Ratface had expected a wagon to take them away, so she was confused when they were taken further into the city and not the border.

  What they were taken to Ratface didn’t really have the words for. It looked like several wagons all tied together but bigger. She looked to Abigail for explanation but for once the knight didn’t have one.

  “I couldn’t even imagine the runes for this, perhaps the conductor will let me look,” she said.

  “Don’t count on it traitor,” said Lily as she barged past their small group. “This is an experimental set of runes, a way to move knights to whatever city they’re needed in. So far it only connects between here and the Lady’s city.”

  She moved on before Abigail could answer. Abigail’s hands twitched as she went to reach out after the champion, but she didn’t move.

  Ratface felt the familiar itch to do something but knew there was nothing she could do. To her, Lily’s hatred felt unreasonable, yet she couldn’t ignore the part of her that said if it had been goblins she would feel differently.

  They entered the first cart without a word and a man if a small blue cap stood waiting for them. The hat was in proportion to the rest of him. He was only a little bit taller than Ratface which made him the shortest fully grown human she’d ever met. He was wearing a strange mix. He had a freshly cleaned white shirt on but he had overalls over it. Over than he had a small jacket. It made for a clash of formal and informal that brought to mind an adventurers fashion sense.

  “Ah, a knight and adventurers, is it?” asked the small man. He eyed Ratface’s garb specifically when he called them adventurers.

  She looked down at her own armour that had charms dangling off of it and was a mess of different pieces. Her eye twitched. At least it wasn’t colourful.

  Ignoring the existential crisis, he’d given her, the man continued.

  “Well in the first area we have everyone’s living quarters followed by food in the next and washrooms in the one following them.”

  “That’s only half of them,” said Albert. His eyes looking further down the carts in interest.

  “Yes, well obviously we’re not just transporting trial takers, we use this to move goods as well. You’re welcome to move around the goods but don’t touch anything or an alarm will go off.”

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  With that he waved them on so that the next group with Fulgora could come in. Ratface heard him lecturing her about not using lightning before she’d moved on. She shook her head. They really thought the girl was more of a menace than she was. It was almost like what being a goblin was like, except with way less pointy weapons. Ratface couldn’t help but be thankful for helmet.

  She frowned. In these close quarters she wouldn’t really get a chance to take it off. She’d have to take her food in their room and be extra careful to keep it on even when she was sleeping.

  Speaking of living space, theirs was the first one on the list just after the small mans own cart. The room was interesting, there was enough beds for all of them but they were stacked over each other.

  “Oh, bunk beds, I’ve heard some guilds have these for adventurers,” said Tiffany. She walked into the room and immediately sprouted a wall of vines blocking the rest off as she clambered up to the top. The rest of them watched in jealousy, except for Halmir who switched into a rat and darted through to get the other top bunk. Only after Tiffany had gotten sorted did she let them all in with a beaming smile.

  “I heard the top one was the best,” she explained. At the back Abigail snorted.

  “I’m not ever allowed on the top, people get nervous,” she said. She eased into the bottom bunk and it creaked. The rest of them shrugged and took the remaining free bunks. Kryssa was already negotiating with Halmir to share his one. Ratface took one look at the glint in his eye and decided that a top bunk wasn’t worth giving up half her dinner.

  Her own bunk had a small goblin doll on it again. She hissed quietly and covered it with her bag. She hated that the dolls were well made.

  “How’d you make those vines so quickly anyway?” Ratface asked Tiffany to hide her reaction. The girl smiled and showed Ratface her cloak. It had soil held in with vines and small flowers growing in it.

  “Albert helped me find something while we were wandering around. Most druids tend to stick to the outskirts of society but with us going into cities I needed something quick.”

  “isn’t that heavy?” And dirty, Ratface thought, but she kept it to herself.

  “Yes and no, there’s not actually that much dirt its most vines in here. The soil is just for flowers so I can do this.”

  She held out her hand and a flower sprouted that she handed to Ratface. The goblin tucked it into her collar with a smile.

  “That’s pretty cute,” she allowed.

  “It also is great for more dangerous things in a fight. I would have shown you all of this earlier but you’ve been so busy with the trials.”

  Ratface paused. Had she been a bad friend? She’d already been planning to look around on her own rather than stay here with them. She leaned against the bunk beds and grinned

  “Alright, well now you all have to catch me up on what I’ve missed,” she said. Tiffany smiled and started telling her about their trips and Fulgora’s blatant flirting with Albert. A thing that made the boy but in with his own version of events. Ratface smiled, a weight easing off her shoulders.

  These past few days had been filled with new stress that had made her feel alone. Sure, she’d have to deal with more of that tonight with the glamour, but that could wait until the evening at least.

  A goblin had to make time for friends.