Grump & Rose

by Aaron Burdett

  One of the humans passed by, a man tall and crooked as an old birch with wrists just as thin and knobby. Quick as lightning Rahl's claw lanced out and snatched the slave's wrist. The man yelped and twisted, crashing to his trembling knees. The other humans stopped to stare in horror, but only for a moment. Boil flashed Grump a pleading stare before locking his gaze to the floor.

  The chief leaned over, his wide, wet nostril breathing in the man's thick bush of curls. "Tell me, human, what do you think of your master?"

  Rahl squeezed and the slave cried out. Hunger roared through Grump. It raged and thrashed like a caged lion. He squeezed his knees harder and prayed his kneecaps wouldn't shatter.

  "I—I think you are the most powerful being in the world," the man croaked through his tears.

  Rahl licked his teeth and snapped the air just a hair from the man's cheek. "And what else?"

  "You—you will be remembered through the ages. No one in this world is greater than Chief Rahl. They will write stories of you. They will carve your name in mountains. All will fall before you."

  A long, pointy pink tongue snaked from Rahl's lips and slid across the man's cheek. "Your tears are salty. The rest of you taste so good?"

  "Please ... No...."

  Grump swiped the chalice from his table and emptied the wine. The pungent odor hit his nose, and the bitter buttery liquid swirled in warm lines down his throat. He slammed the cup down and wiped a drop from his lips. "I'm sure he's not tastier than another swig. Why not unchain your slave for the night and have her serve us? I'm feeling randy!"

  With a flick of his wrist, Rahl tossed the slave away. The man scampered into the dark and vanished into a tunnel in the back. Rahl cackled and chugged his own cup, half of which poured from his jaw and splattered on the tabletop.

  He finished and belched. "No, I'll not unchain her for the night. I want her to fear her fate. She's strong-willed, you see, and there's nothing I like more than breaking a strong will." He bit his bottom lip and closed his eyes. "The fear will build inside her like a storm behind the peaks. She'll think every sound, every slightest whisper is me, lurking in the dark. I can almost smell her fear from here. It ... pleases me. I'm sure you understand. We're both monsters to the fair folk."

  Grump found himself tightening his grip on Rose's satchel and leaning back. "You really have everything planned out."

  "I do!" Rahl wheezed a hideous laugh. "Have you seen human skin split, gardener? It's like a flower blooming. You'd understand that. It's a beautiful thing. I've got a barbed whip, and I think I'm going to make a garden of my own out of her back tonight."

  "Yes, I understand that," he said flatly, lightly strumming his fingers on the table.

  "You seem anxious. Perhaps you should wet your Hunger's appetite on a slave? It must be hard, being around all these puny humans and not crushing a single bone. I could call one over—"

  "No. Just wine. I need wine." The Hunger knew its name and blazed at the mention. Grump's head swam no matter how hard he tried to concentrate on the solid table before him. He was so close, so close. Blasted Elyse and her mouth. If he could keep his Hunger down and lips shut, a human should have done the same just as easily.

  The red-headed woman scurried from the shadows lugging the pitcher she almost couldn't lift. Wine sloshed from the container and rolled in burgundy ribbons over her knuckles, each drop followed by a tear slipping from her eyes. A strange, odd anger twisted Grump's stomach. He hated this place, hated these haunts, and hated the humans for being so damnably weak.

  And now here he sat, bumbling like an idiot right into a trap he knew would spring any moment. Teacher would have been so disappointed in him. Is this the troll she taught? Is this the troll she…?

  Grump squeezed his eyes shut and snarled. He ripped himself from his seat and yanked the flagon from the slave just before the first drop hit Rahl's chalice. Every soul in the room stilled. The guards snapped their jaws and rushed forward. All eyes fixed on the huffing troll holding the dripping pitcher.

  "I thought you wanted wine, honored guest?" Rahl asked. His claw twitched. The skull lanterns seemed to swivel slowly to gaze at Grump.

  "I, ah, I do," Grump said. He blinked at the enormous jug. One chance. He had one chance. Just one.

  Grump cleared his throat. "I...."

  He couldn't save them. He never would. It was his lot in life to fail.

  His gaze slipped to Rose, and his jaw tightened. Not this time.

  Grump shot straight up and smiled. "It's troll custom to pour wine and toast a guest. I've come to eat at your table as is your custom. Please, show me the honor of serving the god of Getshabal a cup of wine."

  The chief considered Grump for a long moment while he stroked his wet, hairy jaw. He motioned with a hooked nail and shrugged. "This is troll custom?"

  "Yes. Sacred."

  Rahl cocked his head. The chief didn't believe him. He saw through Grump's lie. He would kill Grump and take Rose. He would….

  "Very well. You may pour me some wine," Rahl grumbled.

  Every eye in the room glued itself to Grump. Not a single soul made a sound. Grump licked the roof of his mouth. Now what, you damned fool?

  Boil shrieked. Rahl spun around in his throne while the guards shot their beady stares at the screaming greenskin. Grump's hand shot into his pocket. He plucked the powder from his overalls and dumped it in the wine.

  The goblin's screech died. He rubbed the back of his head and clasped his hands together. "There was a spider."

  "Spider?" Rahl snarled and made a fist. "I'll spider you, you disgusting vermin."

  "Chief?" Grump rocked on his heels and plastered on a wider smile. "That wine?"

  Rahl snapped his jaws at Boil and turned back to Grump. "Yes. Pour, troll."

  Wine tipped to the rim of the pitcher. Rahl watched intently. A drop plinked into the cup. Grump leaned close enough to smell the haunt's greasy fur and hear his breaths wheeze from his black nose. The wine filled the chalice to its rim.

  "Before you drink," Grump said, "let's have a toast. I've proven myself a friend. Why not let your guards share a small cup?"

  The guards' dark eyes widened and looked eagerly at the empty cups ringing the table. Rahl snorted and waved his hands at the chalices. "Very well, pour them one. I'll not be remembered as a selfish chief."

  One by one Grump filled each cup until every haunt held a brimming chalice. Last, Grump filled his own. He dropped the empty pitcher on the table and readjusted his satchel. "Now then, let's toast to Rahl with an old troll toast! Drink until the sun comes up, drink until the sun goes down, if you drink on both occasions, then you'll never wear a frown!"

  Grump raised his wine, and the haunts did the same. They howled and took a great gulp of their drinks. Grump tipped his back but let the wine splash against his sealed lips instead of touching his tongue. He slammed the cup on the table and wiped his mouth. "Great stuff!"

  "It's the best stuff! Cheers to Grump!" Rahl shouted.

  The haunts howled and made another toast while Grump pretended to take a second drink.

  The chief jabbed his glass into the air. "To the troll who buries seeds instead of men! To the meek and mild gardener! To the flower troll, soft as a petal and just as fragile!" He put the chalice to his lips and glowered darkly at his guest. "To Grump, the troll who thought he would find a friend in the haunts of Getshabal."

  Heat roiled Grump's blood, but he lifted his wine, as did the haunts. "Yes, to me."

  Rahl struggled to lift his glass, but eventually managed it. "You are ... feast ... kill...."

  A once dark look in the chief's eyes now turned to fear. Grump rolled his shoulders and leaned toward Rahl. He patted the haunt's head and grinned. "Good night, god of the mountain. I'll be going now and taking your slaves with me. Remember how the gardener tricked the god. I'm sure your kin will."

  The chief's head thudded on the table. His chalice crashed onto the floor. His guard's flopped into snoring piles where they s
tood, leaving only a troll, a gaggle of trembling humans, and a goblin who looked more amused than afraid.

  Boil scurried to Grump. He wrapped hi skinny arms around Grump's legs and squeezed. "Thank you, thank you, thank you! Now let's go! I don't wanna be underground any longer than necessary, and we don't know how long this powder will hold them."

  "I know what I'm doing, so don't be a thorn in my foot. Oh, and you're very welcome for saving your scrawny hide. I had half a mind to keep going to the East without you after you knocked over the second cairn and got what you had coming."

  "You never would've done that. You're a big softie, Grump. You don't hide it as well as you think. Now let's go!"

  Boil and the humans beelined for the cramped entrance to a slave tunnel. Grump hesitated, glancing down at Rose. "I can't go."

  "What? Are you kidding me?" Boil skidded to a halt at the exit and spun around. "Let's just go. The humans are all here. We can go free the others and then collapse the exit. It was all in the plan!"

  "Elyse," one of the men said. "She's still in Rahl's room, down the main corridor in the back and behind the doors of bone. It will be guarded."

  Grump sighed and yanked the shovel from his back, squeezing its firm handle. He wondered for a split second if he should leave her behind. He shook the thought and tightened his hold. "I have to get Elyse."

  Boil stomped his feet and waved toward the passage. "Grump, you heard him. There'll be guards at the door! We'll barely make it out as is. Just let her go. She'll be fine with it. Humans are like that. I'm sure the other slaves know the safe routes just as well."

  "I doubt she'd like being left. No. I'm going to save her. You can wait here if you want. Elyse and I will meet you at the exit."

  "We might all make it if we leave now," the man said. "Elyse would understand."

  Grump snarled and turned his back. Some shining beacon of goodness humans were. Rose deserved better than them. Thankfully, she'd be in the arms of a wizard soon enough. Grump nodded at the corridor leading to the chief's chambers. "Tend your garden, I always say. Let's make sure we take care of ours."

  He sprinted into the passage. Darkness closed around him.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

  Before the Doors

  "Blasted disgusting haunt tunnels," Grump huffed.

  The corridor behind the feast hall descended deeper and deeper into the mountain's heart. Intermittent torches charred the smooth stone walls and heated the air until sweat poured freely down his brow and snaked down his back. Unlike the cavernous Getshabal with its enormous, hollowed pillars and balconies ringing the rock like mushrooms around a tree, Rahl's palatial pillar was sparsely occupied and devoid of other haunts. Then again, if haunts were anything like trolls, Grump would keep them out of his home, too.

  He whooshed past one passage after another, keeping to the central artery like Elyse's human companion suggested. "Some friend he was. Would've left you for dead."

  Grump smirked, but his smile quickly faded. He slowed as the tunnel widened. The path gently rounded. Torches came more frequently.

  Scraping noises echoed softly around the corner. Flickering firelight framed a shadow against the rock. Grump clenched his shovel. He pressed his back to the tunnel wall and took a deep breath. Slowly, he inched around the bend.

  Double doors appeared beyond the corner. Skull fragments plastered their tall, arched faces. An enormous ram's skull split down the middle served as a handle to open either side.

  He clung to the shadows like a slug on wet rock as he watched the haunt squatting before the door. At the creature's side sat an upturned skull. Blood trickled from the cracks in the blanched bone. The guard drew lazy figure eights on the stone floor with one hand while the other dipped a finger in the blood and slowly swirled its nail in circles.

  This guard was at least as tall as Rahl but lacked the greying chief's coat. The hair under his jaw was long and curled and tied at the end with a bone. Around his neck hung a ring of raven skulls and polished obsidian beads. Of course Rahl would have a blood mage guard his chambers. But could Grump fight this creature's magic? He couldn't fight Rahl's, but perhaps the chief was the strongest mage among them.

  The thought of helplessness lit his blood into a bonfire's raging heart while the Hunger sang a beautiful song of violence in his ears. Rend and bend and snap and break. You can do it. Release me. Free me!

  Every muscle wanted this, ached for it. Grump spun away and breathed through his nose. He squeezed his eyes shut, listening to his heartbeat.

  I can't do it, he thought. His hands trembled even as he squeezed the shovel to keep them steady. It'll make me a monster. Again. I won't come back from it. I know I won't.

  His scar itched fiercely. He inched back toward the banquet hall. He couldn't let the Hunger take him, not for a human. Not when Rose needed him.

  But Elyse will die, you fool. Leave her here and Rahl will make her pay for your tricks when he wakes. Grump ground his teeth. Hunger once ebbing fell upon him like a boiling swell. But what could he do? What?

  Grump opened his eyes. A curious stare fixed on him. Fangs appeared in the shadows. The haunt melted from the darkness, its pink tongue passed over slick teeth. "There are no gardens down here, troll. Where is Rahl?" His gums appeared as his lips curled up his jaw. "What have you done with the chief?"

  The questions hissed through the hall on a more amused than frightened tone.

  "I…" Grump's eyes darted form Rose's satchel to the shovel. He stumbled back, heat rising in his cheeks. "I...."

  The blood mage followed his bumbling steps and cocked his head. He raised a claw dripping in blood, and the liquid flared orange and red as a sunrise. Somehow, the haunt's claw grasped Grump's heart, even though Grump was well out of reach. He felt its fingers hot as simmering coals wrap around his panicked heart. He winced as its claws raked against his ribs.

  Grump croaked and clutched his chest, stumbling back. His shovel clattered to the ground.

  "You are a thing of rage, troll. But your great strength is powerless against my magic." The haunt clenched his claw. "You and the human woman thought you could outwit me, in my own home? Did I not tell you that in Getshabal I am god?"

  "Ra—Ra—Rahl? But I..."

  The grip on Grump's heart tightened. Grump cried out, doubling over with a grunt. He reached for his shovel, but the haunt kicked it away.

  Rahl's laugh echoed down the corridor. The haunt slapped his hands together, and the glowing blood flashed. He clenched his other fist, and a fiery grip lashed around Grump's windpipe.

  "Poisoned me? Please," Rahl snorted. "Only the strongest, smartest rule the haunts." He shook his head and wriggled his shoulders, and the disguise evaporated like hissing mist, revealing the Rahl Grump recognized. "I only sit on the throne because I pried it from my father's dead hands. No, I am no fool. I suspected something when the goblin arrived. Once you followed, I knew you'd come to learn about your lost home. I knew if you ever left these halls you would speak honeyed words of it to your kin and raise an army to take it back."

  "What? N—No!" Tears filled Grump's eyes and quickly overflowed in hot lines down his cheeks. He fell on his back, writhing on the ground, clutching at the invisible force squeezing the air from his lungs. Pressure built in his temples. Darkness edged his vision.

  A swollen silhouette cast its shadow over Grump. Rahl's one good, wet eye sneered from the black. White teeth formed a vicious crescent. "Your kind doesn't deserve this place. You sleep in frog shit now. Your glory days are gone, just like the elves. It's too bad the other greenskins will never know the wonders of their forgotten realm."

  Grump's mind was a soup of pain and rage. His hand slapped the ground, but his fingers couldn't find his shovel. Rahl would kill him. He would die, and then the chief would slaughter Boil and the others. And Rose. They would find Rose.

  His panic mind screamed through the pain. No. Not like this. Not like this!

  Grump's back arched in a savage spas
m. Something cool and hard slipped from his chest pocket and clanged onto the stone. Grump wrenched his head to the side as the chief rolled his hooked nail across his cheek and dripped slobber on his jaw.

  There, glimmering faintly in the torchlight, was the dark necklace. Grump's fading breath washed across the rune on its face, and the symbol shimmered. He lashed out for the necklace. It was his only hope. His vision faded to a single point. If he could just reach it! His heart and throat were alight. Blood gushed from his nose and wet his lips.

  Rahl snickered, and it rolled into a full-throated laugh. "Goodbye, freak."

  Grump cried out as the world faded to black. He slapped the ground. His fingers landed on the necklace's cool disc and latched around it. With the last of his strength, he roared, thrusting the disc toward the chief.

  Like thin glass dropped from a tall tower, the blood magic's hold shattered. Blessed air coursed through Grump's throat and swelled his lungs. The world exploded back in radiant colors.

  Grump snarled, bearing his great tusks. "I am not a freak!"

  The haunt's working eye swelled to a giant pool. The rune reflected within it, twisting, squirming, living.

  "No, you cannot wield that!" Rahl scrambled back, slamming against the passage wall. "They're gone. Dead and gone!"

  Black tentacles exploded from the disc, writhing, massive tongues of rippling muscles. The haunt lashed his claw at them, and the blood dripping from it burst into searing flames. The tentacles ignored the fire like it was nothing more than steam and coiled around the haunt.

  Chief Rahl's shoulders crunched as the dark appendages constricted. His claws protruded between them and twitched as the tentacles tightened their hold. He looked to Grump, the gleeful sparkle in his eye now replaced by terror. "I ... am ... afraid...."