Beast & Crown

by Joel Ross

  “We can’t depend on goblins,” Roz rumbled. “The last time we appealed to them for help, they betrayed us.”

  “The last time,” Ji said, “we were human.”

  “Good point.” She scratched her horn inside her hood. “Perhaps they’ll more happily come to the aid of nonhumans.”

  “The soldiers won’t stop searching for us, though,” Sally growled. “They’ll know we’re still inside the walls.”

  “She’s right,” Roz said. “Eventually, they’ll check the goblin burrows.”

  Ji jumped down from the stone pile. “Not if they think we’re gone.”

  “What are you going to do?” Sally asked.

  “Cheat,” he told her.

  He grabbed a big round stone in both hands. He grunted with effort, waddled toward Roz, and dropped it at her feet.

  She picked it up one-handed. “And what shall I do with this?”

  “The nearest watchtower is a hundred yards that way.” Ji pointed toward the wall. “How’s your throwing arm?”

  “Oh, of course!” Roz said. “Shall I aim for the searchlights?”

  “Yeah, take out the lanterns,” he said.

  Roz stepped closer to the hedge and eyed the distant tower. She tossed the stone in her hand, took two steps backward . . . then paused. “Privacy, if you please.”

  “Oh, right.” Ji nodded. “C’mon everyone, other side of the tree.”

  “I don’t mind Sally and Chibo,” Roz said. “Or Nin, of course.”

  “What?” Ji gaped at her. “Just me?”

  Roz gave him a governess-y look. “Would you like me to throw rocks or not?”

  “Fine,” Ji grumbled, and scuffed to the other side of the tree.

  He couldn’t even see the watchtower from there. Stupid privacy. And why just him? Well, maybe because Chibo was just a kid, Sally was a girl, and Nin was an ogre. But still. He picked bark from the tree and heard Roz throw the stone. Then nothing. She must’ve missed. The stone pile clicked as she grabbed another rock.

  “Aim this time,” he told her.

  “Hush,” she said.

  Chibo came around the tree. “I can’t see anyway. But if Roz misses, I can always fly over and drop rocks onto—”

  A shout erupted from the wall.

  “Direct hit!” Sally growled. “One more lantern, Roz.”

  A trumpet sounded at the watchtower. Another trumpet answered from farther along the wall, and horses galloped in the darkness. Roz threw another rock and must’ve hit the second lantern, because she laughed in triumph.

  “The soldiers are hopping around like fleas on a cricket,” Sally purred. “They think we’re attacking, or escaping, or something-ing.”

  “What now, Ji?” Roz asked.

  “Get a few more rocks,” Ji said, “and throw them over the wall. So they’ll think we’re on the other side. Not yet, though.”

  The trumpet sounded again as the soldiers marched and shouted. After a cavalry troop passed, Roz asked, “Now?”

  “Not yet.”

  Ji closed his eyes and imagined the guards standing in the dark, confused and nervous, scanning the shadows for strange beasts. He imagined them clasping their weapons nervously, deafened by the blare of trumpets.

  “We can’t stay here much longer,” Roz said.

  “You also can’t rush a good lie.” Ji waited a minute, then said, “Now! Lob one over the wall.”

  Roz threw a stone. “Consider it lobbed.”

  “Is anything happening, Sal?” Ji asked, looking into the tree overhead.

  “Lots,” she said from the branches. “But nothing new.”

  “Throw two more.” He waited while Roz hurled two stones. “Now two more.”

  “Still nothing new,” Sally reported. “They’re just—” A creak sounded in the night. “They’re opening the gate! They think we’re outside the wall!”

  And that is why they call him Sneakyji, Nin said.

  “Nobody calls him Sneakyji except you,” Chibo said.

  “Whenever it’s safe,” Ji told Sally, “take us to the goblins.”

  She scanned for guards, then prowled into the darkness like a tiger cub on the warpath. Ji took Chibo’s elbow and followed, trying not to flinch at the soldiers shouting in the distance.

  Past the hedge, Sally loped toward a stone bridge that linked the servants’ quarters and the stables. Halfway there, she raised a hand—well, a paw—and stopped. A breeze rustled the trees, and Roz set the urn onto the stone path with a clunk.

  “Shh!” Sally said.

  “Sorry,” Roz whispered.

  Sally sniffed the air. “This way.”

  She veered off the path, slunk between red-barked bushes, then slipped into the wide arch beneath the bridge. Without the moons-light, the darkness turned inky black. A stony grinding sounded, and the syrupy scent was thick in the air.

  “A little light?” Ji whispered to Chibo.

  Chibo’s wings slid from beneath his backpack and glowed a soft emerald. The first thing Ji saw was a wrought-iron gate, wide open in the stone wall. The second was two goblins squatting over a clay bowl, grinding the contents with their fists.

  “What a lovely evening,” Roz rumbled to the goblins. “We’re so pleased to meet Kultultul in the city!”

  The goblins bared their teeth. “We are ka-honored to meet you,” one said, then peered from Roz to Sally to Chibo. “Whatever you may be.”

  “I, um, I am Miss Rozario Songarza.”

  “I’m Chibo. I have wings.”

  “What he means is ‘pleased to meet you,’” Ji said.

  “Oh, right!” Chibo said. “Very pleased!”

  “We’re hoping,” Roz said, “that you can spare a moment to chat.”

  The smaller goblin took its hands from the bowl. “There is a ka-risis in the palace tonight?”

  “A crisis?” Roz said. “Well, erm . . . “

  “Aka-tually,” Ji said, “that’s why we’re here. We need to hide from the ka-risis.”

  The other goblin hunched toward Ji. “You are not human.”

  “Not exactly, no,” Ji agreed, and bared his teeth politely.

  “The humans are hunting you,” the first goblin said.

  “Yeah,” Ji said.

  “They are ka-illers. If we help you, they will ka-ill us.”

  “Only if they find out,” Ji said.

  “We are affiliated with the—” Roz made a sound like a boulder clearing its throat. “If that helps?”

  “What?” Ji blinked at her. “Huh?”

  That is how you say “ogre” in Ogrish, Nin said. It means “the People.”

  The goblin chuffed and its belly-arms waved them toward the gate. “Please, step inside! Ka-reful of your horn, Miss Ka-zario.”

  Roz thanked the goblin and lumbered toward the burrow, ducking her head at the entrance. “Very kind,” she said. “I’ve always found Kultultul to be excellent hosts. . . .”

  “How does Roz know the word for ogre?” Ji asked Sally, taking Chibo’s arm.

  “Nin told her while you were snaffling the cloaks.”

  Chibo squinted. “So ‘goblin’ means ‘people’ and ‘ogre’ also means ‘people’?”

  “And ‘sprite,’ too, I bet,” Sally growled.

  “No,” Chibo said as they entered the burrow. “‘Sprite’ means ‘flying people.’”

  Torches flickered on the walls of an earthen hall, illuminating nooks filled with heaps of bark and soap and beetle wings. A honeycomb glistened in one goblin shrine, and Ji caught sight of knotted bootlaces in another.

  “Sheesh,” Chibo said, his wings glowing brighter. “I can’t see in here even more than I can’t see out there.”

  “At least we’re safe for now,” Ji said.

  Sally nudged him. “Except we’re surrounded by goblins.”

  He followed her big-eyed gaze and saw a dozen goblins hunching toward them from deeper in the burrow. The light glinted on their pale, wrinkly skin, and the shovel-c
laws at the end of their muscular shoulder-arms looked like weapons.

  Ji gulped, but Roz simply lumbered forward, spouting polite greetings and flowery compliments. Ji moved to join her—then paused. “Maybe we should let Roz handle the politeness.”

  “I’m totally polite!” Chibo said.

  “For a bratty little brother,” Sally said.

  One of Chibo’s wings flicked at Sally.

  “Whoa!” she said, ducking beneath the shimmering green light. “You almost got me.”

  “I can sort of feel my way around with my wings,” he said, making them shrink and grow and curve and sparkle.

  The green light shone on fire pits and log benches, and Nin said, Just like the oldgood days, Sneakyji.

  “What?”

  When we thought you were the cutemost thing we ever peeked, Nin explained. But you’re not a doorbell compared to Sallynx.

  “I’m not a doorbell!” Sally snarled, brushing an ant lion with her tail.

  The ant lion gave a tiny roar. Prettysweet, buttersoft, and toothless!

  “Wait,” Ji said, as a memory sparked. He stared at the ant lions riding on Chibo’s backpack. “‘Buttersoft and toothless?’ I’ve heard that before. What do you mean, just like the olddays?”

  When we first peeked you, sleepylittle above the bone crypt. In goblin pen.

  Ji’s breath caught. “That was real? That was you at Primstone? That wasn’t a dream? You were there?”

  The ant lions shook their manes in what looked like insectile amusement. You thought we were a dream?

  “No way! What were you doing at Primstone?”

  Traveling to city from mountains, of course, Nin said as the ant lions scurried higher on the backpack. Through burrowtunnels.

  Ji rubbed his stinging eyes. “Ogres travel in goblin tunnels? Don’t the goblins get mad?”

  We work together, Nin said. For years now.

  “Jiyong!” Roz rumbled, hurrying toward them. “We need to hide!”

  “Hide?” Chibo asked, peering nearsightedly at her. “Why?”

  “Now!” she snapped.

  “Ka-wickly!” The goblins woofled, and a dozen belly-arms pointed toward a side tunnel. “Into that ka-vern!”

  34

  ROZ HEFTED THE urn and trotted into the shadows. Sally grabbed Chibo’s hand and followed, while Ji slunk along more slowly, watching the goblins bustle toward the gate, their freaky knees bobbling. He didn’t trust them. For one thing, they ate humans. And for another thing . . . well, one was enough. You couldn’t trust people who found you delicious.

  “Nin,” he whispered to an ant lion on his shoulder, “tell everyone to get ready just in case we—”

  The wrought-iron gate slammed shut with a clang. The sound echoed in the burrow and the goblins knelt, belly-arms folded and heads bowed. A chain rattled outside, and Ji caught a glimpse of human soldiers beyond the gate before he slipped into the side tunnel.

  “Tell the captain we secured the gobs,” a woman’s voice rasped from outside.

  Another soldier murmured a question.

  “Nah, they won’t make trouble,” the raspy woman answered. “Even if they tried, we’re stationed here until they catch the monsters.”

  In the side tunnel, Ji sagged against a cool stone wall. “We’re locked in.”

  “Catching them isn’t our job,” the woman rasped. “From what I hear, the queen’s working some kind of magic.”

  “Great,” Sally growled. “Magic.”

  The soldiers’ voices grew fainter, and Ji wanted to cry. Attacked by a water tree? Fine. Transformed into beasts? Sure. Surrounded by soldiers? Check. Hunted by the Summer Queen? Right. But now they were locked inside another goblin pen, all over again? It was all too much. He couldn’t handle it. He was hungry and tired, and he just wanted to be left alone.

  Then Chibo sniffled, and Sally said, “Don’t worry. Ji will think of something.”

  So Ji rubbed his eyes and took a steadying breath. He peeked from the side tunnel toward the motionless goblins near the entrance. A bonfire burned outside the locked gate, which meant the soldiers were settling in for the night. Ji looked into the darkness of the side tunnel but couldn’t see anything. Certainly not another way out.

  “Give us some wing, Chibo,” he said, and green light brushed the tunnel walls. “Oh, that’s better.”

  “Maybe for you,” Chibo grumbled. “I still can’t see.”

  “There are soldiers outside,” Sally told him, “and the goblins are all in front of the gate. Why are they just staying there?”

  “The soldiers must have ordered them to stay put,” Roz said. “We need another exit.”

  Ji looked down the tunnel, then turned to an ant lion crawling along Sally’s leather bracelet. “So ogres and goblins are friends, right? Maybe they’ll show us a way out.”

  “Ogres and goblins are enemies,” Roz told him. “At least they used to be, according to Ti-Lin-Su.”

  “You’re the one who told them we’re affiliated with ogres!”

  “That was a risk,” she said. “Still, I thought they might help, because at least we’re not . . . human.”

  Goblins and ogres aren’t enemies anymore. Well, we’re still enemies, but working together. A few ant lions marched to the tip of a papaya leaf sprouting from the urn. Goblins burrowed to help us get closer to the evilqueen.

  Roz’s granite-flecked brow furrowed. “You mean the goblins dig tunnels for the ogres?”

  “Of course!” Ji gave a low whistle when he realized what was happening. “That’s why you were at Primstone Manor!”

  “Who was?” Roz asked. “Nin?”

  “Yeah, I saw him—cub—them in the goblin pen that night. I thought it was a dream.”

  “So the goblins and the ogres are working together?”

  “Yeah.” Jin looked at the urn. “Did the goblins tunnel under every single hacienda from here to the mountains?”

  The ant lions waved their antennae. They dug one long burrow, from the mountain to the city.

  “That explains why you saw eighteen goblins at Primstone,” Roz rumbled to Ji, “instead of twelve. Because the goblin burrows are all connected! But why?”

  “Tell her,” Ji said to the urn.

  For a surprise ogre attack on the city.

  “For an invasion . . .” Ji nodded to himself as everything became clear. “The extra goblins were digging extra tunnels to secretly bring the ogres to the city.”

  “That’s why Nin wanted to know about the Rite,” Roz said slowly. “Because the ogres can’t invade until the queen is weak.”

  Have to attack after the Rite, Nin agreed. Or the clayfighters will kill us all.

  “The clayfighters?” Chibo said. “You mean the terra-cotta soldiers?”

  We have a few moons before the evilqueen is strong again. She can’t do magic so soon after the Rite! At least, that’s what we thought, but now—

  “Forget about the stupid invasion!” Ji interrupted. “These tunnels crisscross the realm, right? That’s perfect. We can stroll out of the city and pop up anywhere!”

  “We still need Ti-Lin-Su,” Roz said. “To explain how to turn human again.”

  “She can wait,” Ji told her.

  “How would you know?” Roz demanded. “What if we wait too long and this horrid transformation becomes permanent?”

  We can’t uppop anywhere. One of Nin’s ant lions peeped at Ji from the edge of Roz’s hood. These tunnels don’t reach the others.

  Ji groaned. “What do you mean? These tunnels don’t lead out of the palace, farther into the city?”

  Not yet! Not past the outer walls. Not ready for invasion yet. Another few weeks, and then ogres uppop inside Forbidden Palace and—

  “Okay, we need another exit. Can we ask the goblins for directions?”

  “That strikes me as unwise,” Roz said. “At least while the guards are watching.”

  Ji drummed his fingers against the rough-hewn wall. Two ant lions crawled
from his collar onto his neck, then tickled his cheek with their manes. He thought for a minute. And another. Then he said, “Okay. The goblins at the gate are all wearing collars, right? Can you see them, Sal?”

  “Yeah,” Sally growled, her tail lashing beneath her poncho. “They all have collars.”

  “And if there are extra goblins in the Primstone burrow,” Ji said, “there must be extra goblins in the Forbidden Palace burrow. Right?”

  “No,” Roz said. “Because this burrow doesn’t connect to the outside tunnels.”

  Burrows always have extra goblins, Nin said. They don’t tell the humans about all the gobbabies they have.

  “Good!” Ji said, exhaling in relief. “So we just have to find the extra goblins and—”

  “—they’ll lead us outside!” Chibo finished, his wings spreading.

  “That’s the plan.” Ji turned to Sally. “Can you follow the sugary smell to the rest of the goblins?”

  “Sure,” she said, her ears flattened against her head.

  “Are you okay?” he asked.

  “Mm,” she growled.

  “Let’s go!” Chibo said, and marched into the darkness, his wings flicking against the tunnel walls.

  Sally leaped forward to steer him around a rock while Roz followed with the urn, her toes sticking through her torn slippers.

  “Could you not walk on my face?” Ji asked Nin, following behind.

  The ant lion on his cheek crawled into his hair.

  “Oh, that’s much better,” he said.

  After heading downward, Sally paused at an intersection and lifted her snout. She sniffed a few times, so Ji sniffed too. Smelled like the kitchen at Primstone when Cook made plum jam. His stomach rumbled and he looked from one green-tinted tunnel entry to another.

  Sally prowled along a new tunnel, then spun and stared at Ji like an angry chipmunk. “We have to stop this.”

  “What?” Ji frowned at her. “Stop what?”

  “This invasion, the ogre invasion.”

  “No, we don’t. We just have to run away and become human again.”

  Should help the ogrevasion and stop the evilqueen, Nin said. Not stop the ogrevasion and help the evilqueen.

  “I am no longer entirely fond of Her Majesty,” Roz said. “However, I agree with Sally. A battle will flatten the city.”