Relics and Runes Anthology

by Heather Marie Adkins

“I appreciate this, Gretchen.”

  “I talked with Susie last night. You refused her. I can’t believe I slept with the goblin king disguised as you.”

  “He’s going to pay for his deceit.”

  Gretchen’s powerful arms take them swiftly down the lake then enter into the river. The water is rocky with the current getting stronger by the second.

  “When we reach the lake that is in the territory of the Scarlet Vale, make sure that you don’t look at the water. Keep your eyes focused on me.”

  Jegorgon watches his flock of ravens coming towards him. “They better have good news.”

  They land in front of him and do their bird talk.

  “What do they say?” a woman dressed in a red hooded cloak asks.

  “No!” One of the ravens catches fire. “No!”

  The raven is drenched in water. Once the fire is out, it shakes off the water.

  “You have allowed the goblin race to be almost extinct, and now you want to rid yourself of your most prized possession.”

  “Those birds are a menace. They can’t do one damn thing I ask.”

  The woman walks over to the birds and caresses their heads. “They are looking for kindness. Something you used to have.”

  He pulls on the woman’s hood and slams her onto the ground. She brings her hand around and he goes flying into the air. Her face exposed, she is the most beautiful woman ever. Her auburn hair is like fire. Her eyes are like the sea after a storm.

  “Let me go.”

  “When you have learned your place, goblin king. I did not give you aid to be disrespected by you later.” She puts her hood back up.

  He is lowered. “I’m a little tense here.”

  The ravens hop along to him. He sits down and they hop onto his lap, pecking at his clothes. He rubs their heads.

  “You failed. Accept it.”

  “Accept failure as you have?”

  “I chose to be exiled. Makes it simpler to control things.”

  “You have exposed your throat by choosing exile.”

  She pushes him back and sits on top of him. “Return to the other land. There is nothing that you can do here. Andrea will not bend to your will. But, if you were to find Wesley, and if you could break the protective shield that keeps him safe, then you would have something to bargain with. Andrea will do anything to keep Wesley safe.”

  “You’re right. I’ve been going about this all wrong.”

  “Yes, you have.” She eases off him.

  He stands. His ravens take flight. “But I’ve tried this before.”

  “You had Cornelius. You never had Wesley.”

  His eyes light up. The blue becomes extremely bright. Haunting. “How am I going to break the protective shield?”

  “You’ll think of something.”

  He looks up at the ravens. How he envies them.

  Jegorgon looks out from the swampland. The makeshift home that the few goblins who remain built for him is hurting his pride more than he wants to let on. He has not kept his word to rebuild the goblin society or their numbers. He has made no attempt to reclaim the goblin city. One of three grand cities in the Vale. His failed attempts at seducing Andrea completely weigh in heavily.

  He hops over the small land masses around the swamp until he reaches the main road. He can do it. He can leave and not be found. Behind him comes his new goblin general. He can’t leave yet.

  “My king, the lady wants to know when you will be ready to leave.”

  “Tonight. Can you bring me my pack?”

  “Yes, my king.”

  “We’ll see how well you can boss me around when I collect the other relics and you become powerless, you little bitch.”

  He waits nearly twenty minutes when the general comes back with the backpack. “Took you long enough.”

  “The lady is sniffing around and watching us. I had to be sneaky.”

  “Goblins are known for being excellent with sneaking around.”

  “You’re leaving us?”

  “I am going to make sure that I can have a future for us all.”

  “I will come.”

  “No. That will raise suspicion. She can’t control you. Only I can. You will be safe. I shall come back for you when I have acquired the means to win this war.”

  “I shall wait for you my king.”

  Jegorgon starts down the road.

  Linus sits on top of a boulder in the assassins’ training area. His trainers climb up to him.

  “I am surprised that you aren’t going on this mission the king has requested,” the female trainer says.

  “He wants a woman to go.”

  “Emily is still young in the art of assassin. It should be you,” the male trainer says.

  “I am going to be a bodyguard for Andrea.”

  “What has he got planned for you?” she asks.

  “We are going to the fairy city to find out who can be trusted. Jegorgon has spread some plague across the Vale that has turned people to his side.”

  “Hold onto those daggers,” he says.

  “Yeah, why does the goblin king want these daggers?”

  “They used to be his,” she says.

  21

  Gretchen brings the boat to the tip of the lake, when the water in front of them creates a huge wave that overtakes the boat.

  Gretchen and Cornelius fight to stay above the water. The boat is sucked into the lake and smashed to pieces. They swim against the pull towards the land.

  “I can’t hold on anymore!” she says.

  “I wish I could fly but I can’t.”

  Cornelius grabs Gretchen’s hand and grabs onto a tree that is growing over the river. He pulls himself up.

  “I’m slipping. Cornelius!”

  He loses his grip and she floats into the lake. She screams until there is silence.

  “No. Gretchen!”

  The wave comes again. But he manages to hang onto the tree. He fights against the water’s pressure to pull himself along to the land. When his feet touch ground, the river calms. “I am sorry, Gretchen.”

  He walks towards the lake. He smacks into an invisible wall. “Oh, this is so unfair.”

  The invisible wall fills in with a red hue. He just realizes that he can’t see anything different on the other side of the wall. He sees only the lake which looks like an ordinary lake.

  “It’s blocked. Now it makes sense. The glass was a vale, but I can’t get in.” Now he gets it. “This has all been an illusion. My body, it’s not safe at all.”

  Jegorgon enters the cave inside the forest of Coral Gardens.

  “Hey, who are you?” Abbey asks.

  He snaps his fingers and snaps her neck. He continues walking until he comes upon Wesley’s body encased in the protective shield. The tiny lights that surround him form a white shimmering wall that blocks Jegorgon from coming near.

  “Your power will wane. I can wait all day.” He holds his hand out. A stream of white comes from his hand and smacks into the wall.

  Emily and the Kell ambassador Hans mount their horses. General Lane and one other soldier accompany them as they ride down the main road.

  “We should reach Montego by nightfall,” Lane says.

  “I want to thank you, assassin, for taking on this dangerous mission.”

  “It’s not dangerous. And get used to calling me Emily, because I am meant to be your servant.”

  “Yes, of course.”

  Linus and Andrea mount up and ride out for the fairy city.

  “We can’t trust anyone right now. Not even our friend Noah. I don’t know how to break this curse that people are under.”

  “I am starting to think that it wasn’t Jegorgon who cast this curse. He doesn’t have that kind of power. He doesn’t possess magic.”

  “He is after my daggers. He says they are his. Jegorgon was never an assassin. I have read every single piece of paper about the assassins’ guild. It lists every name.”

  “Back in the other la
nd he went by the name Jonathan, Dr. Gorgon, and Jacob. He could have used a false name. Maybe Jegorgon isn’t his real name.”

  “It is. It comes from his mother and father’s names. His mother’s name was Jegorna and his father’s name was Grogg.”

  Andrea looks around them. The valleys they are passing are all lit up with the same color. Red.

  “I wonder if his mother was someone very powerful. They say that the female of the species is always more powerful than the male. Andrea, what is it?”

  “Why are all the valleys lit up red?”

  He rides off the road to check out one of the valleys. “Where are the swinging vines? This is the valley of the swinging vines. It’s one of the dangerous ones because the vines will come alive and strangle anyone who enters here. But the vines also produce some of the sweetest fruit in the land. Because of that it is very expensive and the very rich love to eat it.”

  “Who has done this to the Vale?”

  “I’m starting to believe you. Jegorgon didn’t do this.”

  The red hooded woman creates a giant bonfire in the middle of the swampland. She speaks a foreign language that makes the fire spread further into the sky. The goblins surround her. Ready their spears.

  “Put your weapons away. Without your king, you cannot attack. And you don’t own this land. No one owns the swampland.”

  The goblin general raises his mace. “I’d like to smash your skull in.”

  “But you can’t. I could turn your insides to your outsides with a wink, but I can’t. Don’t think that makes me powerless though. Your king has to return. He is duty bound to return to his goblins or he will die.”

  Emily and company stop at the only seaport that separates the dwarf city from the rest of the Vale. “You’re up, Hans.”

  Hans gets down from his horse and walks over to the ferry man. “I’m the ambassador for Kell and request passage to Montego.”

  “It’ll be ten gold coins.”

  “No problem.” He searches through his coin purse.

  “Per traveler.”

  “Right. Hold on.” Hans walks back to the rest of his group. “Ten gold coins per traveler.”

  “You have a lot of money.”

  “The king only gave me enough for passage between the land and for one week’s stay at the inn in Merrybrook. I don’t have enough for everyone to come.”

  Emily looks at Lane and the soldier. “We can go the rest of the way without you.”

  “Our orders are to follow you and stay with you. We can’t risk sabotage.”

  “A general and a solider will not be enough to keep us safe anyway. This is meant to be a spy mission. I am the spy.”

  “The king will not like this.”

  “You have the misfortune of explaining it to him.”

  Lane and the solider ride off. Emily goes over to the stable master. “How much?”

  “For how long?”

  “A week.”

  “That’ll be seven gold coins, miss. One gold per day.”

  “Very well.” She goes into her backpack and takes out a small brown leather pouch. She takes out seven gold coins.”

  “What about me?” Hans asks.

  “Look, we are from the kingdom of Kell. We have important business over in Montego. Can you please waive the additional fee to stable the ambassador’s horse?”

  “Oh, the ambassador. No fee for him.”

  “Lovely.”

  Emily walks over to the ferry man. Hands him ten gold coins. “I am going with him.”

  “Ready when you are, miss.”

  Hans hands over his horse and then gets onto the boat.

  The ferry man makes his way over to the other side.

  “You are very good at getting things done, assas… I mean Emily.”

  “I am a woman. We know what we want when we want it.”

  “When are we to part ways?”

  “We will enter the inn together so that we can achieve the appearance we are going for, then later I shall sneak out and begin my mission. I will return at daybreak.”

  “You know that I will need to seek an audience with the king soon after landing.”

  “Delay it a day. Tell them that you are tired from travelling and wish to sleep.”

  Jegorgon loses his strength. The white stream fades. “What is it that is keeping you safe?” He slams his fist down on the protective shield. He takes out the pearl of Gresha. He rubs it a few times and it lights up. He puts it next to the protective shield to give off enough light to see around. He takes out Emily’s daggers. He tries to cut into the protective shield with them. Nothing.

  “I am so close, Wesley. The daggers are with Linus. You have kept the sword but you never knew its true purpose. Shall I tell you its purpose? Oh, what the hell, you are stuck in there. Your sword is meant to break through the Scarlet Vale. Linus’s daggers, they are meant to break through the illusion that the Shattered Vale provides. You know how I know these things? I have been to the core of the Vale. A brief moment. There is one relic that I cannot find any information about. I do not know its whereabouts at all. It’s a spyglass. I wonder where it can be.”

  Linus and Andrea stop at the foot of the fairy city. The luster of the crystal walls has faded. The magic of the fairies has changed. Linus looks through his spyglass and sees fairies being taken captive and taken to the dungeon. “I think I have found out who is the corrupted and who is still normal.”

  He hands the spyglass to Andrea. “This is horrible. These poor people.”

  “We can’t just walk in here. But I don’t know how we are going to sneak in.”

  Fairies fly over them.

  “Quick, hide.” Linus and Andrea dive into nearby bushes.

  The three fairies land. “They haven’t gone far,” one of them says.

  “I don’t have my daggers,” Andrea whispers.

  “Here, borrow one of mine,” Linus whispers back.

  The one fairy comes over to the bushes. Linus grabs him by the head and brings him down. Chokes him out.

  The other two bombard the bushes. Andrea cuts one of them deeply across the abdomen.

  Linus cuts the other’s knees. “Now, fairy, are you for Wesley or Jegorgon?”

  “What?”

  “We know that either the goblin king or someone else has put a curse on this land. Which of you three are infected?”

  “I think this one is dead,” Andrea says.

  “Then you killed one of the infected. I have been pretending to be infected but I am very much on your side.”

  “How can we trust you?” Andrea says.

  “I found out what marks us as infected.”

  “Show us.”

  The fairy lifts up the dead fairy’s right arm and lifts up his sleeve. A red clover mark is on his forearm.

  “That’s the mark of the Scarlet witch.”

  The fairy lifts up his own sleeves. “No mark.”

  “Take off all your clothes.”

  The fairy and Linus eye her curiously.

  “We need to make sure that the mark isn’t somewhere else on your body. Now take them off.”

  “I can’t stand. You’ve hurt me bad.”

  “Help him up, Linus, and I will take off his clothes.”

  Linus does as she says. She proceeds with taking off the fairy’s clothes. She checks every inch of his feet and legs, then goes around his waist. Up and down his back. Behind his hair. Checks his head. Checks under his arms, around every part of his chest.

  “I am uncomfortable with holding onto a naked man.”

  “Maybe you just need more interaction,” the fairy says.

  “Hurry up, Andrea.”

  “He is clear.”

  Linus helps the fairy put on his clothes. “What about your friend over here?”

  “I haven’t been able to check him yet.”

  “I will do it,” Linus says.

  “Did you actually see the Scarlet witch?”

  “No one sees her. She
uses her three witch sisters to do her bidding. Whatever nasty things she conjures, they do her bidding as well. She never encounters anyone for fear of them learning her weaknesses.”

  “What weaknesses?”

  “No one knows, because no one has encountered her.”

  “Then how do you know there are weaknesses?”

  Linus puts the clothes back on the knocked out fairy. He grabs a piece of the bush and hands it to the injured fairy. “You are a healer. I can tell by your eyes. Healers are known for having more green in their eyes.”

  “Thank you.” The fairy presses the leaves against his wounds. Does a swirl of his hands and the leaves shine. “The reason we know there are weaknesses is because when our king and queen went to see the goblin king and asked him about helping to seal off the Scarlet Vale from the rest of the land, the goblin king said that all we needed to do was learn her weaknesses and we could defeat her.”

  “Thomas and Arianna believed the goblin king?” Andrea asks.

  “Not at first.” The fairy is able to stand. “We confirmed it with the dwarf king. Since the Scarlet Vale is so close to Montego, someone there knows more than any of us do.”

  Linus sits the knocked out fairy against a tree. “He’s clear by the way. But if the dwarves know her weaknesses or at least knows of someone who does, then why haven’t we learned them?”

  “That’s a question to ask the dwarf king.”

  “Good thing that we have one of our own going to Montego. Now we just have to send a message to her letting her know about this.”

  “I will be happy to do it.”

  “You?” Linus is surprised and worried at the same time.

  “You could have killed me.”

  “We were going to but then thought we need someone to torture. I mean interrogate,” she says.

  “Take care then, fairy.”

  “My name is Tippin.”

  The fairy takes flight.

  “What are we going to do with this one?”

  “Just leave them. We are wasting time.”

  “Lead the way, Andrea.”