by Emma Hamm
Luther stepped back only slightly, but his hand remained on her shoulder.
“Where are we going?”
It was the first time Jane had seen her brother appear to be so forceful. He had drawn himself up to his greatest height. Together, brother and sister stood as pillars of strength staring down at the much smaller woman.
“We’re getting out of here.”
“I don’t trust you anymore.”
Jane watched as Catherine’s eyes squeezed shut for a moment before she let out a long breath.
“You have no reason to. I’m asking that you do.”
“We’ll follow you.” Jane interjected. She held up a hand when Luther attempted to argue with her. “No. I trust her.”
“How? She got us into this mess.”
“I don’t think she did.”
Jane’s eyes watched as Catherine appeared to disappear even further into herself. The woman was so incredibly weak compared to the two of them in this moment. But Jane had already seen a strength in her.
“I trust her.” Jane met her brother’s gaze. “We need to go.”
Catherine only nodded then and skirted around her brother as though he was going to reach out and grab her. Jane thought it strange that such a small woman could show such strength and weakness at the same time.
“There are other lab techs and doctors waiting for us.”
Jane and Luther shared a look before they both started down the hallway after her.
“There’s what?”
“I couldn’t get to you without a little help.”
“But why are they waiting for us?”
“I asked, they offered. Our worlds are changing.”
“But why?”
Catherine’s shoulder pressed against the door, but she paused for a moment to glance back at the siblings following her. The fluorescent lights made her skin appear nearly paper thin. There were shadows underneath her eyes that Jane hadn’t seen before. But she pulled herself up strong and straightened her shoulders as she delivered her answer.
“Not everyone agrees with the Doctor.”
Jane suspected those words were as close to a rebellion as Catherine had ever gotten.
She flung open the door to reveal ten people in matching lab coats. They turned to stare at the released brother and sister who were both still in paper thin hospital gowns unwashed hair.
Though Jane knew she should have focused on any faces she recognized, her eyes were instantly drawn to two dark shadows standing behind and above the ground.
“Illyrin.” Her voice was a hoarse whisper before she launched herself towards the goblin who was holding Juo in his arms.
She could not clasp her hands around his large form and ended up with her hands awkwardly on each of their shoulders. She considered the tension that instantly drew Illyrin tight, and realized it was probably better than she hadn’t hugged them.
Her hand stroked the side of Juo’s head and ghosted across the jagged edge of his cheekbone. She could see that the tip of his ear had been removed.
“You’re alright then?”
Illyrin nodded in response and shifted Juo in his arms. His eyes were squinted until they were nearly closed and Jane could see that they were watering. She wondered just how much he could see. She nodded towards the smaller goblin in his arms.
“He’s not?”
A shrug was her answer.
“Has he woken yet?”
Her hand curled around the young goblin’s shoulder and she squeezed in an attempt for him to open his eyes.
When she looked back at Illyrin, the goblin shook his head.
She spun on her heel to find Catherine in the crowd of doctor’s behind her. “Why hasn’t he opened his eyes yet? What’s wrong with him?”
The entire group behind her remained silent and she noticed a few of their jaws were hanging slack.
“Why isn’t anyone answering me?”
“They can understand you?” Was the soft response from one of the men.
“Of course they can! I lived with them long enough.” Jane was insulted that after all of this, the people around her still seemed to assume that the goblins were nothing more than humanoid beasts. Though many of the goblins did not know the human language, they were capable of learning it.
The humans around her wore matching expressions of astonishment. Luther had known of course, but even he was staring in surprise at the giant goblin that stood two feet above all of them.
“Can he understand us too?” Catherine’s voice wavered as she pointed towards the goblin boy she had experimented on.
“No.” Jane shook her head. “Juo was never taught our language. Many of the little ones weren’t.”
Illyrin grunted behind her and let out a soft warble of warning. The group of humans in front of them flinched back in one, as though the sound was something to be terrified of.
“Please.” Jane’s word was meant to scold them. “They have their own language that we cannot hope to decipher. You’re lucky they are kind enough to learn ours.”
She stepped backwards until she felt Illyrin’s arm bump against her back. The soft touch would reassure the goblin male just as much as it would her.
“Catherine why hasn’t Juo woken up?”
“He’s on heavy sedatives. We interrupted an operation to grab him.”
The answer was enough for her. Jane nodded and turned on her heel towards Illyrin once more. There was a more pressing issue, one that made her heart beating painfully against her ribs.
“Ruric and Shusar?”
Illyrin shook his head once more, his large dark eyes gave her no hint to his meaning. She shuddered and felt the tear in her soul rip open. It nearly tore her apart and threatened to swallow her whole at the same time. Slowly, she breathed out through her mouth and stiffened her spine. A nod was her response back to him as she turned to look at the people risking their lives for them.
“Let’s go.”
Ruric was groggy as he slowly awoke once more. His limbs felt uncomfortable and his tongue hurt once more. As he attempted to shift, a fire bloomed across his stomach again. This was a concerning new development that made him anxious.
He needed to be healthy to escape from this place. He needed to be able to stand and walk out on his own so that he could save her.
Her.
Just the thought of the word burned through his mind far worse than the pain in his stomach. She was his first thought and his last thought every time they knocked him out. He had to find her, to save her, to do something other than lying on this table with his arms and legs strapped down.
But he could do nothing. Every time he was lucky enough to be aware of his surroundings, it was only for a few moments. They kept him sedated enough to move his limbs. He had sluggishly awakened once to find them rotating his legs. As soon as they noticed, they had knocked him out once more.
The room was usually silent. He had grown weary of this silence. In his home, there were constant sounds. He missed the gentle dripping of water that came off of the ceilings. He missed the rustling sound of goblins as they awoke to do their chores throughout the day. This place was twisting his mind and his soul.
He feared he was losing his mind with the constant pain and light.
Ruric started to slip back into his dreamless sleep when he heard the sound. Or multiple sounds as it were. There was a commotion next to him that his drugged mind hadn’t even noticed.
The struggle to stay awake was a battle he thought he might lose. Eventually, he managed to open his eyes to slits and turn his head just enough so that he might see the shadows near him.
He instantly recognized one. The lean body and small frame could only be described as the odd chattering human that constantly seemed to want to talk to him. Ruric hadn’t said much since their initial interaction and he didn’t plan on saying more. The young man was tenacious, Ruric would at least admit that.
The other shadow was not familiar to Ruric. He squinted
and tried to lift an arm to rub at his right eye. His mind tried to muddle through the blurry images he was peering at and why he could only see part of the room.
Goblin language filtered through his startled mind. The sound of something dropping on the floor and angry muttering from a voice that was as familiar as his own.
“Shusar.” His own language was so much easier to speak. Even with his throat raw and his mouth desperately needing water, Ruric was capable of speaking to his oldest friend.
He saw the shadows pause for a moment, before he saw Shusar hook an arm around the throat of Frank and step closer.
Now Ruric could see him clearly, and the sight was a welcome one.
“You look like the underside of a raw fish.” Shusar told him, squeezing a little harder against Frank’s flesh.
The human man let out a squeak and went limp.
Shusar tsked loudly and dropped the human onto the floor.
“They’re so weak. How they managed to capture you, I will never know.”
“They shot me with feathers.” Ruric said as he tried to force his body to work. “Medicine that made me weak.”
“Of course they did.” Shusar’s claws scraped against the metal strappings that held Ruric to the table. “They do not know how to fight honorably. Only from far away.”
“They fight well enough to fell me.” Ruric attempted to move, but found even his head refused to follow his directions.
“Apparently so.” The warm trills of the goblin language were soothing to Ruric’s ears. They comforted him even as he became to grow distressed at his lack of movement.
“How bad is it.”
Shusar hesitated.
“Tell me, brother. I am as weak as a child.”
“You have lived through worse.” But Shusar’s tone was gruff as though even the battle hardened warrior was affected by the sight in front of him.
“I have lived through much, but I do not know if worse than this.”
“You’ll have to get used to walking without that eye of yours.”
Then Ruric’s arm did flinch. His biceps flexed once before the metal bit too far into his wrists.
“They took my eye?”
Shusar leaned further down until Ruric could see him clearly. His vision of the scarred goblin’s face was skewed as he leaned over him.
“Most of it. I think it’s still in there, but it’s too swollen to tell.”
His clawed hands prodded at Ruric’s eyelids, causing the bigger goblin to groan in pain. He could feel Shusar moving his eyelid, but saw no light through his right eye.
“Still in there.” Shusar stepped back and shook his head. “Doesn’t look good. You’ll have a scar better than mine.”
Ruric didn’t need to see the other goblin to know that he was dragging a finger down the scar on his cheek.
It mattered little. Ruric was a warrior and they all had scars. But there was a part of him that was concerned that she wouldn’t find him attractive anymore. She had found him pleasing in his differences, perhaps she wouldn’t mind if his skin was marred as well?
Shusar leaned down to kick at Frank’s ribs until he groaned.
“Get up.” Ruric winced as he recognized the disappointed tone. Shusar used to use that on him when he was a boy and getting into trouble.
Frank made a strange gurgling sound as he slowly sat up.
“What?”
“Ruric tell him to free you.”
“Frank.” It was the first time he had said the small human male’s name, and he could see the way the word had made the man’s shoulders quake. “Time to let me go boy.”
“I can’t. They’ll kill me.” The whimper nearly made Ruric feel back for him.
“He’ll kill you too.” Ruric nodded towards the other shadow he couldn’t quite see. “You can choose not to die right now and take a chance to not die later.”
Frank slowly stood and made his way towards the back of the room. Shusar dogged his steps, but Ruric heard the jangling sounds of metal that seemed to ring through the room.
Good. The boy had made the right choice.
He sagged against the table as relief made his muscles weak once more. He was so incredibly tired, but his mind was racing. He had to get out of here, get to Jane. Save the goblin boy. Get them out of the City.
Make the long trek home.
He was already dreading being back out on those hot sands and hiding from the sun. He longed for dark caverns and the save haven of a cool cave.
Those were far away from him now. But he was going home.
Frank’s hands were shaking as he unlocked Ruric’s shackles. He struggled with the first one and had to pick the key up from the floor more than once. Releasing the beast on the table was likely going to get him killed one way or another.
He remembered all too clearly walking into this room and seeing the large creature stretched out on that table. The last round of exploratory surgeries hadn’t been easy on him. Though they had assessed the organ structure in the last surgery, this time they had been viewing the finer details of the goblin.
The eye had likely been tinkered with beyond sight. The claws of his left hand had been removed. Frank didn’t know much about what his team did, but he didn’t think they needed to be pulling out the creature’s nails.
He had been standing in the doorway wondering when his life had become so twisted, when the other creature had shown up. This one scared him even more than the large one he had grown accustomed to.
This new creatures had scars upon his body and a glint in his eyes that made Frank shiver. He was dangerous. The creature on the table was dangerous as well, but in a different way. There was an intelligence to the large goblin. He understood what this world was and understood Frank’s language.
The same guarantee could not be said for this smaller battle hardened goblin.
He gulped as the last shackle was freed from Ruric’s body.
Though, in a way, Frank realized he shouldn’t be frightened. Ruric’s painfully slow process of easing onto his side and using his wounded hand to push himself into a sitting position made even Frank’s side ache in sympathy.
“Shall I get you water?”
Ruric shook his head, but Shusar cocked an eyebrow at the smaller human male.
“He’s trying to bribe you.” Shusar said in the goblin language.
“I doubt it. The boy isn’t that dangerous.”
“He kept you locked up in here looking the way you do.”
“He didn’t do any of the cutting.”
“How would you even know?”
Ruric paused to give Shusar a glare that was ruined by the way he was weaving even as he was seated. “Does he looked dangerous to you?”
The topic of their conversation was twisting his hands at his waist and staring at them with wide eyes. He had lost all blood in his face. Even his lips looked to be bloodless.
Even through his fear, Frank was standing and staring at them. He wasn’t running. He wasn’t fainting again. He was simply waiting for the next thing they wanted him to do.
“No perhaps not.” Shusar stroked his chin while staring at the boy and then turned back to Ruric. “He won’t make a decent miner.”
“No.”
“Think he’s any good at cooking?”
“No.”
“Watching children?”
“Won’t know until we try.”
Ruric slowly eased himself off of the table until his feet touched the cold floor. He didn’t have a stitch of clothing on him and the chill seemed to spike from his toes straight into his head.
“Oh dear.” Frank had noticed the shiver and was slowly inching his way towards another cabinet. “Let me get you something to put on.”
Ruric stretched out his arm to place a weak hand against Shusar’s chest. “Let him.”
As Frank rummaged, Ruric had time to speak with his old friend.
“How much longer do we have?”
“A while, I killed t
he guards and this hallway seems to be abandoned.”
“I’ve learned to not underestimate them.”
“Then we have very little time.” Shusar answered.
Ruric nodded slowly and held out an arm for Shusar to slip under. He grunted as Shusar took some of his weight. Goblins were strong creatures, but even Shusar struggled to hold Ruric’s weight.
“Jane?”
“Haven’t seen her.”
“I have to find her.”
Shusar snorted as he tried to support Ruric’s weight. “What is your obsession with this female?”
“She’s my wife. I’m supposed to be obsessed with her.”
“This is why females are not good for our people. They make your mind foolish.”
Ruric grabbed the table behind him as Shusar started to lean sideways. “This is why we need females. Because they give us a reason to live.”
Shusar had a moment to think about that when Frank’s noises finally stopped and the goblins both turned to look at him. He blanched at the scowls on both goblins’ faces.
“I’ll make short work of this then.”
Frank appeared in front of them. In his hand was a white sheet. Ruric could see the slight shadow of Frank shrug before the man spoke again.
“It’s not a suit and tie, but it’ll have to do.” He leaned forward and made short work of knotting the fabric around Ruric’s waist. It was going to keep him any warmer, but at least he wasn’t going to be wandering around in nothing but his bruised skin.
Frank took a step back and looked at the sight of the creature’s before him.
They were both strangely ugly. Their yellow skin, strange eyes, clawed hands, and outlandish dress were only part of the problem. They were so tall and their muscles bulged underneath their skin when they did something so menial as breathing.
Yet for the first time in his life, Frank felt as though he were making an important choice. These creatures had shown him an odd sort of kindness, and he felt responsible for upholding that. After all, one should strive to make a good impression when meeting a new species.
So as the smaller goblin’s knees started to shake under Ruric’s weight, Frank stepped forward and slipped underneath his free arm.
Ruric instantly grumbled, “Where is Jane?”
