The Goblin's Crown

Chapter Twenty Four: Vow

There he sat, Agi of the goblin guard, licking at his tiny hands like a cat as if his presence were the most natural thing in the world. The solstice wasn't over yet, was it? My mind whirled. My already racing heart felt like it might explode from stress. "What are you doing here?" I asked, still shaking even as the beast blinked from existence. "Did Knut call you? Is he nearby?"

Agi shot me a humerus smirk. "Knut is my god, but today I go where his maker wills it. You haven't fulfilled your vow yet, My Queen. It would be troublesome to The Hollow were you to die now and even more so if the two of you stay trapped. The Hollow's come to your rescue."

"The Hollow sent you?" I shuttered. The goblins' brief moments of free will made much more sense now. It wasn't free will. Not at all. They were just following someone else's orders. The one being greater than their king. It was The Hollow that had seen me go to Knut's side when Mab threatened us in our own throne room. The Hollow that had given me my iron letter opener that was now my pendant. It made me wonder what else The Hollow had set in motion.

"Of course." Agi's eyes squinted as he smiled. His sharp tongue wiggled behind his teeth in his animalistic mouth. "The Hollow has big plans for the two of you."

"Matilda!" Aris' voice broke through the void though he remained out of sight, lost in the sea of nothing. He sounded close.

"We should go before your...friend finds you," Agi said, bounding away. In the opposite direction we'd been heading the entire time.

I hesitated and watched the darkness for movement. "Aris was helping me. I know he wants my iron, but he got me this far. He's saved me twice since I fell. Once from being tortured by a pack of rabid prisoners and he tried to save me again just now from that...beast."

"Was he?" Agi snickered. "Because Knut's this way." He pointed a curved claw in the direction he was headed.

My heart stopped dead, turning to stone in my chest. "I offered to take him with us if we got out. Why would he double cross me?"

"Because pleasing Mab promises a far greater chance at freedom than a human's hunch." He answered. "Face it, Queen, you've been duped. Aris isn't even his name. The real Aris died ages ago. Your friend's just a monster wearing a dead man's face."

I heard my name again. Nearer and more desperate. His voice rasped, wavering in its learned tone. I didn't know whether I wanted to vomit or cry or both. This. This was why I tended to stab first and ask questions later. I should have slit his throat as soon as I could move again. "Please." I began, anger replacing the fear running rampant through my trembling muscles. "Please, tell me Knut isn't far."

"Not far at all. We'll reach him in mere moments if we hurry." He bounded away, hopping through the oppressive dark as if he were light as a feather. I trudged forward, my feet like lead. A stone-like wall in front of me, behind me and against both sides, crushing me in place. My name echoed across the expanse, burning my ears. When he realized I wasn't right behind him, Agi stopped and leered back at me. "Are you letting the nothing bully you?" He laughed. "You're the goblin queen. You've got nothing to fear from the dark. The dark is our friend. If it's in your way." His tongue wet his teeth, making them glisten. "Tell it to move."

"Is that all?" I laughed once. Bitter and tired, I rubbed at an ache between my brows.

Sitting up on his haunches, Agi held up his small hands with a shrugging motion. "That's all there is to it." He craned his head back, looking up into the abyss above where no sign of an opening appeared. The sky was just as black as everything else. Just as empty and hopeless. He began to speak again, not in that soft, sickeningly slimy way he had but one of booming force. From Satan to God. "The Hollow was born from this nothing, but it is greater than it. And you, My Queen, are married to the caretaker of its forest." I went cold and every hair on my body prickled at the sudden unnerving feeling that I should be on my knees. That I was looking at something no mortal had the right to see. It wasn't Agi talking now. "The Fathers, The Hollow's saplings, are but roots now." He went on in that God's voice. "None have even sprouted yet, but one day, they will. Their first green leaves will pierce the surface of the astral plain. They'll grow large and strong and from them other peoples will emerge just as we did. Giving rise to countless civilizations that will make their kingdoms among each Father's branches. Every single Father, the beginning of a new plain of existence. All of this will come to pass because of the goblins. Because of the goblin king and because of you who will birth the next." Agi lowered his head and his beady red eyes fell to me, to my lower belly where that future child would someday form. Those devilish eyes, usually full to the brim with joyful malice, held a vast and frightening wisdom. "Tell the nothing who you are. Remind it of your place in this world and it will not be able to hold you." He blinked and his god was gone. His eyes and voice were his once more.