Page 56 of Demon's Bane

“Come,” I say, tugging her gently forward. “Let’s get a look at what has both our realms in such disarray.”

We speak briefly to the guards as we pass—two older males I have known my entire life—and explain the conversation we just had in the village, the report we mean to take back to the king and queen. Though they share a somewhat skeptical look, they eventually relent and let us pass, handing over a lantern to guide our way.

“We won’t venture too far inside,” I tell Joan, placing a hand in the middle of her back as we take our first steps into the cave.

She relaxes into the touch, and the small show of trust sends a wave of calm through me. Not enough to erase everything else still weighing on my shoulders, but enough to soothe the ragged edges.

Joan gasps softly as we come to the first bend in the tunnel and a faint, blue-green light beckons from further inside.

“What is that?” she asks, voice hushed in the dim of the cave.

“Lapilian crystals. Apparently similar to a rare variety of celestite back in the human realm, and with properties powerful enough to be of great interest to the Crescent Coven.”

We step through a narrow stone archway and into a cavernous chamber that serves as a storage space for freshly mined crystal, and Joan gasps again.

“Holy shit,” she whispers.

I smother a chuckle at the awe in her tone. Piles of crystal line the edges of the space, stacked nearly to the ceiling and casting the whole chamber in their luminescence. The livelihood of my entire village, waiting to be sold and traded around the demon realm.

And with the coven, I suppose, depending on how all of this shakes out.

“The thefts have been occurring here?” Joan asks, eyes still wide as she takes it all in.

“Yes. Here, and in some of the secondary mining tunnels. Initially in small enough quantities that it wasn’t noticed, but the thieves have grown bolder over the past month.”

She nods, brow furrowed.

“This is only where the mined crystals are kept. Most of the work happens deeper within the mountain.”

Joan glances at a few of the tunnels leading off the central cavern. “Through there?”

I nod. “Come, I’ll show you. I know a tunnel that’s not actively being mined today.”

We pass a few workers as we make our way to one of the stone passageways, and though Joan is still distracted by the glow of the crystals around us, I don’t miss the way their eyes narrow when they spot her.

Even though my more rational side can understand their suspicion, it doesn’t stop my irritation from rising. It’s all I can do to hold myself back from snapping at them to keep their glares and scowls to themselves, to keep their damned eyes off my—

“So this is what you do?” Joan asks, cutting off that train of thought. “You work down here?”

“I do. As did my father and his father before him. Halla does as well.”

“And your mother?”

I shake my head. “Not anymore. She used to, but she serves our village now by sitting on the council which oversees the crystal trade.”

The extent of my own dreams, now, stepping into such a role one day. Working with the kinds of traders and merchants I’d once hoped to be. Living here, instead of in one of those far-flung cities.

It’s a dream that seems further away than ever, given the frosty reception I received when I returned home. I have decades of dues to pay, years of hard work to make up for walking out in the first place.

“How does it work?” Joan asks, running her hand over a section of rock wall where only a faint glow hints at the crystals below.

I explain it to her as we walk a little further into the tunnel—the intricate process of excavating and extracting the crystals from the rock, the careful work of the masons employed in mapping the cave system and ensuring all new construction is done with attention to the integrity of the caverns and the safety of the miners.

We stop at a section of exposed crystal, and Joan reaches out gingerly, only to stop just short of touching the glowing tower in front of her.

“It’s alright,” I murmur, placing my hand over hers and pressing it to the stone. “They’re safe to touch.”

She sucks in a breath at whatever power she feels pulsing there. “Do you know how the coven uses them?”

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