The Goblin's Throne

Chapter Sixty Four: Goblin Revenge

My sword kept moving even when Daphne's wings hit the ground, slicing shallow wounds in her flesh, filleting skin, taking off fingers. I did anything I could think of to keep her screaming and force the morbid show to go on for our only audience member. Knut gripped Titania's head in a vicelike hold, his fingers forcing her eyelids open so she had no choice but to watch while I cleaved our rage and hurt into her darling daughter.

Finally, after nearly a half hour, I lowered my sword to the bloody platform. My breathing was labored and my arms ached a little from using the sword for so long. It was a lot heavier than the knives I was used to and I had not stopped swinging it since Daphne's torture began.

Daphne was trembling hard. A mortal girl would've died by now just from the blood loss, but faeries were difficult to kill. A blessing to them I was grateful for. It gave me more time to enact brutal goblin revenge. Her face had turned an ashen color as her blood poured out from her many wounds, soaking her clothes and making her toes slip against the stone beneath them. She hung heavily in the iron chains. She kept trying to stand only for her legs to shake violently and her feet to slip out from under her. 

Snorri and the creature tore into the discarded wings with their teeth, spitting out feathers as silvery blood seeped between their teeth and dripped down their chins. They snarled and smacked their lips, making faces like they had just tasted the most delicious thing they'd ever put in their mouths.

"Please stop! Please! Please! Stop!" Titania kept on, shaking and sobbing, trying to turn her head in Knut's grip. Knut was whispering something in her ear that made her twist and struggle all the more.

I didn't hear what it was that first made her begin to squirm, but I did catch the last bit. "Watch, Titania. Watch us tear your child apart. It is what you deserve. It's what you asked for the minute the idea to cross us came into your birdy little brain."  The teeth of his helm brushed against the point of her ear and for a moment, I imagined it opening its jaws wide and biting it off. "Watch us eat her whole."

Snorri, dropping a half-eaten wing and rose onto his cat-like feet. He traced his claws along Daphne's arm, the curved nail scratching a bloody line all the way down. She winced, weakly trying to shift away from him. Snorri took hold of her arm, his claws burying deep into her soft flesh and he opened his jaws wide, showing every bloody tooth. He ripped into her, tearing meat from the bone at her forearm. Another screeching, hoarse scream burst from her mouth, echoed by her mother's mournful wail and incessant pleas for mercy.

Even though Knut disliked killing children, his violent instincts had hold of him now. We'd been wronged and now Titania would pay. An eye for an eye. Tooth for a tooth. Youngest for youngest. If he felt even an ounce of pity for the young girl, he showed no sign of it. I could hear the echo of devilish laughter even in his quiet whispering.

As Snorri feasted, Daphne's screams faded into a soft whimpering. She tilted her head towards me, her green eyes shining wet and bloodshot with pain. Her white lips moved with the barest uttering of sound. 

"What did you say?" I demanded. I stalked closer, bending down so that my face was level with her own. Her eyes followed mine. 

With a shuttering intake of breath, she said again, "I am sorry your baby died."

Startled, I finally looked at her, truly looked, staring straight into the green color of her eyes. 

I heard a voice then. One that I think might've been trying to get through to me this whole time, but I'd been ignoring it and I hadn't been willing to let in. Her voice was soft...so very soft, as weak as it was coming from her mouth. Her soul was as tired as her body. "I smell salt. You've been crying since the first blow..."