Chapter 29
“Gone?” Roquat rose from his throne, glaring down at the deranged face of the gnome who had delivered the news.
“You opened the earth, and she simply washed away?” He descended to the gnome, whose permanent jackal-like smile remained fixed from ear to ear.
This gnome seemed duller than most, as even the three behind it cowered under Roquat’s approach.
“Then I don’t know why you have returned,” Roquat growled.
Roquat bent, taking the gnome’s entire head in his hand.
With a single, powerful grip, he plucked the gnome from the ground.
“I don’t care if you have to swim the channel and burrow through the entire mainland with your teeth!
” In an instant, with simplistic ease, he crushed the gnome’s skull, its innards squirting everywhere.
The remaining three gnomes shrieked, their gurgles filling the air as they scurried back in terror.
“Do not return without the girl!” Roquat howled, tossing the gnome’s broken body toward them. “Take that mess with you!” The gnomes scurried, dragging the corpse past a figure, the witch, that loomed stiff, watching like stone, from outside the door.
“Do come in, Mombi,” Roquat said. He shook his hand of the blood, flinging brain matter to the floor.
“My Lord,” she said and bent to a knee, though her intention to disobey and deceive him radiated from her like lava that pours from the earth.
“The time has come for you to prove your loyalty,” he said, turning to take his throne. “There is someone I need for you to retrieve, and bring to me unscathed.”
“I gathered—the gnomes failed fetching the girl.” Mombi glared at him with black eyes. She was insolent, but the gnomes were inept, and he only had so many servants left he could call upon.
But not for much longer.
“Agree to this,” he said, “and I will lift the bind over your one true power.”
Mombi squinted at the baited hook he dangled for her and stood. “And if I don’t?”
Roquat hadn’t the tolerance for her brazen attitude. At his will, the central raw crystal chandelier shaped like an enormous disc came crashing to the floor, smashing in tremendous chunks right before Mombi’s feet. She stepped back, rage burning in her eyes. Did she dare challenge him again?
“Lift the bind now,” Mombi commanded of him, and he rose with stones cascading down his back.
The temptation in her eyes burned. “Please,” she attempted, but the word sounded as though it was acid in her mouth.
“My Lord. Tell me who it is you need brought to you?” Mombi lowered her head in his service, at last obedient.
“Bring me Alice, and then your power will be fully restored.”
Mombi immediately flared at the directive. “How am I expected to find her?”
“Evoldo,” Roquat said. “Evoldo will have information. She will be my bride, and then your bind will be lifted.”
“My Lord, this is—”
Roquat waved her away, ignoring her objections. As a gnome came to remove her, he returned his gaze to the rock walls.
The threads of silver no longer illuminated within. Alice was above ground. Roquat slammed his fist against the arm of the crystal throne, which cracked and crumbled under his strength.