Page 81 of Silverbow (The Godsung Saga #1)

forty

Liam

L iam followed the demi-elves through the wide stone corridors of the palace. Their footsteps rang down hallways lined with suits of armor. In others, they were swallowed up by the plush rugs lining the floors and the tapestries adorning the walls.

“Where are we going?” He asked in wonder as they passed through a room full of white marble sculptures.

“To Drozia,” Colm answered.

“Is this not Drozia?” He asked, waving a hand at the splendor.

“This,” Colm chuckled, “Is only the palace.”

Bade shouldered through a heavy door flanked by two suits of armor.

Liam gasped as he stepped out into the hollow belly of the mountain.

Hewn from the rock itself were winding streets and stairs that led up to the houses and shops stacked along the rough stone walls.

Warm light twinkled from thousands of windows that peered down at them and the gas lamps lining the street.

Voices and laughter echoed through the cavern as dwarves bustled about, spilling out of shops and market stalls. It was a city .

Beneath the quiet bustle, his ear picked up an odd mechanical clicking sound.

It drew louder as a wooden cart full of dwarves lumbered around a bend ahead.

It slowed, and they piled out, calling their farewells to their companions as they darted in different directions.

Liam leapt out of the way as the empty cart lumbered by on iron rails set in the floor.

“What is that?” He marveled.

“Minecarts. They will take you anywhere you want to go in the mountain, if you know which levers to pull.”

Levers.

“Wait until you get a load of the plumbing,” Aiden snorted.

“Plumbing?” But the question went unanswered as they arrived at a narrow landing that led to a low door they would have to duck through to enter.

Colm drew a heavy key from inside his cloak and fit it to a lock as Liam stared down the row of matching doors.

It was a townhouse, he realized, like the ones in the upper streets of Westforks.

“What is this place?” He asked as Colm pushed in the door.

“My home.”

The demi-elves kicked off boots and dropped bags in a narrow hallway lined with dark wood paneling.

Colm pushed through another small door that led into a sitting room.

A leather sofa and matching armchairs were drawn up around a fire crackling in the hearth.

Beyond it, Liam glimpsed a dining room where a spread of tea and sandwiches sat waiting.

Colm gestured to the fire and the food. “This is why we send word ahead.”

“The gnomes did all this?”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Colm laughed.

“Ridiculous. Right,” Liam muttered, as he followed Aiden to where he was stuffing a whole sandwich into his mouth.

Liam helped himself and followed Colm up the stairs to a small, cozy room with an attached bathing chamber. He pulled a tap, grinning, as water flowed from the wall. “The mountain provides all,” Colm said. “We’ll find you something to wear.”

“For what?”

“Dinner, of course. ”

Enya

Enya followed as Leon led them through winding halls and corridors, all of the same polished stone. They emerged in a damp, dimly lit cavern where two metal tracks lay in the floor and a heavy chain clicked.

Enya’s eyes went wide as a light appeared at the end of the dark tunnel.

A lantern hung on the front of a wooden cart that lumbered slowly along the track.

It was large enough to seat eight on its wooden benches, with a large open box behind it like a wagon.

Prince Leon swung a door open and jumped on the front bench to work a system of levers.

Oryn gestured for her to follow and closed the door before seating himself in the back.

“What is it?” She marveled.

“It’s a minecart,” Leon answered as it rolled on into the dark. “They were originally built to haul stone out of the way, but they run all through the city now.”

Enya ran her hands over the worn wood and realized that the bar before her was for holding on as the cart began to pick up speed.

She cast a look around at Oryn who seemed to lounge against his bench even as her stomach somersaulted and her knuckles went white.

Bloody gargoyle. Down and down they plunged, faster and faster, the cart rattling as Enya’s braid whipped behind her.

She clutched the bar for dear life as Leon casually rested a hand on a lever.

“Look up!” Oryn called over the wind in her ears.

She tipped her head back. Somewhere high above, little blue lights twinkled like thousands of stars. “What are they?” She asked.

“Glow worms.”

Enya swallowed her response as the cart plunged again and leveled out to emerge in a wide cavern.

Her head swiveled. It was like looking up at a glowing hive, lights flickering in the chambers cut into the stone.

The sounds of shovels and pickaxes rang in her ears, clanging over the low rumble of dwarves singing to their mountain.

She watched as great chunks of stone were loaded into the back of waiting carts like the one she sat in.

Leon pulled the levers where the track split and they plunged deeper beneath Drozia.

When Enya could see her breath, Oryn leapt gracefully from the lumbering cart with the saddlebags in hand and offered her an outstretched arm. She ignored it, trying to emulate his step, but her knees wobbled when she hit the hard stone. His face betrayed nothing as he set her back on her feet .

Guards in rich plum uniforms flanked an archway into the stone.

They nodded to their prince as he passed.

Leon marched through a labyrinth of halls that Enya lost track of long before they arrived at a pair of heavy iron doors flanked by more guards.

Two of them took out halves of an iron key that had to be fitted together to permit their entry and the clang of the doors at their backs sent a shiver down Enya’s spine.

They stood in a long, narrow hall bathed in the same warm torchlight as the rest of Drozia, but this one was lined with heavy iron doors.

They were unmarked except for small numbers.

Leon strode to the door marked 329, fished a great keyring from his pocket, and selected one that to Enya’s eye looked the same as all the others.

“This one is yours,” he said, fitting it to the lock. Torches set in brackets on the walls flared to life as the door swung in, illuminating a horde that made Enya’s breath catch. “We’ll leave you to it.”

She stepped tentatively over the threshold as if some alarm might go up.

She felt as if she were intruding. It didn’t feel like it belonged to her, even if Leon said it did.

Swallowing, she inched inside. Stones shelves were set into the walls from floor to ceiling, crammed with trunks, chests, and drawers.

A long narrow table piled with more treasure ran down the center of the vault.

Tentatively, Enya ran a finger through the dust atop a little set of wood drawers.

Touching anything felt wrong, but curiosity finally got the better of her.

She tugged one of the drawers open to find the velvet inlay littered with bracelets befitting a throne room.

She closed it hurriedly and opened another full of hair combs, still another with rings, and the final with necklaces.

Enya picked up a necklace with a ruby the size of a chicken egg and snorted a laugh that sounded maniacal when it echoed back to her in the vault.

She whirled, throwing open a chest full of gold.

Maia Trakbatten must have robbed Pallas blind.

Another laugh bubbled to her lips. Making a full circuit of the chamber, she came to rest before a shelf near the door where a finely worked tiara set with emeralds sat atop a bust of a woman.

Below it, another bust wore a delicately worked gold chain across the brow, an emerald suspended in the middle. Enya ran a finger over it carefully.

“Anala Trakbatten’s battle crown,” Oryn murmured from the door. Enya jumped, bumping into the table. A sack of gold spilled onto the floor stones, the clatter making her flinch. He turned to Leon, his brow raised. “I thought it was lost. ”

“You would be surprised what’s lost beneath the mountain, brother,” Leon answered wryly.

“May I?” Oryn asked, gesturing to the threshold.

He still carried the saddlebags with the dragon eggs.

Enya waved him in, bending to pick up the fallen gold.

She had knocked more on the floor than she had ever seen in her life.

She slipped a few coins into her purse as Oryn found a place to put them.

The minecart returned them to the palace and Leon began to ascend the wide staircases that led up into one of the many towers.

Enya caught glimpses of sky as they climbed, pausing at the windows that looked out into the vast blue.

Leon charged up unwinded and she caught Oryn wearing a smirk as she feigned interest in the view while she caught her breath.

A bloody smirk. By the time liveried guards were bowing them into the royal apartments, Enya had a hand braced on the stone, her knees shaking.

“Should I send for Alloralla?” Oryn asked quietly enough Leon didn’t hear. Enya shot him a glare that dared him to do it and he pressed his lips together holding in a laugh.

The doors opened into a wide, informal sitting room.

Tufted armchairs flanked a roaring hearth and an assortment of toys littered the layered rugs before the sofa.

A piano perched in the corner and somewhere deeper in the apartments, children were shouting.

Enya wasn’t sure what she expected of royal apartments, but this seemed so ordinary compared to the opulence she had passed in the halls.

She suppressed a shudder as Alsbet beckoned her toward a spiral staircase. “I trust you haven’t forgotten the way, Oryn.”