Princil's Magic Ch. 08 Pt. 01-02 Goblins

Princil's Magic: Ch.8: (Part 1) Goblins

Aribor wandered aimlessly through the city, anger and turmoil in his mind. He had possessed the greatest beauty he had ever known, and lost her to Guthelm. He railed at Valdark for the punishment he had been given. He had thought the great sorcerer might be correct. The young woman Remzain had turned his mind, softening his arts and the hunger which made him such an effective sorcerer. But what was so important about his powers if he was merely the servant of others, a slave to Valdark's bidding. Why did he serve Guthelm when he knew perfectly well his lord was the most uncouth of them all?

That was something he had seen mirrored in the soul of Remzain. Even as he had deflowered her sweet body he had been drawing sustenance from her soul. The innocence he had discovered there was nearly as refreshing as her beauty. He could not have admitted to that as he gorged upon her beauty in lust . The fires of lust had taken full hold of him at the time and it was not until after that he realised other feelings and refreshments had entered his mind also. Now in the cold of his despair he found that the taste of her fresh and innocent soul had entered also. He could see the evil of Guthelm's way more clearly, and questioned why he must follow it. She represented all that could have been in this grey and fearful world of destruction. She came from a people who built instead of destroying, who loved each other and who, perhaps more importantly, loved themselves, something almost unknown amongst the bleak souls of Guthelm's horde. Which ones amongst them all actually loved and respected themselves. Certainly Aribor's self respect was small as he considered himself. He jumped to Valdark's command, sought to impress his fellow sorcerors. They all tried to outdo each other in their evil. He saw clearly now Guthelm was no leader to admire. He knew little but terror and fear, all he possessed was stolen from his minions or from the conquered. His corruption had spread through all his servants until all of them were as degraded as he.

The Goblins were doing their almost childish wickedness with the people of the conquered city. Aribor saw Goblins raping and murdering human women. He watched for a while. It served no purpose, completely unperfected creatures, like children who do not understand what they do, the worst of what humans could be, but less intelligent. He was sickened, even though he had done acts as terrible himself for magic and power. But these were without even that purpose, mere devilment. He came upon them and cast words at them, exhorting them to stop. "Enjoy the human women if you wish, but do not torture and kill in this way!" They laughed at him for his softness.

He was goaded to even greater anger. He despised these creatures. Could they possibly be allies of himself and his people? How came it that his people had descended to such a level of barbarity that they could consider themselves to be the allies of this childish and cruel species? There had been times when his people had hunted Goblins in the mountains and thrown them out of Grumandria. Now they invited them back in alliance, transporting them even to this fresh continent where they might commit even more childish cruelty on people who were evidently more cultured and more dignified than them. Shaking with sudden rage and hatred he allowed for once his emotions to take him over. He lashed out in the most powerful and effective way he possessed. "Stop this you demons!" he cried.

But these dark children of the east seemed to laugh in his face. The cruel Goblin who had slit the woman's throat as his semen was about to shoot into her paid no heed as he pulled another comely female prisoner towards him. Without delay Aribor's raised his fingers, summoning his power. The murderous Goblin was roasted by sudden flame which arched out to him from the wizard's hand. The Goblin's leathery behind was ignited in flame, cutting short his sick ecstasy and replacing it with horror and pain as the sorcerous flames consumed him in agony. Seeing his anger the Goblins now feared him and became subservient after he burned the ringleader.

The Goblins stood warily now in a semi circle facing the wizard, having observed the agony of their comrade. "Stop wizard!" demanded the largest of the goblins. "You should not be our enemy. Hold your fire." When the Goblins could see that the wizard held back his anger, the leader said, "We will report this to our leaders. We are on the same side, are we not, Grumandrian. These women of Cromilil are now our prisoners, our slaves. Guthelm and his generals say we can do with them as we please - as a reward for our service. So that means we should be able to take our pleasure with them, surely master wizard?"

Aribor's anger began to cool. Truly these Goblins were doing nothing that Guthelm's soldiers had not already done to the population of this city of destruction. Grumandrian soldiers had raped and murdered their way across this city, as much as these creatures. But the time for killing and maiming had passed. The city had been under Guthelm's control for a few days now.

"I suppose so," said Aribor angrily. "Rape them, by all means, but do not harm them. If any of you injure one of these women I will harm the ones who do it. I am watching you, and I do mean this." Aribor said, wielding his whip and the finger he could use to wield flame and other spells.

"Do not concern yourself great wizard," said the large Goblin who had spoken. "Your presence will prevent harm to these human slaves. I will exercise authority to prevent our anger from that. I think most of us would prefer to use these women for our pleasure, rather than to waste them. Don't you agree boys?"

"We do," the short ugly creatures replied sheepishly. Aribor was by no means convinced, but the anger had gone out of him by now.

"That's a strange thing to hear," said one of the Goblins cheekily, "from a wizard like you. I thought you used women in your experiments. You torture them to death don't you, sometimes, for the sake of magic, or your King? So I don't see why you should be so upset with us taking our pleasures!"

"I have done many things," he found himself admitting, "but I will not destroy a woman unless there is a purpose in it. Go ahead, Goblins, I will not stop your sexual rewards, but I will not stomach more killing. The city is ours and the killing is done. There is no need for more."

He surprised himself by the depth of his feeling against bloodiness and cruelty. It was not at all like him who had used many subjects cruelly to make magic. Generally he had destroyed his prisoners only for a purpose, but there had been times when he had been so inured to death and pain that he had taken a perverse pleasure in it. He had never sacrificed great beauty for mere pleasure, but there were times when lesser beauty had been punished and sacrificed for no reason but his own lust for power or control, or to satiate his own despair or anger. He found he had no appetite for that any more! He felt sorrow, he now realised, for what he had done, a strange feeling. His action in preventing the Goblins from their murder gave him some sense of satisfaction, that for the first time he had prevented an injustice, that he was no longer a follower, but could act upon his own judgements.

"These women are now your servants," he advised the Goblins. "With that should come a responsibility, to look after their wellbeing. Use their bodies for your pleasure by all means, but do not waste their lives or injure them. They can be kept and used many times!" As Aribor said this he heard the voice of his love Remzain within him. If he could not have her, he could at least be true to her decency. Some of the Goblins laughed at his words, but all took note of his anger. He believed they would heed his words, for now, or for some while at least.

He watched as the Goblins feasted and celebrated their victories with the captive women. He saw Goblins taking out their penises, easily aroused by the human ladies. The women were ordered to undress and two or three Goblins fell on each woman. The women squeeled and objected to the Goblins who they evidently found ugly and unpleasant, but they were calmer than before when some of their number had been killed. The women had watched the wizard's defence of them, his willingness to attack the murderous Goblins. They knew that while the wizard stayed to watch their abuse they would not be harmed. For these promiscuous ladies of Shalirion to be penetrated and groped was no extreme hardship. The fear of bodily harm was a far greater suffering.

Ch.8 : (Part 2) Dwarves

Dwarves were taking treasures out of buildings, back to their boats. Anything of gold in particular was being loaded into their boats, but valuable objects and well crafted furniture also. The boats sat heavy in the water.

"We'll get some prisoners to row the boats," suggested one dwarf.

"No they will weigh too much," said another.

"It is a good idea," argued another, "it would be too much hard work for us. They can be put to useful work." Others seemed to agree with him.

So when the boats were thought to be full enough and unlikely to bear more weight, they set sail, oarsmen from among the prisoners, the dwarves, and the gold and furniture intact.

The dwarves were not great boat people, although when they wanted to get something done they got it done one way or the other with a minimum of fuss. They had really got here thanks to the magic of the Grumandrian wizards, who brought the whole fleet together.

Some of them had an understanding of sailing, but they were not natural sailors. The water lapped high at the side of all the boats. As they crawled out of the Cromilil river and into the sea, the waves became bigger. With each wave, water lapped over the side and into the boats, which were simple in design, with no cabins or holds. Maybe one day dwarf craftsmen would build boats as well as the dwarf halls and the jewels they were famous for, but these boats were all they had for this expedition; the expedition to gain plunder in the distant western lands. They knew nothing of the people here. They had come in search of good plunder as a reward for their participation, and to return home to the mountains of Animar.

One of the boats became heavier, flooding with more water, with each big wave. "This will not work," shouted one dwarf. "We will not even return home like this!"

"Turn around and back for the city..."

"We're going to have to divide the spoils into more boats," said one.

"Or do the rowing ourselves. We don't need these prisoners weighing our boats down."

"Sell them to the goblins or the men," suggested one enterprising dwarf.

"Don't be silly! They've got all the servants or slaves they want. The Grumandrians do not seem to be taking many prisoners. They've killed so many. They don't seem to value them. The Pelancirians might take them I suppose, but I think they've got plenty."

"The boat's going to sink if we are not careful! The way I see it, it is either dump our treasure or dump these oarsmen, unless any of us fancy swimming for the shore instead."

"We could kill them, throw 'em over the side," suggested a mean looking dwarf.

"Na! Na!," said a number of dwarves all at once. "Let 'em swim for it and take their chances. There's been enough killing anyway. I hope they don't get swept into the sea. But we don't want any more blood on our hands."

There was general assent. Not many of the dwarves had that much of a bloodthirst. They were here for plunder and pay, not for the pleasure of killing.

The dwarves on the sinking boat ordered their prisoners to jump over the side quickly now as the boat started to take on water. They threatened to kill them if they stayed on the boat, revealing their knives and swords for the purpose. The dwarves' threat, combined with the knowledge that if some people or belongings were not jettisoned from the boat it would struggle and begin to sink in the waves anyway, had the desired effect and the Shalirionite prisoners jumped over the side and took their chances in the water. Luckily the boats were well within the river Cromil and not right out in the open sea, and the two shores probably within reach. Thankfully it was not the coldest time of year. If the flow of water did not take them out too quickly they might stand a good chance. The shocked prisoners were sensible enough to try for the Pelancirian occupied south shore rather than the Grumandrian occupied north shore where they would be returned to an arbitrary slavery far worse than that of the more moderate Pelancirians or the Dwarves. The other boats were all quite heavy in the water too but none of them were taking on water in the river. Out to sea might well be a different story and the danger faced by the heaviest boat warned them all of the risks. Discussions were shouted between the boats and they decided to return to shore to unburden the other boats of more prisoners. Unfortunately for those prisoners it was the north shore where they had come from they were bound for. Some would be retained for rowing and the Dwarves themselves would take a share.

One Dwarf had a very bright idea. He suggested to the other Dwarves on his boat, "Why should we not pay for the services of one of the Grumandrian wizards for the voyage home and leave some of the prisoners behind as part payment?" It was a great suggestion, after all Grumandrian wizards had brought them here safely. They could navigate and fill the sails with suitable winds. One wizard would be quite sufficient, as long as the dangerous King Guthelm would allow his a wizard to leave the front lines of his war. Most of the Dwarves were in favour of this plan as the suggestion was shouted between the boats, although some of the Dwarves were too jealous of the wealth and belongings they had so carefully acquired. The greedier Dwarves knew that a wizard for the journey home would probably charge a very high price for his services and were reluctant to lose profit. They were outvoted by the majority who had learned not to be rash in this incident of the sinking boat.

They returned to shore and approached some wizards they were able to find, and one of them, not Aribor, did agree, for a large share of the wealth, to travel home with them and keep them safe from the dangers of the sea. They set off again with less prisoners, and all their treasures, for home, and did indeed all arrive safely home with the fruits of the invasion of Shalirion!