What Once Was One (Book 2)

by Marc Johnson

  My eyes widened. A wizard? I wasn’t a wizard. I was a goblin and I was going to kill this dwarf and feed on him. Whatever was left of him, I could trade with and get that drink I craved.

  I smacked his hands to free myself and lunged at him, aiming my dagger to bury it in his chest. The dwarf snatched my wrist and twisted it with his iron strength. I yelped in pain and dropped the dagger. I struck out with my free hand and went for his eyes. I didn’t need the dagger. If I could wound him, then me and other goblins could kill him.

  He snatched my hand and pulled, turning me around, my back facing him. “Snap out of it, lad,” the dwarf said into my ear.

  As much I tried, I couldn’t break his grasp. I tried to ram the back of my head into his face, but he dodged it and yanked down on my hand. I squirmed in pain. Where were the others in my tribe? Why didn’t they help me?

  “Think of the princess,” he said. “Remember her. Remember Krystal.”

  My back stiffened and I stopped struggling against him. “Krystal,” I whispered. I wasn’t a goblin. I was Hellsfire, a wizard. I summoned my inner fire to the surface and the goblin retreated in fear.

  “Thank you, Jastillian,” I said. “I’m all right now.”

  “You sure, lad?”

  “Yes. You can let me go.”

  “Hurry. We’ve got to get back to the others.”

  We rushed back to the others and blended back in with the group of goblins. I apologized to them for what had happened.

  “It’s all right,” Prastian said. “We understand. The control’s getting harder to maintain.” Prastian wiped the sweat from his cheek. “But we’re almost there. We just need to hang on for a little bit longer.”

  I exhaled and focused on my fire and Krystal. I would get through this. I had to get through this.

  We continued to use the large goblin group as cover. We had no idea where they were headed, but their direction took us closer to the tower. We knew we had to leave them at some point. Groups of four or five constantly split off, but others soon joined us. No one thought to question them.

  “Stupid, ugly meanies,” a new goblin next to us said, and snarled. “They think they better than us goblins. But soon we show them.” He glowered at one of the trolls, but looked away when the troll roared back.

  “You have problem with them?” Jastillian asked. The elves gave him a questioning look. They would have preferred silence, but Jastillian couldn’t resist his curiosity.

  “Of course!” the little goblin said, flailing his scrawny yet muscular arms. “Who not? In all attacks, we first to die cause there lots of us and they say we not smart or strong. But we never get weapons unless we steal or find or we lucky and he gives us. And we also food for others. Life no good. But we get revenge soon.”

  “In what way?”

  “Come here,” the goblin whispered. He grinned, exposing sharp, pointy teeth. We leaned in; the goblin spirit in me was equally curious. “We make big army and get weapons. We have goblin city and all tribes invited. You and friends come too. Take this.” He handed Jastillian an old stone with strange markings on it. “Tell them great warrior, Kemek, sent you. You get in.” His wide nostrils flared in pride.

  “What’s this?”

  “Has password. We use rocks to spread word from tribe to tribe. You not read it?”

  “Me not read.”

  “Me thought all goblins read our language even if they not read.” Kemek shrugged. “It say…” He leaned in close and said something we couldn’t understand in a high-pitched squeal.

  “What?” Demay said.

  “You not hear language either? You weird goblins.” Kemek glared and sniffed us, keeping his hand on his sword. Jastillian didn’t move as Kemek’s nose came up to his beard. Kemek let go of his sword. “In this tongue, it mean as one, together, group. Like that. You say that and show stone and say me sent you. You get in. No problem.”

  “Where is it?” Prastian asked.

  “It where sun falls and where half man holds sword.” Kemek pointed northwest. “Where we were long time ago. Where we come from. It very far from here.”

  “Why you come here?” I asked. “To city.”

  “To get supplies and goblins for our city. Why else me come?”

  “What about Premier?” Jastillian asked.

  “Shhh,” Kemek said, moving in quickly to cover Jastillian’s mouth. “No say wizard’s name. He hear us. If he discover goblin city, we dead. No hope for goblins. We can’t fight magic men.”

  I raised my right eyebrow. Since Premier had the Book of Shazul, could he perform a spell like that, to hear his name when it was spoken in the city? Would he have enough power to do so? It would be such a focused and unobtrusive spell that it might be possible. Premier might know I was coming for him and be using such magic. We had to be careful against such a possibility.

  I tried to access the goblin’s memories about a secret goblin city. While the words Kemek said felt true, I couldn’t remember any such thing. The goblin within not only wanted to learn more about this city, but ached to go there. I held him in check from asking questions, but just barely.

  Jastillian struggled more with this as he palmed the rough stone in his hand, staring at the words. He opened his mouth but Prastian placed his hand on Jastillian’s arm and shook his head. Jastillian put the stone in his pocket and nodded.

  I wished we could learn more, because part of me worried that not all of the creatures were under Premier’s control. This goblin city would have to have been formed long before Premier was weakened from his defeat. If the goblins were gathering, what was their purpose? And would they pose a threat to Alexandria? Krystal had to be told this.

  We exited the marketplace and inched our way closer to the tower. The road to the tower was in better repair, but there were far fewer creatures on it. It was as if no one wanted to go near that place.

  The goblins with us didn’t intend to go to the tower. Instead, we crossed an open square, then cut through an alley. The goblin within was thankful that we weren’t heading directly for the tower anymore. I had no idea where we were going, but we needed to break away. I glanced at the others, seeing the same worried expressions on their faces.

  Kemek caught me staring up at the piece of the tower that peeked out from behind the buildings. He said, “Me know to stay away from magic. We tired of magic and big, stupid, ugly ogres and trolls.” He growled and shrieked, “We want respect!” A chill went through my bones, and I growled with him. I shook my head and wiped away the spit dribbling from my chin. What was I doing?

  “What wrong?” Jastillian asked Kemek.

  “Me still mad. Many goblins die in great battle against smelly humans when fight human city.”

  “You heard about the battle then?” Demay asked.

  “Yeah, me heard. Everyone heard about great battle. That also why me here. Don’t care if others die, but why goblins?” We stopped and Kemek swiveled his head around, twitched his ears, and inhaled deeply with his long, pointy nose. “Me also heard rumor that more powerful magic man beat you-know-who. Didn’t kill him, but wish he had. Tired of beatings on goblins and circle of death and all other things. No one seen ruler since battle. That why so much fighting lately.”

  “What’s that?” Demay said, pointing to a creature no bigger than an oversized baby. It had moss-green skin, little wings, sharp claws, and a horn sticking out of its head. It briefly grinned at us.

  “You not know what imps is?” Kemek asked. “Annoying creatures, but me still like better than ogres or trolls. Not wolves though. Hate big, ugly wolf packs. Imps steal and play jokes. Watch.”

  Four ogres stumbled out of a building, ducking their heads below the archway. They barked and laughed. On the roof above them sat a trio of imps. The leader of the ogres held out his polished club, and the others admired it. The imps swooped down and landed on the leader, who was easily ten times their size.

  The three ogres surprised me by making no move to help their
leader. Instead, they laughed at the little imps. Two of the imps grabbed at the ogre’s eyes and face while the third dug into the pouch strapped across the ogre’s body. The imp came away with a couple of eyeballs. He ducked the ogre’s blow, climbed up the ogre, and hopped back on the roof. The ogre roared and glared at the imp. The imp stuck his tongue out before running away. The second imp followed suit, but the third one tripped on one of the ogre’s massive boils as it scampered up his body.

  The ogre seized that imp, squeezing him until his eyes bulged out and his head exploded. The ogre laughed out loud before taking a huge bite of the imp. He wiped the green, slimy blood from his face.

  “Him slow imp,” Kemek said. We all laughed with Kemek and my goblin spirit felt at ease.

  A group of trolls lumbered up the road, shouldering between Demay, Behast, Kemek, and another goblin. He and his friends didn’t care that we easily outnumbered them. They didn’t even seem to notice we existed.

  “Hey!” Demay said.

  The troll stopped and dragged his massive square frame back towards us, his friends trailing him. He bent over until his disfigured face was within inches of Demay’s. “Say something, little goblin?”

  My companions shifted their goblin skins and reached for their weapons. My goblin spirit yelled to run. It was hard to resist him, but I dug my feet into the ground, preparing to back up my friend

  Prastian nudged Demay.

  “I didn’t mean anything by it,” Demay said.

  “You sure talk funny for a goblin,” the troll said. A low growl emanated from the troll. He sniffed around. “I should kill you for wasting my time.”

  “No!” Kemak said. “You leave goblin friend alone!”

  The troll shifted his attention to Kemak, lurching over him. All surrounding noises stopped as eyes turned our way. “What did you say?”

  “Me say you leave him alone.” Kemek pushed the helm up his head, getting a better view of the troll. “You want fight, you fight Kemek!”

  “You challenging me?” the troll asked. His eyes became blood-red and the veins in his square head and thick neck began to stick out, increasing to the size of small fingers.

  I edged over to Jastillian and whispered, “What’s going on?”

  “A one-on-one battle, lad. That way, the fight won’t get out of hand and involve the troll’s friends and us goblins. While the trolls are bigger and stronger, we have numbers, and things could just as easily get nasty for them. Even if we lose, the winners will be weakened. Another pack might finish both of us off.”

  “I didn’t know they had honor,” Behast said.

  “I don’t know if it’s honor, but they do have rules in their society,” Jastillian said. “Keep still and whatever you do, don’t interfere unless others interfere first.”

  “Yeah, me do!” Kemek said and yelled out a battle cry.

  Kemek lunged toward the humongous troll, surprising him and toppling him to the ground. The troll got up and flung Kemek off him. Kemek landed on an imp and squashed him. Everyone formed a circle around them, yelling and cheering.

  “Kill dumb troll!”

  “Squash goblin! Squash goblin!”

  “Kill each other!” an ogre said, and all the ogres standing around laughed. “And we’ll eat you both!”

  The troll seized the huge club hanging at his side and Kemek drew his battered, oversized sword. The troll swung his club, which was easily the size of Kemek. Instead of dodging, Kemek blocked the club with his sword, holding it at bay. No wonder his sword was so beat up. His two hands ground into the handle and his muscles pulsated.

  I was surprised at Kemek’s strength. I didn’t know where he got it from, but his scrawny arms held their own. The two combatants growled and snarled, glaring into each other‘s eyes. The strain took its toll on little Kemek as the troll pumped more of his strength into his weapon. He was toying with Kemek, sporting a malicious grin as he did so. The goblin warrior looked like he was going to lose. How could a lone goblin stand up to a troll? My heart went out to him.

  In a skillful move, Kemek stopped struggling and gave ground, allowing himself to slip under the massive club. The club whizzed by him, grazing against Kemek’s helm. The troll stumbled forward and tripped. Kemek seized his chance. He ran behind the troll and hopped on his back. Kemek stabbed his sword through him, over and over again until the troll plummeted to the earth. The troll yelled in agony, the dark, thick blood flowing from his body.

  The troll tried to use his long reach to swat Kemek off him, but it was futile. Kemek raised his sword, giving one mighty roar, and rammed his sword through the troll’s neck. The troll fell limp. All of the surrounding goblins yelled in unison, including us. All the non-goblins turned their backs and dispersed. The trolls took one last look at their friend and left. The goblins all moved towards the carcass, diving on it like vultures.

  “Well fought,” Behast said, and nodded.

  “Me show trolls that me mighty warrior! Me sore though.” Kemek stretched his neck and rotated his arms. “You guys want first bite after me?” He pointed to the deceased troll and his mouth salivated.

  “No, we ate already,” I said. My stomach churned. Not only because of how gross it would have been to eat raw troll flesh, but because part of me wanted to dig in.

  Kemek shrugged. The goblins around us had hungry eyes, but waited for Kemek to eat first. “We all great warriors in city, not just me. Like to see you there.”

  “Maybe you will,” Jastillian said, stroking his dirty beard. “Maybe you will.” By the way his eyes gleamed, I knew he would go one day.

  Kemek turned and dove into his dead opponent. The other goblins followed suit. They savagely tore apart the troll, ripping chunks of flesh out of the wounds he’d suffered from Kemek. Some didn’t even bother to tear the flesh apart, just used their sharp teeth to bite off pieces of the troll.

  “We had better be on our way,” Behast said, his face paling to a light green.

  “And this time, please don’t anger anyone else, Demay,” Prastian said.

  “Hey, it wasn’t my fault. He bumped into me.”

  We left the feeding frenzy and traversed the streets back toward the tower. We skittered up against the side of the old buildings, trying to avoid everyone. We didn’t want to get into another fight. Without the larger group I felt exposed. Other groups that would have avoided the larger group, made it a point to force us out of the way. It was as if they craved another fight because they knew they could beat us.

  We didn’t merge with any other goblin groups, but began to shadow one group after another to make it less obvious there were only five of us. Slowly, we angled our way closer to the tower.

  “That was an enlightening experience,” Demay said.

  “Enlightening?” Behast asked. “That’s not what I would call it. I still wouldn’t hesitate to kill a couple of them if the situation warranted it.”

  “Most of the goblins I’ve seen are cowardly and follow whoever’s in charge,” Jastillian said. “But Kemek and his band are different. I’ve got to go to that city the next time I go on an expedition. I‘ll need you to perform your ritual again.”

  “Are you sure? I have no interest in venturing deep into the Wastelands again. You’ll be without my magic and you could lose control.”

  Jastillian peered into the distance. His tiny nose scrunched and he nodded. “I’ve thought about it and it’s worth the risk. Just like it was worth coming here. If I die here or there, I will have seen and done what no other historian has.” A huge grin was plastered on his face.

  “If we survive this, I’ll do what I can.”

  An imp peeked out from under a rusted scrap of metal. He cradled a small shard of it in his tiny hand. His neck stretched forward as his eyes ran over us.

  “Why’s he staring so intently at us?” Demay asked.

  “Oh no,” I said. “Imps aren’t normally found near Alexandria, right?”

  “No,” Jastillian said.

>   “Then when Rebekah and the others got blood for us, I doubt they got any imp blood. Without any imp blood in the ritual—”

  “That means they can see us!” Behast said.

  The imp continued to stare at us, scratching his little horn. Soon, he dropped his mouth and shook his head. His hand trembled.

  “You…you…you not goblins,” he said in a high-pitched voice as he backed away. “You—”

  Behast kicked the scrap metal aside and reached for the imp. The imp sliced Behast’s hand with his shard of metal, but Behast just grunted and ignored the pain. He plucked the shard from the imp’s hand and threw it away, lifting the little creature high into the air. The imp struggled, flailing his arms, but he couldn’t break Behast’s brute strength. Behast squeezed until the imp’s tiny head popped off.

  “That takes care of that,” Behast said, throwing the imp’s limp body away. A goblin picked up the body and took a bite. Behast tore off a piece of his tunic to wrap around his hand. “Let’s avoid any imps and any other creatures that aren’t located near Alexandria. We might run into something more...fierce.”

  I stopped and stared at the goblin munching on the imp, wondering if that was necessary. Meeting Kemek, hearing my goblin spirit within, and seeing Masep up close made me realize that the creatures lurking within the Wastelands were more than just monsters. They were people. Monstrous and very strange people, but still people. I had to remember that when I had a choice about killing them. I wanted to get back to Alexandria and tell Krystal of this. What would she think? She had been trained her whole life to think of them as the enemy.

  We finally made our way to the tower, stopping twenty feet from the only visible entrance. We stood out, having nowhere to blend in. It stood alone, on a rocky island in the midst of an abyss, and none of the creatures dared to approach it. A spiky gate, twenty feet high, blocked the only pathway across. Two ogres and two wolves guarded it. With my wizard’s sight, I could also see an eerie black, electrical energy emanating from the gate, designed to kill or injure those that would try to pass through uninvited.