The Goblin's Crown

Chapter Seventy Two: From the Father the Children Spring

The screams of countless creatures reached a terrifying crescendo as the things drew nearer and nearer to the room where Ib had been left to choke at the end of a rope. All of them had been drawn by the banging of Puck's heavy sword upon the pale, glasslike floor.

Reflected there within the mirror beneath us, I saw not only a queen clad in death but an angelic prince with the fires of hell burning in his eyes and a pale, haggard wraith between us.

I held out my iron dagger to Ib. "Can you use iron?" I whispered to him already knowing the answer.

Ib shook his head, his breathing becoming more labored as the screams got louder. "No." He answered audibly, the words heavy and cold. "I've been...changed too much." His gaze was haunted, unfocused.

I didn't think anyone or anything had ever looked so lonely as Ib in that moment. Ib had been so stripped of his humanness, so mutated by magic... He was was both fae and human, yet he was neither. Not fully. He was a thing drifting between worlds, belonging to none. I wondered how he felt after hearing that his own mother had tried to take him with her into death...or if he refused to believe it. Refused to let go of that dream world he'd imagined his old life to be.

"Use one of mine." Lysander untucked a steel dagger from his belt and tossed it towards us as he stood. It spun as it slid towards Ib, bumping into his fingers when it finally stopped. "It won't put them down for good, neither will my magic, but it will at least buy us time to get out. Now, get up and get ready. We'll all have to fight our way out of here." He said.

Puck began to laugh, his cackle louder and more chilling than even those creatures' song as a wave of contorted, misshapen bodies rushed inside, clamoring over one another in desperation to get to me first.

Lysander put himself between me and Ib and the monsters. He flared with light as he faced the twisted goblin, his phoenix wings flaring out to burn away the darkness pouring through the door.

Sucking in a deep breath, Ib grabbed the knife and allowed me to hoist him to his feet. He staggered and clung to me to keep from falling down. He winced in pain, holding his side. The wound was healed but the tole it had taken on his body lingered.

The creatures kept coming despite Lysander's fire, some throwing themselves at him so that their brethren could slip past the reach of his power and slither towards Ib and me. My goblins defended me as best they could, but the number of the creatures was overwhelming them quickly.

"We have to kill Puck. Forget the fodder. Focus on him." I growled my orders to the two goblins still in our party, my brown eyes snapping to where Puck crouched still banging his sword down upon the ground, calling more and more monsters to the tiny room. These things...these beasts...were but soldiers. He was the general.

At once they heeded my command as if it were the gospel.

Agi bounded through the hoard of beasts, gnawing on ankles and throats equally, biting off pieces of the things with its vicious mouth. It licked its black lips, eager for more of the creatures' foul blood.

Llinos sprang through the air, bouncing off the walls. His sword was like a lightning strike, so quick the golden blade was barely visible as he whipped it around, striking monsters down and chopping them to bits. Steadily he pushed forward, cutting through the onslaught of shadowy beasts that stood between us and the abomination that had been born of the seed the same as him.

Meanwhile, I was stuck in a snare of uncertainty. I needed to move, needed to fling myself into the fray, but worry for my friend kept my feet frozen in place. That tiny steel knife of his would do him little good. If I left him...his death was certain. I frowned to myself as I contemplated this new feeling in my guts. I'd rarely concerned myself with the well-being of others besides Knut. I didn't like it. It made me feel vulnerable...weak.