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 Frør 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 Frør 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.
Chapter 43
VALE
Lit up like a living faelight, Xillia the pixie led the way through the dark, wide tunnels.
Every so often the twins asked if she was fine to continue flying, or if Xillia’s wings needed to warm. The pixie brushed off their every worry, claiming the light she emitted warmed her, which I thought was lucky. Despite the lack of wind, the cold inside the mountain only deepened.
