The Goblin's Crown

Chapter Four: Honeyed Trap

The golden glow of the glittering city did nothing to improve Knut's looks. It gave his already deathly pallor a sickly yellow tint that made him all the more grotesque to look at. "This way, I'll show you to the bedchamber."

"Our Chamber? No, thank you." I muttered, jumping back to my senses. How could I even consider him? Even if he did have more gold and jewels than he knew what to do with, there was still the matter of his horribleness to overcome.

"Matilda, I'm not the disgusting beast you seem to think I am. We have numerous guest rooms."

"I want to go home." I reminded him, everything in me wanting to say otherwise. There was so, so much gold.

"We'll get to that in a bit." He said, "but I think you should really sleep on it. Think of what I'm offering you and the squalor you're condemning yourself to by going back. To me it's an obvious choice."

"I'm not sleeping anywhere near you." I hissed. "Send. Me. Home."

"Stay for a night." He pleaded. "Just one night, then I'll send you on your merry way and you can scurry right back to your burrow, Mouse. One night will do no harm. I'll even let you stay with my brother's bride, a fellow woman, in a wing of the palace far removed from me." That smile returned. I'd already learned that he had many versions of it. One for joking with friends, one for teasing me, one for when he was tormenting his servants, and another which I hated most. That smug one he wore when he felt he knew what I was thinking. "Wouldn't it be a shame to pass up the opportunity to sleep in a plush, palace bed? A bed fit for a queen?" Pleasure dripped from that last word.

Perhaps he did know me too well. The temptation of being pampered and a night's rest in an actual bed proved too much for me to resist. "One night." I relented. "Then I'm gone come daybreak."

"Excellent!" He cheered in triumph. Knut skipped merrily as he carted me back through the glittering palace. It was enormous and even after a half hour of walking I still felt like I hadn't seen a quarter of it by the time we came to a massive chamber door. It was studded with dazzling jewels that had been inlaid into the gold door into the swirling shapes of roses. Picking up the heavy knocker, which looked like a twisted thorny vine, Knut knocked twice. The sound boomed through the endless halls of the palace.

After a moment, a portly goblin in red striped livery opened the door. "Master Knut." He flopped onto his big stomach and kissed the floor at Knut's feet. "What can I do to serve you?" He asked with the eagerness to please of a dog.

Knut stepped over him like he was a puddle and entered the room without so much as a warning. I followed after him and enjoyed hopping over the servant's body more than I care to admit.

The room was so dazzlingly beautiful, I almost fainted. A massive canopy bed sat at its heart, draped in rose red silks. The pattern from the door continued every wall, turning the bedroom into a perpetual garden. Ruby and diamond roses scrolled round and round the room, their beauty reflected in the surfaces of the solid gold furnishings. I didn't even notice the goblin woman sitting at the vanity until she let out an annoyed sigh.

"Knut, for what do I owe this honor?" The woman asked through her sharp teeth. She may have been the best-looking goblin I'd seen, but that wasn't saying all that much. Her nose was small and pushed up like a bat's. Her skin was an inky black. Her chin and body had the jaggedness of most of their kind and hair like silvery spider's webs hung by her bony cheeks down to her sharp hips. Her eyes, which was the most grotesque thing of all, were milky grey like a corpse's.

"My young bride here stopped by for a visit and has decided to stay the night. She's deemed me too great a temptation, so she'll be staying with you tonight, Freya. Hopefully, you can keep her under control." He said, resting his arm on my shoulder. I shrugged out of it and took a step away, doing my best to look unhappy even while I marveled at the brilliance of the room, the fineness of the woman's nightgown and the completely unapologetic arrogance of my goblin suitor. Never once had he asked her for her permission to place a guest in her room. I'd be lying if I said I didn't find it a little attractive.