SILVERYMOON

Chapter 15

It would be two days to reach Mithral Hall, where they would drop off their horses. Traveling farther northward on horseback would kill the horses due to the cold. They had blankets for them after they took off their saddles and tack, but it wasn't going to be enough. They would freeze to death.

Even they knew it was cold out already. Even with Rings of Warmth and winter clothes, they could tell it was bitingly cold. They could feel it with every breath. They saw their breath, and they breathed frigid air into their lungs. The ring took that away quickly, but they still felt it.

They were two abreast. Rick and Kate were out front, with Alexis behind her dad and Corimin behind Kate. They were following the river west. Once they reached a fork in the river, they would turn north and try and find a way across the river from the north. What the four of them really didn't need was to have to cross water that was bone-chilling cold and make the horses suffer. They desperately needed to get lucky.

"Oh, GREAT! It's snowing. It couldn't do this on Christmas Day. No, it has to do it now," Alexis complained since snow at Christmas would have been magical.

"It could be worse. It could be raining," Rick said mildly. He didn't mind the snow. It was pretty, and it wasn't snowing that hard. At least not yet.

"Shut up, Dad. Don't give it any ideas," Alexis fired back quickly.

Just then, Corimin began to pile it on. "It could be freezing rain or sleet or hail, or..." He trailed off when he saw how Alexis was looking at him.

Alexis glared at her boyfriend. "You can stop now if you ever want me to kiss you again."

The only content one was Patches since he was riding on Alexis's lap, more or less. Once again, the movement on a horse felt different, but he was used to it by now. He was even trying to catch a snowflake to taste it and make it melt fast.

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A few hours later, Patches spotted something. "MEOW!" He jumped off the horse and began running back the way they had come.

"Patches!?" He didn't usually do things like that, so she looked to see if she could figure out whatever it was. "What the heck is that thing!?" Alexis had turned to look where Patches was going and saw something big loping up behind them.

It was a monstrous beast with the body of a bear covered in thick fur and feathers. Its head looked like an owl but with a serrated beak.

"Trouble," Corimin remarked even if he didn't know what that thing was. Trying to be ready for whatever might happen, he pulled out the staff between him and his new backpack. That also had the others pulling out their wands.

It didn't seem overly concerned about Patches, so he kept coming. They fired two lightning bolts from wands, a lightning bolt from a staff, and a final fireball from another wand. The beast finally crashed to the ground.

Soon all four of them were off their horses and looking that odd thing over while Patches sniffed it, trying to figure out just what it was.

"What is it, besides part bear?" Kate queried.

"Dinner," Alexis replied as she took out her dagger to begin cutting, trying to find some good meat, leaving the rest for scavengers. They would be hungry in this winter weather too.

Their Fresh Bags were already full after shopping in Silverymoon, so any meat had to get wrapped up in something else. In the end, they had enough for two meals for four and left the rest.

What they didn't know but were thankful for were these horses. They were War Horses. So having a rider in combat didn't phase them one whit. Neither did that bear, owl, whatever the hell it was.

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It was the only action till they reached the fork in the river. The sun was beginning to set, and it was getting dark, so they got away from the river and found a slight rise where they could pitch the tent to stay high and dry.

It took time to find enough dried-out dead wood to make a fire so they could roast the meat over it. To hide that Kate was a Vampire since Corimin didn't know yet, she was just fake nibbling while they ate in the dark save for the firelight and talked.

"Yes, you were right and the Rings of Warmth were worth it," Kate admitted. Once the sun went down, it got even colder, and they weren't even in the mountains yet. Kate hated spending money frivolously, but this was money well spent.

Alexis coaxed Patches into staying in the tent to keep watch instead of spending the night outside. He might be made of fire, but she didn't want him to freeze to death.

That night they all found out how nice it was inside their tent and then inside their magical sleeping bags. They were comfortable, and the temperature was perfect.

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Breakfast was some fresh fruit from their Fresh Bags before moving north to find a way across the river.

"It's partly frozen," Rick noticed as they kept traveling.

Kate shook her head. "Not enough, babe. If the horses step out there, they'll be swimming." She had yet to see a good way across.

"What about here?" Rick asked her. "There's an island in the middle."

Kate was off her horse to look it over, and the ice broke the second she touched it. "It might be cold but not cold enough yet. We need to find a way. Why isn't there a bridge over this thing? How does Mithral Hall sell anything if they can't ship it out?"

"I have a thought, but it means a lot of work," Corimin offered. "We sort of make our own bridge. Just enough for one horse to cross to the island until we're all across, then we pick it up and move it to the opposite side. Leave it behind for the trip home."

"Or we keep going north and maybe get lucky. The trees are way over there anyway," Alexis pointed out. While his idea might work, it meant a lot of work.

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In the end, they went farther north, and the second the Moonwood Forest jutted out and got closer to the river, they found a bridge over it.

Alexis smiled at her dad. "You go first. If you don't make it, we'll know we have to make our own bridge."

"My own daughter." Rick was not amused, but he did get off his horse, and very carefully, step by step, he made his way across the bridge till he felt safe. "Made it!" And he wasn't frozen solid or wet.

Once across, their map told them they had to go back south some to reach that Dwarven City with a mine. Mithral Hall.

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Kate looked at Rick since he had the map. "Are we lost?"

"This isn't a map from the USGS, so it's not overly accurate. But according to it, we should be right on top of it." Rick looked around, and mostly what he saw was a mountain with that river behind them.

"Let me see." Kate walked over and took the scroll from him to look for herself.

"They sell Mithral, right?" Alexis asked. "And to get the Mithral to Silverymoon or anywhere on the other side of this river, they'll need that bridge, won't they? Then where are the tracks showing that? Wagon after wagon had to have come from this place. Or mule after mule. Whatever it is that they use."

The only problem with her idea was that everything was covered with snow. It had started out light, but it had been rather heavy for a few hours, and it was getting thicker.

"Here, I'm going to go look." Kate put the map into Rick's chest, shifted into a swarm of bats, and took off toward the mountain.

Corimin raised an eyebrow. "Magic item, huh?" He was starting to wonder.

"You have a better idea?" Alexis asked him. She meant having Kate going to look, not how she did that. Unfortunately, it was what Corimin heard, and he couldn't discount it. Not around here.

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Kate had been gone for close to half an hour, and all of them were starting to get worried when they spotted a swarm of bats coming toward them.

"I've got a cave with a tunnel in the back and lots of tracks on the ground. It's dark as night in there. And the tunnel lasts for a while. At least we'll be out of the snow," Kate said. Thankfully, they all saw in the dark to a distance of 60 feet, so they didn't need light that would announce themselves.

Alexis was out front since she had plans to go Ethereal to scout ahead. However, while they weren't using any light, Patches put out plenty all his own. He was literally on fire, after all.

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They didn't see it, and while Patches did emit light, it wasn't that bright. But then suddenly they saw a portcullis just ahead with a set of very solid-looking wood doors with iron supports in it only a few feet beyond. Both were closed.

"Now what? Patches, go look." Alexis sent Patches through the portcullis with ease till he reached the door and could go no farther.

"MEOW!"

Unexpectedly, a small door within the main door opened abruptly. "Who are you? What do you want?" The door was somewhat low to the ground, the perfect height for a Dwarf. He noticed Patches. "What is that?"

"That is my cat." Alexis thought it was obvious.

"We have a pass from High Lady Alustriel Silverhand of Silverymoon. We need to spend the night and perhaps leave our horses in a stable," Kate called out.

Amazingly, a few moments later, the doors opened, but the portcullis remained down. Out walked a heavily armed Dwarf clad in armor and went up to the portcullis. "Show me this pass." He didn't hold out his hand. No way was he sticking his hand through the portcullis. If they wanted in, they had to hand that pass through it.

Since Rick had the pass, he stepped up and put his hand through the opening, handing over the scroll. In turn, the Dwarf backed up till he reached the door and slipped back inside.

"Do you think it's enough?" Corimin asked. Because if they didn't open up, they had no alternative, no plan B.

"Say no to the Lady? Pfft! Good luck with that," Alexis responded as suddenly the portcullis began going up while making a grinding noise. "Looks like it worked." Even the door opened wide enough for them.

They finally noticed all the slots in the sidewalls and even holes in the ceiling before reaching the door. Just past the door were six Dwarves, all in armor and heavily armed. There were doors on either side. And they were betting there were still more Dwarves on the other side of the doors.

One of them handed the scroll back. "Proceed down the tunnel. Be ready to be stopped again," another said.

"Thank you." Rick put his scroll away. This time he took the lead and led his horse down the tunnel. The tunnel was more than tall enough but not wide enough to travel side by side, so Kate brought up the rear and kept looking behind her. She trusted the Lady, but not these Dwarves.

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Eventually, Rick stopped at yet another set of wood doors reinforced with iron. This time he knocked. A small door opened, and they did it all over again. Finally, a door opened, and they watched another portcullis going up and heard it grinding.

Just beyond was a bridge, and what a bridge it was! There were long metal posts that went straight down for a few hundred feet about every 20 feet, one on either side. Metal supports were under the roadway. There were arches over it with spires reaching up from the posts past the arches. There were at least 20 of these things as it spanned a chasm, and they couldn't see the bottom.

However, in the distance was what had them all letting their jaws hit the floor. There was a mountain and a true gatehouse was in the far-off distance with snow-covered buildings beyond. But, the impressive parts were the massive arches in the side of the mountain. There were two of them, and they had to be at least 200 feet tall.

No, make that three of them. There was another off to one side to the right with a mountain between the two. To the left of the first two arches was what Rick took to be a dam. What he saw was even curved like a dam. It also had seven smaller ones just like the big arches. But, he didn't see any water or hear a waterfall, so maybe not a dam? In any case, the whole place was damn impressive. It was still cold, and they saw lots of snow and smoke rising from nearly every building they could see.

"Babe, are those cave openings between those massive arches?" Kate thought she had spotted at least six or maybe eight of them in the mountain.

"Probably," Rick said.

"You may pass. Expect to be stopped at the gate," one of the eight Dwarves at this gate told them. There was another set of doors on either side, suggesting another gatehouse holding lots of Dwarves.

They continued onto the walkway under all the arches, and they looked down, trying to see the bottom. But they couldn't. "How in the world did they build this without machinery?" Alexis wondered aloud because doing this by hand looked to be impossible.

Rick even stopped at one and thought about touching it, but since it looked like it was iron, he feared his hand would stick to it. To free it meant losing skin, and it would hurt. "I don't even see any welding. It's seamless." This was damn impressive construction.

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Once they reached the far end, they saw an even more substantial set of wood doors reinforced with what appeared to be iron. They had to show their pass yet again to get the door to open.

They'd been told not to leave the first set of buildings. If they did, they would be attacked, locked up, and left there to rot. This area was for guests only, and it held an inn and stable for their horses at a cost, naturally.

They ended up with two rooms, and each room cost them six gold per night. That was fine since they planned to stay just one night. Stabling their horses cost them seven silver per horse per day. They would be fed hay, use the feed bags they provided, and brushed. A farrier would cost an extra gold piece to have him look at their hooves. Any work that he did cost extra.

So they paid six gold for each room. They also paid for two weeks of stabling for each horse, had the farrier look at them and paid for any work he did before the four of them left on foot in the morning. Of course, they would take their scroll from the Lady to get back in again.

Alexis tapped each horse with her Wand of Cure Light Wounds just to be sure they weren't hurting from the cold.

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"Why do they get a room to themselves? It should be you and Alexis and me and Corimin." Rick didn't like that at all. Two rooms, sure, but why this arrangement?

"Because they're boyfriend and girlfriend," Kate explained patiently. "Or would you prefer to make love to Corimin instead of me?"

"Of course not." He was not having sex with Corimin. "Wait, you think those two are…" It finally dawned on Rick that Alexis and Corimin had been having sex. She was too young to be having sex! She wasn't even 30 years old yet.

"Get in the room, Castle, or I'm closing and locking the door, and you can sleep out here in the hallway on the cold hard floor. I'm going to start without you," Kate teased him. She entered the room and slowly began to close the door on him.

Rick finally woke up and hurried into the room. It only took moments for Kate to be on her hands and knees while being fucked by her fiancé. And Alexis was a Demon sitting on Corimin's cock.

In both cases, all four were perfectly happy come morning and downstairs eating breakfast at seven silver pieces per person. Kate had declined. She didn't eat breakfast much.

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Once they made their way past all the guards, it was a long walk out of the city. Three gatehouses sounded like overkill to Rick, but it wasn't his city.

"We didn't even get to see any of it," Rick complained as they reached the entrance. "Like, what's beyond those massive arches cut into the mountain. And that dam, if it is a dam."

"Let us anywhere near Mithreal?" Corimin questioned him. "That stuff costs everything one thousand extra gold, depending on how much you use. It's expensive." Corimin and his family lived off of silver and copper pieces. All this gold he was bringing home was making them rich, like rich RICH. At least in their eyes.

Rick still looked back down the tunnel toward the city. "Maybe when we come back to get our horses, they'll give us a tour." He wasn't giving up yet.

"Change to a Demon, babe," Kate urged him, "and let's get flying. We still have to find this mine that's over a day away from here."

But there was a problem. The specially made clothes allowed for their wings and tail, while their winter clothing did not. So that clothing had to come off. Hence the need for Rings of Warmth.

Soon there were two Incubi, one Succubus, and one Vampire in the form of a swarm of bats flying north. Kate was dead last. Not because she couldn't keep up – she could. But Kate was unable to talk. So she had to follow and let Rick lead them north, hoping Alexis kept him in check, on course, and not doubling back to sneak into that Dwarven City and get them all into big trouble.

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What little they knew was to follow the spine of the Fourth Sister going north. When they reached the spine of the other sisters meeting it from the east and west, somehow, they had to go over one of those or through it to reach the mine. However, that also meant they had to find a place to land, get some rest, and then sleep that night.

And the farther north they went, the colder it got. It was dead winter. They really shouldn't be here, not this far north. Not now.

Kate landed next to them and shifted back to human. "So, what are we looking for?" She knew it was a mine, but they couldn't possibly be there yet.

"A pass we can traverse. Mount Fuji, for instance, is about 12,000 feet high or more. We know the Spine is around 20,000, and we'll need oxygen or special training to climb it. We have neither. Hence, we need a pass," Alexis explained.

Kate joined Rick, who had the map. "Anything?"

"I've got one possibility, but it might add an entire day of travel to our trip." Rick pointed at the map. "This space here. Do you remember that river we had to cross and worried about till we found that bridge? Well, that river starts here," he moved his finger, "in the mountain range over here. Except we want to go here. It's almost a day to get here and another day to reach where we think the mine is located in a gorge between the spines going east and west."

"That river could be just glacier melting," Kate countered. "But I don't have a better idea. Can we reach it before it gets dark tomorrow? And we might as well set up camp here if we can."

"We can make it. Let's set up camp, and we can talk about it while we get warmer." This high up during winter was testing their rings to the breaking point. In addition, they were breathing in this freezing air, and it hurt a little.

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Thankfully, being in their tent and sleeping bags made everything much better. It made sleeping that night very comfortable after eating dinner. Kate once again faked eating to try and keep hiding that she was a Vampire from Corimin. He might be getting better about Alexis being a Demon, but he might still freak out if he found out about her. Let alone Rick.