On the cliffs near the lighthouse statue of Grady, I’d made several practice statues of her before choosing the final form.
Grady and Lord Loadstone had gone down the path to the lighthouse so they could climb up the stairs inside and explore the insides of the statue. My next statue was going to be as tall, but much larger. I was going to make a statue of Grady lying on her side looking out to sea with her head on her arm and a hat tilted so there was a good place for the signal fire.
The sea was calm so maybe it didn’t have an issue with Grady.
Dutchess Byebye summoned me. “Where are you?”
I said, “I’m at the new lighthouse. Want to see it?”
I brought Byebye to me. She looked up at the lighthouse, ran to the edge of the cliff, and shouted, “Can you make a statue of me?”
I shouted, “You want to be a lighthouse?”
She twisted around trying to look at her back and then said, “No, ‘cause then everyone will be looking up at my butt.”
I made a gossamer image of her beside one of the statues of Grady.
Dutchess Byebye ran back over and said, “Make mine taller than hers.”
I asked, “So people can get behind it and look up at your butt?”
She narrowed her eyes at me. “Okay, make it like you have it there.”
I said, “The lighthouse has stairs that you can use to climb up to the top. Flying is no fair.”
She grinned and ran off down the trail to the statue. I made the statue of Byebye in real materials and set up a few gateways to unload boulders with. Inside a Fairyland that Goldie used to move things, I shifted one of the gateways to quickly cross over to the bay and descend to the bottom.
I cleaned out the entrance to the bay. Moving the boulders, gravel, sil,t sand, and rocks was easy enough. Arranging the materials in an artistic fashion was more complicated. I wanted everything stable, and I wanted a dry place where someone could take shelter from the rain. It took me several hours before I was satisfied.
I had cheated a bit by making a few extra boulders in the right shape so the jumble of rocks would be stable. Grady, Lady Anteater, and Dutchess Byebye applauded when I finished.
Lady Anteater said, “Can you put my likeness on the new amphitheater?”
Dutchess Byebye pushed her. “No, he can’t and no one is going to call it the anteater instead of the amphitheater.”
I said, “If you’ll pose for me and let me use your likeness in statues, I might make several likenesses of you. But I would rather hide them so that you’d have to find them over time. It’s not even a game if I put them right at the amphitheater.”
Anteater, Grady, and Byebye posed for me as I made illusions and then several small stone figures to use as models later. I was feeling sore in my arm where I had the injury in two of my forms from Archer shooting me. I felt pain from my neck and wrist where The Sinful One had bitten me.
“Has anyone ever felt pain from when they were injured in another form?”
Grady said, “That would be your etheric body trying to heal the damage. How badly were you hurt?”
I said, “It’s not lethal but I have a crossbow bolt wound in my arm in two forms.”
Grady nodded. “Sounds about right. You’ll probably mend over time. Some folk do, but you should see a good doctor who knows about this sort of thing. I learned medicine in the thirteen hundreds, but I wouldn’t try to practice it today.”
She held out her hand. “I know a doctor that is pretty good.”
I took her hand, and she took us to another world.
#
The world had retaining walls and scaffolding. The ground was concrete and brick rubble and broken tiles mixed with bits of pottery and crushed rocks. Three shipping containers with open sides were arranged around a wooden platform built around a large boulder that was partially carved into the form of a sleeping dragon.
A solidly-built woman stood up. “Grady, you just brought a Fairy King here. Are you trying to destroy everything?”
Grady said, “I just saw him create a lighthouse with more mass than we have. He’s not going to rob us. And in case you didn’t notice, he trusts me enough to hold my hand.”
The solidly-built lady said, “Sorry, I don’t mean to make you uncomfortable or start a fight, we don’t get a lot of visitors. I’m Maud.”
I held out my hand. She smiled and shook it. “You know that we are both Ogres?”
I said, “I’m Phil, a Goblin. Is there bad blood between Ogres and Goblins?”
She shook her head. “Bravest Fairy King ever. Grady, where did you find this guy?”
Grady said, “He’s injured in another form. He’s King Snipsnort.”
Maud said, “Explains a lot. If he can hang out with that crew, he might not be scared of Ogres.”
Maud asked, “Can I see the injury?”
I glanced between them and turned into me with the wound made worse by ripping the arrow out while it was locked in a vise. If anything it hurt worse now than when I first got it.
Faster than I could see, she moved and held my arm solidly in place. I startled but she had a firm hold on my arm so I didn’t hurt myself moving. She closed her eyes and started mumbling in a language I couldn’t identify.
#
I woke up with my head Grady’s lap.
Maud asked, “How’d you get hurt?”
I examined my newly healed arm. “A fellow I used to call Uncle Archer shot me with a big crossbow. I transformed but the crossbow bolt stayed in my arm. I managed to lock the crossbow bolt in a vise so I could just drop and get the bolt out. Then an evil djinn chewed on my throat and wrist in a few forms.”
Maud asked, “Is Archer dead?”
I shook my head.
Maud asked, “Do you think he will try to kill you again?”
I nodded.
Maud said, “Well, then, as your doctor, I must remind you that we never discussed payment.”
I winced.
Maud said, “Next time Archer is near you, summon me. That is the debt you owe me. Now turn into your other damaged forms.”
I shook my head. “I’ll bleed all over Grady. Archer’s dangerous. He’s a deadly shot. I dove in fast as a rook and was ready to transform and go to shadow as soon as I grabbed a statue. He made an instant shot in a direction he wasn’t planning to and still hit me in the arm.”
Maud nodded. “He wanted you unable to transform. He was playing with you. You managed to transform anyway. His next chance to shoot you will be lethal. Summon me the second you think he is near.”
Grady kissed my forehead and then got up and laid my head down on the deck. Memories started coming to me. I had been gifted with something. Fight scene after fight scene.
As battles flashed in my mind’s eye, Maud touched my shoulder and shook me. “Transform so I can mend you.”
I turned into me still damaged as the battles in my head played. As I drifted off, I dreamed about battle. In the distance as I watched fight after fight, I heard Maud asking me to change into my hurt forms.
#
I woke up with my head in Maud’s lap.
Maud smiled. “You’re not scared of me?”
I sat up. “Most Goblins don’t realize it, but we, too, are killing machines. I heard a story ages ago that the noble Elves of old were raised by Goblins made to care for children that no one else could love. We were friends, companions, caregivers, and slaves to a race that had grown from our stock before modifying us to better serve them.
“The story didn’t say so, but it was pretty clear to me that the caretakers would have to be able to defend those horrid brats. There are things I think I can do that I don’t think most Goblins even contemplate. Most of us ignore the physics of what we do.”
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Maud asked, “Do you have a fast way of killing?”
I winced. “Maybe. I don’t really want to test my theories.”
Maud said, “If Archer beats me, you will need to test your theories or continue fleeing forever.”
I thought about all the battles I remembered and dreamed. There were faces in those battles. Some faces appeared more than once. Archer was in some of those battles and so was Hubert. A lot of battles ended with retreats. Archer used projectiles. He was never at the front of the battle. Some battles started after he started firing. While I wouldn’t want Archer in a battle against me, having him on my side might be worse. Archer got people killed.
I took a deep breath. “I’m pretty sure I know how to find him. Are you sure you don’t just want me to try and take him out?”
Maud shook her head. “You’re new to this. Without a commitment to killing, you might not ever become old at this. We have better odds if we tag team and I go first. I want to live in a world without Archer.
“I want to live in a world without several monsters who make decent life hard and exploit those who don’t know them for who they are. I would rather not live in a world where I ignored the injustice of their having lived so long while destroying so many.
“I don’t think I will lose, but if I do, you’ll know that you have to play your hand to win. If Archer’s going to come for you, you need to be resolved. In this game there is no fair. There is only the price you’re willing to pay for victory or the price you’ll continue to pay by running away.”
More memories came up. More battles. As I started to make sense of it all, I realized that my point of view was not from the same person in all of these battles. The memories and view that I saw from were not from heroes. The were from people who enjoyed killing and who did not fight fair if they didn’t have to.
I slept and dreamed of war.
#
I woke up hungry. I was on a couch in a room with plastic covering all the other furniture. I got up and looked out the window. The yard and garden had not been managed for a few years. I looked around for the bathroom and discovered the water wasn’t turned on.
I shadow stepped and found a wooded area where I could have privacy before I found a stream I could bath in. It was nice having another form where I could keep my shoes while swimming.
I shadow stepped down a road until I came to a sign: LA NEUVILLE en HEZ.
I didn’t know where I was or if I could even find a meal there or pay for it. Just in case, I took the time to place a gateway to one of the Fairylands Goldilocks gave me for moving things around with. I set it up to be nearly shut down so you would have to use one of my shadow tricks to enter it. What I wanted was boudain and lots of it, so I went to the Fairyland that first abducted me and stepped out near Roland Hubert’s place.
It was dark so most of my food plans were probably ruined. I didn’t want to wake anyone, so my options were bleak. I shadow stepped to my room and checked the time. Five in the morning.
I went to a bait shop and got some frozen boudain, five pounds of shrimp, bread, milk, butter, brown sugar, and eggs.
#
In Hubert’s mansion in Louisiana, I was making French toast. I was trying to thaw the boudain, but it wasn’t cooperating. We had cleared out the kitchen of everything that was going to go bad, so my options were limited.
I took out my phone since Caerwyn was calling. “Phil, saw the lights on and figured I would see if it was you.”
I asked, “Caerwyn, want some French toast?”
Caerwyn answered, “I’ll be right over.”
#
Caerwyn was looking at the boudain I was thawing and then gestured to the pot of shrimp I was cooking. “Man, you are the king of a Fairyland, and you come here to cook.”
“I’m the king of Three Fairylands and have connections to several others. But I don’t really think I can barge in early and insist on being fed.”
Caerwyn sat back down and watched me wash dishes. “And you wash your own dishes. You got some bad habits. Do they disrespect you that much in Fairy?”
I paused rinsing. “Snipsnort would feed me. I’m polite and I don’t refuse a meal offered, but I feel bad about showing up at someone’s place around suppertime. I might be doing a kindness by eating at a place, but it still feels odd. I think kings have to be the sort that expect to be fed and think you’re doing them a favor by letting them feed you.”
Caerwyn asked, “What about the other Fairylands?”
I started counting fingers. “One is a place of death. Not a good place for getting food. One is Fairy Dynamics. It used to be a business. Now I’m not sure what it is. I was considering making it home and setting up a place for you and your mother to stay, but I haven’t really checked it out. Then there is the Fairyland that first abducted me. It isn’t mine so I just use it to come here. Then there’s the place with the cave and the place with the cherry trees. I also have a collection of Fairylands that Goldie gave me so I could move things around.”
Caerwyn asked, “Can we visit them?”
I nodded. “Sure, anytime.”
Caerwyn gave me a grimace. “If you can recall, I don’t get out much. I mean, can we go right now?”
I said, “Let me finish cleaning up, and then I need to put the boudain in the refrigerator and store these shrimp.”
#
The cherry trees were in full bloom in the Fairyland with the barn and cherries. We went into the barn, and I opened the gateway to the Fairyland with the cave.
Inside the large cave there was a large armored spider excavator. It had two arms and six legs with wheels. The cab had room for two people. Around the excavator were metal sculptures. There was a large steel frame with a hoist at the top and a heavy iron kinetic sculpture hanging from a large chain.
There were sparks and flashes of light coming from behind a cluster of racks filled with large sheets of metal and long rods of various sizes. Heavy metal music was coming from the excavator.
In Fairy speech, Caerwyn thought to me, “It’s too loud for anyone to hear you.”
The sparks stopped and a woman about my height, but much more heavily set, came out from behind the racks. She was wearing a leather apron and had a welding mask raised up on the top of her head.
She walked to the excavator and climbed up to the open door and reached inside. The music stopped.
“Well then, art thou King Snipsnort and Caerwyn Nelson?”
We nodded.
She smiled showing large teeth and pointed to herself. “Feile Griff. I took up the challenge, and I rather like it, but why do you want sculptures that create plasmons?”
I looked at Caerwyn, Caerwyn looked back at me.
Feile said, “Well, even if it is nonsensical, making sculptures that create negative mass, phonons and polarons is quite a challenge. Fun part is the whole color thing. See the large red flower sculpture? It would be gold if the colors were normal. Are you going to take the excavator away when you take the sculptures? I will miss it. It’s come in handy moving these things around.”
She gestured for us to follow her. We went back to the area she was assembling sculptures in. There was a setup like the bell thing that Archer made to detect things that resonated for Hubert. It was modified, but the basic configuration was easy to identify.
She gestured to a display with the image of the finished sculpture she was making. “Anyway, take all the ones out there and then tell me which ones you like the most. I will try to improve them. Even though this feels like we’re on the edge of being daft, I really like making sculptures that have qualities that no one can see and that might not even exist.
“This is pure art like no other. This is like making GADS-influenced art without having GADS.”
I looked at Caerwyn since he nodded like he understood what she was saying.
I think she took my look and Caerwyn’s look wrong.
She looks at me with a sympathetic look. “Do you do art?”
I say, “Sculpture, mostly with gossamer prototypes.”
She looked at me and nodded in an understanding way. “Well, that explains your requests. I hope you don’t regret commissioning my art after you get well. Are you making progress?”
I gave her a weak smile and nodded.
She asked me, “Is it rude for me to ask what you saw in Fairy that influenced your change in art?”
I thought about it. “I saw some pictures in Real. Then I met her in Fairy.”
She asked, “Who?”
I said, “Goldilocks. She made me her apprentice. Now I am redoing all my sculptures.”
She gave Caerwyn a look.
Caerwyn said, “Yes, the real Goldilocks.”
She winced. “You know you can’t trust her.”
I said, “I love her and no one else understands her the way I do.”
Again Feile winced.
I looked at the excavator and realized I didn’t know how to operate it, and I wasn’t sure about working it in tandem with someone. “Feile, I will probably need the excavator later, but for now, I can leave it here.”
She nodded. “Thanks.”
A lot of the sculptures were not going to fit in the manor house, so I opened one of the Fairylands Goldilocks provided for storing sculptures in and set it up to transfer the sculptures.
Then with another Gateway sliding around I shifted the sculptures to the intermediary Fairyland and then the storage Fairyland.
As I worked, I brought Caerwyn into the intermediary Fairyland and closed the gateway to the cave Fairyland and then felt the cave Fairyland speed up. I took the red flower looking sculpture to the manor house. Caerwyn and I looked at it for a moment.
Caerwyn asked, “Is it me or is this really ugly?”
I said, “I thought they were all bit off. I was gifted classical sculpture and just a smattering of modern. Only up to the Art Deco era. I don’t really understand this stuff. Caerwyn, what is the GADS thing she was talking about?”
Caerwyn smiled at me. “You did a great job of looking like you have it, but I don’t think you’re even close. Gossamer Art Derangement Syndrome is where you see or hear something in Fairy and it obsesses you. A lot of artists have glimpsed things, and then went kind of crazy as they pursued it. I don't think it describes you.”
Anthony came running into the room. “Hubert collapsed, I think it is bad. Something has gone wrong.”
I looked at the flower and then put it back into the intermediary world. I froze time on the workshop in the cave Fairyland and then shadow stepped through the manor until I found Hubert in the kitchen trying to stand up. I didn’t have a way to help him, and I suspected Feile might have done something horrid. I went to the intermediary Fairyland and shifted the gateway in the Cave Fairyland to a small portal that would let me view. Fiele was gone and so was the excavator. The equipment she was using to make sculptures with was gone.
I started to summon Nia Gray. Then I stopped. She was cold the last time I saw her. Last time I met with any of that crew, I was nearly killed. We gave them weapons and tools that Archer had made and then they cut off all connections.
I thought about it. Maybe I was being paranoid, but I obtained the equipment to save Hubert on my own and was in a situation where I would probably die. I was given a world of death, that saved me, but maybe it wasn’t intended to work out the way it did. They gave me a lot of things, but maybe they were trying to kill Hubert.
Solving this sort of thing wasn’t what I did. I feared that I had a collection of sculptures toxic to Hubert and there was a sculptor out there that knew how to make more. The circle of people I could trust was small.
I needed to be certain before I moved, and I had little that I could be certain of. Despite what everyone said, I knew I could trust Goldilocks. I knew two Ogresses that I could trust. Dutchess Byebye and Lord Loadstone were on the list of those I could trust.
I went back to the manor house to see if I was jumping to conclusions.
From shadow I heard them talking.
Mr. Hubert said. “Yes, I think the harmonic attack that turned us to stone has been incorporated into a resonate item. Fortunately, I was not near it and I had not yet opened myself to its resonant field. It seems that what has kept me safe and alive for all this time is now a danger to me.”
Caerwyn said, “It is easy enough for us to make more resonance detectors. The question is how do we determine if something is trapped?”
Anthony said, “Caerwyn, you mentioned a female dwarf. Roland, did you ever meet a female dwarf?”
Hubert said, “I have heard of them, never met one. No reason why one would be my enemy. I need to think about how to safely test the other sculptures.”
Sitting in shadow was not going to solve anything, and I didn’t want to risk Caerwyn, Anthony, or Hubert in any of this. Snipsnort could get along without me. Duchess Byebye would get by well enough without me, and my Goblin family was in as good a shape as a Goblin family can be. I had few ties, so it was time for me to find out if my ideas about Goblins were true.
When I heard the stories about Goblins being bred to care for the horrid children of noble Elves, it had come to me that they would also need to be able to defend those evil brats. It also came to me that it was likely that the methods revealed themselves only in extreme circumstances. I also feared that those methods took the lives of Goblins that used them. That might be the only way that such secrets would remain secret.
I tried to bring myself to a rage thinking about the danger Hubert was in, but nothing came to me. I needed more information. The earliest stories that my Goblin Family told were set in France, so I probably needed to start there.