They marched a long way into the mountain, and Boston was glad to see she did not take to claustrophobia, the way some light elves felt it. She never felt claustrophobic as a human and supposed there was no reason that should change. They picked up a few more goblins along the way, including one group that looked like they just returned from a hunt. They had two deer ready to be butchered and put on the fire, at least as much as goblins and trolls cooked such things. Finally, the group came to a big underground cavern filed mostly with women and children. There were a number of fires around the place, and one big fire up by a raised area. Boston guessed the one who stood up there was the goblin king. He certainly was frightening enough.

“Lord Mandible,” Flintskin spoke up as they approached. Chewy put Boston down, but held her so Boogern and Kraken could tie her hands behind her back and tie a big rope with a heavy weight on one end to hobble her so she could not run off. “Lord, we found this light elf wandering by the woods of the nightshade. She left the elf haven in the dark time so we brought her to you to decide what to do with her.”

Lord Mandible stuck his tongue out and licked his whole face up to his eyebrows. “I don’t like elf. They have a gamey flavor,” he said.

“She is an elf witch,” Boogern stepped forward.

“What flavor?”

“Fire, at least,” Flintskin said. “We didn’t exactly test her.”

“That might make it palatable,” Lord Mandible said. He looked closely at Boston for the first time and drooled, slightly. “Of course, eating the maid is not the only thing I have in mind.”

Boston caught the look. “You wouldn’t dare,” Boston said while two streams of laser light came from her eyes and caused a small explosion of the rocks at the goblin king’s feet. He jumped back while she spoke. “The Kairos would burn you feet off. She would pull out your tongue and blind your eyes. My Lady would make you human for even thinking such a thing.”

Mandible raised his voice. “Lady Nalishayas has said the humans have the light time and we can have the dark time as long as we don’t bother the humans. Light elves have no place on our island. We give them the small haven, but Issendilus knows better than to let his people out after sundown.”

“Who is Issendilus?” Boston asked, and the goblins all stared at her for a second.

“Lord Issendilus, your chief,” Flintskin offered.

Boston shook her head. “I don’t know him. I’m not from this island. We came here from the deep past,” Boston said as she pulled her hands free and mentally praised herself for doing so magically without setting the ropes on fire this time. “We are on a special mission of the Kairos and headed to the next time gate. Didn’t you think to ask about the red hair?”

“I thought that was because of the fire inside you,” Boogern said, and Kraken agreed.

“Mandible,” A woman’s voice sounded out sharply from behind.

Mandible grinned suddenly, an awful, Grinch sort of grin. “Yes, Coressus, my dear. Sweetheart. Honey.” The woman stepped up beside Mandible and gave him a quick frown. She leaned down to Boston and spoke kindly enough, despite the frightening eyes and very sharp looking teeth.

“Come here child,” she said, having judged Boston to be very young. Boston was already working on the rope around her ankle, and it only took another second to pull her foot free and walk up to face the woman. She tried not to look at Coressus, but let the woman pull her aside for a private conversation. The woman directed her speech so only Boston could hear, and Boston had to try to do the same.

“Forgive my husband. He likes to think he is in charge and can do whatever he wants. He likes to act all frightening and mean, but he can be sweet.”

“I’ll take your word for it,” Boston said.

Coressus reached for Boston’s chin with her claw, but was actually quite gentle so Boston did not resist. Coressus looked into her face and let go with a word. “You are very young, despite being full grown. It is something I do not understand.”

“As an elf, I am only three and a half days old. I was older when I was a human.”

Coressus shook her head, like that did not make any sense. Then she gasped. “Red hair?”

A voice came from the back of the cavern. “Boston. Don’t worry. The others are coming to set you free.”

Boston responded to the voice. “Roland!”

“Mandible,” Coressus spoke up loud and clear. “This one is not for you. She is betrothed and under the protection of the gods. And so is the other one,” she shouted across the cavern. “You better not hurt him.”

“What?” Mandible, Flintskin and the others did not understand.

“The camp where this one was taken,” Coressus said. “There were humans and big animals that they ride upon, and they all wear fairy weave and sleep in houses that become no bigger than a ball, and they travel with an elder in the flesh and blood.”

“Yeah, so?” Flintskin did not get it, but Mandible did, and he hit the poor goblin hard enough to make him cry. Flintskin hit Boogern in the same way.

“You should have known.”

“Known what?”

“Whatever.”

Kraken wanted to hit Boogern as well, but Boogern raised a fist to say he would hit Kraken back. Chewy stood like a statue, unwilling to move a muscle, and it made Boston laugh to see him.

“Come child,” Coressus said. “And you, Lord Roland. Your name is known to us.”

Roland came to the raised stone and did not look too roughed up. Then again, a couple of goblins looked like they might have black eyes, so it was about even.

“I am far too young myself to be called Lord Roland.,” Roland admitted, and gave the goblin king a bow.

“Sir Roland, then. I have also heard this.”

“Probably not for a few thousand years,” they heard Katie’s voice at the back of the cavern, followed by a great “ZAP!” A troll and two goblins flew though the air.

“Leave the animals alone,” Coressus shouted.

“They are horses,” Boston said.

“Leave the horses alone if you value your life,” Coressus shouted, and she directed Boston and Roland to the back of the cavern where there was a cave set up like a comfortable living room, with rugs on the floor and cushions scattered about to sit and relax. “It is for you about breakfast time, I believe.” Mandible and his friends made themselves scarce.

When the rest of the crew arrived, they had a fine breakfast of eggs and some kind of bacon. They even had toast of a sort, but the goblin cooks did not know how to do anything but burn the toast. They had a pleasant conversation as well, but Lockhart, and in general the others, were all glad when the goblins escorted them to the exit.

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Coming next Monday and Tuesday, the conclusion of Avalon, episode 3.8,or, what good is escaping the goblin lair if you end up in pirate hands?  Don’t miss it.  The second half of Pirates Cove.  A free read to start the week off right.

The travelers saw some people during the day, and passed by a village, but kept their distance. The lifestyle looked primitive. People dressed in animal skins, the huts barely kept out the rain, and the fields of grain got worked with tools of sticks and bones. It was early spring, and people were planting seeds in the hope of a harvest come fall. There were no guarantees in that world, and Katie made some commentary along the way.

“Back home, these years are spoken of with simple, meaningless numbers, and it feels foolish now to set dates for the end of this era and the beginning of the next. These people, on Rhodes or Crete, whichever island we are on, are still living Neolithic lives. I don’t even see any soft metals, like copper. Yet we have already seen bronze in the Alps ages ago, and even earlier in the Carpathian Mountains. These people hardly have huts enough to form a village—a little hamlet they can pack up and move at anytime. They are hardly a settled people, still mostly hunting and gathering. Yet we have seen the great civilization city of Kish in Mesopotamia, cities in Weret’s Egypt, and even earlier, the city of Jericho. So where does the Neolithic end and the copper age begin and then copper end and bronze begin? Things blend into each other much more than I ever imagined back when I was at the university memorizing exact dates, and they go on for much, much longer than I ever imagined.”

“What did Nuwa say?” Lockhart asked rhetorically. “They did not call it Longshan culture. They just called it life. Same here I suppose.”

They camped that night in a field beside a forest full of tall bushes. Lockhart set a watch in the night. He did not expect that they would be disturbed, but after all this time, he erred on the side of caution. He and Roland took the second shift, around ten o’clock, when Lincoln and Alexis went to bed. Decker and Elder Stow would take the wee hours, when Elder Stow’s scanner would be most useful. Katie and Boston had the sunrise, and usually made some kind of coffee, which Lockhart appreciated. It was a relaxed watch, but a watch all the same.

Boston woke when Roland got up. She closed her eyes right away to go back to sleep, but could not get back to sleep. She checked the moon and saw it was a fingernail, which was good. If Bob the wolf followed them into this time zone, and she did not doubt that he did, at least he would not go wolf on them.

Boston sat up as Lockhart finished putting some wood on the fire and walked off to his place on the perimeter. It was still early enough in the spring to be chilly in the night. Boston blamed the sea breezes. She spent several minutes listening for the sounds in the night and touching the points in her ears before she stood. She wondered briefly how she might look with a dress like she saw on Avalon before they went though the Heart of Time and got whisked back to the beginning of history. Shaping her fairy weave would be easy enough, but she wished she had Alexis’ mirror to look.

Boston stood. She was always an energetic girl, no doubt why she graduated early from high school and college, and got her doctorate in electrical engineering at such a young age, but that was not all of it. She rode rodeo, and grew up with her brothers as a tom-boy, running around and getting into trouble. Redneck trouble, she thought, but to be sure, it was Massachusetts redneck.

“Psst,” Boston heard the sound and wondered why her human alert system did not warn her a stranger was near. “Psst, elf.” A goblin head poked out from between two bushes. Boston was wary, but she was thrilled that this little one talked to her, and called he elf, which she was. She could not help responding.

“What?” she directed her whisper to the head, almost without thinking about it, like it was a natural thing to prevent waking the others. The goblin pulled out his hands and waved them at her, tossing a bit of dirt in her direction, and a monster of a troll reached out with incredibly long arms and grabbed her. Boston was prepared to scream, but her mouth was magically sealed. As the three goblins and the troll forced her into the woods, she tried to think to Roland, but even that was stymied, and after a minute she passed out from something like lack of oxygen, but it was lack of connection.

Underneath her change from human to elf, Boston did not realize that when she was cut off from the human race, she was connected to the natural world in an absolute way. It was a literal connection to life around the globe that sustained her life and that she helped to sustain with her life. When that connection was stifled, it was indeed like being cut off from oxygen. Fortunately, she came back after a short way, and the goblin complained.

“I can’t keep it up any longer,” he said, and looked drained.

“It’s all right, Boogern. We are close enough to the mountain. The light elves won’t follow us underground.”

“Hey, Flintskin,” The troll that was carrying Boston had to ask. “Does that mean we shouldn’t take this light elf underground?”

“No, Chewy, ya idiot. This one is our prisoner. We need to teach these light elves they have no business going about in the dark time.”

Boston tried not to laugh. Chewy the troll did look a little like something out of Star Wars.

“Kraken,” Flintskin spoke to the third goblin. Lead the way. They came to the entrance, a cave, and Kraken got a torch from some hidden place behind the wall. He got his flint, but as the torch came to bump Boston in the shoulder, she thought she could help. It was easy to cause the torch to light up. Magic in general was easier for her since she became an elf. As a human, she had to really focus and shove all her extraneous thoughts out of her mind to do anything. As an elf, she just reached into that compartment of her brain where she kept her magic, and there it was. Of course, the goblins were startled, and Chewy almost dropped her.

“Boogern. You didn’t say she had magic in her.” Flintskin hit the goblin who cowered.

“I didn’t know.”

“You know, I can walk,” Boston offered.

“Not a chance,” Flintskin responded. “You can run like the wind, ya mean. But we aren’t letting go until you are safely locked up.”

Boston pouted and looked up at her troll. “Chewy, be gentle with me.”

“Yes mum,” the troll responded, impressed with her little bit of magic

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Don’t miss tomorrow and the conclusion of the first half of Avalon, episode 3.8.  Avalon 3.8 will conclude next Monday and Tuesday.  Help yourself to this free read.  Enjoy.