What Once Was One (Book 2) (13 page)

I wiped the drool from my mouth and pushed away from the surrounding group of goblins. My feet sprinted me towards the tavern. Blood cravings seemed embedded into my mind, craving one last drink. I stopped and peered into the entrance. I patted my body, wondering what I was going to use to barter. I didn’t have any meat.

My hands found a dagger. I pulled it out and gasped at how shiny and sharp it was. I couldn’t remember where I got such a thing from. This was far too valuable to trade with. I could use it to kill more. I turned my head, seeing a small young ogre. If I could lure him away, I could kill him with this dagger. Fresh ogre eyes would do nicely and the rest I could keep for myself.

I had started stalking him when a large hand seized my shoulder.

“Hellsfire,” he said.

Hellsfire? Who was Hellsfire? I gulped when I realized it was a dwarf. A dwarf wearing a goblin’s skin! He befouled a goblin like one of those stupid ogres! I frantically glanced around. If a dwarf was here then those stupid humans could be here too. The others had to be warned. We had to—

Before I could raise my dagger, the dwarf grabbed my shoulders and shook me hard.

“Snap out of it!” he said, forcing me to look into his beady brown eyes. “Remember who you are, Hellsfire. You’re a
wizard
.”

My eyes widened. A wizard? I wasn’t a wizard. I was a goblin and I was going to kill this dwarf and feed on him. Whatever was left of him, I could trade with and get that drink I craved.

I smacked his hands to free myself and lunged at him, aiming my dagger to bury it in his chest. The dwarf snatched my wrist and twisted it with his iron strength. I yelped in pain and dropped the dagger. I struck out with my free hand and went for his eyes. I didn’t need the dagger. If I could wound him, then me and other goblins could kill him.

He snatched my hand and pulled, turning me around, my back facing him. “Snap out of it, lad,” the dwarf said into my ear.

As much I tried, I couldn’t break his grasp. I tried to ram the back of my head into his face, but he dodged it and yanked down on my hand. I squirmed in pain. Where were the others in my tribe? Why didn’t they help me?

“Think of the princess,” he said. “Remember her. Remember Krystal.”

My back stiffened and I stopped struggling against him. “Krystal,” I whispered. I wasn’t a goblin. I was Hellsfire, a wizard. I summoned my inner fire to the surface and the goblin retreated in fear.

“Thank you, Jastillian,” I said. “I’m all right now.”

“You sure, lad?”

“Yes. You can let me go.”

“Hurry. We’ve got to get back to the others.”

We rushed back to the others and blended back in with the group of goblins. I apologized to them for what had happened.

“It’s all right,” Prastian said. “We understand. The control’s getting harder to maintain.” Prastian wiped the sweat from his cheek. “But we’re almost there. We just need to hang on for a little bit longer.”

I exhaled and focused on my fire and Krystal. I would get through this. I
had
to get through this.

We continued to use the large goblin group as cover. We had no idea where they were headed, but their direction took us closer to the tower. We knew we had to leave them at some point. Groups of four or five constantly split off, but others soon joined us. No one thought to question them.

“Stupid, ugly meanies,” a new goblin next to us said, and snarled. “They think they better than us goblins. But soon we show them.” He glowered at one of the trolls, but looked away when the troll roared back.

“You have problem with them?” Jastillian asked. The elves gave him a questioning look. They would have preferred silence, but Jastillian couldn’t resist his curiosity.

“Of course!” the little goblin said, flailing his scrawny yet muscular arms. “Who not? In all attacks, we first to die cause there lots of us and they say we not smart or strong. But we never get weapons unless we steal or find or we lucky and he gives us. And we also food for others. Life no good. But we get revenge soon.”

“In what way?”

“Come here,” the goblin whispered. He grinned, exposing sharp, pointy teeth. We leaned in; the goblin spirit in me was equally curious. “We make big army and get weapons. We have goblin city and all tribes invited. You and friends come too. Take this.” He handed Jastillian an old stone with strange markings on it. “Tell them great warrior, Kemek, sent you. You get in.” His wide nostrils flared in pride.

“What’s this?”

“Has password. We use rocks to spread word from tribe to tribe. You not read it?”

“Me not read.”

“Me thought all goblins read our language even if they not read.” Kemek shrugged. “It say…” He leaned in close and said something we couldn’t understand in a high-pitched squeal.

“What?” Demay said.

“You not hear language either? You weird goblins.” Kemek glared and sniffed us, keeping his hand on his sword. Jastillian didn’t move as Kemek’s nose came up to his beard. Kemek let go of his sword. “In this tongue, it mean as one, together, group. Like that. You say that and show stone and say me sent you. You get in. No problem.”

“Where is it?” Prastian asked.

“It where sun falls and where half man holds sword.” Kemek pointed northwest. “Where we were long time ago. Where we come from. It very far from here.”

“Why you come here?” I asked. “To city.”

“To get supplies and goblins for our city. Why else me come?”

“What about Premier?” Jastillian asked.

“Shhh,” Kemek said, moving in quickly to cover Jastillian’s mouth. “No say wizard’s name. He hear us. If he discover goblin city, we dead. No hope for goblins. We can’t fight magic men.”

I raised my right eyebrow. Since Premier had the
Book of Shazul,
could he perform a spell like that, to hear his name when it was spoken in the city? Would he have enough power to do so? It would be such a focused and unobtrusive spell that it might be possible. Premier might know I was coming for him and be using such magic. We had to be careful against such a possibility.

I tried to access the goblin’s memories about a secret goblin city. While the words Kemek said felt true, I couldn’t remember any such thing. The goblin within not only wanted to learn more about this city, but ached to go there. I held him in check from asking questions, but just barely.

Jastillian struggled more with this as he palmed the rough stone in his hand, staring at the words. He opened his mouth but Prastian placed his hand on Jastillian’s arm and shook his head. Jastillian put the stone in his pocket and nodded.

I wished we could learn more, because part of me worried that not all of the creatures were under Premier’s control. This goblin city would have to have been formed long before Premier was weakened from his defeat. If the goblins were gathering, what was their purpose? And would they pose a threat to Alexandria? Krystal had to be told this.

We exited the marketplace and inched our way closer to the tower. The road to the tower was in better repair, but there were far fewer creatures on it. It was as if no one wanted to go near that place.

The goblins with us didn’t intend to go to the tower. Instead, we crossed an open square, then cut through an alley. The goblin within was thankful that we weren’t heading directly for the tower anymore. I had no idea where we were going, but we needed to break away. I glanced at the others, seeing the same worried expressions on their faces.

Kemek caught me staring up at the piece of the tower that peeked out from behind the buildings. He said, “Me know to stay away from magic. We tired of magic and big, stupid, ugly ogres and trolls.” He growled and shrieked, “We want respect!” A chill went through my bones, and I growled with him. I shook my head and wiped away the spit dribbling from my chin. What was I doing?

“What wrong?” Jastillian asked Kemek.

“Me still mad. Many goblins die in great battle against smelly humans when fight human city.”

“You heard about the battle then?” Demay asked.

“Yeah, me heard. Everyone heard about great battle. That also why me here. Don’t care if others die, but why goblins?” We stopped and Kemek swiveled his head around, twitched his ears, and inhaled deeply with his long, pointy nose. “Me also heard rumor that more powerful magic man beat you-know-who. Didn’t kill him, but wish he had. Tired of beatings on goblins and circle of death and all other things. No one seen ruler since battle. That why so much fighting lately.”

“What’s that?” Demay said, pointing to a creature no bigger than an oversized baby. It had moss-green skin, little wings, sharp claws, and a horn sticking out of its head. It briefly grinned at us.

“You not know what imps is?” Kemek asked. “Annoying creatures, but me still like better than ogres or trolls. Not wolves though. Hate big, ugly wolf packs. Imps steal and play jokes. Watch.”

Four ogres stumbled out of a building, ducking their heads below the archway. They barked and laughed. On the roof above them sat a trio of imps. The leader of the ogres held out his polished club, and the others admired it. The imps swooped down and landed on the leader, who was easily ten times their size.

The three ogres surprised me by making no move to help their leader. Instead, they laughed at the little imps. Two of the imps grabbed at the ogre’s eyes and face while the third dug into the pouch strapped across the ogre’s body. The imp came away with a couple of eyeballs. He ducked the ogre’s blow, climbed up the ogre, and hopped back on the roof. The ogre roared and glared at the imp. The imp stuck his tongue out before running away. The second imp followed suit, but the third one tripped on one of the ogre’s massive boils as it scampered up his body.

The ogre seized that imp, squeezing him until his eyes bulged out and his head exploded. The ogre laughed out loud before taking a huge bite of the imp. He wiped the green, slimy blood from his face.

“Him slow imp,” Kemek said. We all laughed with Kemek and my goblin spirit felt at ease.

A group of trolls lumbered up the road, shouldering between Demay, Behast, Kemek, and another goblin. He and his friends didn’t care that we easily outnumbered them. They didn’t even seem to notice we existed.

“Hey!” Demay said.

The troll stopped and dragged his massive square frame back towards us, his friends trailing him. He bent over until his disfigured face was within inches of Demay’s. “Say something, little goblin?”

My companions shifted their goblin skins and reached for their weapons. My goblin spirit yelled to run. It was hard to resist him, but I dug my feet into the ground, preparing to back up my friend

Prastian nudged Demay.

“I didn’t mean anything by it,” Demay said.

“You sure talk funny for a goblin,” the troll said. A low growl emanated from the troll. He sniffed around. “I should kill you for wasting my time.”

“No!” Kemak said. “You leave goblin friend alone!”

The troll shifted his attention to Kemak, lurching over him. All surrounding noises stopped as eyes turned our way. “What did you say?”

“Me say you leave him alone.” Kemek pushed the helm up his head, getting a better view of the troll. “You want fight, you fight Kemek!”

“You challenging
me
?” the troll asked. His eyes became blood-red and the veins in his square head and thick neck began to stick out, increasing to the size of small fingers.

I edged over to Jastillian and whispered, “What’s going on?”

“A one-on-one battle, lad. That way, the fight won’t get out of hand and involve the troll’s friends and us goblins. While the trolls are bigger and stronger, we have numbers, and things could just as easily get nasty for them. Even if we lose, the winners will be weakened. Another pack might finish both of us off.”