The Goblin and the Empire

by JD Cole

  “Hey!” Devon yelled to get their attention. When they turned and their weapons were no longer pointing at the doorway, he whooshed past them as a blast of wind, staggering them backwards. Neither of them fell, but Devon was now behind them and he grabbed both of their helmets, slamming them together like a Three-Stooges routine. The soldiers slumped unconscious like sacks of rice. Devon peered inside the door and immediately turned away, vomiting. Three of the dead bodies were women, rifles resting on or near their bodies, but the fresh corpses and body parts behind them included children, obvious victims of multiple grenades.

  Falling to his hands and knees, he began sobbing. “That’s so sick!” he screamed. “Why are they doing this?”

  Zaiyensa came up behind him looking at the horrific scene, then placed a tender hand on Devon’s head. “There has never been a time when mortals were not doing this to each other. Even the faeries suffer from bloodlust.”

  Devon looked over at the unconscious soldiers, rage consuming his young face. Grabbing one soldier by the scruff of his neck, he stood and tossed the man into the horizon. The other soldier quickly followed. “Screw mercy,” he growled, wiping bile from his mouth. “I’m stopping this right now. Even if I have to kill ‘um all.”

  “Be careful, Devon,” Zaiyensa warned as he began to walk away. “One thing you and I cannot do is influence the mortal world, not on a grander scale than a few individuals.”

  He turned to her, his anger still burning brightly. “What does that mean?”

  “You can save a few people and kill a few others if you wish. But it is against Dragon Law to do anything that could, say, influence the outcome of a war, or force a peace treaty between mortals. Kings and queens, heads of state, diplomats, or anyone influential to a society… none of these can be killed or coerced by us. If you break this law, you will be imprisoned and tried just like Krin Ahgl.”

  Devon looked at the ground, absorbing that new information. “Fine. I’m not stopping the war, but I’m saving these people.”

  “And you are freeing yourself of the notion to do it without killing?”

  Devon’s face twisted in frustration and he grabbed handfulls of his hair. Finally, he punched a massive hole in the wall of the building where those people had just been murdered. “I don’t know! I don’t know, okay?” He pointed to where the bodies lay, still warm and leaking blood. “But that is not all right! The monsters killing all these people have to be stopped!”

  “I did not mean for any of this to inflame your emotions,” Zaiyensa said, her face full of love and compassion. “Come, I will take you to Christian, and we can leave this vile place-”

  “No,” Devon said firmly. “We save these people first, then we get Chris. Okay?”

  Zaiyensa sighed. “As you wish. But I will help you save them. Like I said, it was not my intent to distress you.”

  “Not your fault. Let’s go kick some ass.”

  Zaiyensa smiled at her new favorite term, the softness of her expression disappearing now that Devon seemed to snap out of his funk with renewed purpose. “Yes, there is no shortage of asses to be kicked.”

  “Or as we say in Hawaii, karang some ollahs.”

  “Smash some testicles? That’s even funnier!” she laughed. “Please, let us commence with the karanging.”

  They started down the street and it wasn’t long before three more soldiers burst from another building nearby, moving like a kill-squad seeking victims. Zaiyensa disappeared, reappearing before one soldier and nailing him square between the legs with a bone-shattering kick. He flew backwards several meters, unconscious, and the Dragon gripped her sides in raucous laughter, ignoring the gunfire from the shocked pair of remaining soldiers.

  Devon squeezed his legs together, wincing. “Aw, she did that for real…” he groaned. He wasn’t so heartless as to wish such an attack even on these cold-blooded murderers. Disappearing himself to rush as ether at the remaining soldiers, he reappeared and clotheslined one with his forearm, then spun and smashed his elbow into the other’s face.

  This time, he was the one to raise an eyebrow at Zaiyensa, then he looked at the poor nutless guy she’d kicked into the distance. “That’s harsh, especially from the goddess of love,” he said. “You know the ollahs and asses thing is just expressions, yeah?”

  “He’s still alive!” she protested with a smile.

  “I guarantee when he wakes up, he’ll wish he wasn’t.”

  “You can practice some healing magic on him, if you wish.”

  “Psh. Nah. Save the healing for people who deserve it. Let’s find the rest of these guys and end this murder spree.”

  The Dragons quickly and methodically made their way through town towards Christian, hunting and disabling every enemy soldier they could sense. There was a nagging voice at the back of Devon’s mind, reminding him of the two soldiers he’d killed, but he kept forcing the thoughts away. Almost an hour later, they had cleared more than two dozen soldiers, even managing to rescue several people and herding them back towards the parts of the village that had been pacified.

  Naturally, Christian was with the last group of resistance engaged with the communists, near the center of town. He and the resistance fighters were holed-up in a large office building that had no doors or windows left intact. The concrete walls were holding up well against rifles and grenades, and Devon guessed it was buildings like this that the tanks had been targeting.

  “Christian stay inside there?” Devon pointed, noting the muzzle flashes coming from the first and third floors, where the resistance fighters were well-covered from the return fire across the street.

  “Yes,” Zaiyensa confirmed. “Do we want to pull them out with an ethergate, or just dispatch those soldiers who are pinning them down?”

  “Might as well finish the job,” Devon said. “I’ll handle ‘um.”

  “Are you sure?” Zaiyensa looked at him once more with enormous compassion, lightly gripping his shoulder in support.

  He took a deep breath. “Yeah. I’m still mad, but it’s not controlling me anymore. Thanks.”

  Zaiyensa smiled. “I will wait here, then. Go karang their ollahs.”

  Devon shut his eyes tightly against the imagery he’d witness. “I guess it’s my fault for teaching you that.” Shaking his head clear, he made his way toward the street corner where soldiers were firing on his brother’s group. This time around, he decided not to stroll up to them and show off his immortality. Instead he moved from one wall or pile of rubble to another, hiding himself while making his way closer. He knew Christian’s group could see him from across the street now, and he decided to act out a Hollywood action movie for them.

  Now that he was close enough, he could see that there were soldiers inside two buildings on opposite corners of the street, as well as in the street itself. Those in the street were taking cover behind burned out cars and trucks, but they also had two heavy machine guns mounted on bipods that they were using to hammer the resistance fighters’ position. Devon quietly crawled through a busted-out window into the first building containing soldiers. Using martial arts and wrestling techniques that he really no longer had any need of, he pounded the soldiers unconscious, then moved up to the second floor where more of them were firing rifles at the resistance fighters. He quickly beat up all of these, as well, then looked out one of the corner windows. He was right above one of the machine gun nests. There was no shortage of grenades around him on each of the soldiers lying unconscious around him. He grabbed two, pulling the pins and tossing them near enough to each machine gun to spook their operators, but hopefully far enough away that they had time to jump to safety. For good measure he threw several more at the soldiers themselves, but without pulling their pins.

  He’d judged correctly on where to throw the grenades, as they detonated mostly harmlessly, not even damaging the machine guns. But the soldiers who’d dived away reflexively from the other grenades now had no cover, and were mercilessly gunned down by the resista
nce. He managed to not feel any guilt over these deaths. Instead, he leapt from the second-story window and ran toward the next building. Gunfire from the resistance began to quiet down as they watched him, and just a couple of minutes later, all gunfire ceased as there were no more communists alive or awake to continue the attack.

  Devon walked back downstairs from the second floor of this building, taking his time walking to the exit as he pondered seeing Christian again. Not long ago, he’d been thrilled at the idea of showing off for his big brother and demonstrating all the cool things they could do as Dragons. But now…

  As Devon stepped out into the sunlight, he saw a mix of resistance fighters and villagers making their way out of the ruined building. Devon’s brother stood tall among them, an AK-47 held at a safe angle toward the ground, ready to be brought up at the first sign of threat. Normally clean-shaven, he now sported a thick beard and scraggly brown hair almost longer than his neck. His marine digicam fatigues were torn and filthy, and one of his boots was half-ripped open.

  Christian shook his head, his mouth agape and his amber eyes unbelieving. “Devon?” He started walking toward his kid brother, who had always been the smallest and leanest of the Kunali’i brothers, standing about fifteen pounds lighter and two inches shorter than Christian, who was almost the same size as Bennett. That still made Devon larger than average, but standing next to his older brothers, he looked tiny.

  “How?” Christian was still shaking his head as they drew closer, and he let the rifle fall to his side.

  “Chris!” Devon said, running the last couple of steps to crush his brother in a bear hug. Christian slowly returned it with his free arm.

  “What are you doing here?” Christian gripped the back of Devon’s head as they embraced, kissing his hair. “How did you get here? What in the world is going on?”

  “Brah!” Devon said, tears streaming down his eyes. “Erica told you already! We Dragons, Chris!”

  “Erica…” Christian looked back at the resistance fighters, who were watching them with a mix of relief and confusion. “That was all real? She was really talking to me all this time?”

  “Yes, you portagee!” Devon playfully smacked the back of Christian’s head. “You shoulda’ listened, you lolo! Would have probably saved me all the trouble coming up here for find you!”

  “But how did you even get here?”

  “We can get you home, but not in front all these guys,” he motioned at the gathering of fighters and survivors. “These guys get someplace they can go or what? We took care of all the bad guys, the town is safe now.”

  “You took care of… ? I don’t understand what’s going on.”

  By now, Zaiyensa had made her way over and was talking to the gathered villagers and fighters using a language spell. “A lot of the soldiers are not dead, they are just unconscious. You’re safe for now, but you should leave this place as quickly as you can.”

  “There is armor outside the town!” one of the men said. “They will kill us as soon as they see us on the road!”

  “Those? No, my young protégé took care of those, they are no longer a threat. I think the men inside them are still alive, but the tanks themselves are useless, they can’t even move anymore.”

  Everyone began looking at each other with hope and even excitement at the news.

  “Chris-chen!” One of the men waved, calling in a heavy accent. “Come! We go now, Chris-chen!”

  Christian shook his head and pointed at Devon. “This is my brother. Brrot. You understand?” He hoped he’d pronounced the Russian word for brother correctly. He motioned at himself and Devon and pointed at the ground. “We’re staying, you go.”

  The man shrugged and trotted over to them. “You… stay?”

  “Yes,” Christian nodded. “I’m going with him,” Christian pointed at Devon, and then off in the opposite direction of the main road everyone else was heading towards.

  “Tvoy brat?”

  “Yeah,” Christian nodded again. “My brother. Moy brat.”

  The man sighed. “Okay. We go.” He pointed to his compatriots who were already leaving. He offered his hand to Christian, who shook it. He repeated the hand shake vigorously with Devon. “Thank you. Thank you. Be safe. Thank you.”

  Zaiyensa joined the brothers after the man also tried to shake her arm off in thanks. “He seems reluctant to part ways.” The man turned and waved several times while jogging to join his friends.

  “I just met him yesterday,” Christian said. “Most of the guys I’ve been traveling with have gotten killed along the way. Who are you again?”

  The Dragon smiled radiantly, offering her dainty hand. “I am Zaiyensa. I am also a Dragon.”

  “Uh-huh,” Christian lamely shook her hand, disbelieving. “You look like a bureaucrat, you an arms-dealer’s middleman or something?”

  “Chris, no offend her,” Devon said. “She’s been a big help, teaching me magic and stuff. She’s the one that got us here.”

  “Yeah, speaking of that, you’re gonna have to explain to me how you got here now.”

  Devon looked over at the fighters and refugees who were commandeering any usable weapons and vehicles they could find. “Let’s go inside the building, and Zaiyensa can show you.”

  Christian gave Zaiyensa a good look up and down. “I don’t see how you can possibly be hiding a whip radio under there.”

  They moved indoors, where Devon was thankful to find that they hadn’t suffered any fatal casualties.

  “Not that I’m ungrateful,” Christian said, watching his brother inspect the bullet-torn interior, “but what you did was reckless, Devon. I can’t believe you risked your life-”

  “Erica told you we’re immortal, right?”

  Christian paused. “That’s… not a thing. It can’t be.”

  There was obvious weariness in Devon’s voice. “We cannot die, Chris. For real, we cannot.”

  “Under a specific circumstance, we can,” Zaiyensa offered, but then decided she should keep quiet.

  Devon moved closer to his older brother. “But… trying to get here, and get to you, and save these people…” Devon’s eyes had a fresh supply of tears that began streaming now. “I killed some guys, Chris. I killed ‘um!”

  Christian pulled his brother into an embrace, holding him tightly as he racked with sobs. Zaiyensa stood quietly off to the side, allowing the brothers several minutes of quiet release. Eventually the brothers had collapsed to their knees, still holding each other. Finally, Christian held his brother’s head firmly in his hands, staring into his eyes.

  “Listen to me. Devon, listen to me. These are bad dudes. You should never have come here, but what they were doing, what they’ve been doing for the last several months, no, look at me, and listen! I totally understand what you’re feeling. It doesn’t feel good taking a life. And it’s not supposed to feel good. But these guys here didn’t really give any of us a choice, okay?”

  “I did have a choice,” Devon said, his tears drying. “I never have to kill ‘um, but they made me so angry. They was already knocked out. They couldn’t hurt me or anybody else. But I saw what they did to a bunch of people, women and kids, they blew ‘um up with grenades!”

  Christian closed his eyes, saddened that his youngest brother had experienced such a sight. Devon was a goofball with a huge, kind heart. War was not something he should ever have been exposed to. Christian himself was not really cut out for it, and he was a marine.

  “So I went kill ‘um,” Devon finished, his eyes refusing to meet Christian’s. “Wasn’t even hard to do.”

  Christian let go of Devon’s temples and instead gripped his shoulders. “It’s probably gonna feel real sucky for a long time, Devon. But listen to me, don’t you ever feel guilty about it, okay? It’s possible that you’ve saved another family from being murdered like that. These men are monsters, all right? These are not soldiers fighting a regular war, they actually hate everyone who doesn’t agree with their goals. Nobody worth
caring about could ever behave the way these guys are, you can’t even call them soldiers. These are evil men who are lured by the promise of being able to act as disgusting as they want to, they’re actually being given the authority to act like this. You did nothing wrong, okay? You understand? You didn’t do anything wrong.”

  Devon nodded, and Christian looked over at Zaiyensa. She was standing relaxed with her arms crossed, and had a sisterly look of affection on her face. She also nodded at Christian, but in approval rather than agreement.

  Devon wiped his face with the back of his hand. “Zaiyensa, you can take us home now? To our house in Hawaii?”

  “What?” Christian said. But between saying the word and looking over at Zaiyensa, he found that they were now all in his living room in Haleiwa. Christian shot to his feet, stumbling one way and another in shock and confusion. “How? What did-?” Quickly, he ran to the sliding glass door at the back of the living room and opened it. He was immediately blasted in the face with the welcoming salt-water breeze of Oahu’s North Shore.

  “How did we get here?” He demanded. “This is impossible!”

  Devon shook his head, managing half a grin as he stood. “Brah, I keep telling you. We Dragons.”

  ~ ~ ~ ~

  “General Vox.”

  Sean took the man’s forearm in the standard faery greeting, noting the strength of his grip even though his hand was too small to get around Sean’s wrist. “General Khun Rhee, pleasure to finally meet you, sir.”

  “Likewise. It was becoming a bit frustrating trying to coordinate a strategy with you long-distance.”

  Khun Rhee stood just over six feet tall, and apart from the cat ears and flattened nose, he looked like a normal man. With the top half of his armor currently removed for repair, Sean could see he was no slouch in the power department, either.

  Khun turned to a smartly-dressed Paladin and offered his forearm.