Page 76 of Of Nine So Bold

His expression turned more businesslike as he scanned the forest. “The rest are down. We need to get moving.” Notching his head to the side, he motioned for me to follow and then shifted back into smoke and shadow. I flew after him as he wove through the underbrush, coming to a stop and shifting back to human form a few moments later in the shelter of a large tree.

A fissure showed in the surface of the hillside ahead, as tall as three men standing atop one another and wide enough that acart could drive through. The faintest traces of firelight gleamed inside, barely an orange blush in the depths of the entrance. In the distance, I could just make out a whisper of voices from farther within, though I couldn’t hear what they were saying.

But it was enough. That had to be the entrance to the mines.

I glanced at Casimir. With a grim look on his face, he regarded the fissure for a moment. “Do you feel that?” he murmured.

I gave the valley a wary look. “Feel what?”

He frowned. “Nothing. No mines. No people. Just… nothing.” Expression unchanged, he nodded briefly to the side. Silently, I followed him as he shifted and raced back to where we’d left the others.

Casimir had not been wrong. My giants werenothappy when I returned to human form in front of them.

“The soldiers are gone,” I told them, trying to stave off whatever they were about to say. “And we found the way into the mines.”

They hardly looked pacified by the news.

“Youcannotrisk yourself like that,” Dex said, his voice hard. “If not because of what it would do to us, then because of what it will mean for your country if you’re caught. Your stepmother will make an example of you—and that’s just the beginning.”

Discomfort twisted in me at his words. He wasn’t wrong.

But I couldn’t stay behind. “I’m not going to hide while you all do the fighting for me.”

“And if you get killed?” Ozias asked, and my discomfort grew to feel his horror at his own words, no matter how neutral his voice sounded.

“There is another issue,” Casimir said carefully into the awkward silence. “I have reason to believe our arrival may have been anticipated.”

“What?” Lars turned to him, alarmed.

“How so?” Byron asked.

“There are spells within the ground,” he said. “There have to be. They’re strange. Possibly inverted upon themselves somehow. But not only could I detect no trace of the mines, I could not even detect the guards within the entrance itself.”

“So it’s a trap,” Clay translated flatly. “Great.”

“Or it’s meant to be so well hidden,” Byron said, “no one could find it unless they knew where to look.”

Unsettled silence fell over our group.

“We have to save Niko,” Roan said quietly. “We can’t leave him down there.”

Dex frowned, his eyes turning to me.

“I’m not staying put,” I told him immediately.

His frown deepened, but he only turned to the others and said, “When we get in there, no one say Gwyneira’s name or title, understood? The guards or the Erenlians might recognize her anyway, but let’s not give anyone help in figuring out who she is—just in case.”

Murmured agreement came from all the men around me.

Dex gave me a pointed look. “Staybehindus.”

I scowled, wanting to protest, but I knew it wouldn’t help anything. Roan was right. We needed to go save Niko, not argue about where I would be standing in the battle that lay before us. “I’ll do my best.”

Dex’s expression turned exasperated, and he took my arms, physically moving me back. I couldn’t stop myself from giving a startled and thoroughly undignified squeak of offense, but he didn’t stop until we reached the rear of the group.

One of his hands released my shoulder only to take my chin, tilting my face up toward his. “Your safety matters more than anything to us, do you understand? More than life, more than death, and Ipromiseyou, Niko would say it matters more thanhim. Each of us would die to protect you, so don’t go forcing us to do that by being a brat about this.”

My eyes went wide with indignation. “I am not being a?—”

---