The stranger stepped into the light. He appeared a bit shorter than a man or an elf. Macreedy was the tallest person there. But then this person did not look like a man or an elf. He had red eyes, almost no ears at all, and little horns on his head; what could be seen of them through the thick black hair. He also had a forked tongue, like a snake, with which he presently licked his lips.

“A goblin,” Sandra said. She buried her face into Glen’s chest so she would not have to look at it.

“A hobgoblin.” Macreedy corrected her. He still fingered the hilt of his knife but he left it where it sat for the present.

“Ignatius Patterwig, son of Coriander.” The hobgoblin bowed, graciously.

“Coriander Patterwig?” Macreedy knew something.

“The same,” Ignatius said. “But since my father did not survive the uprising, I have had to find other employment.”

“Who?” Sandra asked.

Ellean answered. “The self-proclaimed king of the hobgobs.”

“Hobgoblins are an independent lot. They don’t take kindly to kings,” Glen explained for Sandra.

“Very perceptive for one made of blood and mud,” Ignatius said. “How…” He had to think of the right word. “How impossible.”

“Never mind that,” Sandra interrupted. “Can you show us the way to go?”

Ignatius paused and a smile turned up his lips—a smile that was too big to be human, though it never showed any teeth. That was fine. Sandra did not want to see the teeth. “I assume you are following the mother and the baby.”

“I’m the mother!” Sandra shouted. “That was my mother and my baby.”

“Do you know where they are?” Ellean asked. Panic started building up in Sandra’s voice, so Ellean verbalized for her.

Ignatius looked like he was about to say one thing, but when he looked again at Glen, he changed his mind. “I know which way they went,” he said.

“Show us,” Glen said.

“And for me?” The hobgoblin could not resist the bargain.

“Anything,” Sandra said, but everyone ignored her, and Macreedy interrupted her.

“Your life.” Macreedy got blunt.

“Your life.” Ellean agreed and she held her bow steady with the arrow aimed right at the hobgoblin.

“And what does the warrior say?” The hobgoblin asked.

“You will have the satisfaction of knowing you have done a good deed,” Glen said, and everyone looked at him like he had a loose screw, except Macreedy who got that suspicious look once more. “Now, show us.” Glen put some command in that voice.

“I will,” the hobgoblin said, but then he paused and wrinkled his brow. “But only because I am a sucker for a mother’s love.” He figured a way to justify his agreement. “This way,” he said, but as he began to walk, he turned his head, and a bit too much as far as Sandra was concerned. “Anything?” he asked.

“Too late,” Glen said. “The bargain is with me and made. Walk on.”

Ignatius grunted. “I don’t normally argue with weapons,” he admitted, still rationalizing his choice.

“And I am dressed like a true warrior,” Glen said, speaking a half-truth, like a true elf. Ellean looked impressed. Macreedy just smiled a bit and nodded.

The glow-balls took up their positions and the company walked for a long way, turning this way and that, but always keeping to what appeared to be a main tunnel. After a moment of hope, to think this creature might know where her mother and baby were, Sandra sank into despair. She kept it to herself, but had worry written all over her, and the spiritual creatures were sensitive to pick up on the feeling. Ellean kept reaching forward to touch Sandra on the shoulder and she kept speaking soothing words. That touch would have felt creepy to Sandra a day earlier, but now it helped.

“How far?” Glen finally asked. Ignatius did not answer immediately. He stooped down first and picked up a seed. Sandra stifled her shout. Then the hobgoblin spoke.

“Not much further,” he said, and not much further on, he stepped around a corner and disappeared. They stood in another cavern of sorts, but not as big as the first one and with only two ways to go. Macreedy ran past Glen and into the cavern. He looked all around as he spun on his heels.

“I knew we could not trust a hobgoblin,” he said, through gritted teeth. “Especially the bastard son of Coriander Patterwig.”

“Where did he go?’ Sandra started to ask but changed her mind. “Where are we?”

“No idea,” Ellean said, and Macreedy nodded in agreement.

“Well.” Glen wanted to be practical. “There are only two choices. I say we explore down one carefully and quietly to see where it takes us.”

“Not a good idea,” Macreedy said. “Let me remind you. These are the caves of Cormac.”

“I remember,” Glen said, and whether by accident or fate, he began down the left-hand corridor. Macreedy dimmed the glow-balls and set them in place where they would just show the way ahead and no more. They came to a wall, or what they thought was a wall.

“Wait.” Sandra noticed something, and it may have been because she was looking down in search of seeds. They all whispered, of course, because it did not take much to be heard underground, and it would not have been wise to speak loud in a cave in any case for fear that the roof might collapse. Here, though, Sandra sounded a bit sharp with her words. “Move the lights back. I want to have a look.” She knelt and put her eye to the wall and then the others saw that she had found a crack, or maybe a keyhole, and there appeared to be a dim light on the other side of the door, if it was a door.

Sandra put her eye to the hole and took a moment to focus and make sense of what she saw. It looked like a deer, laid out on a table, and it looked like a fire burned in a fireplace on the other side of the room. She looked at a bad angle. Since the firelight came right at her, rather than being off to the side, she only saw the deer and the table as a shadow against the light. She just figured this out and started wondering if anything might happen, when she saw a large, bony, clawed hand reach out and tear a whole leg off the deer, like a man might tear off a hunk of bread from a loaf. She held her breath as a face came into view, with a long dripping nose and a great tusk that rose-up beside the nose. It sniffed the air, and it turned toward her. Despite the fact that she should have only seen a shadow of the head, she saw two great yellow eyes stare back at her. It seemed as if those eyes were lit by some internal flame and would be seen, even in the absolute darkness of the cave. Sandra screamed. She could not help it. Without hesitation, everyone else yelled a single word. “Run!”

Glen grabbed Sandra’s hand and dragged her back to the big room where they turned to rush down the second tunnel. They all wondered how they could possibly get away from a creature that could move faster through the dark than they could possibly move by the light of the glow-balls.

“Wait.” Macreedy, out front, shouted, and held them back. “It has got out into the passageway.” He said it, just before they all heard it. They turned to run back to the big room, but that was no good, either. The goblins had arrived and blocked the last way out, which was the way they had come in. Sandra screamed, and again she could not help it. She buried her face in Glen’s chest so she would not have to look at the creatures.

Ignatius stood out in front of a dozen or more goblins who came armed with a variety of clubs, swords and spears. When the lumbering beast came up behind the four travelers, it stopped in the doorway, not afraid, but wary of so many intruders in its antechamber. Macreedy and Ellean both had their bows out and ready, and Glen pulled his sword from the sheath on his back. He found it not too heavy, so he could hold it up, but he could only hope he looked like someone who knew what he was doing. If it came to it, he honestly wondered if he could do anything with it at all. He could not remember ever having held a sword before and he felt afraid he might only cut himself or cut the wrong person by accident and make matters worse.

“Cormac.” Ignatius spoke over the group toward the lumbering beast that blocked the exit. “I bring you the goblin sacrifice as agreed. Accept these elves and humans and leave the dark elves in peace for a season.”

Cormac looked like he might bargain and maybe claim that the sacrifice was not enough, but from the way his lips began to drool, it felt hard to believe he might be thinking of anything but supper.

************************

MONDAY

Sandra and Glen may need some extra help getting past Cormac the ever-hungry troll. Until next time, Happy Reading

*

Glen found it difficult to sleep at first, since he had such a hard time keeping his hands to himself; but then the something inside of him rose-up, and he felt he could hold this beauty after all without becoming overly excited. He slept well after that. He could not vouch for the others.

When the sun looked about ready to rise, Glen’s eyes popped open. Sandra snuggled into his shoulder, and with the little bit of new light, he looked over at the elves. He felt embarrassed. He saw Ellean snuggle up to Macreedy and Macreedy looked at her with a loving expression and tenderly brushed her long black hair behind her ear.

“Ahem.” Glen coughed softly and Macreedy looked more than slightly embarrassed. “This is a switch. It is usually the women who wake up before the lazy men.”

“Oh, we’re awake,” Ellean said, and Macreedy jumped back as if stung by a bee.

“We?” Glen asked.

“We are,” Sandra confirmed without opening her eyes. She shifted her head in Glen’s shoulder and reached for his other shoulder with her free hand. She seemed to want to snuggle some more, but Glen noticed what he had on, and though he was not exactly naked, he jumped further than Macreedy. He got out from beneath the covers altogether. All he had on was a t-shirt and boxers, though when he examined the clothes, he caught a glimpse of Fairy Weave.

“What is this?” he asked, as he sat on Sandra’s bed and covered up. He thought dark blue, and his weave turned dark blue, which seemed better than the almost translucent white it had been.

“The magic came in the night,” Ellean said. “I was surprised that it did not wake you.”

“Lord Alderon says you are to put this on.” Macreedy pointed to a suit of armor, chain on leather. It sat neatly laid out at the end of Sandra’s unused bed. There were swords and knives with the outfit, and a cape that looked reversible, with black on one side and white on the other.

“But I…” Glen considered his underwear and did not feel in a position to argue. He got into the outfit as rapidly as he could and found that it fit perfectly. It also felt very comfortable, and light, which surprised him. He had expected all that metal to weigh a hundred pounds. At last, he set his hands on the weapons. “I don’t know what to do with these,” he said. “I never killed anything bigger than a spider.”

“You need to bring them,” Macreedy said.

“I can help you put them in place,” Ellean said. “These are like the ones our god carries.”

“They are?” Glen spoke absentmindedly, because he got busy trying to figure out where they hooked on. They appeared to have rings that only needed hooks.

“Wait.” Macreedy stopped Ellean and he looked very suspicious. “Try calling to them,” he said.

“What?”

Macreedy stepped over, took the weapons, and laid them out again on the bed. “Try calling to them,” he repeated.

Glen looked at Sandra who had gotten up to watch the proceedings, but she could only shrug.

“A virtue in their making,” Macreedy suggested. “They were given to you so you should be able to call to them and they should fit themselves into place.”

“Like magic?” Sandra was not slow to catch the implication, and Macreedy nodded.

“Okay,” Glen said, but he sounded doubtful. “All-ee, all-ee in come free,” he shouted and shrugged because nothing happened. He was kidding. He tried again. “Sword, here. Knife here. Here, swordy, swordy.” Still nothing happened. He tried a poor man’s Shakespeare. “Afixeth thyself before I be off, oft.” He shrugged again. “Nothing.” Macreedy looked relieved.

Ellean began to move again to help him, but Glen held out his hand. He started getting into this. “Open sesame. Attach sesame.” He turned to loony tunes, beginning with Yosemite Sam. “Ya gal-dern galoots!” He went on for a while with nonsense words until he said something that sounded like a string of consonants with hardly any vowels at all, and the sword and knife jumped. They rushed at Glen. He covered his face. He thought maybe he angered the inanimate objects—the sharp inanimate objects, but then he heard several clicks and Sandra applauded, Ellean shouted something not at all like “golly gosh!” and Macreedy went back to looking suspicious.

“Well.” Glen looked up and smiled. “But they can stay where they are because otherwise I will probably cut my foot off.”

“Why would you cut your foot off?” Sandra asked.

“If I had a gun I would probably shoot my foot off and I figure fair is fair.” That ended the discussion about the weapons. Glen saw that both Ellean and Macreedy sported long knives at their belts and both carried bows, and that felt like more of a comfort than anything he might carry.

Sandra and Ellean found the food that had been left for their breakfast. It looked like the troops pulled out before dawn since they and their tent were all that remained in the area, and Glen looked all around. When he returned, the tent had already been reduced to a cube the size of Macreedy’s hand, which the elf slipped into his side pack. The fire still burned, though, and they had bacon and eggs cooking.

“There goes any chance of getting my clothes back, I suppose,” Glen said.

“I think you look good,” Sandra grinned.

“What, for Halloween?”

Sandra stood up to whisper in his ear. “You look sexy,” she said, and quickly scooted to the other side of Ellean.

“My birthday is the day after Halloween. I’m open to suggestions on presents,” Glen said, and Sandra turned red beneath her blond hair. Macreedy temporarily dropped his suspicious look for a confused look.

“I don’t understand the game,” he admitted, with a shake of his head.

“Human mating ritual,” Glen confessed. “You should try it sometime.” He pointed at Ellean with a shake of his head. Macreedy made no response other than to open his mouth, wide.

“Enough of that,” Sandra scolded. “Breakfast.” They ate what they could, even Glen, not normally a breakfast person; but to be sure, none of them knew when they might get another good meal.

They found the entrance to the cave close by. They did not find any seeds on the way, but they did not expect to see any. The little pile of seeds just inside the cave, where the morning light struck, and the little trail that ran away from the pile and into the dark could not have been clearer.

“Just to be certain I have this right; Melissa is two?”

“Mother?” Sandra responded, and Glen nodded as he suspected the woman had taken the seeds and left the trail.

“Still, a rather sloppy kidnapper not to notice something as obvious as this.” Glen remained skeptical.

“They may have rested here before entering the cave.” Macreedy offered an explanation. Glen did not feel so sure, but they had no choice but to go into the dark.

Macreedy pulled the three glow-balls from his pack—the ones that had been in the tent. He spoke over them, they became bright, and with a few more words, they began to float in the air, one out front, one in the middle, overhead, and one just behind the group. Sandra looked amazed to see real magic and stepped closer to Glen. Pointed ears were one thing, but the outright impossible was quite another.

“Macreedy is so talented.” Ellean praised him, and Macreedy looked like he might say, “Tut-tut” at any moment.

“Y-yes.” Sandra stuttered around the smile that she pasted on her face. Glen felt less surprised. He paid attention when Macreedy built up the fire the night before. He expected some sort of magic, and he had examined the glow-balls. With that light, though, they could move forward.

This seemed an ordinary enough cave, with an uneven floor, stalactites overhead, and Glen hoped no bats, or at least not too many. As they moved deeper into the dark and found seeds, almost by accident in several cases, it quickly got cold, and they all hugged their cloaks. Sandra had been given one and had wondered why she might need it in the warm fall air she felt in the forest. Now she understood. It got cold underground where neither the sun nor the warm air could penetrate.

After a time of clambering through and over rocks and around corners, and always going further down and deeper in, the floor beneath their feet flattened out and brought them quickly to a large chamber that looked more like the inside of a cathedral than a cave.

“Not good,” Macreedy said. He laid his hand against a stalagmite, which had the appearance more of a column than a natural occurrence. “This is a goblin hall,” he said and he pointed to some carvings on the column.

“Glen.” Sandra scooted yet closer and laid her hand on his wrist. She looked into his eyes and hoped for reassurance.

“Dark elves,” Glen said. “That is an easier word than goblins. They stay underground and work great magic in stone and metal. They are not necessarily the evil goblins of legend.”

Ellean had her bow out and an arrow ready. “But many do like to eat the flesh raw,” she said.

“Big help!” Glen put his arms around Sandra, and she did not mind that at all.

“They are not friends to the elves of the light,” Macreedy agreed with Ellean, though he left his weapons where they were and only fingered the knife at his side.

“I see three ways we can go.” Glen changed the subject.

Macreedy shook himself from his own thoughts and raised his arms. The glow-balls brightened a little, spread out and showed that there were actually five choices. “The problem is two or three of these ways will lead to the warrens—the goblin homes.” He added that last for Glen and Sandra. “Only two or three ways will lead to other places.”

“And which is which?” Ellean finished the thought, and she, Sandra and Macreedy all looked at Glen.

“No, no,” Glen said. He let go of Sandra and stepped back a full step. “I’m no seer. If there is magic in the human world, I have less of it than anyone I know.”

“Someone has to decide,” Sandra said.

“Or you could all just stay here until you starve.” An eerie sort of voice spoke out of the dark. Sandra jumped back into Glen’s arms and Ellean pulled her bow to the ready, though how she knew which direction to point was a mystery since the cavern not only looked like a cathedral, it echoed like one as well.