Chapter 42 – Neve
NEVE
My thighs ached as I dismounted from the pegasus and landed on the hardened snow.
We’d landed by the village gate, the same one Vale, Caelo, Anna, and I had walked through, near the out of service mine.
Today no one manned the gate, which raised bumps on my arms. Before, there had been two drunken guards, and while they’d been deep in their cups, they’d still been living and breathing. Already, I feared this was a bad sign.
Above, mountains loomed, imposing craggy peaks glistening with fresh snow in the light of day. Though the sun shone brightly, the few parts of me that were exposed to the air stung. Breathing hurt too.
A shudder ran down my spine. This was no normal cold. As rebels and my friends dismounted from gryphons and Rynni’s scaled back, their pained faces hinted that they felt the same.
I shifted Sassa’s Blade, easing the sword into a more comfortable position on my hip.
Thyra had insisted I bring it, and she’d brought the Crown, tucked safely in a bag she wore around her hips.
Her reasoning being that if the Ice Scepter was around and the cause for these people’s deaths, then maybe the Hallows would react to one another.
The Blade and Fr?r Crown hadn’t done so yet, but I was willing to try anything to find the Scepter.
“Good work, Arava.” I patted the pegasus’s midnight snout.
To my shock, the pegasus turned to me and nuzzled my shoulder. My heart warmed at the show of affection. “We’ll find you a warm place to rest. Food too.”
Arava let out a winded huff as if to say that after a night of flying, she expected only the best, and pressed her body closer to mine.
“Don’t take her to the stables yet,” Vale said. “If the fae of Eygin are dead, then it’s likely the horses are too. We don’t wish to upset the gryphons or pegasi. They’re proud creatures and will take offense, so I’ll go check first.” He gestured to a stable in view down the road and set out.
“She likes you, Neve,” Caelo came up to me. “She claims a kinship with you. Thyra’s pegasus, Lasvin, feels the same about her.”
I blinked, and turned to take in my sister, standing with her pegasus.
Halladora, Tonna, and Sigri hovered nearby, just as Valkyrja would do to protect their queen.
It didn’t escape my notice that the vampires had flown by me and Vale, while the rebel Valkyrja had stayed with Thyra.
My sister was absentmindedly petting the pegasus, and Thyra did not seem to notice how the magical being leaned into her touch.
“Is that so?” I asked, shocked by the news.
“He’s right,” Thantrel, who had been not too far away, joined us.
Both he and Caelo had been instrumental in getting the gryphons to allow new riders on their backs—let alone ride them so far.
Thantrel snorted out a laugh as he patted Arava, who leaned into his touch. “My father will be upset that she took to you so easily.”
“Why would that upset him?” I asked.
“When a pegasus bonds with a rider like I believe Arava is doing with you, they will accept no other after that. They will love you so much they would go to war for you. With you.” Thantrel lifted a shoulder as if to say ‘what can you do?’. “It’s a ruler’s dream to have such a devoted pegasus.”
“She never showed this type of affection to another?” My lips curled upward as I stroked Arava’s mane.
“Don’t get me wrong, she’s a good mare. Obedient and brilliant, but never bonded before.
” He petted her mane too, and I noticed how Arava did not lean into his touch as she did for me.
She tolerated Thantrel, even listened to him because of his elven powers, which so few animals could resist, but nothing more.
“Father always hoped one of his pegasi would take to him, but neither did. Turns out they favored not his soul of fire, but one of ice.”
I said nothing. I believed my friends and found myself thrilled that Arava felt a kinship with me too, but she did belong to Lord Riis. Perhaps I could speak with him about her? Maybe purchase Arava?
When Vale returned, it was with a grim look on his face.
“We can’t use the stables. Too many dead horses. But there are empty homes.” He swallowed. “I think those who owned those homes may have died elsewhere, because Aleksander’s information appears correct. I haven’t seen a single living soul yet.”
“You haven’t looked that hard,” I replied through tight lips.
“Or heard a thing,” he amended. “Not even the sounds of the dying. Unusual, considering it’s daytime.”
I could not deny that. In the few minutes we’d been in the town, the only sounds I heard came from us.
I gripped Arava’s reins. “Let’s shelter them in a home, then we can search for survivors more thoroughly.”
We found a home empty of people and pushed aside the furniture before filling it with the gryphons and pegasi. A rebel lit the fire, and another created a barrier so the beasts would not get too close to the flames.
One glance at Arava, and I knew that she appreciated the flame. She’d nestled on the ground, right next to Lasvin, the snow-white pegasus that Thyra rode. Both tucked their hairy hooves beneath them and despite being midnight black and snow white, they looked very similar.
“I’ll be back soon,” I said to Arava as I crossed to the door. Her eyes had followed me, alert, perhaps wondering where I was going. “You need to rest. You earned it.” At my assurance, the pegasus relaxed and looked at the fire again.
“Should someone stay with them?” asked the rebel who’d lit the fire.
“I can.” Aleksander raised a hand. “I’ll be using Arla to continue to patrol the area while the rest of you search the homes and businesses she couldn’t get into. But I’ll hear if they need anything.”
If any one of us deserved a rest, he did. His white hawk had been patrolling the area for over a day. During that time, Aleksander had stayed awake to relay what Arla saw. Then he’d ridden here through the night to help. I thanked him as we left the home, and entered the street once more.
It took little effort to force our way into a home and less time to find the family who had lived there, all sharing a bed, likely for heat, embers burning in the hearth. All dead.
Though I’d known to expect this, my throat tightened as I took them in. “Do you think they died last night?”
“The fire suggests yes,” Vale replied.
“If only we’d moved faster.”
“We came as quickly as we could. Should we search for the Scepter?”
Thyra and I had told others about our secondary quest, and people were supposed to be keeping an eye open for the Scepter.
I shook my head. “This home is too bare; the family was probably poor. I cannot believe that it would be here when someone could easily sell it and improve their lot.”
Vale held out a gloved hand. “Come to the next one. There might still be survivors.”
I held out hope as we searched five more homes, none of which housed a single breathing inhabitant. Nor any sign of the Ice Scepter.
We walked past the inn where we’d stayed, and my eyes began to water.
Itham, the bard who had played us a song, was sitting in a chair outside, his instrument in hand.
He almost looked at peace. Like he’d known death was coming, and he’d exited the tavern to play a tune for the town. Vale took my hand.
“He didn’t deserve this. None of them did.”
We said nothing more as we approached the coinary. Nearly there, Luccan joined us, also pale-faced and somber. He didn’t have to speak for me to know that he had found only corpses too.
The door to the coinary hung open, a bad omen if there ever was one. Inside, there was no sound of coin being passed from hand to hand. No scratching of quills on parchment. No padding of leprechaun feet across the floor.
And as we strode deeper inside, my hope dimmed further. Two leprechauns had frozen at their desks. Were there more below?
Venturing deeper into the coinary gave us all pause. What if we triggered alarms? We had no intention of robbing vaults here, but there could be spells in place that only leprechauns could disable. Without one to guide us, we didn’t know.
Rubbing my hands up and down my arms, and ever so thankful for the many warm layers I wore, we approached the door that led down into the vaults.
We took the stairs slowly in case monsters had been released.
When we reached the bottom we found that the vaults in this coinary were very plain—there was no goldwork on the doors or ogres on guard.
Additionally, all of the vaults had been placed off of one main, circular room.
Laying between the vault doors were leprechauns who had taken refuge from the cold.
When my gaze fell upon one, Coinmaster Hyknas, my throat tightened.
She’d been the very leprechaun to help us here, and she looked stiff and blue.
It took only a brief assessment for us to know that they were all dead.
Swallowing down my sorrow, I pulled my gaze up to the vaults, seven in total. “The Scepter might be in one of these.”
Vale nodded. “If that’s the case, we’re out of luck. You need a leprechaun and the blood of the vault owner to open them.”
“We can’t know today, but if we don’t find it, we can try to get our hands on coinary records for vaults later,” Luccan added, his voice despondent.
“We’re racking up quite the criminal records,” Vale shook his head.
“Right,” I said, barely listening to them, and really just wanting to get out of this room. “Let’s see if the others have found anyone.”
Hearts heavy, we climbed the steps. We’d no sooner stepped out into the brilliant sunshine than someone called my name.
“Princess Neve! Prince Vale!” I twisted to find Freyia waving at us.
“Have you found people who need help?” I asked, hoping it to be true. Maybe a large group of neighbors had banded together, and against all odds, lived?
“Afraid not. No one has located a living soul. Thyra has found something odd, though. She wishes to have your opinion.”
“Show us the way.”
Freyia led us to the edge of the village, back to where the boarded-up mine sat waiting.
Thyra stood before the large mine door with Livia, Astril, Ulfiel—the part-fae, part-troll rebel who had pulled us out of the dungeons—and most shockingly, Thantrel.
Luccan popped an eyebrow at his brother, but Thantrel was watching Thyra with rapt attention.
She was too engaged with whatever she was doing to notice, so apparently, the youngest Riis was taking his opportunities when he got them.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
Thyra turned from the mountain; her ice-blue eyes wide. “I kept hearing whispers, and I think they’re coming from in there.” She pointed to the mine door.
Whispers. Others seemed bemused, but I followed her line of thinking.
Duran had found a passage claiming that the Hallows would interact, because they were all bonded in some way.
Sassa’s Blade and the Fr?r Crown had both whispered to me, and Thyra had heard the same from the sword when she used it.
I cast a glance at the bag hanging at her side.
“Did you try on the Crown again? Test your theory?”
“I did. Nothing.” Her face screwed up in brief annoyance before smoothing out again. “But I did notice that the metal is warmer. Did you feel anything? Hear anything?”
“No.” I’d been busy trying to find any sign of life.
“Is the sword reacting?”
I noted she didn’t offer for me to try on the hallowed diadem. Thyra was as protective over it as I was the Sword.
“Let me see.” I reached for the hilt of Sassa’s Blade to pull it from the sheath and froze.
“What is it?” Thyra said excitedly.
“It’s warm too. It’s never done this.” My heart rate kicked up a notch.
“This is it!” Thyra stared at the mine, determination laid bare on her face. “We need to get in there.”
“It’s boarded,” Luccan noted the obvious.
“We’ll pry the boards off.”
“Right, that wasn’t what I meant,” Luccan arched an eyebrow, “the boards are probably there for a good reason.”
“To hide the Ice Scepter,” Thyra retorted.
“More like monsters,” Vale supplied.
Thyra patted the leather satchel holding the Fr?r Crown rested inside. “That the Hallows are warm can’t be a coincidence. It has to be a reaction, right? We need to get in there and explore.”
“And what if that passage, or whatever is beyond the doors, really is there merely to keep monsters trapped in rock?” Freyia asked.
Thyra opened her mouth, clearly to argue, but the vampire held up a hand, halting her.
“I’m not saying that we shouldn’t look around.
Rather, I bring up monsters to suggest you take many with you.
Not only you, your sister, and us.” She gestured to her own sisters, as if it were a foregone conclusion that they’d come.
As two were members of our Valkyrja and the last was sworn to protect us, I supposed that wasn’t a bad conclusion.
“I’m going,” Vale, Thantrel, and Luccan said all at once.
Thyra did not argue with Thantrel, a testament to how badly she wanted to enter the tunnel. “Fine. Ulfiel will come as well. Someone get Caelo and Xillia too. We didn’t bring faelights, so we’ll need a pixie glow in the tunnels. No more, or it might get tight in there.”
Thyra had a point. In Dergia, some tunnels had barely been large enough for Vale to walk through.
Freyia entered the village to search for help and tell the others where we were going. When she left, I turned back to the boarded-up tunnel and wondered if today was the day that the long-lost Ice Scepter would be found.