The Goblin's Crown

Chapter Fifty Five: Checkmate

"Are you certain of that?" I asked.

Lir's eyes narrowed in confusion. "What are you getting at?"

I rose from the throne, stepping on Adahahm's fingers as I took a few steps towards the hole in the tower's side. The icy wind blew snow inward. It clung to my clothing, skin, hair, and eyelashes, a stark contrast against the still raging fires in the city below. "This is a city of the common people." I began. I could feel every eye in the room on my back, every ear turned towards my voice. "Peasants. The highborn flock around her at court, filling up her lonely castle in the uppermost branches. Don't you see? Everyone that matters is there. Everyone here, everyone she's deemed unimportant, is expendable."

"No!" Lir's voice shook as he shouted at me. The tray he held clattered noisily against the stone floor. "S-she would never..." He openly denied it, but his stammering attested to the seed of doubt I'd planted with just a few words.

Of course, she would. It was what I would do.

I'd begun to suspect it when Knut suddenly released his control of Snorri without so much as a goodbye, and my dread had grown every moment since then that she had not blotted out the twinkling stars with the number of her soldiers.

Something was not right.

"Your Majesty?" Snorri leaned over the edge to peer at my face worriedly. I didn't realize until then just how badly I was quivering. I tucked my arms up beneath the night cloak, bundling myself up to play off my shivering as a reaction to the cold. It was just the cold. Just the cold.

"Snorri, have you been able to communicate at all with Knut since he used you?" I asked.

"Of course. I can hear him now." He answered cheerfully, glad to be able to put my unease to rest.

"What is he saying?"

"Help Matilda." He chimed. His brows furrowed, "Is something wrong?"

"Can you tell where he is?" I shot him a look that instantly killed his smile. "Can you tell me exactly?"

Slowly, his smile faded. His ears twitched and his head did that jerking motion again as he tried to locate his king. When the jerking stopped, his brows furrowed even deeper with worry. "No....I cannot tell exactly. All I hear is, 'Help Matilda.'" His mouth drooped into a tooth baring grimace as he growled a hushed curse. "You don't think..."

I didn't think it...I knew it and the very thought made me violently ill.

"She sacrificed The City of Thorns on purpose."

A bone chilling wind swept through the tower, bringing with it a torrent of heavy snow, so thick it bathed everything in white. The torches that lit the chamber dimly were snuffed out with a sigh as a new flame sparked into being. It burned icy gray, lighting the chamber in shades of silver. Within it, flickering at its center, was Mab.

A smug grin stretched across her face. "It took you long enough to figure that out." She taunted me.

With furious roars, the goblins and I rushed towards her, reaching with sharp claws for her slender throat. I plunged my dagger down in a stabbing motion at her heart and felt the sickening feeling of meeting nothing but air. Our claws and weapons passed harmlessly through her as if she were nothing but smoke. I tumbled across the floor on the other side of her, coming to rest on my hands and knees.

She only laughed at my pitiful attempt on her life. "Come now, you didn't really think I'd appear before you in the flesh, did you? You have, after all, threatened to gut me alive on several occasions."

The councilmen cried out in relief, thinking themselves saved. "You've come! You've finally come!" Mab, however, paid them no mind. I doubted she even heard them. Her attention was on me alone.