King of the Goblins 2—Chapter 7

I led the group of goblin soldiers back to our yet-unnamed city. After a few minutes we caught up with the soldiers carrying the gnoll, and walked with them. Many of the soldiers spoke quietly on how strange it was that a gnoll spoke some of the goblin language, and that their king spoke gnoll fluently. That truly amazed them.

“Have any of you fought a troll before?” I asked them.

“I have,” one soldier said. He stepped up so he was walking next to me, on my left side. “Name’s Cort, Your Majesty.

“So, what can you tell me about fighting trolls?” I needed every advantage I could get.

He thought for a moment. “Well, it’s not really a fight we can win, at least out in the open. There were two of them. We had the luck of guarding a large foraging party when we saw them. Using long spears, we were able to drive them away. Especially when the women began pelting them with rocks. I think they just got annoyed with us, to be honest.”

“Great,” I said. “Well, at least we’ll be underground this time.”

The soldier nodded. “They won’t make it through the tunnel, Your Majesty. And if one of them dies in the tunnel, it’ll block it so the rest can’t pass.”

“Maybe that can be our plan,” I said. “If they try to attack us underground, I’ll just kill one of them in the tunnel to block it.”

“A good plan, Your Majesty,” he said.

“Yeah, until they drag his body out,” I said.

“Well, then we’ll just have to kill another one. They’ll get the point, eventually.” He chuckled.

“Ha. Very true. I think that tunnel will be our saving grace. Anyone attacking that has a death wish.” Even Althidon had once said that trying to attack through that tunnel was a quite route to failure.

I thought briefly about the trolls, specifically their size. They wouldn’t fit very well in the tunnel, so they would have to crouch or crawl. That would make them extremely vulnerable, but I had to remember how strong they were. They would probably have crazy thick armor on. 

Of course, that wouldn’t save them from my magic. Also, Silvy had once mentioned that she knew some troll magic. I made a mental note to ask her about that later.

“Do trolls wear armor?” I asked the soldier.

“Not very often,” Cort replied. “Most of the ones we see are just wandering around, probably looking for someone or something to eat. You’d be surprised at how quietly they can walk. They can sneak up on just about anything.”

“Interesting,” I said. “I’m going to assume the ones coming here are different, and will be wearing armor. Best to play it safe.”

“Now, an armored troll crawling through the tunnel, that would be interesting,” Cort said, frowning as he thought about it. “Especially if that armor’s too tough for spears. I suppose he could crawl all the way through and get inside the city that way.”

“Well, now we know what we need to prepare for,” I replied.

“How do we even prepare for that, though?” he asked.

“There are two ways to do it,” I explained. “First, we fight dirty. I’m a big fan of that. And second, I can just use blood magic on them and kill them right there, on the spot.”

We approached the entrance to the goblin city and the soldier standing there spoke up.

“Learn anything useful, Your Majesty?” he asked.

I shook my head. “Not really. We’re bringing him back to recover, so hopefully he can tell us what’s going on.”

The soldier frowned, but nodded. Goblins had little love for gnolls, but he trusted his king. I just hoped to continue making good decisions so I could keep that trust.

I looked behind me as we entered the tunnel. Two goblin soldiers were holding the gnoll between them. He was barely conscious, so I reached into his body with blood magic and tried to heal him a bit more. It was no use. His wound was too large, too serious for me to heal on the spot. 

Taranath had once taken an arrow in the gut and I healed that, but that had only been a hole the diameter of my pinky finger. This guy looked like he got stabbed with a spear that was then twisted and yanked out, pulling some guts with it. I mean, he was in bad shape. That was clearly too much for a single healing. 

We strode down the tunnel with me in front, the men carrying the gnoll behind, and the rest of the soldiers bringing up the rear. The tunnel was mostly empty other than us, and for that I was grateful. I didn’t feel like having to deal with goblin citizens panicking at the sight of a gnoll in their city. Which gave me an idea.

“Hey, one of you throw your cloak over him,” I said over my shoulder. “I don’t want people to see what we have with us.”

The soldiers quickly complied and one of them removed his cloak, then draped it over the gnoll. Now we just had to hurry, so he’d make it there alive.

“Hey, keep people from getting too close,” I said to Cort as we came to the end of the tunnel.

“Right away, Your Majesty,” he said. He stepped in front of me and set a quick pace. Any time someone came clear enough to see what we had, he yelled “Make way for the king!” in a commanding voice. That was enough to get the job done.

I needed to visit the hot springs. That thought occurred to me very briefly as we passed by. I tried to go daily, both to stay clean and because the mineral water seemed to be good for my skin and hair. Tonight, I’d go. Once all this was done.

“Make way for the king!” Cort called out again, and a group of goblins in front of us moved to the side. The men bowed and the women curtseyed. 

I acknowledged them all with a smile and wave. I felt kind of like a douche to have people bowing for me, but I had to remember that I was a king. That was something Silvy had drilled into my head in the first days after killing Ralcor: I needed to be on a pedestal. 

I wasn’t just a man, I was a concept. An idea. For me to rub elbows with commoners and drink and laugh with them—which was honestly what I wanted to do—simply wouldn’t do. People would see me as a person, not a king.

“But that’s what I want,” I had told Silvy.

“No, you don’t,” she said firmly. “People see you as a man, then they see you as fallible. Then they see you as replaceable. Be a god to them. Something impossible to comprehend. Wow them at every opportunity.”

“Welcome back, Your Majesty,” one of the guards said at the entrance to the tunnel to the Royal District.

I acknowledged his salute with a nod of my head and we continued up the long tunnel. Once we entered the Royal District, I directed the soldiers to put him in a cell in the jail.

“Make sure he’s at least somewhat comfortable,” I told them. “I know we aren’t fans of gnolls around here, but we need this guy to heal so we can get some information out of him. Got it?”

“Yes, Your Majesty,” they said as one, and all saluted.

“Alright, if there’s nothing else, I have some things I need to get back to,” I told them.

After that, I left and ran up the stairs to the throne room. I found it a rather interesting design; the throne room was the most prominent part of the palace, right out there in the open in the Royal District. The rest of the palace was behind it, carved into the mountain. Well, at least it made it easy to meet with people and talk with them. That was probably why it had been designed that way.

So of course the moment I crossed the throne room, the small door at the back opened and Kord came out. He hurried towards me, then bowed when he came near.

“Good evening, Your Majesty,” he said. “I wanted to ask you about our exploratory team for the new city. I heard there was another attack.”

“Yeah,” I said. “We brought one of the gnolls back so I could question him and maybe get some answers out of him.”

“You…speak their language?” he asked, his eyes wide.

“I speak every language,” I told him with a shrug.

“My. You truly were a gift from the gods, Your Majesty. Well, with news of this recent attack, I wanted to ask if you felt safe sending a team out.”

I thought for a moment. Most of the attacks and sightings had come from the east, whereas we were planning on going south for the new city. “I think we’ll be fine,” I said. “Take a squad of soldiers with you and have them bring spears. The attacks are happening to the east, so as long as you go south I think we’re okay. Plus they’ll have some women with them, so they’ll be fine.”

“Right, Your Majesty,” Kord said with another bow. “And I suppose if anything does happen, the women can simply set the gnolls on fire.”

“Exactly,” I said. “When are you sending the team out?”

“Tomorrow morning at first light,” he replied.

I reached out and clapped the small man on his shoulder. “You work quickly, Kord. I appreciate that.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty,” he said with a bow of his head. After that, the spindly old man hurried away. Knowing him, he probably had the exploratory team ready to go.

“Alright,” I said, clapping my hands and rubbing them together. 

Unfortunately this quick trip outside wound up taking several hours, but I was finally done. I was ready to go see my wives and pick up where we left off.

“Your Majesty,” said a middle-aged servant, bowing as she curtseyed so I could get a wonderful view down the front of her dress. She caught me looking and smiled.

I chuckled to myself as I walked away. I had no desire to do anything with any of these other women, but it was nice to look at times. Especially since Zia apparently had their uniforms altered just to give me a better view.

“Welcome back, Your Majesty,” said Alena, my personal maid, as I approached my bedchambers. She curtseyed low as I walked up to her.

She was a younger goblin woman, attractive as they all were. The front of her dress was not only cut low, but she had tugged it down some and hoisted her large breasts so that they practically spilled out. Honestly, I wasn’t sure how her dress even held them in. Had someone invented double-sided tape when I wasn’t looking?

“Thanks,” I said to her. The fantastic view of her massive breasts helped put me in the right mood. I grabbed the door and pushed it open, ready to please my wives.

And I found them all asleep on the bed, still naked. Silvy was curled up in Leena’s arms, with Tressi and Zia on either side of them. The whole room smelled like sex.

I stepped quietly across the room to the wardrobe and began undressing. It looked like they had quite the time while I was gone. I didn’t feel any sadness at having missed out; there was always tomorrow, after all. Besides, it was good to know my wives were happy. 

Once I had gotten undressed, I padded over to the bed and pulled the sheet back. I slipped under the covers and pulled Tressi over to me. She mumbled something in her sleep and threw an arm around me.

With a smile on my face, I went right to sleep.