"Did you name you axe?" Zucker huffed out a laugh.
"Yes. Of course." Leb patted the axe against his huge fist. "You should always give your best weapon a name of reverence. Have I taught you nothing?"
We all stepped aside and let Leb pass, but I looked over at Zucker and Tau. "I want a history of the Fae and their problems later. I thought we'd been helping an already united people against the Mouse Queen, but it seems like you all fight more than Fritz and I do."
Nuss snorted and I pointed at him. "Don't think you're getting away without letting me see into the ooey gooey center of Snowflake culture and whatever happened between you and the Mouse Prince."
If the five of us were going to be bonded, they had to be a whole lot more open with me and that was starting tonight.
I followed Leb up the slope at a few paces behind because if anyone could just shove some attackers aside, it was my Gingerbread Viking. I imagined most any assassin would pee their pants at the thought of going up against him.
Zucker had said these were sugar caves and I'd imagined they'd be filled with crystals of sugar sort of like the salt caves back home. The miners in the salt mines of Salzburg had even carved intricate designs and even statues into the stone and salt. We found the cave empty except for the dazzling crystals. Perhaps that was a small, but nice bit of human culture to add to all the amazing things I'd learned about in the Winter Realm.
"Let's keep moving, I can practically feel the crown calling to me." I hurried to forward through the cave, heading toward the new bit of light from the outside.
It wasn't long before moonlight joined the auras of Zucker and Tau. Leb took the lead again and was the first out of the cavern. After so much darkness, even with the purple and green light of my Fae men's inner lights, the reflection of the moon off the snow outside was glaring.
I looked away, and if I hadn't, I would have missed the symbol freshly carved into the rock at the very entrance to the cave. I'd seen the very same one at the intersection of the tunnels that represented the one that went toward the Land of Animals. A mouse wearing a crown.
Konig was here. Or he had been. Recently.
I quickly made myself look anywhere but the symbol. I absolutely knew that I should tell everyone what I'd seen. But I didn't.
"The coast is clear," Leb shouted from outside. "And someone has left us a present."
We rushed outside and found him standing, arms wide, in the back of a pale blue sleigh, decorated with an intricate snowflake motif, hooked up to eight reindeer. Nuss cracked a grin and walked over to the closest animal and patted it on the back, then ran his hand along its neck, expertly ducked under the rack of antlers, and adjusted the harness. "Now this is my kind of ride. Where did you come from, you beauties?"
The animal responded with a snort and a snuffle of Nuss's hand. "Oh, ho. I don't have any treats for you, but I promise to find you something sweet when we reach our destination."
Aww. I hadn't seen Nuss this animated since the first moment I met him under my Christmas tree. He had an adorably soft spot for animals and someday, I was going to get him a puppy just to see his reaction.
"These guys will get us where we need to go quickly." Nuss bounded back to us and jumped into the front and took the reins in his good hand. He looked at me, Zucker, and Tau with a hurry-up face.
"Are we not questioning whose sleigh this is or who left it for us? This is pretty damn suspicious." Zucker crossed his arms and Tau didn't move.
Nuss smiled and shook his head. "If they've been used nefariously, they'd know and be fidgety. I don't know how they got here, and we may be stealing someone's ride, but we are within walking distance of the castle and they can get there safely."
He was the last one I expected to be so trusting. I had a sneaking suspicion where these animals had come from.
"Princess," Nuss's voice was on the verge of pleading. He held out his hand to me. "Open your spirit to these animals. You may be able to sense something about them."
"I've never done something like that. You know more about my magic than I do. Can you help me?" I wasn't really looking forward to him cutting me like he had Fritz, but I also wanted to know if my guess was right. I touched my lips briefly thinking about the biting kiss he'd given me and then shook my head. No way. That had been in the moment, and he wouldn't do that again.
Nuss's entire countenance changed, and he was back to the wary man he'd been the past two days. He handed the reins back to Leb and climbed back down. In three quick strides, he was right in front of me. I held out my wrist thinking that would be the easiest place for him to nick my skin. He didn't even look down to my proffered hand. He hauled me into his arm, bent me back, like I'd seen in the movies, and kissed the magic right out of me.
This was no chaste kiss, there was no reticence, but it also wasn't hurried and flurried like during the avalanche. Nuss kissed me with pure wanton need and lust, and I was here for it. My magic swirled between us, sparkling behind my eyelids, and tickling the edges of the connection between me and everyone else here.
Including Konig.
I gasped and Nuss broke away from me, although he didn't let me up. "What do you see, princess of my heart?"
I blinked up at him and not only saw Nuss, but a blue aura all around him. He stood me back up and the entire world around us had the same blue glow as he did. I quickly searched for Konig but couldn't see anyone else. Yet, I knew he was there, but only my sense of his spirit told me so.
"I don't entirely understand what I'm seeing. It's like the magic from when we bonded, but it's everywhere, around every living thing." I blinked my eyes, thinking the blue haze might fade, but it continued so strong it was if I could reach out and touch it.
"That's spirit, allowing you to see it." Nuss nodded toward the animals and then motioned to the each of the men. "All living things have it, but only those who can control magic can see it."
Nuss's blue spirit glow sparkled with hundreds of tiny white lights, like falling snow. Except in a sort of cross over his heart, and his broken arm. They were both dark as if in a shadow. Leb's spirit was dotted with oranges and golds and had a few darker areas around his hands. Tau's was lined in the same green of his aura, but he too had dark spots, but his were across his forehead. Zucker's spirit was laced with purple, and the darkness from him was right across his chest.
