Trak relates what happened. “Tironock buys your story that your army is being built for his use. He now believes I have joined his cause to advance my own ambitions. My lie is probably why I’m still alive. You will not have any trouble finding your arms shipment. The iron weapons lie where your porters abandoned them.”
The white goblins bunch to the side of the tunnel to let the couple pass. Two sorcerers and a dog are not something to trifle with. They seem particularly wary of the dog. Dogs are not to be trusted. In another five hours, Trak and Myrel walk below Ghad’s new hive and ascend to the surface of the island. On the cliff top, they meet a villager who tells them there is sickness in the castle. Myrel and Trak immediately ask about the old goblin’s condition. “I don’t know about that,” replies the villager, “but Queen Dorla has been sick for several weeks.”
Trak and Myrel head straight for the castle. When they enter the duke’s audience chamber, they find Meg conversing with Farg who seems to be in good humor. “We hear the queen is ill,” says Myrel.
“I’m afraid her condition is irreparable,” Farg laughs. “The queen is pregnant. She conceived before leaving the capital.” Myrel doesn’t like the sound of that. The queen has been on the island for four months. She should be past her period of morning sickness.
“With your permission, I would like to attend to the queen.” Myrel leaves Trak to relate to Farg and Meg what befell them on their journey. Her puppy seems content to stay behind and enjoy the caresses he receives from the old goblin.
The queen embraces Myrel. “Are you ill, Your Majesty?” Myrel asks as soon as Dorla releases her from her clinging grasp.
“Only in the mornings,” replies Dorla, with a look of distress on her face.
“I gather morning sickness is not your biggest problem.”
“Tell me what I should do,” pleads Dorla. “Do I keep this child or must I terminate the pregnancy?”
“What does the father want?” asks Myrel.
“He doesn’t even know I’m pregnant. He doesn’t matter anyway. That relationship has ended,” confesses Dorla. “Being queen has made it too easy to have whatever I want. I liked the look of one of the guards and I had it arranged for him to escort me on afternoon walks. I am not proud of what I did, but don’t judge me too harshly. I am lonely on this island.”
“It is not for me to judge.” There are herbs that can terminate the pregnancy, if that is what you want.”
“It is not what I want, but I have a duty to protect the king from scandal,” Dorla responds. “I do love the king and don’t want to hurt him.”
“Then proclaim to the king he is about to have a child,” advices Myrel. “Embrace motherhood and enjoy the moment.”
Myrel’s directness calms Dorla. “As much as I regret my mistake, I look forward to a baby.” She gives Myrel a knowing smile as though they are co-conspirators. I suppose infidelity is not the most horrendous secret one might try to conceal.” The comment makes Myrel feel uncomfortable, but she doesn’t press Dorla for a clarification.
When Myrel returns to the duke’s audience chamber, her puppy greets her. “I think the queen will live,” she declares.
“We have been discussing what ye should name your dog,” her grandmother says. “For reasons that elude me, Duke Farg wants to call it ‘Chicken.’ I be partial to some name out of mythology, like Stormchaser or Warhound.”
“What name do you favor?” Myrel asks Trak.
“I remember Krage once had a small yellow dog. It was killed defending his master. I think Myrel’s puppy is made of the same metal. I miss that little dog. For a time, I thought of it as my only friend.”
Meg adds, “I gave Krage that dog when we came to this island and he chose to live alone in the broch. Krage would refer to the dog as his ‘Dungoth.’ The name means ‘companion’ in the old tongue.”
In the end Myrel decides to give the matter more thought.
Chapter 37
Isle of Uisgebeatha: The Second Sowing
Winter approaches. For the goblins digging beneath the channel, work goes on as usual. By spring the hive will be ready to accommodate refugees from the main hive. On the surface the winter proves to be the worst in memory. Large snowdrifts accumulate against the castle walls as the wind blows unmercifully.
During the dark days of the winter solstice, Trak and Myrel stay in their hut but every few days they trudge up to the castle. Myrel visits Dorla while Trak and Farg sit by the hearth in the audience chamber. Trak and Farg are approaching thirty. The passing years are more noticeable on Farg. He is assuming the same rotund torso that characterized his father and earned him the nickname of Duke Toad.
Trak informs his friend, “The attack on the temple begins soon. The Queen Mothers want to seize the Septantrak before the roads clear and military units in remote regions of the kingdom can easily reinforce the capital. I will leave in the morning. Myrel will stay on the island until Dorla is safely delivered of her child. She will then join me wherever I end up. Please visit my grandmother from time to time to see if she needs anything.”
“Tell me again the reason you are going. Why not stay here where it is safe?” Farg queries.
“I must set the explosives to seal the entrances to the temple and prevent a counterattack. Afterwards, I don’t know what will happen. Upon reaching the surface, the white goblins intend to forsake Tironock. If the demigod is able to threaten them in the temple, the white goblins are prepared to flee into the surrounding countryside. Of course, Lord Lizardthroat isn’t going to stand idly by while white goblins set up housekeeping. I feel I must be there to help minimize casualties. Myrel’s skill as a healer will be needed. At the moment it is safer here, but eventually war will spread to your island. You need to prepare.”
“That is just it. How do I prepare for a war against an immortal being?” Farg responds with a shrug of his shoulders.
“Remember! Tironock has the ability to enslave minds. He can force his victims to do his bidding. He will send his minions against you. An army of mindless wraiths is an enemy you can fight.”
When Trak says goodbye to Myrel, it is their first separation since bonding. Myrel immediately feels a void when Trak leaves her sight. To ease the separation, Myrel and Dungoth, as she now refers to her dog, move into the castle to be on hand when Dorla delivers.
Trak uses the gold coins Ran gave him to purchase niter from Halban merchants who supply the region’s miners. He and Ghad Samraet set out together. Fifty porters transport the niter and other ingredients needed to make black powder. Ghad has already sent a thousand soldiers ahead. These are his best-trained and best-equipped. Ghad believes a thousand will be enough to seize the temple. Another two thousand soldiers remain in the hive beneath the sea.
The underground tunnel is broad and straight, enabling Trak and the porters to travel quickly. As they approach the main hive, side tunnels become more frequent. Trak learns as much as he is able about the destination of each passage and builds a mental map of the Underworld. The number of minor hives scattered about the goblin kingdom surprises him. The goblin population of the Underworld exceeds that of the surface dwellers.
Upon reaching the main hive, Ghad presents Trak to the Queen Mothers. Their reception is cool. They don’t want to give Tironock any cause to question their loyalty. In Trak’s eyes, the Queen Mothers are indistinguishable. They each have the same ageless quality. One queen directs him to a chamber where he is to assemble his explosives. “Be ready in six days,” he is told.
Can Tironock sense my presence in the hive?” Trak asks Ghad.
“He can if you use your ability; otherwise, I’m not sure. I doubt he can smell you. His nostrils are overwhelmed by the stink of burning brimstone,” Ghad reasons.
Trak finishes his work in five days and is sharpening his sword, Dragon Fire, when Ghad and a score of soldiers come to collect the explosives. “It is time. Tironock has ordered his army to assemble. He is coming to direct the invasion,” Ghad
informs Trak.
Trak watches squads of infantry move toward the hive’s exit. He feels the growing presence of the demigod. Tironock’s mind begins entering his consciousness. Trak resists but wonders how many of the white goblin army now wholly embrace Tironock. How many are bound to his will? Trak and Ghad Samraet march the army to the surface. Trak needs to be among the first into the temple in order to quickly seal the entrances and forestall a swift counterattack. As the army passes through Ardonbrae, Trak takes no notice of the ancient ruins. He focuses on preventing Tironock from controlling his will.
Ghad sends goblins with hammers to smash through the walls Lord Lizardthroat erected to seal the caverns beneath the temple. If the clerics really intend to escape rather than resist, the noise produced by the demolition crews will be their signal to flee.
In a matter of minutes, the white goblins break through the walls and regroup in the main cavern. For most, it is their first time in the ancient heart of the goblin religion. The flowing magma strongly illuminates the Stones of Septan and the stone statue that stands in its center. Ghad is exhilarated. He imagines, in a short while he will be on the surface and free of Tironock.
On the platform a whirling wind takes form. Tironock is attempting to take corporal form. A few of Ghad’s soldiers break ranks and rush back toward the hive. This is bad, Trak realizes. If Tironock can materialize so close to the surface, his power has, indeed, grown strong. Trak looks at Ghad and sees the frustration on his face. For now, there is nothing to be done but to stick to the plan.
When Tironock fully appears, he is as tall as the stone goblin. His cruel laughter shakes the cavern. The naked giant lumbers toward Septan’s stone image. With his colossal strength, Tironock lifts the massive piece of carved basalt and throws it off the platform into the flowing lava below. “After today, all creatures will worship only me,” he boasts before dematerializing.
Guards stationed in the passageway leading into the temple hear Tironock’s roar and sound the alarm. The temple’s warning horn sounds to alert the city. Krage and Alrik rush through the Septantrak ordering everyone to flee the temple.
Trak’s teams of pyrotechnique sappers race to their assigned positions where they set the explosives and light the fuses. A series of explosions shakes the mountain. The underground passage leading to the palace and the delivery entrance are sealed beneath tons of rock. Trak personally seals the entrance to the temple’s Great Hall. Rather than damage the magnificent doors fronting the Septantrak, Trak places explosives in the fissures that run alongside the staircase. The explosion rips a gaping hole in the stairway and leaves only a narrow ledge in front of the great doors. Even if Blue Daggers scale the mountain, they would have no platform on which to stand and batter their way into the temple.
The explosions seal the temple before Lord Lizardthroat can mount a counterattack, but the commander of the Secret Police is not finished. He orders his troops to enter the backside of Holy Mountain. As Ghad’s troops occupy the Septantrak, the Queen Mothers abandon the hive. They order the hive’s inhabitants to head for the surface. Thousands of goblins stream into the caverns below the temple. The refugees collide with Lord Lizardthroat’s Secret Police who proceed to slaughter the unarmed wraiths.
Assured that the temple’s entrances are sealed, Ghad and Trak and several hundred warriors return to the cavern to direct the refugees into the temple. They arrive to witness the carnage that is taking place. Hundreds of panic-stricken refugees are pushing their way into the temple and stand between Ghad’s soldiers and Lord Lizardthroat’s butchering Blue Daggers.
It takes precious moments for Ghad’s force to circumvent the fleeing refugees and fall upon the butchers. Ghad’s soldiers are enraged by the carnage being done to their families and drive a wedge between the Secret Police and the unarmed subterraneans. Lord Lizardthroat’s police hold their own briefly, but with new weapons and Ghad’s training, the subterraneans are a match for the police. When the Blue Daggers see the determination on the faces of the naked wraiths, they fall back, break and are routed from the cavern.
It pains Ghad and Trak to walk among the corpses searching for survivors. The two leaders did not anticipate such horrific casualties among the females and children. Trak converts the temple’s dormitory into a hospital for the wounded. The hive’s rulers are escorted to the residential quarters and thousands of workers and their families are sent to the Great Hall of the temple. Although it is said to be the largest enclosed space on earth, the refugees fill its interior.
The Queen Mothers have prepared carefully. Soldiers begin ferrying stockpiled food from the ruins of Ardonbrae to the temple’s kitchens where cooks prepare meals to feed the multitude. The caverns below the temple will serve as the goblins’ new plantations. All waste is transported to the composting piles, even the bodies of dead goblins. With thousands living in the temple, it will not take long to accumulate the organic compost needed to raise mushrooms and grubs.
The only part of the earth’s surface that the white goblins actually control is the garden in the crater of the ancient volcano. For days it attracts a steady line of visitors. It is early spring. For most, it is their first look at the rich vegetation that grows on the surface. They marvel at the intensity of the colors. There are greens and blues that don’t exist in the Underworld. The refugees have heard of trees, but none anticipates their majestic forms and foliage variations. Occasionally, someone brought a flower into the Underworld, but none has imagined the sight of hundreds of blooming tulips and daffodils spread before them. In ignorance, some look at the sun, believing they are gazing at Shenal Ken. Ghad has to station soldiers in the garden to warn people not to stare at the sun or risk blindness.
The question in the back of everyone’s mind is, “Where is Tironock?” He vanished after his display in the cavern, and no one has seen him since. They no longer feel his will pushing on their minds. The subterraneans begin to hope they have actually escaped his clutches.
Chapter 38
Isle of Uisgebeatha: The Summer Solstice
Dorla delivers a healthy goblet. Myrel is pleased his features are not unlike King Lorring’s. Trak has been gone for a fortnight. As yet, no word of a wraith invasion has reached the island. As Myrel makes preparations to leave for the capital city, Meg insists on accompanying her. “Grandmother, I must be blunt, you are too old; the trip could kill you,” Myrel emphatically warns.
“Ye be right,” said her grandmother, “but I need only live long enough to see the Second Sowing with my own eyes. Then I be ready to join my ancestors.” Myrel knows Meg isn’t going to change her mind. Her grandmother seems almost glad that her time is nearly over. Baelock arranges for four porters to carry Meg’s litter, while he walks along side. On the road, the porters struggle to keep up. Myrel is anxious to learn of Trak’s fate. On the second day of the journey, they meet goblins fleeing the capital. They relate the story of the temple’s capture. It sounds to Myrel as if the attack went as planned.
Myrel enters the city on the fifth day to find its shops and markets closed. The city has been converted into an army garrison. Myrel leads her party to the home of Humock Gutcutter, Krage’s friend and longtime captain of the city’s police. Humock recognizes Myrel as Krage’s daughter. He helped her and Krage escape the city eight years before. When Humock seats the three visitors in his parlor, Myrel says, “We have come from the Isle of Uisgebeatha. What news can you give us?”
“Tell me first. Have you heard from Krage?” Humock replies. “When the temple was attacked, all the senior clerics escaped except Alrik and Krage. Alrik has since shown up, but no one knows what happened to your father.”
Myrel is not overly concerned. She knows it is likely her father stayed hidden in the temple where he could mediate between the subterraneans and surface goblins. “We have received no word from Krage, Captain Humock, but we are certain he is alive,” answers Meg.
“Well, that is some reassurance,” Humock replies. “The temp
le fell quickly. Its occupants escaped as planned. The white goblins sealed the entrances to the temple with explosives, but Lord Lizardthroat launched a counterassault through Holy Mountain’s rear entrance. Tragically, his Secret Police slaughtered hundreds of unarmed goblins as they fled the Underworld. The Secret Police broke off their killing spree when a cross-breed attacked with a determined force. It is widely rumored that it was Trak, your brother, who led the assault. Lizardthroat has labeled him a traitor. Three days ago, Alrik walked out of the temple and was taken to the palace. From what I’ve heard, he brought word the white goblins seek to exchange the temple for a homeland on the surface. Many are calling this invasion the Second Sowing.”
“It is, indeed, the beginning of the Second Sowing,” acknowledges the High Priestess, using the courtly speech she reserves for her dealings with officials in the capital. “Will the white goblins’ demands be met?”
“Not if Lord Lizardthroat has his way, and he usually does,” replies Humock. “Melkerei is biding his time for the outlying nobles to send more troops. He is predicting that in a few days the white goblins will begin to starve. He intends to kill as many as he can and force the rest to return to the Underworld.”
“The white goblins will not return to the Underworld,” declares Meg. “If forced out of the temple by either Lord Lizardthroat or Tironock Kan, they intend to remain on the surface. They are prepared to fight the armies of both goblins and men to gain a home in the light. They are not bent on destruction of our world, but they are determined to share it with us. Even Lord Lizardthroat may find it unpleasant to butcher thousands of his subterranean brothers.”
Myrel asks, “As we intend to enter Holy Mountain, is the tunnel we used eight years ago still open?”
“It was before the temple was invaded. I haven’t checked since,” Humock replies.
“Good. We will enter the mountain tonight and seek out Krage. But first, we must visit the palace. I need to deliver the news that the queen has presented the Ard Ri with an heir.” Myrel continues, “I give you this advice. If the white goblins break out of the temple, don’t oppose them. There need be no bloodshed. Step aside and let the white goblins pass through the city into the countryside.”
Forging the Half-Goblin Sorcerer Page 36
