Laryn pulled open the door of the smuggling room as goblins screamed and died behind him. The ground shook slightly, and he felt the call of the void.

  Like a sweet music, it gripped him, filling him with yearning to be reunited with the bosom of the mother.

  “Adi!” he exclaimed, as he found himself turning around and starting back toward the spore. Kenna grabbed him, and then Adi was in his mind, cutting off the strange, void-touched portion of him that had been in control.

  He turned back to the door and opened it all the way. A tapestry hung on the other side, obscuring the entrance. Laryn pushed Kenna through and pulled the door closed behind them. They’d just emerged into a larder.

  They ran through this as the rumbling behind them grew.

  “This is bad!” Kenna exclaimed. “I don’t think this was the plan!”

  “We need to get over that lake before the spore takes over the whole palace,” Laryn said. “The bridge is going to be swarming with soldiers. Where can we find a boat?”

  They dashed through the halls of the palace. Distant sounds of explosion echoed through the halls as the voidspore cracked foundation stones.

  Passing first through a kitchen, and then into a long hall, Laryn searched for a hint about the best way to run. He had no idea where they were.

  Then a commotion at the end of the hall caught his attention. He thought he saw queen Grimby, a flash of her dress.

  “Is that the queen down there?”

  Kenna looked. “They seem like they’re evacuating. What are the chances they’re going for a boat?”

  “In Eltar that’s what we’d be doing in case of an attack.”

  “In Coronathar too.”

  “Then we follow.”

  They ran after the hoard of goblins, quickly catching up with the smaller creatures, but hanging back to avoid drawing attention to themselves.

  The goblins weren’t really paying attention to anything but frantically running through the palace, Queen Grimby waddling in their midst. They reached an exterior door and piled through. Laryn and Kenna stood on either side of the mantle, peering through.

  “They don’t look like soldiers. Just an official entourage.”

  “Mages?”

  “I’m not sure,” Laryn said.

  The door was only about 5 feet tall, which was annoying, but allowed Laryn to peer in through a gap at the top of the frame.

  “It’s a boat house,” he said. “They’re loading up the queen in a vessel.”

  “Any other watercraft?”

  “A few, but they look small. Designed for a pair of goblins, not a pair of humans.”

  “None big enough for us?”

  “They’re filling them all. This whole crowd of officials is trying to get out of here.”

  The ground rumbled again.

  “We need a boat.”

  “The only one big enough is the one with the queen,” Laryn said.

  “Then we’d better get it before she leaves.”

  They ducked under the door frame and charged into the boathouse, drawing a few cries of surprise from nearby goblins.

  The queen’s boat had already pushed away from the dock, and four mages surrounding her turned to face the attacking humans.

  Laryn and Kenna knocked two of them out of the boat with well aimed [Darts], and Laryn sprinted down the dock. With preternatural strength, he flung himself across the water and landed on the boat. The craft rocked wildly as the goblins panicked, scrambling for purchase.

  Laryn began throwing them into the water, pausing only to use an elemental [Shield] to block attacks from the mages, before beheading the creatures.

  Grimby screeched, unable to form words as her fury bubbled forth.

  Grabbing a rope, Laryn tossed it to Kenna. She caught it then ran and jumped into the water. As he hauled her in, two pale goblins emerged from below deck.

  A thunderous explosion rocked the palace, sending out a shockwave that rippled through the water.

  Laryn hauled Kenna aboard and drew his sword, facing the greyskinned abominations. Long, supple and lithe, they darted around, moving quickly and flowing like water. They did not speak, merely attacked with a quiet, burning determination in their eyes.

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  The rocking movement of the boat and the rapidly moving enemies led Laryn into water form. The goblins attacked with long curved blades. They tried hooking the bent weapons around his sword to rip it from his hands.

  The goblins that Laryn had thrown overboard struggled to climb back on board. The craft, more of a pleasure barge than a ship, had a few ladders which dangled down into the water. Kenna cut these free, pushing the struggling goblins back into the lake.

  Grimby continued her screeching.

  More guards and soldiers poured onto the decks of the boathouse. A dozen or so of Grimby’s pale children pushed to the front, searching for a way to help their mother.

  Laryn ducked beneath an overextended blow and caught the wrist of one assailant. With a gentle tug, he sent the creature stumbling toward the edge of the barge.

  He slashed at the goblin’s back, opening up a gaping wound as it tumbled into the water.

  The other goblin released a low wail of distress as Laryn brought his full strength to bear, focusing on this single enemy.

  Then the creature vanished. Laryn slashed through the air where it would have been. A moment later, it reappeared. Laryn barely had time to deflect the incoming attack, and received a small cut on his arm.

  He kicked out at the goblin’s knee, and it dropped to the ground. Swinging his sword over his head, Laryn went for the death blow.

  Again the goblin vanished, but it reappeared an instant later as Laryn’s blade passed through it’s neck and lodged in the plank below.

  Laryn wiped his brow and tugged his sword from the wood. The ship rocked, as water flowed out of the boathouse. The current swept them out onto the lake. Some of Grimby’s pale assassins tried rowing toward the barge in small boats, while the others watched ominously from the dock.

  A short distance away, other crafts emerged from other openings along the walls of the palace.

  “Laryn!” Kenna shouted, pointing to the palace behind him.

  He turned, and saw the voidbloom erupting from one of the towers of the palace. Vines and leaves burst from windows, and a large flower began blooming in the shaft of sunlight which shone down from overhead.

  It pulsated as it grew, forcing stones apart an throwing them into the lake. The current grew stronger, and it seemed to be sucking every ship in toward the void bloom.

  Nearby another barge rocked. Zaremba paced its deck, ranting and fuming. She caught sight of Grimby, and began shouting accusations across the water. The two goblin women screamed at one another, flinging insults and recriminations.

  The goblins on Zaremba’s barge rowed aggressively, towing the watercraft away from the burgeoning voidbloom and heading toward shore. Since Laryn had thrown many of Grimby’s oar pullers overboard, their own craft had no way to fight the inevitable flow of the current.

  “The void bloom must have broken through to caverns beneath the lake,” Laryn said to Kenna. “The whole thing could drain, it’ll pull us in!”

  “What do we do?”

  Laryn found a length of rope and tied one end to the bow of the barge. He threw the other end across to Zaremba’s barge, about ten meters away. The loop of rope caught, and pulled tight, jolting both crafts.

  “It’s just like the elf bridge across the river,” Laryn said, eying the vibrating rope. “Quickly!”

  “I’m not an elf!” Kenna protested. “And that one had a guard rail.”

  “Do you see any other options?”

  “What if I fall in?”

  “I’ll free this end of the rope and swim to you,” Laryn said. “You can do this!”

  Kenna clenched her jaw and stepped onto the taught rope. Then, calmly and confidently, she walked across the gap. A moment later she stepped down onto Zaremba’s barge.

  She shoved aside a goblin who was coming to cut the rope and free the barge, and Laryn stepped up onto the line.

  He moved slowly but with confidence, trying to pretend he was just walking along dry ground.

  When he’d made it three quarters of the way across, he slipped, and fell backwards into the water below.

  For an instant he considered reversing time to undo his mistake. But how many tiles of his kingdom could he sacrifice to avoid the wet plunge?

  It wasn’t worth it. Instead he swam, heaving water behind him with powerful strokes. A rope ladder crashed into the water nearby, and he caught hold of it.

  Someone cut through the rope that he’d used, and the Queen’s barge leapt free of Zaremba’s, sucked in closer to the void bloom. Laryn climbed up the rope ladder and dragged his soaking body on deck.

  Zaremba stormed over to them. “You weren’t supposed to set off the blazing thing!” she shouted.

  “We didn’t,” Laryn grunted, shaking water from his drenched clothes.

  “It was already sprouting when we found it,” Kenna said. “You stored it poorly. Or you were deceived.”

  Zaremba groaned.

  Grimby’s barge moved faster, picking up speed as it approached the void infested walls of the palace. Goblins streamed across the bridge, running to fight.

  Flames burst from the windows of an upper story as defenders tried burning the void bloom down. Laryn caught a glimpse of voidlings scuttling along a walkway.

  “How did it grow so fast?” Kenna marveled.

  “There are many varieties,” Laryn said. “Or so Hela tells me. This one must just be a fast grower.”

  “If what you say is true,” Zaremba said dubiously, “It’s been growing for weeks, gathering energy. It’s just now exploding into a larger form.”

  Grimby’s barge crashed into the wall of the palace. A tentacle of the voidbloom looped around it, and the craft tilted dangerously as it began to sink.

  Zaremba clutched her head in her hands. “This is a disaster,” she moaned. “We have to get away from here. What you’ve done… You’ve incriminated me. Grimby’s pale assassins will certainly come after me now!”

  A crunch from Grimby’s barge drew their attention, and they all stared as the goblin queen fell into the water, flailing and struggling against the current that sucked her down.

  “Who will be the [Ruler] of Grekhol now?” Kenna asked.

  “Not me,” Zaremba said. “That’s for certain. Do you understand how bad this looks?”

  “Yes…” Laryn said cautiously. “It looks like we met with you, then we received some help to escape from our cell. In the process we activate a void spore, and then you rescue us as we’re escaping…”

  “They’ll demand my head,” Zaremba groaned.

  “What will you do?”

  “We’re getting out of here. As far as I can go!”

  The oarsmen on Zaremba’s barge continued pulling as they fled the scene. Chaos continued to unfold behind them, though the goblins seemed like they were starting to contain the growing voidbloom.

  The water level of the lake dropped, as more water drained into unknown caverns beneath Grekhol.

  When they reached the promenade, the steps leading into the water were high and exposed. The bottom of the barge scrapped against stone.

  With some effort, Zaremba, Laryn, Kenna, and the other goblins of the princess’s entourage hauled themselves up and out of the lake. A few onlookers came to see what was going on. Four of the lowborn goblins were overcome by rapturous seizures when they laid eyes on the nearly perfectly symmetrical form of Zaremba.

  “That simply won’t do,” Zaremba groaned. “I’ll need a disguise.”

  Laryn offered her his wet cloak. It dripped lake water on the stones at her feet. Zaremba eyed it with disgust.

  “I suppose that will work,” she said, wrapping the large garment around her form, and pulling the hood up to obscure her features.

  “Now lets get out of here.”