A Thief of Nightshade(44)
The reality of Jullian’s return to Avalar simply hadn’t hit him until now, and why now he didn’t quite know. But the image of Jullian on a silver throne, dressed in white, had flashed through his mind while he slept. He’d had his share of nightmares through the years, but this was not a nightmare. Maybe it’s better this way
for him; he’ll never know that Aubrey died of a Wraith wound. Aislinn shuddered. She’s running out of time.
He rose on two legs and stared at the bars, wondering how much weight it would take to break through them and if he would break anything in the process.
Groaning in anticipation of the pain, he walked back a few paces and leaped forward.
Aubrey felt unbelievably dizzy and nauseous. She reasoned that it very well could have been looking at Cain that did it, but over the last few hours she’d come to recall Jullian’s grim tale of the Goblin King and just as it had then, it now brought revulsion.
Cain had continued to ask her all sorts of seemingly random questions. Then he had apparently figured out that she didn’t want his company and had been silent for the better part of a half-hour.
“Have you ever met the Goblin King?” she asked.
Cain twisted around unnaturally to look at her. “Why?”
“Why? Why not? Because we’re prisoners in his prison, why else? Has he sent you here for something, to find out about his prisoners? What has he offered you?”
Cain made his way back around until he was in something of a normal position and frowned at her the best he could with his rubbery lips and shifting gears. “You are a very rude human. I’ve done nothing to lead you to such accusations.”
She smiled sweetly. “Nor have you answered my questions. Have you ever met the Goblin King?”
Cain refused to answer her, wheeling back to his corner of the cell.
“Is it true that a request to see him cannot be denied?”
He whipped around, something resembling stark horror sweeping across his metallic features. “Nonsense. It isn’t so bad here. There’s plenty of time for that later.”
“I don’t have time,” she whispered.
“I’ve wasted enough of it as it is.” She walked to the cell door and looked past the bars to the unsettling creatures who stood sentinel at either end of the hall. She took a deep breath and called out to them, “I want to see His Majesty, the Goblin King.”
The creatures laughed darkly and one of them motioned for the other to unlock the cell door. She heard Cain wheeling around behind her frantically, mumbling under his breath. She’d been fairly convinced of his guilt, but now, as the goblins came to take her, she wasn’t so sure anymore.
Chapter Sixteen
GIVEN’S HEAD THROBBED WHERE SHE’D
HIT the ground, or rather the rock that lay on the ground. Her clothes were soaked and she was freezing, but she knew if she were going to make it in time she would have to travel swiftly. She’d hated to leave Aislinn behind, but had to for a multitude of reasons, not the least of which was the same reason she’d come to them under false pretenses in the first place. They would never have trusted her otherwise and if she were going to help Aubrey defeat Saralia, she couldn’t take that chance.
Now, it seemed she had no choice but to reveal her identity. She was a Shade, there was no deception in that, but Aubrey and Aislinn had been the only ones to see her outside of the Crimson Stair. Humans naturally made all sorts of incorrect assumptions about those around them and she had counted on it to make her seem like she’d belonged there. If Aubrey thought about it long enough, she’d realize that Given had never actually been acknowledged by the others.
More than a little incensed that Aislinn hadn’t listened to her when she’d tried to lead them away from Koldavere, Given frowned. In her caution to not reveal why she knew so much about the Goblin City, she had inadvertently allowed him the upper hand. She was ruminating on that when something moved beside her in the bushes.
She stopped, eyeing the forest around her carefully.
“They’re all right, right?” a small frightened voice squeaked.
She crouched to her knees as Lipsey crawled from beneath a bison berry bush.
She nodded and patted her throat to indicate that she couldn’t talk.
“Oh,” he said quietly. “Did you catch what Aubrey had?”
Given smiled weakly and nodded.
You could say that, she thought.
Lipsey would be fine, seeing as he belonged in the woods, but soon after finding him, she’d cloaked herself in a glamour to ensure she wouldn’t be seen.
Even so, they were miles from where they needed to be and finally, after walking for
several hours, she sat down and debated with herself what to do next. She knew in her heart that there was only one thing she could do, but it would take the very last bit of her strength and she feared that if something went wrong, she wouldn’t wake until it was too late to save them. After a moment’s pause, she decided that it was the only way. So, with Lipsey in her hold, she
mouthed
the
words
and
fell
unconscious just as she saw the faint outline of a Griffin.
Aislinn couldn’t decide if he’d been stupid or not. His pride kept telling him that he’d been brave for tearing through the bars and rushing the guards, but something else—something he didn’t much care to listen to, told him he could have taken a little while to use his head and not been quite so quick to resort to brute strength.