The Goblin Reign Boxed Set

by Gerhard Gehrke

  “There’s going to be more humans coming,” Spicy said. “I won’t leave my friends.”

  Fath lowered his face to Spicy and bared his teeth. His ruined eye was a messy hole still glistening with blood. The stench was suffocating. But then Fath let out a long sigh. The dragon moved past and headed towards the sliding door.

  “Where are you going?” Spicy asked.

  “It’s time I had a word with the humans. Because I’ve been wasting my breath with you.”

  “You can’t talk to them. They’ll lie, assuming they don’t just try to kill you.”

  “I’ve had my share of man words and goblin words—enough to know they all come out the same. Now be silent and come with me. You may still have a use in all this.”

  Spicy could only watch helplessly as the dragon slithered towards the exit, the keys dangling around one long talon. The others were still trapped in their cage with no way to get out.

  So he followed.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Two of the soldiers came scrambling out the sliding door and almost collided with Harold and Commander Zane. From inside came a great clamor, along with screaming and confused shouts.

  “What are you men doing?” Zane bellowed. “Get back in there! That’s an order!”

  Both men dropped their weapons as they fled. One shoved Harold aside. Alma saw the panic in the men’s eyes and stepped back as the two fled down the alley.

  “Want me to stop them?” Vine asked.

  “They’re not our men,” Alma said. “Be on your guard.”

  Blades started laughing. The more crashes and howls that echoed from within the warehouse, the louder he became. Soon he was in tears and barely able to stand.

  “Get it together,” Alma said.

  He paused to catch his breath. “You…you brought us here to catch that thing? You think another arrow, or another fifty arrows, will hurt it?”

  “I’ve taken an eye. Once I take the other one, it’ll be over.”

  “You’re crazy. What if it heals like a troll? What if you miss? What if you never hit it in the first place and only managed to piss it off? You’re just as bad as Lord, and I can’t believe you’ve brought me here just to die like we almost did at the cave. I’m done. I’m out.”

  Her attention was fixed on the doorway. “Walk away from me now and I’ll kill you.”

  “What, you believe we still owe it to you or any sense of military decorum to obey orders?”

  “Believe whatever you want. I’m done talking.”

  The warehouse fell silent. Only the animals were still in an uproar. Commander Zane had descended the ramp and he stared slack-jawed at the warehouse.

  “We need more men,” Zane said. He fidgeted with his sword. “There’s something in there.”

  “I need you to pick up that crossbow,” Alma said, nodding towards one of the abandoned weapons. “If this creature slips past us, we won’t have another chance to catch it.”

  Zane didn’t move. Harold studied Alma for a second before grabbing the weapon. He worked the top lever expertly and readied the bolt, which had fallen out when the weapon was dropped. “I thought you said we’d need more men.”

  “Everyone’s dead,” Commander Zane said in a stunned voice. “They’re all gone. What kind of animal is in there?”

  “Is this now worthy of your attention, Commander?” Alma asked.

  “I have to get more guards. Find hunters who know how to take down a bear.”

  “Dragon,” Blades corrected. “You’re not big on paying attention, are you? It’s not like anyone snuck a bear into town. Someone would have noticed that.”

  “Then how did it get here?”

  “On a boat which had a goblin on board being dragged here by a troll. Right under the nose of your guards and through the harbor.”

  Commander Zane nodded as if the story was making sense. “It must be in the warehouse for the livestock.”

  “Perhaps,” Alma said. “But it goes where the goblin goes. And it won’t leave without it. If it gets out, there’s no knowing how many it will kill.”

  “We need…” Zane hesitated and looked at Alma hopefully.

  “You need to bring men here and put them under my command. And before that thing breaks out. But first, one of us has to close that door.”

  “I’ll do it,” Vine said.

  Alma almost stopped him. But none of the others appeared willing to move.

  Vine held his sword poised, ready to strike. He crept up the ramp. With one hand, he pushed the sliding door. It rolled noisily along its track. Just as the door had almost closed, a spear lying in the way blocked it. Vine bent to nudge the spear aside and a blast of steam erupted from the opening, engulfing the man.

  He let loose a hoarse cry and staggered and fell over the railing. A claw slammed the door back open. A dark shadow moved within but didn’t emerge. Vine was groaning in agony. Alma drew her bow back but there was no shot. The monster in the warehouse still wasn’t visible.

  The shadow let out a long growl. Commander Zane broke off and ran.

  “I see you, monster,” Alma said. “Surrender now, and we don’t burn the warehouse down with you inside.”

  The last thing Alma expected was laughter.

  The hard chuckle sent a shiver down her spine. Her arm holding the bowstring back began to tremble. She relaxed the bow. She knew the monster was intelligent. Lord must have known all along, even as he had been prepared to blow the dragon to bits with his bombs. During their final confrontation back at its cave, she had even heard it speak, though the logical part of her wanted to dismiss what she had heard as a trick of mimicry.

  “Archer,” the creature said. “Your men are lost and you stand alone. You think you can best me?”

  Alma realized Blades and Harold had run off. “Come through the door and find out. I took your one eye. You want to gamble that I can’t take the other?”

  The monster growled. She exhaled slowly and fought to regain her calm. A panicked hand missed its shot.

  “Come closer so we can speak,” the creature said.

  “I don’t think so. I can hear you just fine.”

  “Very well. I offer a proposition. Secure for me a way out of this town. On a boat. With men who know how to sail it.”

  “In exchange for what?” Alma asked.

  “Your lives, for one. I can get out of this structure before you could marshal a defense. I can tear this town apart and everyone inside of it.”

  Alma adjusted her stance. The creature remained hidden. “We’ll see about that.”

  “You were at my home in the mountains,” the dragon said. “Your leader sought me out. Destroyed my lair. Cost me my life’s work.”

  “You killed most of us.”

  The dragon sniffed. “Not you. I underestimated your kind.”

  “Just me. I’m the one you should be afraid of. What do you actually have to offer me?”

  “Treasure. It’s what your kind understands. Gold, for one. Knowledge. Get me what I ask, and I’ll see you are satisfied.”

  “What gold do you possess?” she asked.

  “I could smell the boats and their cargo in the harbor. Salted meats. Herbs. Fish. Hides. Tell the town magistrate that the price of my leaving this place unharmed is a boat filled with such goods. You’ll require eight rowers. The boat is to be the large one I saw with the painted black hull. You’re to accompany me. Once aboard, you’ll conduct me where I wish to go. As a reward, I will give you the boat and its contents.”

  “It’s not that simple. The boat doesn’t belong to the town but some merchant.”

  There came the impatient drumming sound of talons on wood. “Then bring the man with us. Once we arrive, he’ll be compensated with coin. Gold. As will you.”

  She studied the shadow in the doorway. “That’s a lot of promises. What’s to stop you from murdering all of us once we’re on the water?”

  “The same promise that keeps me from just killing you n
ow.”

  Alma let the words settle in. Was the beast faster than her? She had faced it down before. The second time had resulted in almost getting knocked off a cliff. But she had hurt it bad on their last encounter.

  “Lord—the leader of our squad who you killed,” she began, and licked her lips. “I never fully understood why he was pursuing you. Somehow I don’t think he knew you were able to talk.”

  “Men and their decrepit memories. They will forget much and make up the most fanciful elaborations to compensate.”

  She shook her head. “I don’t understand.”

  “I’m here now. That is all you need to know. What I promise is what you desire, is it not? Do as I ask. Prepare the boat. When the vessel is ready, I will make my way there. And no tricks. I can smell the burning powders and bombs and will spot any men poised to shoot me. I am holding you responsible.”

  Alma checked over her shoulder. Blades was watching from the corner of the alley.

  “If you want eight rowers, they’ll need a share,” Alma said. “And if they see you, they’ll panic.”

  “Then I will ensconce myself in the rear cabin. You may lead them to the boat once I’m aboard. I have further instructions. The goblins captured here. Have them led to the boat as well.”

  Alma was trying to make sense of the request. “How long a voyage are you talking about? Where are we even going?” Even as she asked the question, she knew she had made up her mind. She was going to do as the creature asked, even as all her instincts told her to flee. Run and keep running and leave the cursed dragon and the damnable town of Eel Port behind her.

  But a boat full of trade goods would be a prize worth risking her life for. And the true prize, the dragon, would be coming with them. All she had to do was find the opportunity to kill it.

  The shadow moved. The dragon was speaking softly to someone inside. She realized her attention had lapsed. She drew back on the bowstring, ready to fire what would surely be her last arrow. But then Spicy was shoved out onto the ramp.

  “Conduct this goblin to your bookseller or library,” the dragon said. “While he retrieves what we need to begin our journey, prepare the vessel.”

  Alma studied the pitiful goblin. He looked scared as he walked towards her down the ramp. She slung her bow and dragged him by the hand to the end of the alley. For some reason, a bemused smile spread across the goblin’s face.

  “Why are you grinning?” Alma asked.

  Spicy shrugged. “Because now the dragon has you to order around, too.”

  Chapter Thirty

  Spicy couldn’t believe his ears.

  Fath was speaking with the human woman Alma and making some kind of deal, all while staying in the cover of the doorway. The conditions were preposterous. The humans would never set a boat out for him, load it with cargo, and man it with rowers, would they?

  Out on the water, Alma had fired first and hadn’t bothered with questions. Why would she even speak with Fath? Yet there they were, talking. Spicy could smell the blood from the recently killed men in the warehouse, and the reek of the cooked skin of the man the dragon had blasted with steam. It was turning his already queasy stomach.

  Fath turned to him. “Time for your role in this.”

  “What do you mean, my role? You don’t need me anymore. Give me the keys.”

  Fath kept the key ring dangling on a talon. Spicy grabbed for it, but the dragon held it out of his reach.

  “Oh, but I do need you, my little apprentice. You’re to keep learning from me and doing the work I’ve set out for you. Your fellow goblin children will join us on our voyage. With their presence, you’ll be less inclined to disobey or run.”

  Spicy felt his throat tighten. “Those men are just going to kill you.”

  “The humans will respond to their base greed. It’s what brought them to my mountain. Now to your task. We still need a map.” With a claw, the dragon nudged him through the open door. Outside, it remained bright and Spicy had to squint as his eyes adjusted.

  There she waited—Alma, the white-haired archer who had been part of the barbaric raid on Boarhead. He had seen her murder a defenseless grandmother named Mala without hesitation. Alma had personally tried to kill him on at least three occasions.

  Spicy walked down the ramp, his legs feeling as if they were going to give out under him. From somewhere in town, the bell continued to clang.

  Fath instructed Alma to escort him to a bookshop.

  Clearly impatient, Alma hauled Spicy down the alleyway to where Blades waited. “Take the goblin where he needs to go.”

  Blades grabbed him by the back of his shirt. “You’re a whole heap of trouble, aren’t you?”

  “Just do as you’re told,” Spicy said.

  He slapped the goblin across the back of the head.

  Spicy struggled to look up at the man. “Don’t hit me. You have orders, just like I do. And if you hit me again, I’ll tell the dragon.”

  “You think I’m afraid of that monster?”

  “Yeah, I do.”

  Blades shoved Spicy against a wall. With a flash, a knife appeared in his hand and hovered in front of Spicy’s eye. Blades glared as he held it there. Although the knife hand was steady, he had sweat on his brow and lip.

  “What are you doing?” Alma asked.

  Blades sheathed the knife. “Nothing at all.”

  She shoved him hard enough that he took two steps back. “We need that goblin alive.”

  Blades looked up at the warehouse. “What we need is to get out of here.”

  “Take the goblin to the library like I said.”

  “How am I supposed to know where the library is?”

  “Ask someone. Figure it out. I need to track down Commander Zane.”

  She left them and vanished in the direction of the tolling bell. There were several people gawking at them from open storefronts and doorways.

  “Move.” Blades shoved Spicy into the middle of the street and strode along behind him.

  Spicy trotted along to avoid getting kicked. Now that they were walking, the residents of Eel Port seemed less interested in them and more intent on whatever alarm was sounding from the center of town.

  Blades grabbed a man who was busy lashing equipment to an overloaded backpack. “The library—where is it?”

  “Which one?” the man asked.

  Blades cuffed him with the back of his hand. “The closest one, idiot.”

  The man pointed. “Two streets down. On the square with the fish fountain.”

  It became more crowded once they made it to their first cross street. The alarm bell was bringing people out in droves. Blades started to turn along with the throng, but Spicy pointed down the street they were on.

  “That was only one street,” he said.

  Blades gave him a push and followed. The cobblestones of the square were sticky under Spicy’s feet. As the directions had indicated, a fish was poised on a high plinth as if kissing the sky. No water flowed from its mouth. The fountain itself was dry. Only a handful of stalls were open, and the few merchants present were clustered in groups and talking. No one paid Blades and Spicy any mind as they went to the front door of an orange stone building.

  A plaque on the front read Corazon Trust Books and Legal.

  Blades tugged at the door, but it was locked. He looked ready to kick it in when a thin, bespectacled man appeared. His brows knit as he looked at Blades. When he saw Spicy, he sneered.

  “Yes?” the man asked.

  Blades pushed the man inside and entered. Spicy hurried to follow.

  “I beg your pardon!” the shopkeeper said.

  “Well, you can’t have it,” Blades said.

  “What?”

  “My pardon. Because right now, you’re offending me, and if you don’t unstuff your face I’m going to smash it in.”

  The shopkeeper’s lips were moving but he wasn’t able to form intelligible words.

  Blades poked him in the chest. “Shut up. What I ne
ed from you is to get this gob whatever he needs.”

  “This…goblin? No goblins are allowed in here! Now, the both of you smell like street, and this creature might not be house-trained.”

  Spicy felt himself flush at the insult.

  Blades punched the shopkeeper. The man’s nose popped, and blood trickled from both nostrils. The shopkeeper tried unsuccessfully to stanch the flow. Blades plucked a handkerchief from the shopkeeper’s pocket and handed it to him.

  “Well, you’re no help,” Blades said. The shopkeeper tried to step around the mercenary to get to the front door, but Blades pushed him down onto a stool and raised a warning finger. The man stayed put.

  Spicy looked up at the bookcases. “I’ll find what I’m looking for.”

  Only a few shelves were full of books, while half of the rest of the shelf space was occupied with carved bone or bronze sculptures.

  A back room held ledgers and books of receipts along with several collections of bound loose-leaf notebooks. Spicy examined one and saw they were copies of documents either addressed to or from an entity called the Pinnacle High Court. Apparently, there was a Pinnacle Municipal Court and a Pinnacle Appeals Court, as well as a Pinnacle Merchant Arbitration Magister’s Office. The script on the pages was dense and in ink and there were many words Spicy didn’t know.

  “Are you a law giver?” Spicy asked.

  “A lawyer,” the shopkeeper said while clamping his nose. “Now put those books down before you tear a page or soil anything.”

  Spicy curled his lip. “I’ve already gone potty today, if that makes you happy.”

  The man continued to look miserable.

  “Find it?” Blades asked.

  “This could take a while,” Spicy said.

  “How long?”

  Spicy gestured helplessly to all the books.

  “Just great,” Blades grumbled. He jostled the lawyer. “Got anything to eat or drink around here?”

  While the lawyer fetched a bottle and a platter of fruit and cheese for Blades, Spicy busied himself spreading out books on a table. He perused the shelves and took a volume from each, sometimes at random and other times because the cover was a fetching shade of violet or the print along the spine was pleasing. During all this, he kept his eye open for maps.