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When Rig’s expression didn’t change as she increased the number for his age, heat swept through her again. She released her hold on Jael and pressed a stabilizing hand against the tunnel wall.
“You’re really twenty-five years old? But you’re so—so small!”
Jael finally released Rig with an exhausted sigh. He pinched the bridge of his nose and appeared to have reached his limit. “That’s the way with the goblinborn. They’re never much more than children. They don’t grow up. They grow old. They age and die like anyone else, but their minds...their bodies...they stay young. They’re like children, but they are not children.”
She let that soak in for a moment. So she’d been kidnapped by a goblin five years her senior who was no bigger than a child of five? And lured into the tunnels of Agmon far from the safety of her caravan? To what purpose?
She opened her mouth to question Rig, but Jael cut her off with an abrupt swipe of his hand. “We don’t have time for this.” He sounded irritable. “I need to get back to the Bifrost, and you two will come with me. Oh, no you don’t.” He caught Rig by the collar again as the goblinborn tried to dart toward the nearest path of escape.
His focus swung to Anrid, and she feared he might scruff her too. Her hands flew to her throat, and she squeaked as she backed into the tunnel wall. “You, as well. Neither of you are going anywhere but back to Imenborg to sort this mess out. Rock and bone, I don’t have time for this...”
Chapter 6
The human girl seemed ready to bolt. Her thin frame rocked back and forth while one hand played with the dark red waves that hung over her shoulder. Not that he blamed her, but he was not inclined to chase her through the tunnels. And if he left her to her own devices in this section of tunnels?
It would mean certain death. She might wander in the labyrinth for days without finding another living soul.
And it wasn’t like he could trust the goblinborn to return her to her people. Clearly Rig didn’t respect the rules, to have kidnapped a human to begin with.
No, like it or not...he was stuck with them both.
The girl lifted hazel eyes to stare at him in a befuddled way, her thoughts too focused on the problem at hand. Clarity dawned with painful slowness. She was easy to read, her emotions close to the surface.
“I can’t go with you,” she breathed at last. “I need to return to my people.”
Should have thought of that before you left them, he nearly ground out, but instead he exhaled. It wasn’t her fault. “And you shall, but not until I’ve seen to my task. It isn’t safe right now. I cannot let either of you wander off. Your blood would be on my hands.”
Her face paled even further. “I see.” She glanced at the goblinborn still caught in his tight grasp, but the little scamp moped toward the wall.
“Stay close,” Jael said at last, when the silence continued to wrap around them. She studied him for a moment before offering a quick nod. Her eyes flickered to the goblinborn again but skirted away.
Jael led the way down the tunnel, back to the chamber and the task he had abandoned in favor of saving these two from themselves. He kept a firm hand on the small one’s shoulder, not trusting him not to bolt at the first intersection they came to. Jael would need him if he had any hope of returning the girl to her people.
But that would have to wait. The Bifrost still roiled temperamentally. He needed to get those runestones replaced and figure out what had caused the magic to act out.
It mustn’t happen again.
With Rig in hand and Anrid at his heels, Jael wound his way around fallen chunks of rock back down the abandoned tunnel. This section of the tunnels was not frequently used: since the goblins kept to themselves, what need had they for tunnels that led to the surface?
“You’re in a lot of trouble, you know,” he growled to the goblinborn. And if he didn’t get those runestones replaced, they’d all be in a lot of trouble.
Rig responded by yanking against the hand on his shoulder.
“It’s against the law to bespell humans.”
“She wanted to come.” The goblinborn spoke with confidence. Perhaps he believed he had done nothing wrong.
“It’s still against the law. Besides, she does not seem like she came willingly.”
Behind him, the girl coughed. “Perhaps not, but for the sake of transparency...I would have come if I thought he needed help. It’s hard to say how much was bespelling and how much was just, well, me being me.”
Jael paused and glanced over his shoulder, but Anrid’s eyes were on her feet. She almost walked into him before she realized he had stopped. “You would have left your people?”
Her eyes were furtive above a wry, twisted mouth. “I’m a governess. Taking care of children is what I do. And before you tell me he isn’t a child—” She raised a warning hand to him. “—it doesn’t matter how old he actually is on the outside. He was alone in the woods and needed help. I didn’t know who—or what—he was, and I am not sure it would have mattered. I had planned to find him and bring him back to my companions...” She rambled off and seemed to squirm under his intense perusal.
“I told you she wanted to come,” Rig muttered.
But Jael ignored him, his focus on the willowy-thin human girl. Her resilience surprised him. “Why are you so determined to defend him when he has wronged you?”
