XI

With the two parties spread out to make sure they weren’t ambushed while Mai did her work, Yoreno stood still next to Dantera as he cleaned his sword of the dark green goblin blood before putting it back inside his scabbard.

Even then, he would probably get a new scabbard made. In the meantime, he didn’t want to muck up his equipment.

Mai stood on her knees, her head bowed as she muttered invocations.

“Why does it take so long?” Sir Wexel asked.

“She has to undo the spell,” Dantera said. “It takes time and precision.”

Mai muttered the end of one of her invocations and an orb of white magic lifted from her staff and hit the barrier. It then covered the barrier, flashed and disappeared. She continued to do this, but each time her invocations were a little different, the reactions of her magic against the barrier somewhat different as well.

The shaman’s barrier seemed to carry vibrancy now.

She stopped her invocations. “I am almost finished. Be ready.”

Wynet exchanged nods with Yoreno. “Sor!” he called. She tuned and came over. “We’re almost in.”

“Mm.”

Then he turned back to Sir Wynet. “I would suggest your soldiers remain outside along with Sir Wexel while we go on. We wouldn’t want to be flanked while inside the cave.”

“I agree completely.”

Mai’s invocations became louder, then she called out more loudly and the magic dispelled the barrier. She quickly stepped away as Yoreno unsheathed his sword and held it forward.

He glanced back at the others and ventured forth. As he stepped into the cave, his footfalls echoes off the cavern walls.

“At least it’s not one of those creepy caves with stalactites,” Dantera said.

“Do those bother you?” Yoreno asked.

“Si,” she said. “They have always bothered me.”

Sorika stepped forward, her black obsidian steel sword in her hand. “You are literally twice the adventurer any of us is.”

“We all have our idiosyncrasies.”

“Then what’s mine?”

“You hate talking.”

She looked at Dantera. “I do not.”

“See,” Dantera said. “Three words.”

Cold, stinking air brushed past Yoreno. “Ugh,” he noused, wrinkling his nose.

“It smells like rotting meat,” Mai said from behind through her sleeve.

Rocks crunched underneath Yoreno’s feet as the light dimmed more and more. “Mai,” Yoreno said. “Could you help? I can’t see anything.”

“Sorry,” she said. She called out an invocation and the space lit with a bright light emanating from behind Yoreno. The orb was harsh if looked into directly. He often preferred the simple light source of a torch.

“I have some experience with goblins,” Andaloo said.

“What’s the best way to kill a goblin?” Liora asked.

Yoreno turned and glanced at them over Mai’s bright light.

“Um,” Andaloo said. “Slicing them to pieces?”

The other archer shook her head. “Wrong.”

Sorika looked at her. “What is the best way?”

“Greed.”

“Greed?”

“Yes.”

“She means,” Dantera said, “that the easiest way to kill a goblin is to enchant some treasure. Once they take it back to their band you can track them there—or kill them—if you have a powerfully enchanted object.”

“Not bad,” Sorika said. “But it sounds expensive and convoluted.”

Liroa shrugged.

Yoreno turned around and continued on. As he stalked forward, the life inside this cave began to illuuminate. There were glowing mushrooms on the ground, iridescent to the light coming off of Mai’s crystal.

Up ahead a bend in the cave obscured the passage from view. Something scurried. Yoreno raised his sword as he held up a hand. Turning his head slightly, he put his finger to his lips, but didn’t take his eyes off of the tunnel.

He stepped forward silently.

Suddenly the goblin screeched and scurried off.

“Nothing for it, Yoreno!” Dantera said, and lunged forward.

He couldn’t believe she had just done that. But she was right. “Come on!” he said, and ran after her. The cave was dark ahead, but the glowing mushrooms provided enough light to see by and there were lit torches farther in, their flames crackling.

Dantera’s shadows receded down another bend as he pursued, his boots crunching along the hard rocks and scree on the cave floor.

The goblin cried out loudly ahead in the cavern. It opened up into a larger space where three huge stalactites hung from the ceiling over a pool of water.

Yoreno came up short and lifted his sword as shafts screamed through the air, but they never made it to Yoreno since Dantera put her sword out and deflected them.

Yoreno’s eyes landed on the goblin she had chased, dead at her feet.

“Goblins ahead!” Yoreno bellowed as the footfalls of the others came up behind him. He wanted them to be ready for what was in this cavern space.

He suspected that there were at least twenty goblins in here, hiding behind the naturally formed pillars of crystal. Yoreno moved to his right and thrust his sword out, killing a goblin instantly. It didn’t even cry out as it fell to the floor, it’s armor clanking loudly and echoing through the space.

Sorika moved further right, staying close to the cavern wall.

Sir Wynet cried out, “Charge!”

Liora loosed a shaft and it flitted past Yoreno and landed somewhere. Andaloo went with Sir Jerrin, their swords bared as they cut down goblins and deflected sword blows.

As Dantera, Yoreno charged another goblin and swung his sword in a powerful overhanded strike. The goblin blocked his blow, squealed and ran to regroup with its allies. Yoreno pursued, his boots moving determinedly across the cave floor, but not in a rushed manner. Hurrying was a sure way to make mistakes and get killed.

An arrow flitted toward him.

Raising his sword, it hit the flat of his blade and flicked off and clattered to the floor. The light of Mai’s staff illuminated the path before Yoreno, the bright white light casting a long shadow of his armored form.

As he swung his blade at his enemies, that dark figure struck down terrified creatures, some of which snarled and lashed out, but their blood prayed across the crystal pillars all the same.

That bright light dimmed as Mai called out an invocation. There was a purple flare and a plume of magic burst past Yoreno and hit the wall behind the group of goblins. The magic burst and exploded in a white deluge as the goblins were lifted away from the source of impact and flew toward Yoreno.

Turning his shoulder, the flailing goblin landed heavily on the cave floor behind him. He looked up at Mai, who lifted her boot and brought it back down on the squirming goblin’s head.

“Angry are we?”

She grinned, the scar across her face making her look like some deranged bandit killer—a beautiful green-eyed killer.

With the goblins out of his way, Yoreno moved forward. “On me!” he told Mai as he went into the narrow cavern space.

She followed evidentially, because her light illuminated the cave beyond.

“I’m here!” she said.

“Good,” Yoreno said as he went down the path. The direction of the corridor seemed to angle downward, deeper into the mountain. “The shaman went this way!”

With his hilt held high at his shoulder, the tapering end of his blade stayed level at about chest height in front of him. He could use his sword as a piercing device in this enclosed space.

As they travelled deeper the death cries of the goblins in the chamber behind them echoed about like an eerie dungeon out of a story.

With a bend up ahead, Yoreno tightened his grip on his sword hilt. It was always at a bend where an enemy thought he could surprise hios enemy and thrust a spear into your guts—and that was often true.

The space was too tight for Yoreno to easily move around the corner with his sword. Instead, he grasped the lower part of his blade with his gloved hand and thrust it forward to use as a shield as he quickly tilted his head to peak around the corner.

Had there been more light on the other side, he would have used the reflection of his blade to determine if a goblin was around the corner.

There indeed was.

The monster screamed and swung its short curved blade, hitting Yoreno’s sword and knocking it down slightly. He pulled back.

“Yor,” Mai said. “Close your eyes!” She called out an invocation and when the light behind him intensified, he shielded his open eyes with his armored forearm.

The goblin around the corner cried out, the sounds of its scrabbling arms and legs echoing in the space.

Even while shielding his eyes, the bright light nearly blinded him, but he refused to close them when an enemy was so near.

The light from Mai’s spell dimmed. The goblin was stunned. Yoreno rushed around the corner, his movement slightly slowed as he angled his blade around.

The goblin was on his back, his ugly spaced teeth gnashing at the empty air as he covered his eyes with one hand and lashed out with his sword.

Yoreno had no difficulty in stabbing the goblin in the neck just below its chin. Green blood gushed out over its chest and it died writhing like the villagers murdered outside.

Breathing heavily, Yoreno bent down and picked up the goblin’s short blade. He turned and thrust it toward Mai.

“I don’t use swords,” she said, reaching out to take the weapon as if he were handing her a live fire lizard.

“Just hold on it to,” he said. “I may need it if these spaces become tighter.”

“Right!” she said, taking the grimy blade in her black suede gloves.

Turning, he pressed on.

The narrow passage meandered and crawled further down until finally opening up into a huge space full of holes and tunnels, some of which were so small Yoreno would have to climb through them head first.

That wasn’t going to happen.

“It’s huge!” Mai said.

Yoreno regarded the wooden structures and the torches—the fires. In a small mound at the end of a peninsula stretching out into the water was a pile of human skulls.

Goblin cries echoed throughout the cavern.

Mai yelled out an invocation and two shafts suddenly clicked against her barrier and fell to the floor. “They’re upset.”

“Indeed. Good call with the barrier.”

She nodded, acknowledging his compliment as footfalls echoed out of the narrow space behind them, but it was clear that these sounds were not of the goblins, but rather their two parties.

For goblins to be coming out behind them, they would have had to have massacred both parties.

The first person out was Dantera, the second was Sorika, followed by Wynet and his other party members.

“How did we not know how extensive these caves were?” Sir Wynet asked.

“The goblins may have been launching raids from other areas,” Andaloo said. “I doubt they would want to bring enemies back here.

“Well now they have,” Dantera said. “And we’re going to kill them all.”

“Here! Here!” Wynet bellowed as more shafts hit Mai’s barrier and fell.

A bright red light illuminated the rocky path above the pile of skulls.

“Oh no!” Mai gasped. “Everyone jump!”

Yoreno lurched left and did just that, rolling across the rocks and grunting, wasting no time in glancing back to make sure everyone was safe.

The magic struck like a bolt of lightning during a thunderstorm and cracked so loudly Yoreno convulsed with sudden fright. “Agh!” he cried, and covered his left ear.

He got up, feeling disoriented as he glanced across the cavern, making sure no shafts would hit him from the goblins on the ridge above.

He lifted his sword with one hand and deflected an arrow.

Mai glanced up at him as she scrabbled over the rocky floor. Dantera rushed up the path on the right, swinging her sword and crying out with every goblin she killed.

“We need to destroy this place,” Yoreno said.

He stepped forward ahead of Mai and went left around the small lake of water. “Mai!”

She caught up with him. “I’m here!”

“I’m with you too!” Liora said.

“Can you fire the arrows?” he asked.

“Of course.”

Leading the way, he weaved between the structures and the small piles of old bones scraped clean and white. They were covered in runes and stacked up in intricate fashion.

A goblin rushed out of its hut, sword in hand and lunged at Yoreno so fast he almost got cut down as he lost his balance and fell to the rocky floor.

Mai screamed and swung the short sword she still had, taking the goblin across the neck. It cried out and squirmed, blood seeping between its fingers as it fell next to Yoreno and died in a gurgling snarl.

Eyes wide and breathing heavily, he regarded Mai for a moment, surprised at what she had just done.

“Lucky,” the mage said with a smile.

“Come on,” Liora said and grasped his forearm.

Once he was back on his feet, Yoreno nodded and loped forward. “We want to get to the back of this cavern and fire these structures,” he said.

“Easy!” Liora said.

Except goblins came out of hiding to block their path, swords and spears in hand. One screeched and came forward. Yoreno swung his tapered blade and nicked the monster across the chest.

It cried out and fell back among its fellows, stunning them from reacting to Yoreno’s assault. He slashed with his sword repeatedly, felling multiple goblins in a wet sticky pile of green blood and dead bodies.

Some of the goblins turned and ran. One of them jumped in the pool of water and disappeared.

Listening, the cries of the other party members up on the ledge above echoed through the space as goblins screamed and died.

“Ha!” Dantera screamed. “Heeyaaa!!!!”

Goblins died, their screams high-pitched and terrified.

“Yes!” Wynet called.

“You got him!” Andaloo said.

With no goblins around them, Yoreno glanced back at Mai and Liora and nodded. “Fire this whole place,” he said, gesturing with his free hand.

“Doing it now,” Liora said with a nod.

“I can help,” Mai said. She called out some invocations and sent some hot spells at the huts and other structures. Whatever magic she was using, it caused fire, but was not in fact fire magic.

Liora unfurled a little scroll containing a rune. She stuck it onto a flat surface of the ground and traced it with her fingers.

The black symbol burst into flame.

Knocking an arrow, she dipped it into that flame and loosed the shaft at a structure near the back. Then she knocked another arrow and continued that process.

Yoreno wiped his face with the back of his glove.

“We have the shaman!” Dantera called.

Sorika came running. “Yor—we got him!”

He nodded. “Just firing this monster hole before we leave.”

She came up beside him. “Impossible to chase them all down through this maze of tunnels,” Sorika said.

“There will be some remnants,” Yoreno said.

“They will regroup with another band or start out on their own again,” Liora added as she loosed another shaft.

The flames licked and spread, causing a wave of warmth to hit Yoreno. Goblins cried in distant caverns as the burning smells of the fire smoke hit his nostrils.

Dantera came down to the narrow cavern they came out of and glanced his way. She held something up—a staff?

Then she jerked her head back toward the passage. “It’s time to leave,” she said.

As Mai moved toward Dantera and the others, Liora followed along with Sorika. Had they done this outside, Yoreno would have worked up a heavy sweat, but these caverns were cold.

Glancing back to make sure no goblins attempted to surprise them as they left, he followed at a trot and was the last member of the two groups to enter the passage heading back.

If they had more time—and fewer concerns within the Kingdom of the Blue Dragon, Yoreno would have suggested pursuing the goblins down their passages to finish off the rest of them wherever they were retreating to, weather that was amidst deep grottos nestled within hidden recesses or out into the hills, he was usually one to follow through to completion as thoroughly as possible.

This goblin quest was one of destruction and death. Their mission was not to capture some item in this dank place, but to kill as many goblins as possible to prevent them from attacking other villages on the surface.

The two parties spoke, some of the voices animated. It was a dirty business, killing goblins, but the rush of battle did touch Yoreno—if only slightly.

A part of him loved the thrills of being an adventurer, and this was no different.

But their adventuring did carry the added weight of an imminent attack by the Nai Sha’el. For that reason, he could not act out his post battle excitement with the others.

Warm air hit Yoreno as the sun shone into his eyes. It felt wonderful. Despite fighting, the underground was cold and damp and the dry heat of the sun was a welcome change.

Sir Wynet coughed. “We did good work in there, Lord Brendara.”

“We did,” he said. “I think we can all thank Dantera for how swiftly that went. She killed the shaman.”

“Indeed,” Wynet said. “By the time I arrived she had already finished the trask.”

“I’ve never seen someone move so quickly,” Andaloo said.

Dantera, looking ecstatic before, now had an air of dourness about her features. “What is the matter?” Sorika asked.

She glanced down at the staff.

“What is that?” Yoreno asked.

She lifted the shaman’s weapon.

“A war trophy!” Sir Jerrin said. “A mark of your victory over these monstrous pests.”

Nothing to a top-tier adventurer. Killing goblins was like swatting flees to Dantera. “It is not that. Look,” she said.

Mai narrowed her eyes and took the staff from Dantera. “These medallions don’t look like goblin-crafted items.”

“That is because they are not,” Dantera said.

The staff, a bone with rune-etched markings and engraved with gold and silver, was mounted with a goblin child’s head, the skull horned. It was utterly repulsive. But what Mai spoke of were the metal medallions attached with leather cords and long blonde hair.

Sir Wynet looked at the medallions. The markings were certainly not goblin runes. He sighed. “These look like Nai Sha’el madellions.

“Are they trophies?” Yoreno asked.

He shook his head.

“No, those are magic items,” Andaloo said. “I know these. We use similar medallions in my own lands.”

“What does this mean?” Mai asked.

“Goblins got allies,” Sorika said simply.

“This is very concerning,” Sir Wynet said. “Goblins are usually no problem in smaller numbers, but if that shaman had its way, several of us would be dead right now.” He turned to Mai. “You did well, young lady.”

“Thank you,” Mai said with a smile.

“I wish I had a hundred of you in our kingdom.”

“That is why we are here,” Dantera said. “We will continue to adventure in your lands and deal with these problems, both to assist you, but also to get closer to our own goals.”

He nodded. “A strong mutual interest in the good of the world,” Sir Wynet said. “King Laderan may not have told you, but he respected Branlin greatly for his Age of Readventure.”

“An age that we will make certain continues.”

“It’s been damaged,” Liora said.

“We will not falter,” Yoreno said. “King Branlin may be the architect, but the Age of Readventure does not live and die with him. He wanted this new age to last—to stand the test of time.”

“And so it shall,” Sir Jerrin said.

Sir Wexel strode up. “No signs of goblins out here. Anywhere.”

“This goblin burrow is done,” Liora said.

“We should have word sent to the nearby villages of possible goblin activity,” Yoreno said. “I don’t want anyone to be bear the misfortune of coming across a one of these fleeing monsters.”

“Have no fear!” Sir Wexel proclaimed. “I will take my horse and travel the surrounding villages, my lord.”

“We need you here,” Sir Wynet said.

“No,” Yoreno said, knowing Sir Wexel would be all but useless in a real fight. “I think it is a splendid idea, Sir.” Even a useless fighter could add to the worth of their party, if placed into a non-combatant role. “Go now. Do not wait.”

“Of course!” Sir Wexel said, a smile on his round face. He knuckled his huge mustache, bowed and said, “And off I go!”

He turned and went as the others regarded his departure.

Sorika nodded, though Yoreno didn’t know what she was thinking. She was very pragmatic, so he assumed her thoughts might have been along the same lines as his.

“I’m beat,” Mai said. “Can we take some time to rest?”

“Of course,” Dantera said. “We should put some food on and make tea.”

“We shouldn’t stand idle for long,” Yoreno said. “We have much work to do.”

“My thoughts exactly,” Dantera said. “One hour!” she proclaimed.

“Sir Wynet?” Yoreno asked.

“Yes?”

“What else needs tending to?”