“What the actual fuck?” Bym asked.
Imani let out a heavy sigh. Pedantically, she said, “It means they might find the Stones of Luna Ignis and their host near your portal at Noctus Luna, but they won’t be able to do anything with them. For the goblins to sleep, you have to be the one who kills the other host and takes them.”
“Me?”
“Yes, and it is too dangerous. If the other host were to kill you, a goddess of the moon, the goblins, also moon worshippers, would inherit the world while the race of man would sleep. The prophecy doesn’t distinguish which ‘she.’”
“If the goblin queen were to defeat you in battle and kill you, now before you’ve come into your powers, the race of man would be the ones sent into a centuries-long hibernation. They wouldn’t cull us,” Arden said.
“No, they wouldn’t,” Yeva agreed. She’d gone pale. “If the goblin host were to kill you and send us all to sleep, the goddess to whom you pass on the Temporal Locum would not wake until the other host was to fade. If ever she passed through a goddess gate, she’d inherit a world full of madness, darkness, and death. What hope would there be for her survival?”
Imani said, “With your permission, we will go to the temple and try to learn more.”
Bym nodded.
Yeva released her privacy spell.
Guto, Eurig, and Iago had hidden themselves within the rooftop’s shadows. Once Imani and Arden had gone, Guto asked, “What do you plan to do?”
In exasperation, Yeva cast her spell again. After sharing with the men everything they had learned, Bym said, “They are on a quest for death, pointless death. We have to stop them.”
“It will take your army weeks to journey to Noctus Luna,” Iago said.
“Yeva could have us there in minutes,” Guto said. “We go through as Drem, Arwel, and Danior did with their men.”
The high priestess raised an eyebrow. “They went through with the combined magic of Drem and the Solis priestesses. When we sent you all through before, it was accomplished by the combined efforts of a sorcerer and eight Umbra priestesses. Alone, I cannot do this thing.”
In a ridiculously perky tone, Bym said, “You aren’t alone. You have me!”
Yeva considered her words in silence.
Eurig asked, “How will we get our horses to the temporal gate? We’re surrounded. They even watch the palace from the surrounding rooftops.”
Guto said, “We’ll have to leave the mounts behind and journey on foot.”
Bym frowned at the idea of leaving Donkey behind.
Yeva said, “I can cloak the five of us with a spell of invisibility to get us to the gate.”
Guto made eye contact with each of them. “Dress for winter and war. We’ll come for both of you after we have our essential supplies packed.”
“I have extra canteens from the practice field,” Eurig told them.
Yeva said, “I still have my pack from our journey here.”
Thinking of what they’d face if they managed to travel through the Goddess Gate, Bym said, “You’ll need a weapon.”
Yeva gave her a look which reminded her of Drem. She held her palm out, and upon it a black mist formed.
“Okay then,” Bym said.
While everyone assumed they slept, they prepared. Once she’d finished packing what she could comfortably carry, she considered her long hair. Not wanting it used against her in battle, she sectioned it into five parts. After French braiding the top and securing it into a ponytail to fall down her back, two thin, long braids near each ear followed, one pulled forward to fall down her chest and one drawn to fall along her ponytail on both sides. She gave herself a nod of approval. She didn’t need to be bald to be fierce. Dressed in black and wearing the culottes her priestesses had sent, she fastened her sword around her waist and donned her boots, gloves, and cape. Yeva joined her, dressed in a similar nature. Where they came through the gate, the snow would be thick. She only hoped the goblins would be true to form and avoid it. If they could catch Drem and his party before they ventured into the tunnels, they could quickly return to the palace or else make haste to the Umbra fortress. It wasn’t long before Guto, Eurig, and Iago joined them.
Yeva spelled them for privacy and asked, “How do we leave the palace without being seen? I can hide us from sight, but certainly should a door open, our Umbra will know what we are doing.”
“We have thought of that, and you aren’t going to like it,” Iago cautioned.
“I’m not sure that I like any of this. However, if my spell is to work, stay close to me once we are outside or else it might fail to hide you.”
Iago led them to the bathing chamber’s back wall. There, where the pool was drained for cleaning, was a large valve hidden behind the retaining wall. The valve covered a pipe which was just large enough for a person to squeeze through. Eurig jumped down to the maintenance space between the pool and the wall and helped the ladies down. It took the combined efforts of Guto and Eurig to open the drainage valve. Having cast her spell, its squeaks were hidden from all ears but their own. Unbidden thoughts of Abner entered Bym’s mind as she imagined him shirtless and turning the wheel with minimal strain while his muscles bulged. He’d had some serious muscles.
“What are you smiling about?” Yeva whispered.
“Oh, big strong men.”
Thinking she was talking about them, Guto and Eurig looked proud of themselves. Iago went through first. Yeva went next, followed by Bym. She was grateful she’d already put on her leather gloves because even with the fastidious cleaning the palace underwent, the large short pipe was still slimy. Worse, it ended with a steep drop to broken seashells which led down to a drainage ditch and the sewers. Iago held up his hands and lifted her down. She stood at Yeva’s side and waited until Eurig and Guto joined them. Not wanting to travel via sewer, she was relieved when Guto led them along the same route which Yeva’s drop of blood had shown them of Drem and his party’s passing.
In silence, they walked along the beach. Bym frowned at the footsteps they left behind and hoped they would go unnoticed. Soon, they climbed stone steps in a break in the sea wall. They walked along a path through a grassy field and down a side street to the Goddess Gate of the Golden City. The walk hadn’t been too long or arduous. The city’s portal was located at its edges in a pristine park and situated like an artistic sculpture. Bym felt a wave of jealousy, but the starshine comforted her. This gate was immaculate. It was kept swept. Stones painted like a sun amidst a blue ocean surrounded it. Like in her temple, stone benches rested at the tip of each of the sun’s rays. Blooming cacti, shrubs, and palm trees had been planted by skilled landscapers to give the place a magical seaside feel. Bym snorted.
“Don’t be like that. If you want your gate fancified, we’ll start work on it come spring,” Eurig promised.
“Fine,” Bym said. The five of them stood before the gate. It reacted to her presence with faint sparks of blue. “So, now what?”
Yeva said, “Mother was the one who led us when we sent Drem and his men through to find you and Eurig. We were at home, not a gate.” Her nervousness made them all uneasy.
“When I stepped beneath the arch at the Solis fortification, it took me and Eurig. Perhaps, we should hold hands and walk through.” She reached for Guto and Eurig, closed her eyes, and opened her soul to the starshine and her mind to thoughts of Drem, but then, unexpectedly, the clouds moved and revealed the full moon. Just as she took Guto and Eurig’s hands, its power took her, as if sensing her desire to find Drem, and lifted her and her mates from their feet. The portal pulsed with swirling blue electric fire. Those electric tendrils grabbed her, lit up the sky, and drew them through.
Yeva and Iago were left staring at each other in shock. Grabbing each other’s hands, they ran under the arch only to come through on the other side. Beyond, they could hear the calls of guards as they ran toward their location. Desperately, she tried to cast the spell to send them through. She failed.
&nb
sp; “The beach,” Iago whispered. Taking her along with him, he ran back the way they had come.
Once they made it to the beach, the sand crunched under their boots. “I can’t hold the spell of invisibility much longer, not with her gone.” Yeva was breathless from running.
“We can hide in that shack. Come on. It’s just a little farther.” He pointed at a small dark hut with a thatched roof which was almost hidden from sight by dunes and tall grass. She was clutching her side by the time they reached the structure. Cracking open the door, he found nothing but a low table and a hammock. It was one of many such structures along the coast where the weary could rest.
“They’re coming,” she warned of soldiers down the beach. Soldiers came from every direction. “Dressed thusly, they’ll know what we did. It won’t matter to them if we were following her commands. If on this venture she dies, everyone will hate us, and I will hate myself.”
“I won’t let anyone hurt you. Take off your clothing. Hurry. Finding a naked couple embracing is different than finding her servants escaping.”
Agreeing, Yeva hurried to undress.
Iago tossed their bags into a dark corner and covered them with their clothing before climbing into the hammock. Yeva could hear the soldiers’ footfalls on the sand as she climbed atop Iago. Unfastening her hair, she let it fall. He couldn’t hide the state of his rigid cock. She sank herself onto it as his eyes went wide.
“Yeva, I….”
Lifting herself, she slowly sank down. She’d lifted herself up once more when the hut’s door banged open. A soldier gasped at a woman’s backside and a man’s half-buried cock. “Apologies!” he said before quickly closing the door.
The group of soldiers moved on, and so did Yeva.
Chapter Twenty
Bym, Eurig, and Guto were hurled tumbling through the portal into pandemonium. All around was war. Sprays of green blood were joined by pools of red upon the battle trodden snow. The sounds of violence filled their ears.
“To me!” Danior yelled. With his sword raised, he made his way to them through the melee. He sliced a goblin in half before it could tear his throat out with its claws. Kicking the monster from him, he brought his boot down into green slush which splattered as he ran. Green goblin blood was everywhere, covering Solis and Umbra who fought the swarming goblins with berserker madness.
Eurig raised his sword and bellowed his rage, severing a goblin’s head before its fangs could close down on Bym’s leg.
Guto pulled her to himself and stood over her. His legs jostled her as he swung his sword. Furious at being relegated to the subjugated position of kneeling like a frightened pussy at the feet of the big strong man, she drew her sword and disemboweled a goblin which had been coming at Eurig’s back. Screaming her defiance, she called upon the light. The snakes wove around each other within her chest in their sinuous dance, and then brilliant sun shone down, reflecting off what patches remained of pristine snow, and sending the goblins diving underneath it. She prayed it melted.
“Where is Drem?” her voice made all who heard it pause.
In the sudden stillness, the muffled whimpers of goblins could be heard. Danior stalked closer. Green blood dripped from the tip of his sword. Bym wasn’t intimidated by the cold fury in his eyes because it paled in comparison to her own. “They are hunting the tunnels.”
“Tunnels which are dark even in daylight? Where did all of these goblins come from?” Guto asked.
Danior said, “Drem summoned them.”
“He what?” Bym asked.
“Go back home. Let us handle this. We have it under control.” Danior did his best to appear intimidating. However, the tells of battle exhaustion were clear amongst all of the thirty or so men who she could see. They stabbed at the holes which the goblins had made in the snow, and growls, screams, and cries of pain were their answers. “How did you get to the gate?” He was enraged. She flinched when he raised a gauntleted hand and pointed. “Go back through! Now!”
“Yes, Danior! That is why we are here. All of us are returning together. Call them back! Blow the battle horn or something.”
They heard gasps from a few Umbra warriors and turned at a sudden sound, yelps and cries. In the distance, obscured by dying trees, Sausage and Potatoes ran limping and terrified from a dark crag which was hidden by a scraggly, twisted tree. The hounds ran straight to her with their tails between their legs. Their bodies were bleeding with gashes delivered by goblin claws.
“We need Iago,” she whispered while trying to comfort the frightened, injured, and heartbroken animals. The hounds would never have left Gethim, not unless…. Fear coiled in her belly. They needed Iago and Yeva, but had they been able to traverse the portal, they would be here. Desperation strangled her. Closing her eyes, she called out to her priestesses.
Their chorus whispered through her mind, “Where are you?”
“I’m at my gate at Noctus Luna. We’re in trouble. We need a healer and reinforcements. Please, help us.”
“Be not afraid. We will send help.” Their voices faded.
She wished she could do as they suggested, but fear was all she knew. She felt the itch and pull in her chest. With her blade drawn, she tried to move around Danior.
“You aren’t going in there,” he growled in her ear.
“Help will be coming through my gate soon. You should have your men to stand back from it.”
“You aren’t invincible.” The anger in his eyes made room for concern. His thoughts touched on Aurora, the mother he still mourned.
“You’re right.”
Danior grasped her arm and said in her ear, “You’re terrified. Don’t try to deny it.”
“You’re right.”
Guto moved between them, forcing Danior to release his hold on her arm. “You don’t get to order her around. Keep the goblins from following us. We’ll need a way out.”
Eurig got to the opening first. A soldier handed him a torch. With a last look back, he led the way into the darkness with Bym and Guto behind him. Random goblin screams echoed back to them from deep within the tunnel and combined with the cold to chill Bym’s blood. They paused at hidden chambers along the way, prepared to face attacks. Eurig suddenly got shorter, making her realize he walked down steps.
“What was this place?” she whispered.
“Once, long ago, Noctis Luna was a subterranean fortress, lit from within by billions of moonstones. It was rumored to be the most beautiful city the sorcerers had ever built,” Guto said.
“What happened to it? It looks and smells like shit,” Bym replied.
“The first goblin queen came to be. Through her, an evil chaos was born and stole the light. The living fled this place, and Noctus Luna fell.” Hearing something behind Guto, they all turned as more adrenaline flooded their systems, and they prepared to fight. Pale-blue eyes peered at them from the darkness. “I told you to stay and guard us.”
“I don’t take orders from you. Our way is watched. A few of us are coming with you.”
“Fucking shit!” Bym said as she caught sight of silver teeth behind Danior. It took her nerves a moment to catch up with her brain. Umbra warriors were more terrifying at times than were goblins.
Guto gave the Umbra warrior a nod of his head.
“No, the other way,” Bym said to Eurig, stopping him from turning down the wrong corridor.
“He feels you, too. I know he does,” Guto said.
Eurig grunted in agreement and turned his head slightly to look at Bym when she stumbled into his back.
Whispering to them in the darkness, Danior said, “We could feel where our mother was, and she always knew where we were. I no longer feel her,” he sadly admitted.
“Help us get our people out of here, and I’ll let you feel a titty,” Bym said.
Danior chuckled.
Suddenly, Eurig picked up his cautious pace. Ahead, grunts of exertion and cries of pain drew the men to battle, but for Bym it was her bond to Drem serving as her
incentive. Eurig swiped the torch from left to right. Goblins hissed and shielded their eyes. Jockeying for position in the tunnel, Danior and the warriors moved around them and began a methodical eradication of the evil spawn. In a chamber ahead, Gethim stood alone with one arm hanging uselessly at his side. A moat of dead goblins surrounded him. With a powerful leap, Danior was at his side, his sword a blur of speed. Warriors joined them. One dragged Gethim from the fray and into the tunnel.
Several feet away, Captain Arwel, drenched in blood, tried to fight half a dozen goblins at once. Eurig, Bym, and Guto ran to help him. Two Umbra warriors, better able than the Solis to fight in the dark, joined them. A severed claw flew right at Bym’s face. Ducking, she stumbled forward, feeling pulled toward Drem. Drawn to him, she ran.
Black mist was a ribbon around him as he used his power to disintegrate goblins as they clawed and screamed their rage. Hopcyn was unmoving at his feet. Seeing her, Drem cried, “No! Go back!”
A huge goblin of at least four hundred pounds stepped closer to him. Its arm was the size of a grown man’s leg. Out of nowhere, a screeching goblin landed on Bym’s back. Spinning and almost falling while hunched over from its weight, she tried to stand upright and failed. The massive goblin bellowed. Lifting her eyes, she watched as it swiped at Drem. As her claws raked through Drem’s black mist, they smoldered and disintegrated. The goblin screamed in fury.
Temporal Locum Page 28
