4.5
- Location
- Great Khanate of Scotland
- Pronouns
- She/Her
CW: Graphic violence
Goblintown stank. It smelled of ash, sewage, and chemicals. Iris couldn't imagine living here, let alone working among the choking, scalding fumes of the alchemical refineries. It was full of strange sounds as well – the clank of machinery, the roar of furnace-fires, and distant shouts and the tramp of feet. The cramped, winding streets played tricks with sound, and some of the echoes sounded as if they came from deep underground; perhaps they did. Lilly led them through the maze of streets and alleys which seemed to follow some logic Iris didn't understand, avoiding major thoroughfares.
Suddenly, the night was cut by the shriek of a whistle. It didn't stop.
"It's on!" Lilly cried, baring her teeth.
They had come to the mouth of an alleyway. Across the street, goblins were pouring out of the doors of a factory, peering about and clamoring as they tried to figure out what was going on. Other goblins emerged, carrying whips.
"Back to work, you layabouts!" one shrieked, cracking his whip, "Your shift hasn't ended yet!" The crowd of goblin workers cringed as other overseers started laying in. Some started shoving each other in their attempt to get back into the factory; one shoved an overseer. The goblin boss shoved him down and raised his whip, ready to flay him to the bone.
Lilly darted across the street, cutting down the goblin overseer.
"Down with the boss!" she shrieked. The goblins were stunned for three seconds, then all Hell broke loose. Some scattered, others attacked the overseers, who scattered as Iris and her friends emerged to join Lillywick. One of the overseers started blowing a whistle, which was instantly answered by another some distance away.
"Cowards!" Alessa spat as she watched the goblin bosses run. She shook a gauntleted fist at their retreating backs. "You can't face real warriors?"
"They've gone to raise the guards," Bors said, hefting his ax, "We'll have a real fight soon."
Lilly marched off at the head of a goblin mob, and Iris and her companions had no choice but to go along with them. Somehow many of the goblins had contrived to arm themselves with iron bars, stones, or hammers. They were all chattering with each other, excitedly pointing and laughing and cheering Lilly's name, and some struck up a work chantey. But Iris noticed a few goblins falling behind and quietly slipping away. Goblintown was growing louder – whistles, screams and shouted orders, drums, horns. The sounds of the police and military stirring.
The humans stood head and shoulders above the goblins – Iris in particular – and it was easy for them to push their way to the front.
"I can't believe this is working!" Iris said to Lilly. The goblin cackled.
"Told ye my hopes weren't placeless! May not be easy to get goblins to work togetherlike, but once ye get us going, it's hard to stop us!"
The mob's energy died immediately as it spilled out into a broad plaza. Arrayed on the far end was a double line of goblin soldiers, each in helmets and chainmail and carrying spears and shields. Someone sounded a whistle.
"By order of Big Boss Smivey Demple, you lot are to return to your dormitories! Failure to comply is grounds for summary execution. Those taken into police custody will be subjected to work imprisonment!"
The goblins wavered. This, Iris knew, was where Lilly's revolution would have died – a wave of fervent but untrained workers, dashed to pieces against a wall of trained soldiers. She would have failed…if Iris and her friends hadn't been there.
"A Harcourt! A Harcourt!" Alessa cried as she sprang forward, her sword gleaming in the starlight.
"Fuck off and die!" Bors yelled. Iris followed, and everything went strange. She heard her own heartbeat pounding in her ears, and her lips were peeled back, baring her teeth. She outpaced the others, crossing the plaza in less than ten seconds. A sprint in full armor, but Iris didn't feel the weight of it, her muscles didn't scream with exertion as they should have. She felt she could have run the mile and still had the strength to fight.
The goblin soldiers wavered. She was tall, and armored head to foot, and moving fast. No creature liked being charged by something bigger than them, let alone three, and the goblins were no different. Their officers tried to get them to stand and fight, ordering horns blown and lashing out at those in the back line with wooden batons, but when Iris was halfway across the plaza they were already breaking, those in the front pushing at those behind, or finding they were already slipping away. By the time she reached the crumbling goblin line, she could practically taste their fear.
Spears snapped against her armor or slid off it, and Iris thought of the charm sitting against her breast. Fang cut flesh and bone and leather, punched through chainmail. It thirsted for green goblin blood. Iris tried to remember her training, but it was like her body had a mind of its own. Fang slipped past shields and armor to seek out throats, hearts, arteries. She lashed out with her foot, kicking a goblin's head back so far its neck snapped. Goblins ran, and she made a ruin of their bodies.
She remembered her first sparring session with Alessa, each time she felled another goblin: Dead. Dead. Dead.
Alessa was there as well, and Bors. They were better armored than the goblin soldiers, more experienced. Iris saw them out of the corner of her eye, hacking down any goblin that stood to fight.
Iris looked around and found there were no more goblins to kill. The plaza was a mire of green blood and corpses, adding to the stench of Goblintown. The goblin mob was among the dead, stripping them of armor and weapons.
Someone was yelling at her.
"Iris? Iris I need you to hear me!"
Iris focused on Chiri's voice. She blinked and noticed the catgirl standing in front of her.
"Chiri?"
"Iris, you've been injured!"
Iris looked down, saw the blood flowing from where a spear had slipped through a gap in her armor and been thrust into her leg just above the knee.
"Oh."
She allowed Chiri to force her to sit down, her back against a wall. The catgirl knelt and started unbuckling her armor so she could tend to the wound.
"It didn't hit an artery, but I'll need to disinfect and bind it," she said, but Iris only half-heard her.
Things seemed to have grown more chaotic during the fight. Everywhere Iris looked, there were goblins running down the streets or in and out of buildings, screaming, fighting – Iris wasn't sure which side was hers, or even if they were fighting for a reason. Iris saw billowing clouds of smoke, lit from below by the fires of burning buildings. This city was fragile, built on fear and punishment, and now it was unraveling.
She was strangely calm. Her eyes refused to focus on the dead bodies, and the memories of the battle slid away from her. Now was not the time to process. She wanted to laugh, or cry, or maybe fuck Chiri against the wall.
"Iris Penny!" Lillywick said. The goblin's knife was covered in blood again, and she now wore a chainmail shirt and carried a shield. "You were a fuckin' monster out there!"
"Yeah, what happened, Iris?" Chiri asked. She seemed genuinely concerned.
"The wolf came out," Iris said, feeling her lips peel back.
"Can she walk?" Alessa asked. The lady knight was unharmed, and she was wiping her sword clean.
"Yes," Chiri said, finishing the dressing and refastening Iris' armor. "If she exerts herself like that again she'll tear it open, but we may not have a choice."
"Good. We have other wounded."
"Leave 'em," Lillywick said, "If they can walk, they'll find help. If they can't, then your healer can't save them nohow."
"She's right," Chiri said, gathering up her medical bag.
Iris rose to her feet, wavering only slightly.
The mob grew as it surged towards Headquarters. It linked up with other mobs, or groups of mutinying soldiers. Twice they had to fight units of loyalist soldiers sent to block their path, but the mob had soldiers of its own. They would press together, shield to shield, probing with spears. Inevitably, the enemy would break under the weight of the mob in front of them, or at the confusion and fear building like the pressure front of a storm, or at Iris and her friends charging.
Iris only remembered flashes: Lillywick standing atop a barricade and screaming something to a crowd of goblins; Chiri bandaging up injuries; Alessa spattered in green blood, lifting her visor to reveal a face streaked with sweat. There were lots of goblin faces, although they all blurred together, contorted in fear, glee, or rage. At some point Iris' wound opened up again, blood soaking her leg. She pushed on, not feeling the pain or the exhaustion, although she knew in some part of her mind that she would feel it all catch up with her at once, eventually. Her world was dark, noisy, and stank of death and fire.
Finally, Headquarters loomed above them.
"Now what?" Iris screamed, trying to be heard over the din of hundreds of goblins and the growing clamor of a city tearing itself apart.
"The supply gate!" Lillywick replied. The goblin had acquired a cut on her cheek during the fighting, and Chiri had smeared some kind of salve on it. Iris looked around; her head was starting to clear, or maybe she was finally getting tired.
"Where's Bors?" she asked.
"We haven't seen him since the plaza," Alessa said. Her voice was cracked, and she sounded tired and afraid. Iris' heart beat faster as she realized that the ladyknight was flagging as well. If they didn't finish this fight soon, it would all be over.
"When is the dawn?" Iris asked.
"Two hours, maybe," Chiri said. The catgirl looked sick, her eyes reflecting the light of burning buildings.
"Let's finish this," Iris said. She marched up to the side gate Lillywick had indicated. It was a single door, wood barred with iron, with a heavy lock.
"I've got this," Chiri said. The catgirl drew herself up, grabbed onto her hat, threw out her hand, and spoke a single word.
The gate flew open, and Iris stepped through into a courtyard. The mob flowed in, heading straight for the larders and granaries where the Big Boss hoarded food. Iris ignored them, marching into the palace itself.
"Lillywick!" Iris yelled, "Do you know where we're going?"
"I do. Big Boss Smivey will be in his command room."
"Light," Chiri whispered, and the lightstone in her hand lit up the hall.
Headquarters had once been a palace, back when this had been the human city of Bryn Mawr. There were huge windows that let in the light, and the red glow of fires shone eerily on Iris and her friends. She looked around; it was just her, Alessa, Chiri, and Lillywick the goblin. Somehow, everyone else had fallen behind.
"Here," Lilly said, stopping at a door. Iris didn't need Chiri to open it with magic; she kicked the door in and rushed inside.
Big Boss Smivey Demple was tall for a goblin. He looked like someone had stretched him out on a rack, freakishly long legs and arms that trailed almost to the ground. He wore a breastplate and helmet, and while Iris had been expecting something cobbled together out of scrap, black and spikey, somehow the fact that his armor looked like the work of a professional smith and gleamed in the light was more intimidating.
Smivey and his guards froze for a critical second. Iris counted four guards, and ignored the clerks and messengers who scampered away as soon as they could. The Big Boss was looking over a map of the city, little markers designating the positions of troops – but the markers had been swept aside as if in frustration, and there was a knife sticking out of the map.
"Big Boss Smivey Chickenthief, you soulless ratfucking blackheart! I'm Lillywick Parser, and I'm your worst fucking nightmare!" Lilly shrieked as she followed Iris and Alessa.
Smivey's guards were armed with longswords; one found his wild swing blocked by Alessa's shield, and his throat opened by her sword. Another guard swung at Iris's side; the blade stopped at her breastplate, but she grunted, knowing she'd feel bruised ribs in the morning. Fang quested and sought, darting past his shield to skewer his throat. Alessa was fighting the other two goblins as Lilly jumped past her, vaulting the table to fight the Big Boss directly.
Smivey Demple drew a sword and locked blades with Lilly. Lilly's knife flashed again and again, but the goblin boss blocked her at every turn, his freakishly elongated arms giving him superior reach. Chiri watched the fight, eyes darting back and forth.
Iris grabbed the table with one hand – it was huge, solid wood and big enough to seat a dozen people – and flipped it over. It crashed to the ground, scattering papers and cups, and Iris raised her sword and brought it down on Smivey Demple. He raised his sword, blocking Fang but straining as they locked blades. Lillywick's knife found a gap in his armor, and the goblin boss gasped as she drew blood, but it didn't end him. He jumped back, slashing wildly at Lilly.
An upward stab would have punched through her chain shirt and impaled her, but at that moment Chiri raised her wand and spoke a word, and while Lilly grunted as the breath was driven from her, she stayed standing as the chainmail held. Iris brought her sword down again, cleaving right through the goblin boss' wrist, severing his sword hand. He screeched and looked wide-eyed at the stump at the end of his arm, until a second later when Lilly's knife parted his throat. His scream died with a gurgle as he coughed up green blood.
Everyone was still. The remaining guards were dead at Alessa's feet, and aside from Iris and her three friends there was no one else in the room.
"Is everyone okay?" Alessa asked.
Lillywick looked down at herself.
"Aye, I'm unhurt. Leastwise not any more than I was…"
She looked at Iris, who swallowed. Her throat felt like sandpaper.
"'m fine," she rasped.
Chiri was breathing heavily, but she managed to give Alessa a reassuring nod as she leaned against the overturned table. The lightstone dropped from her hand.
"Then it's over? We won?" Alessa asked.
Iris cracked a smile. She was about to reply when the loudest noise she'd ever heard broke over them. A tremor went through the palace, dust raining from the ceiling, and the whole room was lit up with a flash that, for a second, was as bright as day.
Lilly rushed to the window.
"Fuck me! The powderworks went up!"
"The – the what?" Iris asked, her brain struggling to comprehend.
"Fire! Fire!!" Lilly screamed, "The whole city's gonna burn!"
"Put it out," Chiri panted, "With magic."
"We don't have a magic circle that big!" Alessa insisted. Chiri shook her head.
"The whole city…built as a magical amplifier…"
Alessa grabbed Lilly and pulled her away from the window.
"Lillywick, listen to me! Is there a ritual center here, somewhere the boss would have done magic?"
"Up - upstairs!" Lilly said. She sounded genuinely shaken, and Iris understood – thousands would die if that fire wasn't stopped. "Course I ain't never been up there-"
Alessa dropped Lilly and helped Chiri to her feet. Up a flight of stairs, they found, just as Lilly promised, a place of magic ritual. A huge magic circle, six feet across, was inscribed into the stone floor. This wasn't goblin work; it must have been as old as the palace. All around, Iris saw candles, jars of ritual components, knives, torture racks...and, at one end of the room, gauzy silk curtains hid the shape of a statue, one that drew Iris' eye inexorably towards it.
"We need to put out the fire," Alessa said. Chiri shook her head.
"I – I can't. I'm too tired," she whimpered. Iris was overwhelmed with love and fear for the witch.
"I know how to do it," Iris said. She looked down; her armor glistened red with blood, and she reached down to wipe her hand through it. She dropped to her knees at the edge of the circle, painting the symbol in the center of the magic circle with her own blood. She wasn't sure if that helped, but she sure hoped it did.
She'd done this spell before; she remembered the symbol and the words. She just needed a bigger magic circle…a much bigger one...
She spoke the magic word, and every candle in the room blew out. Outside, the red glow of the fires vanished as if God himself had snuffed them out. The world fell silent again.
"Did it work?" Iris asked, getting to her feet. She felt like her legs were about to give out under her, and she walked in a daze across the room. Behind her, Alessa guided Chiri to the ground.
"Chiri? Chiri are you okay?" Alessa asked.
"I'll live…but I'm tired, Alessa."
"It's – oh, fuck it. Chiri, I'm sorry…"
Iris ignored them and walked towards the statue. She pulled aside the silk curtains and saw the statue and the altar in front of it.
It was a feminine, half-serpent figure, carved so masterfully that Iris thought it could have been a real being who had been turned to stone – Iris could see every individual scale. The bottom half of her body was a pile of serpentine coils, but her top half was also scaled, her head hairless and her mouth thin and almost lipless. She was terribly beautiful, the lines of her naked body appealing to Iris in a way that even now, fried by battle, registered in her mind. The statue's expression was judgmental, cruel, and fearsomely intelligent. One hand pointed to the sky, the other to the ground.
"Iris? Iris, what are you doing?" Alessa said, "Get away from there!"
Iris didn't know why she wasn't listening to Alessa anymore. Maybe she was delirious, coming off the battle-high. Maybe there was some magical compulsion forcing her hand. Maybe she was just curious, and stupid. But instead of turning to face Alessa, Iris reached out towards the altar, her cracked, dry lips parting as she breathed softly.
The second she touched the altar, she blacked out.
