Goblin by Gerhard Gehrke

Author:Gerhard Gehrke [Gehrke, Gerhard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-05-31T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty

Spicy’s arms and legs were sore. He had drawn up enough brackish water from the goblin village’s well for the men and horses. But once his work was finished, he plopped down on the ground near the horses and was given no further tasks.

Food was being wasted.

The men dumped trays of shellfish into the dirt along with baskets of gathered mushrooms without taking any of it for themselves. Meanwhile the hens were being plucked and skewered and placed on spits over a cookfire in the center of the village.

Spicy’s stomach gave an angry growl as he watched the foodstuffs get trampled.

“All possibly poisonous for us,” Lord said.

He hadn’t seen the leader of the raiders approach. Lord towered over him. As he watched his men, he smoothed his hair back over his head. “Mussels. Snails. Mushrooms. We daren’t take the chance. But your kind has no such limitations, does it?”

“But that food isn’t poisonous.”

“Not for goblins. But humans die when we eat the wrong thing. We get tumors from age, from the sun, from things that grow in our bowels and brains. I’ve never seen a sick goblin.”

Spicy had. Everyone caught the sniffles. But tumors? Sometimes the game went through a bad season where the meat couldn’t be eaten, according to the huntmaster or Sage Somni. But one sniff and the odor would repel even the most inexperienced hunter.

“We get sick sometimes,” Spicy said.

But Lord walked along, moving over to the cooking fire. His men immediately became more attentive to their duties. Lord inspected their work, but Spicy noted no displays of camaraderie or warmth.

“We bed down here, then,” he said, his voice soft. “The more time we waste on detours like this, the harder this will go. Our path takes us inland towards the mountain.”

There was a murmur from some of the raiders.

Lord nodded solemnly. “That is exactly what you signed up for. Our treasures come later. You’ve trusted me this far…”

“You killed the troll,” Black Tooth said. “At least we could have sold him.”

“And maybe it was his scent which attracted the troll that attacked us. I explained this already. And we seem to be overburdened. Take only what you can carry on your person. We have too much baggage. Time to lighten our load so we can ride faster.”

Spicy felt his chest tighten.

As if hearing his thoughts, Blades asked, “What about the gobs? With all them in tow, we’re going to be slow.”

Lord looked straight at Thistle. “I’ll think about it. But for now we need them.”

Blades nodded and then looked straight at Spicy and gave a wink. His fingers drummed on the handle of his knife.

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