The Goblin's Crown

Chapter Eleven: A Night of Feasting and Plots

With arms entwined like the links of an iron chain, Knut and I made our way through the hoard of dancing goblins and past the roaring fire. I held my head up high and set my jaw sternly. I wanted to look fierce and frightening, like a hell goddess befitting my attire and demonic subjects, but I could not wipe the excited smile from my face. I could feel so many goblin eyes on me, especially from some of the man-sized ones, who gawked and whispered among themselves between fits of religious euphoria. There were women among them. Goblins in elaborate gowns of a multitude of colors, their clawed hands decorated with jewels and ugly faces painted. They stared the most.

"They're jealous of you," Knut whispered into my ear. "To be chosen as a Bride is the highest honor a goblin woman can attain. They are made to be queens and they strive their whole lives to be chosen, but you beat them all."

"It feels good to be the one envied for once," I admitted in a whisper. A shiver rolled down my spine as I realized with horrified wonder how much I was enjoying myself. The attention. The pampering. The envious glares and approving cheers. I ate it up like sugared almonds. He noticed. Of course, he did. He knew me in ways I couldn't fathom. Knut's thin mouth formed his grin of victory and a deep chuckle echoed through his chest.

We ascended to the king's golden throne where King Frode sat waiting, dressed in a cape of deep purple silk. He bounced up and down in his throne excitedly, more alive than I had yet to see him, as he reveled in the goblins' reverent chants. "I can't believe the coronation's finally here! It's so exciting!" King Frode clapped his bony hands merrily with a giggle as chilling as a whistling winter wind.

"Well, if you hadn't brought Kai into existence, we wouldn't have had to wait for this pipsqueak to grow up." Knut snickered at his younger brother as he took the final steps up to the platform on which Frode's throne sat. Kai's nostrils flared and his cheeks flushed with color. I thought he looked every bit like the child Knut thought of him as.

Freya's dark lips pulled down into a deep frown. "We waited thirteen human years for your little Mouse to grow breasts." She said dryly, glaring at me. The gloves, it seemed, were off now that it was blatantly apparent that Knut wasn't joking about me.

Fair enough. I was not in the mood to play nice anyway. My eyes flitted up and down her thin frame appraisingly. "Perhaps we should put it off a little longer then. Maybe you'll grow some yourself." I cooed with the slightly rancid sweetness of an overly ripened fruit.

Knut and his father threw their heads back in matching cackles. "Matilda, you are absolutely disgusting! Dare I say, more so than when I first met you." King Frode smiled wolfishly at me. "Almost hanging agrees with you." His bright eyes burned from the deep shadows cast by his bushy eyebrows, reflecting light like a nocturnal predator's. That's right, as old and harmless as he seems, he is still a monster. I thought with a shiver. This was not his first coronation. He won his seat through the murders of his siblings and father. Then, if Freya was to be believed, he successfully protected it. Twice. He'd already defeated two different sets of children. Knut and Kai had other brothers, perhaps as strong or stronger than they. And this decrepit creature smiling at me now killed them all. His own children.

"Hatred agrees with me," I said, meeting those glittering, dangerous eyes.

"I swear you could almost pass for a goblin woman." He cackled. He tapped his thin lips thoughtfully with a claw as those bright eyes settled on my chest. I bit the inside of my cheek to keep my lip from curling in disgust.

"King Frode, My Lord, please do not even say that in jest." Freya sighed with clear annoyance. "This girl has not received any training whatsoever. She's uneducated and unfamiliar with our culture. She can't even speak goblin, let alone conduct negotiations with the Faerie Courts. The fact that Knut thinks she can be queen is an insult to all she-goblins."