Scholars and Other Undesirables

  Chapter 9

  The night passed quietly. In the morning they had a light breakfast and Eduard sent Jain and Airk ahead to scout the terrain. He told them to keep an eye for any place that the goblins might use to set up an ambush. When they had gone, he turned to Joff.

  “I like you, scribe,” Eduard said. “But don’t ever question me like that. Not in front of those two. Grandmother put them in their place. I don’t know if I . . . What are you smiling at?”

  “Nothing,” Joff said, serious as the grave. He would have had no trouble containing his mirth at the thought of Airk crumpling in front of Coursa. He also could have contained himself as young, strong Eduard expressed doubts about his ability to maintain order as well as his grandmother could. Somehow the two together were just too much.

  “Good,” Eduard said, his tone skeptical. In a quiet tone, he added. “We are about to get the best loot ever. I don’t have any reason not to trust those two, but I can’t take the chance of them getting any ideas.”

  “Oh,” Joff said, his seriousness now genuine. He wondered how it was that his already vulnerable station in life kept finding ways to get more precarious.

  The day was mild and Jain and Airk managed to scout a relatively even path that did not tax Joff overmuch. Around midday they came to place where a hill rose precipitously to the left of a stretch of flat land. Another hill rose up to the right further on, making for a winding but fairly easy path among the rocks and scrub brush.

  “We should go up the hill,” Joff said. “If there are goblins about then that road is a good place for an ambush.”

  “I appreciate your expertise,” Eduard said. “But we don’t have time for you to gasp your way up the hill.”

  “We were just up there,” Airk said. “We didn’t see anything. There is a camp somewhere to the north but it’s pretty well out of our way.”

  Eduard led the way and Airk took up the rear as they walked among the hills. Airk looked over his shoulder frequently and Eduard constantly scanned the areas ahead. Neither seemed worried, but Joff looked up at the hill frequently and nervously. Jain followed his gaze but saw nothing to worry about.

  “So where do we go after the mountain?” Eduard asked.

  “The book says that Adara walked for two days though she had no blood left in her. It says that when the battle ended she followed the sun.”

  “What does that mean?” Jain asked.

  “She went west,” Eduard said. “It was a long battle. Everyone knows that. The sun would have been setting.”

  “Maybe,” Joff replied. “It could also mean other things. There are some landmarks mentioned in the journal. There was a cemetery and a stone temple.”

  “What if they’re not there?” Eduard asked. “It’s been a few hundred years.”

  “Then we go west, and follow the sun.”

  They walked on until they passed the left hill. A troop of goblins emerged from a creek bottom beside the hill. The goblins wore roughly made leather clothing and went barefoot. Some of them carried stone tipped spears while a few had wooden clubs in their belts. One of them, presumably their chieftain, had a two-handed sword in a sheath on his back. They all had faces painted green and hair so filthy and matted that the color was impossible to determine. The tallest of them was a little shorter than Jain, but their muscles bulged.

  The goblins stopped, as startled by the appearance of Eduard and his companions as the companions were at the sight of the goblins. The goblin leader grunted and drew the sword. He flourished it with one hand and growled a challenge.

  Eduard raised his hands in a conciliatory gesture. “Peace, friends. We want nothing of you other than pass in peace through these . . .”

  An arrow took the goblin leader in the chest. He looked down at it and grimaced, his sharp teeth clenched in a parody of a smile. Then the goblin’s spindly legs gave out and he collapsed. The other goblins looked up in the direction from which the arrow had come, as did Eduard, Jain, and Airk. More than twenty additional goblins with bows and arrows in their hands and steel swords and axes in their belts stood halfway up the hill. They wore clothing of a similar, crude cut to the other goblins, but they also wore thick boots and many of them wore steel armor. Some of them wore plate mail, some chain, and some wore hardened leather scales. A lot of the armor ill fitted the wearers. Still, for the goblins to have successfully plundered so much they must have been both vicious and cunning.

  The first group of goblins fled. The second turned their attention and their bows to Eduard’s company. “Drop your weapons,” one of the goblins said. He was big for a goblin, nearly the size of a man of The Holdings. His chainmail fit him as well as if it had been custom-made and he held his bow, a bow of a very fine make, perfectly still at full draw.

  Eduard nodded and undid his sword belt. Jain and Airk did the same. One of the goblins lowered his bow and jogged down the hill to them and took their belts. The other goblins followed. The leader set his arrow back in its quiver and unstrung his bow. He tossed the weapon to one of his companions and walked down the hill to stand face to face with Eduard.

  “We are only passing through,” Eduard said. “We mean you no . . .” The goblin cut him short by knocking him down.

  “Tie them up and take them back to camp,” the goblin said. “I’m hungry.”

  The goblins drove them back to the camp with blows and insults. They groped Jain freely and talked among themselves about what they might do with her body before they made a meal of it. She knew that protesting would do no good, so she kept quiet. Airk was ahead of her and did not see what was happening. Jain was grateful for that. It was the one small kindness the situation afforded. Eduard walked along behind Jain. His cheek had swollen badly from the punch but he seemed alright otherwise. All three of them wondered what had happened to Joff, but none of them dared to speak.

  The goblin camp consisted of a circle of animal hide tents around a tree with its lower branches cut off. Wood had been gathered for a bonfire nearby and the goblin women and children went about hanging decorations, chanting prayers, and generally preparing for their festival.

  “These are finer than we thought to find,” the leader said. A cheer went up from the goblins as they saw their warrior herding the evening meal into town. The captives were dragged to the stripped tree and shoved to the ground there. Then the warriors dispersed among the camp.

  Eduard sat up next to Jain and Airk struggled to a sitting position on the other side of her. No one was guarding them, but their hands were tied and they were in the middle of the camp. Even if they did somehow manage to get untied, they had no weapons. If they could slip out unnoticed then they would be trying to escape an enemy that knew the terrain much better than they did.

  “Any ideas?” Eduard whispered.

  “Hope that Joff makes it back to Coursa,” Jain replied. She meant it, too. Joff had warned them about the path they took and he had apparently been the only one alert enough to hide before they got caught. He deserved to make it home. Of course the fact that he was alone without food, water, blankets, or the physical strength to walk more than a few miles without getting totally winded made this unlikely.

  Beyond the edge of the camp stood the cluster of berry bushes of Airk had discovered the previous night. Joff lay on his side, trying to catch his breath without making any noise. He had counted fourteen goblin warriors in the group that had captured Eduard and the others. Fourteen armed and armored goblins, plus whatever number guarded their camp while those were away plus any goblin women who might be feeling angry when an armed man rushed into their camp and started killing the men. The odds would have been nearly impossible for a healthy man. Joff knew that he might as well commit suicide for all the chance he had of making it out alive or of helping his companions.

  If Joff somehow made it back to Coursa without rescuing the others then he would have to tell her that he had aband
oned her grandson to be cooked and eaten by savage goblins. He could not do that, not when she had defended his honor and complimented him so thoroughly on his few useful attributes.

  Joff slipped his pack off, silently cursing every noise, and hung it and its priceless contents from the berry bush. He sword slipped silently from the scabbard and he took a moment to regard it. It was short and narrow, little more than a dagger. It was not the weapon of a mighty champion. It was the weapon of a man who could not lift a real sword and who would never be able to. Joff slowly rose and crept out from behind the bush.

  A goblin in studded leather armor leaned on his spear and stared out from the edge of the camp. This would be the easy part. All Joff had to do was sneak up on the guard and slit his throat. Then he could get into the camp without a fuss and start murdering everything that wore green face paint. Joff took a gentle step, and then another, and a twig snapped under his foot.

  “Bugger me and all,” Joff cursed loudly as the guard looked his way.

  The guard cried out and charged at Joff. Joff sidestepped the guard’s spear thrust. The guard had pulled up short so that he was able to quickly recover his balance and defense. Joff cursed his enemy’s skill. The guard whirled his spear tip in a motion that would have made Joff dizzy if he had tried to follow it. Instead he focused on the guard’s shoulder. When the guard’s shoulder advanced for an actual stab, Joff sidestepped and swung his sword. As the spear went past, the sword came down on the guard’s thumb so that the spear handle acted like a butcher’s block. The guard howled in pain and staggered back. Joff rushed past him, not even bothering to finish the guard off.

  More goblins were coming out from the camp. They had not formed ranks and their weapons were not in any way uniform, but there were a lot of them and they were armed.

  Eduard and the other captives watched the commotion in camp. Goblin warriors took up their weapons while the women and children disappeared into the trees. They apparently expected no mercy from whoever they thought was attacking.

  “It’s him,” Jain said. “Joff’s trying to rescue us.”

  “He’s mad,” Airk replied. “A healthy man would have no chance.”

  “Get ready,” Eduard said.

  A sword wielding goblin ran past, or tried to. He stumbled and fell on his face when Eduard tripped him. The goblin lost his grip on his sword and it landed next to Eduard. Airk and Jain struggled to their feet as the goblin also picked himself up. Airk ran into the goblin, bowling him over. Jain kicked the goblin hard in the side of the head. He groaned and started to move, so she kicked him again and kept kicking him. After the second kick the goblin curled into a fetal ball with his arms protecting his battered head.

  “Leave him,” Eduard said. He had managed to cut his bonds with the goblin’s fallen sword. He used the sword to cut Airk’s ropes and then Jain’s.

  While his companions were freeing themselves Joff was rushing into the mass of goblins. He ducked the swing of an axe and opened a garish wound on the axe wielder’s thigh. Another goblin swung a sword and Joff rushed forward, inside the swing, and delivered a bone crushing punch with the hilt of his own sword. Joff breathed hard and his right arm started to shake from the effort of holding the sword. He dodged the downward chop of an axe and switched the sword to his left hand as he moved, giving him a better angle to hack open the goblin’s back. Sweat dripped of Joff’s face and soaked his shirt. Another goblin rushed in with a spear but Joff crouched and stuck his sword straight out so that the spear hit nothing and its wielder impaled himself on the sword. Joff wrenched the sword free and rose on shaking legs. He struck a goblin across the face, and suddenly the weight of the sword no longer bothered him. It took a moment for Joff to realize that he was no longer holding the weapon. He had dropped it with his last sword stroke. He tried to think of a way to defend himself without his weapon, but just then his legs gave out and he collapsed into a gasping, sweating mess.

  The goblins looked at him and at each other in confusion. This strange warrior had killed or wounded six of them, nearly half their warriors, in the span of a few minutes. Now he lay helpless with no apparent wounds.

  Back in the center of camp, Airk found a spear that one of the goblins had left behind. He took it up and flung it at the goblin leader, who had his back turned as he faced the fallen Joss. The spear struck the goblin on the right side of his back just above the waist. The leader turned as the spear clattered to the ground, foiled by his armor.

  “Way to go,” Eduard said.

  Airk shrugged. His sword, along with those of Jain and Eduard, had been left outside the largest of the goblins’ tents. Airk and Jain took up their weapons and all three of them charged. The goblins still outnumbered them, but after Joff’s performance they backed away from the assault, all but the leader, who issued a guttural growl and advanced to meet Eduard head on. Their swords crashed together and they leaned against their blades, each trying to push the other down. Eduard outweighed the goblin by a good fifty pounds and would have won the contest easily had the goblin not flung his forehead into Eduard’s nose. Airk advanced as Eduard staggered back. The goblin leader’s arm shot out like a whip and drove the sword point into Airk’s shoulder. Airk reeled as blood blossomed on his shirt.

  Jain advanced with her sword held high. The goblin leader struck, again with remarkable speed. Jain sidestepped, just as Joff had done when they sparred, and brought her sword across with all the force she could muster. At first she thought she had missed but then she saw the goblin leader’s body hit the ground, and then his head hit the ground several feet away.

  The other goblins stared. The one nearest to Jain, a swordsman with no armor, looked to his fellows for support. Jain shrieked and drove her sword hard into his chest. He looked at her, his eyes wide. He had blue eyes, like hers. Human eyes. The other goblins fled. Some of them dropped their weapons and some did not.

  “Nicely done,” Eduard said from behind his hand. Blood ran from his nose and dribbled off his chin.

  “Airk!” Jain said, seeing him holding his bleeding shoulder.

  “I’m alright. See to Joff.”

  Jain patted Arik on his good shoulder and kissed him. Airk smiled at her and licked his lips, treasuring the kiss. She walked to where Joff lay. His breath came slow and deep and he sweated profusely. She put her hand on his chest. “By the Dagda!” Jain said. “His heart is beating like mad.”

  “Wake up Joff,” Eduard said. Joff did not stir. Eduard looked around nervously, fearing the return of the goblins. “We’ll wait a while. Stay alert, Jain. The goblins may come back. Airk, we need to see to that shoulder. Stay there.” Eduard rummaged around in one of the tents and came back with an earthenware jar full of green goo. After they had gotten Airk’s shirt off, Eduard began to apply the goo to the wound.

  “Why are you putting that on me?” Airk said as his face twisted in disgust.

  Eduard smiled. “You should pay more attention to Joff’s rambling. He said this stuff keeps wounds from festering. That’s why goblins wear it all the time.”

  The blood pulsing from Airk’s wound slowed and thickened where it mingled with the goo. Joff pulled a strip of clean white cloth from the provisions and made a bandage for Airk’s wound. With some difficulty, they managed to get another shirt on Airk and Eduard bade him rest.

  Dusk had fallen before Joff finally groaned and opened his eyes.

  “Are you going to be alright?” Jain asked.

  “Fit to compete in the games,” Joff gasped.

  She took his hand and pulled him to his feet. Though he was taller than her, he seemed to weigh almost nothing. He swayed on his feet for a moment and Jain put his arm around her shoulders and half helped, half carried him back to where Eduard and Airk nursed their respective injuries.

  “We have to go,” Eduard said. “The goblins will be back.”

  Eduard urged them to set a
brisk pace, but Joff still breathed heavily from the exertion of the battle and Airk grimaced with every step. Eduard’s ministrations had stopped the bleeding, but Airk could not raise his left arm without pain and even the movement of walking, the slight, unconscious swing of the arm that most everyone does, troubled him. They managed to put a few hills between them and the goblin camp before Joff began to stumble and they had to stop.

  Airk lay down and fell asleep before Joff could so much as check his wound. For his part, Joff’s eyes drooped so badly that it probably would not have made a difference. Eduard looked at Jain. She unpacked and prepared a meal for the two of them, as Joff went to sleep without eating. Still, her shoulders slumped and she moved slowly. Eduard felt the tug of exhaustion behind his own eyes. There would be no watch that night. They could only hope that the goblins were too afraid to start any more trouble.

  The night passed quietly and in the morning Joff checked Airk’s wound. Blood wept from the scabs but not enough to pose a problem. Airk was stiff and sore but insisted that he felt up to traveling. Joff treated the injury with more goblin goo, which also seemed to make the blood still seeping from the wound thicken. Eduard fashioned a sling for Airk’s arm so that it would not trouble him so as they walked.

  “We need to see to your nose,” Joff said to Eduard.

  “My nose is fine,” Eduard said. “The bleeding’s stopped.”

  “Your nose is the shape of a lightning bolt,” Joff replied. “It’s broken.”

  “What can you do about it?”

  “I’ll just treat it for infection,” Joff replied. “Nothing to be done about the crookedness.”

  Eduard nodded.

  “Sit down.” Eduard sat and Joff kneeled next to him. “Now close your eyes.”

  Eduard squinted. “Why do I have to close my eyes?”

  “My hands will be close to your eyes,” Joff explained. “That sometimes makes people flinch and that can cause all sorts of problems.”

  Eduard nodded and closed his eyes. Joff grabbed his nose and jerked it. Eduard screamed. “You miserable bastard!”

  “Your nose is straight again,” Jain said with a smile. “That’s good. You can’t steal maidens from their future husbands with a crooked nose.”

  “What?” Airk asked.

  “I had designs on Jain before you were married,” Eduard explained. He stood up and scrunched his nose. “She chose you. My charm, looks, wealth, and personality were no match for your . . .” Eduard’s expression was a parody of curiosity. “What did you choose him for?”

  Jain put her hand on Airk’s chest and looked up at him lovingly. “He offered to help me carry the buckets from the well, even though he was busy on his own chore.”

  “Hah!” Joff said. “There you go, Eduard. Spend more time on your manners and less time on your hair and you’ll have all the maidens you want.”

  Eduard reached up and touch his hair. “Let’s go. I want to get to the mountain today.”