King of the Goblins—Chapter 41

The downside of carrying the shield and spear around was that I couldn’t hold their hands. It was a small thing, but I really wanted to do that. Soon, I reminded myself.

I helped them forage for another hour, and they were grateful for my height. I was able to reach things that other goblins had passed by numerous times.

“I think Silvy will be happy with what we got today,” Tressi said, looking in her foraging sack. “Lots of berries. I hope she makes jam. That’s what I’m going to do with my share.”

“How does that work, by the way?” I asked.

“Jam? Well, first you take the berries and you—”

“No, I mean you foraging for Silvy,” I said to clarify.

“Oh. Well, after a few hours of training we come out here for food. Whatever we find, Silvy gets half. That’s her price for teaching us.” Tressi shrugged. “It’s a fair deal. She’s the only goblin right now that can even teach us, so we’re willing to do whatever it takes to learn.”

Zia nodded in agreement. “We’re still just grateful she agreed to teach us at all.”

“Same,” I said. “I wouldn’t be able to do this without you.”

“What about your elven friend, though?” Zia asked.

“Taranath? I mean, he’s great with a bow, but I need more help than just that. I’ll probably have to cut my way through a hundred goblin soldiers just to get to Ralcor.” I winced after saying that. Overthrowing a king was not easy work, or peaceful. I reminded myself that their future would be peaceful. I just had to secure the throne for myself first.

“You know what I can’t wait for?” Tressi said, a big smile on her face.

“What?” I asked, looking down at her.

“Our wedding night,” she said. “I’m really excited to finally give myself to you.”

I wanted to hug her for that, but with the shield and spear in my hands that would be awkward. I favored her with a smile instead.

“What’s your plan to sneak inside today?” Zia asked.

“Well, my first thought is to wait a little bit,” I said. “I keep trying to enter the city when the sun is still overhead. If we just wait a couple hours, the sun will go behind the mountain, which should be enough for the shadow stone to work. Especially if you two just talk to the guards, maybe I can slip behind them.”

“At least that part is easy,” Tressi said. “Just ask them to describe how they’re protecting us all and they practically trip over themselves trying to impress us.”

“Although we’ve done that before, so we’ll have to think of something new to say to them,” Zia added. 

We took our time in the forest, walking slowly and talking. Tressi and Zia told me about their families, which was nice. They both seemed to come from good, healthy households. That boded well for our future. All in all, they were very well-adjusted women.

As the sun began its downward journey, we slowly moved towards the entrance to the goblin city. After a time the sun went behind the mountain, plunging the mouth of the tunnel in shadow. It wasn’t late in the day—I guessed maybe around five in the afternoon—but the position of the mountain was perfect for this.

“I’ll be on that side,” I said, pointing to the right of the tunnel. “I won’t do anything weird, this time.”

“Like making the guard piss himself?” Zia asked, grinning broadly.

“Yeah, I’m going to play it safe today,” I said. “Once they move to talk to you two, I’ll slip behind them and enter the tunnel. I’ll be waiting for you in there.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Tressi said.

I slipped the shadow stone in my mouth and crouched behind a bush as Zia and Tressi casually approached the two guards. Thirty feet to the right of the tunnel, I hurried across the clearing between the face of the mountain and the forest. Fortunately, the guards had their eyes on the women, so I was safe.

I crept along the cliff-like wall, closer to the entrance to the tunnel. Zia and Tressi walked up to the guards and asked them something. The guard they spoke to rubbed his chin, then pointed off in the distance. I moved closer, until I was only about five feet away from the nearest guard.

“What about you?” Tressi asked the guard closest to me. “Where does everyone go? I feel like the land has been picked clean.”

“Hmmm,” the guard said, and took a few steps towards them. He put a hand on his hip and frowned at the forest in front of him. “Most go straight out into the woods, then fan out.”

At that moment, I slipped behind him and took a few steps into the tunnel, then slowly backed into the darkness. And just in time, for he turned and looked right where I had been standing.

“Some people go north,” he said, pointing in that direction. “Plenty of ‘em, actually. I don’t see many going south, so if you walked that way for an hour or so, you could probably find some fresh land.”

“Thanks,” Tressi said, flashing a smile.

“I feel like every day we have to go further and further to get food. This isn’t sustainable.” Zia shook her head. “I wish there was a way we could just grow our food inside our city. That would completely solve this problem.”

The guard closest to her barked a laugh. “Ha. That wouldn’t work. You’d have to use magic or something to do that, and we don’t like magic.”

“Why not?” Zia asked. “There’s nothing wrong with it if the person wielding it is good. I’ve read that the elves use magic to grow their food. We should do the same.”

The two guards exchanged an uneasy glance. They probably didn’t like to even talk about magic, considering how Ralcor felt about it.

“On with you now,” the guard said, waving them into the tunnel. “Be quick about it. There’s things out here lately that have been hurting people.”

“Oh, goodness,” Tressi said, and hurried into the tunnel. Zia followed quickly after.

I stayed in front of them, moving down the tunnel until I was certain I was out of earshot.

“Good job,” I said, placing a hand on Tressi’s shoulder.

“Plus, now we know a better place to forage,” Zia said. “Although I think once you take over, we need to really work on just growing it here. These idiot men and their stubbornness.”

“Ralcor fears magic, and rightly so,” I replied. “He knows a strong magic-user can kill him, which is why he wears that pendant and has all but outlawed magic.”

“And yet here we are,” Tressi said. 

“And here we are,” I agreed. “And soon, things will be different. Better.”

We followed the tunnel to the end, then turned onto the path that led to Silvy’s house. Once we reached the door, I pushed it open and went inside, then removed the shadow stone from my mouth.

“You’re later than usual,” Silvy said. She was seated at her table, sipping on a cup of tea.

“Waiting for the sun to go behind the mountain gives me more shadows to stay in,” I said. “I’m trying to be safe about this, since there’s only a few days left. I don’t want to be irresponsible and blow our only chance.”

“We got a lot,” Zia said, moving towards a nearby counter and setting her forage sack on it. Tressi did the same.

“How are you doing?” I asked as I took a seat across the table from Silvy.

“Oh, I’m fine,” she replied, but I could tell something was on her mind.

“What is it?” I asked gently.

She looked at me, then at the other two women. “I’ve been used to solitude for so many years,” she finally said. “I guess I’m getting used to being around people again. If you must know, I was just a bit lonely, waiting here for you.”

“Oh, we missed you too, Silvy,” Zia said. She walked up to the older woman and hugged her tightly, then planted a big kiss on her cheek.

Silvy blushed and brought a hand up to touch her cheek where Zia had kissed her. She seemed open to Zia’s flirtation, but unused to such things from another woman.

Zia and Tressi sat at the table next to Silvy, across from me. Tressi gave me a beautiful smile while Zia reached out and placed her hand on top of Silvy’s.

“I’m glad you’re getting used to us being around,” she said. “You’ve been alone too long, Silvy. All of that is going to end soon. Our lives will be rich and peaceful once we finish this.”

Silvy nodded and smiled at Zia. “You’re very sweet, you know that? I’m glad you stumbled into Aaron’s life. I think you’ll make a good wife for him.”

“We all will,” Tressi said. 

After that, we sat and talked for a while. Silvy brewed another pot of tea for us while Tressi told jokes. Zia helped tidy up around the room, and Tressi kept shooting me smiles. I assumed it was due to her excitement at what was going to happen over the next few days.

“So, how did you get past the guards today?” Silvy asked after finishing her second cup of tea. “Did you make them fight? Did you knock one of them out again?”

“Actually, nothing like that,” I replied. “You’d be quite proud of me. Zia and Tressi just asked them questions about where the best places to forage were and I slipped in behind them. That’s why we waited until the entrance was in shadows.”

Silvy smiled. “Good. I don’t necessarily mind you mistreating them—those soldiers are bastards, every one of them—but I don’t want you to bring them all down on my head. We’ve already almost had that happen once.”

“And then Aaron killed them,” Zia said.

“And then I killed them,” I agreed.

“And then you killed them,” Silvy said, though the tone of her voice sounded faintly displeased. “I’m amazed they haven’t kicked my door down yet.”

“Only a few more days and we’ll be there,” I said, reaching across the table and taking Silvy’s hand in mine. “All this will be over, and the four of us can start our lives together.”

“Maybe five,” Zia said with a chuckle. “Aaron was telling us about a beautiful elven woman that watched him practice today.”

“Is that so?” Silvy asked, pulling her hand out of mine. She raised an eyebrow in that way women often did when they were ready to throw something at me.

“Oh, it’s nothing,” I said. “Althidon’s daughter stopped by to watch. Her watching helps a bit, as having an audience makes me nervous. I need to be able to do this whether I’m nervous or calm or angry or anything else.”

“Mmmhmm,” Silvy said, and crossed her arms beneath her breasts.

“She’s an elf so I’ll bet she’s beautiful,” Zia said. “I can’t wait to meet the elves. I’ve heard so much about them.”

“Most of them are nice,” Silvy said, still eyeing me. “Some of them get a bit…haughty, but overall they’re nice.”

“I want our people to trade again,” I said. “The elves and the goblins. That’s one of the first changes I’m going to make. That, and using magic to grow our food instead of foraging.”

“Good changes,” Silvy said. Some of her frown disappeared as she spoke. “We should have done both of those long ago, but Ralcor’s pride got in the way. Plus, his fear of magic.”

“Speaking of which, I had some ideas about how to deal with him,” I said. “Since you can use elemental magic, can you move stone?”

Silvy looked over at Zia and Tressi. “They should be able to, although they’ll be limited this early on in their training.”

“Can you open a hole in the floor?” I asked.

In reply, Silvy looked at me for a few minutes, then held her hand out to the side. Next to the table, a hole opened up in the floor, just big enough to fit a soda can in it.

“Does that answer your question?” she asked.

“How quickly can you do it?” I asked. “I was wondering if you could do that to trap Ralcor’s feet, then close it around him to pin him in place.”

Silvy nodded slowly. “I see what you mean. Well, it’s a good idea, but stone is difficult to work with. One of them might be able to do it more quickly one day, but for now we’re limited. Stone doesn’t like to move. It resists, just as much as you would expect. I can’t really do it much faster than what you just saw.”

“Maybe if I drew him into a fight and kept his attention on me, then you opened a hole beneath him,” I said, thinking out loud. “If all three of you worked at once, surely you could get a large hole in the ground, and quickly.”

“Probably,” Silvy said. “What about your archer friend? He would probably be the best help, to be honest.”

She was right. No matter how fast he was, Ralcor couldn’t dodge an arrow to the face. Especially when the bow was wielded by Taranath. If I could get Ralcor to focus on me, Taranath could pincushion him with arrows. Problem solved.

And as a backup, the ladies could use magic to somehow trap him. I refused to abandon that idea.

“You said that necklace of his makes him resistant to magic,” I said. “How much? Is it a full negation, or does some still get through?”

“A little bit gets through,” Silvy said. “It was one of the first things he forced me to make him, many years ago after I made him sterile. That necklace bought me my life. I wasn’t quite as strong then as I am now, but it’s still fairly powerful. To give you an answer that makes more sense, you cannot kill him with blood magic, but you might be able to slow him a little bit.”

“I’ll take what I can get,” I said. If he was as good with a sword as everyone said, I needed every advantage possible. “What are some other limitations on magic? I want to be as prepared as possible.”

Silvy frowned and tapped her lip with a fingertip. “I’m not exactly sure what you mean. Most people can’t use any magic if they can’t see. You have to be able to see your target to affect it with magic, after all. The other senses don’t really matter, at least in that sense.”

“What about if I get knocked in the head?” I asked. “Will I still be able to use magic?”

“Well, it’ll be much more difficult, but you can simply heal yourself unless the knock you take is too hard and breaks your head open.”

“We have some interesting ways we can help,” Tressi said, clearly excited to join the conversation. “Silvy’s been working hard with us.”

Zia held her hand out and a small flame appeared above her upturned palm. “It’ll be hard for them to fight us if they’re on fire.”

I winced. That was a hard way to die, but it certainly would be effective. It would destroy morale, too.

“What else can you do?” I asked.

“They’re limited by our environment,” Silvy said. “There isn’t much down here other than stone. They can move and shape stone, but as you saw it’s a slow process. Fire is their best weapon.”

“What about pulling water from their bodies?” I asked.

“Not as easy as you would think,” Silvy said. “Also, fairly slow. If they were able to use blood magic as well, it would probably go more smoothly.”

“Lightning?” I asked.

“If you want to go completely deaf, sure,” Silvy replied. “But that’s not really something that’s easy to do indoors. Even I would struggle.”

“What will you be doing?” I asked.

Silvy gave me a small smile. “Oh, don’t worry. I have plenty of tricks up my sleeve.”

I thought about her table covered with magical items. She probably had quite a few nasty tricks up her sleeve.

The women divided up the produce after that. Silvy was excited about all that Zia and Tressi found, and declared she would be making jam. Tressi shot me a grin when Silvy said that. Then, the two younger women took their share and left Silvy’s place after taking turns kissing me.

Silvy sat at her table and sighed. I went to her and sat next to her.

“Are you alright?” I asked.

She looked at me for a moment before answering. “I suppose. There’s just a lot going on in my mind right now.”

“Care to share any of it?”

“Well, we’re getting ready to overthrow the king,” Silvy began. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad we’re doing it. But even with magic, it’s not going to be easy, and it’ll take months for my people to recover from it. They won’t trust you, at least initially. You’ll have to earn that.”

“I’m expecting it,” I said. “I’m hoping that growing food with magic will show them I intend on being a peaceful king.”

“We’ll see,” Silvy said. “And then there’s us.” She made a hand gesture that took in both of us, and where Zia and Tressi had been sitting. “I was perfectly content just being by myself, especially after what happened. After all that I lost. And now, I’m going to be part of a family.” She looked up at me. “And I’m going to have a husband again.”

“A husband that will care for you and treat you right,” I emphasized, taking her small hand in mine.

She smiled at me. “Thank you, Aaron. I’ll warn you, it might take some time for me to accept your love. My heart isn’t young and fresh like Zia and Tressi. It’s old and scarred and filled with thorns.”

“Bullshit,” I said. Silvy’s eyebrows raised and I laughed. “I’ve caught a glimpse of you when you let your guard down. You’re a wonderful, beautiful woman, Silvy, and I can’t wait to marry you and make you one of my queens. We’re going to have a great future together.”

“Let’s go to bed,” Silvy said. 

It was still early, but that was fine. I helped Silvy clean up, and then we both went into the bedroom and undressed. We climbed into bed and held each other tightly. Being next to her nude form had a predictable response, and she laughed at my immediate erection, but we didn’t have sex. That night we were just two people that cared for each other.