The flames caught and spread, like with a piece of fat thrown into a cook fire. The goblin was completely alight, yet it kept running towards him, the sword held high.
“Grrrrrrooooooooooooooooo!” the monster wailed even as Waldo kept pouring fire into it.
The goblin was just about to reach him, when his ogre suddenly jumped out of the woods. The sword came down with enough force to cut a man clean in two, but the blade simply bounced off of the ogre’s thick hide.
“Gronk smash!” he roared without any hint of lisp. He brought a fist down on the goblin’s turnip shaped head. It exploded, much like a pumpkin being struck by a mallet: skin, bone, blood, and gray goo splattered. The rest of the body, still burning, shuddered and fell. The short fight was over.
XXX
“Are you all right, darling?”
“I am fine, thanks to you and Gronk.” Alice had saved his life before. Now Gronk had as well, Waldo nodded to his second familiar. “Thank you, Gronk.” Dark Mages were not supposed to say, “thank you.” He had been taught thanking others was beneath him and a sign of weakness. It was one more of the new things he had learned to do since setting out.
The ogre had a wide, tusked smile and gave him a wink. “Gronk happy save master. Maybe master punish Gronk later?”
“That seems fair.”
Alice gave a sour grunt and muttered something about “weird stuff” beneath her breath. She then began to walk towards the tree where the children were bound. “Are you dears all right? I’ll take care of you.”
As if on cue, they all began to desperately try to wriggle out of the ropes. Waldo could clearly hear muffled screams coming through their gags.
“It’s fine.” Alice held her hands out reassuringly. “The goblins are dead. There is nothing to be scared of anymore.”
“You mean except for the succubus with wings, claws, horns, fangs, and tail who just happens to be covered in goblin blood?” Waldo pointed out. “They might be terrified of seeing an ogre, as well.”
“Gronk no know why.” He casually reached down to the corpse at his feet and tore an arm off at the shoulder. Schunk! “Gronk no scary.” He took a mouthful and chewed it before swallowing it down. “Cook goblin more good than raw. Master want?”
“Maybe later.”
There were more muffled screams.
Alice quickly transformed back to her human self. Her hands, while no longer clawed, were still drenched in wet blood, as was most of her front. Grabbing a cloth rag from one of the corpses, she quickly wiped off as much as she could while trying to calm the children. “It’s all right. You’re safe now. No one is going to hurt you.” She turned to her husband. “Isn’t that so, darling?”
“Of course.” Waldo nodded. He spoke directly to the children. “I promise none of you will be harmed.”
“See? You are all safe.”
“As my new slaves, you will be fed and treated fairly so long as you obey me.”
“What?” Alice asked in disbelief.
“If you defy me, I will feed you to the ogre.”
High pitched, muffled screams continued from their little throats.
Alice waved her hands. “He is joking! He doesn’t mean it!”
“Yes, I do.”
“No, you don’t,” Alice growled.
“Can Gronk eat fat one?”
The boy tied to the pole cried and tried his awkward best to roll away.
“You are not eating any of the children!” Alice told him.
“No eat all, just skin, fat ones always taste more good.”
“Don’t eat the slaves, Gronk,” Waldo said. “At least not until they do something to deserve it.”
Alice stared at him. “I don’t believe you.”
“What? You want me to make an example of one now?”
She stomped to him and spoke in a whisper reminding him of steel being sharpened. “You are not making slaves of these poor children.”
Waldo paused and considered. “Well, I suppose I could sell them instead. Kids aren’t worth as much as healthy adults, but I’m sure they’ll fetch a decent price. Especially the girls. There is always a demand for little girls. Do you know if there is a slave market in Norwich?”
“We don’t have slaves in this country.”
“I bought you, remember?”
“I wasn’t a slave. I was an indentured servant.”
“I don’t care what they call it so long as I get a reasonable price.”
“These children don’t belong to you!”
“Yes, they do,” Waldo insisted. “It’s called spoils of battle. When you destroy an enemy, you collect everything of value they possess. There is nothing wrong with taking spoils. I mean, are we not going to take their weapons and anything else we find?”
“Swords don’t have parents.”
“Do you mean I can keep the ones who are orphans?”
Alice glared at him.
“You’re serious about this.”
“In Cannassa’s name, of course I am!”
“If I don’t claim them, what am I supposed to do instead?”
“We take them to their families.”
Waldo quirked an eyebrow. “How does returning them help me with my quest?”
“It’s the right thing to do.”
Waldo sighed. “You know, Alice, you have far too many ridiculous morals and rules, and they’re always inconvenient. Don’t Charm… don’t steal from people unless they try to have their way with you… don’t torture as a reward… pay for things… don’t turn children into slaves. You really need to be more reasonable.”
Alice crossed her arms over her chest. “We are taking them home.”
He knew how stubborn she could be when it came to these silly rules of hers. “Fine, but I want something from you in return.”
Her cheeks blushed, and through their bond he could sense eagerness.
“You want to have your way with me again?”
“Well, yes, but we both know that will happen soon enough regardless.” Her face turned a couple shades brighter. “What I want is for you to agree to Charm someone when I ask.”
“If we take the kids back to their folks I will do it once.”
“I am giving up five slaves. Shouldn’t that be worth at least five Charms?”
Alice frowned but nodded. “Deal.”
Chapter 7
Doing the Right Thing
When Alice cut the ropes and freed the children, their immediate reaction was to make a run for it. She was forced to chase after them and return them to the camp. Fortunately, she could see through the dark while the kids could not, so it wasn’t too difficult. When they realized they couldn’t run away, the five children huddled together and wailed that they were all going to be eaten.
Despite Alice’s best efforts, she couldn’t calm them. Eventually, she asked Waldo to tell them they would be all right.
Waldo told the children they would be safe, as long as they stopped crying and annoying him.
Oddly enough, this actually worked, and the children quieted.
As Alice got them some food and Gronk continued to eat the goblins, Waldo searched the camp for anything worth taking. There were no coins, but the creatures appeared to have grab anything made of metal. He soon discovered a cast iron pot and pan, four daggers, the head of a shovel, nine rusty nails, and bits and pieces of armor including two sets of badly mangled chain mail and a dented iron helmet. Added to this were the axe and sword the goblins had used. It was not exactly an impressive haul, but they would take everything.
Once the spoils were gathered and everyone was done eating, Waldo wanted to get going. He wished to return the kids as quickly as possible.
The children, though, had no idea what direction to travel in the dark. Alice convinced him it would be best to make camp for the night and take them back come the morning. Waldo was not pleased but agreed.
XXX
The Following Morning, Gronk was sitting in the grass a
s Waldo took care of him.
“Feel good, Master.”
“I am glad you think so, Gronk.”
“Where Master learn do this?”
“My mother taught me, one of the many skills she felt it necessary for me to learn.”
“Master’s hands feel sooooooooo good on Gronk’s skin. Gronk like.”
“Well, my mother forced me to practice on dozens of slaves until I had the technique down.”
As Waldo worked on taking care of his ogre, Alice stood about ten feet away looking on. Her right foot was tapping away as one hand kept tugging at some of her hair.
“Why are you doing this where the children can see?” She waved at the kids who were all staring wide eyed.
“Why would I care?”
“They’re going to get the wrong idea,” Alice said.
“What? How I’m a master who takes care of his servants? If anything, I think it a fine lesson.”
She began tugging at her hair more violently. “It looks weird… unnatural even.”
“I am just providing Gronk with what he needs.” Waldo’s fingers continued moving relentlessly across the ogre’s pea green skin. “I didn’t hear any complaints when I took care of myself or you this morning.”
“That was different. We’re married, so it’s okay for us to do those sorts of things. Anyway, we were inside the tent where no one could see.”
Gronk sent her a tusked smile. “Gronk no fit in tent. Alice like better if Master and Gronk go out in wood where nobody see?”
Alice quickly shook her head.
“You’re going to need to get used to this, Alice.” Waldo told her. “It’s going to be a daily routine. From now on I’ll be doing this every morning.”
“Really, darling?”
Waldo nodded. “It’s necessary. If I don’t take care of this, bad things could happen. Anyway I am about done.”
He drew the last of the protective runes over Gronk’s back, writing them in ashes with his fingertips.
“Loratos est videtur.” He cast a spell sending a little of his magical energy into the runes. The ash faded from sight as the wards were activated and hidden. “There, now all three of us are shielded from magical detection and guarded against magical attack. We can finally get going.”
“I still say it looks weird,” Alice muttered.
XXX
As they were tramping through the woods, the kids all concentrated around Waldo. It was to be expected they would want to stay as far away from Gronk as possible. While Alice was in her human form once more and trying her best to coax the children into walking with her, they all remembered her with claws and horns. Being the only one the children had not seen turn into a monster, they apparently felt Waldo to be the safest alternative, the previous night’s talk about enslavement and possibly being fed to the ogre notwithstanding.
Waldo merely accepted it was his curse to be the loveable one.
XXX
Waldo was thinking about what had happened last night. Despite being taken by surprise, he had not hesitated to draw his wand and fight. As with the encounter with his grandfather he’d been ready and willing to use lethal magic. By all rights, yesterday should have had his first kill. Who knew goblins took so long to cook?
Even though Gronk had needed to intervene and do the actual killing, Waldo was feeling rather proud of himself. Clearly, since setting out on his quest, he had gotten stronger. He had survived an attack from an angry mob, robbed a hedgewizard, escaped an archlich, outsmarted a White Mage, and acquired two Great Monsters as his familiars. He was pretty amazing.
Waldo could see he was becoming harder. Facing dangers out in the real world was definitely making him a true Dark Mage. All the weaknesses were being worn away. Soon only his true self would remain, a man without remorse or pity who cared only about himself. A merciless, black hearted fiend capable of any sort of cruelty or perversion. A terrifying…
He felt a tug on his robes and looked down. One of the boys was looking up at him. “Yes?”
“Lord Rabbit, thank you for making my rash go away.”
Waldo waved it off. “It was nothing. I wanted to practice a little of my healing magic. And the proper title when addressing a mage is ‘Master’ not ‘Lord or ‘Sir.’”
The boy nodded with a goofy grin on his face.
Waldo looked away and tried to get back to his thoughts. A terrifying and unpredictable force. All who looked upon him would quiver in… He was again interrupted by someone yanking on his robes. It was the fat boy who had been tied to the pole. “Yes?”
“Thank you for saving me. Not only from the goblins but from the ogre too, I was really scared I was going to be eaten.”
“Then may want to go on a diet. It helps to be able to run and to not look like the main course of a meal.”
The boy’s eyes widened, and his head wobbled up and down.
Waldo refocused. All who looked upon him would quiver with fear. For he would be the cruelest, wickedest, and most dreaded Dark Mage in all the land!
“Master Rabbit?”
Waldo looked down. There was an eight-year-old girl with messy chestnut hair and eyes the color of mud staring up excitedly. He thought her name was Jenna. “Yes?”
She held her hands up and waved them about excitedly. “Again!”
Waldo sighed and pulled out his wand. “Fine, but this is the last time. Levitarus.”
The girl lifted ten feet into the air and gave a squeal of pure delight. She began flopping her arms and legs about as if she could control where she went. Waldo motioned his wand to move her slowly through the air in front of him. Jenna was laughing and wriggling, having the time of her life.
As this was happening, Waldo heard a loud snort from behind him. He turned to see Gronk’s grin. Through their bond, Waldo could sense amusement.
“What? She kept bothering me about using my magic to make her fly. Since Alice won’t let me gag her, this is the only way to get her to stop.”
Gronk nodded, though the smirk didn’t change at all. “Gronk see Master know what he do.”
Waldo then shifted his gaze to Alice. Through their connection, he perceived she was also pleased. Though her emotions were more… maternal?
“What?”
She brought her hands together and sighed. “You’re going to make a wonderful father someday.”
“Huh?”
Meanwhile, Jenna began shouting for him to send her higher into the air.
XXX
They finally stumbled across the village where the children came from. It was a little place called Peabody and looked like every other small village in this part of Lothas.
There had been a huge commotion among the villagers as the children were quickly reunited with their parents. A big bearded fellow by the name of Lorimer addressed them. “Thank you, Master Rabbit, for returning our little ones to us.” The man performed an awkward bow, and most of the villagers followed his example. “We are truly grateful to you.”
“You have an odd way of showing it.”
Every man except for Lorimer was armed with either a spear, a rusty sword, or a bow. The archers had them nocked and drawn.
“Ah, please forgive us for being wary. It is not you we fear.” Lorimer’s eyes went past him and settled on Gronk. “We suffered an ogre attack recently. An entire family was slaughtered and eaten.”
Gronk planted his hands on his hips. “Maybe they asking for it, you no know. Humans no think about ogre side.”
This made all the men grip their weapons a little tighter and caused the mothers to hold their children close to them.
Alice tried to elbow Gronk in the ribs but wasn’t quite tall enough to manage. She got him around the hips instead.
“I confess I am more than a little surprised to see a White Mage traveling with such a beast. Another White Mage came here and killed the one that attacked us. She made it very clear her order didn’t believe monsters should be allowed to live.”
; “She really said that?” Alice asked, looking rather unhappy.
“She did. Doesn’t Master Rabbit feel the same?”
“Well, of course I do. I am a White Mage, after all,” Waldo gave his robes a shake as if to draw extra attention to them. “I prefer to work them to death, is all.”
“Ah, as you say, Master Rabbit.”
After The Rabbit (Waldo Rabbit Series) Page 6