Page 70 of On a Barbarian World

She looked around at the warriors watching them. Right, she so did not want to have this conversation here. “It’s about finding the sword. For you, your family, your father, your people. I’d do anything to honor my mother. I understand what you’re trying to do, and I’m not giving up.” She thrust her hands on her hips and looked around. “The tunnels continue downward. We just have to figure out where.”

Kavon was silent for a second, then nodded, his eyes glowing. “Warriors, we search.”

The men scrambled, studying every inch of their surroundings. Aurina stared at the metal and wood track. She crouched to look closer. It was an interesting design, the metal wrapped around the wood. As she touched the metal, it glowed, and she snatched her hand back.

“Nanami,” Kavon said. “They infuse the metal. That is why the track in this part of the mine is in such good condition.”

She touched a design etched into the side of the track. “This almost looks like writing. You really have to⁠—”

The ground beneath them dropped several inches.

The warriors cried out and Aurina lost her balance, falling squarely on her ass. She snatched up her fallen light wand and looked around. A five-by-five-meter square of stone had dropped down in the floor. As she watched, it dropped another few inches.

Kavon hauled her up and wrapped his arms around her. “We need to get off this⁠—”

The platform dropped…and this time it didn’t stop.

It picked up speed, air rushing past them. As they whizzed downward, the warriors shouted. All around them was a vast, empty darkness.

Viken teetered on the edge of the platform, crying out. The others grabbed at him, but as the platform gathered speed, the warrior lost his balance and fell off the edge.

Colm knelt at the edge before bellowing a curse.

Aurina gasped and pressed her face against Kavon’s chest.

He muttered a curse against her hair, his arms tightening around her.

She wasn’t sure how long they fell. It felt like hours, but in reality she knew it must have only been a few minutes. The platform started to slow. The warriors all crouched near the center, hands touching the ground to keep their balance.

Then it jerked to a stop, and she was thrown against Kavon.

She pulled back.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

She nodded. He looked fine, his long hair windblown.

“Colm?” Kavon asked.

“Fine.” The warrior stood, his face a little pale. “Viken—” His voice was grim. “The fall was too high to have survived.”

Oh, God. She swallowed the lump in her throat. The warrior had been nice, in the prime of his life.

A muscle ticked in Kavon’s jaw before he gave a short nod. “We can’t grieve for him now. He may not have been fighting an enemy, but it was a warrior’s death. On an honorable quest.”

The other warriors nodded, bowing their heads.

Finally, they all stepped off the platform and Aurina looked around. She gasped.

The platform was an elevator. She could see the framework and some complicated system that worked it. They’d descended deep below the mountain and were now in a giant cavern. This deep, the air was hot and thick.

And she could see.

The walls of the cavern all glittered with a shimmer of silver. Like the rocks were sprinkled with glitter.

“A primitive form of nanami,” Kavon breathed.

“I swear, if you could bottle and sell the stuff, you’d be the wealthiest planet in the galaxy.” She looked around, noting dozens of mine carts nearby. Some were still loaded with a sparkling ore.