King of the Goblins 2—Chapter 25

Tressi and Leena left after that and walked towards the tunnel. I kept my arms around Coraline, who seemed more comfortable with me after that conversation.

“I can’t believe you chose me,” Coraline said, sounding excited. “I’m ready whenever you are, Your Majesty.”

“Let’s focus on the troll attack first,” I said. “Priorities, after all.”

“Oh. Of course, Your Majesty. That makes perfect sense.” 

I paused for a moment, then leaned forward and kissed her. It was a soft kiss, just something to help break the ice. I was expected to impregnate this woman so I didn’t want her to be a stranger.

“You keep resting here,” I told her as I finally slid her off my lap. “I want you to be at your full strength, or as close to it, when the trolls arrive. I have an idea and I think you’re the only one strong enough to pull it off.”

“Yes, Your Majesty,” she said, bobbing a quick curtsey.

“Oh yeah, and enough with the bobbing and bowing. If we’re going to have a kid, I want us to be on more equal grounds.”

She blinked. “Alright, Your Ma—um.”

“Aaron,” I said.

“Alright, Aaron.”

We both smiled at each other. I reached out and took her hand, then pulled her to me. I kissed her again, a bit more passionate that time, then slapped her on the butt when we finished. After that I stood up and left the area.

I walked back down the tunnel, seeking out my wives. I found them at the end, watching the forest. Leena had her eyes closed and one hand in the air, and she seemed to be whispering something. I recognized it as her sending a message to her father via magic.

“You did well,” Tressi said to me. “She is very pretty, but her talent with magic is more important. Having children with women like her will make us stronger with magic as a species.”

“I’m glad you approve,” I said. “It still feels weird to me.” 

I reached out for Tressi and she smiled and stepped close. We embraced for a while, then she stretched up onto her toes and puckered her lips. I bent down and kissed her, then wrapped my arms around her and lifted her from the ground. She giggled as I held her a foot off the ground, kissing her as thoroughly as I knew how.

“I just want to make sure you know that I love you, honey,” I told her.

“I don’t think I could ever forget,” she said, her eyes on mine.

Reluctantly, I set her feet back on the ground just as Leena finished sending her message. I pointed over to the stone foundation.

“Wow,” Leena said. “That one woman did that?”

“Yeah, in about ten minutes,” I replied. “It drained her of her strength, but that’s one solid piece now. She said it extends about ten feet below the ground as well.”

Tressi shook her head. “I’m strong when working with stone, but I can’t even imagine doing something like that. Talent like hers is rare, indeed.” She looked up at me. “You definitely did a good job in choosing her.”

I ran my fingers through my hair. I don’t think I’d ever get used to that.

“Anything yet?” I asked Leena.

Her lips moved silently for a moment before answering me. “They’re ready. Archers are at the top of every tree and on every bridge. My father said they have almost a thousand people up there with bows. They couldn’t grow that many bows magically, so they had to cut many branches off to make them. They’ll apologize to the trees after this and help them regrow.”

Apologize to the trees? Well, they did sort of communicate with them using magic. Althidon had once told me they used magic to basically convince the tree to grow in the direction they wanted. They had built an entire city that way.

“Tell him we’re ready as well,” I said.

“I already did,” Leena replied with a smile.

“Good,” I said, looking around. “Now, we wait. I could almost wish for them to hurry the hell up. I’m getting impatient.”

“It’s a shame Silvy isn’t here to admonish you for that statement,” Tressi said, her lips curving into a smile.

I laughed. She was right.

“Let’s go back inside,” I said. “We can wait at the other end of the tunnel instead of standing out here in the sun.”

“The sun feels so good, though,” Tressi said, closing her eyes and angling her face towards the sky.

“That’s because you don’t have Swedish skin like me,” I said, raising my hand to show my paleness.

“Fair enough,” Tressi said. 

She reached out with both hands. Leena took one of them and I took the other, and together the three of us walked back to the tunnel. We took our time going back to the city. At this point there wasn’t anything else we could really do except wait. The soldiers were ready, and word had been passed to the citizens. In the event of a disaster—not that I expected anything like that—they were ready as well.

When we got to the other end of the tunnel, we went to the small outpost that had been established for the soldiers. Two men had pushed a cart filled with food there and were handing out a late breakfast to the soldiers. My wives and I got in line and ate with them. Some of the soldiers got a kick out of that, eating with royalty.

A sergeant walked among the crowd, quietly giving orders to soldiers. They nodded and wolfed down the rest of their food when he spoke to them.

“Everything okay, sergeant?” I asked.

“Yes, Your Majesty,” he replied. “Just notifying the next shift to hurry up and get down there.”

“I’ll go with them,” I said. “You two take your time. There’s no reason for either of you to rush,” I said to my wives.

“I’ll go as well,” Silvy said as she walked up.

The soldiers practically fell over themselves standing and bowing to her. Everyone loved Queen Silvy. Not only due to her history, but her overall demeanor. Silvy was my wife, my queen, and my chief advisor. She practically ran the city herself, to be honest. There wasn’t a thing she couldn’t do, and everyone knew that. She was a survivor and an inspiration to the other women.

“I’m flattered, but please sit, all of you,” she said to the soldiers.

“Yes, Your Majesty,” they said in unison.

I ate the last of my food and handed my bowl to a servant. After that, Silvy took hold of my arm and we left the tables and benches and walked down the tunnel. She asked a servant to bring some food to us in a couple hours.

“I think this tunnel will always bring back memories of you,” Silvy said to me as we walked. She squeezed my arm and smiled up at me.

“Same,” I said. “I’m just glad things turned out the way they did.”

“They could have been much different, that’s for certain,” Silvy said as she scanned the treeline. “When do you think they’ll come?”

“I’ve been told by several people that trolls are on the lazy side, so later rather than sooner,” I said. “Although I’ll just rely on my scouts.”

“Probably the best idea,” she said.

I could tell she was nervous from the idle conversation. Silvy wasn’t really one for small talk. As a passionate woman, she preferred deeper topics.

The day dragged on and eventually a servant brought us some food. Leena came out at one point to send another message to her father. The soldiers leaned against the face of the cliff next to the tunnel and told crude jokes. I got the feeling they would be smoking if they had any.

Time passed and the shadows began to stretch, shading the mouth of the tunnel. I leaned over to tell Silvy a joke, but at that moment a goblin scout came running through the woods. He held a fast pace even though I could tell he had been running for quite some time. His clothes were mottled green and brown, the closest thing to camouflage our tailors could make. Sweat covered his face and slicked his hair. He looked absolutely terrified.

“They’re coming!” he shouted as he crossed the treeline.

“Well, here we go,” I said. “Time for the fight to begin.”

Next to me the soldiers readied their spears and stepped into the mouth of the tunnel. Some of them cracked jokes about where they were going to ram those spears.

“How many?” I called out to the scout as he ran towards us.

“Thirteen!” he shouted. He stopped in front of me and bent over, breathing hard.

“It’s okay, catch your breath,” I said. “They’ll have to deal with the elves before they get to us, after all.”

“No,” he replied, shaking his head. “No, this is bad, Your Majesty. It’s not what we expected.”