“You can’t mess with a body.” Lumi’s breath came too fast. Taking something from a tomb or messing with a corpse at rest was one of the worst crimes a fairy could do, and it was worthy of death anywhere. Only the worst would rob a grave if it happened to have anything, which was highly unlikely.
Tivar likely didn’t care anymore. Lumi knew he was grasping at air even though his words made the men pause.
Tivar must have risked telling a few the truth. Clearly, if he needed someone to breed, and wasn’t working on making his own heir without Lumi and Jaki, he wasn’t the real heir. He must have offered them a lot to make them stick by his side. Clearly, they didn’t care what was done to fix Iceland as long as they had wealth or even holds to themselves in the end.
Lord Smith gestured. “Taking the Crown will save Iceland. Elira will understand.”
“I didn’t sign up for this,” snapped a man. “We were supposed to get these two, not steal from the first King’s tomb.”
“So we should leave it and let Iceland continue to fall to pieces?” snapped Tivar. “I didn’t see you rushing to stop Lumi from putting the Crown in the coffin.”
“But-”
“Get them, now! And only kill Lumi if Jaki fights too hard.”
“No amount of money and a hold is worth this,” said the man. He glanced at the coffin.
Tivar turned red, and Lord Smith lifted his sword slightly as he turned to the speaker. The man hastily backed away.
“I thought so,” said Lord Smith.
The man pointed. “What the fuck is that?”
Another made a strange sound and loosed an arrow. It hit the wall near the floor and snapped from the force. It didn’t botherthe ice-blue vines slithering from where the wall and the floor met.
“What the fuck?” Jaki moved, forcing Lumi against the wall right behind them.
A man lashed his sword at the air as more vines came from the other side and inched toward the group. The vines, thin with thorns, had a shiny appearance, rather like ice, and they moved smoothly along. A couple lifted slightly.
“What are they?!”
“Get away!”
“Hack them off!”
Tivar jerked as one got too near to his ankle, and he drew his weapon. With the others clustering closer in the center to avoid the multiple vines, he dared to approach several that were getting closer and twisting together.
He swung and caught the bunch a few inches down. With a sound like glass shattering that made Jaki and Lumi jump, pale pieces flew and skittered along the floor only to start melting.
What was left snapped forward as the vines continued twisting together. Losing a chunk didn’t seem to have done much, and it reached its former length as if it had endless excess somewhere in the wall behind it. Others were also twisting, braiding, and wrapping around each other to form huge, thick vines the thickness of a man’s legs.
Behind them, new, thin ones inched out too.
The thorns gleamed, and Lord Smith moved, ready to hack the thickening piece inching closer.
A single vine jerked forward and wrapped around his wrist. Lord Smith cried out as the thorns must have bit through his sleeves. Another snagged onto the end of his cloak and pulled. He lost his balance, and most of the others dissolved into pure panic. A few wildly slashed with their swords, and arrows flew.
Tivar shouted to attack as Jaki kept his sword and lightning ready. A man broke and ran for the doors. A vine made of several twisted together wrapped around his ankle and yanked. He fell forward, and several others struck like snakes.
More poured from their hidden place along the walls. Tivar hacked at one too close for comfort, and even though pieces fell to the ground to melt, it kept coming.
The men attacked, although it did little. Lord Smith shouted for someone to slice the ones holding him, but no one listened. It was every man for himself. More twirled together and lashed out to wrap around swords, legs, arms, wings, and torsos. Fire flashed as a man tried to burn off the ones holding his ankles. It worked, but several more attacked him from behind. Lightning arced across the room.
The icy vines didn’t stop as they thickened and continued attacking. So many were wrapped around Lord Smith, he could barely be made out anymore. From the thick vines holding him down, the thorns grew into jagged pieces like ice.
Lord Smith’s body suddenly jerked as blood squirted from his body like juice from a squeezed fruit, and bones cracked.
Lumi almost screamed and barely held it back. If he’d fucked up, and they came for him and Jaki…
