CHAPTER 12 - Big Prints, Mad Prince

CHAPTER 12

Big Prints, Mad Prince

“I take it then,” Darnak said dryly, “that you wouldn’t be knowing how to find the dragon.”

Jig shook his head. From time to time, he had fantasized about sneaking down and making off with some piece of Straum’s treasure. Every goblin dreamed about it. A few of the older ones told stories about their search for the dragon’s lair. Some even claimed to have made it past the Necromancer.

Nobody had ever described anything like this place. Jig had known they were lying, of course. Oh, he believed goblins tried to explore the deeper levels. What he didn’t believe was that any of them survived to come back and tell stories about the experience.

Staring again at the world around him, he wondered if he would get the chance to share what he had seen. The grass tickled the backs of his knees when he moved, and he laughed with delight. He lay back and stared into the sky. So open and endless . . . after a lifetime of living beneath solid rock, he felt as though he could fall into that blue sea and float forever. A wave of vertigo made him gulp, and he gripped the grass with both hands.

“It’s an illusion,” Riana told him. She ripped out a clump of grass and sniffed the roots. “No smell. The sun’s too orange, and I can only see one kind of tree.”

“How many kinds are there?” Jig asked.

Riana laughed. For a second the anger vanished and she looked like a child. “Hundreds. Thousands. Oaks as proud as the gods, willows that sway and dance in the wind. There are trees with leaves as pointed as rapiers, and trees that need rain but once every six months to survive. I’ve even seen trees only a foot tall that mimic their larger cousins in every way.” She laughed again at Jig’s delighted expression.

“Elves and trees,” Darnak grumbled. “Something unnatural about their love for plants. Besides, I thought you were a city type. Where’d you learn about trees?”

Riana’s face hardened. “I spent a month hiding out in an arboretum, behind the Monastery of Batoth.”

Darnak held up a hand. “Don’t tell me the details. I’m still the prince’s man, and I’d not like to be arresting you the second we leave this mountain.” Turning to Jig, he asked, “How is it that you’ve never seen the outdoors?”

“I just haven’t,” Jig said. Goblins didn’t go outside. They rarely ventured past the shiny room where he had first encountered the adventurers.

There was no reason for them to stay inside. No monster guarded the entrance, as far as he knew. The gate locked itself when closed, but it could be opened easily from within. Goblins simply felt no need to explore the surface. Everything they needed, the mountain provided.