Iagz gazes up at us from his crumpled position against the wall. The goblin’s helmet is misshapen, sitting sideways on his head and bruised from the impacts of combat. His ears are bleeding and his face is slashed; even one of his eyes is gouged out.

“Ethan,” he mumbles. “We were wrong. The princess and I. The orcs…they were ready for us.”

“Not now,” I plead. “Don’t speak.”

Cyrus looks over the wounds. Looks at me. And shakes his head.

“He he,” Iagz says weakly. “I didn’t think so.”

He coughs, blood mixed in with his spittle.

“Ethan,” he says. “You must continue. Draw the orcs out. It’s the only way. Kabaret can guide you.”

“But it’s not possible,” I say. “We’ve taken too many casualties. They don’t need an army to capture us. At this point we’ll be lucky to make it back to the wall at all.”

“No,” says Iagz, his voice strong and urgent despite his wounds. “Remember the dragon. He will want you. You are our last -”

Iagz gags again, and this time he does not stop, until hies eyes glaze over – and he dies.

I stand, quietly looking down at the goblin leader. Everyone is looking at me. I can feel their eyes on me.

“What was that thing?” I ask quietly. “That giant lizard. Where did it come from?”

Kabaret’s voice is quiet as well, matching my solemnity. “I don’t know, Sir Ethan. But I’ve heard tales of strange creatures beneath the mountain. Things that lie deep and buried. Things which feed on the orcs…”

“But now fight with them,” I say.

Kabaret nods. “Apparently so.”

I sheath my sword. I didn’t realize I was still holding it. “How much farther to the chamber. Where Iagz thought the main orc force would be.”

“Not far, Sir Ethan,” Kabaret says. “I can show you the way. Perhaps an hour away. At most.”

Who am I to deny a dead man’s last wish?

“We’ll go as far as the cavern,” I say. “If we encounter to much resistance we pull back and if we get there and it’s empty we fall back. I’ll not get us all killed trapsizing about these tunnels trying to engage every orc and prehistoric lizard in them. We try once more and then turn around, hopefully alive.”

The goblins follow my orders, they’re quite good at that, though I doubt they caught the term ‘prehistoric’. Or maybe that word means something else entirely in this world. Either way, at least we’re moving again.

Kabaret and my companions are in front of the remaining healthy troops. Healthy being the key word there as I had to send some wounded struggling home. Of course some wounded are staying with us as they count their odds for survival higher that way. They may very well be right. Who the hell really knows anymore?

One thing I am certain of is that the dragon is behind all this. If there was any doubt of that kicking around in my brain the lizard’s tail swept it away. There’s no way orcs could do this, that they conjure some ancient creature to battle is just unbelievable.

I wonder what else awaits down here.

I shiver, and for a moment part of me just wants to run away. But I like at the goblins walking with me, these stoic, determined goblins who have no magic powers to aid their cause. If their faces fear they do not show and what choice do they have anyway? They are fighting for their homes.

They don’t want to live under suns and moons.

“We’ll make it,” I tell Kabaret.

The goblin looks at me, clearly confused. “Make it where, Sir Ethan?”

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

So literal.

“We’re going to succeed Kabaret. I believe in us. The Maker won’t let us down.”

I said that part especially for him, knowing how religious most goblins. But Kabaret’s face drops slightly at the last part and he only nods in polite acknowledgement at my encouraging words.

Well, that could have gone better.

Kabaret is true to his word and in what feels like an hour or so I see a light at the end of the tunnel. This is at first relieving because I’m grateful reach finally this grand chamber, but then I’m worried because there isn’t any natural light down here so it has to be torches. A massive number of torches.

“Halt,” I say.

I turn to my companions. “Another trap?”

Cyrus strokes his chin. “If so then it’s a bad one. Lighting all those torches to alert us of their position.”

“It’s no trap,” Kabaret says smoothly, his voice cool and distant. “We are high here. Above the chamber. The light is glow from the torches below us.”

I pause, taking in what the goblin is telling me. Then I usher the others back and step forward alone, toward the glow.

I reach the end of the tunnel, which dissolves into a path curving below, a path that twists and winds till it reaches the floor of this great chamber. The room is so large I wonder what the goblins used it for when they controlled it. T could have been a massive warehouse I guess, though it’s more romantic to think of it as a ballroom of sorts, a luxurious room filled with singing minstrels and dancing nobles.

Now it’s just filled with orcs. Thousands and thousands. And not just orcs. There are creatures as well. A lizard, like the one I saw before, and some sort of ararachinid thing that could have Shelob herself ripped right out of the lands of Modor. And finally something like a bear but with needles of a porcupine. I don’t even know how you could get close enough to stab it.

Holy. Shit.

They start banging drums and stomping. They are saying something, something I can’t make-out.

“Maker’s Mercy,” Myran is beside me, despite my order apparently. But I’m not mad. I could use the company actually.

My lips feel dry. “Do you think…” I start to say, and then stop, realizing I don’t know what to say.

“Do I think that’s their main army?” Myran finished for me. “It better be.”

I feel numb. Now that it’s come to it I don’t want to grab their attention. I don’t want to solicit an attack. Then the orcs start moving themselves and I realize that I don’t have to do anything.

They’re starting their own attack. They’ve been preparing for this.

“We have to get back,” Myran says. “Warn the others.”

But I’m just numb, watching it all.

How can we defeat such a force?

“Hey,” Myran says. “Hey! You alright?”

All I see are the orcs, mean giant orcs, and they’re marching.

Left, left, left, right, left.

I feel the darkness stir within me. The lump that had been masked for so long by all the light I’ve been streaming makes a sudden return. I feel heavy, and sick. My vision starts to blur and I feel myself drifting, like I’m losing consciousness. Like another vision could be coming.

I feel a jolt of pain as Myran smacks me across the head. “This is no time for you to zone out. We’ve got to get back. We need to warn the goblins!”

The pain pushes the fog away and I feel present again, and functioning.

“Right. Sorry. Let’s go.”

We turn back to the group. Kabaret looks anxious.

“What’d you do?” he asks. “Are those drums?”

“Yes,” I say quickly. “The orcs are starting an attack.”

“Then you did?” Kabaret says hopefully.

“No, this was planned. We’re not surprising them. They’re the ones surprising us.”

Kabaret’s face drops. “We have to get back. Warn the others. It sounds like they will get the full force of the ors after all. I hope they’re ready.”

We turn around through the tunnels and go as fast as we can. Ours is the long way, or so Kabaret tells me, but we are running, or at least as close to running as we can get. Some of the goblins straggle behind. It pains me, but there’s nothing I can do about it. If I slow us all for the injured among us then the orcs will beat us back and the goblins won’t have any warning.

They can still drop the ceiling though. Just as we planned. It can all still work-out.

Assuming the orcs, or the dragon really, don’t anticipate that action, or have some plan to beat it.

Easy Ethan, don’t tie yourself all up with anxiety. You defeated the dryad. You can handle this.

The goblins retrace their steps easier than I do and when we do get back to the wall it’s me who’s huffing and puffing. I see goblins across the wall cheering at our arrival. Kabaret starts moving his soldiers across the chasm, back to the safety of the wall. I follow along, knowing that General Zygog will want a report. But I don’t think they’ll be time.

I can already hear the drums.