Fate Deals the Cards Temperance

  Chapter 28

  Comfort Eagle

  It was just a matter of time… either the town would rally its forces and face the monster, or he would take the place down to its foundations in a few dozen hours.

  I don’t know how long I watched that man-monster take the awful town apart while gleefully whistling merry tunes and swinging that massive club. The living wrecking-ball knocked down the cathedral facade, wrecked the inner gate house and carried his rampage into the wealthy quarter, unabated, facing only infrequent and faltering resistance.

  If anything, he accelerated his pace, going for maximum damage and wreaking bloody havoc on any household guards who dared his wrath. Few dared and fewer still, survived the attempt.

  Soon the docks suffered his furious wrath, creating more chaos on the water. Many ships struggled to flee the harbor, caught by the incoming tide and their fellows’ eagerness to pass into the open sea before any other might. A mad tangle of boats rowed furiously, struggling to tow vessels out and competing for a too-narrow passage. The ships, boats and their tow lines entangled themselves into a knot that plugged the harbor entrance completely.

  “Brother… it’s time to go. Wheel is amazed the portal has held this long; he says something on this side is stabilizing it...” The voice was rich, feminine and mellow, a warm purr that cut through the chaos like a heated blade. “Collect all your toys and say goodbye to your playmates.”

  “Aww, really?” He whined, the way an overloaded cement mixer might, with thundering rumbles and a roar. “I thought I might stay a while… just a little longer, I’ve barely warmed up on these cowardly chicken-shits!”

  “Sorry, there’s not much time left, let’s go, Strength.” The voice came from a large tiger-woman, perched atop a badly damaged parapet, scolding the giant gently with her warm contralto. “We’ll go on a rampage together soon, brother, come home now.”

  “Please, Greela! Just tell him you couldn’t find me! I washed my neck for this and none of these clowns has even tried to take my head yet!” The giant pleaded, while hurling massive stones from the breakwater at the fleeing ships, smashing and sinking several with pumpkin sized boulders and other objects he found lying around. “This is great, even though their knights are total pussies… I’m having a blast, anyway!” He hurled a filled keg of wine at a fleeing sloop, reducing the aft end of the small ship to splinters in a spray of crimson. Much of that was wine, but the man at the tiller contributed his full measure to the mess, when the barrel obliterated him

  “Gary Ward, you go home! You know what low magic worlds do to your mind… You already sound a little punch-drunk.” The tigress soothed her raging giant with calm words and a low purr that finally sent him stomping back into the cathedral.

  “Can’t believe I washed my neck for this!” He grumbled and complained.

  “Gary Ward…” She’d called the giant. Hearing her call the monster by my name was jarring and a weird coincidence that shook me pretty hard, after so long being Ghnash Whar’rgh the goblin king. I had nearly forgotten my old name in my day to day life, thinking of myself as Ghnash even in my own thoughts… I’d never managed to speak my name properly with my goblin face. The mystery and discomfort of it held me in place for a moment, watching the giant stomp back into the wrecked cathedral, suddenly docile and a little sullen.

  “Interesting… What a curious goblin.” That voice purred from behind me on the parapet. I nearly jumped out of my kilt in reply; I also sliced my talking stuff up pretty thoroughly as a bonus. “Can you speak? Your kind usually attack any woman on sight…” She paused and stepped back a little, when I turned to face her and she got a good look at my face.

  “Don’t try anything, buddy. I’ll tear you apart.” She warned me, even though I was just standing there, empty handed and wearing only my kilt of green plaid. I held my hands up and stepped back as well, giving her… and me, more than enough space to make a quick escape.

  “Nub fight.” I grunted, once my torn lips were able to try speaking. “I fight Light cult.” I mumbled, when she tilted her head and peered at me curiously.

  “You can speak! How fascinating…. And you’re some kind of local resistance fighter?” Her voice held a warm purr of interest and eager excitement. I nodded, unwilling to risk words yet.

  “Are there more like you? Goblins who are ready to resist the light cult?” She asked with feverish zeal in her eyes. When I nodded again, her small, hopeful smile grew, spread and revealed long, sharp teeth that gleamed white in the starlight.

  “Come, meet with our leaders in Tarot village. Perhaps we can aid your cause.” She gasped, holding out her furry, taloned hand to me and waving that I should follow her into the ruined cathedral and to their ‘portal’ deep inside.

  “Nub. Must not!” I grunted, edging toward the parapet when she turned about on her toes with a dancer’s graceful ease and approached me. “Must stay.” I backed farther toward a broken section of stonework, ready to leap off, when she halted, holding her hands up; just as I had, only a moment before.

  “I’ll not force you… but we’ll be back. I hope you’ll meet with us, friend.” She said, taking another step back. “We’re the infamous and notorious Tarots; a band of deranged insurgents, terrorists, murderers and pirates… according to the Light cult. We think of ourselves as abolitionists, dedicated to the end of the slave trade and the complete destruction of the light cult.”

  “Good-good. I Ghnash Whar’rgh.” I nodded and chuckled at her, when she paled under her fur. “Teefs. Many teefs.” I mumbled, once I finished spitting out a fair amount of blood. Fur only covered half her face, giving her an odd kind of beauty, while being obviously not a human. She exuded power, confidence and self control in a way that was compelling, kinda sexy and a little intimidating.

  “Ghnash, is it? I’m Greela Ward, the tigress, that big lump that just left is Strength, my brother. There are quite a few of us knocking around the realms, we’ll swing by and kick the shit out of these guys whenever we can.” She purred and growled happily, her tail flicking with excitement behind her. “Wheel said there were friendly locals; we kinda didn’t believe him. I’ll make sure everyone knows...”

  She slipped over the wall and vanished into the still chaotic streets, while I turned and headed for home. Leaving town was super easy, even if I remained confused, worried and more than a little weirded out by the latest crazy happening. With fires raging and ships still sinking in the harbor mouth, I vanished into the reeds and mangroves without a second look back.

  Dozens, perhaps hundreds of human and beastfolk slaves were wandering the perilous swamps, sticking to the waterways and marshes where goblins wouldn’t ordinarily be found. Their trails were obvious, but would be difficult to follow as several small groups headed in a few directions.

  That made any possibility of someone trailing me in particular, super unlikely… but it also meant that my little island home was going to be far less safe than it had been, once the sun came up in a few short hours. Either runaway slaves or slave catchers were certainly going to find my girls if we stuck around.

  I paddled and poled my way home up the waterways as quickly as I could safely… The fastest prospective route led through some deeply suspicious pools that I was pretty certain hid something dangerous and hungry.

  In the end, I got home with a good bit of time before dawn and slipped into the hidden camp unseen.

  My guards, two young goblin knights posted in nests in the mangrove trees, were alert and wary; but I’m really sneaky and that neutral smell of mine was just cheating. Fern and Lucy kept their watch well and would have spotted anyone less sneaky than I with certainty… That filled me with pride and a little more confidence, at the thought of leaving them alone while I ‘worked’ at my secret new task.

  Emmie stirred and clutched at me with warm, eager purrs and hungry lips, when I found her nest. She lay curled up with Beryl and Sapphie under a thornbush, snug and safe.

  “Nub-nub. Must move. Nub safe here.” I whispered in her long, pointed ear, I took a lick of the tasty little darling’s earlobe while I was there… I am a horny little goblin, after all.

  /

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  “Reggie’s been through a lot, Greela. I don’t think this is a good time to talk to him about his… experience. Mary, the girl Wheel rescued with him, is doing a little better, but those two are both fragile, right now.” Five of Cups insisted gently, when the tigress insisted. “Maybe in a week or so… but for now, I say you must wait.”

  “It’s important, Cinco… They encountered the locals and spent time with them, I need to know what they know.” She purred hopefully. “I talked to a goblin man, actually talked to one. He couldn’t say much, ‘cause his teeth were just a nightmare, but he was a thinking being.” The big, furry cat woman paced the beach and growled at the sea.

  “There were other goblin men there too; docile slaves, if you believe it!”

  “I’m impressed with your newfound interest in gobbo anthropology; but my patients are more important than your curiosity about a weird goblin.” The brown haired Gary grumbled right back at the seven foot tall feline.

  “Talk to the Wheel, he met with them, I think; at least, it really seems like he’s hiding something whenever I ask about the exact circumstances of the rescue.”

  “He’s avoiding me, probably because he’s hiding something. Any Ideas what it might be?” She asked her brother.

  “A doctor owes his patient a level of confidentiality but I’m not a doctor… He had a stab wound in his left butt-cheek, when he got back with those kids. I sewed it up for him, otherwise he was uninjured, but the wound was oddly jagged, like it was an improvised weapon or a stone-tipped arrow.” He shrugged and smiled at the big cat.

  “I’ve patched up a lot of such things over the years in this business and that butt-stab embarrassed him even more than it should have.”

  “You are an awful gossip, brother. Thanks… Now I need to track him down, he’s slippery and seldom comes to town.” Greela rumbled, sounding amused. “Could you ask the kids if they’ll talk to me? I promise to be gentle.”

  “I’ll ask… but I’m also going to suggest that they refuse.” Cinco answered frankly, a careworn smile on his bland, unremarkable face. “I think we forget how easy it is to break already damaged people, sister. Let’s not do any harm in our haste.”

  “Fair enough. I need to speak to them sooner, rather than later. I’ll accept any restrictions you place in the interview, if they agree.” The big cat growled happily. “Maybe I’ll let you rub my ears…”

  “Bribery? I’m shocked, deeply shocked.” He chuckled, before heading inside the Tarot village ‘clinic’ beside the lagoon.

  Cinco slipped inside and shut the door, closing out the heat of the late morning sun. Mary and Reggie were playing cards in the corner with Six of Wands.

  By the door, with his weapon close at hand, sat the Ace of Swords, discomfort plain on his bland, uninteresting features.

  “I won’t be needed here, I assume?” Ace asked quietly, when Cinco sighed with relief, just inside the door. “Greela isn’t going to get pushy?”

  “No, she’s being very reasonable… which makes me nervous. I tried to get her to go chasing the Wheel, but she saw through that.” Cinco sighed, sitting down at the table by the door with the swordsman, to pour the tea. “She wants to ask about some poor goblin, of all creatures.”

  “The weird goblin man?” Reggie asked from all the way across the room. “He saved us… I guess. Something took down the guards and the dogs, it must have been him.” The big, muscular rabbit boy shrugged his broad shoulders, while his ears drooped.

  “His wives were absolutely perfect hosts and his daughter, the princess Sapphie, was amazing…” Mary offered cheerfully, from her seat beside the rabbit boy. “Thera, the cat woman slave was so sweet, as well.”

  “This goblin man kept a slave?” Ace asked sharply, his face becoming hard and cold.

  “Sapphie said her collar was cursed and neither the chief nor his witch could remove it. She seemed more embarrassed by her situation than scared. I don’t think they treated her like a slave…” Reggie mumbled awkwardly. “Wheel freed her and gave her a sword; then she went back to the goblins, rather than escape with us.”

  “...What?” Ace asked quietly. “Wheel gave her a sword; so she went back to kill her captors… right? It’s probably suicidal, but the gods only know what that thing must have…” Cinco’s palm slapped the back of Ace’s head crisply, causing him to bite his tongue.

  “I’m certain Thera went back to live with the goblins… She was very loyal to princess Sapphire.” Mary opined firmly, when the boys settled down. “It was Sapphie who stabbed mister Wheel in the butt and tied him up…”

  “Perhaps you kids should talk to Greela, after all…” The part time medic and full time Gary wrangler sighed, while the idiot swordsman attended to his bleeding mouth.

  “It feels like I have sixty idiot sons and a half dozen moron daughters, most of the time.” He complained to his two young patients.

  Six of wands chuckled darkly and dealt a new hand of cards to the kids. “I wanna meet these goblins, I think.”

  “If you find him, please, give him my thanks… I was too scared to realize it then; but he saved me, saved us all, and we never got to thank him, or his family.” Reggie whispered earnestly to Six.

  The big, brown haired mage nodded soberly and smiled. “I know that feeling, Reggie. If I meet him, I’ll tell him for you, rest easy.”

  “A goblin took down the Wheel?” Ace asked, around the wet cloth held to his face. “Tell me more, especially the embarrassing parts. Stabbed in the butt, you say?”

  “The princess was explicit, she even called her shot!” Mary enthused warmly. “She said something like, stab his butt, not the hole, because it’s a prank, not a murder. Do you remember, Reggie?”

  “I was kinda woozy, at the moment…” The big rabbit mumbled lamely. “I got hit in the head a lot!”

  “You were very brave, Reggie.” Mary whispered to the lad with droopy ears, perking him back up and starting his nose wiggling again. “We do have a debt to that goblin… Which sounds really strange when I just say it out loud.” She mused thoughtfully.

  “Perhaps there is more to goblins than savagery and brutality…” Six muttered as he shuffled the cards and dealt again. “Ante up, starting at one complete pukka shell.”

  “A whole pukka? Do I look like I’m made of seashells?” Mary demanded with a huge smile, from behind her huge stack of beachcombing finds and vast winnings. She slid a pile of sand dollars over to Cinco smiling benevolently at his pitiful stack of shells. “Here, go buy yourself something nice…”

  Mary excused herself, scooped the rest of her winnings into a big basket and drifted out the door. “I’ve sheared you poor lambs thoroughly enough for now.” She murmured with a vicious grin, as the door closed behind the departing girl.

  “She’s just awful…” Cinco sighed happily, then looked at his hand and frowned with disappointment. “Like my luck at cards.”

  /

  Out in the warm, morning sunshine, Mary strolled the beach, lingering under the shady palms and mangroves where the breeze was cool. Songbirds and colorful parrots flashed through the trees, while shorebirds raised raucous cries from the sand amidst the droning of cicadas.

  Exotic, tropical blooms flourished all over the forest, perfuming the air and inviting her to wander the shady interior of the island, seeking the wonders that must be hidden among the jungle vines.

  “If you are seeking me, go tell your healer first, then we can talk.” A low, pleasant, rumbling voice purred from high up in a spreading fig tree. “I promised Cinco I wouldn’t defy his orders.”

  “Mister Five of Cups is not my father or my guardian, miss Greela.” Mary said very quietly, as the huge cat woman dropped from her perch and landed silently on the forest floor, a few feet from the small human girl. “He said you wanted to know about the goblins…”

  “Just call me Greela, please. I do want to hear about your time with them, if you feel able to discuss it… but only after my brother approves.” She insisted gently. “You should stay near the beach, if you’re taking a walk. The interior becomes quite rugged and a little dangerous, once the jungle canopy closes in.”

  “I’m not a child, Greela…” She mumbled angrily at the large, striped woman.

  “You are a child, actually; and until we can find where you belong, Cinco will consider himself your guardian.” She smiled, showing long, sharp teeth. “Whether you like it or not, he will keep looking out for you and your rabbit friend. Come along, back to the clinic, before Cinco sends Ace out looking for me. I’d rather not tangle with him today.”

  “Is the Ace of Swords really such a mighty warrior?” Mary asked softly as they walked, just filling the silence. “The tales of your exploits say you’re fearless.”

  “Oh, are you sassing me?” The big, cat-woman purred warmly. “I like that! Yes, Ace is very skilled and a dangerous foe I’d rather not face unprepared… I just had a big lunch!” She growled a little, her tail thrashing in some unknowable feline emotion. “He’s also my brother, so we wouldn’t be slicing each other to shreds; more like a family tussle in the sand. Now go inside and talk to your healer, if you want to tell me your tale.”

  /

  I already had a new home-site picked out, a fair day’s walk away, near the foothills… But I took us deeper into the wetlands, instead. It was slow going, but before the sun came up I had a path marked to a low hill among the canals.

  It was not entirely inaccessible on foot, but only someone as woodswise as a goblin could safely traverse the bogs, slippery crossings and dark woodlands where all manner of perils lurked. In the shadow of that small hill, we could lay low for a few days and then move more openly to the south, and my next target…

  “King papa… Are you hiding something?” Sapphie murmured, when I finished calling the house and garden forth from the void. “I think you have a secret.”

  “Nub secret. Hard to talk. Strange words.” I mumbled awkwardly. “Nub secret. Promise. Just…” I waved my hands around helplessly, trying to indicate the scope and breadth of the problem, without losing any blood in the process.

  I failed… naturally, but Sapphie let me off the hook with just a fond glare that she’d learned recently. The awful child took half from Emmie and half from her mother, Beryl and formulated a mocking glare, with her own special blend of cheerful confidence that she could get away with anything, where I was concerned. Kids, they are just the worst, my friends.

  To hear me tell it, packing up and moving my family was super easy and flawlessly smooth… Of course that wasn’t the case, not at all. My girls were nomadic, hunter gatherers with only limited textile technology and simple baskets. That meant they could only carry away what they could safely transport across the wilds. The simple clay dishes and primitive straw bedding they wove were abandoned, when we moved, along with any other items too bulky, heavy or awkward to carry with ease.

  The furtive nature of goblin life; ever fearful of slave raiders, monsters or wildlife, required a high level of mobility and few traces of our passage be left behind. Sapphie’s job, along with the knights, was to ‘police the camp’ for lost or abandoned items before we left for good. Out of habit, most of my girls abandoned almost everything when we decamped, even though I’d explained many times, making it as clear as I could that they could stash things with me, to be tucked into my shadow for transport.

  They just couldn’t seem to grasp the idea, or the concept of personal ownership of things… So my knights gathered up the shiny stones, simple bedding and clay dishes, slipped them to me and would dispense the items when we arrived at our new camp. They almost always found new owners, but whatever… Leaving broken clay dishes or mouldy bedding behind was fine, but my inner homeless guy couldn’t bear the thought.

  Even though I could create simple objects like cups, pitchers, bowls and such from nothing, it felt better, more secure, to have a stash of real goods in my shadow.

  I was just being neurotic and weird, but hey… If anybody ever had a good reason to be neurotic and weird, it was me.

  Our new home touched dry land on only one point, a narrow, muddy stretch of hummocks and reeds led to our ‘front door’ in my conjured hedge wall, which was hidden behind a tall cluster of bamboo and more of the ubiquitous reeds. I built a real gate there, made of bamboo poles and sturdy palm fiber ropes, for added security and peace of mind.

  I was still working, finishing the gate with a triple layered blindfold protecting my eyes from the awful sun, while the girls all splashed down in the bath together. That felt a little unfair, if I’m being honest, since I was still working and everything.

  Those sullen and selfish thoughts were swirling in my tired brain, when the first scream shattered the evening’s peace.

  /