Page 206 of A Lord of Snow and Greed

“Vale!” Caelo called out, his voice far, far away. “Is there trouble?”

“None!” Vale replied. “We’ll be right there.” He looked at me. “Once we defeated the Lisika soldiers, Caelo set to helping those human women through the portal.”

I exhaled a long breath as we hugged the wall and began walking back toward the illuminated portion of the cavern. “Thank the stars they didn’t have time to eat.”

“Agreed,” he said, face wincing at his limp. “Though I’m sure they’re traumatized from what little they saw.”

Still, those women had been lucky. So very lucky. The same could not be said for those in the cages not so far away.

My throat tightened. What were we going to do with those humans?

I did not voice the question as we made our way through the darkness and into the light. When I saw Anna, she let out a sob and rushed forward, throwing herself upon me.

“I’m covered in blood,” I protested, trying not to see the guards Vale and Caelo had killed, their bodies already pushed up against a wall.

“I don’t care!” Anna wailed. “I thought that monster was going to eat you, Neve!”

I patted her back. “I’m fine.”

“Injured, though,” Caelo said, coming closer, his nostrils flaring. “Some of that blood is yours.”

“I only got a scrape,” I replied.

“Only, huh? A warrior at heart already.”

I smiled at him, and as Anna drew back, I caught sight of the female miner watching us warily. She hadn’t left the relative safety of the tunnel that brought us into this cavern. Perhaps she could not. She was shaking so badly.

“Vale,” I whispered and nodded to the miner. “What are we to do with them?”

He swallowed. “I don’t know.”

I was sure there were hundreds of miners working the mines right now, in addition to the caged humans. Those who had been fated to be food for vampires.

No, that would never happen. Though I was not so optimistic as to think that the caged humans had not eaten the food of Isila, and therefore could go right home, they would not be slaves. Not to the vampires. Not to anyone.

“We need to take them somewhere safe,” I said.

Anna nodded vehemently.

“Neve, we’re quite far from . . . well,anywhere.” Vale turned to me. “And it’s not like we can take them to Guldtown and announce what we’ve done.”

“Is there a nearby village that they might go to?” Even as I asked, I realized how silly it sounded. Fae thought humans, with their weak senses and no magic, were so very far beneath them. The prejudice ran deep, and it was unlikely that the humans could work anywhere as free people. Anywhere other than in this deep, dark mine, that was.

“No villages,” Vale said and then cocked his head. “However, there is an abandoned dwarf stronghold where the Ice Tooth and the Red Mist Ranges meet. It’s not ideal, and quite far on foot, but they might live there undetected.”

“What are the chances of survival, though?” Caelo asked. “The mountains are harsh.”

“Not great,” Vale admitted. “It depends on the food stores they have here. And the condition of the stronghold when the dwarves left it.”

Slim, but that was still something. I’d had a slim chance of surviving when I’d escaped the Blood Court and I’d done it. I was still here. Perhaps the humans could survive too.

My chin lifted. “They deserve to have the choice of whether to stay here or move. Though staying will eventually mean slavery—still, they need to hear that. And be given an educated choice.”

Vale nodded. “Agreed.”

“Let’s speak with them.”

I turned, found the miner still standing there, listening to everything we’d said. She waved a hand, as if to escort us back, though this tunnel had no offshoots. We fell in line, Anna coming to walk by me, tears still glittering in her dark, slanted eyes.

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