Little goblin heads were peeking out from around the corner of the wall atop the steep path upward. He waved blood-smeared arms through the air to signal for them to hide, heat rising in the cavern at his back. That was a bloody bad sign. With another glance back, its form had fully materialized from the shadows, hulking and massive and unmissable, head pulling back, gullet blazing with an internal glow.
His chest wound was healing, but his mind was fractured—what could he even do? Slicing into it would only piss it off, andbanishing it would take an entire ritual. This was not a task he could do on his own without being burnt, swallowed, or worse, carried off.
With a final push, Damien dove forward to clamber up the ramp, a burst of flames behind him, and he threw himself around the stone wall.
The brightness was blinding, heat all-encompassing, and for a moment he thought he hadn’t made it, but it cleared as soon as it came, and Damien found himself surrounded by goblins.
“Charge!” The voice was fearful and brash at once, and a small contingency of doomed creatures spilled out around him and down the ramp, right toward the monster.
“No, you morons!” Damien reached out, scooping up the goblin closest to him as he plastered himself against the cavern wall beside Amma. He threw his free arm out to pin her there so he could be sure she remained still, the thickness of infernal mountain stone between the two of them and the dragon their only safety. The littlest goblin struggled to be free of his grasp, but he had him wedged up into his elbow too tightly to join the others on their suicide mission. There were screams, a roar, and a piteous clatter as death was cast in the mountain’s center.
“Damien, what—”
“Dragon,” he said, all out of breath. “Big, and indeed, spicy.”
“Second Battalion, ready,” cried the largest goblin.
“No!” Damien shouted between shallow breaths. “You’re just feeding the damn thing! Basest beasts, that’s why it growls in the first place—it’s calling you lot to dinner!”
But a goblin army general wasn’t going to listen to a concubine. “Charge!” The second flood of goblins went scampering down both ends of the ramp into the cavern, and the tiny one in Damien’s arm started beating him with the broken chair leg that was its weapon to gain its freedom. Pitiful screams, another blast of Abyssal fire, and then the snapping of what hecould only assume were goblin bones before the cavern finally fell quiet.
Still adhered to the wall, Damien caught his breath, glancing over at Amma who was looking utterly horrified. The goblin he clutched fell still as the battalion leader nodded, and Skoob nodded back. Apparently it was done.
“Big Spicy defeated,” said the larger goblin.
Damien let out a snort, half anger, half relief, wrapped a hand around Amma’s arm, and began dragging her back the way they’d come through the tunnels. “Bloody, fucking imbeciles,” he grumbled as he went.
“That was adragon?” Amma asked. “Living inside the mountain?”
“An infernal one, half made of shadows, yes, and quite happily, I imagine, with its meals delivered on a faithful schedule thanks to these little, green idiots.”
“Damien, please,” Amma hissed into his ear as she pulled herself close to him. “A bunch of them just died, and—oh, gods, it’s my fault, isn’t it?”
She stopped short, and Damien’s march with every intention of continuing right out and as far from the den as possible, was brought to a halt. “Your fault? Amma, don’t be ridiculous. Their brains are about as big as acorns. They think they defeated the damn thing byfeedingit.” He glanced down at the little one still in his other arm. “No offense.”
“Big Spicy defeated!” it cried, and raised its bit of wood aloft, knocking Damien in the nose.
“You see?” He dropped the goblin to the ground to rub his face, and it scurried off down the tunnel triumphantly.
“I could have stopped them, though,” said Amma. “Oh, and Katz, did he—”
Damien nodded. “I wouldn’t feel too bad about that; he’s likely thrilled to be back in the infernal plane.”
“Still. The poor, little—and you!” She slapped her hands onto his sweaty arms, lifting them up and looking him over, a tinge more embarrassing than if he’d been clothed. “You just ran in there without your armor, and look, you’re bleeding!”
“I did this,” he assured her.
Amma threw her arms around his neck and pulled him down to her height, squeezing him close. “You were actually scared,” she whispered into his ear.
He cleared his throat, embracing her back. “No, no, just reacting reasonably.”
“Please don’t do something like that again.” She pressed her lips to his cheek then pulled back to look on him with those earnest, blue eyes.
It was unfortunate he would have to lie to her as he’d grown to abhor the deed, but for the moment, seeing to her reassurance was what he wanted more. “I won’t, Amma.”
“Now what do we do?”
“We leave,” he said, starting off again.
