The Goblin Reign Boxed Set

by Gerhard Gehrke

Chapter Fifty

  A few candles at the edges of the room guttered and resumed burning. But deep shadows now filled the chamber. Dust and smoke clogged the air. A man outside the broken doors was screaming in pain.

  Spicy’s ears rang.

  Fath lay before him alongside his brother. Spicy placed his hands on the dragon. The skin was very warm. He pushed hard at the creature’s side for any sign of life.

  “Master Fath,” he said, but the dragon didn’t stir.

  Spicy made his way to Mach. The second dragon’s eyes were half-open and dull. His tongue dangled from his mouth. The floor was sticky under Spicy’s feet.

  The entrance beyond the blown-open doors was pitch-black. Except for the screaming man, who was now reduced to groaning, no one else made a sound. As Spicy began to make his way forward, the man let out a sharp cry before falling silent.

  Crunching footsteps came through the doorway.

  Spicy ducked down. The chamber in its disarray offered a dozen places to hide. But instead he moved to where the man in white had dropped the giant crossbow.

  It was heavy. The long bolt still rested in the groove along the top of the weapon’s frame. The string remained taut. Spicy struggled to lift it as he found the trigger and pointed the weapon at the open doors.

  The candlelight illuminated a head of white hair. Alma peered inside.

  “That looks too big for you,” she said.

  Spicy fought to keep his hands steady. “Stay back.”

  “Or what? You’re going to shoot me with that thing?”

  “Just leave us alone.”

  She smirked. Then she nodded at the dragons. “What happened here? Are they dead?”

  “One is. My master isn’t. And he won’t be happy to see you.”

  “He doesn’t look like he’s going to be able to do much about it if he does.”

  Sweat stung his eyes. He wanted to wipe his face but needed both hands on the crossbow. “What do you want?”

  “A dragon’s head. At least that’s what I was planning on settling for.”

  “What happened out there?” Spicy asked.

  Alma clicked her tongue. “Their luck changed. So are you going to put that ridiculous thing down?”

  “I’m going to shoot you if you take one step further.”

  “Just one shot with a crossbow. That’s all you get. You know that, right? And if you miss, well, trust me when I say I won’t when it’s my turn.”

  He licked his lips. “I won’t miss.”

  “I have two bombs in my sack. I’ll need one to clear any of the riff-raff from the village that might be waiting for me outside. Which means I still have one to take you out with. So what do you say you spare us both the grief and let me take my heads? I’ll leave you the bodies. I’m sure they’re worth something. Might be a lot of money for a little goblin like you.”

  “You’re not coming in here,” Spicy said.

  Alma sighed. “Have it your way.”

  A second explosion shook the chamber. The ground and hill above shuddered. Dust trickled down from the ceiling. The explosion sounded much larger than the one that had blasted the entryway.

  Alma ducked away from the doorway for a moment. “Damn it, Martin.” She returned to the doorway. “All right, goblin. The dragons are all yours. You survive another day. Maybe luck’s really with you. We’re never going to meet again. But if we do, you better be smart enough to run before I notice you underfoot.”

  His arms were trembling so hard, the front of the crossbow wavered up and down. At that moment, if he fired, he was just as likely to strike the ceiling or the floor.

  But Alma vanished. He waited for a minute, then two, then he finally set the crossbow down and had to fight not to throw up.

  Spicy had erected a makeshift barrier on which he could rest the crossbow. Then he settled in. When the humans came, he’d at least hit the first one who stepped through the doorway.

  A few minutes later, another distant explosion shook the chamber. He waited. No one came.

  When Fath’s side puffed up, he nearly jumped. Then the dragon let out a slow exhale before beginning to breathe.

  “Master Fath?”

  Fath smacked his mouth and raised his head. His remaining eye was closed tight, the skin around the socket blistered. “I can’t see. My brother?”

  “To your right. Will he also wake up?”

  The dragon crawled across the floor to Mach’s body. He pressed an ear to the enormous dragon’s chest before lying down next to him.

  “He has perished,” Fath said.

  “What do we do now? Master Fath?”

  Fath didn’t answer. Soon Spicy heard the steady sounds of slumber.

  Torchlight became visible in the entry hall. Spicy readied himself behind the crossbow. The girl in white appeared in the doorway, torch in hand. She was alone.

  Her eyes went wide when she took in the carnage.

  “Stay back,” Spicy said.

  She ignored him and rushed to Mach. Her hands ran along the body until finally she came to his blood-crusted nose and mouth. She collapsed to her knees, weeping.

  The crossbow slipped from his grip and clattered to the floor. Spicy tried to pick it up.

  “Your master yet lives?” the girl asked, as if finally aware he was even there.

  The bolt had rolled off the top of the weapon. As Spicy struggled with it, his forearm touched the trigger and the weapon snapped and dry fired. He almost dropped it again. With the weapon aimed down, he tried to draw the string back but couldn’t budge it.

  Fath let out a long sigh. The girl jumped up, a hand to her mouth. She then bowed before him.

  Spicy set the crossbow aside. “You people serve your dragon?”

  “We are devoted. We recognize their superiority. Their all.”

  “But you were willing to kill my master.”

  “Because ours demanded it.”

  “Your master is dead,” Spicy said. “So where does that leave you?”

  She gazed up at him through teary eyes. “Your master is now mine.”

  “And what about the other humans out there? Are they going to come and try to hurt him?”

  “No. I will tell them and they will listen.”

  “All of them?”

  She nodded. “Those that are devoted will.”

  He realized his head was fuzzy. He was so tired. “And what about me?”

  “You are a blessed one. You are most welcome.”

  “My friends too, then, yes? And about them—can you bring them here?”

  Fath wasn’t going anywhere and remained asleep.

  The girl in white’s name was Marta. She had left to fetch Rime and the others. Spicy could only hope they hadn’t run off as he had told them.

  He went outside, deciding it would be best not to force the children to see a room full of dead humans along with a bloated dragon corpse. Smoke rose into the night sky from a building that still burned on the far side of the village. A quick count of the dead in the cave made him wonder how many humans might be left.

  It seemed some of the villagers were down fighting the fire. After some time, whatever was burning was finally extinguished or had burned down to nothing. A group of villagers then returned to the front of the cave.

  No one spoke to Spicy. Before he could stop them, two of the women slipped past and into the chamber. When they saw Mach’s body, a wailing began like Spicy had never heard. The women tore at their clothes and hair. Spicy had to push them away from the body, and finally one of the men helped take them back outside.

  They shouted the news and it carried through the village.

  The mourning cry that rose was hard to listen to, and he felt an ache rise within him as he thought of the family and neighbors he had lost. But he refused the villagers entrance to the chamber. After what felt like an hour, the cries subsided. A group of the men, sooty from the fire, came before him.

  “Let us remove our dead,” a man requested. Spicy step
ped aside to let them work.

  A human child about as tall as he was kept staring at him with large eyes. When Spicy smiled, she ran to her mother. The mother looked at Spicy and even in the torchlight he saw in her expression the last thing he would have expected.

  Embarrassment.

  “Jill, this is a guest in our village,” the mother said. “Marta said he is to be treated with respect.”

  The girl continued to cling to her mother.

  The mother stroked the girl’s head. To Spicy she asked, “Are you hungry? Do you need a place to sleep?”

  “My friends will. There are seven of us.”

  “I’ll fix up a few beds. Please wait here.” She left and took the girl with her.

  Marta, true to her word, returned with the goblin children. The woman with the broad smile who had let Spicy out of his cage was with them. She held Domino in her arms while Eve clung to the woman’s apron. Rime led the others. Pix was still coughing and the rest walked in silence. They were all dragging their feet.

  Spicy took them to a hut the mother had designated as theirs. Inside were three rickety beds covered in an array of multicolored blankets. The place was run-down but didn’t smell too bad and looked clean.

  The children climbed onto the beds, and after Rime and Spicy tucked them in they were asleep in moments.

  “This place,” Rime whispered, “is it safe here?”

  “For now, I can only hope so. I need to go back up to check on Fath.”

  Rime stayed behind.

  Marta must have gone straight up to the cave after delivering the children. Spicy found her washing Fath’s slumbering body. She had relit a few of the lamps snuffed out by the explosion. It appeared she had just started. The water ran pink from the sponge. She was humming.

  “Get out,” Spicy said.

  She was startled. “Our master is hurt. I need to clean his wounds.”

  “You don’t want to wake him. Leave the water and the sponge. He’s my master. I’ll take care of it. This is his room now. Leave.”

  She looked like she was about to protest, but instead she stood and offered a demure nod. With a final look at Mach’s corpse, she exited the chamber.

  Spicy examined the broken door. It would need to be repaired and there was no way to easily block it off without moving something heavy. And he was exhausted. He went to Fath.

  The dragon rattled with each breath. Spicy picked up the sponge and dabbed at Fath’s seeping wounds. The water in the bucket was dark red by the time he was halfway finished. There was no way to know if Fath would expire. His scalded face was puffy and raw.

  “I should kill you,” Fath said.

  Spicy took a step back.

  Fath remained still and exhaled slowly. “None of this would have happened but for your betrayal. Your ruse in finding the map. I could have navigated to the mountain myself and found my brother missing rather than stumbling upon him as we did.”

  “All I did was waste some of your time saving my friends.”

  The dragon’s breathing slowed and Spicy thought he might have slipped back to sleep. Then he coughed.

  “There is work here for us,” Fath said. “I must know how much was shared with the humans. I must discover what happened to the rest of my brethren.”

  “So…you’re not going to kill me.”

  “When my brother perceived I could no longer read, you helped me save face. My memory is not what it was. I need assistance and you will provide it. We will speak of my limitations no more. But I will require your eyes and your devoted attention.”

  Spicy nodded. “You’ll have it. But I have my own requests. You can give me orders and I’ll do my best to follow them. But you were willing to kill me when you thought I wasn’t going to help you. Right now you’re blind. And forgive me, but it seems your memory might be failing you. You have all this knowledge but might not even know what it all means anymore. I’ll be here to help you. But not as a slave. I’m your apprentice—a learner. I’ll serve you and let you teach me and care for you to the best of my ability. But I have my own needs, which includes making sure my friends are kept safe.”

  Fath let out a long sigh and had been clicking one of his claws as Spicy spoke. “Are you finished?”

  Spicy nodded, then realized Fath couldn’t see. “Yes.”

  “I made a mistake staying hidden for so long. Your sages cared for what I gave them while I held back more than I ever should have. But this knowledge should never have been released to the humans. The bombs are but a small portion of what our lore can produce. Mach has committed a grave sin in giving men access to this. Our task here is great. I will be asking much from you. If you wish to bow out…”

  Spicy waited.

  “Then I will let you leave,” Fath continued. “Take your friends and return home. I will make arrangements. These humans will render assistance.”

  “I’m staying. I’m going to help. That’s what an apprentice does. So where do we even start? What about your brother’s body? And all these books? If you want to keep it all out of the hands of the humans, we have to have a plan. Fath?”

  The dragon had gone back to sleep.

  The creature had offered him an honorable out. Take the children home. Wasn’t his obligation to his own kind first? But even if they made it to Boarhead, how long before more humans appeared? What if something in the dragon lore might serve goblinkind?

  He hadn’t been trained as a sage. Perhaps he had only wanted to become one because it would mean he could read and avoid so many of the menial chores around his village. But now he was a dragon’s apprentice. Did that make him the last sage? Had any survived? With Fath gone, what purpose would they even have among the goblins?

  Spicy sighed.

  He wasn’t a good hunter, either, nor was he a warrior or much of a fighter. Maybe his mother was right and he wasn’t fit for anything but the rice fields.

  Yet he was the one who had made it this far, and it was he alone that the dragon trusted.

  Rime and the children now looked to him for answers as well.

  He rubbed his nose. He didn’t want to think about any of it, at least not until tomorrow. The dragon snored. Spicy decided there was little to do for the moment but join him.

  Chapter Fifty-One

  The next morning, the dragon cave had a guard. Someone had lain down small blankets on the floor of the cave’s entrance. Marta knelt waiting as Spicy emerged.

  Even his bones ached. The sensation of still being on the water lingered. He could have slept next to the dragon for another week but for the worry he felt over Rime and the children. It had been foolish to leave them in the hut alone. He raced past Marta, who hurried to follow.

  “Our master,” she said. “I will tend to him now.”

  “Stay out of there. He gave instructions he doesn’t want to see anyone but me.”

  “Will he need food?”

  “Later.”

  Spicy went to the hut. Outside were set five baskets overflowing with fruits, breads, and bottles of milk and juice. The door wouldn’t budge. Spicy pushed at it and then threw himself against the wood. From the other side, Rime cried out in pain.

  “Rime, it’s me. Let me in.”

  A bleary-eyed Rime opened the door. The children were all asleep except for Dill. She had found a small wicker doll and was playing. When she saw him enter, she ran to him and gave him a hug. He kissed the top of her head.

  “I was sleeping against the door,” Rime said. “I thought at any minute the humans were going to come to take us again.”

  “Look outside.”

  Rime did a double take. Then he and Dill carried the baskets inside.

  “What does this mean?” Rime asked.

  “Things are different here. I think we’re safe. As safe as we can be until we can go home.”

  Rime sniffed a round loaf. “You don’t really believe that.”

  “Compared to everyplace else we’ve been? This isn’t so bad, is it?” />
  “What’s happening here?”

  “These people worship dragons. Fath killed theirs. He’s hurt pretty bad, but still alive. The humans have been collecting knowledge from Fath’s brother Mach—things Fath says they shouldn’t know.”

  Dill bit into an apple. The other children stirred. Soon all of them swarmed the baskets and began eating.

  Rime tore off a hunk of bread and chewed. “So what, then? This isn’t our problem. Let Fath do whatever he has to do. You have to help us make it back home.”

  “It’s not that easy,” Spicy said. “This all started because one human was looking for Fath. But it sounds like the dragon Mach was behind it all.”

  “But why kill so many goblins?”

  Spicy shrugged. “Because we were in the way, and Somni and the other sages wouldn’t share their secret. Lord told his men we had treasure to motivate them to follow him. Lord only had a handful of men with him. But now we see how many there are, and one day there will be more. With the dragon knowledge, they’ll only be stronger.”

  “I don’t like how you’re talking. You sound like you’re not going home.”

  “I can’t, Rime. Not yet. I want to help Fath. But then I want to find out what he and all his kind knows. Somni and all the other sages never shared any of the dragon secrets. They just helped keep them hidden. But if there’s a chance I might discover something that will protect our kind from the humans, it’s worth us staying here at least for a while.”

  “So says the hunter who can’t shoot straight.”

  Spicy flung an apple at him. The children were eating noisily. They were smiling, even sad-faced little Domino. His own stomach growled. He dug in.

  Marta knocked on the hut door. “Master Goblin, there’s someone to see you.”

  Spicy stepped outside and was confronted by a dozen of the pirates. Middle Finger stood at the front of the pack. There was not a smile among them and they carried weapons. Only a couple of villagers were nearby, with apprehension in their eyes.

  “Marta tells me you’re the one in charge now,” Middle Finger said.