Once again, I just had my eyes exposed, and dark wet fabric everywhere else. At least here the wetness was a bonus, since it helped me blend in with the rest of the cavern.

  I was still a bit distant from the robed goblins as they walked among their soon-to-be-victims, but I could almost hear them. I figured when they walked closer to me, maybe coming to the other archway, they’d be in range.

  One thing I could do, however, was take a peek magically. I pushed magesight active, and peered at the world around me.

  There was magic everywhere, including a tremendous amount underneath the pyramid. It looked like there was a great pool of it there, an intense deep red that swirled and twirled, moving around like something living. Partly it seemed to be trying to escape, partly it seemed to just be writhing in place. Either way, it was unpleasant. I could feel the power, and the sense of corruption that seemed to course all through it. It hungered for more.

  When the robed goblins stopped at a victim, I saw thin tendrils of green magic extend from the goblins to the victims. Sometimes going inside the victims, sometimes wrapping them up. It seemed like an exploration of sorts.

  I also got a better count of the goblins, because I discovered that two robed goblins didn’t actually exist —they were just illusions. While I’d been completely fooled beforehand, now I could see the lines of magic leading from the casters to their illusions, and the flickering magic energy around each illusion. Fascinating, but also confusing. Why would the goblins bother with such a deception?

  11

  More bodies arrived, still on the planks, still brought by the snoglins. A few more of the large goblins wandered out from the archway right next to me.They stood around the victims, and, I noticed, kept a marked distance from the robed goblins.

  A great big group of snoglins appeared with empty planks, chattering and fighting amongst themselves at the edge of the pyramid. One of the big goblins barked at them. A sharp sound. Most of the snoglins stopped moving and stood still, but two continued to bicker and fight.

  The big goblin stomped over, grabbed both, and then tossed them high in the air toward the altar.

  As the snoglins flew with their little arms and legs flailing about, one of the robed goblins flicked his hand toward the altar. A glob of magic zipped from the goblin to the altar, hitting it almost like a water balloon, splashing its green energy all over. The altar blinked in and out of my magesight before snapping into sharp focus. As the snoglins came closer, magic reached out and snared the helpless creatures, wrenching them to the altar and smashing them against the stone with impressive ferocity, hard enough to splatter them into bits. Their blood was immediately leached into the altar, becoming red energy that joined the happy maelstrom of energy in the pyramid below.

  This made the big goblins laugh uproariously. I caught one of the three real robed goblins cracking a mild smile.

  I sat there for a moment, trying to parse what I’d just seen. It just didn’t fully add up to me. Obviously the snoglins had been sacrificed, which had certainly made the rest of the little dudes snap to attention and behave themselves. Well, as much as they could. But what was the energy being gathered for?

  The big goblins ushered the snoglins away, a bit like a group of shepherds moving their unruly flock, and I was left in the cavern with just the robed goblins and their sacrifices.

  They continued moving up and down through the victims, doing their thing with the green tendrils of magic. Over and over again. I couldn’t make sense out of what they were doing. Why were they going through all the trouble? They even stopped talking, just silently moving between the victims. Who also weren’t making any noise. That seemed odd to me, but after focusing very hard, I could see a slight bit of magic tying their mouths shut. A magical gag.

  Finally, the robed goblins seemed to be satisfied. The three real goblins walked over toward the archway (and me), coming together as a group. Oddly, the illusory goblins continued walking up and down the victims. I wondered if the reason was simply to keep the victims thinking they were being guarded.

  The group put their heads together and spoke quietly. But for the first time, I could hear them.

  “No,” the tallest of the three said. “It is a waste of time.”

  “Not true,” countered the one with the largest nose. “It will be increasingly difficult to work, we do the weak ones first. Then—”

  “If it is hard to work,” Tall said, “then we do the strong ones first—”

  “Strong ones first makes it all harder to—” Nose interjected.

  “You are foolish to think—”

  “It is the most logical—”

  The last held up a wrinkled hand, and the other two went quiet. The hand stayed raised for a moment.

  “There is a reason to have an order,” the oldest goblin said, his gruff voice barely above a whisper. “The dark lord requires us to make order of the chaos.”

  Nose looked to Tall. Tall looked to Nose.

  “But what is the order?” Nose asked the elder.

  The oldest goblin spread out his hands. “That is to be determined.”

  “By?”

  I saw a smile creep up the goblin’s mouth. I realized this was the same goblin who had smiled at the snoglins being sacrificed.

  “The two of you,” he said. “Ideally before we have to begin.”

  The old goblin stood there for about a second, enjoying the confusion and mild panic on his underling’s faces. Then he strolled away.

  Nose glared at Tall.

  “Now what?” Nose asked.

  “Now we make a decision, and that is the order,” Tall replied with confidence I didn’t think he actually had.

  “What if it is the wrong order?”

  “There is no right or wrong order,” Tall said, “only order.”

  “I do not think that is what High Priest Zanthor implied.”

  “You think too much.”

  “You do not think enough.”

  “Then why am I an order above you?”

  “Because you lick boots.”

  Tall reached out and smacked his fellow robed goblin.

  “You care so much about the order,” Tall snapped, “then order them however you want.”

  Tall stalked off, and a heartbeat later, the illusory goblins just sort of faded out of existence.

  Big nose pulled his hood down and rubbed the back of his head. I got a good glimpse of the creature’s head, with tufts of pale yellow or white hair coming out here and there on top, a bit coming out of his long, pointy ears. He had intricate, dark purple tattoos running around the back of his skull, down his neck and into his robe.

  I could hear Big Nose muttering to himself as he puttered over to the victims and began marking the boards with a brilliant green chalk that glowed in the dark.

  It was a perfect time to jump into action. If only I knew what to do...

  12

  While the big-nosed goblin worked on the order of sacrificial victims, I got my brain into gear, moving it as fast as it would go, hoping some brilliant plan was going to jump into place. How was I going to get thirty people out of this cave, through a camp full of goblins and safe to Raim? Granted, my quest only required me rescuing a single person, but taking just one seemed cruel. I could probably do it, though. It would be much easier, and I didn’t exactly owe these people anything.

  How would I get just one person out? And which person?

  I bit the inside of my cheek.

  How would I get them all out?

  Obviously I was up against a clock — the sacrifice was about to happen. At least the big-nosed goblin priest didn’t seem particularly concerned with working quickly. He was definitely taking his time marking the planks with numbers, occasionally going along and renumbering someone. His rather lackadaisical approach to his job was the entire basis for me thinking I had spare time to think.

  Obviously, the first step in the escape was simple. Kill the lone priest.

  But after that?

  I knew I would probably be able to come up with a viable plan if I just sat there and thought, but as I’d seen time and time again, my plans didn’t really survive all that long past the point of first contact. I could plan all sorts of sneaky-type stuff, but that would require everyone I rescued to be sneaky as well.

  Probably better to just throw down.

  I gave a nod to myself, stood up, pulled my dagger out, and walked towards the robed goblin.

  He was bending down, wiping out someone’s current number and writing a new one in its place.

  As he stood up, I brought the dagger down.

  We met in the middle.

  There was a sharp, strangled cry from his mouth as the dagger went through his skull. His body went limp, and hung on the dagger for a second before it slid off with a schlurp.

  I flicked the blood off the blade, and looked around.

  A lot of eyes were focused on me, most of which were very surprised. They were more varied in terms of make-up than I’d anticipated. Some humans, some dwarves, and some that were outside my area of identifying. There was one elf who smiled when they saw me.

  I put my finger to my mouth in what I hoped was a universal ‘stay-quiet’ gesture and kept it there as I tried to make eye-contact with everyone. I looked over the group, and gritted my teeth when I realized there were multiple children among them. I had to ignore the kids for now, and, instead, find someone who seemed calm, and landed on an older man in the corner. I went over to him and knelt down, pulling out my lock-picks.

  After about ten or twelve seconds, the first of the four manacles popped open. The second took about the same time. They were simple locks, but there was a limit to how much time I’d be able to shave off as I worked through. Third and fourth came off, and the man was free. He sat up quickly, and pulled at his mouth. Nothing happened at first, but he seemed to get ahold of something around his lip, and he peeled a slick, slimy something and threw it to the ground.

  He said something quietly in a language that I didn’t understand.

  “Can you say a little something more?” I asked.

  He said a few more words, and then I got the notice I’d been waiting for:

  Smashing! You’ve learned a new language, Eploinian.

  “Talk later,” I said in the new language. “We need to leave now.”

  He nodded.

  But just sat there on his plank.

  I held out lock picks, and he just looked at them like I was nuts.

  "I have no idea how to use those things" he said.

  I just sighed, and got to work on the next set of manacles.

  "Just keep everyone quiet if you can," I whispered.

  "Pretty sure I can do that, " the man said with a smile.

  I didn’t remark on how useless the man was, since that wasn’t the biggest morale booster, but I felt it. I popped off the next set, leaving the first man to help the woman up and out of her situation. Then, on to the next.

  After a few minutes, I’d finally gotten faster at the locks, taking around three to six seconds to spring them. But the time was adding up, and I felt like a goblin would come in at any point. It just had to happen.

  But time after time, there was no one. We were left alone.

  And despite what I had thought about the old man, he did keep everyone quiet, getting all the potential victims to their feet and organized into a group in the dark edge of the cavern nearer the main entrance.

  Finally, the last person was freed, and they scurried over with the others.

  I paused at the altar, looking at the pyramid structure and feeling the well of energy underneath. It called to me, like a siren song of power, but I couldn’t tell if it wanted me to set it free or add my own energy to it. But as I stood there, that call grew. It felt like a good idea to join myself to the power. To give myself over to a greater—

  Something inside me snapped, and a flash of pain washed over my right hand. I looked down to see my left hand holding one of the fingers on my right hand, which was now at a very strange angle. I’d dislocated my finger.

  I swore silently, and carefully got my finger in position before popping it back into place. Which caused an immense amount of pain, but I just smiled.

  Clearly giving in to the pyramid was not the best idea, and apparently I needed someone inside me to remind me of that.

  “Thanks, corpse king,” I whispered. “I guess.”

  To an extent, we were allies, being that he died if I died. It made me wonder what powers he had left to tap, if I had something like a safety net.

  There was no response from my insides, which could possibly seen as good or bad...

  The power in the pyramid was compelling though, purely because there was so much there. What was the goblin plan for it? What could it do? They were clearly at odds with, well, Good. More than anything I’d seen in Vuldranni, I’d classify the night goblins as evil. So part two of the plan would be figuring out how to release the energy in a way that wouldn’t kill me.

  “Pardon sir?” came a soft voice behind me.

  I looked over my shoulder at the old man I’d freed first. He had long dark hair with streaks of grey and white through his close cropped beard.

  "What is the next part of your plan?" he asked, a look of hope on his face.

  "You know," I said, "that’s something I’m still working on. I'm thinking maybe we should, uh, go up the stairs?"

  "Which stairs?"

  "I'm only aware of a single set. Do you know of any others?"

  "No," he said, shaking his head.

  "Right then. So..."

  "The goblins are up there, sir."

  "Goblins are down here as well."

  "They will surely catch us if we--"

  "Give me a second to think, then," I snapped, and walked away from the older man.

  Without really thinking about it, I found myself right next to the pyramidal altar, feeling the pull of the power just under the surface once again.

  Someone said something to me in a new language.

  Smashing! You’ve learned a new language, High Elven.

  "Pardon?" I asked, in high eleven.

  "You freed us with no plan to get us out, eh?" came a refined voice.

  The elf was standing next to me, his eyes also on the pyramid.

  "Something like that," I said.

  "Know that I will happily hold the line for you to all escape," he said.

  "Sacrifice yourself to the greater good?"

  "If need be."

  "Are you a fantastic warrior?"

  "I have spent some of my years training in the martial arts."

  "Enough to lead that group up the stairs?"

  "Skilled though I might be, I currently lack a weapon, and doubt, even if I was suitably armed, that I would be able to handle the thousands of night goblins above. Especially since there seem to be more than a few of the hobgoblins about.”

  “I’m sorry, hobgoblins?”

  “Yes, have you not seen them? The larger ones?”

  “I didn’t realize they weren’t just goblins.”

  “You are not an expert on night goblins?”

  “Sadly and clearly, no.”

  “Ah. I had supposed you were someone well-versed in their castes and kinds. That you had some greater knowledge of situation.”

  “Nope. Just a, uh, well, me. Trying to save you guys.”

  “Ah.”

  “Sorry to disappoint.”

  “I am not disappointed, more, say surprised. Why exactly are you here, then?”

  “To save you.”

  “Without researching night goblins?”

  “It was a surprise to me as well.”

  “You are an interesting elf.”

  “Uh,” I said, looking over at my fellow elf. He wore clothes very much ill-suited to being outdoors. It was a fancy suit along the lines of what I’d worn to Lord FancyPants Tollendahl ‘s ball. “Same.”

  “I would urge you to hurry with your planning,” the elf said with a smirk. “I’m guessing our hosts are about to interject themselves once again.”

  “Any chance you’ve got a good grasp on the arcane?”

  “Not in any way where I might help you.”

  “Okay then.”

  He nodded, and then walked back to the group. I heard him speaking softly to them, and I hoped he was saying nice things about me.

  I thought back to what I’d seen the elder night goblin do, the glob of magic he threw on the pyramid. I played it back in my mind a few times, seeing the patterns he made with his hands and how that gathered the energy together.

  I had a plan. Dangerous, sure, but also possibly giving me enough firepower to get the group out of the goblin’s camp.

  I wove my mana in the same manner of the elder, and released the spell, holding on with a tiny tether of energy wrapped around my finger.

  The energy ball inside the pyramid could feel the spell, and it reached out, opening itself up. Presumably, to accept a sacrifice.

  Instead, I thought about how I’d developed the means to pull mana out of my light spells, and using my other hand, I wove a light ball spell, and threw it into the open energy. Immediately I started yanking all the available power out of the pyramid.

  For a heartbeat, I felt a hesitation, but then it was like pulling apart a dam. A massive wave of pure arcane magic poured into me, knocking me off my feet.

  There, on the ground, I was humming.

  13

  My body felt full. My mana bar was overflowing, to the point where it was just a brilliant color blotting out the corner of my vision. My skin felt tight, and I could feel every inch of me vibrating. I took in a breath, and could see light coming out of my mouth, like I was nothing but energy inside, and it was all struggling to come out. Looking at my hand, I swear I could see small cracks in my skin, motes of light swirling in and out, as if the energy inside was actually pushing me apart.

  “Need to go now,” I said, getting up, and not bothering to be overly quiet. I speed-walked toward the exit, praying I could get upstairs before I lost control.

 

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