He curled into a tight knot, back against the wall, and tried to pretend he was back in his lair. Safe and well-fed, with nothing more to worry about than the jibes of the other goblins. But the waves in the distance slipped into his weary thoughts. In his dreams he found himself in the water, trying to swim away but unable to move his arms while the lizard-fish surrounded him, coming closer and closer with those poisonous spines. . . .

CHAPTER 5 - A Day at the Beach

CHAPTER 5

A Day at the Beach

Slender hands shook Jig awake. His vision was always worst when he woke up, and at first he could only stare dumbly at the red-haired blur above his face. Darnak had shuttered the lantern for the night, and the cracks of light that escaped were barely enough to let him make out slender, pointed ears and a narrow nose.

“You sleep hard,” Riana whispered when she saw he was awake. “Don’t speak.” She held a hand over his mouth, ignoring the fangs that could have torn through her palm.

“The others are asleep. If you go quietly, they won’t be able to catch you.”

Jig blinked, trying to clear his head of a dream in which he had been flung into a flaming pit while a huge, eight-eyed face watched from above. Who wouldn’t be able to catch him? Where was he supposed to go? How had Riana taken the place of the giant fire-spider of his dreams?

He looked at the others, but saw only three mounded bedrolls, like giant cocoons. The dwarf snored like an earthquake, but Jig could hear the others as well, both drawing the slow breaths of sleep. Riana wasn’t lying about that.

Could this be a trap? Maybe once he started to run, she planned to awaken the others and accuse him of trying to escape. That would give Barius all the excuse he needed to finish off the lowly goblin. But why would she go to such trouble to finish off a single goblin?

“Why?” he asked hoarsely. His mouth was dry, as it always was after sleeping. For a goblin, with teeth like miniature stalagmites, it was impossible to sleep with his mouth closed as the other party members did.

“They know I won’t run off,” she said bitterly. “I wouldn’t make it past the hobgoblins, let alone survive long enough to see the surface. But you could escape.”

“You’re a prisoner?” He stared stupidly, trying to understand. “But you’re an elf.”

She laughed at him. “So?”