Noon came, and the captives were not delivered. Instead, the tunnel openings were abruptly closed by rocks and doors from within. The goblins had chosen to tough it out.

Cheiron's heart sank. How he had hoped it would not come to this! It was not that his posse lacked the ability to demolish the mountain; it was that this enormously increased the risk to the captives. Probably the goblin chief thought that the winged monsters would not dare to press their attack too hard, because of that risk.

Well, there was no help for it now. They would have to proceed to the first stage of the siege of Goblin Mountain. The weird aspect of this was that he still did not know why the goblins had chosen to abduct his foal and what resources they thought they could call on to make it stick. For they had to have known that it would come to this. That unknown rendered Cheiron's confidence into chaos.

Chapter 10. Jenny's Jam

Chapter 10. Jenny's Jam

Jenny followed Che down into Goblin Mountain, carrying Sammy. She had done what she felt she had to, but there was no doubt it frightened her. She was a creature of the woodland and of the holt; she hated the forbidding depths of caves. This was like a giant anthill, with passages branching out everywhere, all leading farther down. At every intersection was another goblin guard, glowering with his spear as if he'd like nothing better than to poke a hole in someone to see how much he hurt before his blood welled out. She felt as if she couldn't breathe.

But how could she have let poor Che go in here alone? She had known the foal only less than two days, but already she understood that he hated captivity and would be horribly tormented if there were not someone to shield him from it. So she had to remain with him so she could sing to him and make him feel better when his eyes started getting wild. There just wasn't any other way.

The goblins carried guttering torches, whose grudging flames seemed to issue more smoke than light. The smoke bumbled up along the ceiling, searching blindly for some way out. Jenny knew how it felt.

At last, when it seemed they couldn't go any deeper, they were rudely shoved into an empty chamber. The door was slammed behind them. They were alone.

At least they had light: a goblin had jammed a torch into a notch in the wall. Otherwise it would have been pitch black, for not only was it night, there were no windows. This was an ant nest, where sight wasn't all that important to the denizens.