“What is it?” Gerald asks.
I start to cast a spell and ignore Gerald for the moment. The goblin is screaming and it is hard enough to concentrate as is.
I cast out a stream of ice, trying my best to ignore the goblin. Under the freezing temperatures of the frost I can hear the ameba crack. The ameba shrivels and the goblin falls backwards. I think I froze enough of the ameba that it retreated from the goblin. The poor goblin has serious frostbite on his arm, but at least he is still alive.
Shit! He still has some on him! This isn’t good for the goblin.
“We’ll help!” a goblin yells.
“No!” I yell, telekinetically shoving the goblins away.
“But highness…”
“He is gone!” I say, yelling really.
I turn back and the goblin is on the ground. The bit that remained has started to grow and envelop around his legs and chest. He is starting to get up. I can see his skin being eaten away as he looks at me. Those big eyes, pleading for help. I hate cave amebas. Or is that cave amebae? I’m certain I don’t really give a fuck right now.
“But highness!” a goblin protests.
I have to save the other goblins from themselves and put this goblin out of his misery. I can’t stand seeing him like this. I cast an ice shard and impale it through the goblin’s head. He dies quickly. Without that ice spear he would continue to live for some time while the cave ameba slowly devoured him.
“Come with me!” I order the goblins, but Gerald follows as well.
“What is that?” Gerald asks.
“A cave ameba. I would have thought that you had encountered one in your adventures since you fought a vampire,” I say.
“I…I’ve never even heard of one,” Gerald says.
“Let’s go. And don’t go near that goblin. It’s dead. You hear me?” I order the goblins.
“Yes highness,” the goblins mutter, one by one.
“Good. Get going down that tunnel at the end,” I say.
We start to walk and I am carefully watching the goblins. They better not get curious.
“What does a cave ameba do?” Gerald asks.
“It eats you,” I say.
“I can see that,” Gerald says.
“They live in wet parts of underground areas but are rare. Thankfully. They get larger as they eat and any little bit can become another one.”
“So you made a second one?” Gerald asks.
“I did,” I say.
Unfortunately. But I don’t want to wait around and waste my energy trying to kill both cave amebas...amebae...by myself.
“Why not just get rid of the ameba now?”
“Because I wanted it to be a teaching moment for the others,” I say, loud enough that I know they heard me. “If they encounter something like that in their warrens they are to burn it without touching it. Or come and get me.”
“How do you…get it off a person?” Gerald asks.
“What? In case you and your friends escape me and you find one on your own?” I ask.
“Maybe,” Gerald says.
“You need to burn or freeze it. Freezing it may not always kill it. Fire work better. Either way, you better have a healer nearby because you will nearly kill whoever is covered in it.”
“It grew fast,” Gerald says.
“It was just deceptively small,” I say.
No, no jokes Vivian. I don’t know why but, I’m feeling charitable.
“Now, let’s go and find that peasant, shall we?”
Lost to the Ages
“I am surprised,” Gerald says.
“About what?” I ask.
“You tried to save that goblin.”
“You’ll notice I am down to four,” I say. “Which increases your odds, not mine.”
“Ah,” Gerald says.
“What? You thought that one goblin was special to me?” I ask.
“A queen is supposed to take care of her subjects,” Gerald says.
He is speaking a bit louder. Does he hope to turn the goblins against me? I have used spells and time honored training techniques to bend the goblins to my will. They worship me. They love me as much as they can come to love anything.
“I do take care of my goblins but I have warned them of the dangers of curiosity. It is something that is taken with great risks. That goblin literally stuck his finger into his own demise. I killed him so that the others wouldn’t join him. Had they touched that goblin…just touched him…they would be dead back there. And they know that. Don’t you?” I ask the goblins.
“Yes highness,” they respond.
“So if you were trying to get them to think I was their enemy, stop. I am their queen. Their ruler. They were born to serve me and I am here to secure their health and wealth as suits them, but I cannot be a lax ruler, letting them fail in their tasks or fall into danger without suitable consequences. Now these goblins know, and they will tell others, of the dangers of a cave ameba. I have saved perhaps thousands of goblins today,” I say.
Because I am a great queen.
“I don’t know what I expected,” Gerald says.
“It is all right,” I say. “You can admit you were wrong.”
“I knew you were the leader or these goblins. I guess I never really thought of how you held sway over them,” Gerald says.
How did he imagine that I am their queen? That I conned them?
“It is a long road to commanding a tribe of goblins,” I say.
“How did you start?”
“First you need to find yourself some goblins. So I planned out how to capture some. Before that I had to find a place out of the way to train them. Goblins prefer living underground but I found ruins suitable to them. Once they had given birth I killed their sires, trained the young as their queen and then let them breed. Over and over until I had a sizable group,” I say.
I’ll leave out the spells I cast that aided me. It will be better if he thinks I did it all without the use of magic.
“And they see you as their queen? Always?”
“Always. Goblins need a hierarchy. I provide that,” I say.
“You know a lot about goblins,” Gerald says. “Can you tell which ones are the boys and which ones are the girls?”
“That is easy. All of them,” I say.
“What…all of them?”
“Why do you think they breed with such speed? Why do you suppose you’ve never seen female goblins? You have fought goblins before, right?” I ask.
“Well…yes,” Gerald says.
“Any one of them can become pregnant and they usually give birth to three to five at a time,” I say.
“How long does it take for them to grow to adult size?”
“Two to three months,” I say.
“Months?”
“Oh yes. These here are probably only a couple years old,” I say.
“And how long do they live?”
“Seven years is old for a goblin but I’ve had a couple that have seen a decade. It is too short of a life span for them to really develop much beyond a tribal society,” I say.
“Still, that is a lot of goblins,” Gerald says.
“It is. Oh, and let’s not forget their utter stupidity and casual acquaintance with danger. Remember how many goblins I had when we started? And now, I have how many?”
“Four…”
“Yes. Just four!” I yell for the benefit of the goblins. But also for my own benefit. I feel better now that I’ve vented a bit. The goblins aren’t sure if they are in trouble but they sure as hell don’t know how to increase their numbers right now to please me so they’re being quiet.
“I’m not going to try to escape you,” Gerald says.
“Not until your friends come to rescue you,” I say.
“We are still enemies,” Gerald says.
“Oh, I have not forgotten that,” I say.
We come to a ledge that is too tall for the goblins to climb. The cave tapers off to an end to the right but t
here is a large crack that we can continue up and through. I just need to lift the goblins. With magic of course. I’m not going to actually touch the dirty things. Even they don’t know where they’ve been. And that trip in the river was likely their only bath. Ever.
The goblins giggle as I lift them up and place them on the ledge. One tries to climb down thinking it is a game. I push him back telekinetically.
“No. Stay up there,” I say.
I keep an eye on Gerald and he is behaving himself so far. I reach up and hoist myself up. Ugh, bending like this as I climb I can feel my dress sticking to me. I will make the heroes suffer for putting me through this!
I reach the top and get to my feet. I am so pissed right now. I turn to Gerald.
“Come on princess,” I say to Gerald.
“Karma,” Gerald mutters.
Oh, idle threats of an invisible hand of balancing don’t concern me. I feel happier and that is all that matters to me.
“If you had your little focus I might be thinking you were casting a spell at me. Now come on,” I command. Gerald reaches up and lifts himself onto the ledge without a problem.
Now then, we can continue…wait. Wait, wait, wait! Is this cut and worked stonework? It is! That is why the ledge was there. It isn’t a ledge. It’s an old gate of some kind. This is an old road. It is so old I didn’t notice it was worked stone at first. But looking at it closer I can see that someone worked this with mortal hands.
I wonder if it is the dwarves. I’ve never seen a dwarven city. Dwarves aren’t the only ones that live down here that work in stone. Deep elves live underground and they work stone. Gnomes do as well. Well, this looks like too big of a hall for gnomes. I would be hunched over if this was built by gnomes.
“Let’s go,” I say excitedly.
“Do you know anything about this stonework?” Gerald asks.
“It is where that peasant was earlier. We are close!” I say.
Everything is worn or covered with moss and spider webs. A lot of spider webs now that I look at the hall more closely. I can’t tell anything about who made this. But I don’t care. If the peasant woman is here, and she wasn’t wet when I saw her, then this tunnel meets up with the rest of the cave system that I was in earlier. It also means the heroes can approach from a different tunnel and I didn’t scry on them that last chance I had to do so. I don’t know how far along they are. They can’t be that close. We haven’t wasted a lot of time. They still have to squeeze through that tight little crack in the wall.
No. I’m sure of it. I am far enough ahead that I have time to find this peasant, drag her back with me to…well, I still have to find the goblin’s warrens.
Maybe this old ruin will be suitable for my needs when it comes time to cast the Sigil of Altazan. It looks abandoned. But is it?
We enter into a large courtyard. No. This isn’t a courtyard. This is a large street corner. I’m on a street in some large hollowed out cavern. The ceiling looks a bit rough. I can’t tell how worked it is.
I gaze down the street and I see superb examples of architecture in the construction of the buildings. Some of the doors and windows are open while others remain closed. As for the buildings themselves, they are all of the same design. They look like they are only one story but I wonder if they have a basement to them. Doesn’t matter. I’m not here to explore. I am here for other reasons.
I walk over to a door and examine it. The doors are made out of stone, which doesn’t tell me anything since I know nothing about deep elves or dwarves. There is a design carved into the door but I’m not sure it is a language. It has to be just a design.
Does Gerald know about this place? If I ask him he will know that I don’t know and I’m not sure that I want him knowing that I don’t know. I’ll just stay vague and try to pick up on clues to anything he says.
“Have you ever been in a place like this?” Gerald asks as we walk down the street.
“I have never been here before…hey! Keep on the street,” I order the goblins as two make for an open doorway like there are presents inside.
“Sorry highness,” they say.
I need to keep an eye on…
“Take that out of your mouth!”
“But, highness said we could eat.”
“That is a rock. Do you eat rocks?”
“No.”
“Then is it food?”
“No.”
“Then put it down!”
By the gods. Keeping an eye on them is a full time job.
“If you hear something inside, you let me know. If you see that peasant hiding, you let me know. The last thing I need is for you four to run off and find traps left over from whoever used to live here,” I say.
Or whoever still lives here.
“Yes highness,” they say.
“See what I mean about their short life expectancy?”
“I do,” Gerald says. “This ruin, right here, hidden from view. This is a large part of why I love doing what I do.”
“Then why not just be an archeologist and study the past?”
“Too dangerous for a place like this if I was a scholar. And that means it would be too expensive.”
“Expensive?”
“I would have to hire on guards to protect me while I study and hope they don’t damage anything if they get bored. But before that I would need to enroll in a college or university somewhere, study for a few years, and find a place pertinent to my studies once I graduate because I’ve heard everyone picks a specialized field. Then I would need to get permission from a lord or lady or a grant from whoever is supporting my studies…”
That…sounds like a lot of work. I’d rather just read a book at the end of all that work.
“You lost me at all the work you’d have to do for so little benefit,” I say. “If it doesn’t give me any benefit, I don’t see the point.”
“This is history,” Gerald says.
“Not my history. And not the goblins history.”
“Walking among these streets, do you not get a sense of curiosity?” Gerald asks.
“Oh, I do. Don’t get me wrong. I love reading about all manner of things. But what you described is a lot of work that ultimately will benefit someone else.”
“How so?”
“Do you keep all of those trinkets you would find?”
“No. And I see now the reason you would be interested in diving through a place like this.”
“For some bauble that might have been left behind? Certainly,” I say.
“So there is something that you and Katie have in common,” Gerald says.
Is he trying to get me to think that I’m a hero, deep down?
“You mean there is another woman that loves precious things like me? Oh yes, we’re like sisters now.”
“Mock all you like,” Gerald says. “But I think there is more to you than just a villain.”
“Oh, I will mock. I will mock harder if you think trying to make a connection between myself and your one step away from being a dominatrix sister makes me almost one of you.”
“Forgive me for trying to find your humanity,” Gerald says.
“Oh, I have humanity. I have a lot of humanity. I have more humanity than you.”
“More than…how do you figure that?”
“How many heroes are there?”
“Quite a few…”
“And villains?”
“A few…but that’s not…”
“And how many people would you say, as a percentage of people, are heroes?”
“No. No. You are saying more people are evil than good and I disagree. There are fewer villains than heroes in the world.”
“Do you really believe that? How busy are you in the world?”
“I am busy, but that doesn’t mean that I am in the minority.”
“Doesn’t it? Can you not say that even among those you help, were they stronger or more capable, you wouldn’t be facing them as villains?”
“I see
what you’re trying to do. You’re trying to say more humans are like you and you’re wrong. Just because there aren’t as many heroes as I would like doesn’t mean that everyone else is a villain.”
“But they are. Most people, if they want to take something, and think that they can get away with it, will take whatever they want.”
“So most people are villains and therefore you have more humanity because you are like most humans.”
“Exactly,” I say.
“I don’t believe that. Not for one minute.”
“Then you are just being ignorant.”
“Oh, how pleasant of you,” Gerald says.
He is touchy for a priest, isn’t he? However, how many priests do I truly know? They could all be like this.
“I was trying to be helpful.”
“Calling me ignorant is helpful?”
“You were critiquing my character. I am returning the favor,” I say.
“Well, I am fortunate to be walking among ruins like this once again,” Gerald says, changing the subject. “No matter who I am with.”
“Speaking of who I am with, where is that peasant?” I ask. “I desperately want to be walking through this ruin with her as my prisoner.”
“You saw her. Where is she?”
“That woman could be anywhere,” I say looking down another side street.
This isn’t just a few streets or part of a fortress or even some dwarven or elven village. This is a city. All of the buildings are still the same size but they are starting to get different looks to them as we move further into the city. Some have what could have been fine statues at one point in time. Whoever constructed these buildings were craftsmen. None of these structures look worse for being abandoned for a long time. And it has been a long time. All the moss, the webs, and the vines tell that tale. And the vines…they are a kind that grow in the dark places away from sunlight. The further we get into the city they more they seem to thrive. And it isn’t just the vines. Spider webs are getting thicker as well.
There better not be some huge spider lurking about. Maybe I’ll feed it Gerald and cut my losses on this whole thing if there is a giant spider. I can’t stand big creepy crawly things.
The Goblin Queen and the Sigil of Altazan (The League of Sinister Means Book 2) Page 19
