanted to perform accounting between all coinaries in the kingdom.
My name had appeared on the parchment the moment I touched the cauldron, and it was only a matter of time before the entire coinary spoke our names, followed by the village, the westernlands, and, soon enough, King Magnus too.
“How much would you like to withdraw, Prince Vale?”
The Frozen Toes Inn boasted lodgings on the top floor, a tavern on the bottom, ale as cold as a mage’s touch, and warmed, spiced wine so excellent it would thaw a frost giant. Already the tavern set itself apart with lively music and dancing.
From where we sat at a table large enough for six, it was all too easy to hear that we were the primary topic of interest. I leaned back in the wooden chair, indulging in the feel of the hearth fire at my back.
I had not bothered asking the leprechauns to stay quiet, knowing that someone, somehow, would leak the information, and it would spread like wildfire. Better that it looks like we weren’t hiding, even if we were trying to escape the notice of so much.
Hiding from the Red Assassins.
From the king’s anger at our disappearance.
From the truth of our identities. The moment that news got out, it would change all I’d ever known.
“The stew is good,” Anna said, testing the food once it was cool enough.
While Neve and I had been in the coinary, Caelo had not only found the inn, but decided it would be for the best to glamour Anna to appear fae.
That way, she could put down her hood and no one would ask questions about us traveling with a human.
She now bore pointed ears and a glow to her skin that humans did not possess.
It was the basest of glamours, but so far, no one noticed, or if they did, they did not care.
I suspected most were staring at me or Neve, wondering why their royals were here and not at court.
“It’s goat, I think?” Anna added after taking another bite.
“Could be ice spider stew, and I’d still eat it,” Caelo replied. “I’m happy to have another warm meal.”
Despite having been lavished in Dergia, not one of us would soon forget the days and nights of travel and the dwindling food.
“Pardon me?” A high-pitched male voice came from the side.
I turned to find a faerie bard with skin as pale as the moon and eyes so dark brown they almost appeared black—an unsettling combination.
In his slender hands, the bard held a stringed instrument.
Thantrel would know the name, might know how to play it too, but I didn’t recognize the instrument, though the gleam of the wood told me it was well taken care of. Prized even.
“Yes?” I asked.
“Welcome to our fair village, Prince Vale. Princess Neve.” The bard bowed when he addressed us, revealing that he had only one wing pressed down his back. The other, a dark navy stub, remained stunted at the base.
My stomach tightened at the sight, hating the blight and all it had done to so many in this land.
I hoped that, if we found the Ice Scepter and it healed the magic of Winter’s Realm, the blight might also end.
That they were, somehow, as many thought, linked—although the blight had endured longer than the Ice Scepter was lost, the effects had become far more dire in the last twenty turns.
As the storyteller didn’t recognize Caelo or Anna, he nodded at them before turning back to Neve and me. “I’m Itham of Eygin. I recently returned home from Vitvik with new songs in my heart. I was about to take over the stage and wondered if you might have a request?”
Truly, I did not care what he played, but Neve nudged me. Sighing, I pulled a silver stag from my pouch. “Whatever the princess wants.”
The bard beamed and turned to Neve. “Your wish?”
“Do you have a song about the Unification? A happy one?”
Itham’s eyebrows rose. “Aye, I do. A rare choice, Princess Neve.”
“I like rare things.”