King of the Goblins 2—Chapter 29

The trolls burned for nearly half an hour before Coraline and the others began moving the stone again. We focused on pushing the air out of the tunnel to keep the stench down.

“Anyone want barbeque?” I asked the nearby soldiers. Some of them laughed. A few of them looked ill.

The worst part of this wasn’t the cleanup, but having to wait to see Tressi. I assumed she was safe—she had closed off the other end of the tunnel, after all—but my heart wouldn’t slow until she was in my arms.

A man brought a bucket filled with wet cloths for us to tie around our faces. They smelled faintly of vinegar and some kind of citrus—strong smells that would help with the stench.

My wives held me tightly as we watched people clear away the mess. The trolls were a nightmare—even burned, they were still obscenely heavy. Men tried tying ropes around their ankles to pull them, but the melted ligaments in their joints came apart. The trolls had to be dragged out by their armor.

As soon as the stone walls were opened enough to pass, I let go to Leena and Silvy and pushed my way through. I used my boot to push several charred pieces from my path, and briefly wondered if we could reuse that steel. Metal was a valuable resource. No sense in letting it go to waste.

I felt ill by the time I reached the end of the tunnel, but I passed by ten burned bodies. That was all of the trolls. My heart leaped in my chest when Tressi suddenly appeared in front of me, shadow stone in hand.

I wrapped my arms around her and lifted her off the ground. She held me tightly and I spun her around a few times before finally setting her back on her feet.

“Happy to see me?” she asked.

“Words can’t even describe it, honey,” I said.

“Is it bad in there?” she asked.

I frowned. “Cleanup will take a while. We only lost one soldier, fortunately. The women working on the tunnel came to help us. The trolls didn’t stand a chance.”

“That explains it,” she said. “As soon as the last troll crawled into the tunnel I started closing it. It took me a while, but they weren’t looking behind them. By the time I was done, they were so far down the tunnel I had to run into it just to set them on fire. One of them tried backing out to get to me, but I made it out in time.”

I hugged her again. “I’m just glad you’re safe.” I looked over at the tunnel, dreading passing through it again. 

“Did you talk to any of them?” Tressi asked.

“Not really,” I said. “I wasn’t able to question them or anything, but I did overhear something interesting. One of the trolls mentioned kidnapping as many goblin women as possible and bringing them to their new king. King Jack, apparently that’s his name.”

“What a strange name,” Tressi said. “You humans and your strange names. Aaron, Jack.”

“We have some weird ones,” I replied. “Hobart, Mildred, Gertrude.”

She looked up at me. “Well, those sound perfectly normal.”

“Normal? Fine, I’ll name our kid Toyota Camry.”

Tressi thought for a moment. “I kind of like it. Does it mean something in your language?”

I threw my hands in the air. I would never understand goblin names.

We waited for a while, but finally passed through the tunnel again and made our way back into the city. It would take a long time to clean out the trolls and scrub the scorch marks from the walls.

“I’m hoping we can reuse the steel from their armor,” I said as we passed by. “That’s a lot of metal.” 

Tressi nodded soberly. “I don’t like it, but you’re right. I suppose it depends on what is made from them, though. Build something for the military out of the troll’s armor. It’ll remind them that someone once tried to take over the city, and they failed.”

“Oh by the way, I thought of a name for the city. Solace.”

“Solace,” she said, repeating the word over and over. “I like it. I still tend to just call it home, but Solace works. Now you’ll need to think of a name for our new city.”

“Well, shit. You’re right.” I frowned at that. It had taken me six months to name Solace. Who knew what I’d call the new city. I briefly considered naming it Reykjavik, as I had always liked that name. Or Thunder Bay, although I immediately saw the issue with naming an underground city after a bay.

“By the gods that is disgusting,” Tressi said, holding her hand over her nose and mouth. We hurried through the tunnel to try to get away from the burned corpses.

Once we got to the other side of the tunnel, we found people celebrating. One of the women that had helped, a tunnel worker, ran up and kissed a soldier right on the lips. Leena and Silvy saw us and rushed to hug us. Zia was there only a moment later.

We moved further into the city to escape the smell and the noise, and then I turned to my wives. 

“They wanted to kidnap goblin women and bring them back to their new king,” I said.

“But why?” Silvy asked.

“Have you seen yourself?” Leena asked her. She reached out and poked her in her massive breast.

Silvy looked down at her figure, then over at Zia. “Oh. Right.”

“So, are you going to do anything about that?” Leena asked me. 

“Damn right, I am,” I said. That was something I had decided the moment the trolls set foot in the tunnel.

All four of my wives stopped and looked at me.

I shrugged. “Well, I’m going to figure out exactly who this guy is, and I’m going to kill him,” I said. “I already know he’s a human, so my blood magic should work against him. I just need to gather a team and go there.”

“You can count us in,” Zia said. Her easygoing demeanor was gone, replaced by hard eyes and a firm voice.

Tressi looked over at her, then nodded and looked back to me. “We’re all coming with you.”

“It’s not going to be safe,” I said. “We’ll be walking through the woods for half a week just to get there.”

“Uh huh,” Zia said. “And they would have kidnapped us, had they made it into the city. I don’t even want to think of what would have happened to us.”

“Well, that settles it, then,” I said. I looked around, just trying to gather my thoughts. I didn’t know if this King Jack asshole had any magical way of communicating with his trolls. I assumed he didn’t, which meant he would be expecting them home in three or four days. Instead, we’d be there.

“We’ll spend the rest of the day cleaning up and resting,” I said. “Tomorrow morning we’ll head out. I’ll grab a team of men and have someone pack us enough supplies, and we’ll be out.”

My wives nodded. They seemed eager for vengeance. Even peaceful Leena.

“How’s your father?” I asked her.

“A bit frustrated that the arrows didn’t work,” she said. “But, it’s done now. That’s what’s important. I need to tell him we’re going to kill the troll king.”

I winced. He’d probably have something to say about that. Hopefully he’d just decide to come with us, instead. I could use someone with his skill.

“So, what’s our next move?” Silvy asked. She looked ready to go.

“Back to the palace,” I said. “I need to talk to a few people and get things organized. And we need to prepare.” I looked down at my filthy clothes. “A bath would be nice. Hey, Leena. If your father decides to come with us, tell him to bring Taranath as well.”

She nodded. “I’ll send him a message right now, so Taranath has time to get ready.”

“Oh, Tela won’t like that idea,” Tressi said.

I tried to think back on tabloids about the British royal family and their titles. I generally avoided that sort of thing, but at least I remembered one important part.

“Remind her that as your sister, she’s technically a princess,” I said to Tressi. 

She looked up at me. “Huh. I guess I never thought of that. What’s that got to do with anything, though?”

I shrugged. “Nothing, really, but it’ll distract her and let Taranath escape.”

Tressi laughed at that. She knew how tightly her sister held onto the elven man. The two were practically inseparable. 

Leena left and walked towards the mouth of the tunnel so she could send a magical message to her father. The rest of us slowly passed through the city and made our way back to the Royal District.

“He wants to name the city Solace, by the way,” Tressi said. 

“I think I like it,” Silvy added.

Zia thought for a moment, then nodded. “I like it. I suppose it’s nice having a name for our home, even if we don’t feel it needs one. Solace it is.”