“Don’t be tricked. Some say that draugrs are held together by the magic of the stars and they’re notoriously difficult to kill.”
“Well, thank the stars, we needn’t try.”.
The corridor continued on, a ribbon of darkness before us, illuminated only by the faelights still following Balvor. After what felt like an age, but likely had been no more than five minutes, the leprechaun announced that we’d arrived.
The vault looked much the same as others, though with more space on either side. Larger, I guessed. On the door, a hawk made of gleaming silver spread its wings. Despite themany turns in which the vault had been closed, the silver had not tarnished.
“Let her in,” Bac commanded Balvor, and the leprechaun extended the cauldron to me.
As I’d seen Luccan open his own vault, I knew what to do. I drew blood and allowed it to drip into the cauldron, then the leprechaun did the same. Inhaling, I pressed my hand to the door.
The door to the vault glowed silver. A whirring that had not sounded at Luccan’s vault filled the dank hallway. Clicks followed, a lock disengaging.
The door opened on a groan, a musty scent washed out, and the first sight I got of the inside made my knees buckle. Luccan was rich with gold and gem-filled hills as tall as Vale, filling his vault.
The Falk vault, though, was a different monster. It was at least seven times larger than Luccan’s. And if Luccan had hills of gold and gems, the Falks possessedmountainsstraining to touch the stars.
“Fates,” Vale laughed with disbelief. “No wonder the king wished to get in here so badly. This vault could fund a lavish court life for many decades.”
“Astounding,” Caelo agreed. “Now how are we to find that crown, if it’s in this one?”
“Split up,” Freyia suggested, tossing her curtain of black hair over her shoulder as if she meant to get down to business. “Bac and Balvor can stay out here in case someone comes down here and asks questions. The rest of us will search.”
“Fine. Remember we’re looking for a silver crown, heavywith amethyst gems and a few larger diamonds. Many spikes off the top too,” I said, as though they hadn’t seen the drawing that Brynhild had shown us. “If it’s a Hallow, we should be able to tell the difference between it and other crowns. It will have magic.”
What magic, she was not sure, a smithyhadfelt the shadow magic in Sassa’s Blade. Though considering I had to spill a lot of blood to activate the powers, I wasn’t so sure they were useful.
I hoped the Frør Crown was a more powerful Hallow. Anything to help us in our fight against Magnus.
We entered the vault, Tanziel trailing close behind me. Aside from the mountains of riches, a line of three swords, hilts gleaming and glittering, caught my eyes.
“They no doubt have tales,” Vale said, longing in his tone.
“I’d love to fight with those. They’re beautiful,” Caelo added, his eyes covetous.
If I had my way, I’d let them take the swords. But we needed to slip out of here without issue and leaving with three swords when we arrived with none was not exactly an inconspicuous exit. Especially if the Coinmasters recognized these swords as belonging to House Falk and not House Riis. That seemed a long shot, but I would not put it past the leprechauns and their meticulous accounting.
“Another day.” I smiled at the soldiers. “For now, we search.”
We split up, each taking portions of the enormous vault. Only a few minutes of searching passed when Freyia let out a string of curses.
“What happened?” I asked. We’d not gone so far into the vault that the vampire had disappeared behind all the gold. She appeared unharmed.
“Nothing. But have you noticed that everything in here has a replica?” She gestured at two identical shields, and then two twin goblets.
“Are you sure?”I looked back at Tanziel, as if she’d answer, but she was busy recording me.
“Bleeding skies, I think she’s right!” Caelo shouted from across the room. “I thought I was going crazy, but no, each item has a twin.”
“It’s a common great house trick,” Vale said. “Make identical treasures so thieves won’t know which is real. When the thief leaves, if they’ve taken the wrong one, it becomes ash.”
“You didn’t think to mention that?” I scoffed.
“We planned to show you the Frør Crown before leaving anyway, and you’ll be able to tell,” Vale said. “There will be an imprint on the real thing, and you will recognize it.”
That appeased me, but only slightly. I now had double the amount of objects to sift through. So far, we’d been lucky. But what if another Coinmaster ventured down here to check on Luccan and Balvor? Luccanwasan elite client. What would they do if we weren’t at the Riis vault?
With vigor, I walked deeper down the narrow paths between mountains of gold, searching up and down. Luccan flew above, searching for the diadem.
