The Blessed Curse (The Elder Blood Chronicles, #4)(89)
The forest around him remained still and lifeless and Shade pushed himself off the tree and turned back to the path he had been following. Nigel had suggested the creatures would be near the lakes, and according to his map he still had close to ten miles before he reached them. He had considered flying directly there, but had decided against it. He had no proof of Nigel’s theory and if the creatures had moved south spotting them in the thick forest while flying would be next to impossible. The Blights almost always moved in camouflage, which meant you had to remain alert for noises or moving brush. Sometimes even that was rare. He had a pair of the glasses Sovann had fashioned to spot the creatures, but in the darkening light of the forest they weren’t very useful.
“So the loneliness of this mission was really something I should have considered before accepting it,” Shade muttered as he pressed on once more. He had always been a social person, and never spent much time alone. Even after he left the Academy, he had Charm as a constant companion, not that he was sure the rogue had appreciated that fact.
He frowned as he considered the man, and wondered how much punishment Charm had faced for helping him escape the city. He hadn’t seen or heard from him since the night Vaze sent him to Goswin, but surely Symphony hadn’t punished him too severely. She had always seemed to favor Charm, and Shade knew the man was well regarded by the other Fionaveir.
So the only issue would have been Faramir, but then that was a rather big issue in itself. Faramir was the primary reason he had left the Fionaveir in the first place. Her influence on Symphony had been unshakable, and her cold disregard for their allies had been too much for him to stomach. Shade let out a heavy sigh and regretted not checking on Charm sooner. “As soon as I am done here,” he promised himself as he gazed around at the vacant forest. If I am ever done here,” he added silently.
As it turned out, destroying the creatures was much easier than negotiating with them. The bombing of Eldagar had taken less time if you didn’t consider the weeks he had spent capturing the goblins. He froze as the thought crossed his mind and his gaze trailed slowly down to his pocket where he kept the stone. Slowly he pulled it from his coat and stared down at the black gem. He had never meant to keep the creature in stasis for so long, but then, there had never been a good time to release it before. There had always been someone nearby and he knew no one, but perhaps Jala would give the creature a chance. Honestly, he wasn’t even sure if Jala would be willing to give a goblin a chance. There was no one around now, though. His gaze rose to scan the forest once more before returning to the gem.
“I have to be desperate for company,” Shade sighed as he cracked the gem and dropped it to the ground in front of him. The goblin lay on the ground stunned for a long moment and Shade wondered if he had inadvertently damaged it with the storage stone, but then it was sputtering and struggling to its feet. He watched it in silence as it gibbered and spun around, eyes wide as it examined the surrounding forest. It stopped the moment its eyes found him and hissed.
“I did just free you,” Shade reminded it gently. He made no move for the daggers that were hidden in his coat. It was possible that the creature would settle down if he didn’t show any aggression. Of course it was also possible it would consider him weak and attempt to rip his face off. It was a gamble, but from what he remembered of the creature when he had caught it, he didn’t really think it would attack.
Sputtering once more the goblin gibbered at him loudly with what he was sure was the goblin equivalent of cursing. Shaking his head at him it waved its spindly arms at the forest surrounding them and hissed and snarled more.
“And I am going to name you Neph Junior,” Shade announced with a nod. The creature’s eyes narrowed and it hissed once more. “All right, that was insulting to you. I’m sorry,” he added with a smirk, wondering what was truly upsetting the creature. He knew it couldn’t understand him well enough to know what he was saying, and even if it did, Neph had never been around the goblins. “Food. That is probably it,” Shade decided at last and slowly reached his hand into his backpack. The creature scampered back several feet and watched him with an expression of suspicion as he pulled a strip of dried meat from his backpack. “And you probably don’t trust me, considering I fed your buddies explosives, so watch,” Shade murmured as he took a bite from the jerky and then offered it out to the creature.
The goblin snarled once more, but its anger seemed to be fading quickly as it watched him chew. It took a hesitant step forward and its nose quivered as it tried to determine what Shade was holding.
With a smile, Shade took another bite and offered it to the goblin once more. “If you don’t hurry up and take it I’m going to eat it all,” he warned in a calm voice.
The goblin had apparently reached the same conclusion after watching him take another bite, and greed outweighed its caution. Scrambling forward, it snatched the remaining jerky from Shade’s hand and scampered back, sniffing it, and then shoving it all into its mouth at once. It stayed there, crouched beside a massive elm, watching him with cheeks that were protruding like a chipmunk’s.
Shade snorted in amusement and nodded to the goblin. “See, it’s all good. I’m not going to hurt you as long as you don’t try to hurt me, and I have food so you don’t want to hurt me,” he smiled at the creature, taking care not to show his teeth. He didn’t want it to get the wrong impression and let it think he was actually snarling.