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“Did he call you a prince?” She seemed to spit out the word.
“Um, yes? I suppose he did. I am one.”
Her eyes grew round as runestones. “You’re a prince?”
Why did she seem to find this so unsettling? Under the shocked intensity of her scrutiny, his skin grew rather hot around his collar. “Erm, yes, didn’t I mention that?”
Still gaping at him as if he’d sprouted horns, the human girl shook her head.
“Yes, well, we don’t make a fuss about it. So, um, just call me Jael and pretend I never said anything.”
Kora coughed pointedly. “I am a prince, too,” he said with a bright smile. “You can make a fuss about me, if you’d like.”
The human’s face flushed scarlet once again, and she stammered unintelligibly. Jael raked his brother with a fierce look, which prompted Kora to school his expression into something more solemn, although not contrite.
The girl drew a shaky breath. “Well. Oh. Um, you’re going to have to walk now, little one.” Anrid lowered Medda to the ground. “You’re too heavy for me to carry today.”
“Tomorrow?” Medda chirped. “You carry me tomorrow?”
“Er...” Anrid turned her face toward Jael, as if asking for permission.
He shrugged, too worn out to even speculate what tomorrow might hold.
“Perhaps. But be a good girl and get down. Here. I’ll hold your hand.” Medda clambered down and took a firm grip on Anrid’s fingers. Then she shot a smug look over her tiny shoulder at the others.
“I want to hold your hand, Uh-NEE!” Rig shouted.
This instigated a roar from the rest of the crowd as every last one of the little scamps dove for Anrid. She toppled into Jael and before he could catch her, she disappeared beneath a flood of arms and legs. The arguing escalated to yelling as the goblinborn pushed and shoved each other in their eagerness to get to Anrid.
Jael grabbed flailing limbs and tried to unearth the human girl squealing beneath the pile of writhing bodies. Someone bit him on the leg, and he barely refrained from kicking out.
Then Kora was there, carving a path through the melee like the Bifrost through stone. He hoisted Rig by the waist and chucked him in one direction, then caught another little fellow and flung him the other way. While Jael was still trying to peel a screaming Medda off his leg—again—Kora reached Anrid and plucked her from the ground. She climbed him with the agility of a rock monkey and ended up clinging to Kora’s back, one arm hooked around his neck as the goblinborn leaped about and wailed around her.
If the situation wasn’t so deplorable, Jael might have laughed at the surprised look on his little brother’s face.
Medda growled like a little bear. Jael yelped as her razor-sharp teeth dug into his calf.
That was going to leave a mark.
He finally peeled her off and hoisted her against his chest. She gripped his shirt with tiny fingers, a look of intense satisfaction on her face.
“Enough!” he bellowed, holding Crag, the biggest of the goblinborn, at arm’s length by splaying his palm across the lad’s forehead. The fellow swung and kicked as he tried to get at Jael. Something in the boy’s pocket moved moments before a creature scurried up the goblin child’s tunic and then up Jael’s arm. He yelped in surprise and tried to shake the creature off, but the animal scurried to sit on his shoulder and shriek and hiss in disapproval. It took him a moment to realize he was looking at a scruffy little rock monkey with a bright blue nose and bulbous black eyes. White tufts sprouted in place of eyebrows and from the tips of the ears.
“What is that?” Anrid demanded in alarm as Jael scruffed the monkey and shoved it back toward its owner. Crag collected his pet and cradled it against his stomach, glaring at Jael as if he were to blame for alarming the tiny thing. Jael brushed off his arm and shoulder, sure the rock monkey was covered in bugs and other things he’d rather not consider.
“Children, children!” Anrid called to get their attention. Then, she shifted her hold on Kora so that she could get her pinkies in her mouth. It brought her face dangerously close to Kora’s, and Jael felt a surge of displeasure. In fact, he didn’t like the way Kora had hold of her thighs to keep her from falling, either.
It wasn’t at all gentlemanly, for human or goblin.
But then Anrid loosed another shrill whistle.
The kerfuffle dissipated as one head after another jerked up and turned in her direction. Even Medda ceased trying to gnaw the flesh from his shoulder.
“That,” Anrid gasped, her face cherry-red and beaded with sweat, “is quite enough. I am—appalled. Truly appalled. You get yourselves into your lines. Now.”
To his utter amazement, the snuffling, glaring horde pushed and shoved their way into their uneven rows. After only a minute or two of fussing, they stood in relative silence and peered at Anrid, waiting for instructions.
Jael didn’t know what to say.
