The Queen of the Elves

Chapter 6

The darkness was overwhelming, suffocating, and heavy. It pressed in on all sides of Mason, making him gasp and wheeze despite the fact that he wouldn't have ever admitted that he was scared. The little underground goblins were no more than three feet tall, and skinny little wisps at that. But they had devilish glowing eyes and pointy little fingers. No fingernails like ours, but hard, pointy, little, dagger-like fingers, eight on each hand, only two of them could be bent out of those eight. They had the frightful habit of grabbing victims with the "thumbs" and then stabbing them with their other fingers. Mason was now being subjected to all sorts of intolerable poking and pinching and all around nastiness on the part of the goblins. He was tied hand and foot and had something-or-other stuffed in his mouth. I won't even describe the foul taste that it was torturing him with. Let's just say you don't want to know.

He was absolutely miserable, but probably not for the reasons that I just described. He had lost Caroline. She had been right there with him in the glade. He had been responsible for her safety and he had not only managed to let her get kidnapped, but he had also gotten himself captured. He would really be in for it if he ever got out of this one, Silvia would be in a rage. Who knows what she would do to him this time? He didn't want to think about it. Fortunately with all the goblins poking and nipping at him he didn't have too hard of a time distracting himself.

He jerked and thrashed about in the dark at his invisible tormentors, kicking and elbowing all he could. He heard talking beyond the immediate chaos and strained to make out the words.

They were in the hissy, spitty, guttural language of the goblins, but, being a changeling, Mason spoke and understood any and all languages.

"He's already owned, you can tell by the marks on his back."

"Yes," another voice piped up, "but who? What do we do with him?"

"Hand him over to the elves with the girl. Let them worry about him."

"Yes, should we call them off of him? Will the queen be mad if he's already beat up?"

"Huh! Not at all. If he's not already bloody when she gets a hold of him he will be after, half dead too. It's a good thing they want the girl in perfect condition, or she would be dead by now. Goodness knows she's a fragile little thing."

"Yes, and it's good for the changeling that he is tough."

They laughed raucously and goaded the goblins on around Mason.  For a moment the pain and the fury of the little monsters all around him blurred reality, he worried he might pass out, but a fierce kick of desperation calmed them down a bit. He was then again able to listen.

"Is the girl secured?"

"Yes, and sound asleep. She won't be waking easily."

"She looked tired anyway, a little enchanted sleep will do her good."

"Maybe we could practice some spells on this changeling, I doubt anyone would mind."

"No, not this one. He wouldn't do. He's in love, can't you tell. Spells never work quite right on people in love."

"True."

Underground Goblins have an annoying habit of thinking themselves wizards then ruining everything for miles for every attempted spell. They also can sense emotions. Living down in the dark underground for so long, only coming out into the night, their senses were sharpened as much as their fingers. They could sense emotions, invisible spirits, their hearing was amazing, and they could smell better than any bloodhound.

Mason grumped, annoyed. He wasn't in love; that was hogwash, purely ridiculous. Who would he be in love with anyway? How had they got that notion?

"The sun will soon come out, should we go look for the other two before it ruins the world?"