Chapter 41 - Explorers Part 2

A log cracked in the fire, sending a shower of sparks into the darkness. For a moment, their glow caught on the edge of Jax’s hatchet and the deep lines around his eyes.
“We were near Gravhall then,” he continued. “A city up by the Copper Mountains, close enough to the dwarves that its merchants treat greed as a cultural tradition.”
Usna nudged him with her elbow.
“What? Greedy bastards.”
“An order came from Gravhall: the mayor’s daughter had gone missing.”
“Kidnapped?” Elias asked, leaning closer to the flames.
“Worse. Stupid.”
Jax turned the hatchet in his hands.
“She’d come home from the Academy for the summer and heard goblins were raiding villages and mine shafts in the foothills. So she gathered a few friends, convinced five city guards to follow her, and rode into the mountains without telling her father.”
“Why would the guards agree to that?” Arien asked.
“She was the mayor’s daughter and an Academy Mage. I doubt the guards were eager to tell her no.
“By the time her father learned what she’d done, they had almost a full day’s lead. He sent word to the Guild and demanded someone bring her back.”
Jax poked the fire with the end of a stick. “We were the only party close enough.”
Arien frowned. “Such a fuss over ordinary goblins?”
Rufik barked out a laugh. “That’s exactly what my cousin said before he lost three fingers.”
“Only three?” Jax snorted.
“The goblins got the rest of him later.”
“And then mothers cry because their adventure-hungry sons get themselves killed by ‘ordinary’ goblins.” Jax pointed his hatchet toward the darkness. “Consider this a public service, boy. What do you see out there?”
Arien peered past the wagons. The firelight reached only the nearest trees, leaving everything beyond them black.
“Not much.”
“Exactly. Put six goblins among those trees, and you’d still see nothing, right up until the first poisoned dart struck you.”
Arien looked into the darkness again and shifted closer to the fire.
“But one goblin isn’t very strong, is it?”
“One goblin standing in an open field?” Jax shrugged. “Any competent fighter could deal with it. But they don’t stand in open fields. They hide above you, crawl through holes too small for a man, poison their weapons, and leave sharpened stones where you’re most likely to put your foot.”
The Explorer shook his head.
“I’d sooner fight a wraith than enter another goblin nest,” Jax said. “At least a wraith has the decency to come at you from one direction.”
“And if they catch someone alive?” Arien asked.
“Better they don’t.”
Usna pressed a hand to something beneath her shirt.
“Once a colony is confirmed, the army usually goes in with shields, torches, and enough soldiers to fill every tunnel,” Jax continued. “But the mayor didn’t have time to wait. He gave us twenty city guards and enough silver to make refusing difficult.”
“But she studied at the Academy. Wouldn’t she know how to handle goblins?” Arien asked.

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Usna gave a quiet, humorless laugh.
“The Academy teaches spells,” Jax said. “It doesn’t teach common sense. Marika was a level twenty Mage with a Fire Aspect, and she thought that made her ready for a goblin nest.”
“They probably saw goblins as easy levels,” Usna added.
“Exactly. We grabbed what we needed for the caves and rode. Finy, our tracker, picked up their trail, and we pushed the horses whenever the terrain allowed it,” Jax continued. “Our Ten had three Warriors, three Hunters, two Mages, Lincy, our Shieldbearer, and Mike, our Knight and leader.”
Arien counted them quickly. “No Healer?”
Both Explorers snorted.
“Listen to him. Someone’s heard too many stories.” Usna said.
“My father used to tell them.”
“Mine too,” Jax said. “Then I joined the Guild.”
“We were bronze-ranked Explorers, boy, not an elite raiding party. Finy had cut their lead to about half a day by the time we reached the foothills.
“About an hour later, Finy found Marika’s camp. Blood, mostly. And what was left of the horses.”
Elias stopped chewing.
“The goblins had gnawed the bones clean,” Jax continued. “There was no sign of Marika or her friends. Finy found their tracks near the cave entrance, though. They’d left the horses and one guard outside, then gone in.”
“Why would they leave someone alone?” Arien asked.
“Because knowing spells doesn’t cure stupidity,” Usna muttered.
Jax nodded. “They acted as though goblins couldn’t have scouts in the forest, or another way out of their own nest. If the tracks had ended outside, we could’ve returned to Gravhall and told the mayor we were too late.”
He tossed another branch onto the fire.
“Jesper knew the mayor would have his hide if he came back without trying, so we left five guards, lit our torches, and followed.”
The new branch caught with a hiss.
“The daylight disappeared before we’d gone twenty steps.” Jax rubbed the side of his neck. “I hate caves. Underground, every sound lies to you. A scrape that sounds as though it came from behind you might actually be fifty paces ahead. A tunnel that looks wide enough can narrow until a man in armor has to turn sideways.
“At least the main passage was natural and broad enough that we weren’t forced into single file. We had enhanced torches, too, so the first stretch almost felt safe.”
“Almost,” Arien repeated.
Jax looked at him. “Goblins don’t need the main tunnel. Give them enough time and they’ll dig narrow passages beside it. Too small for us, but wide enough for them to crawl through.”
He tapped two fingers against the ground beside his boot.
“You walk past an empty wall, and a moment later something comes out behind you. We found the first blood not long after entering. Dark, foul-smelling. Goblin blood. But there were no bodies. No weapons either.”
“They took them?”
“Everything. Blades, boots, even their own dead. Finy found drag marks leading into a narrow side passage, while Marika’s tracks continued deeper into the cave. Farther in, we found blood again.”
Jax paused.
“Human this time,” he continued. “We kept moving. The tunnel climbed and narrowed until only three of us could walk abreast. Horey was beside me when he raised his fist.”
Jax lifted his own hand, palm closed.
“Horey had Danger Sense. When he stopped, everyone did.”
“Did you see anything?” Arien asked.
“Me? Nothing.
“Lincy brought his shield forward. The rest of us crowded in behind him. Then the ceiling came alive.”
“The ceiling?”
“Rocks first. Then darts from ledges above us. Most struck shields. Jakis took one in the arm, and a guard caught another in the thigh. Paralytic. Jakis dropped his bow before he finished swearing.
“Mike smashed two Glowstones against the walls. Their clay shells burst, and harsh white light flooded the tunnel.
“The goblins were everywhere: crouched on ledges, pressed into cracks, already preparing another volley. Usna and the guard loosed their arrows while Ben sent shards of stone into the ceiling. Several goblins fell. The rest vanished into the cracks before we could pin them down.
“We hauled Jakis and the guard out of the ambush before the Glowstones faded. We had barely cleared the ledges when Horey stopped us again.
“I felt a tremor beneath my boots, followed by a rumbling from deeper in the tunnel.
“A boulder rolled out of the darkness, filling the tunnel from wall to wall.
“Lincy was already moving. He planted his shield, lowered his shoulder, and braced himself in the center of the tunnel. A pulse of force flashed across the shield as the boulder struck. The impact shook dust from the ceiling.
“Then the boulder split.
“Fragments skidded past our boots. Lincy was still standing, though barely, drawing breath in ragged gasps. The goblins must have expected the boulder to finish the job, because they appeared on the ledges again almost immediately. A few arrows sent them scrambling back into the dark.
“Once Jakis and the guard could walk again, we continued deeper.
“Farther in, we found two more places where Marika’s group had fought, with more blood and more hidden ledges, but still no bodies.
“Finy said the tracks were hours old.”
Arien leaned closer to the fire. “So they might still have been alive?”
“That was what we kept telling ourselves.”