CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Once the door is closed, Cap looks at me and shakes his head. “Unbelievable. Only my Executive Officer would be dumb enough to break into a locked goblin palace to have a sit-down with an Admiral. Why, Rylae? Were ya bored? Didn’t get enough excitement when there wasn’t anyone attackin’ ya?”
Admiral Shockpaw lays a hand on Cap’s shoulder. “Elthen. I do not believe the Commander would have come here for no reason. I also do not believe Kesn would have helped her unless there was an absolute emergency that required such drastic measures. Let us hear them out.”
I nod. “Thank you, Admiral. I have a lot of details to go over, but the short version is that the Corsari brought smuggled weapons to the Black Tongues and we’re the only ones on-world who know about it.”
The Admiral’s eyes open wide and he looks to Kesn, who nods. A look of hopelessness crosses his features, and he lowers himself slowly into a chair at the table. I notice he doesn’t shift around in it, or scoot it around to find some special angle to sit at like he would on the ship. He just sits. I wonder if that’s changed since he came back home, or is entirely because of the news we just gave him.
Cap’s reaction is slightly different. “Smuggled weapons?” He stands up straight and tries to stare me down. “How many folk are involved and have ya killed any of ‘em yet?”
I motion to the table as I take a seat. “Cap, please sit. I’ll explain everything I know.”
Cap sits, and I look at Kesn. “Do you want to go tell the King while I’m telling these two?”
She nods. “His Majesty has to know this now. I’ll be back as soon as I’m done with him.”
Standing from the table, I walk over to her, smile and take her hand. “Thank you, Ambassador. I’m glad you’re on our side.”
She grins and gives me a hug. “Let’s just hope we get through it.” She walks to the door and leaves.
Following her to the door, I hold it open and look outside. “Gimmir. Lada. Only the Ambassador comes in this room. She’s the only one we trust right now. I’ll give you more details later.” They both nod with a small ‘clank’ sound when their helmets tap their breastplates.
Closing the door, I return to my seat. “Sirs, we’re in an interesting pile of muck with this one.” I lay out the entire scenario from the beginning, finishing with Zaxn’s infiltration plan and my sneaking job. There are a lot of question-and-answer breaks as the two experienced officers dig deeper into the details to learn as much as they can.
Eventually, we get to the end of the story. “And that’s what we know. We don’t yet know what the attack will consist of, or what the target is, but hopefully Zaxn can help us find that information quickly. So, aside from the steps I’ve already taken, what do you recommend we still need to do?”
Cap shakes his head. “One thing ya said is botherin’ me.” He chuckles to himself, then looks at us again. “Okay, a lot of what ya said bothers me, but one thing in particular. It was a good point about bein’ able to kill His Goblincy here any time he was on Terra but waitin’ to lure him back here first for some bigger reward. Bax, we’ve been here a few days now. If we assume that Captain Darkmuck is as smart as he’d need to be to come up with this mixed-up mess o’ worms ‘n potatoes, then he’d know we wouldn’t stay long once we got here and found out there was no war. Whatever he’s plannin’, it’s gonna happen soon. It must tie to somethin’.”
The Admiral lets out a heavy sigh. “Elthen. I think I know what it ties to. I think your young Lieutenant Gloomfire may have an idea as well, which is why he agreed to be a spy.
“Forty-five years ago, while I was still here as King, there was a massacre. Thirty-two men were killed. These men were important members of society or important to the Palace. Thirty-two men to match the thirty-two members of the Black Tongues’ ‘family’. Each of these men had families of their own, and were killed in their homes. No other members of their families were killed or harmed, even the ones who witnessed the crime. Every murder happened on the same night.”
He turns to me. “Commander. Xanm Gloomfire was a powerful adept who was killed that night. He is Lieutenant Gloomfire’s father.” I nod in acceptance of that fact, and he continues.
“We were unable to find a single one of the killers. We had brought multiple suspects in front of the Overseer – Gak Bonedread, who was recently imprisoned – but every suspect was released for lack of evidence. No one was ever imprisoned or executed for the thirty-two murders. There were suspicions at the time that our Overseer was manipulating the cases, but we had no proof. As the years passed, we were no closer to an answer.
“Forty years ago, I received a message envelope in the royal bedchamber, lying on my pillow. It contained a note, which said that the women and children would be next, unless I left Stenchstone. Only my abdication of the throne would save these families, and it was promised that we would have even less luck finding the killers than we had with the first murders.
“I spoke with my chief enforcer, Xarm Darkhowl, and only him, about that message. We discussed the previous murders and our lack of justice for the families. We discussed our suspicions about the Overseer. We discussed all of that… and we came up with no solution except to do what the message required. I called multiple witnesses into the room, passed the crown to Xarm, and left to pack my things. A UCST ship, the Draconia, was preparing to leave the world that next day. I joined their crew and went to Terra.
“I received a personal message from Xarm to inform me that the murders did not happen, and the families were safe. I then saw a young Gloomfire enter the Academy years later, and knew that everything was good. I monitored information coming in from Stenchstone, but everything had gone quiet. I thought I had made the right choice by leaving.
“When I received the message from Captain Darkmuck, I assumed that Gak Bonedread had somehow removed Xarm from the throne and placed a new king to declare war against us. When we arrived and found Bonedread had been imprisoned, I spoke with Kesn. The Palace thought the Black Tongues were officially destroyed with his incarceration. Now that we have the information about now-Captain Darkmuck having survived and keeping ‘the family’ alive, I can almost say with certainty that he wants to finish what he started.
“The anniversary of the thirty-two deaths is in three days. I believe he is going to again kill folk in prominent families, and claim that it is due to my return to the world, which only we know was also orchestrated by him.”
Dragons be damned. That’s a lot worse than I was expecting! “Did the witnesses say how many goblins were there to commit the crimes?”
He shakes his head. “Commander, the answers were not clear. Sometimes there was one, sometimes there were two, sometimes there were as many as five. We believed at the time that these numbers were intentionally hiding the number of true assassins.”
Math is a pain when you’re in a hurry, and even worse when you’re working from spotty memory. Five spellshooters to a crate, some of those stacks were maybe ten crates high, maybe probably sixteen stacks, and we lost sorta around half of those… this is the most approximate number ever! “Admiral, I estimate that around four hundred spellshooters were passed to the Black Tongues before we were able to contain the Senior Chief. Even if we assume five goblins in each hit squad, that’s more than thirty-two targets.”
Admiral Shockpaw’s face falls. He puts his elbows on the table and uses his hands to cradle his head. I’m not sure what to say now. I feel like he needed to know that number, but at the same time it killed him to hear it! He looks lost, probably reliving the same feelings he had when he had to give up the crown to save his subjects forty years ago.
I hear Cap cough, and turn to see him shaking his head. “I don’t think that number’s accurate. Think about it for a second. Darkmuck is runnin’ this gang from Terra via messages that only get passed every six months. He doesn’t know how many fol
k he has that can run assassinations anymore! He also doesn’t know he lost half his shipment. He had eight hundred spellshooters that were gonna go out. Ya don’t need that many weapons for a handful o’ murders.
“I think he was gonna use this as a startin’ point, probably stick to the same thirty-two, then have a bunch o’ weapons in reserve for when the gang started gettin’ more recruits after the murders and the blame. I think this is about blamin’ Yer Goblinship and His Damnationness on the throne for more killin’, and usin’ that to build the gang’s influence back up.”
Nodding, I give him a sarcastic smile. “A dwarf told me a few days ago that it’s safer to assume that someone is out to kill us than to assume they’re not. As much as I don’t want to think they’re planning four hundred murders, assuming they’re only planning thirty-two isn’t helpful. I think we need to hope Zaxn can get some kind of confirmation from his visit to the gang.”
Cap rolls his eyes. “Ya got me on that one, elf. I just don’t see how we can randomly protect a bunch o’ folk when there could be hundreds o’ targets. Even with the battalion, we can’t be everywhere.”
I pull out my communicator. “I have an idea.” I push the charm and say, “Aelon Onoviel.”
Aelon’s face appears. “Rylae! Glad you’re not dead. Tanna would cry, and that would seriously cut into…”
“Lieutenant Commander!” Thankfully, that stops him. “I’m with Cap and Admiral Shockpaw. Have you heard from LC Darkmuck? What’s happening with him and Zaxn?”
Aelon nods. “Spazkin called awhile ago, said the first place they looked had gang members there. Zaxn talked his way in and is there now. Simon knows the location and is prepared to pounce if he gets a call. Spazkin then went and checked out a few other places he knew. As far as he can tell, all the old places his family used to use for managing the gang are active. He said if it’s really his father’s brother running things, then he probably doesn’t know any of the other leaders’ hideouts to use them. Probably only using the ones he knows.”
I smile. “Thanks, Aelon. Please get the list of locations from LC Darkmuck and send them in a message to Ambassador Dreadthief. Call me immediately if anything changes.”
Disconnecting the call, I turn to Cap. “We may have found some luck if we can successfully tag every single one of their operating locations. We need more information from Zaxn first, but once we get him out we can drop the battalion hard on all of LC Darkmuck’s confirmed locations.”
The Admiral taps his chin in thought for a second, then speaks. “Commander. We sent enforcers into many Black Tongues locations years ago to clear them out. I believe we may be able to find a copy of that location list. We may not know all of them, but we can at least begin checking to see if any of them are active. I believe that’s something we can do rather quietly.”
At that second, a clanging noise comes from outside the door, almost as if to mock the Admiral’s words. The three of us tense and wait for some signal from Lada or Gimmir as to what’s happening. After a few seconds, another clang happens, and the door opens. Kesn steps in, followed by King Damnation.
Cap and Admiral Shockpaw both stand, and I follow their lead. Kesn closes the door. Two heartbeats pass without anyone moving, then Cap and the Admiral return to their seats. The Admiral turns to the visitors. “Xarm. It’s about time you showed up. I was wondering if something more important was on your calendar. Then I remembered you don’t do anything, so I assumed it was just laziness instead.”
The King makes no response as he’s looking right at me. Dragons be damned. I’m not even in my dress uniform! Yeah, sure Rylae, because the uniform style you’re wearing is what matters when you‘re caught by the King of a goblin palace on lockdown which you’re not supposed to be in. Good job prioritizing, elf.
After a second, the King extends his hand to me. “Commander. Ambassador Dreadthief has said a lot of good things about you as she was telling me everything you have found out. Stenchstone owes you a large favor for this. You have our thanks, and my personal appreciation.”
I reach out and shake his hand, just as I hear Cap speak behind me. “Wonderful. Now she’s gonna have a bigger head about this than she already does. Thanks so much, Yer DamnGoblinShipNess.”
The King smiles and looks at the officers behind me. “Kesn, can you remind me why I haven’t had these two lowlife armor polishers taken out back and shot yet?”
The Ambassador chuckles. “Your Majesty is simply showing restraint by listening to the counsel of all folk, including armor polishers.”
The King nods and winks at me. “I had a feeling it was entirely because of my benevolence.”
Everyone starts laughing… except me. I have no idea exactly what I just witnessed, but I feel like I shouldn’t be laughing in front of a goblin King, even if he did make the joke.
He walks past me to sit at the table with Cap and the Admiral, so I walk over to Kesn. While the three of them start talking, I catch Kesn up on the things we discussed in here. She doesn’t seem shocked, so I’m thinking she and the King came to similar conclusions. The only new news I have for her is Zaxn’s successful infiltration and the gang locations. She walks to her desk to check her messages, so I follow and take a seat in front of it.
Leaning over, I whisper to her. “So, I’m assuming we’re not in trouble for breaking me into the Palace?”
She shrugs. “I might have been in a little trouble at first, but I think the information absolved us of our crimes.”
That’s comforting… I think. I sit back in the chair with a sigh. At least I can now switch my worrying to other things, like Zaxn currently in a gang compound pretending to be joining their assassination attempts.