CHAPTER 12

They had to make camp for the night so they found a good place. Ivy collected wood and rocks from the river with Jorah for the fire pit he set up. She got water and put on two pots to boil. She had several spices and herbs in her kit with dry barley. Ivy cleaned the greens and mushrooms up in the brook branching off the river. Then she found a slab to wash off and chop them up on. She put the rabbit in the skillet dredged in flour with garlic oil, wild onions and mushrooms. She gave the other rabbit to Nicodemus. Ivy put the greens, mushrooms in the pot with the barley and added garlic, onions, salt and pepper. He loved the fresh smell and knew they were eating well again tonight. He always thanked her for cooking and helped her clean up.

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Six more days passed and Ivy got off her horse knowing they were close according to the map. She had been following the signs of pointed rocks shaped oddly in strategic places. Jorah asked looking at a place in the rocks, "Are you sure it would be under there?"

She said, "Yes, but watch out for snakes or spiders. Here, let's use this." Ivy gave him a thick metal pole she screwed together from three pieces she had made. They both stuck it under the rock leaning against an open spot behind it. They both pried the rock to move it out of the way. The rock shifted and they readjusted it's position and pushed the rock that rolled away down the hill. It was a big enough opening to see inside. They moved two more big rocks and it was an opening big enough for their horses to pass through one at a time.

She said, "Let me clean it out of insects, snakes or creatures. Stand back." He moved back out of the way and watched.

She concentrated with focus, moved her hands and said, "I want all loose dirt, cobwebs, insects, snakes, animals, items or poisonous plants that may harm to be removed from this entire cavern or tunnels."

A big wind blew out tons of debris and creatures from the cavern. There were multiple clatterings on the rocks. Jorah and Ivy went to see what it was. Being that she said all items that may harm, 2 knives and 13 jeweled daggers came flying out and they gathered them up. He was laughing looking at the valyrian steel and regular steel items encrusted in jewels. They put them in a bag.

Ivy made a flame in her hand for her and Jorah to see. They started bringing the horses and Nicodemus inside through the entrance to a small cave that was a tunnel going inside the mountain on an incline she held up her flame to look around inside. It opened up to a flat slab floor round room that had a hole in the ceiling. She figured it was perfect for a fire smoke to escape. She left Jorah and the horses there.

Ivy said, "Jorah, stay with the horses. I'm just looking ahead a little bit, is all." She kept looking around and found a tunnel going further into the mountain. She walked down the tunnel and found a room that had a mine entrance and huge amounts of rotten bags and crates with pots and all kinds of containers lining the walls to the entrance of the mine going all the way back and all the way up the walls. Ivy was amazed at the amount of bagged up minerals there were inside the mine and the room all rotted. It was way more than the little cave she found above the Wall.

She went back to Jorah, and said, "We found it. You're going to be amazed."

He said, seriously concerned, "We need to secure the entrance, Ivy."

She said, "Let's set up a fire under that hole in the top so we can see in here." They both started piling up wood to light. There were a few dead trees and decaying logs inside the cave to burn.

Once the fire was going, she said, "I'm going to secure the entrance."

Jorah said seriously, "Be careful, Ivy, there are wanderers and I felt them a few times while we have been traveling." They had both felt being watched.

Ivy said, smiling at him, "I know. I felt them too since we left Braavos." He smiled and nodded at her.

She went towards the entrance and saw torches outside. She conjured a completely impenetrable barrier and cast a loud growl to recur every five minutes. Ivy went back to Jorah.

She said warily, "Someone is out there with torches and a fire. I made an impenetrable barrier in the entrance and a growl every so often."

He walked up to her and said, "That's good. Leaving this place will probably be the challenge." She agreed. They set up camp. Ivy made them a good dinner out of their supplies.

Once everything was done, she took Jorah and Nicodemus down the tunnel back to the treasure room and mine. She noticed a turn off to another tunnel.

She said, "Jorah, let's go see the other tunnel and come back." He followed her down to the tunnel turn off. They slowly crept down the tunnel that led to the end, they discovered a large well in the floor of the room. It was bioluminescent and reflected light eerily rippling through the small room. They both knelt down and looked down inside the well and saw tons of gold and silver coins, cut gemstones and items in the bottom. The water was so clear from a natural spring that you couldn't tell how deep it was because it was so clear.

Ivy said warily, "It's a magical trap. I can feel the magic, Jorah. Don't touch anything yet." She opened her pendant, conjured up all of the cut gemstones to come out of the well dry and go into her necklace. The amount of stones was unreal. Jorah was stunned watching what she was doing. She did the same for the coins as she incrementally counted the amount. Ivy pulled out of the well, 107,844 gold honors, 13,271 silver moons. She then cast a spell for anything else of value in the well to pile up beside them. There were goblets and plates, candlesticks, candelabras, tea sets, platters, silver cutlery and a very impressive valyrian steel longsword.

He looked at her and said excitedly, "Ivy, this is amazing!" He examined the longsword.

She laughed and smiled at him saying, "I know. I told you treasure hunting was fun."

Ivy conjured everything in gold and silver except the sword or the daggers to reform into gold and silver nuggets then go into the necklace. It all went inside. Jorah put some very large cut gemstones in a couple bags together and took the sword with them as they went back to the room and mine entrance.

He said to her, "Are you going to get this all out of here in your necklace? There's a lot of rotten bags in the other room."

She said laughing, "I guess I'm gonna get dirty. Go ahead and take that back, with Nicodemus and the sword is yours to use for now. I have a valyrian bastard sword I found too and you can take your pick then when we get back to the ship. If you hear rumbling you will know it's just me." He smiled at her and went back to the fire with Nicodemus.

She conjured up all of the gold, silver and copper ore, nuggets and dust from the room and the entire mine to break down and go into her necklace. Ivy sat down the necklace on the floor open and covered her face with fabric. She sat down on the ground in the tunnel and waited… and waited… the entire mountain rumbled and waited…

The dust in the room kicked up heavily. All of the gold, silver and copper were flowing into her necklace at an alarming rate because there was so much. The mountain started to tremble and shake, the veins and deposits in the walls broke apart coming out of the mine. The amount was endless. Suddenly, after a very long time it stopped. She then wished for all uncut gemstones to go into her amulet except for the big ones to make a pile in the room. It all started up again and the flow was huge. Ivy cast a spell for all things of value in the entire mine to flow into her amulet.

Once she had cleared the entire mine of everything she went into the small room with the pool to shake out her clothes and herself. She couldn't believe the haul of minerals she had in her amulet now. She walked up to a spot by the fire and Jorah. Ivy conjured a dug out solid stone pool to bathe in of clean fresh water that has a spring feeding it. A spout of water formed coming from the wall into the pool and exited out of a wall so it cycled.

Jorah suggested, "Let's fill our waterskins first, Ivy." She smiled and they did that. She magically put up a cloth to hang in front of the pool for privacy.

After they both took turns bathing bringing, clothes, sheets to dry themselves and soap to the pool. They bathed and felt so clean. He was bathing behind the cloth and said out loud to her, "I never in my life imagined anything like this. You must be the luckiest magical woman." Ivy laughed while sitting by the fire drying her hair.

She said smiling, "I suppose I am. It's going to be just a little tricky getting out of here tomorrow so we need to get some sleep. I want to get our clothes washed up first for the trip back to Braavos." After Jorah was through they washed all their clothes. She figured out a way to string up a rope so they could dry them. He was helping her hang them up. They each went to sleep in their tents. She was holding Nicodemus next to her looking at the fire while he slept contently next to his mother touching him.

Jorah said, looking at the fire from out the flap of his tent, "Good night, Ivy. Thank you for the eventful day."

She giggled and said, "Goodnight, Jorah, you're welcome." He smiled and closed his eyes.

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The next day, Jorah and Ivy took their time and ate a good breakfast of cheese, meat and bread with tea. Ivy gave Nicodemus his breakfast along with feeding carrots and apples to the horses. They had four big bags of uncut gemstones to carry on the horses. He told her to disguise herself as a man to be safer. They were ready to go and ready for an ambush. She went first conjuring and creating a barrier around them as they came out of the passage.

Once all four horses were cleared of the entrance, there was a group of ten men waiting for them in the rocks around the site. When they went to rush them, they discovered they couldn't reach them and started shouting and yelling. Ivy and Jorah mounted their horses.

The leader shouted, "What magic are you using?! You are witches!"

She said in a low voice, "No, we are not, but you are thieves and cut throats lurking about."

The leader said, "We are the Hill Clansmen. We roam freely and take what we want."

She said, lowly in a man's voice, "Thank you. I'm sure the Many Faced God will love your name, now that I know it. It will put ten names on the list of the Hill Clansmen." The men started muttering. Jorah and Ivy started moving forward and headed back north to Braavos.

One man whispered to the leader, "Why did you tell them our name for?"

The leader said, "I didn't know, they knew the Faceless Men."

Another man said nastily, "They are lying. Where's the woman you were traveling with? I saw her. I want to fuck her."

Jorah said stoically in his deep voice, "There was no woman." Anger was stewing inside him because they were talking about Ivy.

The leader said as they were following them on horseback out of range of the barrier around them, "Yeah, it was you and a woman. Where is she?"

Ivy said in a low male voice, "You have been out here wandering too long. I was never a woman. Are you all mad?" The men were muttering among themselves again confused.

The leader said, "No matter. Buren, go search the cave back there." The man, Buren, rode back to the cave. They all kept riding away.

After a while, the Buren rode back and said, the whole cave was empty except for two pools of water inside it. The leader said, "What did ya find inside there?"

Jorah said, "Oh, it was empty. We just spent the night and left."

Another man said, "But the ground was shaking."

She said low, "Yeah, we felt that too. Was afraid of a cave in." They kept plodding along. The leader was getting frustrated.

The leader said, "You will drop your magic at some point and we will overtake you."

She said smirking, "Not likely. If you're going to keep following us, I would appreciate your silence. We are refusing to talk to you anymore." Ivy smirked at Jorah. They ignored them all and only said simple things to each other.

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The Hill Clansmen kept following them until the third day. The leader and the men got bored and they began arguing with each other. Eventually, the Hill Clansmen decided to leave.

She said grumbling, "I thought they would never go away."

Jorah said chuckling, "I thought the same. They are probably close by though. I wouldn't let down my guard at all, Ivy."

She said, "Don't worry, I won't."

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Three days later, they reached Braavos and got back to the ship. They each took baths separately because they were so dirty. Ivy thought it was hard keeping clean with those damn men being around for half of the trip back from the cave.

She was relaxing in the tub and suddenly Nicodemus jumped in the bath with her making a splash. It made her call out and she started dying laughing. He wanted to bathe with her. He wasn't afraid of water and laid on top of her as she was leaning back. Nicodemus was such a big baby at eight months old and sixty pounds.

Jorah opened the door to her cabin a bit and called through to her, "Ivy, are you alright. I heard you call out?"

She said loudly sloshing the bath, "Nicodemus jumped into the bath with me is all. It surprised me."

Jorah smiled and said, "Ok, just making sure." He closed the door and muttered, "Lucky damn cat."