Dumont's Harem Castle Adventure

by Alexis Ward

  “I don’t like this place. Anything seem off to you?” she wrote. She kept looking nervously at each door, as if something was going to come through them at any moment.

  I listened carefully. I couldn’t hear much of anything other than the sound of Tabitha and I breathing, maybe the faint drip of water somewhere off in the distance? “I don’t hear anything. But I think I know what you mean. Sasha pretty heavily implied that we’re not the only ones here. This place isn’t exactly abandoned, huh?” I said.

  Tabitha nodded and bit into an apple that she had pulled from a bag on the table. I set my rifle down on the table and dug down into the bottom of my pack till my hands closed around a nearly forgotten item, the knife-bayonet attachment for my rifle. A short while later I had locked it into position on my rifle, the blade just under the barrel, and protruding past it by about four inches. Tabitha had watched the process silently. I held it up for her to see better. “This lets it function like a short spear.” I explained.

  She huffed and wrote one word: “Obviously.”

  Just then one of the doors creaked open slowly. By the time I could see that it was just Sasha and Marybeth returning, I was on my feet, my rifle pointed toward them. The moment I recognized them, I lowered it. They both came into the room and shut the door, they seemed out of breath, as if they had just run a decent distance. “So, good news, Marybeth can repair the walls, once we hire her some laborers. Bad news, some of the rooms near the main courtyard have been taken over by a tribe of feral goblins.” Sasha said as she tried to catch her breath.

  Marybeth held up one scaly hand. “We did… manage to lose them in the hallways. Doubtful that they’ll follow us back to here.” she said.

  “Good. So… goblins? Hostile? How many of them?” I asked.

  “Uh, very hostile. We’re not even sure they understand much of our language. We were pursued by what, maybe eight or ten of them?” Sasha said. Marybeth nodded in agreement.

  “Okay. Uh, plan?” I asked. Everyone looked at me, and said nothing. Got it, guess I’m in charge. “Alright… up to me then. Okay, firstly, Marybeth, any combat experience? I know what Tabitha and Sasha are good at, but you and I haven’t really had to work together in a crisis yet.” I said.

  Marybeth shrugged. “I mean, I’m strong, and I’ve got a couple tools in my bag that would serve as weapons. But uh, not really my thing. I’m a builder, not a fighter.” she explained.

  “Okay, so just me and Sasha then. Is there a way up on top of the walls, or a tower or something that we can use for high ground Sasha?” I asked.

  “Yeah. I know a place, though we’ll have to skirt the edge of the goblin’s territory to get there.” Sasha said.

  “Okay. So, hasty lunches for everyone, then let’s go see what kind of fortifications we have to work with.” I said.

  A short while later we were back to creeping through the lightless halls of Trevarthan Castle. Sasha was in front, with me directly behind her, followed by Tabitha, who held the flaming torch, our only light source. Lastly was Marybeth, who held a small sledge hammer held in one hand. As we followed the angular twists and turns of the halls, I heard strange sounds. Far off screams, high pitched laughter, the sound of metal striking stone, similar to the ricochet of a bullet, but with a lower tone. The growing nervousness and tension I could feel from Tabitha and Marybeth was evidence enough that I wasn’t the only one hearing things.

  Eventually Sasha stopped at a set of wooden doors, and pushed them open slowly, then peeked through the resulting gap. “This way, all clear.” she whispered. She led us into a big room filled with stacks of crates and barrels, in the dim light, I couldn’t see the far walls of the room at all, just endless rows of barrels, stacked up to about shoulder height. As the doors swung shut behind us, they cut off all the strange sounds and nothing remained but quiet and near darkness. “Okay, so through a small door on the other side of this chamber should be a courtyard with access to the tower I have in mind. What’s your plan once we’re there Clive?” Sasha whispered as she turned back to glance at me.

  “Simple. We set up a defensive position, and then lure our foe to it. Then we kill them, I guess. Unless you want to try to reason with them?” I said with a shrug.

  Sasha shook her head. “Not really. Even if we convince them to leave, they’re goblins, they’re likely to forget in a few generations and come right back. And goblins have very short generational cycles.” she said.

  We eventually crossed the room and emerged through a small wooden door into a walled courtyard. The sun felt extremely bright, and we all stood for a moment to let our eyes adjust. Tabitha doused the torch by mashing it’s end against the ground till it’s flame went out. There was about fifteen feet of space, surrounded by walls of stone that looked like they’d be difficult to impossible to climb. One of those walls stretched higher than the others, and formed one side of a square tower with an open crenellated top. A short staircase led up to a door built into the wall. Sasha went in first, and quickly proclaimed that it was safe to enter.

  The tower itself had only one entrance, the door we had just gone through. The rest of it’s interior was filled by a long spiral staircase, that clung to the outer wall. We proceeded upward, and I took note of small landings built into the staircase, each with an arrow slit providing a pretty good all around view of the surroundings. At the top of the stairs was a short ladder that led to a hatch. Going up through this let us out onto the flat top of the tower. Up top, the wind overpowered any warmth that the shining sun might have granted, it was still winter after all.

  From the top of the tower, I could see the vastness that was this castle. A large crumbling outer wall wrapped around the whole structure, which from the top looked like a maze. A twisted stone mass of little courtyards like this one, towers, some whole, some partially crumbled, roofs alternatingly flat or steeply slanted with no discernable pattern or purpose to the overall construction. It was chilly up here, so I retreated back into the tower proper and outlined my plan to the others.

  I would take up a position at the arrow slit overlooking the courtyard, while Sasha held the ground floor and made sure no goblins got through the door into the tower. Marybeth would be on the ground floor as well, in charge of handling any creatures that slipped by Sasha. Tabitha would go back through the room with many barrels, and draw the goblin’s attention, then retreat to the tower. In essence, Tabitha was bait. She was less than happy with this idea.

  She scribbled furiously on her notepad. “Why does it have to be me?” she wrote.

  I sighed. “Because you’re the shortest, and the fastest runner. If things go badly, you should be able to lose them among the barrels. If they’re as short as Sasha describes, I doubt they will even be able to see you clearly. Until you make it through, Sasha will be holding the door open, so that there will be light for you to see by. Once you’re in the courtyard, you’ll both sprint to your positions in the tower. It won’t be as bad as you’re imagining, okay?” I explained.

  Tabitha didn’t write any more. Just looked at me a frown on her face. “After you’ve done your run, you just get to come up here by me and help me out till the hard part is over. Okay? In some ways, you get the easiest part of this. All you gotta do at that point is pass me clips of ammo.” I hefted a five round magazine for my rifle.

  Tabitha still didn’t look happy, but she nodded and wrote: “Okay. Let’s do it then.”

  “Is everyone else ready?” I asked. Marybeth and Sasha murmured affirmatives. It didn’t take long for everyone to get into position. Sasha held open the door to the barrel room and Tabitha slipped inside, into the darkness. I stood back a ways from the window, keeping the barrel of my rifle entirely inside the arrow slit, which should make me pretty hard to spot, if our enemies even thought to look up before I fired the first shot.

  Moment after moment of tense silence rolled by. It reminded me distinctly of my old life, waiting in foxholes or burned out buildings for the enemy to show
up. The first sound to break the silence was that of a wood smashing onto wood, far away, quickly followed by a girlish shout. Sasha peered into the darkness beyond the door, and then she was waving one arm, presumably at Tabitha, and shouting something I couldn’t quite make out. Then Tabitha burst through the open doorway into the courtyard, she didn’t slow as she ran straight for the tower, with Sasha right behind her.

  Almost immediately after that, goblins started to stream into the courtyard. I couldn’t see much detail through the arrow slit, but they seemed to all be shorter than the average man, with skin tones ranging from light gray to dark green. They were armed with little more than pointed sticks, clubs, and crude wooden shields. There might have been a single small axe or sword in there somewhere. Most wore dirty rags, like potato sacks, though some only had a thin loincloth. A wave of them was thrown back as Sasha stepped onto the landing in front of the tower as she swung her spear in a wide horizontal swing.

  A moment later Tabitha was standing next to me, I only spared a glance at her before I took aim at one of the creatures below, who lay flat on his back, knocked down by Sasha’s sweeping swings. I exhaled and squeezed the trigger. The report of the rifle was loud, it echoed off the empty walls of the tower, drowning out all the sounds of the battle below. The goblin I had targeted sprouted a large hole in his chest, judging by how he convulsed then went limp, he died near instantaneously. The goblins around him paused to look at him, then surged back toward Sasha, who had retreated into the doorway of the tower. I took aim at another as he ran and fired again, then the next right behind him ran into my sights as he tripped over his fallen comrade.

  As I popped the clip free from the rifle, Tabitha held up another one for me, taken from the pile near my feet. I took aim out the arrow slit again, and it looked like more than half of the goblins were retreating, shouting in their high pitched unintelligible language. Only a handful were still engaged with Sasha, while a couple others stood on the edge of that melee, looking for an opportunity to strike. Two trigger pulls later those had fallen. As one of the goblins engaged with Sasha turned to flee, she ran him through. Moments later, the battle was over, as the remaining goblins fled through the door into the room with all the barrels.

  I set the rifle against the inner wall of the tower and got down on one knee to collect the spent brass shells and put them into an outer pocket of my backpack. My ears still rang slightly from the booming noise of the rifle. A short while later Tabitha and I made our way down the staircase and rejoined Marybeth and Sasha. Sasha had only suffered superficial injuries, though her clothes were spattered with mud and dried blood. Marybeth was fine, she had only had to take down the lone goblin that had slipped by Sasha. “I promise none of the blood is mine.” Sasha said.

  “Good. Well, that went about exactly as planned, except there were way more goblins than expected.” I said.

  Marybeth nodded. “And they fled, which means this isn’t over. Sasha, you’re certain we’ll need to kill them all?” Marybeth asked.

  Sasha nodded. “I’ve dealt with goblins on my lands before. It’s always ended the same way. They either need to be exterminated, or driven out.” she said.

  “Is either of those really an option in this giant labyrinth? There’s so many hallways and so much space in which they could hide. I’m not sure just the four of us could really track them all down if they fled in different directions.” I said. Tabitha nodded in agreement.

  “Hmm. Valid. What do you suggest then?” Sasha asked.

  “I suggest we recruit them. We’re going to need raw numbers in order to run a place this large, and Marybeth needs a workforce, right?” I said.

  “True… goblins can be industrious if commander strictly and kept under supervision.” Marybeth remarked.

  “Hmm. Marybeth, you seem to know a little about this. Do goblins have some kind of tribal hierarchy or anything? A leader we can appeal to?” I asked.

  “I mean, I am part devil after all. My ancestors have been making unsavory deals since the dawn of time with all kinds of creatures. Goblins normally have a king, or more rarely, a queen. Underneath them are a number of chieftains who handle the day to day things. So we’re looking for a goblin with a fancy crown, usually they’re in a makeshift throne room.” Marybeth explained.

  “Awesome. Then lets go do some diplomacy. Or fight if we have to.” I said.

  Chapter 9 - Making a Deal with the Goblin Queen

  By the time we departed the tower and the small courtyard, the sun was low enough that it didn’t touch the ground, and the air became very cold. We had agreed it was best to try and finish this business with the goblins tonight, to avoid any unsavory attempts by them to ambush us in our sleep. Sasha led us deeper into goblin controlled territory, once again our only light source was the torch that Tabitha carried. Eventually, we rounded a corner to a new sight. Lit torches in wall sconces lined one wall, and we could hear the faint rhythm of tribal drum music in the distance. Sasha grimaced. “We’re in the right place then.” she said.

  The music itself was organized chaos, a cacophony of unfamiliar sounds wound around a singular deep beating drum. Sasha didn’t seem pleased, but it didn’t sound objectively bad to me, just very unfamiliar. As we rounded another corner, we came into a large chamber that contained a few large pillars, and on the far end, two goblins in metal armor guarded a stout looking wooden door. This whole space was also lit by torches. Strangely, the guards didn’t seem to notice us at all. I looked back at Tabitha and Marybeth. At some point, Tabitha had put out her torch. Marybeth was still at the rear of the group, silent as always unless spoken to. “Alright, everyone, get behind those pillars. Let’s see how well trying to talk goes.” I said.

  Sasha, Tabitha, and Marybeth took up a concealed position behind the pillar nearest to the door we had entered from while I strode past them, toward the two goblin door guards, my hands held up in a way that I hoped they interpreted as non threatening. “Hello there… goblins. I wish to speak to your leader. King? Queen? Chief? One of those.” I said as they noticed me.

  The two goblins stood up a little straighter, and one of them let out a small gasp. They then turned to look at each other, their eyes bulging strangely while their mouths twisted into grimaces. Then one turned and spoke to me. “Wait here.” were the only words I understood out of what he said to me, as the other armored goblin stepped through the door immediately behind them. I caught a glimpse of light, dancing goblins, a glimpse of red on the floor, and music swelled outward from the room. Then the door shut and I was left alone with the remaining goblin guard. I watched him carefully as I lowered my hands, then crossed my arms. He didn’t seem too concerned by my change in posture.

  Suddenly, the muffled music I could hear through the door stopped. There was a brief, but loud shout, again in the goblin tongue, of which I understood nothing. Through the door I could hear many little footsteps, and what sounded to me like furniture being dragged across a stone. All those noises started as fast as they had begun, then I heard a single stringed instrument start to play, light, lazy, soothing tones. Like a slow classical music. The door to the room opened again and the guard from before poked his head out. “Enter.” he said.

  I stepped through the door. What lay beyond could best be described as a throne room with a large fire pit in the middle. The room looked as if a large number of people had just vacated it. The floor was covered in muddy footprints, bits of food, and discarded clothing. The fire in the pit roared and the room was almost uncomfortably hot. On a raised platform to my right, sat a single goblin with what looked like a ten string guitar-like instrument. The source of the music. To my left were six more armored goblins, watching my every move and blocking the pathway to another door. Directly across the room sat a female figure whom I could only assume was the goblin queen.

  She was tall for a goblin, perhaps about four and a half feet, her skin was a dark olive green, and could probably be mistaken for a charcoal black in certain kin
ds of lighting. Her face was remarkably human, except for her pointed ears, angular jaw, and her oversized teeth, which were all ended in sharp points. It gave her the appearance of always smiling, which was comical in and of itself. Her hair was the same color as her skin, and fell about her shoulders in a mixture of curls and tangles. I could see tiny bits of gold, silver and bone that were woven in amongst her hair. Atop her head was a battered silver crown, set with square cut green stones, though there were many fittings that were empty, where gemstones might have once been. The slight bits of white cloth that covered her breasts, and the vertical strips that barely passed for a loincloth left little to the imagination about her figure. She reclined atop a bench made of bones held together with twine, layered with furs and cushions. “You seek an audience with the queen?” she said haltingly in my language. Her voice was high pitched, but also rough and throaty. It reminded me of the voice of someone who had smoked far far too many cigarettes.