Alrik knows as much about the hive as any goblin alive. He was born in its tunnels. As a member of the ruling class, he was encouraged to explore its hidden corners. There was only one tunnel that Alrik was forbidden to enter, on penalty of death. The Queen Mothers taught this was the tunnel that led to the abode of the Earth Spirit. Alrik is reluctant to disobey the queens. Trak reassures Alrik he needn’t. Trak only asks the priest to guide him and Melkerei to the entrance. The route is complicated, but Alrik expertly negotiates the maze and circumvents areas where wraiths are likely to gather. He delivers Trak and Melkerei to a stone archway that forms the tunnel’s entrance. “I will wait for you and guide you out of the hive when your task is done.”
“Wait no more than a few days. If we don’t return, abandon us,” Trak directs his guide.
Trak reads the runes engraved in the archway above the entrance. “You stand before God.” Behind the archway a stairway descends. Its steps are worn, although no one had trod them in millennia. For hours, Melkerei and Trak descend the twisting staircase into the earth. Trak lights the way with his blue glow, but it is Melkerei who sets the pace. He does not stop to rest. He has waited all his life to kill Tironock. Soon, he thinks, he will fulfill his destiny. His hand clutches his precious Dragon Fire sword that Trak has returned to him.
Trak doubts that Melkerei or anyone else can kill Tironock. He is looking for Shenal Ken, the female half of the Earth Spirit. The temperature rises as they descend deep into the earth’s mantle. The air is motionless and stale.
At last, they come to a chamber carved in the rock. It is a miniature version of the temple’s Great Hall. The only light in the hall comes from a figure at the end of the chamber. Trak has found what he is looking for. Chained to the wall of the cavern is a tall, beautiful female, neither goblin nor human. Her features are mixed, like a cross-breed’s. Trak approaches the figure. Melkerei trails behind with his sword ready. The chained figure follows Trak and Melkerei with her eyes. When Trak falls to his knees, Melkerei follows his example. Is this really a god? Melkerei wonders.
The female speaks softly in the voice that Trak and Melkerei recognize, “For three thousand years I have been chained to this wall waiting for your arrival. My chains are made of black obsidian; the earth’s magma in solid form. I cannot break them; they drain me. It takes all my strength just to speak through the mouth of the Thaumaturgist.”
“Let me try,” Trak replies. He lays his hand on the black transparent glass chain and summons his power, which has grown strong deep in the earth. He wills the chain to shatter. Nothing happens.
“Your power comes from the flowing magma. It cannot be used to destroy a thing that is born of itself,” Shenal Ken explains.
Trak is disheartened, but Lizardthroat steps forward. “It is but glass,” he scoffs. With the hilt of his Dragon Fire sword he strikes the obsidian, shattering the links of the chain. Glass shards scatter across the rock floor.
Shenal Ken speaks softly, “It seems that even gods are shackled as much by their preconceptions as by chains. Thank you, King Lizardthroat.” Lizardthroat weeps to hear a god address him as king. He is vindicated. Shenal points to the corner of the cavern. There on the ground lies a crumpled figure. “It is the body of Septan. He lies where he fell three thousand years ago when he tore Tironock from me and I became a thing without a shadow. Trak recognizes red fragments of a Thaumaturgist’s robe covering the wrinkled mummy. The mummy is so decayed that Trak can’t tell if Septan had been a man or a goblin.
“Tironock and I must be reunited if we are to be made whole again,” Shenal declares. “You must rejoin my shadow with my spirit if the damage done by your ancestor is to be mended.”
“How?” Trak asks
“I don’t know. A Thaumaturgist ripped me apart, and a Thaumaturgist must bind me together again.
Melkerei and Shenal look expectantly at Trak. “By the Stones, I am prepared to die trying,” Trak replies.
Chapter 49
Remember, your ancestors will guide ye
Meg (Debrah Megai)
Isle of Uisgebeatha
For two days Ghad’s soldiers run. For two days, Tironock drives the pursuing wraiths. Ghad and his soldiers feel the will of Tironock surging in their minds. Ghad is relieved. It means Tironock is near. The demigod has left the main hive. Trak’s plan has a chance.
As Ghad and his goblins run, the soldiers positioned along the way spring their traps to impede the pursuers. The final obstacle is a disk carved from the tunnel’s wall. Twenty soldiers roll the disk across the tunnel, wedging it with boulders so the disc couldn’t be rolled back. The pursuing subterraneans encounter a stone slab, three feet thick. They will need tools to dig through the rock slab and create a new passage.
For two days, Tironock is drawn away from the hive beneath Neu Ardonbrae, enough time, Ghad hopes, for Trak to locate Shenal Ken. The coastal tunnel is too narrow to accommodate Tironock’s massive body. He can only pursue in his ethereal form. Ghad is keenly aware that when the demigod arrives at the spacious chambers of the undersea hive he will materialize and hell will be unloosed.
***
Lord Farg refuses to be idle. Finding himself surrounded by thousands of subterraneans and a dozen trolls, he detests hiding in the castle watching the remnants of the surface armies starve to death. He knocks a hole in the wainscot of the banquet hall and leads a large raiding party into the passage beneath the castle. He emerges in the sea cave overlooking the rocky shore. “So this is how you entered the castle and defeated my father,” Lord Ran observes as they move through the musty passage.
The shore is deserted. Farg stealthily leads the raiding party up the cliff face and into the forest. He hides his soldiers while he and Lord Ran scout the enemy who is busy constructing siege towers. ‘Tonight we will destroy their handiwork,” Farg promises
“Yes, but we must do something about the trolls. They are a greater threat than the siege engines,” replies Lord Ran.
They head for Meg’s cave to see how she and Myrel are fairing. Myrel hears them coming and thinks they are the enemy. She almost clubs Farg as he enters the cave. They find Meg filling two large jars with a foul smelling black liquid. “It is a mixture of Agua Tofani and foxglove,” declares Meg. “It will stop a troll. Myrel thinks she can sneak it into the ale the trolls drink.”
“The trolls are camped down by the cliffs near the dock,” Myrel explains. “We must hurry. The subterraneans have given the trolls captives to eat. The sight is so disgusting that the subterraneans don’t go near the place. Lord Ran knows the spot. It is where he was held prisoner after being captured by the goblins a decade before. He reflects on how much the world has changed since then.
Farg asks Meg if she wants to take refuge in the castle. “No, it is a death trap. I will stay here and take my chances.” Farg and Ran each heft a heavy jar of poison and head back to where the raiding party is hidden.
Farg gives instructions, and then he, Myrel and Lord Ran head for the spot where the trolls are camped. As it grows dark, Farg and Ran leave Myrel to watch the road and infiltrate the troll camp. It is even worse than they imagined. The trolls are gathered together around a huge fire chewing the meat off human and goblin bones. Bones covered with uncooked flesh and piles of troll dung are scattered on the ground. Farg watches a troll dip a human skull into a large vat and fill it with ale. “There is our target,” Farg whispers to Lord Ran.
The problem is how to cross the open space between the vat and where they are concealed in a pile of kindling. They wait for the raiding party to attack the enemy camp. They are betting the commotion will draw the trolls’ attention. But when the attack comes, only two of the trolls go to investigate the commotion. The remainder continue to dismember screaming captives and shove flesh in their maws.
“How are we going to do to draw the trolls out of camp?” questions Farg.
They have stayed hidden in the kindling too long. A large troll with blood on its hands and
face comes to gather wood to replenish the fire. Ran and Farg prepare themselves to race for the forest the moment the troll spots them.
But then a troll begins to shout and points to the cliff above them. On the same cliff where Farg threw pyrotechnics at Lord Ran a decade before Myrel stands. She is perfectly still, her gown rippling in the wind. She emits a blue glow that catches the attention of the trolls. The trolls have their backs to the vat.
Farg sees his chance. He and Ran crawl toward the vat and empty the contents of their jars. An eternity passes as they waited for the last drop of liquid to pour from the narrow-necked containers. They return to the forest to wait for Myrel. She never arrives.
***
A squad of patrolling wraiths spots Myrel standing on the cliff. They don’t know what to make of the blue glow, so they approach cautiously. Myrel sees the goblins as they closed on her. Her escape route back to the forest is blocked. She runs in the only direction open to her and throws herself from the cliff into the sea far below.
The trolls return to their feast. A few captives survive to tell the tale of trolls’ last hours. After Farg and Ran depart, the trolls begin to sweat. They never connect their sickness with what they are drinking. They continue drinking the poisoned ale, even as their throats burn with thirst. By morning the troll camp is littered with troll carcasses. When their bodies are discovered the next day they have already begun to bloat and rot in the hot sun. In a few weeks nothing is left but bleached skeletons.
***
The raid on the subterranean camp went well enough. King Fangdor led the raiders into the sleeping camp and killed or set afire everything in their path. The raiders lacked the numbers needed to stand and fight. They made one pass through the enemy camp and retreated back into the forest. Fangdor was back in the castle when at dawn the subterraneans entered the forest to search for the attackers. The search parties found only an old, witless goblin living in a cave. They left the creature mumbling to herself as they continued searching for the attackers.
***
Ghad and his soldiers enter their hive beneath the channel; they find everything in chaos. Terrin informs his father, “When we felt Tironock’s presence, most of the hive panicked and fled up the tunnel. They would rather face our enemies on the surface than be caught in the hive when Tironock materializes.”
“It is just as well,” replies Ghad. “I have decided to sacrifice the hive to stop Tironock.”
Ghad built the hive under the channel knowing that Tironock feared water. It neutralized his power. He hoped that the demigod’s fear of water would keep him at bay. Ghad was wrong. The last of the hive’s inhabitants were exiting the tunnel to the surface when Tironock materialized in the largest chamber. It was at the deepest level and served as the compost plantation. A squad of Ghad’s white wraiths attacked the demon as he took corporeal form. Tironock roared as soldiers thrust their swords between the red and black scales covering his legs. The injuries enraged the monster, but couldn’t kill him. He had the power to regenerate himself and heal his afflictions.
Tironock seized a column, supporting the roof of the chamber. It exploded in a shower of flying shards. If another column went, the chamber would collapse. Ghad ordered his soldiers out of the chamber. As Ghad ran up the tunnel leading to the surface, he signaled for the chamber to be flooded. Wraiths stationed above the chamber opened a floodgate and seawater from above rushed in. The water inundated the chamber floor and rose quickly. Tironock screamed as the water washed over his feet. He began to dematerialize. Ghad hoped the water would completely sap the demigod’s strength and imprison him in the chamber beneath the sea. The chamber and the tunnel leading back to the mainland would fill within minutes. Ghad looked back as he left the chamber. There was no sign of Tironock. Ghad could only hope that the demon was sealed in a watery prison.
Ghad scrambled through the tunnel ahead of the rising water. He emerged to find the inhabitants of the hive crowding the rocky shore. They were afraid to ascend the cliff and face the subterranean goblins above, but now their courage was returning. They could no longer feel Tironock’s presence fighting to control them.
Ghad spoke softly to the goblins who for his entire life he had struggled to free from Tironock. “The lower chamber of the hive is flooded. It is likely that Tironock is imprisoned forever. We need only defeat the subterraneans on the cliff above and we can live our lives without fear. They are many and we are few, but we have iron swords and a will to fight. Without Tironock to drive them, the enemy will lose its taste for battle. All those who want to fight, follow me!”
Ghad climbed the cliff and led his three thousand warriors and their families against ten thousand subterraneans. Farg was on the castle’s battlements when Ghad attacked. “Their attack is suicidal,” he said to Lord Ran. As he watched Ghad’s white wraiths fight with great determination, he changed his thinking. The enemy seemed in disarray. Their trolls were gone, and Tironock no longer drove them to kill. Farg turned to Lord Ran and said, “We join the fight!” As he raced down the stairs to the courtyard below, he ordered the gates opened. He bolted through the gates followed by not only the remnants of the surface armies but also several thousand refugees armed only with farming tools. The numbers of the opposing forces were now about equal. The subterraneans had no will to fight. Caught between Ghad and Farg, they laid down their arms in surrender. It was Farg’s greatest moment. He carried the memory of the cheering people in his heart for the rest of his life.
Farg returned to his castle and left Ghad to corral all the subterraneans that surrendered when the impossible happened. A swirling cloud of dust appeared in the village below the castle. Ghad’s people and their subterranean prisoners saw the cloud forming and in mass bolted for the cover of the forest. Ghad and a hundred of his soldiers remained to watch Tironock materialize. Ghad’s hopes shattered like ice falling on stone. He had failed to kill Tironock. He had failed his people. His despair led to rage. He could not kill the monster, but he could make it feel pain.
***
Miraculously, Myrel is not seriously injured by her leap into the sea. She is a poor swimmer and almost drowns before she can reach a point on the coast where she climbs out of the water. Myrel is resting in Meg’s cave when she feels Tironock enter her consciousness. She looks at Meg who also feels the evil approach. “He be here,” Meg says. No one knows how Tironock escaped his watery prison, but he is back to take his vengeance.
Meg says calmly. “My time has come, Granddaughter. From this moment until your death, ye be the guardian of Septan’s lineage. Remember, your ancestors will guide ye. May your shadow long follow ye.” She embraces Myrel and reluctantly releases her. Meg walks to her shelf, picks up the large obsidian blade she calls Dragon Killer, and shuffles out of the cave’s door. Myrel is speechless. She wonders what Meg intends.
Myrel trails behind her grandmother as she trudges deliberately through the forest. The ancient goblin’s steps are slow but determined, like a clock marking the passage of time. When she comes to the edge of the trees, Tironock has materializing in front of the castle. Flames shoot from the cyclonic cloud swirling about him. His red scales reflect sunlight like sherds of red glass and yellow smoke belches from his maw. Tironock lumbers toward the castle. His bulk shakes the earth. His laugh shatters the air. Meg aims her wasted body at the demigod and comes for him one heartbeat at a time.
Tironock reaches the main gate of the castle and places his paws on the outer gate tower. It crumbles in a moment. He steps over the rubble, and heads for the broch. Meg shuffles up the hill, barely able to lift her feet off the ground. Her gaze is fixed on the bellowing demon. She holds the black elf bolt tightly.
Tironock seizes the broch in his arms. At that moment, the duke’s soldiers standing on the broch’s battlements pour vats of water. They drench the demon and cause him to step back out of reach. He bellows and returns to the outer wall where he picks up large chunks of the fallen gate tower and flings them at the castl
e’s inner wall. Chunks of masonry shatter and sections of the wall crumble. Tironock’s tactic is inefficient, but slowly he forces the defenders on the battlements to abandon their positions. With every volley Tironock launches at the castle, Meg’s hunched figure comes three steps closer.
Inside the castle, Duke Amin guides King Lorring and Queen Meriem and their families into the tunnel that leads from the banquet hall to the sea cave below the castle. Krage carries Meriem’s twins as far as the banquet hall. He hands her the children and says for the first time in a decade, “I love you. Thank you for being the best part of my life.” Krage climbs the stairs leading to the battlements.
Queen Fae heads for the stables in the inner courtyard. There she meets Lord Ran. Together, the two warriors mount the only two warhorses on the island. They are each handed a heavy, iron-tipped spear. The gate cracks open for a moment, and the two gallop through, followed by fifty of their soldiers.
Queen Fae does not hesitate. She points her horse directly at the demigod as he stoops to pick up another chunk of the shattered gate tower. At full gallop, she thrusts her spear into the soft tissue behind the giant’s knee. She drives the point deep. Tironock wheels on his attacker and sends a block of masonry crashing into the head of the warhorse, knocking Queen Fae hard to the ground. She lies where she fell. Tironock lumbers toward the unconscious queen, intending to squash her beneath his feet. As he approaches her lifeless body, Ghad and twenty of his soldiers begin stabbing the cracks between the scales covering his legs. Lord Ran charges and thrust his spear through the demon’s scrotum and into his lower abdomen. Tironock tears the spear from his flesh and flings it at Ran, narrowly missing him. Tironock collapses to his knees and places both hands on the ground. The earth trembles. Many of the men and goblins who have followed Ran and Ghad into the courtyard lose their footing. Tironock rises and begins crushing them under his feet. Unnoticed, Meg picks herself off the ground and shuffles over what is left of the castle’s gate.
Forging the Half-Goblin Sorcerer Page 43
