by Jenna Grey
“They’ll give up when they realise that it won’t work,” Lily said. “Won’t they?”
Connor craned his neck and looked up.
“I wish that were true. The enchantments might not work on them. No-one could ever have imagined that anyone would dare to invade the Citadel by scaling the mountain. Goblins and Trolls are larger than men, and I think they might have breached the walls. If they haven’t yet, I think they will.”
“You think?” Lily asked, her voice scathing. Another goblin hit the ground and bounced, almost flattening Nob.
“We can’t even dream walk without our power to see for certain.” Connor snapped. “We need to know what’s going on up there.”
Indeed they did.
Lily hesitated a moment and then said:
“Cumudgeon, can I have the holdall, please?”
“No,” Connor said, “It’s too dangerous.”
Cumugeon laid the holdall down in the snow and Lily struggled to open the frozen zip with numb fingers. From inside, she pulled out the enchanted shawl, clutching it to her chest. She could see from Connor’s expression what he thought of that idea.
“It’s worth a shot, Connor, even without our powers it might let us see. You said it yourself, we need to know what’s going on up there.”
Connor hesitated and then gave a reluctant nod.
“Brace yerself” Nob yelled, as a huge form above almost blotted out the sky. A giant of a troll was plummeting towards them at a rate of knots; as it hit the ground it felt as if an earthquake had struck. Astonishingly he was still alive, barely, but still breathing. Cumudgeon ambled forwards, raised his axe and cleaved the creature’s skull in two, splitting it like an opened walnut, his brain neatly sliced right down the middle.
Connor looked down at Lily, still clutching the shawl and gave a reluctant sigh.
“Together, though. I won’t have you going up there alone.”
He moved close to her and took a hold of the shawl, letting it unfurl in front of them. It was large enough for them both to drape it around their shoulders.
“You need to concentrate on where we want to be… at the top of this chasm,” he continued.
They stood pressed close, as near to the wall as they could get.
“Take care of our bodies while we’re gone won’t you?” Lily said to Nob.
“Guard ’em, with me life,” he replied.
Lily closed her eyes as Connor threw the shawl around their shoulders and felt the world dissolve around her.
Chapter Fourteen.
When Lily opened her eyes, she found herself standing on a small outcrop of rock at the very summit of the mountain, looking out across the chasm to the Citadel, cradled in the heart of the mountain on the other side. They were just a few feet from the edge, and Lily’s heart jumped into her throat for a moment, until she remembered that they were not really here, just astral projections that couldn’t be harmed by a fall and who would probably have found themselves floating in mid air if they had materialised just a little further to the left, or right back down at the bottom again staring at their own empty bodies.
Lily peered over the edge at the distant shape of the dead troll beneath and grabbed Connor’s arm to steady herself as she got the worst case of vertigo ever.
Along the ridge away were several goblins and a troll, bracing themselves to jump across the chasm to the narrow ledge on the other side. There was no run-up of course; it was a cold jump from standing and that chasm was awfully wide. Whoever was in charge of the army below ‒ and she was fairly certain that it wasn’t Ahriman ‒ had realised that he needed to send up much bigger goblins, and the latest volunteers were great hulking brutes the size of full grown rhinos. Above, the Djinn circled, and were presumably reporting back to the ground what was happening at the top of the chasm.
One of the largest of the goblins drew in a deep breath and launched himself out and over the precipice. He almost made it, his feet hitting the very edge of the ledge, but he lost his balance and windmilling his arms in the air he toppled backwards into the chasm. Lily watched his tumbling shape diminish in size as he got nearer the bottom and she realised just how deep this chasm was.
The goblin, who had been standing along side him, looked down at his fallen, or rather falling comrade, and gulped back his fear. Then, with either great stupidity or remarkable courage, he launched himself off and Lily watched him arc through the air… This time he didn’t miss. He landed on the other side ‒ a very surprised look on his face.
“Surely, the cities archers will just take him down,” Lily said, as she watched the goblin scramble up the rocks towards the gaggle of goblins and trolls who had already made it across and at present were hiding behind a small outcrop of boulders, in case there should be any attempts to repel them by the Citadel guards. The trolls in particular were finding it very hard to keep their presence a secret, as no matter how much they crunched themselves into smaller shapes, they still managed to have something sticking over the edge. Lily guessed that they were hoping that as the trolls were almost the same colour as the rocks, if they stayed still, they would be camouflaged enough to remain undetected.
“The King won’t let them get into the Citadel,” Lily said. “He’ll just send troops out to fight any goblin that’s makes it through, won’t he?”
“Look up at the walls,” Connor said. “There are no arrow slits, and even if there were, the telemetry is wrong. They have no defences because they never thought they needed any. They never imagined that they would ever need to defend this city like this.”
A particularly fat goblin was bracing himself for the jump, drawing in lungfuls of air, as if he were going to have to make the jump underwater, circling his shoulders and limbering up. He launched himself into the air and landed on the other side without much effort, doing a clumsy roll and landing with a bump. More were coming up all the time and very soon the whole ridge was full of goblins, recaps, trolls and other fey creatures that Lily couldn’t even identify, all trying to jump the chasm. Now that larger goblins were being sent up, most of them were succeeding.
“The city’s going to fall,” Connor said. “There’s nothing that can stop it now.”
And even as the last word left his mouth something happened to belie his words. The air around them suddenly seemed to shiver and tremble, as if the air itself was being hit by an earthquake… dark shapes began to form around the gathering of goblins, undefined, intangible and for a moment Lily thought it was the Djinn, coming up to add their power to the invading army. She very soon realised these were not Djinn.
“What are they?” Lily asked, transfixed at the sight before her. There were creatures hiding in the darkness, not Syffed, but other dark creatures from some netherworld, that swam in the inky blackness like giant squid. Lily could make out tentacles, and the bulk of their bulbous bodies, but little else. They were soundless, writhing creatures from the lowest reaches of Hell. It wasn’t only the sight of them that made Lily’s bone rattle, but she could feel the power radiating from them, sense how alien they were, how removed from anything she had ever felt before.
“This is magic even darker than the magic I called against Rawhead.” Connor said, shuddering.
“Where’s it coming from...” Lily asked. He didn’t have to answer. Standing on the low Citadel walls, was Queen Adeline, her arms outstretched and in one hand, a staff. From the ancient piece of knotted wood in her hand darkness poured, swirling around her and driving towards the enemy.
“She’s a sorceress...” Lily said, her words drying in her throat as the dark forms writhed their way through the darkness towards the cowering goblins and trolls. The great tentacles lifted them high into the air and flung them, as if they were rag dolls, tossing them over the edge. They rained down on Nob and Cumudgeon below and Lily only hoped they had managed to find shelter from the onslaught.
All Lily and Connor could do was watch the spectacle from the safety of their perch, but even though Li
ly knew they were safe enough here, she could feel that terrible power roiling around her and she knew that if they face Queen Adeline without their power, they were dead. Even with it, Shiri wasn’t sure that they would be able to overpower her.
“I think we’re in trouble,” Lily whispered.
“I think we are too. We’ve seen enough,” Connor said, slipping the shawl from their shoulders. Within an instant they were back down at the bottom of the chasm, surrounded by a mountain of goblin corpses.
“You two all right?” Nob asked. “When it started rainin’ goblins, me and Cumby thought somethin’ terrible had happened.”
“The Citadel’s record’s safe. It’s still never been breached,” Connor said, his voice distant.
Lily tossed him a look of utter despair.
“Do you still want to go and see Elidor and the Bitch Queen from Hell?” she asked.
“We have no choice. We just have to trust the Powers That Be to get us through this,” Connor replied.
Lily wished she had that much faith, but Connor seemed to have enough for both of them.
Nob gave a wobbly smile and looked across at the pile of twitching corpses.
“Best get going then, chillies, hope you’re up fer a bit of goblin climbin’.”
And with that he began scaling the nearest corpse.
Chapter Fifteen.
It was deep darkness by the time they reached the entrance to the tunnel at the other end, having negotiated their way through the labyrinth of goblin and troll corpses. The ball of light that Lily had conjured bobbed in front of them, a little beacon of hope in the terrible darkness. They travelled in silence, afraid and miserable, because they all knew that whatever awaited them at the end it wouldn’t be good.
“This tunnel don’t go on too fur, won’t take long now. Comes out in the Old Wizard’s Beard.” Nob said.
“Pardon?”
“The Old Wizard’s Beard, it’s the name of the pub. Right lively place it is too,” Nob said, a grin from ear to ear. “Makes old Grendel’s court, gods rest his soul, look like a kiddie’s tea party.” He gave a little chuckle and wiggled his voluminous eyebrows, well eyebrow, as the two joined together in the middle, making one long stretch of fur that ran from ear to ear.
Lily nodded and tried not to let her thoughts show on her face. She daren’t even imagine what they were walking into, but as long as there was somewhere for her to get warm she couldn’t care less.
“I sincerely doubt there’s going to be much merriment going on there at the moment, not with half of the goblins in Otherworld camped outside their door,” Connor said.
“What do we do when we get there, anyway?” Lily asked.
“We make up the next bit of the story,” Nob replied.
At the other end of the tunnel was a small staircase leading up to a trapdoor. The steps groaned and complained as Cumugeon tiptoed up them, trying to spread his weight evenly on the steps so that he didn’t snap them like twigs. They stood in an odd-sized cluster on the little landing at the top.
“I best go first,” Nob said. “We don’t want you scarin’ old Milton out of his wits. He’s not getting any younger, yer know.”
Lily felt like saying, “Tell me about it, I’m ageing by the second here,” but wisely kept her mouth shut.
Nob pushed his way past Cumudgeon and faced what looked like a plain wooden wall to Lily. He ‘ummed’ and ‘ahhed’ a bit and pressed in a few different places, looking for what Lily presumed was a hidden button of some kind.
“They keep changin’ this blessed thing to keep bandits out, only they forgets ter tell us, what the new one is,” he grumbled.
“Maybe you need to say ‘friend’ in elvish,” Lily said, more to herself than to anyone else. She flushed scarlet as three pairs of eyes turned to stare at her. “Never mind,” she mumbled.
After a few failed attempts there was a click and the panel slid open to reveal darkness. The strong and unmistakable smell of beer wafted out from it. Nob disappeared through the door and popped back just a couple of minutes later with a smile on his face.
“We’re in luck. Milton has ter deliver a load up to the castle today. He’s gonna sneak me and Cumby in sos we can see the lay of the land, like.”
Lily couldn’t help but think that it was going to be quite an achievement sneaking Cumudgeon in anywhere, but trusted that Nob knew what he was doing.
They followed Nob through a small passage to come out into a largish room loaded with barrels and bottle, boxes and crates. Waiting there for them was a sallow looking elf, who had definitely seen better days. His long hair hung in greasy clumps around his pinched pointed face, in fact to Lily he seemed to be nothing but points. Ears, chin and nose were all acute angles, his bony body angular and it looked to her as if he were all elbows and knees.
“This here’s the two I was tellin’ yer about, Milton. They’s here ter sort out them there goblins at the bottom on the mountain.”
Milton, cast his bloodhound eyes in their direction and didn’t look overly impressed.
“You best come through then, Your Majesties,” he said, not even trying to conceal his scepticism. As they were led through, Lily could hear the clamour of excited speech and arguing through the thin partition wall, and as they passed an open door she peered through to see where the noise was coming from. The door led through to what must have been the main bar, a large and rather Spartan room filled with rough wood tables and benches, every one of which was full with compacted feyfolk, all trying to find bum room in the limited space. There were many standing or leaning, propped up against the large wooden pillars that supported the rafters. There weren’t just hobs there, but fey folk of every kind and even what looked like a few humans. From time to time humans did find their way through to Elphame and made their homes there. The assorted fey were all talking at the tops of their voices assaulting the air with an unintelligible babble.
“They’re all fired up about what’s going on,” Milton said, his voice lifeless, as if it were really no concern of his.
“I should think they’re scared witless,” Lily said.
“You two need some rest now anyways, you must be tired ter yer bones,” Nob said.
They were so weary that both she and Connor could barely keep their eyes open. Lily would have given anything just to flop on a bed and sleep for a hundred years.
“I wish I could get rid of this feeling that we’re being watched,” Connor said. “I wonder if Adeline has somehow sensed we are here?”
Lily hurried to catch up with Milton, who was taking the passage ways with impossible long-legged strides.
“It’s possible, I suppose, but if she is we’re doing nothing more than trying to help her and save her people. She can hardly hate us for that.”
“People like here don’t give up power easily. You’s gonna needs ter be very careful how yer handles it.” Nob cautioned.
“As soon as we get settled in, I’m going to use the shawl again,” Lily said, to see what’s going on inside the palace, we can’t walk in there bl—”
Connor said, “No,” before she could get the last word out. “It’s too dangerous. Last time Adeline sensed you were there. We can’t risk it.”
Nob gave them a broad grin.
“No needs to risk it. Just leave it ter old Nob. I can sneaks inter the palace no trouble and see me mate in the kitchens. Often get him a nice pair of kippers fer his tea. There’s nobody in the castle better to ask for gossip than Bodger. The size of his ears, he can hear what’s goin on the other side of the castle without movin’ a step.”
“Then please go and see him Nob, and get back to us as soon as you can,” Lily begged.
Milton had stopped beside a rather battered looking door.
“Here’s your room, don’t make a mess of it,” he said, giving them a mistrusting look. “I’ll bring you up something to eat, presently.”
And with that he turned his back on them and disappeared along the passage.<
br />
“Don’t take no notice of old Milton, heart of gold he has, just keeps it well hidden,” Nob said.
“Very well hidden,” Connor replied, opening the door to the room and cautiously looking inside.
The room Milton had shown them to was small, but moderately comfortable, and reminded Lily a little of her bedroom back at home, with its sloping roof under the eaves and the window that looked out to the oak tree with the owl nesting just outside her window. This window looked out onto a narrow cobbled street, which was surprisingly empty, the deep snow hardly broken by a foot print or a cartwheel. She wondered idly why they didn’t clear the streets of snow, but then, perhaps they usually did, but were afraid to go about their usual daily business while such a dreadful threat hung over their heads. She supposed that everyone was hiding at the moment, terrified that the goblin army would somehow find their way through the city’s fairly impressive defences and murder them all in their beds. Lily could still hear the rabble downstairs, all discussing and plotting the demise of the enemy. She could hear odd snatches, floating up, threats and curses, boasts and terrified murmurings. They were all afraid, hardly surprising after what had happened in Tunneltown. This army took no prisoners, it was into the pot with some carrots and onions for every single one of them if the city fell.
“But you didn’t see it,” one said. “I was up on the Citadel walls, on watch when it happened and I saw everything, the Queen, gods bless her, was standing on the rampart and called some powerful magic to drive away the enemy. She called up creatures from the netherworld to cast them down into the chasm. As long as we have the Queen to protect us, no harm can come to us.”
There were choruses of both approval and disapproval and Lily wasn’t quite sure where she stood on the matter one way or the other. She knew that the Queen might be able to protect them for a finite period, but ultimately they were the only ones who could defeat Ahriman for good.
“We’re doomed,” another said, a hob by his dialect, and his voice fear laden. “You seen them things what’s hovering overhead. Them’s aint natrel.”
