The Goblin's Crown

Chapter Forty Four: New Brood

My cloak of night hung heavily from my shoulders and the skin beneath my beast's skull helm grew slick with sweat as Knut and I stood on a branch in the upper reaches of the world to gaze across an expanse of flourishing growth at the domed castle off in the distance as dawn broke. Its form was barely more than a silhouette against the bright multicolored sky. We'd made it into The Summer Branches.

Beyond the castle, I swore I could see the light shimmering across a vast sea where a void of nothingness had been in Mab's kingdom of endless night, lurking at the edge of reality. I could hear it, that phantom sea, singing in my ears, rumbling through my chest, and taste the brininess of the sea air upon my tongue with every breath.

"Horrid place, isn't it?" Knut made a gagging sound in his throat, shrinking into his furs in disgust at The Summer Branches' beauty. "This heat makes my skin crawl."

I too felt the same, oddly enough. Down in The Underground, I'd often complained about how cold it was and illustrated my argument by poking Knut with my frozen toes as he slept, but now the heat of The Summer Branches felt just as foreign to me, just as uncomfortable. It was as if the sun itself were rejecting its wayward daughter. I hated the feeling of that oppressive heat and the brightness of the sun stung my eyes. I longed for my dark, frigid chambers. When I returned home, I promised myself, I would never complain again. I would welcome those familiar cold stones with open arms, frozen toes and all.

"Beautiful," Snorri said in his breathy voice. His large eyes grew larger still. The image that lay before us and the colorful sky reflected in his golden orbs.

Knut shot him a look so disgusted, I feared he would unmake Snorri then and there. "It's a faerie nest." He hissed. "Nothing beautiful about it." His fur cape bristled around his head as if the fur were actually attached to him. "Let's keep moving. The sooner we cross into The Winter Branches, the better."

"Can we go closer?" Snorri asked. He teetered out to the very end of the branch to get a better look at Oberon's brilliant palace. Despite his size and muscular build, the branch barely bent beneath him.

"No. We keep going. We have to turn eastward as soon as possible. If the Seelie catch us here, it will not look very good. I already don't trust the princes not to go blabbing to their mother." Knut dropped back down from our perch.

I began to follow him but noticed that Snorri lingered, staring at that castle by the impossible sea with a look of longing on his ugly face. "Why do you want to go there, Snorri?" I asked. The absurdity of my question struck me like a stone. How strange it was to ask a goblin why he wanted something. The lesser goblins did not want... or at least, they didn't. How much would change if these experimental newborns proved successful enough to warrant giving free will to all goblins?

"I don't know." He answered. His hairless brows furrowed. "But I am curious. My mind is filled with countless questions. What is there? What kinds of people live there? How do they live?" He cocked his head at me again, that was one mannerism all goblins seemed to inherit. "Are you not curious as well, My Queen? You knew nothing of our world when you came here, now you're seeing something that few of us ever get to see." His thin lips curved into a knowing smirk. "Think of the treasure that could be hidden away out here, ripe for the picking." Knut had put more of himself in this newborn than he knew.

My gaze shifted to that sparkling castle peeking from the vibrant pinks of The Hollow's flowers. I had to admit, I wished I could get a better look at Oberon's palace myself. Just from the tiny glimpse of it, I could see, I knew that it must be grand like the palace I'd dreamed of living in as a girl. I also wondered just how wealthy Oberon was. How much gold was he hoarding in that place and how well was he guarding it? "I suppose I am a wee bit curious," I admitted. "But Knut is right. We can't linger here. We must resist temptation no matter how brilliantly the bait sparkles." In my experience, people who did not try to hide their heavy coin-purses tended to be guards in disguise. The potential reward was never worth the risk.