“One what?” the rogue asked, barely sparing a glance for the goblins. Over the past month Shade had captured and fed close to a hundred of the creatures and Charm had done his best to avoid every cage load. It was no secret among them that the rogue hated the little monsters and considered them little better than vermin.
“Thinker, you know, like Marrow or Emily. Kali seems to have her flukes out of every species she creates,” Shade answered and looked back toward the camp. “How’s he doing?” he asked quietly. Remedy’s physical injuries had healed quickly enough, though he still had a few fading wounds. It was the mental part he was having difficulty with. Since learning of the Barrier over Sanctuary the man had become convinced he had betrayed the Fionaveir, though he professed no memory of it. No matter how many times Shade tried to reassure him he couldn’t seem to get through to the man. Remedy simply refused to believe that there might be corruption in the Fionaveir ranks despite the building proof of it.
Charm shrugged, his expression neutral. “The same as he has been. I wish I could say he is improving. I think once we get him back to the Fionahold it may get better.” He glanced toward the goblins and then back to Shade. “How much longer do you think it will be here?” he asked quietly.
“Tonight, if we can get Lutheron here. I need to gem this batch of them but other than that we are good to go,” Shade answered drawing an amazed look from Charm.
“Already?” he asked glancing back at the cage once more as if he could somehow get a total count from the remaining few that were caged.
“I have eighty-two stones already and there are fifteen in that cage. If that isn’t enough I think we are screwed on this whole mission,” Shade replied with a shrug. “The alchemical mix is a stout one and this will be more damaging than you think Charm.”
“I can’t believe we are really going to do this,” Charm muttered and then gave a curt nod. “I’ll contact Lutheron and see if he will meet us soon. I’ve heard he is fighting Blights in Faydwer, though. Is there any way to do this without him?”
Shade sighed and drummed his fingers on his leg as he calculated and nodded slowly. “It might work without him, but I’d rather have triple the number of goblins that way and I can’t say that I would enjoy catching two hundred more,” he said at last.
“Let’s hope Lutheron can make it, then,” Charm said with a sigh of his own.
“I’ll start gemming them in the event that he does have time tonight. It shouldn’t take me long, though, with only fifteen to store,” Shade replied and once again thanked Fortune for his idea of testing the storage process on the goblins. After the spell had worked on the Assassin, Shade had found himself wondering if it actually could work on live creatures without harming them. Eventually he had broken down and tried it, and was rewarded with a rather cranky but very live goblin afterwards. It made the task ahead of them much easier to have the creatures stored in the stones. The idea of having a hundred angry stinking goblins on his ship had never set well with him.
“I’ll let you know what he says,” Charm said before walking off toward the camp once more.
Shade watched him go and smiled faintly. He couldn’t blame the rogue for being in such a hurry to get away from the cage. The combination of the smell of blood and that of the goblins was enough to make anyone feel sick. Sadly, he had gotten used to the scent weeks ago. With a faint groan he made his way back to the cage. The wind in the clearing picked up a bit and Shade tightened his coat around him. Glancing up at the overcast sky he sighed again. From the looks of it they would have snow tonight. If it came too heavily it would make the mission much more difficult. He shook his head and looked back to the goblins. “You know, where I come from, it wouldn’t snow for another two moons,” he grumbled and all the creatures but the small quiet one ignored him completely. He raised an eyebrow at the creature that was staring directly at him and motioned a hand toward the sky. “Snow sucks,” he said in slow stilting words.
It garbled something at him and waved its hands over its head in a pale mockery of his own actions. “Shakudoobie to you too.” Shade chuckled, wondering if the word had actually been garble or if the creatures had their own language aside from snarls and growls. He frowned a bit at the thought and pushed it away from his mind. Considering what he had planned for the goblins he didn’t want to put too much thought into wondering if they had a culture or language.
*
By the time he finished with storing the creatures, the sun was setting low in the west. If the Blights were as much like their goblin kin as Shade suspected, they would be venturing out to hunt now. He opened the cage door and stepped inside to gather the stones from the floor of the cage. It was tricky to stone an object without touching it but he had developed the technique after two goblin bites. Scooping them up quietly he dropped all but one into the bag that held the rest. The last stone he picked up was the quieter creature that had spoken to him. Glancing around to make sure Charm was nowhere in sight, Shade dropped the stone into his pocket. Even if the creature hadn’t truly been talking it had been peaceful compared to its savage kin and he hated the thought of killing it.
“I’ve heard Goblins make poor pets,” a low voice whispered near the cage and Shade actually jumped at the sound. He had just looked around and the night had seemed empty. Spinning toward the voice, Shade could barely make out the faint form of a man leaning against the cage. The shadows on that side were too dense for him to make out the man’s features, though. “Jumpy, aren’t we,” Lutheron said as he stepped away from the cage wall and into the faint light coming from the ship.