“It's a surprise,” his master told him.
Saeter threw Blacknail his scabbard and belt. Blacknail caught them and started putting them on. If whatever Herad wanted required a sword, it would probably be interesting at least.
“Come on, we don't have all day,” Saeter told the hobgoblin as soon as he was finished dressing.
Blacknail followed his master out into the hallway, down a flight of stairs, and out into the yard behind Herad's hideout. The enclosure was usually used for training, but this time as Blacknail walked outside, he immediately noticed Herad standing in the middle of the yard. The bandit chieftain was wearing her usual black leathers and carrying her usual plethora of blades. Her dark eyes stared out from under her short black hair as it waved in the wind. Mahedium was the only other person present and was standing off to one side. He was wearing a long gray coat today, probably because the air outside had a chilly edge to it. The sky overhead was full of gray clouds that hid the sun away.
Blacknail didn't see any sign of a single other person. Both Herad and the mage seemed excited. The hobgoblin was now very curious about what was going on and more than a little apprehensive as well.
“Finally, you sure like making me wait, Saeter. Or maybe you’re just getting slower in your old age,” Herad remarked as Saeter and the hobgoblin approached.
“I must be getting old then, how could I ever resist the attraction of your company?” Saeter replied without an ounce of humor or disrespect in his voice.
Herad eyed the gray-haired scout carefully, and her hand dropped toward one of her daggers. Blacknail held his breath, but after a few seconds she relaxed.
“Mahedium has something for you, Blacknail,” she told the hobgoblin.
Now that it was safe, Blacknail shifted his gaze to the mage. Maybe Herad was giving him a gift in return for his earlier present! He hoped it was edible. He still hadn’t had breakfast.
“Hmm, I do indeed,” the mage remarked as he walked over to Blacknail. He then reached into one of his coat pockets and withdrew a small vial.
Blacknail stared at it for a second and frowned. The liquid inside was light blue, and he didn’t think it looked very tasty.
“Finally, after several days of research and hard work, Avorlus and I managed to recreate your Elixir! We’re almost completely sure it will work!” Mahedium grinned in excitement.
“Oh, good…” Blacknail remarked skeptically. He was excited about getting his own magic, but he’d caught that “almost.” Then there was that color… Elixirs were edible, or drinkable at least. What did Elixir taste like anyway? He hoped the color meant it would taste like blueberries. Wait, what had he been worrying about?
Mahedium handed Blacknail the vial and gave him an expectant look. “Just pop it open and drink the contents. You should be able to feel a difference right away since you’re already a Vessel.”
“Thank you,” the hobgoblin politely and happily replied. He couldn’t wait! Blacknail grasped the vial and quickly twisted the top off. Soon, he would have magic of his own; he’d be a magic hobgoblin! Nothing could stop him from drinking this. The world needed a magic hobgoblin!
“Oh, and if you suddenly develop a headache, nausea, diarrhea, break out into a rash, or start losing your hair, tell me,” the mage added as a side thought.
Blacknail froze and gave Mahedium a startled look. Suddenly drinking the vial didn’t seem like such a great idea to him, magic or not. “It’s poison?” he asked in concern as he held the vial above his lips.
“No, all those symptoms are very unlikely. I’ll be right here if anything happens, anyway,” the mage replied.
“And you have a cure?” the hobgoblin asked hopefully.
“Um, no… I have some basic soothing herbs and water here though, and I’m told that sometimes helps,” Mahedium explained.
What? That didn’t really seem all that helpful to Blacknail. He looked over toward his master, but Saeter had a carefully neutral expression on his face. The hobgoblin still didn’t feel like taking the Elixir…
“Stop wasting my time, goblin. Drink the damned potion! Don’t make me come over there and shove it down your throat,” Herad suddenly ordered him with a snarl.
Blacknail looked over to see her staring at him coldly. He raised the vial again. It didn’t seem like he had any choice but to drink the stuff. Quickly, he gulped the liquid within down. It tasted nothing like blueberries. In fact, it tasted more like salty dirt. Yuck.
No one said anything as they all waited for something to happen, especially Blacknail. The hobgoblin was holding his breath while he stared at his arms and searched for any sign of a developing rash. He had little in the way of hair to lose.
“Try moving around,” Saeter suggested after a few moments.
Tentatively, Blacknail began walking around. Then he jumped on the spot a few times. It didn’t feel like he was about to become sick or explode…
“Ah, good. It would appear we found the right mixture. He’s not showing any signs of rejection. Master Avorlus will be very pleased,” Mahedium commented proudly.
“Just as long as he keeps supplying me with Elixir. Now run around the yard a few times, Blacknail,” Herad commanded him.
The hobgoblin immediately began jogging around.
“Faster, you lazy green runt, or I’ll have you dodging arrows,” she yelled a few seconds later.
Blacknail broke out into a sprint. He wasn’t sure what this was supposed to accomplish, but he wasn’t going to argue with his boss.
“Do we have any idea what type of Elixir he’s using or if it has secondary effects?” Herad asked the mage as she watched Blacknail run.
“Um, no. We don’t. It’s impossible to say just from the recipe, not to mention it seems to be a completely new experimental mixture,” Mahedium replied.
Blacknail was listening carefully. Elixirs could have secondary effects? None of the Vessels he’d seen had done anything special. As he ran, he began to feel an odd, familiar burning sensation in his legs. The hobgoblin ignored it though and continued to listen in on the others.
Herad frowned as she considered the mage’s words. “So we won’t know what, if anything, it does until he starts breathing fire or jumping ten feet up into the air?”
“Pretty much, although most Elixirs don’t apparently have much in the way of secondary effects. Like your own Ressertein recipe, they mostly just grant increased physical vigor, or so Avorlus has told me.”
“Blacknail’s pretty fast, but I think he’s doing a fair bit better than usual,” Saeter suddenly interjected.
Herad and the mage looked at the hobgoblin that was running around the yard. There was a small dust trail rising behind him as he moved.
“Huh, ya. He’s definitely a fast little beast. It’s hard to tell if that’s from the Elixir though. Let’s test his strength,” Herad said.
“You can stop now, Blacknail. Come over here,” Saeter yelled out to the hobgoblin.
Blacknail immediately stopped and made his way back to the others. His chest rose and fell as he breathed heavily, but he wasn’t feeling all that tired.
“Blacknail come over here and take my hand,” Herad said, as she raised one arm in his direction. Blacknail had never actually touched the chief before, and the idea made him more than a little uncomfortable. Hopefully it was a sign of her favor and she wasn’t about to hurt him.
When the hobgoblin hesitated to approach, Herad gave him an impatient glare. Blacknail quickly reached out and took her hand. Immediately, Herad’s fingers closed tightly around his wrist and held him in place. This didn’t seem promising…
“Now, goblin, you have to try and pull your hand away from mine. If you can’t, then I’m going to punch you in the face a few times,” she told him dispassionately.
Blacknail’s eyes went wide. This was definitely not good. The hobgoblin grabbed his own arm and lowered his stance as he began frantically trying to pull his hand free. His heels dug into the earth as h
e squirmed and fought to free himself. However, Herad’s fingers seemed as strong as iron, and he couldn’t get his arm loose. She scowled in annoyance at Blacknail’s futile struggling. Slowly, she raised a clenched fist. The hobgoblin redoubled his efforts, and all of a sudden, the burning sensation from before washed through his entire body. Fear spurred him on as he pulled desperately on his arm, and Herad moved. She kept her grip on him, but her body twisted as she kept her balance, and her feet slid forward slightly. Before he could react, Herad grinned and released him. Off-balance and in the middle of pulling, the hobgoblin was sent sprawling over backward.
“Ouch, cheese rot,” Blacknail hissed when he landed painfully on his ass.
“Hmm, that last pull was definitely above normal human, or hobgoblin, strength. It seems to have worked,” Herad remarked.
A grinning Blacknail picked himself off the ground and jumped into the air experimentally a few times. He had super strength! He thought he was jumping a little higher than before, but nothing like ten feet. He began breathing out as hard as he could.
“Do you have something in your throat?” Saeter asked him.
“Uh, no-ss, it’s nothing.” The embarrassed hobgoblin turned away to hide his face. He apparently didn’t breathe fire either… which was too bad, that would have been amazing!
“So now I’ve got both a Vessel hobgoblin and a reliable source of Elixir for both of us. Good work, Mahedium. It’s nice to know that not all my subordinates are completely useless,” she told the mage as he nodded respectfully back.
An eager smile spread across Herad’s lips, and she turned to look toward the rest of the city. There was a building blocking her view, but she didn’t seem to care. Blacknail recognized that bloodthirsty smile. He shivered in excitement. That look meant Herad was about to start a fight and Blacknail was about to have a lot of fun! Not only had he finally gotten some magic of his own, but it looked like his tribe was about to go to war. This was the best day ever!
“This shifts the odds our way by a fair bit, and if I leverage this right, I ought to be able to mess up Werrick’s plans. I’m done playing defense. Now it’s time to go for their throats. I’ll isolate them and take my enemies out one by one. Then the chiefs that are left won’t dare raise a hand against me, no matter what Werrick offers them,” Herad bragged. She then turned to Blacknail.
“You’ve already proved that you’re a half-decent assassin, so I’m going to unleash you. With Fang dead, my biggest enemy is Galive, so I’ll be sending you after him. I want Zelena dead as well, but word is she’s surrounded herself with over half the bodyguards and assassins in the city,” Herad told the hobgoblin.
Blacknail smiled in anticipation. Now that he was a Vessel, he was sure it would be much easier to take out Herad’s enemies. If nothing else, he was now an even faster runner. There was no way he’d get himself into trouble like the last time.
“Blacknail needs training before you throw him out there, or he’ll get himself killed,” Saeter interjected. There was a hint of concern in his voice.
“True, but that’s easily fixed. You’ve already been teaching him how to fight. I’ll just have to beat all the bad habits you’ve taught Blacknail out of him,” Herad remarked. Blacknail felt a sinking sensation in his stomach. This didn’t sound good.
“He’ll need more than just the ability to fight. He’s a natural stalker and hunter but totally ignorant of a lot of things. He’s going to need some new equipment, and training in things like lock picking as well,” Saeter countered.
“I’ll let you handle that stuff; I don’t have time for it. I will, however, show him how a true Vessel fights. It’s time that Blacknail and I had that spar,” Herad told Saeter.
The hobgoblin’s eyes went wide in alarm. This couldn’t be happening! There was no way he could fight Herad; she’d cut him into tiny little pieces. He turned to Saeter and threw him a desperate, pleading look. Blacknail’s master was frowning, but when he noticed the hobgoblin’s attention, he just shrugged helplessly. Blacknail grimaced in dismay. He’d really been hoping Saeter would save him! Herad was going to kill him…
Behind Blacknail, there was the sound of a blade being slowly drawn from its sheath. He shuddered in dread as he turned around to see Herad pointing her naked blade toward his throat.
“Draw your sword, hobgoblin. It’s time to test your mettle,” she told him.
Blacknail peed himself a little. He was too young and smart to die!
Herad didn’t wait for him to respond; her blade sliced toward his head. The hobgoblin yelped as he ducked under the attack. He then scrambled backward.
“You can’t run, hobgoblin. Draw your sword or I’ll skin you alive, you little green coward,” Herad growled viciously.
Blacknail considered his options. Herad was way too into this, but she probably wouldn’t actually kill him if he did as he was told. If he tried to run away though…
Blacknail thus reluctantly unsheathed his own blade and faced Herad. He even managed to keep his trembling to a minimum. The bandit chieftain immediately reacted and attacked again. The hobgoblin raised his blade to intercept it, but Herad’s blade disappeared from his sight. He then reeled in shock as something smacked into the side of his head and knocked him sideways.
From where he was lying on the ground, Blacknail looked up with cloudy eyes to see Herad sneering down at him. She’d hit him with the flat of her blade. Out of the corner of his eye, the hobgoblin saw his master wince.
“Pathetic. We’re going to keep doing this until you can burn your Elixir at will and you know one end of a blade from another. Now get up, or I’ll smack you again,” Herad told him condescendingly.
Blacknail whimpered in self pity. This was the worst day ever! Herad evidently heard him, because she gave him a disproving look and attacked again. Blacknail's eyes widened fearfully as her blade sliced toward his face. She hadn't even given him time to raise his own sword. This was going to be a horribly painful training session.
Chapter 18
“Blacknail, you need to come out from under there,” Saeter said with obvious frustration before continuing to grind his teeth.
“No, I don’t want to,” Blacknail whined.
“Seriously, don’t make me get down there and drag you out.”
The hobgoblin sniffled miserably and groaned in pain and humiliation. Herad’s lessons had gone on for hours! She’d beat him black and blue, and then purple and green. It had been so much worse than even his first lesson with Saeter.
“I can’t believe I’m doing this,” Saeter mumbled to himself. The old scout crossed his arms and scowled in annoyance as he glanced around the room. There was no one around to see his expression though, so a few seconds later, he sighed in defeat and turned back to where the hobgoblin was hiding.
“What are you doing? You can’t be all that scared of Herad,” Saeter asked.
Blacknail stifled another whimper. Getting beaten up by the chief had crushed his ego into pulp. Why did she hate him so much? He’d thought he was the chief’s favorite. He’d killed her enemies for her and everything! There was no way he was ever going to show his face in public ever again. He’d just never leave this hiding spot and slowly fade away.
“The chief hates me and made me look bad in front of you,” Blacknail whined in response.
“She doesn’t hate you, Blacknail. That’s just how Herad is. No matter how much she acts like it sometimes, she isn’t a hobgoblin. She wasn’t punishing you. In fact, in her own weird way, she was actually helping you out,” Saeter explained while managing to keep a straight face.
“Really?” Blacknail asked hopefully.
“Yep, do you know how many men, er, people she’s ever agreed to train personally?” Saeter asked.
“No.”
“None, which means you really are her favorite. Now come out from under there, and I’ll buy you all the meat pies you can eat.”
Blacknail’s ears perked up. Now that his master had ment
ioned food, the hobgoblin realized he was hungry. He still hadn’t had breakfast yet, and meat pies sounded like just the thing. Blacknail reluctantly got up and crawled out from under his bed. It had been getting kind of stuffy under there anyway. “Fine, let’s go eat. I want some cheese.”
“I offered meat pies, so if you want cheese, you’ll have to get it yourself,” Saeter replied.
“Fine-ss, I know a place I can take some from anyway,” Blacknail muttered.
“You know you have money, right? You could just buy some bloody cheese; you don’t have to steal it,” his master pointed out. The hobgoblin gave Saeter an uncomprehending look. What was this now?
“Buying means taking, doesn’t it?” he asked in confusion.
“No, it doesn’t. Buying means trading. Humans trade money for other things they want. It’s why we get paid and want coins in the first place,” Saeter explained. That was stupid! Why would Blacknail give his shiny coins away when everything he wanted was lying around?
“Why not just pick up the things you want-ss?” he asked his master. Saeter gave the hobgoblin a questioning look. Blacknail returned it.
“Because you can’t steal everything you want, and it’s often a lot more work than just buying stuff,” Saeter answered gruffly. Who said anything about stealing? Blacknail wasn’t a thief. His master sure got confused sometimes. Good thing he had Blacknail around to help him out!
“But I like my coins. I want-ss to keep them,” the hobgoblin explained.
“Ha, you don’t even use them for anything! In fact, you lose half of them,” Saeter replied.
Blacknail hissed in annoyance. That wasn’t true at all; he didn’t lose them. He just put them somewhere safe and hidden, and then forgot about them… Okay, he kind of lost them.
“When we get to the market, I’ll show you how to buy stuff. In fact, we won’t be coming back until you purchase some stuff for yourself. Think of it as a skill I’m teaching you,” Saeter told him.
City of Daggers (The Iron Teeth Book 2) Page 17