“Looks like your neighbor found the back door.” I jumped to my feet and backed out of the cave.
Things weren’t any better on the ledge. Below us, the other lagalanders had returned. They swam through the murky water, waiting for their supper to fall from the sky.
Tank hurried out of the cave and skidded to a stop beside me.
“Think you can troll-stomp your way past them?” I said.
“No, but maybe I’ve got something in here that will help.” She searched through the pockets of her tool belt.
The little cave lit up with glowing eyes as more lagalanders slipped through the back entrance. Hugo raced out of the cave.
We scrambled away from the greedy lagalanders faster than a goblin detective fleeing math class.
Tank hesitated on the edge of the water. “They’re taking my tools!” she cried.
I pulled my friend along the narrow path. “We’ll get you more!”
“Hurry up, you two!” Hugo shouted from farther up ahead. “They won’t be distracted for very long.”
The spider led us along the winding path, around murky pools and past towering fungi. We didn’t stop until the sounds of the lagalanders’ bickering were far behind us. Hugo scurried to the top of a gloomshroom growing out of the wet ground. He peered into the darkness.
“Are they following us?” Tank asked.
Hugo shook his head. “I don’t think so. There’s no sign of them.”
“That’s the first good news I’ve heard all day.” I scratched my scales and stretched my tail. “We need to get back to the Vale of Webs and warn the queen.”
“We cannot go back. Not yet,” Hugo said. “The queen would never believe us. She will be furious that you disobeyed her orders. She would eat your classmates and punish me for sneaking away.”
“But it wasn’t our fault!” Tank said. “Scorn dumped us here and left us to be lunch!”
“Queen Azelia doesn’t listen to excuses.” Hugo scrambled down from the gloomshroom. “She ordered you to go to Lava Falls and find the dwarf and ogre. If we are successful, there is a chance she won’t eat you and your friends.”
“What about Captain Scorn?” I said. “He’s heading to Lava Falls too. If he sees us, we won’t have to worry about the queen eating us. Scorn will take care of that.”
“That is true,” Hugo said. “But you’re better off dealing with Scorn than with Queen Azelia. Trust me.”
Tank looked to me with worried eyes. She tugged on her empty tool belt. One look at my friend and I knew she had the same questions running through her mind. Can we trust Hugo? Is it better to face an angry queen or a lying spider captain?
I stood beside my friend and faced Hugo.
“Why did you follow us?” I asked. “You said yourself that the queen won’t be pleased to know you disobeyed her orders. Why risk all that for a goblin and troll you don’t even know?”
Hugo’s eyes dropped to the dark water around us. He spoke quietly.
“Because I believed you,” he said. “I believed you saw the thieves, but I did not trust that Captain Scorn would keep you safe.”
“You were right on that,” Tank said. “But why not just tell your queen?”
Hugo smirked. “She would never believe a young spider like me. I don’t know what it is like in your home, but down here adults rarely believe young monsters about serious matters like this.”
Tank rolled her eyes. “We know all about that.”
“Yeah, no one ever believes us until it’s too late,” I said.
Hugo smiled. “Then we have something in common.”
“I guess we do.” Tank grinned.
My scales relaxed. Hugo might have six more legs than I did, but he was right. We weren’t so different after all.
“That settles it,” I said. “Which way to Lava Falls?”
“That’s a very good question.” The spider’s voice went quiet. “I’ve never been through the Swamp of Sorrows before. We usually follow the road around it.”
Puddles of murky water surrounded us. Slippery rocks poked out of the puddles, but there was no clear path that my goblin eyes could spot.
I sighed. “So we lost the lagalanders and got ourselves lost along the way.”
“I’m sorry.” Hugo hung his head, all eight eyes staring at the ground.
Under my scales, my heart felt for the spider. He’d risked the wrath of the spider queen to find us and save us from those fish heads. We were lost in the Dark Depths, far from our friends and family. We had no food and no idea where we were going. This field trip had turned from disastrous to deadly. But we had made a new friend.
That was good, wasn’t it?
CHAPTER SIX
Strangers in the Swamp
My scales were soaked with swamp water.
We had slipped, slopped and splooshed our way through muddy pools, over slick rocks and through fetid fungi. I ached all over and longed for a comfy chair and a pile of cookies. But right now all I had was a set of waterlogged claws and a drooping tail.
“We are totally lost,” Tank said. “I knew we should have gone right at that last patch of sparkle spores!”
“You said we should go left!” I snapped. “And that’s exactly what we did.”
Tank’s ears crumpled. “Yeah, well, you shouldn’t have listened to me.”
“I’ll remember that for next time.”
Hugo called to us from farther ahead. “Dry land!”
The spider stood on top of another tall gloomshroom. From his perch he could see over the low mounds of rock and dirt that dotted the swamp and blocked our path.
Tank walked faster. “That means we’re nearly out.”
“We just have to cross a big pool to get to it,” Hugo said.
“What are we waiting for?” I said.
Tank dropped me like a sack of old hammers on the other side of the pool.
“Ouch!” I grumbled. “You’re going to crack my scales.”
“At least you’re not soaking wet,” she snarled.
“I am wet, and now I’m sore too!”
“Quit bickering, you two!” Hugo whispered. “Someone’s coming.”
We were on another rocky outcrop, surrounded on three sides by murky water. A path of uneven stones led into the darkness. The soft glow of a light appeared in the distance. The light floated in the air, bobbing up and down as it came closer.
“What is it?” Tank said.
“Whatever it is, I don’t want to meet it!” I hissed. “We need to hide.”
“Where?” Hugo hopped on his eight legs. “There’s nothing but rocks, and none are big enough to hide us.”
I dropped to the ground and wrapped my tail around me. “Get small and hope it goes away!”
Tank flopped onto the ground. “Trolls don’t do small!”
Hugo tucked his legs under him and huddled in close. The light drifted closer. A shape next to the light emerged from the shadows. Two large eyes, shuffling feet and the head of a fish.
“It’s a lagalander!” Tank grabbed her tool belt. “I’m not giving away any more gadgets.”
The lagalander took another step and stopped suddenly. He was stooped over and leaning on a gnarled stick made of petrified fungi. The little glowing light hung from the tip of the staff. The stranger tilted his head and sniffed the air.
“What’s this?” he said in a slow voice. “A spider, a troll and a goblin traveling together?”
“He sees us!” Tank whimpered.
“I smell you more than I see you, young troll.” The lagalander shuffled closer. “Have no fear, I won’t harm you. There’s too much misery in this swamp for me to add more.” He stopped next to where we were huddled. “You can stop pretending to be rocks now. You’re not very convincing. Besides, it’s getting late, and I would prefer to camp with company.”
I uncurled my tail and got to my feet. “Camp? With you?”
“Why not?” The lagalander chuckled. “Have you got a better off
er?”
“No. It’s just…” Tank’s words trailed off.
“It’s just the last lagalanders we met tried to eat us,” I said.
“I think you will find I am a different sort of fish,” the stranger said. “I am Gilthil. I look after the rocks in this swamp.”
“Look after the rocks?” I said. “Why?”
“Someone has to.” Gilthil shrugged. “Why not me?”
The old fish had me there. Hugo stepped forward and bowed his head.
“I am Hugo from the Vale of Webs,” he said. “This is Tank and Fizz. We were hoping to make it to Lava Falls.”
“You’re certainly taking the scenic route. Lava Falls is that way.” The stranger waved his staff to the right of our little island. “I advise you not to travel the swamp when the gloomshrooms have faded.”
“It is getting darker,” Tank said. “I thought it was my imagination.”
The lagalander chuckled again. “You are an observant young troll. The gloomshrooms will recharge in darkness and light up again in the morning.”
Tank nodded. “Like the glowshrooms back home.”
“Indeed, Slick City has many glowshrooms to light its roads. Down here in the Depths, it is their cousin the gloomshroom that lights our way.”
With Gilthil and his toasty rocks, the swamp didn’t seem so scary or sad. The glow from the pile of stones pushed the shadows away, while their warmth dried the damp from my scales. The strange lagalander gave us each a crunchy biscuit from his satchel. For a few minutes we sat on our tiny island, quietly chewing. When the final biscuit had been eaten, Gilthil spoke.
“You search for the missing crown. Am I right?”
I nearly spat out my last bite at the question.
“H-how do you know that?” I asked.
“Has word of the robbery already spread across the Depths?” Hugo moaned. “If the dwarves and dragonkin hear the crown is missing, there will surely be trouble.”
“Calm down, Hugo.” Gilthil waved a webbed hand reassuringly. “Only those who listen have heard of the theft. And very few listen these days. Your quest is still a secret.”
Tank glanced quickly to me and then to Gilthil.
“Then how do you know about it?” Her eyes narrowed as she spoke.
“As I said, I listen.” The lagalander shrugged. He looked to me with his big round eyes. “What I don’t know is how a troll and a goblin from the Shallows got involved in the whole mess.”
Maybe it was the warm stones or tasty biscuits or that we were totally lost and far from home, but we told Gilthil everything. I told him about our field trip and our bus driver crashing us into the spider queen’s web. Tank added the bits about the crown-stealing dwarf. Finally, Hugo told the lagalander about Captain Scorn’s deception.
When he had heard it all, Gilthil shook his head sadly. “It sounds like your Captain Scorn wants the Crown of Peace for himself, so he can rule the Vale of Webs.”
“Do you think he is behind the theft?” Tank asked.
“Almost certainly,” Gilthil said. “With the resetting of the braces happening very soon, his timing is most perfect.”
“Resetting of the braces?” I said. “My cousin had braces on his fangs. They looked painful.”
“They are not that kind of braces.” Gilthil smiled.
“The Braces of Balance are below the Dark Depths,” Hugo said.
“There’s something below the Dark Depths?” I said. “I thought we were at the very bottom of Rockfall Mountain.”
“We are,” Gilthil said. “But below the mountain is the Abyss, a chaotic, swirling storm of energy constantly pulling on the mountain. Every day, the power of the Abyss threatens to drag Rockfall Mountain into its heart. If that happened, the mountain would be crushed into nothing more than fine sand.”
“That sounds painful,” I said.
“More than painful, Fizz,” Gilthil said. “It would be the end of Rockfall Mountain and all who live inside it. From the Dark Depths to the Shadow Tower in Slick City, every monster, wizard and slime would be destroyed.”
“The Abyss formed under the mountain many generations ago,” Hugo said. “We learned about it in school. The Braces of Balance are pillars that support the mountain. They hold it in place above the Abyss. They were created by the three lords of the Dark Depths: the dwarf king, the spider queen and the lord of the dragonkin. They each control one of the three lands that make up the Dark Depths.”
“But what does all this have to do with the crown being stolen?” Tank said.
“The crown keeps the braces balanced,” Gilthil said. “The constant pull by the Abyss takes its toll on the braces, making them unstable. Every year, the braces need to be reset to their original position. This can only be done with the Crown of Peace. It fits into the braces like a key and allows them to be readjusted.”
“Sounds like an engineer’s tool to give a machine a tune-up,” Tank said.
“That’s exactly what it is, Tank.” Gilthil nodded. “But not just anyone can use the crown to adjust the braces. It must be done by one of the three lords of the Dark Depths. To ensure power is shared fairly between lands, the crown is passed between the leaders each year. This way the three rulers agree to share the Dark Depths and not try to take over all the lands down here.”
“What about the lagalanders?” I asked. “Don’t they get a turn with the crown?”
Gilthil’s large eyes narrowed before his wide mouth split into a grin.
“A very astute observation, Fizz. I can see why you are a great detective.” The lagalander sighed. “Alas, my people are not as civilized as the dwarves, spiders and dragonkin. You have already met some of them, so I think you will agree on that. The lagalanders are lower beasts. They live in the Dark Depths, but they do not rule.”
“That doesn’t sound fair,” Tank said. “You seem civilized enough.”
“I am an exception,” Gilthil said. “This is the way it has always been. Last year, Lord Dunhelm, the dwarf king, had the crown.”
“And this year it was my queen’s turn,” Hugo said. “Queen Azelia is the only one who can reset the braces this year.”
“Very true,” Gilthil said. “And that is why the crown must be found. The resetting will happen in a few short days. If you are headed to Lava Falls, I can warn your queen of Captain Scorn’s treachery and suggest she send more spiders this way. Find the dwarf, and when the queen’s soldiers arrive, you can report to them.”
“How will you speak to the spider queen?” I asked. “I didn’t think lagalanders and spiders spoke to each other.”
Gilthil smiled again. “As I’m sure you’ve already deduced, young detective, there is more to me than meets the eye.”
A splash echoed in the waters somewhere in the distance. My friends turned toward the noise. I did not. Gilthil’s round eyes held me fast.
The smooth, fishy skin of the lagalander vanished. In its place rows of dark scales covered Gilthil’s body. I blinked. The scales vanished. The bulbous eyes and fish mouth returned.
I scrambled backward. My foot hit the glowing stones. Gilthil reached out and caught me before I fell.
“Be careful, little goblin. You could get hurt.” The lagalander looked over my shoulder to where Tank and Hugo still watched the waters. “Relax, young monsters. As long as these rocks glow, no creatures will step on this island. We are perfectly safe. Perhaps we should turn in for the night?”
“I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep out here,” Tank muttered. But a second later she was yawning and stretching out on a dry patch of rock.
“I’d much prefer a web, but there is something soothing about those rocks.” Hugo tucked his eight legs under himself and closed his eyes.
I had to agree. I stretched out on the ground and watched the glowing rocks. Even with unknown monsters swimming through the waters around us, my eyelids grew heavy. As I drifted off to sleep, Gilthil’s words ran circles in my tired brain.
Be careful, litt
le goblin. You could get hurt.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Showdown in Lava Falls
Chaos swirled beneath me.
I stood on an iron bridge above a churning mass of dark energy. The Abyss. There was no mistaking the heavy pull of that rumbling pit of doom under my feet. A series of pillars ringed the Abyss, each one planted firmly in bedrock and rising to meet the massive rock slab hanging over my head. Rockfall Mountain. My home. How did I know that? The question drifted away as quickly as it came. I also knew those pillars were the Braces of Balance. They were the only thing stopping the mountain from falling into the gaping maw of the Abyss. I was far underground, even deeper than the Dark Depths. And I wasn’t alone.
I bolted awake.
Tank stood beside me. “He’s alive! Finally. For a small goblin, you sure can snore.”
I scrambled to my feet. “Mr. Ravel!” I gasped. “He destroyed the mountain.”
“Relax, Fizz. It was just a dream,” Tank said.
“But I saw it.” The threads of my dream were already slipping from my mind. “He was in front of a machine, wearing a wizard’s cloak or something.”
“A wizard messing with technology? That sounds like a nightmare.” Tank put out a hand to steady me. “Forget about it.”
“You’re probably right.” I shook the sleep from my head.
“Besides,” Tank said, sighing, “we have bigger problems to deal with.”
The Swamp of Sorrows stretched into the distance behind me. Ahead, the marshy path climbed a low hill of solid and very dry rock. We were not on our little island anymore. Our island was gone. And so was Gilthil.
“Where are we?” I said. “Where is Gilthil? This isn’t where we camped last night.”
“Gilthil is gone,” Hugo said. The spider picked his way back down the rocky path to us. “And somehow we have reached the edge of the Swamp of Sorrows.”
“That doesn’t make sense,” I said. “Gilthil himself said we had a long way to go.”
“What can I say? There’s no sign of the old fish-face. All he left us was this.” Tank handed me a folded piece of paper.
The Case of Firebane's Folly Page 3