“Let’s find the gold first and get it loaded in our saddlebags,” Mr. Vedast said. “Just in case we need to make a hasty retreat. And as for you—” He took a length of rope from his pack and twisted my arms behind my back, tying my wrists securely. Then he tied my feet together so I could only hobble.
“I never trusted you,” he said. “But I don’t blame you. You’re just a susceptible young girl. When all this is said and done, I’ll still share the gold with your family. You might be useful yet. And I will still be happy to make you my bride. You won’t misbehave anymore when I’m taking such good care of you and your family, will you?”
I glared at him.
They strode forward into the main hall. Mr. Vedast put a hand on my back to make sure I moved along, and let it linger there possessively. “What a gloomy place,” one of the men said, as if he could judge fairly when the fireplace wasn’t burning.
Another one sneered at the painting of goblin maidens. “Do you suppose that’s worth anything?”
Mr. Vedast shook his head. “Probably something, but we’re not carrying that home. Find the gold first and we’ll worry about the rest later.”
They started raiding the room. Drawers were thrown open, furniture moved around in a quest for secret passages. Twelve men made more of a racket than I could have dreamed. I watched them raid the place in paralyzed horror, their dirty boots stomping on the rugs, the goblin maiden painting yanked off the wall and tossed into a corner. They dented benches, shoving them around, threw a whole shelf of baskets onto the floor.
These things felt like mine. This is my home!
But I couldn’t tell them to stop. They wouldn’t listen to a word I said at this point. In fact, I might only encourage them.
I was very worried for the goblins, though. What would happen when they got to the kitchens and pantries? I imagined all the goblin plates shattering as the men continued their careless raiding. Would it kill them? I couldn’t risk that.
I wondered if the river witch would really allow Mr. Vedast and his men to kill Nyar. She had given up her entire life to have revenge on him. It seemed to me she would want to kill him herself…
They moved on to the next few rooms with their plundering—a grand bedroom, a sitting room, a smaller reception room. They were getting less thorough and more careless by the moment.
“Nothing here!”
Then, the library. They started knocking over bookshelves. Bookshelves were a popular spot to hide secret passages, and clearly they expected to find something behind them. I felt almost faint seeing fragile old books tumbling from shelves, only to see those same shelves thrown on top of them.
“Even if I fell in love with the goblin king, don’t you think I’d take home my seven gold pieces so my family wouldn’t lose their house? But I didn’t, because I wasn’t given seven gold pieces,” I said. “You think I’m lying, but did you ever consider that maybe the witch is lying to you because she doesn’t want you to kill the goblin king?”
At the least, I had gotten their attention. They weren’t raiding the library anymore.
“Why wouldn’t she want us to kill him?”
“Because, she has devoted her life to torturing him. She is the one who makes him have sex with every girl who offers herself to him. If you kill him, she won’t have any more satisfaction in watching him suffer. She will have nothing to live for. Why would she have set all of this up if she didn’t like the game?”
Mr. Vedast turned on me. I could see that he was starting to believe me.
I continued, “It’s true. I did have some feelings for the goblin king. But I was never given any gold. She didn’t need to give me any gold because I was already planning to come back to him. I never saw a single coin. If anyone knows where it is, it’s the river witch.”
“Where is she?”
“In the grotto.”
“Give him a kiss, eh? That’ll wake him up?” Mr. Vedast took hold of my arm again. “Show us to the grotto.”
I was sick with terror, knowing this plan might kill me and Nyar. At this point, all I could think was that if I could lift the curse, Nyar’s subjects would be freed. Even if I died before they could rescue me, at least they wouldn’t be shattered into a thousand shards of china.
He led me down the stairs, my feet almost tripping on the rope he had tied me with. “I can’t move that fast,” I growled.
He ignored me entirely. We got to a convergence of paths.
“Which way, goblin whore?” One of his men prodded me with a sheathed knife.
“Down.”
As we turned the bend, I heard faint clinking in the distance, like the way a set of dishes might sound if it was trying to sneak around.
The goblins, I realized, surely heard us. They might try and save Nyar and myself, even at the cost of their own lives.
“Goblins!” I cried. “Don’t follow me! Please!”
“Goblins?” The men all looked around. “What goblins? Where?”
Mr. Vedast grabbed my arm again. “What do you know?”
“The ghosts of the goblins live in the walls,” I said. His grip dug into my flesh, hurting me. “I don’t want them to get involved…because…” I scrambled for ideas. “…they might make the entire cavern collapse if you anger them.”
“You might have mentioned that earlier. What will they do if we were to kill their king?”
“I don’t think they’ll mind if you have an honorable duel with him. After all, they’re ghosts themselves, so they probably would like him to join them. It just has to be fair.”
“Hmm. All of this is sounding pretty fishy. If I find out you’re lying, girl, I’ll poke out your eyes.”
Chapter Twelve
We descended to the grotto. The air was chillier here than I remembered. The slick rocks were even harder to traverse when my feet were bound. I couldn’t spread my weight as far as I wanted to keep my balance.
“This is it,” I said. “The river. The goblin king is…there.” I could hardly finish my sentence as I got close enough to see the coffin. The beautiful prince was gone. It was just Nyar there now. My Nyar. It was painful that I couldn’t rush to his side right this moment.
The river was calm, but bubbling at the edge.
You may safely cross, the river witch said. She sounded excited.
“Croth, Baynard, come with me. The rest of you should remain on the other side to guard the entrance and watch the river.” Mr. Vedast told the other men, and he urged me into the water. “You first.”
The banks of the river dropped off rather abruptly. Because my feet were bound, I had to actually hop in to the water. I knew the river witch could easily speed up her current, lash her waters at me, and carry me away if she wished, the way she had taken Knife. But for now, the water was warm and pleasant. I took small steps. The current dragged at my skirts, making me a little unsteady, especially when I was in up to my thighs. Mr. Vedast was behind me now. The water was frothing and foaming along the rocky banks now. The river witch expected this to have an outcome she was going to like, which did nothing to calm me.