The Goblin Wood by Hilari Bell

Author:Hilari Bell
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: HarperCollins

The first thing he became aware of was a headache so intense it made his stomach heave. Vomiting would only make the throbbing worse, so he took several deep breaths of the clear, cold air and his nausea gradually calmed. His throat was raw and his mouth tasted of smoke. A fire? He opened his eyes, wincing at the morning light, and a clearing holding a pile of blackened brush spun dizzily around him. He closed his eyes quickly, and took more deep breaths.

As he lay there, he became aware of two voices speaking nearby, one deep and gruff, and one higher. Female. That voice was familiar. The sorceress. Memory returned, and he groaned.

“He’s awake, mistress.” A new voice. Nervous. He heard footsteps approaching and tried to open his eyes again, but his vision still spun and he shut them.

There was no sound for several moments. He supposed she was inspecting him. He heard her thanking someone called Miggy. A hand lifted his head, not too gently, and she spoke a word he didn’t understand. His head dropped with a thud that almost made him sick again.

But then the pain began draining away, lessening with every throb. He stirred and discovered his hands and feet were bound. No surprise. She had resumed her conversation with the gruff voice, but now he was alert enough to follow it. They seemed to be bargaining. “Five deer,” she said. “Five deer is more than the weight of a horse.”

“There was fire. We went right up to the fire to throw our stones, and we did not do it for deer. We can always get deer.”

What were they talking about? Tobin opened his eyes carefully. The world no longer spun. He was lying just outside the ring of burned brush. A young goblin, a stranger to him, hovered anxiously. In the damp earth before him, he could see the edge of a circle and several runes, no doubt the reason his headache was receding. His armor was gone, and he could feel a chain around his throat—probably the hiding charm Master Lazur had warned him about. Fiddle was tied to a tree.

He had to twist his neck to see the sorceress, for she was standing some way beyond his feet, talking to a creature almost as strange as the horse-spooking things.

It was almost four feet high, tall for a goblin, with long, dirty, wild-looking hair. He had thought that most goblins dressed in imitation of humankind, but this creature wore nothing but skins, short furred, except for what looked like…yes, it was a horse’s mane running down the back. It was wearing horsehide.

The goblins had freed her from the net. She offered six deer. The creature declined. Tobin shut his eyes. Who cared that six deer were almost half again the weight of a horse? Then he realized what they were bargaining for.

He sat up with a shout of protest, which was a mistake, for he did get sick. To his surprise, the strange

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