The Goblin's Crown

Chapter Fifty Five: Checkmate

The night brightened to twilight over the ruined Unseelie city. The screams of the prisoners skewered onto the very thorns that had been their salvation for so long and now were their damnation, had long ago dwindled into a low whimpering beneath the bellowing cheers of the sated throng.

I had not slept.

I could not sleep, not with this awful feeling in my gut. Why hadn't she come yet? What was Mab waiting for?

I sat in my hard sought for stolen throne, the silver still ice cold against my spine as I watched a steady snow fall to blanket the smoldering ash of The City of Thorns. In one hand, I grasped a goblet full to the brim with wine from which I dared not take a single sip. In my other hand, I grasped my dagger, twirling it on its point on the armrest while Agi purred contentedly in my lap, its belly full of supple faerie flesh.

Ebbe and Snorri peered out of the hole in the tower's side, smiling ear to ear at the destruction surrounding us. "They're starting to go quiet." Ebbe said, bouncing around like a giddy toddler. "Want us to stick on a few fresh ones, Boss Lady?"

"Not yet," I answered. I brought the goblet to my mouth. The wine splashed against closed lips, but I did not taste it.

"Look at it. Look at it burn." Snorri shook with delighted laughter, his smile showing every pointed tooth. "The city goblins have sought for hundreds of years, is ours now." He turned that grin towards me, his eyes alight with awed devotion. "Thanks to you, My Queen."

"It isn't yours yet!" Snarled my footstool. I gave it a swift kick.

Adahahm cried out like a small girl at the blow against his ribs and swiftly returned to his role as a piece of living furniture. His arms and legs shook from the exertion of being in one position for so long, but he pressed his lips together and wisely kept his mouth shut.

"Have you not been paying attention?" Snorri asked. He swaggered towards us, goblin pride swelling in his chest. "We've occupied your impenetrable city, enslaved your council, burned and raided every building and slaughtered or captured the entirety of your people. Not a single guard is left to defend you. A goblin banner flies from every tower. Are you faeries really so arrogant that you cannot see when you've been well and truly beaten?"

"Mab will come. She will." I heard Lir mutter. He stood beside me, holding a tray bearing pitchers of wine, fruit, smelly cheese, and slices of crusty, warm bread.

"She hasn't cared enough about you to stop us yet." I held up my goblet. He moved forward, lowering the tray enough for me to sit my goblet down on it. "It's been half a week since the siege truly began. We have yet to hear even a murmur from her. Do you honestly still have that much faith in her?"

"I do." He confessed, daring to look me in the eye. I did not see even a shadow of doubt in his clear, gray eyes.

I took a bit of bread and a slice of apple from the tray. "What has she done to deserve such devotion?" I crunched loudly on the apple. My mouth filled with sweetness, then the flavor turned lip-puckeringly sour as I swallowed. I nearly gagged.

He looked at me like I'd just asked him a very stupid question. "She turned the tide of our fate. Before she became queen, our numbers had dwindled so pathetically, we were close to extinction. She changed all of that. She took us from the brink of destruction and turned us into a force to be reckoned with."

"With goblin help."

He paled. "Yes...with goblin help." He swallowed hard. I watched his Adam's apple bob up and down. "She was the first Unseelie ruler to even see the goblins' true potential. She knew that she had to not only win their loyalty but maintain it if she was to return the Unseelie court to its former grandeur. And she did just that for hundreds of years. Mab is...temperamental and difficult to work with, certainly, but she is a good queen. She loves her people. She loves this city. She would not just leave us to die."