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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 withthe 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.