Chapter 574: They’ll be alright

Haley finally settled into her bed with a comfortable sigh. She’d sorted out every new civilian, answering a million questions about rooms and food and how long and where and why and who and what about this, and that, and…

Alright. It wasn’t really so bad. The goblin king was very friendly and treated her with respect. The endless ‘nobles’ and court members were just like the rich people she’d known all her life. They were all smiles and weird, dancing handshakes, trying to get in good with ‘mighty king Mason’ by being her friend.

And it was fine. It was just exhausting. Of course it hadn’t all gone perfectly. Despite being asked for specifically, Haley hadn’t been able to get any elves to come to the goblin city, except the old oracle. Naya and her mother had gone white as sheets and said it wasn’t possible. That they’d have to help in some other way.

“Oh, take me along, then,” the ancient woman, Dariya, had snorted. “Goblins. Your husband certainly makes strange friends. As if I’d be afraid of those beady-eyed little, baby fanged cowards.”

Haley grinned at the memory, then pulled up her sheet and closed her eyes. She couldn’t get comfortable, shifting around and feeling especially lonely in the big, foreign bed.

After a few minutes of turning, she made the impulsive decision to go get Lodie. And maybe Becky. And Rosa and Lexi. It would be good for all of them. First, they needed to get used to the goblin girl being around. Mason liked her, and so did Haley. And she was an official concubine.

Also they could talk about everything. Or nothing. About Mason and babies and what things would be like after Jeong was gone and they brought in new people. And maybe they could just cuddle. It’d be like a schoolgirl sleepover.

She smiled and hopped off the bed and put on a robe, getting excited now and so glad the other girls were here. She’d arranged for Rosa and Lexi to be in the same room because that’s how they preferred it. Becky and Lodie were on their own.

The goblin halls were finally (mostly) quiet. Haley heard a few voices and multiple moans from some of the rooms, and she grinned with a bit of naughty pleasure. She wished those moans were hers, of course, and she could hardly wait for Mason. But she knew she had to be patient.

She knocked on Becky’s door first, whispering the girl’s name through the crack in the door. She was about to knock again when she noticed something sticking out from the nearby hall.

It looked like…a long stick. Was it a leg? Was some goblin passed out? Why would there be some random stick just sitting on the…

A woman screamed, and Haley spasmed with surprise. It wasn’t a pleasurable, overwhelming orgasm kind of cry. It was a blood-curdling wail of terror. Little hairs rose all over Haley’s body. The blood seemed to drain from her brain and leave her paralyzed.

Something moved in the shadows of the hall. As she followed it with her eyes, a door burst open. Jason the spearman staggered out with blood dripping down his chest. His girl was behind him with her hands over her mouth, staring out with horror and crying for help.

What looked like maybe Annie whipped down the hall carrying an axe. Her panting filled Haley’s ears, but the girl said nothing and didn’t even look down the corridor, gone from view in a flash.

“What…” Haley couldn’t seem to move. “Jason…what’s…” she raised her voice and looked around. “Help! We need help!”

Blood and violence had always terrified her. Over the years of singing in little clubs, she’d seen a fight or two break out. It had always ruined her performance. She felt the same way now—no idea what was happening, no comprehension of why people would do such things.

“Someone get Alex!” she yelled, taking a step towards Jason. “We need a healer!”

She heard growls. Like wild animals were in the halls. More screams. There were awful, inhuman voices and sounds coming from every direction.

Her mind wouldn’t work. Was it the goblins? Had they betrayed them? But how…she could see they were still allied on her House screen. They couldn’t break it. Not so easily and not without doing it officially. So what…how could this…

Jason fell forward and was lying still on the stone. There were people shouting and coming out now. Doors were being thrown open.

A beast covered in black scales skittered into view at the end of the hall. The lizard-like demon looked past everything, its eyes dark, swirling pools. It made a sound like a rattlesnake, and looked straight at Haley. And then it charged.

She couldn’t move. Couldn’t think. This wasn’t possible. She stared as the horrible thing came running like the monster in some horror movie, straight towards her in real life. And she just couldn’t move.

She managed only to close her eyes before it struck, her final thought about Mason, begging him in her mind to suddenly be there. To make all of this OK.

“Get in the God damn room, girl, now!”

Haley opened her eyes to find herself surrounded in a blue bubble. She shrugged and tried to talk but couldn’t. And then Becky was there in her underwear, grabbing her and throwing her into the room like she was light as a child.

She tripped and fell on the stone, scraping her knees, fighting back a sob. Her profile was flashing with a million things, but she couldn’t do anything, couldn’t process it all. She just sat there with a hand on her stomach, thinking about her baby now. The last she saw outside the room was Becky glowing with power and forming a shield. The door slammed shut.

**

Becky didn’t know what the actual fuck. She swiped the edge of her shield at the demon, but it ducked back like Neo in the God damn Matrix. Then it reversed its body without turning, like it was all liquid and could just re-form. It crawled away on all fours, then reversed again and leapt right at her.

She shield-checked it flying, then transformed her Familial Shield into a mace and went after it swinging.

“We’re under attack!” she shouted at the top of her lungs. “Get yer asses out here right damn now! Phuong, I need you!”

Where the hell was that old man? A loud cough usually woke the son of a bitch right up. Or an aggressive sniffle. She was trying to remember where everyone’s rooms were when Carl appeared wearing what looked like…women’s panties.

His dagger sliced the watery demon’s arm off. It shrieked and ran straight at a wall, vanishing straight into it.

“Don’t look at me like that, I couldn’t find anything else!” Carl yelled, looking down at himself. “Now what the fuck is happening?”

“The hell should I know.” Becky put a hand to her face and tried to stay calm. “We gotta gather all the civilians. Bring ‘em all here. We’ll stuff ‘em in my room.”

Carl didn’t look like he loved the idea, but was smart enough to know any plan was better than no plan.

“I’ll go that way,” he said, warping away without another word.

Becky kicked open door after door, but people were coming out now. She sagged with relief as Rosa and Lexi peeked out from behind a door, grabbing them and throwing them in with Haley.

“Becky?” Lexi’s eyes were wide with terror as she stopped at the door. “What’s going on?”

Rosa told her to shut up and pulled her inside. Becky dragged a half conscious Jason in, next, clenching her jaw when she saw the pool of blood. He was white as a sheet, his eyes flickering, his girl gripping his shirt.

“Is he gonna be alright?” she said, hands covered in red. Becky did her best to nod, then looked at Rosa.

“I’ll get some healing vials going,” said the alchemist, dark eyes carefully neutral. “Go help the others.”

Becky almost did. But she stopped herself. Nearly everyone vulnerable she loved most in the world was now safe in the room behind her. She didn’t know what was happening, but these attackers were warping and running all over the damn place. She knew she couldn’t leave them there. They weren’t safe.

“Carl’s goin’,” she said, mostly to herself. “They’ll be alright.”

The urge to run off and fight was almost overwhelming. But her family was behind her. And they needed protection. She took deep breaths and held the door, flicking through her powers with her mind. The palace was so damn big and spread out. They needed some way to sound an alarm or something.

Almost as she had the thought, she heard a blaring noise like a fire alarm. It wasn’t coming from everywhere, though, maybe just a hall to the left. It sounded like it was moving. Fast. Becky craned her neck to see, tempted to run out and go check.

Little Lodie came flying around the corner on her strange scooter. She was half dressed, hair tied back, eyes covered by her giant goggles, blaring some kind of horn. She smiled and gave a thumbs up as she raced by.

Despite everything—after a good bit of gawking, and head shaking—Becky couldn’t help but grin.