Soon, I’d officially announce myself as Isolde Falk to the whole kingdom. Preferably when we were safe at Riis Tower—or perhaps just after, if we found a need to return toAvaldenn, which I was against. Either way, there would soon come a time when I’d shed the name Neve and reclaim the one I was born with. The name I’d known since the human slave, Emilia, an old friend of my mother’s, had identified me in the hidden parts of Frostveil Castle. A name I had not completely believed was mine until my mother, Queen Revna, came to me in a vision. The time to come to terms with my royal name and the changes in the new trajectory of my dreams and my entire life had been necessary, if frustrating.
I smiled at that as I filled my skin, content with my choice. Also content to allow myself that secret for another day or two.
“Shall we eat here too?” Princess Bavirra asked as she petted her horse. The dwarven horses were smaller than the ones we’d arrived with. Small and stout, much like the dwarves themselves. “I’mstarving.”
“A good idea,” Thordur replied. “From here on out, we’ll travel the same tunnel, but it’s smaller than the rest and there’s no good stopping point.”
“What time is it anyway?” Anna asked, looking above at the rock that encased us as if she’d be able to spy the sun.
“Midday.” Prince Thordur shrugged. “I can’t be certain, but you’ll arrive in Eygin before the supper hour.”
That was enough for me. We unwrapped the provisions we’d been carrying and took seats on large rocks that littered the sides of the tunnel.
“How far do these tunnels stretch?” Caelo asked.
We already knew the dwarves had dug beneath entire mountains. The tunnels were not only a means of keepingtheir existence a secret, but simply a smart idea. Cutting through the mountains, rather than going over them and fighting snow, altitude, and creatures that made the mountains their home, was far preferable. Dwarves were a rather ingenious race of fae.
“As far north as Sisival, and our western tunnels go all the way to the sea.” Thordur took a large bite of his hunk of cheese. “Though many of the western tunnels are collapsed in areas thanks to so many frost giants in the Ice Tooth Range. They destroyed a lot of our tunnels. Probably without even knowing they were there.”
“Tothe sea. Skies, Thordur.” Vale shook his head. “Your people never cease to amaze.”
“Don’t forget it.” The prince quipped with an easy grin.
I sipped my water and stretched out my legs in front of me. We’d stopped two other times, at official dwarven junctions, which were basically small villages lining the tunnels. At the junctions, soldiers remained on rotation in case malicious creatures had found their way into the tunnels. Beings like orcs or ogres sometimes did, and the tunnels gave them an easy means of infiltrating Dergia.
The soldiers at the junctions had been elated to see us and their royals. They’d happily offered us a place at their hearth, which had gone a long way in making the ride more comfortable.
We finished eating, refilled the skins once more, and were about to ride when the horses began whinnying.
Vale looked to Caelo. “What’s happening?”
Caelo’s blue eyes narrowed, and I got the sense that hewas using his magic to speak to one of the mounts. “Something’s approaching. They?—”
The surrounding rocks began to shake, and my heart rate soared. Was the mountain collapsing around us?
Stars, I’d considered a lot of scenarios when I’d been told we were to ride all day through underground tunnels, but collapse hadn’t been one of them. I’d been too confident in dwarven craftsmanship and mining to think that possible.
“Which way should we go?” Vale asked, sounding far calmer than I felt.
Thordur did not answer right away. Instead, he reached out and touched the rock. Only a moment passed before he exhaled. “A mullrokk is coming. Be ready to move should it appear close by, but don’t worry otherwise. It won’t harm us if we don’t startle it.”
“I’ll tell the horses,” Caelo said.
“A what?” I asked just as some thirty paces away, rocks from a sidewall began to fall.
I spun to take in the direction we’d come from in time to see rocks exploding across the tunnel and an opening appear. From the depths of the mountain appeared a creature so ugly that I recoiled.
“It’s hideous,” Anna whispered. “Look at its teeth!”
Bavirra laughed softly. “Rock moles aren’t pretty, and we don’t want them near our cities beneath the mountain for they might destabilize the rock, but they’re gentle creatures. Necessary for the health of the mountain too.”
I’d take her word for it because I was with Anna on this one. The mole was as tall as two stacked horses and as wide as three horses walking side by side. Milky eyes hinted thecreature was blind, but its large nose likely made up for having no vision. Its claws scooped up rocks the size of my head and the mole tossed them into its mouth. I gaped as, with reddish-brown teeth, the creature chewed the rocks as though they were well cooked vegetables.
“I’ll take a run in with a mullrokk any day over an ice spider or an ogre,” Thordur added.
“And it moves on!” Bavirra smiled as the mullrokk began digging into the opposite side of the tunnel with its large claws.
The claws had to be metal or a similarly hard substance. It seemed to take little effort for the mole to dig a hole into the wall.
