King of the Goblins—Chapter 30

Getting back to Silvy’s place wasn’t hard. It was getting pretty late, so most goblins were in their homes instead of wandering around on the roads like I was.

After what felt like half an hour, I pushed Silvy’s front door open and spat out the shadow stone. She was still seated there at her table, nervously tapping her finger, and leaped to her feet when I came in.

“There you are!” she exclaimed as she rushed towards me. She threw her arms around me and hugged me tightly. “I knew you’d be gone for a while, but I was so scared. I was afraid you’d been caught.”

“Nope, I’m right here,” I said, bending down to kiss the top of her head. “And everything is fine. It’s just like you said, a direct path right to Ralcor himself. It’s just guarded by a ton of guys ready to rip me in half.”

“I’m glad you see the problem,” she replied, and finally released me. “I guess we’ll really be earning our spot as your wives.”

“My queens,” I corrected. “And don’t forget it.”

Silvy rolled her eyes. “Aaron, goblins don’t have quee—”

“Well, they will when I’m king,” I said, cutting her off. “Especially if you three are fighting by my side.”

“I guess I’d be wasting my breath trying to convince you otherwise,” she said, glancing at me. “It’ll take a while for the people to accept it.”

“That’s fine,” I said. “One of the first things you did was a spell that lengthened my life, so I’ll be around for a while. If they can accept a human king, they’ll be able to accept that my wives are queens.”

Silvy laughed. “Okay, you’re really determined to make us queens. I won’t fight it anymore. Starting tomorrow, I’m going to start working with the other two so we can help. It’ll take a bit of thought but I think we’ll be okay.”

“You don’t have much time if we’re keeping to the timeline you had originally set,” I warned.

“I know. But it’s as you said; they have no way to deal with magic. We’ll have the upper hand. Even just basic elemental magic will overwhelm the soldiers.”

I frowned in thought for a moment. “The one thing I’m worried about is arrows, but you said they don’t really use those.” I shrugged. “I guess I’m still adjusting to how easy this will be. I feel like it should be harder.”

Silvy placed her hands on her round hips. “Sure, it’s easy,” she said in a sarcastic voice. “You just have to fight your way through a dark tunnel, through Tunnel City, then another tunnel, then the hot springs, then the long path up to the Royal City, then through that city itself.”

“Yeah, point made,” I said. “It’s going to be a fight. At least with the shadow stone, we can start the fight pretty much at the Royal City.”

Silvy stretched her arms over her head and yawned. “Can we talk of more peaceful things? I need to sleep and this is going to give me nightmares.”

I chuckled. “Of course. What’s your favorite flower?” I wasn’t entirely sure where the question came from.

Silvy frowned. “I don’t think I have one. We don’t bring many flowers down here. Most of the plants are just for food.”

“Well, that’s something we’ll change,” I said as I held a hand out towards her. She placed her tiny hand in mine and I gently pulled her towards the bedroom. “Once we’re in charge, we’ll start using magic to grow food down here, so people don’t have to forage. I’m amazed you haven’t stripped the forest bare by now.”

“We have, in some areas,” Silvy said as we entered the bedroom. “It’s becoming a real problem.”

“Good thing we have the solution,” I said. “When I’m king, I want you to use your magic to grow flowers around the royal palace. I saw that place earlier and it was stark and ugly.”

Silvy pursed her lips. “Ralcor is not the kind of man that appreciates beauty.” She scoffed as if the very thought were silly.

“Come on, honey,” I said, pulling my shirt off. “Let’s go to bed.”

We stripped down and she climbed into bed with me. Cuddling with Silvy was always nice. Her soft curves were incredible, but the small size of her body made her lightweight so I didn’t have to worry about things like my arm falling asleep.

I expected nightmares that night. Dreams of being stabbed by Ralcor and his soldiers, dreams of our plan failing and all of us dying. Instead, I dreamed of sitting on my throne, surrounded by my queens. Magic lit the Royal City brightly, and flowers and other plants gave the entire area a floral scent. It was the very image of peace.

All of that put me in a good mood the next day. Breakfast with Silvy was a joy, as her mood was elevated as well. Zia and Tressi came over early and the four of us just enjoyed a nice morning conversation together. Even my trip to Caelora was easier than usual; the elven city was becoming more familiar by the day.

And so I found myself standing in front of Althidon, telling him my plans. I avoided telling him that Ralcor was partially immune to magic. I’d have to think of a solution to that. He listened to every word I had to say, then pursed his lips and rubbed his chin.

“One week?” he asked.

“Yeah,” I said. “If we wait too long, we run a serious risk of Ralcor finding and killing me before I’m able to do anything.”

He barked a sudden laugh. “Ha! You think you can do all this in a week? Are you out of your fucking mind?”

“Probably,” I said. “But I don’t see that I have much choice. Also, remember that I know blood magic. And my future wives will be there with me. Silvy is quite skilled with magic, and Zia and Tressi are learning elemental magic.”

Althidon nodded slowly. “Yes, that does help your case quite a bit. Goblins don’t use magic much anymore, do they?”

“Not at all,” I said. “Ralcor has really worked hard over the years to spread the idea that magic is evil and no one should use it. For the longest time, Silvy was the only person capable of using any magic. Now, it’s us four.”

“So the soldiers you’ll be fighting won’t be able to defend themselves,” he said. “Yes, I see now. The only problem is you need to learn more about blood magic. It’s nasty stuff though, and hard to practice. You run a serious risk of killing someone by accident.”

“Or on purpose,” I said with a shrug.

Althidon raised an eyebrow at me. “So you’ve used it already?”

I nodded. “Some goblin soldiers. One attacked me. The other group slapped the woman I’m going to marry.”

He nodded slowly, looking at me as if seeing me for the first time. “Well, boy, I certainly won’t think less of you for acting out in those situations. The important thing that I must know is how did it feel? Not killing them, but how did the magic feel? Was it difficult?”

“Honestly? It was easy,” I said, running my fingers through my hair. “A bit too easy. It felt almost as natural as breathing. I can feel anywhere their blood flows in their body. So I used that to stop their hearts.”

“Incredible,” Althidon said. “From what I know of blood magic, it should take several months, maybe longer, for you to be able to do that. What about healing? Can you heal as well?”

“Yeah,” I said with a shrug. “I healed a bruise on Silvy’s face yesterday and it wasn’t very hard. I just used magic to force her body to heal itself.”

Althidon rubbed his chin in thought. “The gods really did answer Silvy’s prayers. No one learns magic at that pace, boy. No one. It takes some people years just to be able to do anything of note with it. Whatever they did when they brought you here, they made you special.”

“Althidon, are you saying I’m special?” I asked.

He looked at me for a moment and bit back a laugh. “I can still break bones with a practice sword, you know.”