THE GREAT FURNACE

“What now, huh?” asked Slobad from behind Glissa.

She glanced up at the goblin. “What did you say?”

“What now, huh?” he repeated. “We get away. What we do now?”

Glissa stared at the goblin. She had no idea where they were or what was going on. She had heard that same question before, but it wasn’t Slobad who had asked it. It was …

“Where’s the golem?”

Now it was Slobad’s turn to stare at Glissa. “What you talking about, crazy elf?” he asked. “We left Bosh back in the cult caves.” Glissa could see tears streaming down the goblin’s face. When she didn’t respond, he continued. “Cult was attacked, huh? Remember? Flying silver men with blue heads. Goblins die. We run. Bosh stay behind so we can escape. Remember? Any of it? Bosh save Glissa’s life—again.”

“Bosh is the golem?” asked Glissa, more to herself than to Slobad. “And he speaks now.…” Bits and pieces of the last few days swirled around inside her head. Kane’s death. Her descent into the abyss. Bosh’s voice pulling her back. The attack. The dead goblins. Bosh taking a lightning bolt in the back that was meant for her.

“You left him there?” she demanded.

Slobad wiped the tears from his eyes and nodded.

Glissa backed away from the goblin and drew her sword. “The vedalken got to you, too, didn’t they?” she demanded.

“What?” said Slobad. “No! Bosh my friend, huh?”

“Just like the cultists were your friends,” sneered Glissa. “You left them to die with Bosh. All this time you told me you were cursed, but you’re the one who always lives when everyone around you dies. How does that happen, Slobad? Hmmm? You’re good at getting away, at leaving your friends to die. You left the cultists to die once before. You told me yourself.”

“Stop it, huh?” snapped Slobad. “You talking crazy. You don’t know what you say.”

“Don’t I? My life has been a disaster since I met you.”

“Slobad didn’t kill your family, Glissa,” said the goblin gently. “Didn’t kill trolls or elf friend. Didn’t attack Taj Nar.”

“Then who did?” screamed Glissa. “I have to blame somebody. If not you, then who? Me? Is that what you’re saying? It’s all my fault?” Glissa’s face flushed as she continued. “I have a destiny, Slobad. A destiny. Do you hear that? And that destiny is to watch everyone I love die one by one.” Her breathing came in gasps. “Is that my fault? I say it’s your fault. It’s your flaring curse that has caused all of this!”

Glissa stopped suddenly. She was clawing for breath. Then she was crying. She tried to wipe the tears from her eyes and cheeks with her palms, but they kept flowing. She balled her hands into fists and jammed them into both eyes, as if to cork the flow of tears.

“It is my fault, isn’t it?” she whispered after a time.

“Attacks not your fault,” said Slobad, dropping down beside her. “Not Slobad’s fault. Not curse’s fault. Not destiny’s fault. It was globe-headed mage, huh? Memnarch. Vedalkens. Someone trying to kill you. Stop your destiny.”

“But look what I’ve done to your only family. It’s dangerous to be around me.”

“You my family, now, huh?” said Slobad. “Listen. I live alone for long time. Not happy, just surviving, huh? Then crazy elf drag Slobad from hole and into danger. Show Slobad how to fight for life, not hide from it. Give Slobad purpose, huh? Make me feel part of family.”

“Get Slobad killed,” sighed Glissa.

“Maybe.” The goblin shrugged. “But die for cause, huh? Die fighting evil. Die fighting beside friend. Better than living in hole, safe and alone. I leave cult first time to save Slobad, huh? I leave this time to save friend. Come. We find vedalken mage. Or Memnarch. Whoever behind attacks. We find, huh? Make him pay for Glissa’s family, friends, Slobad’s cult family, Bosh.”

Glissa nodded her head. The little goblin had a way of cutting through to the truth. She saw plots and deceit everywhere. He saw life and truth. The truth was that someone really was trying to kill her, and it wouldn’t stop until she made it stop. She owed it to Slobad to save his friend and his family. Glissa reached out and hugged her companion, squeezing until he pushed her away.

“Crazy elf.”

“Come on, we have work to do.” She jumped to her feet and headed back toward the tunnel.

“Where you going, huh?” asked Slobad. “Quicksilver Sea that way.” Slobad pointed across the craggy hills that surrounded them toward the open lands of the Glimmervoid.

“The vedalken can wait,” said Glissa. “Our friends cannot. First we save Bosh and Dwugget, then we make Memnarch pay.”

*   *   *   *   *

Glissa and Slobad made their way back through the ductwork to the Krark cult lair. Slobad led the way with the fire tube doused. Glissa followed blindly, holding onto Slobad’s satchel so she didn’t lose him in the winding tunnels. After crawling through the dark for some time, Glissa nudged Slobad.

“Did it take this long on the way out?”

“No,” said the goblin. “Taking us to secret part of cult lair, huh? So secret, even they don’t know about it.”

“Another one of your personal improvements?” asked Glissa.

“Yes. Hiding spot, huh? See most of lair. Hide there when shaman’s warriors attack long ago. No time to get others to safety. We go there now. Check for danger, huh?”

“Good plan,” said Glissa. “That should bypass any guards they may have left at our escape tunnel.”

“That, too,” said Slobad. “Now, be quiet, crazy elf. We under lair right now.”

The two crawled on in silence for a while. After a few more turns, the goblin stopped. Glissa could hear him grunting. A moment later, she heard metal scraping. Then Slobad began moving again. His satchel pulled her upward until she grabbed the lip of a hole.

The elf pulled herself up into a large room. She could barely see anything, but light seeped from small openings near the floor all around her.

“Slobad,” she hissed. “Where are you?”

“Over here, huh?”

Glissa felt her way through the dark toward the goblin’s voice, bumping into what felt like a table, then a chair, along the way.

“We spy on lair from here, huh?” said Slobad. “Kneel down. Look through hole. Hole shows hall where attack start, huh? Look.”

Glissa knelt and looked through the opening. It was the same size and shape as the cover Slobad had to remove to get into the tunnels, which she suspected were air ducts. Ingenious little goblin. Through the hole Glissa saw an intersection of two corridors. The hallway across from her was dark. That must have been where we slept, she thought. To the right was where the goblins were attacked. Glissa could see the scorch marks on the floor and the blood, but otherwise the corridor was empty.

“Where are the bodies?” she whispered. “At least five goblins were killed there. Where’d they go?”

“Good question. Maybe silver beasts take them.”

“Maybe,” said Glissa, “but why? Dead goblins wouldn’t help them find me. That has to be the right corridor, though. I saw the blood.”

“Check other holes, huh?” said Slobad.

Glissa and Slobad circled the large room, checking each peephole in turn. There were several on each wall. Through each, they saw the same thing. Deserted corridors, scorch marks, and some blood. There were no sign of goblins, hover beasts, or Bosh.

“Where in the flare is everybody?” asked Glissa

“I think I know,” said Slobad, “and it not good. Not good at all. Very bad, in fact.”

“What do you mean?”

“Look at this, huh?” said the goblin.

Glissa followed the walls around the room until she bumped into Slobad, then bent and looked through the hole. The corridor outside looked much like the others. Scorch marks on the walls and some blood on the floor. “What am I looking at?” she asked.

“See symbol?” asked Slobad.

“No. What symbol?”

“Look at black mark on wall, huh?” said Slobad. “Something drawn there. Symbol. See? Huh?”

Glissa looked at the scorch mark again. Sure enough, there was an odd symbol scratched into the wall. The black soot from the lighting bolt almost obscured it. Even after Slobad pointed it out to her she could barely make out the image. It looked like an eye above a mountain.

“What does that mean?”

“It means goblin shaman here again,” said Slobad. “Come and clean out lair. That Eye of Doom mark. Shaman carve to mark unclean lairs.”

“That can’t be a coincidence, Slobad,” said Glissa. “You said the cult had stayed hidden for fifty cycles. There’s no way those vedalken beasts and the goblin shaman found this place at the same time. The shaman must have sold out to the vedalken just like Geth and Strang. But why did the goblin shaman take the dead bodies?”

“Take everyone to Great Furnace. All metal must be returned to clan.”

“They’re going to burn them in the furnace?” asked Glissa, a note of panic in her voice as the realization sunk in. “Oh, flare! Bosh!”

“We hurry,” said Slobad. “No time for sneaky elf.” The goblin lit his fire tube and ran back to the hole in the middle of the floor. He dropped into the tunnel before Glissa could even move. The sudden light had blinded her. Through the dots floating in her vision, Glissa stumbled to the hole, which glowed with the light of the torch below.

She followed Slobad back into the ductwork tunnels but could barely keep up with the little goblin. She might be able to outrun him on land, but her long legs were not made for this environment. They traveled for over an hour through the twisting tunnels. With the fire tube lit, Glissa could tell that even the straight passages weren’t all that straight or smooth. It looked as if the rusty metal had been banged into shape by hammers.

The two passed many openings. Most of the time, Glissa could see nothing in them but darkness. Sometimes a fire tube beyond the duct would illuminate an open cavern or a small room filled with metal and tools. She saw goblins hard at work heating and banging metal or cutting away walls and floors of caverns. It looked as if they were mining metal from the mountains, then fashioning it into whatever they needed.

After more than two hours, Glissa had to stop. A cramp shot up her calf into the knee, and she dropped to the floor of the tunnel. Hearing her groan, Slobad stopped several feet on. Glissa straightened out her leg, but in the small tunnel she could not reach down to massage the muscle. Worse, the passage was getting warmer.

“Not much farther,” said Slobad. He came back and sat in front of her. His head was jammed up against the top of the tunnel, and he looked at her from an odd angle.

At least he can turn around and sit, thought Glissa. “I’ll just be a moment,” she said. “Why is it getting so hot?”

We close to furnace, huh?” replied Slobad. “Ducts take hot air to goblins. Cool furnace and heat homes. Smart. Goblins good with machines.”

“Will the ducts take us all the way to the furnace?”

“No,” said Slobad. “We can’t get to furnace by duct. Air too hot at Furnace, huh? Goblins replace ducts above furnace every cycle. Melt away. Furnace very hot.”

“Then where are we headed?”

“Holding pens,” said Slobad. “We find Dwugget, maybe. Cultists. Pens close to furnace. If not there, we too late.”

Glissa’s leg was still sore, but she could move. “Lead on,” she said.

Soon after, Slobad stopped at an opening on the floor of the tunnel. He pushed the cover out, then pulled it through the opening, placed it in front of him, and shut off the fire tube. Glissa could just see the silhouette of his head as he leaned over and stuck it through the opening.

“Nobody here,” he said. “Safe. Come on, huh? Hurry.”

Glissa followed him through and landed in a corridor lined with rusty cages. Fire tubes at the end of the corridor provided dim light. Most of the cages were empty, but one held about a dozen goblins cramped together. The companions crept to the packed cell.

“Dwugget,” called Slobad. “You in there, Dwugget?”

“Here,” came a hoarse reply. “All here, my son. Is that you, Slobad?”

“It me,” said the goblin. “Come to get you out, huh? Set you free.”

“How did you get away, little Slobad?” asked the cult shaman. He pushed his way out to the rusty bars. Dwugget wore what Glissa assumed must be shaman robes. For goblins that amounted to a leather jerkin that hung to his knees instead of a simple loincloth.

“Why did you come back? It’s very dangerous here for you, huh?”

“I tell you,” said Slobad. “We come to get you. Me and Glissa. My friend. Golem help us get away. Now we set you free, huh? This all that lived?”

“Yes,” said Dwugget, “The dead were already taken to the Great Furnace, may Krark lead them to the Mother’s Heart.”

“What about Bosh?” asked Glissa. “The golem—where is he?”

Dwugget looked over at Glissa. “I am glad to see you awake,” he said. “Slobad was worried about you, huh? You were in a dark place. Now you have returned to the light. It is the Mother’s will that you live.”

Does everyone know more about my life than I do? wondered Glissa. She smiled and nodded at the shaman. “The golem?” she asked again.

“Of course,” said Dwugget. “Sorry. Your metal man was taken with the dead to the Furnace. We are next for the fire.”

Slobad turned and started toward the other end of the hall.

“Slobad!” called Glissa. “Where are you going?”

“Save Bosh,” said Slobad. “Be back, huh?”

Glissa ran after Slobad and grabbed him by the shoulder. “We can’t leave them here,” she said. “They’ll be killed.”

“Won’t let them melt him down, huh?” cried Slobad. “They not make boiler or ductwork from Bosh!”

Glissa released him and patted him on the back. “Go find Bosh,” she said. “I’ll get Dwugget’s people into the duct, then come find you.”

Slobad opened the metal door, which creaked horribly as it moved. He peered out the doorway for a moment then slipped through. Glissa turned back toward the cell, pulled out her sword, and moved forward.

“Stand back,” she said.

The mass of goblins inched away from the bars as best as they could. They huddled against the wall, whimpering. Glissa stepped back and gauged the distance. She swung her sword hard toward the iron bars. It sliced through four bars, coming to rest just inches from Dwugget’s head. Glissa swung the sword again, aiming low. The iron bars clattered to the floor, leaving an opening large enough for the goblins.

“Quickly,” she said. “This way.”

The remaining Krark cultists scurried to the opening in the duct. Glissa lifted Dwugget into the hole and held him there as he scrambled through. One by one, she aided the rest of the cultists.

“Replace the cover and move down the tunnel,” she said to Dwugget. “Wait for us to return—and for flare’s sake stay quiet.”

The elf ran down the hall, grabbed the fire tube, and opened the door a crack to look out. The heat from the next chamber slammed her in the face like a stiff wind. She fought for breath in the stifling heat as she slipped through the door. Glissa scanned the chamber beyond the cells. All the lair areas she had seen so far had been goblin-made. They were small, square rooms made of hammered metal fused together.

This chamber was altogether different. It was a huge circular cavern hundreds of feet across. The walls were made of iron but had not been hammered. They looked almost like intertwined Tangle trees. Tubular veins of rusty iron grew from the floor up to the ceiling high above her, snaking back and forth through each other. Fire tubes were jammed into crevices between the veins here and there, but the majority of light—as well as the blasting heat—came from the furnace in the center of the room.

The furnace looked like a massive knot of iron tubes growing from the floor of the chamber. Hundreds, if not thousands, of the iron tube-veins came from the floor, intertwining, branching, and reaching up at least thirty feet. It was as big around as Tel-Jilad, the Tree of Tales. Smoke and fire belched from the tops of the tubes at irregular intervals. Most of the room was bathed in a red glow from the fire and the rusty iron, but the ceiling was pitch black from flare knew how many cycles of fire.

Glissa stood above the floor of the furnace chamber. The door she had come through was carved right into the tube wall. There was a hammered path in the uneven floor leading down to the furnace. Paths had been leveled throughout the chamber. Some of the paths looked like ledges or bridges spanning a dark trench. She could see goblins moving about performing tasks, but it was almost impossible to distinguish Slobad from any other goblin working around the furnace.

That’s one advantage Slobad has here, thought Glissa. He can blend in. She dropped to her knees to avoid being spotted while searching the cavern for her friend. She spotted a goblin with a satchel amidst a large pile of debris near the back of the chamber. Many of the goblins had satchels, so she couldn’t be sure. They all looked so much alike. But this goblin seemed to be looking for something in the pile. She moved around to get a better view.

As she got closer, Glissa saw the figure lift some debris and toss it aside. Underneath, she could see something large. The goblin tossed shards of metal aside to uncover more. Glissa crept even closer until she could see that the large object was Bosh’s chest.

The elf looked around for a way down. A path led to the furnace floor over near the pile, but Glissa decided to stay hidden and not draw attention to Slobad. She would watch for danger from above. With any luck, Slobad could activate the golem and ride it out before the other goblins guessed what was happening.

By the time Glissa arrived at her new vantage point, Slobad had uncovered most of Bosh. Glissa realized the golem was in pieces. Worse, several goblins seemed to have taken an interest in Slobad and were heading toward him.