Chapter 52 – Vale
Chapter 52
VALE
T hanks to the punishing pace Neve set for the mountains, dusk neared as we closed in on Gersemi Mine. We had only needed to slow when we entered the mountains and the roads narrowed to allow for single-file travel, but if my little beast had it her way, we would have galloped for ten straight hours.
I’d never been more enamored with my wife.
“How far now?” Neve called out to the guide riding in front of her.
I tossed a smile over my shoulder at Caelo, who returned my grin with an amused shake of his head. He, too, enjoyed seeing my wife take the reins.
“Around this corner coming up, Princess Neve,” said the guide, a male dwarf of around my wife’s age.
I took the guide’s race and the vast quantities of food and water we’d been sent off with as a sign of Staret Celi’s goodwill. Or intense fear. Either way, it worked in our favor .
Dwarves hailed from one of the two mountain ranges that bordered Winter’s Realm. And though, over time, many of those dwarven mountain kingdoms had fallen, the dwarves understood the mountains and the pathways cutting through the great rocks better than most other races of fae.
“Thank goodness we’re close,” Anna piped up from the back. “My legs are exhausted.”
“Riding all day will do that,” Caelo agreed, shifting the quiver full of arrows on his back. Mine wasn’t rubbing, but his motion was a good reminder to move, so I did the same. If you did not adjust your quiver every so often, you might wind up with a rash you didn’t even feel coming. “You did well.”
“I learn from the best.” Pride laced Anna’s voice.
While I was not used to being around a human in this way, during our journey west, Anna had grown on me. When we were not so rushed, I looked forward to getting to know my wife’s best friend better. Perhaps even becoming friends with her myself.
“Slow!” The guide pulled back on his horse’s reins. “Take this corner with great care. Parts of the road have eroded, and it’s even narrower than what we’ve been riding on. In this spot, it’s easy to fall off the side of the mountain.”
The path we’d taken was already quite narrow. How did they get wagons up here to transport the gold and minerals?
“Should we risk it?” Neve stared over the edge of the mountain, into the wooded area below .
The guide replied, “Follow me and you will be fine.”
“No,” I said, recognizing an option that the dwarf did not, perhaps because it was not available to him. “Those who can fly will do so, leading the horses by the reins.”
The dwarf frowned. “I will manage on my own.”
Stubborn arse didn’t want to be picked up. Fine, it was his life. “Do what you will. Anna, we’ll come back for you and your horse.”
The guide rode ahead, proving he could manage, while Neve, Caelo, and I teased our wings out of the slits in our cloaks. It might cost us a few minutes of daylight, but I did not regret my caution. The dwarf could gamble with his life. I would not do so with those under my protection. Especially not the one I loved.
Neve shivered and took her horse’s reins. “It’s colder with your wings out.”
“They’re sensitive,” I agreed, already feeling winter’s bite on the tender membranes, though my wings had only been exposed for a minute. “The sooner we get around the bend, the sooner we can tuck them away.”
Neve slowly began guiding her horse around the corner. I breathed a sigh of relief when, from the other side, she called out that she’d made it.
I went next, leading my horse along. Thankfully, the horses were all well-trained and though I sensed the steed’s anxiety rising, we made it around the bend where the path widened before the fear could catch. Caelo’s crossing was even easier. He possessed elven blood and was undoubtedly using those powers to calm his animal.
Only Anna remained .
“I’ll carry her,” Neve offered.
“You’re sure?” I asked.
“She wouldn’t like you doing it. She barely knows you.”
“Hopefully, that will change soon.”
Neve beamed at me. “I hope so too.”
Caelo followed, in charge of Anna’s horse, and it took only a moment before Neve fluttered around the corner with Anna wrapped around her body. Caelo followed in short order.
“That was a production,” the dwarf muttered.
“We didn’t grow up on the side of a mountain, so shut it,” Caelo barked.
The dwarf shrugged and waited for the rest of us to mount our horses before we carried on.
For the first time, the scene below was not overtaken by trees but rather a pocket of land that had been forested and dug out. The mine spread before us, just down the mountainside.
Neve leaned over her horses’ neck and studied the area. “Looks like they’ve already shut down for the day, though.” She squinted below. “Where are the houses? The people?”
According to the guide, the mine workers lived outside of Guldtown, closer to the mines in which they worked.
“I don’t know, Princess Neve,” the guide said. “I’ve never come this far.”
“What?” My wife’s eyes flared. “Then why were you given to guide us?”
“My father, afterworld bless him, used to come with the lord. For much of the journey, it is the same as going to visit an old dwarf village where my family is from. I’ve been there to pay respects, and one visit, Father told me the way to the mines. In great detail too, hence why I knew about the eroded portion. Father liked to be detailed when it came to the mountains. Anyway, as you’ve seen, once you are on this road, there are no others until you reach the mine.”
“Yes, I wonder at that,” I said. “How do the wagons take the gold to the city?”
The dwarf shrugged.
My eyebrows pinched together. I knew little about the Lisika mines, but I would expect a person from the west to know more.
Then again, he does live in the city—on castle grounds, at that.
“There has to be another road,” Caelo offered. “Perhaps one farther west.”
“Must be,” I agreed.
Again, the dwarf shrugged. “Down?”
“Down,” Neve agreed.
Progress was slow, but that gave us the opportunity to take in the mine and any activity that might arise. On the last count, I remained confused. As my wife had observed, no one was outside. Nor any homes.
How could there be an active mine if there were no people to work it?
The guide twisted. “I’m not sure where to go from he?—”
An arrow bolted through his gut and the dwarf fell forward, off his horse and onto the trail. The horse skittered a few paces down the path, her eyes wide and rolling.
“Neve!” I barked, my heart rate spiking. “Move!”
In an instant, the bow I’d taken from Roar’s castle and attached to my saddle was in one hand, an arrow from my quiver in another. I knew without checking that Caelo had mirrored me, and I scanned the area down the path. Movement behind a tree that dangled from the side of the mountain gave away our attacker.
“Come out. Do not shoot, and you’ll live.” I nocked.
The attacker did not appear.
I pulled back my arrow. “One more chance.”
A person leapt out from behind the tree, landing on the path, his arrow drawn and ready to fly. But they were too slow. The instant I’d seen the weapon, my own arrow was steaming through the air.
It sunk into the attacker’s heart, and they fell to the snow, staining the white red.
“Bleeding skies,” Neve whispered.
Something wasn’t right. Why were we being shot at?
“Sentries,” I motioned to Caelo. “The road widens considerably from here on out. If it’s easier to travel for us, it is for them too. There might be more.”
“What about the dwarf?” Neve asked.
I gazed down at the guide. There was nowhere to put his body, but she was right. We couldn’t leave him.
I dismounted and went to the dwarf. Hefting his body was easy. Easier than coaxing his horse to me, which necessitated Caelo’s assistance. Finally, I slumped the body over the horse. It was the best I could do .
“Caelo, go first. This horse is trained to follow.”
Wordlessly, Caelo readied his weapon again and took the lead. My wife rode after Caelo. I ushered Anna behind her and fell in line, my weapon at the ready. I spared only a glance to find that the horse carrying the body had indeed followed before I focused on the trail again and on the threats that might be lurking.
And thank the stars we were prepared, for as we descended the mountainside, three more archers, none of them particularly skilled, attacked. One by one, Caelo and I felled them.
When the last met the snow, Neve’s horse stopped. She dismounted.
I stiffened. “Get back on your horse!”
“They’re dead, Vale,” she called back as she approached the body.
“Look out,” I said to Caelo because I wasn’t about to take my eyes off my wife.
Neve knelt next to the body and turned it over. Blood stained the male’s chest, already seeping into the cloak he wore. It took only a moment for Neve to stand, her face pale.
“He’s human .”
“Excuse me?” Surely, I’d misheard.
“This is a human. Rounded ears, no lingering magical imprint whatsoever. And he hasn’t been dead long enough for it to be completely gone.”
“That makes no sense.”
In this kingdom, humans were only slaves. Or in rare cases like Emilia, servants. They were allowed to work only in the Tower, the House of Wisdom, and noble homes, for there they would always have shelter, food, and protection. Out on the free market, it was not guaranteed that a human would ever be hired for work when many fae looked down on their kind.
Neve mounted her horse again. “I have a bad feeling. Let’s get down there.”
Still alert, we rode down into the carved-out portion of the mine. In the crater, I looked at the mountains surrounding us, their sharp peaks towering above.
There was nowhere for people to live. There had to be another road out of here, probably the same one for the wagons carrying gold to Guldtown.
“I would say let’s look around”—Neve turned her horse on the spot—“but as far as I can see, there’s nowhere to go. I—oh!” She pointed.
A female, dressed in thin clothing, walked out of the entrance into the mountainside. She was running quickly and did not see us.
“What is she doing?” Anna whispered.
Her question was answered a moment later when the female scurried up the crater that dipped into the dug-out mine and darted inside the trees. The human pulled down her pants and fell into a squat. I averted my eyes, as did Caelo. My wife and Anna, however, did not.
“Once she’s done, we need to speak with her,” Neve said.
“I think there may be a problem with that.” Anna pointed. “She’s spotted us.”
“She’s running!” Neve hissed. “Come on! ”
She was about to run her horse, but galloping up the steep crater was risky for them.
“Fly,” I said, and Neve didn’t miss a beat.
She pulled her feet from the stirrups and soared. I followed behind her. We caught up with the female, and I flew up behind, ripping the female off her feet. That allowed me a first look.
A dirt-covered, thin face. Furious eyes. Rounded ears.
“Let me go!” the female—no, the woman—howled and kicked wildly. “Let me go!”
“We want to ask you a question,” Neve said, landing and trying to appear calm, despite the fact that we’d chased the woman down. “Please. We don’t want to harm you.”
“Then let me go! I need to get back to work!”
“Work?” Neve sucked in a breath. “In the mines?”
“No, at one of the lovely shops just round the corner.” The woman ceased her kicking and flailing long enough to scowl at me. “What else is there around here?”
“Seemingly not much,” I said. “But you’re human.”
“Well spotted.”
I blew out a frustrated breath. “Why would you be working the mines and not fae?”
The woman stilled again, and this time, a dry laugh rang out of her. “The only fae I see are the lord and the few he brings with him. Fae don’t work, mines. Humans do.”
“That—is not what the rest of the kingdom thinks.”
“Where is the village?” Neve asked .
“Village?” The woman’s eyebrows pinched together. “Days away? I don’t know. Everyone stays in the mines.”
Neve stared at the woman for a moment before her gaze lifted to meet mine. “This makes no sense.”
“Agreed.” I murmured. “Lord Roar is supposed to be here. Where is he?”
For the first time, her scowl fell from her face. “My lord is where everyone else is—inside the mine.”