The Goblin's Crown

Chapter Sixty Nine: What Are You Afraid Of

"Do you still have him in your sights?" Tova asked Stellan as she worked, petting the back of my head to help calm me down. My breathing was labored, the sharp inhales coming too quickly. I swore I could still feel the press of his weapon beneath my chin.

"Yes, but he's nearly out of range. Even if the shots reach his heart if he's anything like the other creatures it won't put him down for long. He'll reform himself and be back within minutes." Stellan's head cocked slightly, his eyes turning in his skull to follow Puck's rapid springs. The arrows' songs were becoming faint, drowned out by the shaking of The Hollow's branches and the screaming of both the creatures and the fae alike. "What are we going to do? We can't stop these things. They don't die. Magic can only buy us time. Even the faeries are having trouble." Stellan asked his wife.

Tova lowered her head, her eyelids drooping over her doe-like eyes. "I...I think we should consider a retreat. We could all pull back to The Boughs, regroup before the creatures make their way there. If we're lucky, we'll have time to scatter the children into the forest. Save as many as we possibly can." Her eyes slightly narrowed in thought. "It makes you wonder though, why she has never unleashed them all before. Maybe she has as much control over them as she does Bran. If so, then perhaps there is still some hope that they'll lose interest and leave The Boughs in peace."

"What are we going to do about her?" He motioned with his bow at me. "She'll kill herself and her little one if she keeps at this."

"I'm not going anywhere." I spat out the last remnants of the blood that had flooded my mouth onto the ground by Tova's thigh, my insides boiling in anger. "You promised you wouldn't tell." I glowered at her.

"I didn't. He can smell it on you just as I did." She said. She turned her head back towards her husband. "I tried to persuade her to leave The Branches earlier. She wouldn't listen. She's stubborn." A smile tugged at her thin lips. "I don't think it would do any good to force her to evacuate. She's not leaving here without her mate."

Stellan's strange face, the skin like bark and expression unnervingly animalistic, softened. His dark brown eyes warming as they looked down at his wife's very similar features. "I do not condone her selfishness, but I cannot say that I blame her. I would do the same if it were you." Stellan said softly, petting her head and letting a long lock of hair slip through his bow fingers. Tova's smile broadened and she leaned a little more towards Stellan's touch.

While the elves were having their moment, my fingers found the weighty handle of my knife hidden in the tall grass. They closed around it, squeezing it as tightly as a friendly hand. "No, the beasts of the void can die." I breathed raggedly, heaving myself onto my feet. I held the knife in one palm and trailed my armored fingers along the length of its blade, admiring its sharpness as if I had never laid eyes on it before. "I've killed one before." The serpent. I'd severed its head with the aid of the hunk of metal laying against my breast beneath my armor. "You just have to have the right tools," I said, slipping my helm back into place, covering my pretty face with that of a rotted corpse.

"They share our weakness to iron?" Tova asked, rising up beside me. She and Stellan stared towards the weapon in my hand with a mixture of desire and disgust.

"At least some of them do. Bran and those like him may be another matter." I nodded, flipping the knife around in my hand so that the blade lay flat against my wrist as a shriek pierced my ears painfully. A creature with the form of a man and the wings and head of a crow descended towards us with talons opened wide, ready to pluck us from the garden. Goblins covered its back, stabbing claws and teeth and blades of magic into its inky feathers. Its flight wavered as it struggled to control the wings the goblins gnawed on. Its talons flexed wider. Its one red eye churned and flickered like fire, another shriek erupting from its throat.