The Goblin's Crown

Chapter Seventy One: Firebird

The chill of The Winter Branches' howling winds bit and clawed at my iron armor, yet I did not feel its fangs or claws. I was warm within the armor's cocoon. Whether that was due to the armor's enchantment or my own rage, I knew not. Neither did I question it.

I was too busy stalking up the pass towards Mab's castle where it was perched perilously at the end of one of The Hollow's uppermost branches. My steps, despite the blizzard conditions and knee-deep snow, were quick and undeterred. The storm's shrieks did not bother me. I welcomed them for it was as if nature itself were announcing my arrival, welcoming me as I came to seize the goblin king's birthright. An empire of my own creation.

"Don't run ahead. Stay close to me." Lysander called out to me with a low hiss. He shook in the cold, tucking his arms in under the warm protection of his wings. He picked up his speed as he puffed flames from his mouth, sending tendrils over his hands to warm them.

"I'm fine." I huffed almost crawling up the steep path, clawing through the snow.

Coming up alongside me, he threw out one wing, draping it over me to shield me from the snow and wind. "No, you aren't. You're shaking." I finally tore my gaze from the castle and looked down at my gauntlets. My hands were trembling so hard the metal creaked. Ice clung to the iron's surface, stiffening the flesh beneath. As if acknowledging it had opened a floodgate, my body seized with stinging pain that had me shaking all the more. It was my rage then that had kept the pain at bay. "I know you're impatient to get to Knut, but you won't do him much good if you freeze to death in the process." Lysander scolded. He put his arm around me and tucked his wings in tighter around us. He breathed out large plumes of steam, filling the space between us with delicious warmth. Desperate for relief from the pain shooting through my bones, I made no attempt to shrug him off.

I cut my eyes towards him, admiring the power that both swirled in his dazzling eyes and burned just beneath his dark skin. It glowed through his hide like sunlight through a curtain. I had no doubt that if he wished to, he could stop this storm dead in its tracks. He was being cautious, purposefully using as little magic as possible. "Why not just take us inside. You could. I've seen Mab do it. Ib does it all the time." I recalled how Mab could just appear and disappear at will, how Ib arrived places with just the ringing of bells to announce his movements. The fae and even changelings could come and go at will, yet in the branches, the faeries seemed to only use their wings to get about.

"There are spells that ward against it around the perimeter of the palaces. It's to keep unwanted visitors out. Even the owners must obey it. If you want to enter a palace, you must do so with your own feet and through the front door." Lysander explained, narrowing his eyes at the castle above us. "Which is fine by me. I have no intention of sneaking about. Mab will know I'm coming for her."

I hoped Mab felt the same cringe of primal fear that I did at the ill intent in the faerie prince's eyes. "The goblins don't have one of these wards, I assume." I prodded on, trying to distract myself from my own shivering and the flushing of my cheeks. I found it awkward to be so close to Lysander, to have his arm around my shoulder as I took shelter beneath his wing. Somehow it felt more intimate than our flights together.

"No. It's a magic unique to faerie kind. Though the created goblins..." He looked back over his shoulder towards the three goblins following behind us, at the rat-tailed creature bounding through the snow. "seem to have their own brand of it. They are not so tightly bound. Perhaps one of them could take you?"

"I've already asked. They claimed they could not." When I'd asked Llinos to spirit me directly to Knut's side, he'd blinked at me dumbly and said not a word. I got the same reaction from Ebbe. Agi had at least flashed its teeth and laughed at my evidently stupid request. "They go where their creator wills them," I replied. "Faerie wards be damned. Unfortunately for me, it seems the goblins' God has no intention of sending me where I want to go. Apparently, a quick end to this mess is not in their maker's plans." I was to struggle and grasp for everything I got. Nothing would come easy. That was my lot in life.