The Goblin's Crown

Chapter Seventy Two: From the Father the Children Spring

My words to Ib were a rumbling hiss. "Ib, we have to push forward. I cannot cower here while others fight for me." My delusions of what being a queen would be like had finally proven themselves to be just that. Delusions. I understood now, what Llinos had meant about a goblin queen's role. I no longer had any desire to hide while others fought for me. Everything in me was screaming to fight, to kill, to maim, for the sake of the child in my belly, for Knut, for the goblin race.

For the golden empire that was now nearly in my grasp.

"No," He made a sound, like something between an inhale and a laugh, but I heard the soft smile in his voice. "That's not the goblin way. Forget about me. Save Knut." There was no fear, no sadness in what may prove to be his final words. To him his life had never mattered, never meant anything to anyone...but Knut. Why wouldn't he gladly lay down his life for the man that meant so much to him? His friend. His love. His king.

Perhaps that was why I couldn't abandon Ib. I already considered him one of us. A goblin. He was always meant to come to the goblin city. The only thing that had changed was his purpose.

I smacked the back of his white head. Hard enough that his head whipped forward. He winced, holding his head and gritting his teeth at the pain radiating through his skull. "What was that for?" He asked, rubbing his offended flesh.

"I'm not leaving you to die, idiot." I spat, angling my head so that he could clearly look into my eyes. I grabbed his hand, raised it to the level of his chest, at the ready. "That which has twisted you has also given you strength. Your body can take much more abuse than mine, can move as quickly and as gracefully as one of them. Use what they did to you against them. Make them regret it." Unknown to me, a hound with three heads lunged at us, its teeth aiming for my throat.

Ib shouted a warning, springing quickly he grabbed the hound by the scruff of its neck and yanked it back before its gaping, tooth-filled mouth could slam shut on my shoulder. It howled when my iron gauntleted hand reached into its maw and I wrapped my talons around its slimy tongue. The other heads snarled and growled, nipping at my armor only for them to reel away from the taste of it as if the iron had burned their mouths. I yanked the middle tongue and held the beast fast as I drove my knife upwards into its lower jaw. With quick, precise strokes, I cut away at it until that head was dangling from my black bloodied fist by its tongue. The beast oozed from my hands, settling into puddles of black at our feet.

With an exchange of determined glares, both our chests heaving with exertion, two more goblins joined the fight.

Agi and Llinos both struck Puck at that same instant but Puck countered them skillfully. Metal clanged against metal when their swords met. Curved and jagged blade to the long, delicate rapier. A cloven hoof came down on Agi's neck. The ratlike goblin twisted around in its skin, squirming and clawing at its attacker's hoof, drawing blood.

"You're a disgrace," Llinos told him, stating a fact in his level voice.

Puck's lips peeled away from his jagged teeth. "That may be so, but at least once your master's bride is dead, I will be free. Free to go and do as I wish, free to die and stay dead. Unlike you. What life is this for you? Your second? Your hundredth. Thousandth?"

"It doesn't matter. We're goblins." Llinos leaped away and I took his place, crashing into Puck with hard blows while he and Ib came at Puck from the back.

Yet, somehow, their swords struck one another again. Puck's body twisted around unnaturally so that he faced Llinos and Ib while the goat legs hadn't moved. His free arm flew backward and caught me in the cheek so hard I went flying backwards into another creature's waiting claws. Ib rushed to my aid, leaving Llinos to do deal with Puck. He slashed away at the beast's wrists util the body fell away and I could pry the remaining hands off my neck.