The next few days passed smoothly. Korv settled into his hard labor punishment, working effectively under the direction of Gaten and Widan to help gather and collect materials to feed the core.

  Because Laryn had chosen to sacrifice tiles around the river, he’d lost a lot of water tiles, and the kingdom now needed more life essence for it to stay in balance. He’d given up on trying to keep the power of the core a secret. Protection through obscurity wasn’t likely to be an effective long term plan.

  Getting more life essence was easy, because wood largely provided life essence. And as work continued on the island, more areas were cleared of wood and dead undergrowth. He knew that the tiles he’d be capturing in the future would be heavily water tiles, so he also made sure to sift that.

  The other subjects, with their three days’ punishment each, were scheduled on a rolling basis, such that only two to four additional people joined with Korv in his punishment at a time.

  Laryn had taken care to assign Orfswellers and the Jardensvalers to labor together, and he was pleased with the way that the people who were working on the island had been able to do so—that they were working, and the progress that was being made.

  Thatch used his time working with the remaining parts of Laryn’s broken wagon, and managed to get a single wheeled barrow operating, which greatly improved the speed with which materials could be brought to the core for sifting.

  With the internal conflicts somewhat resolved, Laryn had immediately turned his attention back to the gold mines at the base of the cliffs. He was worried about claiming that wealth; it could allow rapid growth through trade.

  If there was more gold to be had, he wanted it. With gold, they could afford to hire a coarsemath without having to send Laryn to leverage his family’s power and name for financing.

  But the kingdom atop the plateau worried him. It sounded like they had more resources and were growing quickly. If they discovered the gold mines and claimed them before Laryn had a chance to, he’d be in big trouble.

  So he sent Matt and Hober out on another excursion. Partially they were to see if they could gain more information about the size and intentions of the growing kingdom, but primarily to examine the goblin gold mines and discover what wealth lay there and how they would be able to extract it. Laryn desperately wanted to go see things with his own eyes, but he didn’t feel he could leave Vallor yet.

  On the fourth day after Matt and Hober departed, Laryn took a brief break from the long day of sifting to review his kingdom stats. They had been working hard, and had recovered all of the lost tiles and essence. Laryn had reclaimed the island and gathered several more rings, boosting his stats. At this rate they’d have enough essence to jump to tier four within a week if they wanted to.

  He’d kept the essence in the core balanced, so influence was a healthy 2.6, making work easier. But Laryn worried that they’d need a lot more than that to fend off any kind of hostilities by a larger force, so they kept working.

  Laryn kept his eyes peeled for someone else who might make a good [Mage]. He wanted another one, but he also knew that he couldn’t force everyone to work to feed the core all the time, or else the kingdom would fall apart.

  As he was reviewing the kingdom status, Mat and Hober returned from their excursion. They rode into camp on their horses, bearing laden sacks and a large set of big satchels—laden sacks and a bound, squirming, and cursing goblin.

  “What news?” Laryn asked as he approached.

  The two men smiled.

  “We managed get up the pass on the Townshold Road,” Mat said, smile fading. “The kingdom there has expanded significantly since our last visit.”

  “By my count,” Hober said, “there were at least 6,000 working men.”

  “We also saw several scouting parties,” Matt added, “including a few down here in the valley. Though we didn’t get close enough to find out what their intentions were. I don’t think they know about us here yet. We avoided them successfully.”

  “And the mines? They appear to have been profitable?” Laryn said, nodding towards the struggling goblin.

  “Yes, very,” Hober said, patting the saddlebags on his horse to the sound of jingling coins.

  “Them’s Krupp’s coins!” the goblin snarled. “Krupp’s coins, taken from Krupp’s cave! Krupp digs and Krupp melts and Krupp keeps the gold!”

  “Did you search many of them?” Laryn asked.

  “We went into half a dozen holes along the base of the cliffs,” Matt said. “And we only found evidence of mining and ore and smelting in all of them. All seemed to have been abandoned in a hurry. I’m not an expert, but they seemed rich with ore. A proper setup could produce significant wealth. We only found ingots and coins in the last one, along with this delightful fellow.”

  “I’ll skin you alive,” Krupp muttered. “I’ll wear your ugly face as a mask to terrify the children. Stupid, ugly symet human, stomping into my cave, dragging me out of my bed and carrying me out here. Didn’t your mothers know it’s not good for you to be so symet? Ugly humans should have been drowned at birth. If your mothers loved you they’d have broken your arms.”

  Laryn shook his head, smirking at the goblin’s outburst. He looked into one of Hober’s saddlebags and nodded approvingly. The coinage created by the goblins was rough, and the coins were uneven, but they’d already been talking about using it as a currency for exchange.

  Vallor was small enough that a currency wasn’t necessary, but with any kind of trade, a consistent coinage could be valuable. Thallon was looking into how he might be able to balance better weight or craft the coins into more effective and consistent shape. Failing that, a few simple balances would suffice.

  Matt dismounted and pulled the goblin off of his horse, tossing the bound creature to the ground.

  “Krupp here has some interesting things to say,” Matt said. “Most of what we learned about that kingdom comes from what he said while we were riding back here.”

  “Stupid, ugly, miserable human man,” Krupp muttered as he writhed in the dirt trying to loosen his bonds. “Men shouldn’t be so symet. Think you’re pretty, tall fems with pricks. Hate you all.”

  Laryn looked pityingly at the creature. Krupp was around four feet tall, green-skinned, pointy-eared. The goblin was an ugly piece of work: rotted and gnarled teeth, a lopsided smile, and bug eyes which protruded from its face. His nose looked like it had been broken multiple times.

  One of Krupp’s arms was much more muscular than the other, and one of his shins had a weird bend in it, like a broken bone hadn’t been properly set before it healed. He wore a ragged loincloth.

  “Krupp just want Krupp’s gold. Sleeping peacefully on his wealth,” Krupp muttered pitifully.

  “So your name is Krupp, then?” Laryn asked, bending over to inspect the sorry figure.

  “Krupp don’t got no name,” the goblin spat. “Krupp’s just Krupp.” He burped loudly.

  Laryn waved away the stench.

  Matt laughed. “Good luck communicating with him, sir. We gave up after a while and just had to listen to him blabber.”

  Krupp sniffed the air, nostrils wide. His eyes widened, then unfocused. “Ahh, you got somma them symet human fems. Hmm mmmm.” The goblin snuffled the air again, then sighed lustily.

  “Bring ‘em. Krupp wanna touch ‘em.”

  “What did he tell you?” Laryn asked.

  “From what we understood, the [Ruler] of that other kingdom has captured goblins, and is torturing them? Or possibly satisfying some fetish… But he seems to be looking for something.”

  “Ahh,” Krupp crooned. “They poke and prod Krupp with sticks and spikes, and make’im tremble with anticipation for more. Mmm.”

  “Looking for gold?” Laryn asked

  “Always wanna my gold. Alla humans try to take it, alla time. But I don’t give. I never give.” Krupp squirmed, writhing against his bonds.

  "Maybe for gold,” Mat said. “But it seems like they’d have found the mines by now, if that’s all they were after.”

  “Let’s get these ropes off of you, Krupp,” Laryn said. He released Krupp from the bonds holding the imp, and Krupp stopped writhing. Hober and Mat shifted uncomfortably, holding their spears ready.

  “Careful,” Mat said.

  “Krupp, you want gold, right?” Laryn asked. “I want you to answer my questions. Can you do that for me?”

  Krupp sniffed the air again, then nodded approvingly. “Krupp wanna see‘em, your symet fems,” he said. “And give gold back to Krupp.”

  “Where did you come from, Krupp?” Laryn asked. “Grekhol.”

  "Yes, Grekhol. Krupp live in Grekhol. Tryna see the,” he shuddered “oh so symet queen. Then die from pleasure. Ahh.”

  “Do you know what he’s talking about?” Laryn asked, looking at Mat and Hober.

  “Goblins are crude little fellows,” Mat said. “But I do think they’ve got a queen that lives in Grekhol. I don’t know much else about them.”

  Mat kicked Krupp. “Dim-wit, tell him what you told me about the kingdom.”

  Krupp whimpered and scuttled over to Laryn’s side, muttering foul curses as spittle dripped from one side of his mouth.

  “Itsa big kingdom. Grow fast. Krupp just wanna find some gold, but they capture and pester. Always looking for a thing. Askin’ bout a thing. Where the thing. Who take the thing. Krupp don’t know bout the thing. Just wanna find the gold.”

  “What thing?” Laryn asked.

  Krupp fell backward, hissing. “You same like them! Just wanna ask about the thing!”

  Laryn sighed. He stood, leaving the goblin groveling on the ground. “Why’d you bring him back here?” he asked.

  “Didn’t want him telling that other kingdom about us,” Mat said. “Then he started ranting about this ‘thing’ that the other kingdom was looking for, and thought you might want to hear about it.”

  “Are all goblins this dumb?”

  Mat shook his head. “This one seems particularly inept,” Mat said.

  Laryn turned back to Krupp.

  “Why’d the goblins leave the mines?” he asked. “Where did they all go?”

  “Rot-brains,” Krupp said. “Thinkin’ a black rocks is better than a gold. Many go lookin’ for ‘em inna north. Krupp like, all’em leave more gold for Krupp. Till humans come.”

  He shot a deathly glare at Mat and Hober. “Watch out. Krupp kill when sleeping.”

  Just then Kenna approached. “Laryn, I—” She cut off, seeing the goblin, and wrinkled her nose against the smell. “Ew.”

  Krupp froze, staring at Kenna. Saliva dripped over his lip and trickled down his potbelly. He wheezed, then groaned, and showed obvious signs of arousal.

  “Unhg… Symet fem… so… touch… ahh.”

  The goblin reached with his scrawny arm, toward Kenna, fingers groping toward the woman. The creature’s pupils dilated. Krupps breathing grew faster, and random syllables dribbled from his lips.

  Then Krupp sprang for Kenna, reaching out aggressively and moving with lightning speed.

  Laryn was faster. He smacked the goblin into the ground, knocking him flat on his back. Hober moved quickly, replacing Krupp’s bonds.

  “Uh, symet fem,” Krupp cooed. “Such lovely. Krupp offer last nut for one night!”

  Kenna stepped behind Laryn. “Where did you find that?” she asked Mat and Hober, voice laced with contempt.

  “We’d better find a way to secure Krupp,” Laryn said. “I don’t think we can trust him roaming around free. Maybe we can get some more questions out of him later.”

  Krupp writhed on the ground, in the throws of some kind of ecstasy.

  “Make a cage or something we can lock him in. At this influence, something simple will hold Krupp just fine.”

  “They gonna kill you,” Krupp said, snapping out of his trance and looking around wildly. “They’s got an ugly symet man with a gold crown. He’s killin’ alla humans he find. Takin’ an killin’ all. After torturin’ em. Don’t let’em get your fems!”

  Hober and Mat dragged Krup away.

  Laryn rubbed his brow. “What a creature,” he said.

  Kenna still looked disgusted. “That’s the filthiest goblin I’ve ever seen,” she said.

  “I’m worried about this kingdom he’s talking about though. What do you think they’re looking for?”

  Kenna stilled for a moment. “I don’t know. If it’s not gold, maybe some other resource?”

  “I need to see it for myself. They could be a major threat to us.”