Chapter 2 #2
I started to move upright. Unfortunately, not my doing, but whatever I was lying on. I felt chains on me, cutting into my skin. Feeling but otherwise paralyzed really wasn’t good. Goblins were renowned for their colorful methods for enjoying feasts.
Damn.
Shirtless? Air tickled my skin. The bottom half? No. Material still there, only my chest exposed. Barefoot, too.
Wheels turned, squeaking near my ears. The platform I was fixed to stopped at an almost upright angle, giving me a view of my surroundings.
A wide and long chamber, the roots and lanterns spread far and wide.
It was almost beautiful. A long dining table sat a few feet away, goblins preparing it.
The melty-faced hellpissers added plates to the white tablecloth.
Polished forks, lit candles, added pink hydrangeas as decoration.
All very lovely. All very morbid. And not the focus of my attention.
Valance was strapped to another platform, already upright, bound up by many threads of chains visibly cutting into his pale skin, tight around his slender frame. His eyes locked to mine, wide with panic. A wonderful sight if not for this, well, let’s just call it impotence.
I tried to tell him things would be okay. Did he hear or feel my reassurance down our connection?
“But that would be a lie, wouldn’t it?” a voice responded to my thoughts.
The female goblin I’d seen in the forest stepped up to me. About three feet tall but no less dangerous. Deadlier than me, than any Sidhe prince.
She touched my leg with fat fingers. “It is terrible to offer false hope in a hopeless situation.” She inspected her fingers that’d touched me as if she’d checked for dust.
Between us and the table was a fire, burning low. Two metal poles sat either side of it, half-circle joints at each point.
“Let’s not be so negative, though,” the goblin added.
“This is a joyous occasion. Maybe not for you, but then these things are all in the eye of the beholder. For instance, you see it as horrific. But what if you spun that into something charming? You will be nourishing goblins in need of such rich morsels as you two, for example. Because you’re doing just that. Giving us what we need.”
I thought this at her: The last thing you need is more food from what I can see.
She laughed. “Funny human.”
More movement out of my eye line. Grinding wheels?
Four male goblins dragged a cauldron on wheels toward the fire—a massive black thing.
Old, having seen a lot of use. A long pole hung from its handle.
The goblins lifted it by this pole, one goblin on the shoulders of the other.
Both pairs at each side of the fire. They hefted the cauldron up, so the pole rested in those half-circle joints on the other poles on either side of the fire.
For their lack of height, the goblins made up for it with alarming strength.
“Thank you,” the female goblin said.
The two males nodded and left, dressed in brown robes. In fact, every single goblin wore brown robes that resembled potatoes sacks. This female goblin’s were different, the collar lined with golden piping.
“This is exciting,” the goblin said, clapping her hands.
Two females and a male arrived with water jugs and a small ladder. Taking turns, they each climbed the steps and dropped the water into the cauldron. It’d take a while to fill the wide, human-sized thing.
Perfect for a prince and his human lapdog.
“How lucky we are to have ourselves not only a large human, but Prince Valance, too.” She walked over to him on stumpy legs, traced her fingers across his flat stomach in circles. “Such a beautiful man.”
Anger surged through me, a dozen raging thoughts at her touching him.
The goblin responded by turning her head, those fingers still on the prince.
“This upsets you so much, doesn’t it?” She laughed, poking at his belly button.
“Would it really anger you if I pricked him and tasted the joy to come?” She moaned, a grub-like pink tongue running across her lips.
“Delicious prince, his blood full of magic and Sidhe power. I wonder if he’ll make me immortal, too.
Make me part Sidhe fae, allow me to see the passing of future time, to see ages come and go, how this world will change without the stink of death’s breath on my neck.
” She bowed her head. “Though the Sidhe are fallible, aren’t they?
One knife to the heart and centuries of life is gone. ”
Leave him alone, I thought at her.
She laughed. “How weak you sound, human. Though I know you’re made of stronger stuff. I’ve heard it for myself, listened to your struggles, your trains of thought. Your desires.” She licked her lips again. “Such a complicated relationship you both have, under even more complicated circumstances.”
Let us go.
“Why would I do that?” she questioned and came over to me.
It was my turn to have my stomach drawn on by goblin fingers.
Where did you get the poison from? I asked.
“An elf long gone from our bellies,” she said, sniffing me.
“Hmmm. A journey north to Winter. A dark caress. Thoughts of a destiny. Death and rage and betrayal and an unbreakable bond. My food is never normally this fascinating.” She sniffed me some more.
“Or as grubby. Never mind. You’ll be cleaned soon. ”
You have to let us go.
“So you can die later on? Because you will. Traveling to Winter is asking for death. There’s a reason it’s a lost land, kept up there to shiver and linger in the nightmares of the rest of us.”
The goblin shuddered.
You’re afraid of Winter?
“Aren’t you?”
When you live so close to it, you don’t think too hard on it.
“A child of northern Autumn.”
Yes.
“Even here in Summer, I fear the shadows, the tales. I shouldn’t listen to silly tales of monsters.” She shrugged. “Effective as they are. The snows are the real monsters up there, I would think. But it is a world away from mine, a world I’m saving you from.”
Is that you trying to make this better again?
“Yes, human. Or should I call you…” She paused for a moment. “That’s right. Kormac Aeson of Riverleaf. I want you to see how much easier this is for you. How I’m sparing you so much future suffering.”
Have you ever been to Winter?
“Certainly not.”
Then how can you be sure I’ll die there?
She chuckled. “Because I’m sure, Kormac.”
A female and male goblin wheeled in wooden trollies loaded with carrots, mushrooms, and what looked like turnips. Jars of herbs and spices, too. They began to chop and sort through those jars.
By the gods.
“A most wonderful feast,” the goblin said.
Dread formed painful knots in my chest. Shouldn’t it be our choice if we die in Winter?
“As opposed to this choice I’m making for you, Kormac?”
Yes.
“No.”
What?
“There is such a thing as the rules of life—the circle of life, if you will. You see, the food chain is real. You hunt food. You eat meat. You do so in order to survive. We all need to sustain our lives by stuffing our faces. This is simply the circle of life in action. And a mercy.”
This isn’t a mercy. And I don’t eat my meat alive.
“No? You should have tried it, Kormac. It tastes so much better with undertones of fear.” She smacked her lips.
Please. Just let us go.
“And find another prince and human?” She shook her head. “No, no, no. A bounty like this doesn’t come along very often.”
You can’t eat a prince.
“Why?”
He’s a prince.
“You hate this prince.”
It doesn’t matter.
“The soul bond matters, though.”
I didn’t answer that point. It’s treason to eat a prince.
“The same prince who murdered his father and king?” she countered.
“The same prince who slaughtered those at the fighting pits of Titheden City? Him? The same prince who hurt you?” More chuckling.
“As I watched you from the trees, I listened. I heard your thoughts about his beastly orchid garden—which does have some level of infamy. And I heard about you losing your tongue. I’m glad to see it’s back.
The tongue is one of my favorite parts.”
Please… All I had left was begging.
“Oh, Kormac. Enough of—” Her head snapped round, her bushy brows coming together. “Your Highness? Would you care to repeat that thought?”
I felt a stab of rage from him. Faint but with a sharp enough sting.
Good.
The goblin laughed. “Such brave words for a prince in your predicament.”
What did he say? I asked.
“Nastiness, Kormac. Pure nastiness.”
Gods! Why did he have to antagonize her?
She charged over to him and punched him in the stomach. His paralyzed body didn’t react, but his eyes bulged.