The Goblin's Heir

Chapter Seventy Five: Goblin Queen

I lifted the seed toward my lips. The color was vibrant, intense green, the color of new growth. It glowed within my palm, radiated that awful power. The power of god was sitting in my hand. It looked like such a tiny, fragile thing, this little trinket that had forced so many men to their graves and held so much life within it. I absently licked my lips, all too aware of how hungry I was. My throat was dry. My stomach ached and I was reminded all too well of the many nights I'd writhed in pain from hunger. 

A thought that was not my own cleaved its way through my mind, shoving aside all fearful dread and brittle hope.

"If I bore The Hollow's power, I would put Knut to shame. I would use it to the dreadest reaches of its abilities. What horrors I would make! No one would be able to stop me. No one living or dead."

I knew where that thought came from, what wrym had squirmed its way into my brain like a maddening parasite. I had heard its voice too often not to recognize it.

I let it speak, let it squirm and whisper, while I did what my brothers trained me to do and played along, bid my time and waited for the opportunity to stick my knife somewhere squishy. 

"What are you doing?" Magni struggled to get back up on his feet. He winced when he put weight on his left leg and the limb seemed ready to buckle beneath him. "Give it back!" He lunged for me, trying to snatch the seed back from me.

I ducked sideways to doge him. He caught himself as she staggered past me and swung his arm back. His elbow connected with the back of my head. My vision flickered at the blow. I fell forward, sprawling on the ground on my belly. The seed went rolling free of my hand. I crawled towards it, reaching. My fingertips just brushed against it when Magni stepped on my wrist and reached to take it for himself. I bit his leg just above the cuff of his boot, biting down until he cried out in pain and the leg gave way. We grappled there on the ground, biting, punching, clawing for the seed. Finally, twisting around beneath him I was able to grab it.

It had made itself as small as a plum and it gave off an aroma like summer peaches. Sweet and tart all at once. My mouth watered. My belly ached and ached.

"Eat," the world whispered. "Eat and live. I will make you a goddess, Matilda. One all of the world will worship and fear. The dread goblin queen. The empress of all living things. I will give you your youth and beauty back to you. I will make you feel whole again. Fulfilled. Happy. All you have to do is eat."

So very tempting, the hissing of that serpent. The Hollow should have taken the form of a snake rather than a tree. It would have suited it . Such an evil thing as the world needed venomous fangs.

And like Eve in the garden, I brought the forbidden fruit to my lips. It shrank even smaller, becoming more the size of an almond. I thought of the sugared almonds Knut had bought for me the day we met on that dirty London street as I began to place it on my tongue.

The edge of the island was only a few feet away. i would kick myself free of my son and run to the edge. If I kicked his bad leg, if I hurt him bad enough, I could make it there before he could stop me from hurling myself into the sea.

The Hollow's whispers were tempting indeed, but I was not fully goblin. The human part, the part I had grown a little closer to through this ordeal, Matilda Pole knew better than to take what was offered to her. That little girl I had discarded for the brilliant things The Hollow had offered her knew what that creature was in truth. I would not take its gifts only to be tricked later. I would simply steal what I wanted and leave The Hollow cold and rotting in my wake like all those people I had lured into the twins' trap all those years ago.