“Seriously, how big is this guy’s territory,” Rayne panted. “Feels like we’ve walked the length of Torid ten times over and we’re still not there yet.”

  “Rural nobles have enormous territories,” Leon stated primly. “Their holdings may be vast, but a lot of it is either barren land yet to be developed, or small townships that do not offer much by way of taxes. Once the land is developed, it’s not rare for them to lose a portion of their territory to prevent any one noble from gaining too much influence.”

  Rayne gazed sourly at him as he wiped the sweat from his brow. “I’m getting the sense that your family were rural nobles.”

  A shifty look crossed Leon’s face, but he was spared the trouble of answering by Syra, who still looked completely unfazed despite the nearly four hours of walking in the broiling summer heat they’d done today.

  “Not much further,” she promised, which caused Rayne to perk up.

  “How do you know?”

  Pointing westward, Syra indicated the large hills that loomed above them. They were not quite mountains, but each was several hundred feet high, and they formed the spine of a range of foothills that spanned for miles. “Because those are the Silvent hills, and that’s where we’ll find the mine.”

  According to the baron’s directions, the mine was in the Silvent hills, and true to Syra’s words, they were almost there. After journeying another hour, they finally left the path behind, following a well-worked road with deep grooves cut into it from cart wheels that led into the foothills.

  The hills were rather barren, with nary a tree or tall fern in sight. Instead, they were covered in shale, loose rock that had a nasty tendency to slip out from underfoot and send the unready tumbling back down the hill, as well as scrub. Small, tangled bushes poked out here and there from amidst the rocks, the hardy vegetation doing its best to survive in this inhospitable land.

  Above them, the sky was a gloomy shade of gray, with dense clouds whose color was that light gray that did not threaten rain, but merely prevented the sun from shining freely down. There were no gaps in the cloud cover today, and the atmosphere was suitably dull as they picked their way over the hills in order to find their destination.

  Now that they had entered the foothills, it was not hard to spot the mine. Invisible from the road, upon the southern face of the closest hill was an ugly gash carved directly into the land. Abandoned mine carts rested outside, some overturned, others still full of rocks and ore—the legacy of a workday interrupted.

  No monsters were visible outside, but the party advanced in silence with weapons drawn, smoothly entering into a well-practiced formation as they entered the mine itself. Leon was at the head of the group, greatsword held in a defensive stance to receive any sudden attacks from those that had taken over this place.

  Behind him was Rayne, his bow on his back and sword in hand. Normally, he would have had an arrow at the ready, but in this enclosed space, a blade was more likely to be useful than the range of the bow.

  Syra took up the rear, her head on a swivel as she watched for any hidden tunnels or stealthy monsters. They’d been ambushed before, on a job about three weeks back where some goblins had hidden themselves in the tall grass and had gotten atop Rayne after the other two had advanced. He’d managed to survive, albeit at the cost of a good bit of blood, and Syra had apologized profusely as a result, even though Rayne had insisted that they all bore responsibility for missing the ambush.

  Either way, she had been even more vigilant since then, and Rayne had to admit that having her focus on the job of scout made his own role much easier. After all, it was hard to concentrate or come up with a plan with the threat of long-knived goblins around every corner and behind every bush.

  Back to the matter at hand though, the mine did not seem to possess side passages from which to stage ambushes, at least not in the first section where they now found themselves.

  Tall wooden shorings held the ceiling in place, their sturdy frames inscribed with runes that offered increased resistance to the millions of tons of dirt that they were holding up. Magical lamps provided light, burning dimly in the darkness. They were not bright, only shining enough light to see what was rock and what was not, but he was thankful for it. Had it been completely dark, they would have had to carry torches, and that was just asking to be filled with spears and arrows by enemies lurking in the dark.

  The walls themselves were scraped clean, with visible evidence of pickaxe blows, and other machinery that had been used to excavate for ore. Flashes of silver shone through, tiny streaks and miniature veins that were evidently not worth mining right now. Either way, they shone enticingly in the light, and Rowan admired the effect as light reflected off the pale metal, casting strange shadows where it met the abandoned mining gear.

  Torches, shorings, mining equipment… And there were bodies. Rayne’s nose detected them before his eyes, unaccustomed as they were to the gloom, but the stench of decomposing corpses was unmistakable. Only a hundred feet into the mine, they ran into their first: a man in full mining regalia, his eyes wide in fear with hands outstretched towards the entrance. A trail of blood was visible behind him, extending for several feet before disappearing. Large smears were left where the man had pulled his body over the rough ground in a last desperate attempt to survive before succumbing to his wounds.

  “He’s been dead at least a day,” Syra reported, bending down to investigate the corpse. “Less than two though, seeing as how the blood hasn’t pooled beneath the skin yet.”

  “That tracks with what the baron told us,” Rayne mused. “Any sign of what killed him?”

  “It used a weapon, so likely goblins or some other type of intelligent monster,” she replied.

  Leon leaned forward to examine the corpse more closely. “This was done with an axe. And…” He frowned, then pointed to the calf. “There’s a wound here. That’s the work of a spear. He was stabbed in the leg, then allowed to drag himself to here before being finished off with an axe. What vicious monsters.”

  “So spears, axes…” Rayne shook his head. “Sounds like we’re dealing with a group of some sort then. Can’t tell how organized they are just from this, though. It could just be some stray monsters banding together, or it could be a proper tribe like those kobolds at Maggor’s Wood.” He frowned, staring down the mineshaft into the gloom. “Come on, let’s keep going.”

  There were more corpses up ahead, including two guards, distinguished by their tabards and destroyed armor, though their weapons had been taken. The rest were laborers, and a wide variety of wounds were visible upon their ruined bodies. Leon identified sword, axe, spear, and hammer wounds, as well as a few oddly triangular wounds that he could not identify.

  This last weapon was revealed when they found the body of a miner, his pickaxe still at his side. Or in his side, rather.

  “I’m surprised he died to this,” Rayne commented. “It looks like a miner injury.”

  The glare Syra gave him felt like it was piercing through his back, and Leon looked on at him disapprovingly.

  “That injury is anything but minor,” he stated. “It’s pierced straight through his liver and kidney, as well as all the other organs in that area. It would have been immediately fatal without treatment.”

  It was an over-the-top answer to a terrible pun, but Rayne let it slide. No need to poke the bear any further. Syra still looked like she wanted to take him to task for it, but he was saved the need by a noise up ahead.

  “Weapons at the ready,” Leon ordered. “Follow my lead.”

  With that short line, he charged, his greatsword held like a spear over his shoulder. The ceiling was too low for him to swing it, but it seemed that he had immediately adapted. Rayne followed his charge, sword by his side as he sprinted toward the source of the sound.

  Two monsters stood in the shadows created by one of the lamps—a goblin and a kobold. Both were in the midst of drawing their weapons when Leon arrived, and he impaled the goblin through the neck before it could get the club from its belt.

  The kobold leapt to the side to avoid Leon’s charge, but that put it square in the sights of Rayne, whose own blade plunged into its right shoulder. Not a mortal blow, but more than enough to elicit a howl of pain as the kobold swung its left hand at him, claws glinting in the lamplight as it sought to tear out his throat.

  Unwilling to let this happen, Rayne leapt backwards, and Syra took his place, driving her twin blades into the chest of the kobold as she ducked under its swing. An unwilling expression graced the kobold’s scaly maw, but it was too late. With a vicious twist of her swords, she sent it to the afterlife, returning calm to the mineshaft once again.

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  The entire exchange was over in an instant. From the time that they had noticed the monsters to the kobold falling had taken less than twelve seconds, and the trio ducked low, scanning the shaft ahead for any sign of other monsters.

  Baron Wilcoup had stated that the surviving miner had reported at least twenty monsters, but no others emerged to avenge their fallen comrades.

  “We’ll get the kill confirmation on our way back out,” Rayne decreed.

  There was no point harvesting ears or hands now when their enemies could stumble upon them at any second, and the other two agreed. Leaving the bodies where they had fallen, they advanced, completely silent now that they had confirmed the enemies to still be present.

  As they walked, Rayne spied a few small alcoves, each of which they approached cautiously. They were only a few feet high, and about twice as deep, but they provided the perfect cover for a monster looking to attack them as they went by, and so each had to be thoroughly examined before moving on.

  Though they looked to be handmade, with rough cut walls and rugged shelves, the entrances looked more like a cave-in. The rock had been destroyed in a very violent way, which was at odds with the worked stone inside. Either way, no monsters or anything else resided inside, and so after checking each one, they moved on.

  More enemies were found ahead, this one a group composed purely of goblins. There were seven of them in all, and they were dispatched easily, but not as quickly as the pair before. The added time allowed reinforcements to arrive, drawn by the sounds of battle, and no sooner had the last goblin fallen did three more arrive, accompanied by five kobolds.

  “Charge!” Leon thundered, his voice booming throughout the tunnel. As he charged this new group, his sword took on a flaming glow, and he swept it across the two foremost goblins, bisecting them from hip to shoulder with a rising diagonal slash.

  Reversing his grip, he cut horizontally this time, forcing one kobold to duck and decapitating another that was not so quick. Then Rayne and Syra arrived, and he switched back to stabs, acting like a soldier in the phalanx as he meted out swift death to any monster in sight.

  Beside him, Rayne used Leon’s overbearing presence to mask his own. The flaming blade could not help but draw attention, which meant that the kobold in front of him was not paying sufficient attention to the blade before it. Activating Keen Edge, Rayne swung hard, forcing it to block awkwardly with its spear. Before it could retreat to gain distance for a stab of its own, he swung again, aiming for the same place. This time, his sword passed through the block, the sharpened edge cutting clean through the wood and into the neck of the surprised lizard.

  Two more went down to Leon, and another fell to Syra, its decapitated head rolling across the floor with a look of shock etched on its features. That left only two enemies standing, and seeing that they were outmatched, they turned and fled.

  Of course, Rayne was not about to let them fetch their allies, and more importantly, neither were Leon or Syra. With bounding steps, Syra closed on the first and cut it down from behind, the lizard uttering not so much as a cry as her swords entered its back. The other was dealt with by Leon, who simply bisected his target, separating its right from its left in a single cleaving strike.

  With that, the fight was over. Once more, they left the bodies where they’d fallen, advancing further down the mineshaft. Now that they were deep inside the hill, the shaft had taken to making sudden turns. Intersections would pop up every now and again, but always with one way shut off by a large quantity of rubble, which made navigation easy. Simply follow the mineshaft, wherever it led.

  Two more collapsed alcoves were found, both just as empty as the others. Each had fresh rubble around the bottom, as if they had been smashed recently, as opposed to that which blocked the various intersections and tunnels in the mineshaft that had obviously lain there for weeks or even months undisturbed.

  The air was thick with particulate, dust kicked up from the floor lingering in the air and entering their lungs with each breath. Small vents in the ceiling helped funnel fresh air into the mine, aided by what Rayne assumed were runes carved into the walls beneath the lamps. But it was still far stuffier in here than outside, and he found himself growing exhausted at a much faster rate than usual.

  “That wasn’t all of them, was it?” Syra asked, staring around the corner where the mineshaft took a ninety degree turn to the right. “Baron-guy said there were at least twenty, but we’ve only killed seventeen. Where are the others?”

  Peering around the corner as well to make sure that it was indeed clear, Rayne pursed his lips. “I’m not sure, but they should be in here somewhere. The last group we fought had two runners, and I doubt they’d flee if there wasn’t something in here that they thought could protect them.” He shook his head, crossing his arms as he stared at yet another destroyed alcove to their left. “I’m more concerned about what they’re doing in here. What do monsters want with a silver mine?”

  Surprisingly, it was Leon who answered.

  “Same thing as us. Silver has few practical uses, and it is not a particularly impressive mana conductor. Simply put, it is a metal with assumed value, and so it is coveted,” he explained.

  They continued for a short while before Syra asked the obvious question. “Wouldn’t they only want the actual metal, though? How do they smelt it?”

  Leon opened his mouth, but paused as he thought of an answer. Eventually, he spoke. “Admittedly, a mine is a strange target. Perhaps they were simply looking for a mine to call home, or perhaps they discovered the origin of silver in the region and did not consider the metallurgy process.” There was a twinge of uncertainty in his voice as he elaborated, but happenstance was just as likely as anything else in Rayne’s mind. Not everything had some grand reason, sometimes things just happened.

  They continued on for a while longer, the uniform shafts of the mine offering little indication of how far they walked. There was nothing to do but march on and stare blankly at their surroundings.

  “Wait,” Syra called a halt to their procession, and both Rayne and Leon turned to look at her.

  Rather than gaze back at them, they found her staring at the wall, peering intently at the rock as if it held some great secret.

  “Syra—” Rayne began, but she shushed him.

  “Quiet, don’t you see this?”

  Tilting his head, Rayne examined the rock face. It looked exactly like every other stretch of rock in this gods forsaken mine, but Syra would not call a halt unnecessarily, and so he focused in an attempt to see what had caused her to issue such an order.

  Without proper light, he couldn’t make much out; however, now that he stared more closely, there did seem to be something slightly off about the wall. Nothing he could place his finger on, but there was something there.

  Beside him, Leon shook his head. “I don’t see anything,” he rumbled.

  Syra waved him off. “Go stand guard, then. Something’s telling me that this is important.”

  With that, she went silent once more, her eyes never leaving the wall. With a shrug, Leon turned to stare down the mineshaft, defending them from any would-be ambushers. Together, Rayne and Syra examined the wall, running their hands over it, peering at it from less than an inch away, and poring over it in every way that might extol it to yield its secrets.

  “There,” Syra said suddenly, pointing at a specific spot about half a foot below Rayne’s chest.

  Bending down, he followed her fingertip, looking closely at the wall. For a moment, he didn’t see anything, then he saw it. It was faint, but there was a hairline crack in the stone, a uniform one that ran straight down to the floor. Far too clean to be naturally made, it was clearly the work of stoneworkers, and a few inches above where Syra had pointed, it met another line, this one horizontal.

  Following this new line, they found a second vertical crack, identical to the first, and Rayne was the first to speak.

  “It’s a doorway,” he breathed. “Or a door, at least,” he amended, staring at the dimensions for a little longer. Only four feet high and three feet wide, it was practically invisible against the stone wall of the mine, their struggle to find it a testament to the skill with which it had been made.

  “Yeah, but how do we open it?” Syra grumbled. She was currently attempting to push her fingers into the cracks, but they were far too fine for her to find any purchase. She tried her swords next, which fit, but after pushing until they were near the point of fracturing, she was forced to give up on that route as well.

  An idea struck Rayne, and he motioned to her. “Move over.”

  Obediently, she complied, and he knelt before the door, running his hand over the surface of the door itself. Just as he’d suspected, there was a small indent on the lower right surface of the door, barely more than a blip, but his fingers felt it. It was triangular in shape, and he immediately stood up, jogging back down the tunnel for about fifty feet until he found what he sought.

  Returning, he inserted the tip of the pickaxe into the indent, then pulled it back like a lever. Immediately, the door began to move, quietly sliding out a few inches. Not enough to actually get in or see what was inside, but enough to get a proper grip on it and pull it the rest of the way open.

  With a quick call to Leon to come help, the three began to do just that, putting their backs into it as they attempted to pull the door the rest of the way open.

  “How in the six hells did you notice this?” Rayne grunted, impressed as he strained with the thick stone.

  He had expected her to preen, but Syra took the praise literally, pursing her mouth as she considered it. In the end, she lifted her shoulders in defeat, an action that caused the door to drop against the stone floor for a moment. “Dunno. It just looked wrong,” she replied.

  Rayne nodded, doing his best to focus on the task at hand as he considered her words. If there was one thing he had learned about his Katiine companion over the past few months, it was that she relied heavily on instinct. Often, she had trouble explaining how she did something, only that it was something she could do, and thus she had.

  It was a sort of natural talent that he wished he possessed, particularly when they were training and she pulled some strange move that rarely failed to put him on his ass, with her only explanation to Leon that she had noticed an opening and gone for it.

  Well, she had certainly noticed an opening here, and as the door slowly gaped open to reveal the contents, all three of them went silent.

  “Shit,” Rayne said to no one in particular.

  “Six hells…” Leon echoed beside him.

  “Fuck,” Syra said straightforwardly.

  It was a weapons cache.