Ethira

by J D Evergreen

  “Hear what?” Tash asks, going through a pouch attached to one of her many belts.

  Melissa pauses. “No, I heard it too.”

  I stop to listen. A definite rustling is happening deep in the trees beside us. My fight or flight instinct kicks in, and I have a deep impulse to flee.

  Tash cocks her head. “Animals maybe?”

  Lucas wrings his hands. “Let’s just hurry up and get away from here.”

  The group tightens up, and we hurry to the part of the road with the sharp cliff face. We don’t make it more than ten steps when deep laughter rings through the semi-darkness.

  I follow the sound and find a flash of yellow and followed by a whole section of rock tumbles off the cliff face.

  “Look out,” I bellow as I dive back to avoid the avalanche of rocks and Lexa lands in the dirt beside me. The noise as the rocks rumble past to settle in the dust on the road is almost unbearable and the violent vibrations hurt my legs and stomach.

  The noise ceases, and I pull my head out of my arms and look around. Dust clouds still float about, and a deep pile of rocks blocks the way between me, Lexa and the rest of the road.

  I pull Lexa to her feet. A decent graze sits on her left cheek. I look at our side of the road, and I don’t see anyone else from our group.

  I look back at the deep pile of rocks in front of me. “Are you guys okay?” I shout over the boulders.

  A chorus of voices calls back unintelligible words. After a short pause, I take another breath to call out again, but a voice cuts me off.

  “We are still alive.” Melissa's voice shouts back. “Is Lexa with you?”

  Lexa beats my response. “I am here. Do you see any way over these rocks?”

  I head over and begin to climb the new slope. I struggle up halfway before a rock gives in and tumbles out from under my feet. I fall ungracefully down the pile of stones, causing numerous small ones to tumble after me. They spill across my body leaving minor bruises and cuts in their wake.

  I look up at Lexa who is watching me with a raised eyebrow. I give her a weak smile. “I don’t think we can get over that way.”

  I pull myself to my feet and do my best to brush off the dust and small pebbles that cling to my hair and clothing.

  Nathanial's voice carries over the rocks. “There are too many unstable rocks to climb and shifting them would take days.”

  The dust around us settles, and a scuff spins me on my feet. My eyes land on a group of unpleasantly colored creatures advancing on us. My stomach clenches with fear and my heart pounds so hard I think it will find its way out of my chest.

  I flick my eyes to Lexa as I reach for the sword at my waist. “Goblins.”

  Chapter Eight

  Goblins

  Lexa spins on her heel to take in the small horde of creatures. Their fat bodies are exposed to the dim light of the cavern and only a tiny strip of cloth hangs around their waist giving them the smallest form of modesty.

  The oily goblins chuckle as they circle us, showing their sharp little teeth and wrinkling their tiny snouts, able to contain their mirth at having separated our group.

  They all carry spiked clubs, their heavily muscled arms well suited to the weapon. I have seen goblins wield weapons like this before with devastating consequences.

  I count them, ten in total. Five each for Lexa and me.

  The goblins click to one another, using a language I don’t understand. I grip my sword. I don’t like our chances but letting them take us alive is undoubtedly the worse option.

  I glance at Lexa, and she looks at me, a grim expression on her face.

  “Guys, are you okay?” Tash's voice comes from the other side of the rock wall behind us.

  “What is that clicking?” Melissa calls out.

  I swallow and call back, “The goblins who caused the rock slide are here to try and claim their prize.”

  “Goblins!” Nathanial's voice thunders from the other side of the rock wall. His voice is so frightening the goblins actually take a step back and peer through the settling dust.

  Rocks start to slide behind us, and I know the others are trying to get over the wall to come to our aid. I know it is futile. They separated our group for a reason. Goblins are very intelligent; the only thing that beats out their intelligence is their greed.

  The fattest goblin laughs as it realizes all our help is on the other end of the landslide. His pale green rolls jostle about, creating a wave of fat as the goblin shares his mirth with the group. It doesn’t take long for the others to join in, all of them laughing stupidly.

  I grip my sword and ready my stance. The goblins laughter abruptly stops. “Dere be no sense in fighting us.” He squeaks out in badly formed Kateran. “Dis be one fight you can’t win, 1408.”

  My heart thuds in my chest. How can these goblins know who I am?

  The largest goblin steps forward and shows his sharp teeth in what I suppose is meant to be a grin. “Do you know how big da reward be to bring you alive to our lord Darkmor?”

  I should have known he wouldn’t just let me go. I just wish I knew why he wanted me so desperately.

  “Get as close as you can to the wall.” Nathanial's voice roars.

  Lexa and I press ourselves against stone pile wall as rocks sail over it and fall randomly, some striking the goblins, who bellow in rage.

  One goblin takes a rock to the side of his head and collapses to the ground unmoving, his club still clutched in his hand and his tiny brown eyes staring lifelessly in our direction. A small trickle of yellow liquid oozes from his head wound.

  Small explosions come from the other side of the rock wall, and I recall the tiny explosives Lucas and Tash have on them.

  I look at the rock wall behind us, hope starting to fill me for the first time since the goblins arrived.

  “Cover your eyes.” Tash bellows moments before an explosion causes the rock wall behind me to vibrate. “It’s working!”

  The lead goblin whistles as more rocks sail over the wall to assault them. Out of the woods run three brown beetles. These bugs are so big I could ride one if I wanted too. Their six hairy legs rush towards us as their huge glassy eyes seek out the lead goblin. He points at us and whistles once more, this time at a different pitch. The bugs seem to cringe at the sound, and they squirm while the lead goblin makes it.

  The goblins all pull unusual masks from bags that hang from their loincloth belts and put them over their faces. The effect is more frightening than I could have imagined as the addition gives the goblins an extra-long snout and large black eyes.

  The bugs scuttle around and turn their backs to us lifting their beetle wings, they spray a cloud of yellow liquid. The gas disperses and covers us, a large portion of it drifting over the rocks.

  The explosions behind us stop, and Nathanial bellows. “Cover your faces.” A loud burst of coughing comes from behind us. “It’s sleeping gas.” Nathanial struggles out in a weaker voice than before.

  I pull my shirt over my face, but it is too late: I can already feel the heaviness in my limbs. The goblins march over to us and one grabs my foot with a sharp toothed grin.

  I slash at him with my sword and I am rewarded with a high-pitched cry.

  “Idiots,” the lead goblin screams. “Wait until dey be asleep.”

  I stare at them as my vision starts to fade. One of the goblins points to Lexa. “What do we do with her?”

  The lead goblin releases a wicked smile. “Bring her. I think the boys have earned themselves some fun before dinner.”

  Lexa stiffens next to me, and I crawl towards her, putting myself between her and the goblins. Each movement is painfully slow and the goblins roar in laughter at my gesture.

  I try to lift my sword, but it’s too heavy, and I collapse in the dust. My body betrays me as the gas takes complete control.

  I awake to uncomfortable jostling. My head and neck bump painfully against dirt and rock. I glance up to find my feet bound and attached to the back of a
beetle.

  I drop my head back on the ground, and it bumps over rocks and lumps of dirt as I am dragged along. I try to pull my shirt closer to my back, so it stops filling with debris, which have worked their way between the cloth and my skin with the movement.

  I fumble, but the task is made all the more difficult by bound hands. I give up and just accept all the small cuts and grazes I am going to have and from the feel of it, I already have a few anyway.

  I turn my head to find Lexa unconscious and in the same position as I am. Something moves across my stomach, and I look to find my necklace has crept out of my pocket and rests against the skin of my abdomen, the metal chain the only thing keeping the necklace inside my pocket. Panicking, I grab the gem and stuff it back into the concealed pouch underneath the lining of my pants.

  That’s when I realize everything else has been removed from me—my belt bags and my weapons. Luckily, my necklace had been in the secret pocket I had sewn into my pants after the elders had given them to me.

  I glance over at Lexa, and her weapons and pouches are gone too. So is her necklace.

  The goblins ahead of us talk and laugh loudly, clapping each other on the back and offering congratulations for a job well done.

  “We gonna be rich boys!” The lead goblin cries in his mangled version of the Kateran language.

  The rest nod in agreement. One perks up and asks, “Gremunt, why do you think our lord Darkmor is offer’n ten thousand gold coins for a scrawny human like dat?”

  The lead goblin places his hands on his ample hips. “Now Grintus, you know better dan to be asken questions like dat,” the leader squeaks back. “But me third cousin is in da know, you sees, he be inside our lord Darkmor’s inner circle.

  “He says, the magic in the cavern be fading and our lord Darkmor needs da girl for some ritual to restore it,” the lead green goblin reveals.

  “Da magic in the cavern be fading?” Grintus repeats, looking at the high roof above us.

  The lead goblin, Gremunt, touches his nose. “Dat’s what me cousin be sayen. He says dat’s why da ground be shaking.”

  An old blood red goblin pipes up. “Me fourth mate’s cave come down in dat last ground shake, it did. Now she be living with me first wife, and I be sure I will come home one day to discover I has one wife less.”

  The goblins all laugh at his tale and settle into silence. The smallest goblin slows down and slowly makes his way towards me and the still unconscious Lexa.

  The leader turns around and snaps, “Geenub what you be doing?”

  The small brown-red goblin starts. “I just be check’n on da prisoners.”

  The fat leader eyes him. “You know dey be sleeping for the next few hours, after a dose of sleeping gas like dat.”

  The small goblin nods and hurries to re-join his companions. I twist in my ropes to see if I can wriggle free, but these goblins sure do know their knots. I look over at the unconscious Lexa and watch as her long hair tangles with itself across the rocks and sticks as she is dragged beside me.

  Maybe she got a larger dose of the sleeping gas than I did. Although, the lead goblin seems to think I should still be out of it too. I will have time to worry about that later. For now, I have an unwatched window in which to figure out an escape.

  Quietly, I bend my body and try to reach for the ropes that bind my feet, but the uneven ground spins me around and bumps me about in such a way that makes the task basically impossible. I flop back and let out a long slow breath. This isn’t going to work.

  I lean to the side and snag a rock as I go past it. It is rounded and useless so, I drop it and try for another. The second rock I pick up is much better, the long edge is quite sharp. I bend my right hand into an awkward position and painfully begin to saw my way through the thick rope that binds my wrists.

  It takes a painfully long time, and when I chance a look, I have only sawed through about an eighth of the way. This will work, but I need time.

  The giant brown beetle in front of me slows to a stop, and I quickly tuck my rock inside my hands and do my best to lay limply.

  I sneak a look through my eyelashes and find us in front of a large cave and judging from the stink of overcooked meat, this is where the goblin's nest is.

  The goblins stomp up beside us and unhook our bonds from the beetles. Two of the monstrous goblins take our ropes and drag us towards the entrance of the cave.

  Inside the cave, the overwhelming stench of meat fills my nose, and the only other scent to make it past the meat is the smell of fire. I watch through my eyelashes as we pass by three small fires inside the cave before we come up to a row of white cages. All of them are full except one.

  The old blood red goblin turns to the leader. “We only maked one crate.”

  The leader narrows his eyes. “We be only expecting to bring one. They little, put dem in the same cage. While dey be sleeping dey will do little damage.”

  Lexa and I are crammed into the small enclosure, and the leader locks the door with a key. Dangling from his many-chinned neck is Lexa's necklace.

  The goblin saunters away, followed by his tribe of minions. I let out a slow breath and nudge Lexa, who is still entirely out of it. Surely Lexa didn’t breathe in that much more gas than I did.

  I pull the rock out and resume sawing at my bonds while watching the goblins settle around the fire, where a big chunk of something that looks very human is roasting slowly over a spit.

  I grit my teeth. We have to get out of here before they decide Lexa is their next meal. It seems like I have a free pass, being Darkmor's most wanted, but I don’t think that courtesy will extend to Lexa.

  I glance over at a nearby table. Many leather straps are attached to the worn wood to help hold victims down. Displayed above it is an array of rusted and dirty tools. Splatters of red are scattered over the walls and some tools still have lumps of flesh clinging to them. I focus on the nearest pair of pliers and spot a whole fingernail hanging from the skin there.

  I bite back the rise of bile in my throat and I slow my breathing. I will kill us both before I let that happen to either of us.

  I look down at my bonds to find I have sawed almost all the way through. I give it an experimental tug, and a few of the strands holding the rope together snap and the cable sags around my wrists. I leave the last few strings intact. A sleeping prisoner with missing restraints will probably be suspicious enough to warrant investigation.

  I lean over and pull Lexa's hands towards me and begin sawing my way through her bonds. I leave her bonds in the same state as mine and begin the difficult task of sawing through the ropes that bind our feet. Luckily, these were just attached to drag us places, so I only have to cut through a single loop of rope.

  Now that our bonds are almost broken, I drop the rock and rub my sore hand. Cutting through rope with a sharp stone isn’t an easy task, and now my tender wrist screams in protest at the slightest movement.

  I turn to Lexa and try to wake her again. There is no point trying to make an escape while she is sleeping. If I try to drag her out of here, we will certainly get caught. And leaving her here is not an option.

  I eye the heavily sleeping woman. What is the difference between the two of us? What happened differently that makes Lexa remain sleeping?

  I go through the encounter in my head from the moment the goblins had shown up until now. The only thing I can think of is I still have my necklace, which is absurd. The magic in the necklaces can’t be healing, or Lexa's wounds wouldn’t have taken so long to recover after the dogs.

  I rub my face with my hands and notice the cuts on my arms from my tumble down the pile of rocks. All of them have scabbed over and are itchy. Absently I scratch at one and the scab falls off, revealing pink healed skin underneath.

  I stare at the skin in surprise. Either I was asleep for a really long time, or I healed really fast.

  Cautiously, I pull my necklace from my hidden pocket and hold it in my hand. When I awoke this was on my stomach.
Could it be that the necklace healed me?

  Experimentally, I put the crystal in Lexa's hand and fit mine over the top of hers. Nothing happens, and I sigh to myself. It had a suspicion born of a desperate thought.

  Just then a blue light shines brightly through our fingers, and I hasten to cover the gaps with my other hand and my legs. Panicking, I look over at the goblins, but all of them have their backs to us, and the leader is waving around a hunk of meat as he shares a story with the group around him.

  A blue line splits through my arm, and I bite on my lip to stifle the pained groan. I pull my sleeve down, so it covers the newly emerged magic wound. The material presses against the blue line and agony flares through my body, but at least the jacket dulls the light coming from it. I quickly put my hand back over Lexa's and desperately hope she wakes up soon.

  Slowly, she begins to stir, but I keep my hands in place until her eyelids flutter open. I drop the crystal in the dust and clamp my hand over her mouth as she opens it.

  Green eyes fix on mine as Lexa's breathing begins to steady. Slowly, I pull my hands from her face and give her a weak smile as I put my necklace back into my pocket. I nod my head slowly towards the goblins by the fire, and Lexa shifts to take in the situation.

  Her eyes dart over to the table I had spotted earlier, and her breath catches.

  I put my hand on hers and give it a gentle squeeze. Slowly, I shift towards Lexa and whisper into her ear. “I don’t know how long we have till they come back for us. They think we should remain sleeping for at least a little longer, but the crystal woke us. I have cut through our bindings, and only a few threads hold them together.”

  Lexa nods slightly at my recount. I take a breath preparing to tell Lexa the hardest part of all. “They took all our belongings, and the leader has your necklace.”

  Lexa's hand squeezes mine, and I have to stifle a yelp. I squeeze back until she loosens her grip.

  For the first time, I study the cage we are in. I inspect the bar I had been resting against, and suspicion rises in me I turn to eye blackened sections of the cage that look almost fire burnt. My eyes flick to the slowly roasting body above the flames in front of the feasting goblins.