Capture the Crown (Gargoyle Queen #1) -Jennifer Estep Page 0,164

through the clearing and stopped next to a couple of flat, waist-high boulders that looked like table leaves that had been pushed together. The men were both wearing black tunics, leggings, and boots. No crests or symbols adorned their clothes, but their purple cloaks, along with the swords on their belts, marked them as Mortan soldiers.

My heart quickened with equal parts worry and excitement. The rumors were true. The Mortans were here.

Each man slung a black leather satchel down onto the flat boulders and rifled through the contents, causing several soft but distinctive tink-tink-tinks to ring out. I might be a pampered princess, but mining was one of Andvari’s main industries, and I knew the sound of rocks—ore—rattling together when I heard it.

“You’re sure this is all of it?” one of the men asked, his voice floating up the ridge to Reiko and me.

The second man nodded. “Yep. We got every last piece. Let’s go.”

The first man hoisted his satchel onto his shoulder and headed toward the far side of the clearing. The second man hurried to do the same, but he didn’t close his bag all the way, and something slid out of the top and dropped to the ground. Another distinctive tink rang out, but the second man rushed after his friend without a backward glance. My eyes narrowed, but I couldn’t see whatever he had dropped.

The men left the clearing and disappeared into the trees beyond.

Reiko and I held our positions on the ridge. She scanned the woods, while I reached out with my magic. Other than the two men, I didn’t sense anyone else in the immediate area. I nodded at Reiko, and we followed the curve of the ridge down to the clearing.

I stepped inside the mine opening, scanning the dust-covered ground, as well as the walls, just in case the Mortans had strung up some trip wires. But the area was clean, so I went in a little deeper. All I could see were a few feet of rough-hewn rock walls before the mine’s yawning darkness swallowed up the sunlight, but the smell of freshly dug earth filled the air, indicating that someone had been working in here recently.

My gaze landed on a small pile of rubble close to the entrance. I crouched down to get a better look, but it was just a mound of rocks, many with jagged, blackened edges, like they were shards of burnt, shattered glass rather than solid stone. Odd. Maybe Milo had used his lightning magic to blast tearstone out of the mine, although I didn’t see any scorch marks on the walls. Either way, something about the burnt stones made me shiver. I slid one into my pocket to study later, then got to my feet.

The last time I’d been in a mine was a few weeks ago in Blauberg, when Conley, the corrupt foreman, had shoved me into a chasm to hide the fact that he was stealing and selling tearstone to the Mortans. I stared into the darkness in the back of the mine, but instead of seeing total, absolute blackness, memories flooded my mind.

The cool air rushing over my face as I fell. My body slamming into a stone ledge jutting out from the side of the chasm. The bones shattering in my left arm and leg. White-hot agony exploding in my wounds. The chill of death slowly creeping over me. And then a shadow looming over me, slowly morphing into a man with dark amethyst eyes—

“Gemma,” Reiko called out. “Come look at this.”

Her voice jolted me out of my memories, although it didn’t stop all that remembered pain from pounding through my body, hammering right alongside my racing heart. Perhaps it was all the trauma I’d endured in Myrkvior, but ever since I had returned home, my magic had been flaring up in new, unexpected ways, including all these unwanted glimpses of the recent past that kept intruding on my present.

I wiped the cold sweat off my forehead with a shaking hand. Then I schooled my face into a calm mask and strode back out into the clearing.

Reiko was crouched down by the two flat rocks the Mortans had used as a table earlier. She plucked something out of the grass, then straightened and held it out to me.

The jagged shard was about the size of a small dagger. I rolled it back and forth in my fingers, watching as the rock, the ore, shifted from light gray to dark blue and back