The Snow Queen's Shadow

us apart anyway. Easier to share a name among ourselves when dealing with the likes of you.”
    “He’s a knocker,” said Gerta, rubbing the scales along Koren’s snout. “A mountain fairy, kin to the kobolds.”
    “Only handsomer and better behaved,” said Tommy.
    Gerta continued to fawn over the dragon. “What does he eat? How often does he shed his skin? Where will he go when he’s full grown?”
    “They’ll eat just about anything, though Koren here has a fondness for fish. When he gets too big, he’ll run off into the deeper tunnels to join the rest of his kind.” Tommy leaned down to pound the side of Koren’s neck. The dragon curved his head around, and a tongue the length of an eel slapped Tommy’s face. He laughed and shoved Koren’s face away. “Their breath will curl your beard.”
    “You’ll take us to Bellum and Veleris?” Danielle asked.
    “Right this way, my lady.” He drew his shovel and knocked it against the ground. The dragon swiveled about, away from the sound. A few more raps guided the dragon back into the tunnel. Thankfully, this tunnel was large enough for Danielle and the others to walk upright.
    “Most of the main entrances to the mine are long buried,” he said. “We keep a few of the old vents cleared out, but given the way your people feel about our kind, we don’t encourage visitors down here. Not even those who’ve been vouched for by fairy nobles.”
    “The Duchess is no noble,” said Talia. “She’s—”
    “She rules over her kingdom, small as it may be,” Tommy interrupted. “That makes her noble to us. Over in Fairytown, they might cling to their old ideas about the noble caste, but when you’ve been driven into the dark, you worry less about blood and more about survival.
    “The laws against fairykind were overturned years ago,” said Danielle. “Why do you continue to hide?”
    Tommy snorted. “Show me the law that can soften the hate and the fear in people’s hearts, and then we’ll talk.”
    It didn’t take long for Danielle to become disoriented as they made their way deeper into the mountain. Tunnels veered off at seemingly random angles. She thought they were sloping downward, but her senses weren’t sharp enough to know for certain.
    The fairies kept their home in good repair. Bright planks showed where aging wood had been replaced in the walls and ceiling. She would have expected an abandoned mine to be quiet, but the air moving through the tunnels created a low background hum. She heard the occasional clank of metal against stone in the distance, though she couldn’t have said which direction the sounds came from.
    “Here we go,” said Tommy, steering his dragon into a small room with a square-framed pit in the floor. “Mind your step.” He rapped his shovel against the dragon’s flank, and they disappeared into the pit. The dragon didn’t bother with the wooden ladder built into the side; his claws gripped the rock with ease.
    When Danielle reached the bottom, she found herself in a larger cavern. Stalactites hung from the ceiling, about thirty feet up at the highest point. The floor had been smoothed flat. Barrels lined the wall to the right. A crude, waist-high barrier of stacked stone blocked a drop-off on the far side.
    Four knockers were currently working to shore up that barrier. One tamped a stone into place with his shovel. Another was tapping the blade of his shovel against the wall, listening intently to the sounds.
    They turned away from their work and greeted Tommy in a language Danielle didn’t recognize. He laughed and jumped down from Koren. Without warning, he grabbed his shovel in both hands and swung it at the nearest knocker.
    The knocker did the same. The clang of the shovels nearly deafened her, but the knockers were all laughing.
    “They greet each other by swinging shovels at each other’s heads,” Gerta said.
    Danielle smiled wryly. “Sounds like Talia’s kind of people.”
    Tommy beckoned them forward. “Welcome to Speas Elan. Gold Haven, in your tongue. Though most of the gold was hauled out long ago.”
    “How many of you whackers live down here?” Talia asked.
    “ Knockers , thank you very much. It’s well over two hundred at last count.”
    The air was even warmer here. Danielle could feel the heat wafting up from the drop-off behind the barrier. She wiped sweat from her face, tucking her hair back behind her ears.
    When she had first entered Fairytown in Lorindar, back before Jakob