Goblin Apprentice

by Gerhard Gehrke

  “Because ours demanded it.”

  “Your master is dead,” Spicy said. “So where does that leave you?”

  She gazed up at him through teary eyes. “Your master is now mine.”

  “And what about the other humans out there? Are they going to come and try to hurt him?”

  “No. I will tell them and they will listen.”

  “All of them?”

  She nodded. “Those that are devoted will.”

  He realized his head was fuzzy. He was so tired. “And what about me?”

  “You are a blessed one. You are most welcome.”

  “My friends too, then, yes? And about them—can you bring them here?”

  Fath wasn’t going anywhere and remained asleep.

  The girl in white’s name was Marta. She had left to fetch Rime and the others. Spicy could only hope they hadn’t run off as he had told them.

  He went outside, deciding it would be best not to force the children to see a room full of dead humans along with a bloated dragon corpse. Smoke rose into the night sky from a building that still burned on the far side of the village. A quick count of the dead in the cave made him wonder how many humans might be left.

  It seemed some of the villagers were down fighting the fire. After some time, whatever was burning was finally extinguished or had burned down to nothing. A group of villagers then returned to the front of the cave.

  No one spoke to Spicy. Before he could stop them, two of the women slipped past and into the chamber. When they saw Mach’s body, a wailing began like Spicy had never heard. The women tore at their clothes and hair. Spicy had to push them away from the body, and finally one of the men helped take them back outside.

  They shouted the news and it carried through the village.

  The mourning cry that rose was hard to listen to, and he felt an ache rise within him as he thought of the family and neighbors he had lost. But he refused the villagers entrance to the chamber. After what felt like an hour, the cries subsided. A group of the men, sooty from the fire, came before him.

  “Let us remove our dead,” a man requested. Spicy stepped aside to let them work.

  A human child about as tall as he was kept staring at him with large eyes. When Spicy smiled, she ran to her mother. The mother looked at Spicy and even in the torchlight he saw in her expression the last thing he would have expected.

  Embarrassment.

  “Jill, this is a guest in our village,” the mother said. “Marta said he is to be treated with respect.”

  The girl continued to cling to her mother.

  The mother stroked the girl’s head. To Spicy she asked, “Are you hungry? Do you need a place to sleep?”

  “My friends will. There are seven of us.”

  “I’ll fix up a few beds. Please wait here.” She left and took the girl with her.

  Marta, true to her word, returned with the goblin children. The woman with the broad smile who had let Spicy out of his cage was with them. She held Domino in her arms while Eve clung to the woman’s apron. Rime led the others. Pix was still coughing and the rest walked in silence. They were all dragging their feet.

  Spicy took them to a hut the mother had designated as theirs. Inside were three rickety beds covered in an array of multicolored blankets. The place was run-down but didn’t smell too bad and looked clean.

  The children climbed onto the beds, and after Rime and Spicy tucked them in they were asleep in moments.

  “This place,” Rime whispered, “is it safe here?”

  “For now, I can only hope so. I need to go back up to check on Fath.”

  Rime stayed behind.

  Marta must have gone straight up to the cave after delivering the children. Spicy found her washing Fath’s slumbering body. She had relit a few of the lamps snuffed out by the explosion. It appeared she had just started. The water ran pink from the sponge. She was humming.

  “Get out,” Spicy said.

  She was startled. “Our master is hurt. I need to clean his wounds.”

  “You don’t want to wake him. Leave the water and the sponge. He’s my master. I’ll take care of it. This is his room now. Leave.”

  She looked like she was about to protest, but instead she stood and offered a demure nod. With a final look at Mach’s corpse, she exited the chamber.

  Spicy examined the broken door. It would need to be repaired and there was no way to easily block it off without moving something heavy. And he was exhausted. He went to Fath.

  The dragon rattled with each breath. Spicy picked up the sponge and dabbed at Fath’s seeping wounds. The water in the bucket was dark red by the time he was halfway finished. There was no way to know if Fath would expire. His scalded face was puffy and raw.

  “I should kill you,” Fath said.

  Spicy took a step back.

  Fath remained still and exhaled slowly. “None of this would have happened but for your betrayal. Your ruse in finding the map. I could have navigated to the mountain myself and found my brother missing rather than stumbling upon him as we did.”

  “All I did was waste some of your time saving my friends.”

  The dragon’s breathing slowed and Spicy thought he might have slipped back to sleep. Then he coughed.

  “There is work here for us,” Fath said. “I must know how much was shared with the humans. I must discover what happened to the rest of my brethren.”

  “So…you’re not going to kill me.”

  “When my brother perceived I could no longer read, you helped me save face. My memory is not what it was. I need assistance and you will provide it. We will speak of my limitations no more. But I will require your eyes and your devoted attention.”

  Spicy nodded. “You’ll have it. But I have my own requests. You can give me orders and I’ll do my best to follow them. But you were willing to kill me when you thought I wasn’t going to help you. Right now you’re blind. And forgive me, but it seems your memory might be failing you. You have all this knowledge but might not even know what it all means anymore. I’ll be here to help you. But not as a slave. I’m your apprentice—a learner. I’ll serve you and let you teach me and care for you to the best of my ability. But I have my own needs, which includes making sure my friends are kept safe.”

  Fath let out a long sigh and had been clicking one of his claws as Spicy spoke. “Are you finished?”

  Spicy nodded, then realized Fath couldn’t see. “Yes.”

  “I made a mistake staying hidden for so long. Your sages cared for what I gave them while I held back more than I ever should have. But this knowledge should never have been released to the humans. The bombs are but a small portion of what our lore can produce. Mach has committed a grave sin in giving men access to this. Our task here is great. I will be asking much from you. If you wish to bow out…”

  Spicy waited.

  “Then I will let you leave,” Fath continued. “Take your friends and return home. I will make arrangements. These humans will render assistance.”

  “I’m staying. I’m going to help. That’s what an apprentice does. So where do we even start? What about your brother’s body? And all these books? If you want to keep it all out of the hands of the humans, we have to have a plan. Fath?”

  The dragon had gone back to sleep.

  The creature had offered him an honorable out. Take the children home. Wasn’t his obligation to his own kind first? But even if they made it to Boarhead, how long before more humans appeared? What if something in the dragon lore might serve goblinkind?

  He hadn’t been trained as a sage. Perhaps he had only wanted to become one because it would mean he could read and avoid so many of the menial chores around his village. But now he was a dragon’s apprentice. Did that make him the last sage? Had any survived? With Fath gone, what purpose would they even have among the goblins?

  Spicy sighed.

  He wasn’t a good hunter, either, nor was he a warrior or much of a fighter. Maybe his mother was right and he was
n’t fit for anything but the rice fields.

  Yet he was the one who had made it this far, and it was he alone that the dragon trusted.

  Rime and the children now looked to him for answers as well.

  He rubbed his nose. He didn’t want to think about any of it, at least not until tomorrow. The dragon snored. Spicy decided there was little to do for the moment but join him.

  Chapter Fifty-One

  The next morning, the dragon cave had a guard. Someone had lain down small blankets on the floor of the cave’s entrance. Marta knelt waiting as Spicy emerged.

  Even his bones ached. The sensation of still being on the water lingered. He could have slept next to the dragon for another week but for the worry he felt over Rime and the children. It had been foolish to leave them in the hut alone. He raced past Marta, who hurried to follow.

  “Our master,” she said. “I will tend to him now.”

  “Stay out of there. He gave instructions he doesn’t want to see anyone but me.”

  “Will he need food?”

  “Later.”

  Spicy went to the hut. Outside were set five baskets overflowing with fruits, breads, and bottles of milk and juice. The door wouldn’t budge. Spicy pushed at it and then threw himself against the wood. From the other side, Rime cried out in pain.

  “Rime, it’s me. Let me in.”

  A bleary-eyed Rime opened the door. The children were all asleep except for Dill. She had found a small wicker doll and was playing. When she saw him enter, she ran to him and gave him a hug. He kissed the top of her head.

  “I was sleeping against the door,” Rime said. “I thought at any minute the humans were going to come to take us again.”

  “Look outside.”

  Rime did a double take. Then he and Dill carried the baskets inside.

  “What does this mean?” Rime asked.

  “Things are different here. I think we’re safe. As safe as we can be until we can go home.”

  Rime sniffed a round loaf. “You don’t really believe that.”

  “Compared to everyplace else we’ve been? This isn’t so bad, is it?”

  “What’s happening here?”

  “These people worship dragons. Fath killed theirs. He’s hurt pretty bad, but still alive. The humans have been collecting knowledge from Fath’s brother Mach—things Fath says they shouldn’t know.”

  Dill bit into an apple. The other children stirred. Soon all of them swarmed the baskets and began eating.

  Rime tore off a hunk of bread and chewed. “So what, then? This isn’t our problem. Let Fath do whatever he has to do. You have to help us make it back home.”

  “It’s not that easy,” Spicy said. “This all started because one human was looking for Fath. But it sounds like the dragon Mach was behind it all.”

  “But why kill so many goblins?”

  Spicy shrugged. “Because we were in the way, and Somni and the other sages wouldn’t share their secret. Lord told his men we had treasure to motivate them to follow him. Lord only had a handful of men with him. But now we see how many there are, and one day there will be more. With the dragon knowledge, they’ll only be stronger.”

  “I don’t like how you’re talking. You sound like you’re not going home.”

  “I can’t, Rime. Not yet. I want to help Fath. But then I want to find out what he and all his kind knows. Somni and all the other sages never shared any of the dragon secrets. They just helped keep them hidden. But if there’s a chance I might discover something that will protect our kind from the humans, it’s worth us staying here at least for a while.”

  “So says the hunter who can’t shoot straight.”

  Spicy flung an apple at him. The children were eating noisily. They were smiling, even sad-faced little Domino. His own stomach growled. He dug in.

  Marta knocked on the hut door. “Master Goblin, there’s someone to see you.”

  Spicy stepped outside and was confronted by a dozen of the pirates. Middle Finger stood at the front of the pack. There was not a smile among them and they carried weapons. Only a couple of villagers were nearby, with apprehension in their eyes.

  “Marta tells me you’re the one in charge now,” Middle Finger said.

  Spicy forced himself to meet the man’s stare. “What do you want?”

  “Last night, we lost our workshop here. Our arrangement with the dragon was tied into us making and selling bombs, matches, and a few other items no one else had. My accountant in Orchard called it pure profits. We humble men out here in the delta called it a golden goose. But someone blew it up.”

  “That wasn’t me. It was Alma and Blades.”

  Wes whispered into Middle Finger’s ear. The pirate leader nodded. “You don’t happen to know where they went, do you? I think we’d like to catch up with them. They had someone who belonged to us. My foreman.”

  “I don’t know anything about that. She’s been chasing me and Fath down the length of the sea. If she’s gone now, I’m glad. Me and my friends, we’re free. No one is taking us as slaves.”

  Spicy could only hope he sounded as brave as his words.

  “We don’t condone slavery,” Middle Finger said. “But we had a good thing going here. Will your dragon allow us to continue?”

  “I’ll ask him.”

  Middle Finger waited, as if Spicy were going to go seek an audience with the dragon that very moment.

  Spicy brushed crumbs from his shirt. “Okay. I’ll go see him now.”

  “Oh, and while you’re up there, can you ask him if he has any plans for the dead dragon? Because if not, we would like to make an offer to take it off his hands.”

  Epilogue

  Blades worked the oars but had slowed considerably. The lake had its current and they had to fight against it. Both Alma and the man named Blaylock sat on the forward bench. The tiny boat had a mast but there was no breeze.

  “Why am I rowing?” Blades asked. “I’ve been rowing all night.”

  Alma closed the book she had been attempting to read. “Because if we stop, the pirates we just bamboozled will catch us. That means a long, drawn-out death. You want details?”

  Blades pushed at the oars with renewed vigor.

  To Blaylock, Alma asked, “So these ingredients…how expensive are they?”

  “Not expensive at all,” Blaylock said. “The entire process is relatively simple as long as you don’t deviate from the recipes.”

  She closed the book and tucked it away. Picking up her bow, she placed it across her lap and scanned the water behind them. No one was following, but that would change soon. Middle Finger wouldn’t let her actions go without a response. That he hadn’t appeared behind them and forced them to take to land for flight was, well, lucky.

  “And who besides Middle Finger did you do business with?” Alma asked.

  “He was our primary distributor,” Blaylock said. “Actually, our only one. He paid us what he did, but I always supposed we might make more. Market’s tight, he told us.”

  “That, Mister Blaylock, was a bold-faced lie. I’m glad we found each other. Perhaps in the coming days you’ll forgive me for the circumstances of our meeting. But I would venture that the market is not only not tight, as Middle Finger would have you believe, but fairly unscratched. And I have a customer in mind who will pay us well beyond what a delta pirate can afford. Do I have your interest, Mister Blaylock?”

  Blaylock nodded.

  “Good.” She nudged the sack with the bombs and checked the rest of the supplies stored behind them as if they might have gotten up on their own and vanished. But her precious cargo was all accounted for. So much more valuable than a dragon’s head, for their journey would take them beyond Orchard City. The archduke had a brewing war to fight. And what better customer could she hope for than that?

  “You make me nervous when you’re smiling,” Blades said.

  “Deal with it, Martin. And you’re slowing down again.”

  “Why isn’t he rowing?”<
br />
  “Because, Martin, Mister Blaylock here is the new vice president of my company. And officers don’t row. Now if we catch the afternoon turn of the tide and the late winds, we might make Orchard City by tomorrow. And once there, we sail in style to Pinnacle.”

  Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed Goblin Apprentice.

  If you have a moment, please consider leaving a review. Even a short comment can help small press and independent authors find new readers, and your opinion is important to me.

  For a free short story that tells the tale of how Alma and Blades joined forces, visit GerhardGehrke.com for a copy of The Orchard City Two-Step.

  The story continues in Goblin Rogue.