Chapter 20

  The Sounds Of Grinding Stone And Frightened Cries

  It was an unsteady beat, the off-rhythm bang of steel striking steel and wood. Dust particles wandered around the rooms and halls of Brekk, ever trying to find their way back to the stone that had spawned their existence. Each breath of air that flowed in currents through the burrow had kept so many of them aloft and distant from the walls and floors they sought.

  A blade sliced upward, creating a swirl out of the dust that had finally made it to the ground. Stics sidestepped Worik’s wide swing, only to bring his shield up to block when his opponent quickly shifted the angle of the next attack

  When they’d joined Nik’s party, Worik had thought, We’re each level 1. We’re all at the base of the mountain’s path, and our enemies have already begun the climb. We need to train.

  Worik’s eyes were as fierce and determined as Stics’. Neither spoke. With a simple nod they understood each other and separated from the others to spar. The new information was more than just a wound to their pride, it was a battlehorn calling them to surpass their own limitations. So, while Pearl, Kath, and the burrow lord planned, they would train.

  Pushing his friend’s blade away with his shield once more, Stics said, “C’mon, Worik! If you can’t hit me, then how will you strike past an adventurer’s defenses?”

  Worik’s eyes went cold. The image played in his mind of his close friends falling one by one around him, before he too fell. One image stuck frozen in his mind. He couldn’t reach her in time. Her beautiful face lay still, her eyes left open. He thought, Don’t worry, I remember the dead.

  The next series of movements forced Stics back. He’d been forced to use the head of his hammer to block one of the blows, and the next slid over his shield and cut across his cheek. Stics shoved his hammer straight forward into Worik’s chest, knocking the wind out of him and possibly bruising a rib or two.

  “Hey!” They heard their burrow lord’s shout cut through the din of the burrow and the sound of their own sparring. “Don’t do anything that would require the use of a healer. If you can’t avoid wounding each other, then you can’t be trusted to spar with real weapons. I would like to be able to trust you in everything.”

  “Yes, my lord,” they said in near unison.

  Nik turned back to the wrinkled sheet of paper with frayed edges that sat laid out before him, Kath, and Pearl.

  Kath continued pointing to the map of tunnels and caverns as she spoke. “Here, and then they could also be here. Their travel patterns can be a bit dodgy, but we’ve been killin’ them in these areas for years to at least keep their numbers down.”

  “I see, that’s farther than I thought it might be. Back towards the surface where we entered and down a side tunnel that looks five or six times that length. That’s just the trip to the closest area as well,” said Nik.

  “Yes, My Lord, but you want to go on a hunt, and that usually means going on a decent walk. We could ride our cattle, but Cowsloths don’t travel all that fast.”

  As curious as Nik was at the mentioning of another unfamiliar animal, he let it go for the time being.

  “I still don’t have a solution for my inability to sleep, which will be the problem to overcome with traveling any great distances. I will just have to go and visit Lord Cril before we can leave on any adventures. She’d probably appreciate being asked about us hunting in her lands anyway.”

  “Requestin’ access could take days for a normal goblin, luckily you’re a visitin’ lord. If you’re goin’ to visit with Lord Cril, then I’m sure permission would be granted more prompt-like,” said Kath.

  Pearl threw in her own thought, the muscles of her cheek straining to keep her smile at bay. “Probably, I think she might have a sweet spot for Lord Stormclaw.”

  Nik did his best to ignore Pearl’s jab. “A visiting lord, eh? I guess that’s how I would be seen now. I have another request to make of her, so I should probably just go talk to her before my list gets long enough to slip over the edge into annoying her. How many hours until everyone will be going to sleep?”

  Kath looked towards their people, who were still moving about and setting up ancillary structures, like supply and food storage tents. “For many, about a few hours ago, but there are cycles that different people rest in. It has also been an excitin’ day and there is a little that still needs doin’. The young will be put to bed as well as possible. The noise of this kind of thing tends to keep them up until tiredness crashes over them. My young one will be sleepin’ soon as well, and I’ll be checkin’ on him when we’re done here.”

  Nik sucked in a breath. He closed his eyes and shook his head at his own lack of care. “I didn’t realize you had a child. What about Worik and Stics?”

  Kath’s laugh made Nik’s eyes go a bit wide before she spoke.

  “If you are askin’, Worik and Stics are not mine, but if you meant to ask if they have children, then the answer is also no.” Her smile faded and her voice went quieter as she continued, “They have both lost though. The adventurers killed Stics’ brother, Rox, and his sister, Brooc. Brooc was Worik’s wife. Worik is Stormclaw by marriage.”

  “I thought I would have time to get to know everyone later. I never asked about who had been lost from the battle above. Of course any losses to the clan would be close to everyone’s hearts. I’m sorry. Were you close to any of them?”

  “I was. Friends and a jerk or two, but they were family. And Rox was… he was special, you know? He helped me with rations when my boy was still teethin’. My young one hasn’t passed the trial of names yet, but when he does… Do you think Stics would hate me if I gave him Rox’s name?”

  “I haven’t seen enough of him yet to know his mind, but it seems like it would be in honor of his brother’s memory. I would wait until some time has passed and that trial gets closer, then I’d ask him how he feels about it. Give him the chance to accept or deny it.”

  “That sounds like good advice. Thank you for listenin’, my lord.”

  “No, thank you for being so vulnerable and open. It’s given me a lot to think about. If you would excuse me, I’ve got a couple of requests to make of Lord Cril. Again, thank you Kath.”

  Pearl, who had interjected little into the conversation, reminded them that she was still there by saying, “You realize that you can excuse yourself, right Nik? You’re a burrow lord asking your own guard to excuse you.”

  She and Kath both chuckled at that, and Kath added, “You may be excused, Lord Nik of the Stormclaws.”

  Nik just shook his head in what had now become his most common reaction to Pearl, but he couldn’t help but chuckle alongside them. “Alright Sparkledrop, you’re being a bad influence. Keep an eye on the others, or get some rest if you can. I’m going to go see the burrow lord.”

  The tunnels through the structure were still maze-like, but there were several helpful goblins that pointed him in the correct direction whenever he’d been unsure which stair or hall to take.

  I really should have brought someone with me to act as a guide.

  He moved through the large structure and towards the room where he had first been presented to Lord Cril.

  I’ve come so far from the little kobold living alone in his tucked away corner of the castle.

  He chuckled as he reflected back on his rushed flight through the castle and up to the surface the day he’d faced Sir BlackDagger, and thought, At least these stairs were made for goblins and there haven’t been any ladders to climb here.

  The blue torchlight sputtered for the briefest moment. He paused, wondering if the flames had really gone out for a moment or if he’d just blinked weird. Everything seems fine, but I swear I saw the torches falter.

  With no seeming oddities occurring aside from questioning his own senses, he continued on.

  The guards outside of the throne room halted him, the guard on the right knocked on the door behind them. They stood in silence for a moment and spoke only once the door was cracked open enough for whispers to slip through to the room beyond. A single whisper and then silence returned.

  Minutes later the door was opened more widely and a short goblin’s head peeked out.

  Stolen story; please report.

  “Hello. Lord Nik, correct? Right this way, please,” said the first goblin he’d ever seen to be nearly the same height as he was. They then turned and vanished back into the room, leaving the door still slightly ajar.

  “That’s me, yes. Of course,” Nik replied after the goblin who was no longer there. “Why does everyone do that?” he asked the guards. They stared past him, unresponsive. “Okay then? I’ll just go on in? Good talk.”

  His small frame had little difficulty scooting through the opening into the next room where the short goblin was waiting. Oh! He’s not short. Hunched. If this guy was fully upright he would be a giant of a goblin. The hunched goblin addressed him once more as Nik followed him around the outside edge of the spherical room.

  “You will be enterin’ into Lord Cril’s study to meet with her. I advise, strongly, that you keep any conversation civil and any actions clearly peaceful. I would threaten my intervention if necessary, however, our lord can handle small threats herself. I say this with all due respect of course, Lord Nik.”

  Nik rubbed at his tired eyes as the two of them stepped along the wall to the one of the staircases that led up to the dais.

  “I wouldn’t imagine even wanting harm done to her. She has only helped me and given me more than I have earned. I have a family now, and I won’t forget that she allowed that to happen, even if it comes with a lot of responsibilities,” said Nik.

  “Make sure to always remember that kind act, young lord.”

  At the back of the dais was the doorway that Lord Cril had walked through when entering and leaving the room previously. The door itself was made of solid stone with small detailing carved at the edges like roots digging down from the top.

  The lord’s attendant waved his hand from one side to the other and the door slid aside into the wall. If he hadn’t seen the door vanish, he would have thought it had never been more than an open archway. It must be an earth skill, just like the goblin in the cell who picked up their book, created a tunnel, and walked right out of the burrow.

  Through the archway, sitting at a stone desk, was Lord Cril. Before her lay a pile of papers in a neat stack, each waiting for their turn to gain her attention. She addressed him without looking up from the sheet currently under her studying gaze. “Lord Nik, I was readyin’ myself to send word to you when I heard you were on your way here. It has been some hours since we talked, but why have you made your way to my office?”

  Bending at the waist, he offered her another of the bows that he still hadn’t perfected and replied, “Lord Cril, to start I’d like to thank you for everything you have done and are doing for me. Secondly, I came with a request. I would like your permission to hunt skitterbugs with my guards as a combat exercise.”

  She tilted her head as he spoke, analyzing his words. “You really are an interestin’ person. Why is that your current goal? If you don’t mind me askin’.”

  The claws of his feet tapped anxiously at the stone floor as he spoke to the peer who, in his mind, felt so far above him.

  “They have no experience. I faced my first enemy only weeks ago, and I survived that situation by running away. I’m not trying to brag, but even with that being how I started, I believe I could take them on three against one. They need to get stronger and more experienced to protect our family.”

  “And you would go on this hunt without havin’ slept?”

  Nik’s eyes were already burning with tiredness. “No, I was actually hoping that you might have an update to offer me some small chance that I could rest.”

  “That was the thing I’d hoped to talk to you about. My healers have very few ideas on how to help with your current problem. It ain’t anythin’ that we’ve encountered before. However, we did come up with one solution that could help in theory. You and your faery friend, you’ve been in a faery ring before?”

  Nik smirked, not yet allowing hope to bring his smile to full. “We have. Why?”

  “They are a peculiar thing. We agreed that, even though we may not be able to directly help you, if we could get you into one of those rings—it might be enough to keep you contained within it as you sleep. Worth a try?”

  “I’d probably say that just about anything would be worth a try. I don’t know why I didn’t think of that either. So we need to go to the surface?”

  Now it was her turn to smirk. “No, but we are goin’ to need your friend’s help. I’m lettin’ you in on a secret now. We’ve been tryin’ to emulate the rings for some time. We have a small supply of mushrooms harvested from the rings, but they don’t seem to have the same effect once we replant them or sow the spores. Do you think she would help us bring them into use for their purpose?”

  The blue of his eyes was easily visible with how wide open they were now. “You want to make a ring here? I don’t know if that is possible. I will ask Pearl, but I won’t push her. Not for my sake. If she says no, then we will just have to leave Brekk earlier than expected.”

  “That will be up to you, but we hope that she will afford us this favor in honor of the alliance we wish to forge between us. Temporary permission to hunt in our territory will be granted the moment you wake from havin’ slept.”

  “I will send word of her response and await instructions for the ring. That is if Pearl accepts.”

  Cril nodded as she looked up from her paperwork and made pointed eye contact. Her tone was less stern but just as serious as she said, “My people need somethin’ to work out here. You know of our struggles. Another strong ally in close proximity to trade with could be exactly what is needed to lessen the fears cornerin’ the goblins of Brekk.”

  Nik did his best to make sure that his features were an equal balance of seriousness and warmth. “I understand. No matter what happens, I will do my best to do right by your city. I promised not to turn my back on them, and I won’t. There will be better days ahead for your people, do not lose sight of hope. Hope is the candle, when everything else is darkness. I will send word of Pearl’s reply.”

  With the conversation ended, Cril’s paperwork had become her focus once more. Nik left her office to make his way through the rooms, tunnels and staircases back to his clan. For the first time in a while he was nervous to make a request of his friend.

  The last thing he wanted to do was offend her, or make her feel like she was being asked to betray a secret of her people, if the rings were a secret thing.

  Midjourney back to the temporary camp of his newfound clan, the blue light of the mana-torches started flickering. The ground swayed beneath his feet. It was happening again. In a new place, so very far away from his old home… The rumble had followed him here.

  On unsteady footing, Nik ran as quickly as he could in the now shifting tunnels and staircases that separated him from his friends. Dust fell over his head as a crack formed above him. The ground felt like it moved three inches to the right, and Nik stumbled into the wall. A rumble echoed. He pushed off and continued forward. A crack sounded behind him as he sprinted, and the ceiling caved in behind him.

  Pearl can fly, so long as no falling debris finds her, she’ll be alright. Ryan is with her, though. He can’t fly yet and he might slow her down. Black Tower, please let them be safe. And the Stormclaws, I don’t know how many of them can make use of Earth skills.

  Nik rounded the last corner, eyes scanning for any sign of danger and searching for any familiar face he could find.

  “Pearl! Pliegs! Guards!” he shouted over the sounds of grinding stone and frightened cries.

  Pearl was the first to reach him, zipping through the air even with Ryan dangling from her arms. She dropped the fae-dragon into Nik’s arms and immediately transferred to his hood. Next were his guards who had been following after their trainer.

  “How many earth users do we have?” he asked his guards.

  Kath answered, “Three of the elders, and maybe a few of the older children who showed promise.”

  “Get everyone against the wall behind the camp and gather the skill users. We need them to strengthen the wall and repair any cracks as they form. Spread the message, now! Go!” he commanded. The three guards went into action, running and shouting commands to their people.

  “Pearl, I don’t know what we can do besides wait this out with the others. Do you have any ideas?”

  “Sorry Nik, I’ve never seen anything like th—”

  A loud crack interrupted her sentence, as one of the chains that held the large crystal in the center of the chamber to its place in the ceiling began breaking loose. In heartbeats it would be left plummeting towards the camp. The moment it snapped free, Nik and pearl leapt forward in unison, swinging out their hands to unleash twin blades of air toward the massive, descending links of metal.

  Narrow grooves cut into the chain and the force of the Wind Slices pushed the end of its length to crash just feet beyond the tents and sleeping mats. Goblin children were already scrambling away from the cloud of dust that had been kicked up by the impact of the chain.

  “Help the children!” Nik screamed out to whoever might be able to help. There were too many for Him and Pearl alone.

  The vendor he’d spoken to earlier was already moving, and Stics was a breath behind them. They beat Nik to the smallest among the children, sweeping them up and carrying them towards the wall. Stics only stopped for a moment to pick up a second child.

  The ceiling was still cracking apart as Pearl reached the last two children. She went for the oldest and began pulling at his arm, guiding him toward the others.

  Nik arrived to the last of the young ones as large chunks of debris fell over them. They were being pelted by small stones and he swept the child up into his arms. He was too slow; the ceiling was already beginning to crumble.

  Aiming for the edge of the wall just away from the huddled Stormclaws, he tried something new.

  Nik jumped into the air turning his back to the wall he was aiming for. The moments slowed. The center of the room had sunk low, into sharp jagged pieces. And it was already falling towards him and the child in his arms. Still midair, Nik focused his will on his ability.

  He pictured the Flame Blast, the power of that explosive burst of energy, but forced all of that power through his legs. He tilted back further and kicked his feet out in front of himself. A loud bang cracked through the air. Nik was launched back by the eruption of flame under the heels of his feet.

  Heavy masses of earth fell before him as he shot through the air in reverse. Vision went white as his back hit the wall, everything blurred back into view as others rushed to his side, and then the world went black.