“What the hell does your stomach have to do with this?”
“It doesn’t lie, at least not anymore.” Henry had no idea what that meant, but Tony’s gaze was direct and unshaking. The kid wasn’t going to waver.
Henry sat back and thought. He could tell the two goblins were getting uncomfortable with how he and Tony were speaking another language, but Henry couldn’t really give a shit about their feelings. The only person’s opinion he cared about was Tony’s. The young man had earned both his respect and his loyalty.
In fact, Henry wouldn’t be alive several times over if not for Tony. From that perspective, he was already living on borrowed time. He wanted to live and he definitely wanted to get back to Mareen, but he owed the kid. Plus, he had no way of knowing if the goblins would turn on them. If they didn’t, they could walk away with more loot, and since they were still on Ludus, and seemed to be in an even more dangerous part of Ludus than before, any advantage they could get would be helpful.
It was a risk, but Henry decided to respect Tony’s request. He’d earned it. “Okay,” Henry sighed. “Let’s hurry up and get on with this shit before I change my mind.”
***
Shaman Hask hissed. Her response starting a chain reaction among the other goblins accompanying them, about thirty in all, ten of them male guards and five robed priests that stuck near Tony like glue. And Trask, the goblin with glasses, followed Henry around. Lucky me, he thought. He wondered if the hissing meant he was going to have to try killing a bunch more goblins.
They all stood in the blood-soaked tunnel that he and Tony had fought in what felt like ages ago. He’d opened up a stone side tunnel into the little room that he and Aodh had slept in, and moved the wall entombing the fallen goblins. Some of them had begun the early stages of decay. The smell had not been pleasant. Hask and the others had hissed upon seeing them.
“What is this?” The goblin leader asked, her hand held in a strange way to the side. The goblins behind her copies the gesture.
“We wanted to bury the gob-folk,” said Aodh. “After I took their gear, I laid them out, crossed their arms, and Henry gave them a stone burial.”
That’s kind of true, thought Henry. Actually, he had to amend that Tony was probably telling the truth from his own point of view.
“You laid them down to remember?” asked Shaman Hask, her voice quiet and choked.
“Yes, I hope it was okay. It seemed like the right thing to do.”
Hask said something and the goblins behind her all muttered, staring at Tony. “The Voice,” whispered Trask, pushing up his glasses.
“So, are we moving the bodies now, or…” asked Henry warily.
“No, they may lie here.” Shaman Hask said something in Gholis in a slow cadence, sounding like a prayer. Then she switched to Luda and said, “The ancestors are pleased. Please, let them rest as they were. Let my mate lie forever, slain in battle, safe from scavengers. Hidden in the stone for all time. Fire of life cut short, forever. All in Memory.” Her voice choked a bit.
Well, I did kill her husband or whatever. Kind of surprised she is holding up this well, thought Henry.
Aodh stepped forward and gestured at the big bastard that had almost done Henry in. “This one was your mate?” he asked.
“Yes,” replied Hask.
Tony nodded. “He was strong. He almost won.” Tony touched his dagger.
Hask hissed again, “You killed him?”
“Yes. I had no choice. But he was truly strong. I feared for our lives.”
This time, Trask said something in Gholis and the rest of the goblins began hissing too, especially the priests. The sound raised Henry’s hackles, but he pretended not to notice and continued rebuilding the wall, entombing the goblin warriors again.
After the original cave wall was restored, the entire procession moved further down the tunnel to the first cave in.
“Our workers have said that this would take us far too long to clear to get through,” said Trask. “We have tribe members outside the village, but calling them all would take days. You are our only hope.” The young goblin made a strange gesture with both hands and stepped back.
Henry sighed. He could feel the weight of Tony’s gaze as well as all the goblins. He never would have imagined he’d come back to this place, much less be freeing goblins. This is truly one fucked-up world, he thought.
Clearing the rubble would take too long and use up too much power for the same reasons he couldn’t just tunnel to the surface. He couldn’t move the cave-in rubble or tunnel through it like he had in the solid rock of the cave wall.
Henry put his hand to the broken stone and thought, reaching his senses out around him. The solution eventually presented itself. He needed to move forward by creating a reinforced tunnel through the cave in.
Once his course of action was decided, Henry started pushing his power, making it happen. Molding the stone was like playing with playdoh in his mind. It was a strange, almost tactile mental exercise, and the familiar fatigue began settling over his body as he began to work. He already hurt so bad and was so tired, all the sensations were a matter of degrees at this point.
Visually, it looked like the stone chunks and debris were melting outwards into a half circle tunnel of solid stone. Henry avoided jostling the other debris whenever he could. He was no geologist, but moving everything around while standing under it seemed like a bad idea.
The rest of the procession was silent and watched him work, slowly walking forward as he bent the earth and stone to his will. After the first cave in was cleared, there was a small space of empty tunnel before the larger cave in. Henry rolled up his mental sleeves and got to work. He sincerely hoped that Tony had been right about the goblins’ intentions. He didn’t want to catch a spear in the back.
He kept pressing forward, and when his makeshift tunnel finally opened up into the tunnel beyond...nothing was there. Well, that’s less exciting than I’d feared.
A few of the goblins rushed forward, carrying their strange, glowing lanterns. Henry and Aodh followed. They didn’t see much of anything for a while. Henry figured some of the fast wolf things that had attacked him during the earlier fight had been crushed in all the rubble.
As the group walked forward, a few of the goblins began whispering until a priest growled and they fell silent. Henry thought the whole situation was eerie. The cave system was deathly silent, completely dark, and they were all just heading back the way he and Tony had originally come.
As they continued, Henry thought ruefully that it seemed to take a lot longer going back than the first time they’d traveled this way. The opposite was usually true in his experience, but he’d also never walked around with a couple dozen murderous goblins that probably wanted to eat him.
Tony stumbled ahead of him, and Henry caught the young adventurer under the arms. He’d forgotten that the kid might be having troubles. Henry had used his darkness magic already to enhance his own vision.
Tony looked back and nodded his thanks, but Henry actually really noticed his inhuman eyes for the first time in a while. He had a sudden realization. “Hey, Tony, can’t you see in the dark? You’re not completely human, right?”
The young adventurer turned around again and looked sheepish. He focused forward before speaking, this time in English. “I can see better in the dark, but it’s not automatic. It’s a thing I can do, but I don’t. I’m not Fideli. I don’t want to be Fideli.”
Henry took a few steps, thinking about what Tony had said. “Why not?”
Tony missed a step. “...Don’t want to be Fideli,” he said quietly. “Fideli are scary and hurt people.”
“Have you ever actually met any?”
“No.” Tony shook his head.
“Aren’t you doing exactly what everyone has done to you?” asked Henry. “You’re just blindly believing what others have told you with no evidence, like a dumbass. I’m Asian. People assume all kinds of shit about me, like I know martial arts an
d I’m a bad driver.” He grimaced and amended, “The fact I do know martial arts and I’ve had a few accidents doesn’t matter. They weren’t my fault. The truth is that I am more as a man than just my radical eyes and a natural tan.”
"What do you mean?” Tony asked.
“You have no control over how you’re born. If people have a problem with it they can go fuck themselves. The only thing you can control is how you live your life. What you look like doesn’t need to have anything to do with who you are unless you let it. If your dad was a crackhead, you don’t need to be a crackhead. The first step of being whatever you want to be is to make the decision to do it. Isn’t that what you did with becoming an adventurer?”
“What’s a crackhead?”
“Someone who does really addictive drugs and stuff.”
Henry was getting frustrated. To him, the entire conversation was silly since the concept was obvious, but Tony glanced back again, looking thoughtful. This fucking planet needs Sesame Street, he thought. After that, he noticed that Tony’s steps had become surer. About time.
After the conversation lulled, the goblins grew less antsy since the two Terrans weren’t speaking in English anymore. Suddenly, Henry’s enhanced hearing picked up the sounds of battle. He turned to Shaman Hask and said, “Your people are fighting ahead.”
The goblin woman held up a hand and gave Henry a searching look. She pulled her lips back from sharp teeth, wiggled her ears, and barked something in Gholis. The rest of the goblins surged ahead, and the Henry picked up the pace too. After a minute of jogging, Aodh said, “I can hear it now.”
“I think I can too,” panted Trask. The young goblin had given up on keeping his bulky glasses on his nose and merely held them in one hand as he ran.
Tony must be using his enhanced ears now too. Henry approved. The tunnel system made a few more twists and turns before the group finally found the missing goblins. Henry took in the scene and gritted his teeth. He wasn’t at 100% physically, not even close. He was still hurt and he really needed to sleep, but dammit, he had a job to do. Tony was calling the shots on this one, and Henry had a debt to pay.
Sometimes, you had to be a good follower before you could be a good leader. Henry drew more strength from the earth and sprinted forward, leaving all the goblins behind. His course of action was obvious.
“Tell your people not to kill me,” he hollered over his shoulder at Shaman Hask. The goblin woman began screaming in Gholis and Henry hoped her voice would be heard. He didn’t have time to worry about it anymore either way as he ran forward into bedlam.
The remaining goblins were in a group, watching their rear and front, bunched together with the warriors in the middle pointing their spears straight upwards. It looked like they’d dug through the collapse at the tunnel mouth and the feline monsters outside had been there to say hello.
The area around the tunnel opening was littered with the dead wolf-things the goblins seemed to use as war hounds. Dead and dying goblins were everywhere, as well as a number of cat monsters. As Henry watched, one of the feline beasts ran past the group of its brethren guarding the mouth of the newly opened tunnel, sprang up to the ceiling and ran all the way to the rear of the goblin formation, flattening itself to avoid the gob-folk spears. Then it dropped down among two of its kin, further flanking the defending green warriors.
Henry made a quick count and figured only a few dozen more goblins were alive. There were a lot of dead goblins on the ground, but he still must have killed a lot of them in the cave in.
Henry hollered as he stabbed the closest of the cat monsters from behind with the new spear he was carrying. The giant beast writhed as the weapon skewered it from tail to neck. Henry didn’t pause. The goblins before him were astonished, their eyes darting from Henry to the running mass of gob-folk behind him.
“Cover me! I think I can close off the new opening from here!” Henry shouted. He laid his hands on the bare rock of the cave wall and began to concentrate. Yes, he could feel far enough to do his work, but only because a cave in had already happened recently.
He spared a glance behind him, and his jaw dropped. Tony was fighting the two remaining cat monsters. The young man slashed at one cat monster’s eyes with his strange knife, but it sprang back, yowling and spitting. Then Tony half tripped over a rock, and one beast’s claws barely missed his neck. The youth took the opportunity to spin around, slamming his dagger into the other monster. His weapon flashed black, instantly killing it. The dying creature fell, its shoulder knocking Tony backward, and the motion barely saved him from the gnashing teeth of the remaining monster. He took a quick step backward to regain his balance, and the movement caused the spiny cat’s tail to pass harmlessly wide, completely missing the teen adventurer.
Henry wasn’t sure how Tony had gotten ahead of the goblins, but the green creatures arrived a moment later with a flurry of violence, several of them slamming their spears into the last spiny cat monster at almost the same time.
Henry shook his head and turned back to the wall. The feline nightmares were pouring into the tunnel like a wave of pissed off feline fury. He couldn’t waste any time. Ignoring the screams and other noises coming from behind him, focusing on his task was extremely difficult. His lack of armor made him feel incredibly exposed.
Finally, with one last effort of will, he closed off the reopened cave mouth. There was a low rumble, and a vibration in the ground as the debris shifted again, closing the entry and crushing a few more of the spiny cats.
I think I’m just gonna sit for a while, Henry thought, his mind growing fuzzy. Dimly, a part of him knew he’d overdone things. His body was telling him to fuck off; he didn’t get to decide when to sleep anymore. That’s fair, he hazily acknowledged.
Henry lay down on the hard stone floor of the cave, the last of the battle with the giant monster cats still raging around him. Kind of ironic I’m passing the fuck out in the same place I woke up after almost dying. The thought was the last he had before losing consciousness.
Hunger
Henry woke up on a bed of straw. He groaned, and Tony asked, “Henry, are you awake?”
“I think so. At least I don’t think it’s possible to hurt this much if I’m unconscious...or dead.”
“Okay, good!” Tony sighed in relief.
Henry didn’t know what universe the kid lived in, but it was definitely not good. He could tell that his healing ability had taken care of some of his issues, but not as much as he would have expected after a nap...or passing the fuck out. Of course, he didn’t know how long he’d been out either. “How long have I been—”
“You were out for a few hours at least. It’s hard to tell time down here, but it’s been a good while. Some of the goblin males carried you back on a stretcher. The shaman made them do it. I think she’s afraid you are testing them,, and you’ll destroy them all if she doesn’t keep her word.”
“Works for me. What about you?”
Tony rubbed his face and exhaled. “I’ve been standing guard. I fell asleep for a little bit, but I wanted to stay awake just in case. I’m glad we did the right thing, saving the goblins, but I guess there’s no use in being stupid.”
Henry approved, but instead of saying so he grunted. He levered himself up to a sitting position, wincing at how weak he felt. “Where are we?”
“I think we are in an old stable that hasn’t been used in a long time. I think Shaman Hask put us here to keep an eye on us and protect us, or protect them from us. I’m not sure which. When I killed a couple of monsters, the priests got excited again, and Trask wasn’t much help with translating. He was yelling at the other goblins we’d saved.
“The shaman’s son was still alive, and he stood next to her to support her. Otherwise, I’m not sure what would have happened.”
“Has Trask visited?”
“Yes.” Tony nodded. “He said the leaders are all meeting and having a religious ceremony or argument. For goblins, it might all be the same thing. A new
head priest is being chosen, and then they will figure out what to do with me.”
“Yeah, about that. How are you insta-killing everything? I’m assuming it has something to do with your dagger.”
“Yes.” Tony looked shifty, and drew his bronze dagger out, turning the blade to examine in the dim light of goblin glow torches. “I don’t know what it is, exactly. See…” Tony gulped, and his voice grew soft, “Please don’t be angry with me.”
“Just say it.”
“When you were unconscious the first time, before you woke up in the cave with me, you looked really bad. But eventually, there was this black spot that moved down your body to your arm and I...cut it with my knife.”
“I was wondering about that,” said Henry, holding up his arm, rotating it to show Tony the scar. “I don’t usually scar this much anymore, and this isn’t a big cut, but it’s a nasty scar. So this was you?”
“Yes,” Tony said, dropping his shoulders and looking at the ground. “I didn’t want to hurt you or scar you, but I wasn’t sure what to do, and I thought you might die.”
Henry laughed. “Kid, calm down. You might have saved my life again. Whatever you did, it put one hell of a lot of mojo in your dagger. I guess it was just lucky how everything shook out, otherwise, we’d both probably be dead.”
“Yeah, lucky I guess,” said Tony, holding his stomach.
“Anyway, when was the last time you heard any news?”
“I’m not sure. A couple hours I think?”
“Don’t you have an alarm clock in your pack?”
Tony facepalmed. “I didn’t even think to use it or wind it up. I’m sorry.”
“It’s more than okay, kid.” Henry ruefully shook his head. “I don’t think I’ve been too useful on this little fucked up adventure. In fact, you were—”
“Oh, you are awake!” Trask said, walking into the stone building and pushing up his fake glasses. “The guards said so but I wanted to check. Don’t worry; everything is almost over.” With that, the little goblin turned around and stomped out.
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