Within the space of a few short hours, Zaremba had led them out of Grekhol. They stood on the surface, blinking in the sunlight, for a moment, then continued on under Zaremba’s direction.

  “I sent Lobix out here to get ready to meet you,” she said. “I wasn’t expecting to be going along with you.”

  She seemed frustrated by the way that things had played out, but was adapting well to the situation.

  “What about the pale assassins?” Laryn asked. “Aren’t we worried about them following? Will they still try to kill you even if you flee?”

  “Yes,” Zaremba said, “Of course they will. But I’ll live longer the more distance I place between them and myself, so that’s what I intend to do.”

  “But they can turn invisible,” Laryn said. “How do you defend against that?”

  “Only for short times,” Zaremba said. “And it’s a huge draw on the power of the core, so the ability is used sparingly.”

  “That’s not a defense,” Laryn said. “That’s just saying it could be worse.”

  “I don’t know,” the diminutive goblin snapped at him. “I’m worried about it too! My best defense was to not anger them, but with the death of my sister and nobody to blame but me, I’m in huge trouble!”

  They continued their march as the sun set and darkness fell over the land. Laryn contacted Adi briefly, and received the update that Gaten, Widan, and Gall had returned to Vallor, boasting of their feats of bravery in driving off Harrat and his men.

  Laryn sent orders for them to get back to sifting as much as possible with the rivers running high. He knew Harrat was coming for him; heading north.

  Just as the last remnants of light faded from the sky, they found the meeting point. Lobix had gathered over one thousand goblins there. In theory these were loyal to the princess, and would not be upset to learn that the queen had died.

  Zaremba sent her entourage forward to the camp, to fetch her the proper privacy accutrements. “No sense in working them all up into a frenzy,” she said. “I expect they’ll be bad enough, just knowing I’m traveling with them.”

  “Where will you go?” Laryn asked, as they waited.

  “South,” Zaremba said. “Our agreement is still in effect. We must drive Harrat out, and fight against the void. This makes things harder.”

  “I didn’t think—”

  “You thought I’d abandon the agreement and run for the hills? You misunderstand me, then. Even if you’re lying to me about setting off the void, I’m still looking for strong allies. My position has weakened, but I haven’t given up.”

  “You assume we’re still interested in working with you in your weakened position,” Laryn said.

  Zaremba scoffed. “Don’t try to haggle with me, human. The deal is the same, even if my resources are reduced. I’ll march my soldiers south, and we’ll fight against this Harrat.

  The goblins returned with a kind of palanquin, and Zaremba climbed onto it, pulling the privacy shutters closed.

  That night in camp, Laryn and Kenna sat beside the princess's tent. She had pitched a tent beside her own for them, which they appreciated, cramped as it was.

  “She sure caused a stir moving through the camp,” Laryn said. “I’ve never seen such… devotion to a leader before.”

  “Is it devotion or merely lust?” Kenna asked, with a roll of her eyes.

  “Hard to tell the difference from here, but I’d bet that each and every one of these creatures would go to their deaths if they thought she was asking them to.”

  “Goblins are strange creatures,” Kenna said.

  “I really don’t know what to make of them. But this is what we need; manpower to hold the line against Harrat.”

  “You aren’t afraid of her aims?” Kenna asked. “She seems quite ambitious.”

  “I’ve dealt with ambitious people before,” Laryn said. “It ended badly for them.”

  “Coril wasn’t backed up by an army.”

  “You’re saying that she might move to take over our core?”

  “I’m saying that she could.”

  “As long as Harrat is a threat, I think we can trust her. But you’re right, we need to consider what comes after that. Don’t want to get caught stone-footed.”

  The following day, Zaremba had the horde marching south. As they moved, Laryn considered possible tactical actions. He doubted that Harrat’s scouts had managed to track him and Kenna into Grekhol. The ability to turn invisible was not something he’d ever heard of, and seemed to be a goblin secret, though he had no doubt that if Harrat knew about it he’d be trying to get it too.

  But Adi’s reports had made it sound like Harrat’s men had been moving northward. Laryn had thought that meant that they changed their priority to come after Kenna, but as he considered their position more, he realized that wouldn’t make much sense for Harrat to do.

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  They suspected that Kenna was in the area, but sending a whole army marching to the place she was last seen wouldn’t be productive. He’d send out scouts perhaps, but he wouldn’t bring his army.

  There were only two possible things that Harrat might be doing then, with a movement to the north. He might be retreating back to Fort Envin entirely. That struck Laryn as unlikely, but also as not problematic. If Harrat wanted to hunker down, it would make it easier for Laryn to expand.

  On the other hand, Harrat could simply be regrouping his forces, in a place where he felt more secure from random attacks by Laryn’s mages. Since the [Mages] had returned to Vallor, that move had worked.

  So he was likely just regrouping and preparing for another attack. Laryn didn’t know how many kingdom cores the princeling had brought with him, but having one of them destroyed was certainly not a part of Harrat’s plan. He’d be even more desperate to capture Laryn’s core now.

  He might be having his forces bring a new core down from Fort Envin, or simply summoning additional forces, bringing them to focus on the thorn in his side that Vallor had become.

  In short, Laryn realized that they had a great opportunity to catch Harrat off guard.

  He found Zaremba’s palanquin.

  “Princess,” Laryn called through the shutters of the vehicle. If they had been open, he would have been able to converse with Zaremba at eyelevel.

  “Do not approach the royal vehicle unless summoned,” a nervous goblin guard said, pushing Laryn away from the palanquin.

  “Zaremba,” he said, “I need to speak to you!”

  But she did not respond, and the guard pushed Laryn further away from the vehicle.

  Laryn stewed for the next few hours, dwelling on Kenna’s misgivings about Zaremba’s intentions. Maybe she would simply march her horde to Vallor and try to seize the kingdom for herself. She wasn’t really treating him like an equal.

  He should even be considered her superior, since he was the ruler of a kingdom, and she was just an outcast.

  That evening, when Zaremba summoned him to her tent, he almost didn’t go.

  But, when he found her in her hearing chamber, she apologized to him.

  “I can’t be seen fraternizing with you personally,” she said. “There are enough destructive rumors going around about how I’m sleeping with you, and if enough of them start to believe it, then I won’t be able to stop them from tearing you apart.”

  “I see,” Laryn said. The emotional, passionate devotion of the goblins came with some downsides.

  “What did you want to see me about?” Zaremba asked.

  “I’ve been considering Harrat’s likely moves,” he said. “I believe that he’ll be camped somewhere south of the Townshold road with his army, preparing to launch another attack against Vallor. He has mages. He may even have a kingdom core at his disposal. He brought coresmiths with him.”

  “You think it’s a prime opportunity for us to march into his kingdom?”

  “No,” Laryn said. “That would leave Vallor exposed. I think it’s better to hit him from behind, like a hammer against an anvil.”

  “Tell me more about his kingdom.”

  “Fort Envin is up atop the plateau,” Laryn said. “The only way to get troops up and down conveniently is on the Townshold road, through the pass. We can cut him off.”

  “And your kingdom will hold on one side, while we push in from behind,” Zaremba said.

  “Exactly.”

  “I hate it. We can hold a choke point like the pass much longer against a force of humans. They’ll be particularly weakened when we march on their kingdom, and start taking their cores.”

  “But he’ll push into Vallor. They won’t be able to hold out for long against him, once he starts an attack.”

  “But your plan leaves my force exposed to attack from the rear,” Zaremba protested. “Harrat’s soldiers could come marching down the pass behind us, and we are the ones who end up ensnared. I don’t like it one bit.”

  Laryn gritted his teeth. “You don’t want Harrat to get ahold of my kingdom core,” Laryn said. “That’s the most important thing.”

  “Correct. But in the process, I don’t want every one of my soldiers to die. Listen, if we move against Fort Envin, Harrat will be forced to abandon his attack on Vallor. He’ll need to defend his cores.”

  “Or he’ll simply redouble his efforts to capture my kingdom, not wanting to be caught between two enemies,” Laryn said.

  They stared at each other for a long moment. The lantern light in the room flickered, and Zaremba’s dark eyes drew his gaze in. The waxed canvas of the tent rippled slightly in the wind.

  Zaremba let out a shuddering exhale. “I won’t let you take charge of me,” she insisted. “I’m going to decide what to do.”

  “Please take what I’m saying into consideration,” Laryn said.

  “I will. I’ll council with my leaders and let you know how we plan to progress.”

  Her eyes did not leave his, and she licked her lips in a way that sent a chill down his spine. He broke eye contact and rose from his seat, ducking his head away from the low ceiling of the tent. Without another word, he slipped away into the night.

  Laryn discussed the situation with Kenna.

  “We might not be as lucky as I had supposed,” Laryn said. “Zaremba seems more interested in hurting Harrat than in helping Vallor.”

  “That’s good,” Kenna said bitterly. “Any attack on Fort Envin will help Vallor.”

  “I’m not convinced that her actions won’t make things worse for Vallor.”

  “She’s trying to establish herself as a new goblin ruler,” Kenna said. “Set up a power in opposition to her sister. She wants to capture some kingdom cores.”

  “I see that. I think that we night have to leave them though. An unreliable ally means it’s even more important that we find the spell module.”

  “I wouldn’t be able to find it from here,” Kenna said. “We’d have to go back to Jardensvale.”

  “I’ll bet that Harrat is heavily monitoring that area, looking for you.”

  “It would be risky.”

  “Then we have to wait until he’s distracted. Do you think he’s already scouted out this horde?”

  “I have no way of knowing,” Kenna said with a shrug. “But with the way his scouts are roaming the wilderness, I wouldn’t be surprised.”

  “I guess we’ll be finding out soon,” Laryn said. “I just wish that I had a better plan, that didn’t rely on Zaremba’s whims so much.

  That night as Laryn tried to sleep, an idea came to him. It had worked before, why wouldn’t it work again? It was risky, to be sure. And Harrat might have already done something about the void bloom growing near the pass.

  But if Laryn could cause it to grow and block the pass… Then Zaremba would be deterred from attacking Fort Envin. And Harrat would be cut off from his kingdom.

  Risky, risky. But it just might work.