“But once we find His Highness, I’m coming back here to watch over Lady Raena.” He turned towards Raena, searching for her through the wall of smoke. “I promised your father I would keep you safe. And I don’t break my promises.” There was something almost tender in his voice, and the way it coated each word made it sound like a random past promise wasn’t the only reason he didn’t want to leave her.
“Thank you, Erik.” Surprisingly, her tone was just as wistful as his. How could I have been so blind before? I’d definitely be asking her about this later – that’s assuming I return here alive and with Lukas.
A shudder ran through me. As much as I loved to play matchmaker, there was no time for this now.
Clearing my throat, I interrupted their exchange of longing looks. “Pardon my intrusion, but I really believe we ought to leave sooner rather than later.”
Erik grunted, shooting me another scowl. How Raena could stand him, I’d never understand. If she was like gold dust, he was no more than a frowning gargoyle.
“Right,” he grumbled, after the scowl had well and truly settled onto his face, “we’ll leave now, before I come to my senses and change my mind.”
This was going to be a long journey.
CHAPTER 37
Erik wasn’t lying when he said he rode fast. Dawn was just peeking its head over the horizon by the time we’d reached the stables and acquired two horses. After that, it’d taken us less than an hour to follow the hoof marks through the woods and reach the outskirts of the goblin camp. But once we were actually there, peering out from behind a shrub as the familiar view of lopsided tents and rushed campfires stood before me, a gnawing feeling of worry nipped at my heels.
Despite the four pouches of Aethernite and sulphur that hung from my hips, I only had one chance to get this right. One chance to convince the goblins that I actually had immense power. One chance to prove to them that I wouldn’t hesitate to fill their entire camp with noxious smog unless they return to whatever disgusting mountain crevice they’d crawled out from. And of course, I knew it was an ambitious plan, but I had to try. Only I’d forgotten just how many goblins there were that scurried aroundthe camp, and how easily their horrible little claws had pierced my skin…
“So, what now, Princess?” Erik spoke under his breath whilst kneeling beside me. Somehow he was still scowling – he hadn’t stopped since the moment we’d left Raena in the tower. I was tempted to order him to return to her just so I had a break from his glares.
“Now, I have to run in there,” I jabbed my finger towards the camp, keeping my voice low, “pretend I’m a faery, create a huge distraction with my smoke, and then hope that wherever Lukas is, he’s already found the King and Queen so he can get them out of here without getting caught.”
Erik raised an eyebrow. “I thought the plan was that I delivered you to the prince and then I went home?”
“That was your plan.” I said, my scowl matching his. “My plan is this.”
“Your plan is ridiculous,” he scoffed. “So what if they’re scared of a bit of fog. There’s hundreds of them, if not thousands. You go in there, you die.”
“I suppose we’ll see, won’t we.” I flashed him a grin, trying my best to mask my thundering heartbeat. “If something goes wrong, don’t be afraid to run back to Raena. She needs you more than I do.”
Erik blinked several times as if he didn’t recognise the girl staring back at him. Honestly, I couldn’t blame his reaction, as neither did I. The plan was completely reckless, completely unlike me. I was careful, cautious – sometimes a little too cautious – and yet, at that moment, I felt brave enough to run through a raging fire. When Lukas left early that morning, something deep in my chest shattered. And now all I could see was him dead, bleeding out, and the very thought made me want to scream into my pillow. So I had to help. Even if it was ridiculous and reckless.
“Wish me luck.” I shot Erik a wink as I leapt up from the hedges.
Thankfully, he didn’t try to stop me.
“GOBLINS!” I bellowed at the top of my lungs, shoving through the shrubs to march into the camp. Instantly, the dozen goblins that were babbling around the campfire all spun their little green heads towards me.
“O’oman?” A few of them hissed out. But their expressions were blank, as if they had no idea what to make of this bizarre woman who’d just strolled so confidently into a den of beasts.
“You’ve taken something from me!” I started, shooting my hand high into the air. The moment I had their attention, I began chanting something nonsensical and waving my hand in mysterious, completely made-up patterns. In hindsight, I really should’ve done a bit more research into what casting a spell actually looked like – if Arenn had seen me then, he’d probably take offence. Still, this whole thing was a distraction, something for them to gawk at while my other hand subtly emptied out two leather pouches onto the forest floor.
“O’oman no use magic!” One of the goblins jerked his spindly finger at my insane dance, but I could see him trembling slightly. This was going to work, it had to.
My hand hovered over the waterskin that hung from my belt.Any second now, there’ll be chaos.
“You are all foolish goblins!” I roared, continuing my performance. “Now you will feel my wrath!”
Then, I poured the water. A huge violet flame exploded from the ground, reaching almost as high as the treeline; even I jumped back in surprise at the sheer scale of it. Though, the small jolt of panic that I felt was nothing compared to the sudden terror that overwhelmed the camp. Goblins leapt from their log seats, squealing and yelping in fear.
“A fae! A fae!” one screamed. Another tumbled to the groundafter bumping into five other panicking goblins. It was pure chaos, and thankfully, exactly what I’d hoped for. Squealing, they plunged in and out of their tents, gathering their belongings and the hands of other goblins to whisk them away from the danger. A few brave souls even dared to scamper off further into the camp, to warn their goblin friends of their impending doom.
Soon, glowing smoke began to billow out from the dying flame. Just like in my bedchamber, it roamed around the camp, swirling in tendrils of ghastly purple and ominous green. Any goblins that had remained either collapsed to the ground in fear or found their courage and darted off into the woods. Terrified screams sounded off in the distance as word quickly spread around the entire camp. If they were smart, they’d send a swarm of goblin soldiers to overwhelm me, but they weren’t smart – they were goblins. And this was just science.
I steadied my racing breath as only myself and the smog remained in this corner of the camp. A part of me couldn’t believe it’d actually worked. Although I knew I’d still need to march further in and do it all over again if I wanted this to be a proper distraction.
Swallowing down any residual fear, I pushed my way through the smog and wandered deeper into the goblin camp. Eventually, I’d find another good clearing – somewhere where they could all see my ‘power’. I couldn’t help the nervous chuckle that flew out of me as I walked. Now that the fear had faded from my rocking stomach, this could almost be considered fun. The Ancients know that the little beasts deserve it.
