by J. P. Rice
“We need to move. Now,” I said, tapping the Morrigan on the hip.
We hustled down the hillside as a shrill voice cut through the air. “Stop.”
Chapter 17
We stopped. I peered up and saw the Goblin Queen walking down the enormous staircase of the castle that connected to the courtyard. She had an enormous goblin guard on each side and as they hit the bottom, the queen emerged by herself.
What a hideous mess! My first impression of the Goblin Queen was that someone had switched her with a strung-out rocker from the 80s. Her hair was an incredible combination of a hairspray fro and mullet with bangs. Like a female David Bowie. Her face had so much makeup caked onto it, her natural features were almost unrecognizable from this distance.
Yikes. The clowns at the carnival had better makeup artists. Dressed in a glimmering emerald gown, she stepped forward, strutting awkwardly because of her red high heels.
“Fookin’ Carl,” I mumbled.
“What’s that, now?” Titania asked.
I kept my eyes on the Goblin Queen. “Nothing. Just a saying from this book series that I love.”
Titania shrugged it off.
“Where did you find him?” the queen’s sonorous voice rang out, dancing around the courtyard and rushing up the hillside to hit our ears.
“Up in area twenty-three.” The goblin covered his mouth with the back of his hand and looked away, embarrassed. “Caught him with his pants down,” the guard said and sniggered.
“Why would a werewolf invade my land? Wolf, what were you thinking?” the queen asked and bounced up and down as she pranced up to Justinian, her heels clicking in a strange staccato pattern.
He stared down at the queen, and said, “Just wanted to steal your riches.”
“How did you get inside here?” she asked, circling the barrel.
Justinian didn’t spin around to follow the queen. He stood still, and his head barely moved when he spoke, “Through the swamp. It’s not as bad as the rumors make it out to be.”
The Goblin Queen stopped and raised her voice, “You speak with false confidence. It is a sign of fear. There isn’t a chance you went through the swamp. Tell your tale. Now.”
His lips smashed together and then his mouth and nose trembled. I thought he was about to break.
“I. Went. Through. The. Swamp,” Justinian said defiantly with his head held high.
Wow. I couldn’t believe he was holding up under the pressure. Initially, I hadn’t wanted the queen to come out, but now we could accomplish all our goals. I could see the dagger on the hip of the giant goblin, the Goblin Queen was only a few feet away and we could rescue Justinian in the process.
Everything was falling into place.
“Let’s hang him,” screamed the giant goblin as he drew back the club, trying to play to the crowd.
The queen yelled, “Wait.” Her guard stopped but still had the club cocked back. She continued, “Why don’t we have some fun with this? I have an idea. Why don’t we throw him in the swamp and see what kills him first? We can bet on it and we’ll find out if this wolf is lying about his adventures in the swamp.”
The audience grumbled for a moment until the queen spun around and silenced them without speaking a word. She turned and almost fell, grabbing onto the huge bicep of her trusty guard. The man cupped his hand around her elbow and his other hand landed on the small of her back. The queen clutched his forearm and pulled herself straight. Then she marched toward the castle steps.
I watched the goblins reluctantly untie the noose from around Justinian’s neck and help him down from the barrel. Walking behind him, they prodded him over to a big wooden pen near the base of the castle steps. The goblin shoved him in and slammed the door shut, quickly locking it.
What kind of rotten weasel would kidnap a good guy like Justinian? Oh, yeah. Whoospie.
That was close. We’d almost unleashed some magical mayhem on the goblins. Now we had to shift gears and figure out how to get the dagger and free Justinian. And we only had until tomorrow.
As the crowd dispersed, I made eye contact with the Morrigan and gestured with my head to make our way back up the hill. I gave Titania a light tap on her abdomen and she turned on me, ready to fight the world. Fortunately, she didn’t scream.
We hiked up the hillside and went to the tree with the branch that led to the castle.
“Well, this certainly went sideways fast. Do we really need the wolf? I know you want to save him, but I think we should focus on the dagger. That friendship stuff only complicates things. Think about how many people will die because of the death cards while we waste time trying to save him.”
How dare that cold-hearted bitch. I spoke angrily, “His name is Justinian. And I brought him here, so yes, I feel an obligation to save him. If you want to grab Gareth and leave, that’s your choice.”
“I’ll stay and fight ‘til the end,” Titania announced.
I turned to the dragonfly. “You don’t have to stay either. I got Justinian into this mess, so I’d understand if you didn’t want to take part in it.”
Titania’s compound eyes were hard to read, but I could see her questioning my words. “But...but...we’re a team. I should hate the wolf more than anyone. He was trying to kidnap me and use me as bait to manipulate you. But now that he’s part of the team, I can’t leave him behind.” The raw emotionality expressed in her words told me how desperate Titania was to be part of a something, anything. She’d lost her friends and family because of me. Yet she remained completely loyal to me, perhaps blind to the past because of our budding friendship.
“I appreciate that,” I said, staring at the Morrigan. I turned back to Titania. “As for a plan, I don’t have any ideas. What are you thinking?”
The dragonfly said, “There are still guards around Justinian’s cage. We’ll need to cause a distraction to get them away from there. Then, I could sneak in and help him escape.”
“We still have the dagger to worry about. How can we get that too?” I asked and slipped on the soft soil.
“I can go and do some more research. I’ll try to find out where the giant goblin’s quarters are. Why don’t you two try to come up with a distraction we could use to help bust out Justinian?” Titania asked.
Titania stole off across the shaded forest and made a beeline for the castle.
I turned to Mo. “Any ideas?”
“Distractions are easy. I could set off a firework display around the castle. While everyone is in awe, we can snag the knife and you can help the kid if you want,” offered the Morrigan.
“What if we didn’t cause a distraction?” I said, raising my eyebrows.
“I’m listening.”
“If Titania can figure out where the dagger is, we might be able to have her steal it from him and get it out of the castle. Then I could easily overtake a few guards to get Justinian out and meet you back at the tunnel.” I felt a boost of confidence from the idea.
“So you aren’t worried about killing the queen anymore?” asked the Morrigan.
“Oh, shit. I forgot about that part.” Doing the right thing was difficult, although I’d never admit that to Mo. The dark blood inside me loved to cause mayhem, but not at the risk of self-preservation.
“Think about it for a minute. Decide whether it’s the hill you want to die on,” she said and turned away.
I would die eventually. But what would my legacy be? If I laid down my life to free the citizens from living in constant fear, it would surely be worth it. Right? Tales would be told, and songs would be sung in my honor.
The village I was raised in was located more than a hundred miles away from the swamp, but the elves and dwarves lived in constant fear of the Goblin Queen and her minions. I wanted to change that. No. I had to change that. With help or by myself.
Titania returned and took a few moments to get her breathing under control. “I found out.” She stopped again and held her little hand up. “I found out that her changing room
doesn’t have any jewels or gold in it. It’s just dresses. Nice dresses on rolling racks spread out around the room.”
“Hmm. What if we negotiated with her?” suggested the Morrigan. “She likely has no use for Gareth. I’m guessing the people behind this paid her handsomely in gold. But she has no reason to hold onto it.”
“But we’re on her turf. That gives her little reason to negotiate,” I argued. “And then we would be at their mercy, more or less. Depending on mercy from the queen and her crew doesn’t sound wise. I’m sure that dwarf begged for mercy.”
We went back and forth, trying to develop a solid plan for another hour or so. Crash the castle with Titania, who would steal the knife. Then we would help Justinian escape and get the hell out of dodge. Oh, and I had to kill the Goblin Queen somehow.
The final strategy was simple. Execution would be a real bitch.
Chapter 18
I jumped from the tree branch onto the stone balcony where the Morrigan was waiting with Titania. The morning sunlight was unsuccessfully attempting to break through the camouflage cover above. I retraced the path along the tree branch in my head in case we needed to hustle ass out of here.
We tiptoed up to the castle, and I peered through a window covered with a thin curtain. Only darkness met my eyes. Considering it was a changing room, no lights indicated an empty room.
The Morrigan pushed against the arched wooden door and it creaked open. She poked her head inside and gave a thumbs up, then motioned for us to follow her. Entering the dark room, I called fire to my fingertips.
Once inside, I noticed that it looked like an expensive dress store. There were racks and racks of dresses and gowns hanging on silver rods attached to wheels. The beautiful designs and craftsmanship made me wonder. Which goblin was the talented seamstress?
The mobile racks were arranged haphazardly around the room with dressers and tables against the walls. I still wasn’t sure the goblins and their queen would be all that upset over us stealing Gareth. The dagger served no purpose for the queen. A mysterious group had paid her to protect it, but it wasn’t one of her prized possessions.
Titania took a few deep breaths and said, “I’m going in. If I’m not back in a few minutes, we might have problems.” She tugged on the collar of her special shirt, straightened herself out, and flew over to the door.
I followed her over and pried the door open just a crack so she could get out. With no jewels in the room, there were no guards outside the door in the hallway.
My chest buzzed with anticipation as I waited for Titania. We planned to snag the dagger, go free Justinian, and when the Goblin Queen emerged from the castle, I had a special sneak attack up my sleeve for her.
The Morrigan would cause a distraction to steal the queen’s attention, and I would launch the main attack. The plan hit on all our needs.
I bounced on my tiptoes and wondered how long ago Titania had left. Patience was never my strong suit, and five hundred years of sexual frustration only exacerbated the problem. The Morrigan leafed through the dresses and I wracked my brain wondering if the Goddess had ever worn a dress or gown before. If so, I’d never seen it.
I lingered near the door, stretching my neck to look out the little crack that was just wide enough for a dragonfly with a dagger to get through. It seemed like a few minutes had already passed and I paced, trying to calm myself down.
A gleam of silver caught my attention, and I turned naturally toward the opening in the door. The blade of a dagger grew larger as Titania pushed it through the crack in the door. I sighed in relief. All right, part one was complete.
As Titania entered the room, an echoing scream came from down the hall, “Stop. Thief.” A high-pitched whistle followed, and I knew we had to act quickly as electricity surged from above. A chandelier flashed on, illuminating the room. How did they have electricity here?
The Morrigan grabbed the dagger from Titania and sheathed it along her beltline. We scrambled around, pushing the racks of clothes out of our way to get out onto the balcony, and in that brief period of wasted time, goblins as tall as me flooded the room. The quick bastards knew the room better and tracked us down near the exit.
I couldn’t see her, but I said, “Titania. Go see if you can get Justinian out.”
“You got it,” her voice sounded from above.
I saw Titania fly toward the balcony door, staying near the ceiling to avoid the goblins. I tried to escape, but someone grabbed my shoulder and dragged me back into the room. My magic was still well under the surface because I hadn’t thought I would need it until later. Stupid.
Using the heat in my fingers, I developed my hands into torches, holding rippling flames. I swung my hands around, chasing away the goblins. They were wary of the fire, studying me and trying to figure out an attack as they backed away carefully.
I peered to my left as fire sprang from the Morrigan’s right hand, engulfing one goblin in flames. The smell of burning goblin flesh and hemp filled the room. Mo booted the flaming green creature into a group of goblins who scrambled to avoid the fire. Instead of helping put out the flames, they simply pushed him away.
“Let’s get out of here, now,” I told the Morrigan, and we turned for the balcony.
A barricade in the form of six goblins stood in front of the exit. I called on a fireball to make these fools scatter. As soon as the orange ball appeared in my right hand, I wound up and snapped my hand forward.
As the fireball left my hand, an arctic chill ran through my body. I watched the flaming streaks from the fireball freeze to ice, turning my attack into an oddly formed icicle suspended in mid-air.
I went to turn and find out what had happened, but my body was frozen in place. The Morrigan appeared to be frozen too since I didn’t hear any mayhem. An evil laugh filled the frosty air, drowned out occasionally by the raucous cheering of the goblins.
The goblins in front of me slapped at me, their claws chipping away at the solid ice surrounding me. It wasn’t just ice. It held some form of magic. I couldn’t get my insides hot enough to melt the ice. The queen had rendered my inner dragon useless. I assumed the Morrigan was having the same problem.
People could ask, “How could the Morrigan, the Goddess of Death, end up like that?”
Most people thought that Gods were all-knowing so how could they ever die or find themselves in a compromised position? A situation like this. The plan had gone awry, and when dealing with powerful magic practitioners, anything could happen.
I’d almost died a countless number of times, and so had the Morrigan. Because the queen had taken us by surprise, the Morrigan was vulnerable to the sneak attack. And there were plenty of immortals out there who could take out a God or Goddess. My bout with Hera was a prime example of that.
The tall goblins scattered and from behind a rack of dresses, the queen appeared.
Up close, the queen’s shortcomings couldn’t be covered with makeup, although she tried her best. She had smeared lipstick around her mouth almost touching her nose, and her eyeshadow drooped down to her rouge-plastered pale cheeks. Her ghostly skin was cracking like dried earth and the extreme makeover wasn’t working.
I wondered how this could happen when a theory popped into my head. With a gang of sycophantic demons surrounding her, no one had ever told her she looked hideous. So the queen kept gradually applying more and more makeup until she’d become the sloppy clown standing in front of me.
“They told me you would come,” she stated in a deep, elegant tone. She turned over her shoulder, peering at the open door of the balcony. “What I want to know, is how? I’m going to unfreeze your lips and the first one to tell me wins a prize.”
The Goblin Queen walked up to me and removed her black glove. She rubbed the index and middle finger of her ghostly right hand over the ice on my lips. I felt the liquid run over my lips, which started working out the numbness.
The queen went over to the Morrigan and repeated the process. She backed up a few feet a
nd crossed her arms over her chest. “So. Who would like the prize?”
I knew time was my friend and enemy right now. My inner dragon couldn’t wake up and freezing to death seemed like a real possibility, but I held out hope that the Morrigan or I could figure something out.
“What’s the prize?” I asked, trying to stall.
“One of you might not be eaten by my little helpers here.” She grinned, her brown incisors growing into fangs and peeking out of her dark lips.
I had a pretty good feeling she would be in on that feast too. “That’s a good prize. What do you think, Mo? Should we fight about it?” I asked, peeking out of my peripheral vision.
The glacial statue in the form of the Morrigan replied, “It is quite the reward. We could bare knuckle box over it. Dublin rules, of course.”
“Of course. Like there are any other rules. Psshh,” I rambled on with the Morrigan.
The queen rumbled, “That’ll be enough of you two blackbirds.”
“See, I told you,” the Morrigan teased.
“Silence,” screamed the Goblin Queen.
A sudden constrictive force stalled my thoughts, the frost starting to overtake my brain. I assumed the magic in the ice was taking effect. The Goblin Queen was talking, but as she paced in front of me, I saw it as stop motion with the sound going in and out. Her emerald dress kept changing colors. I dizzied, and if I hadn’t been frozen in place, I would have fallen on my face.
The queen’s voice modulated into a feral growl, speeding up my heartbeat. A rush of adrenaline shifted my vision back to normal. The goblins rushed toward the balcony door, but a sudden force knocked them backward causing them to fall over themselves. What the hell was going on?
A blur of brown fur emerged from the fallen goblins, and with the speed of lightning, struck at the queen. A hirsute fist lashed out, blasting the queen on the right cheek and sending her crashing into a dresser. The queen and the chest of drawers fell, spilling lacy undergarments onto the stone floor.