49

  “Rufi? Rufi!”

  “Come on Shoya, stay with us!”

  “Get him into the carriage!”

  “What the hell was he doing out here?”

  “Was that fucking Mountain Troll?”

  "I told you not to let him go alone!"

  “Rufi?”

  Rufi’s eyes fluttered open. He was being carried… no, he was being dragged. He was out of the house and back on the street. The rain was cold. His body pulsed agony. It bloomed from his skull, down his back, and across his stomach. Who was carrying him? Rufi turned his head, blood dripping out of his mouth as he did, and saw Chuch under his arm, half carrying, half dragging him.

  “Rufi? Rufi?”

  That was Mikkel. He must be under Rufi’s other arm. Rufi groaned, his head lolling forward, more saliva, bile, and blood oozed from his mouth. He heard a carriage door being thrown open and then more strong hands heaving him upwards. He managed to raise his head enough to see Pug’s frightened face.

  “Come on Shoya,” he murmured as he manoeuvred Rufi’s dead weight into the carriage. “You’re okay. You’re okay. Just lay down.”

  Poor Pug, he was always bad at keeping the fear off his face. But he was young and soft. He hadn’t fought, not really.

  Rufi muttered something.

  “What? What was that?” Pug said.

  “Is he awake?” Pauli asked, pulling himself into the carriage and kneeling in front of Rufi. “Get that glowstone lit!”

  “Am I dead?” Rufi asked again, his words sounded thick and clumsy.

  “No. You’re good,” Pauli laughed.

  He was better at hiding his panic than Pug.

  “Look at the fucking state of him!” Chuch snarled as he clambered in. “What the fuck was he doing out here, Paul?”

  “I told you I can’t…”

  “Fuck your secrets, you sideways little prick!” Chuch roared at Pauli. “Why the fuck was he out here alone?”

  Rufi groaned and waved a swollen hand at Chuch.

  “Look at him!” Chuch howled, his voice almost breaking. “He’s nearly dead!”

  “And how does shouting about it change anything?” Pauli said calmly.

  “Fuck you Pauli!” Chuch grabbed hold of Pauli, raising his other fist, murder blazing in his eyes.

  “Chuch!” Rufi snapped.

  He pulled himself into half a seated position and glared at Chuch with his one good eye.

  “Let him go,” Rufi said, his voice thick but steely.

  Chuch clenched his teeth but let go of Pauli. The glowstone came on and they got a proper look at the horror of Rufi’s body and face. Chuch’s eyes widened. He bit his clenched fists and stormed out of the carriage, snarling and cursing and hitting anything within arm’s reach.

  “Fuckin’ hell, Ruf,” Mikkel said, kneeling down next to him. “What happened?”

  “What happened?” Chuch roared. “What happened is we let our fucking Shoya walk into an ambush! Alone! He… he… fuck!” Chuch kicked the side of the carriage so hard it shook, and the horses whinnied in fright.

  Rufi sighed and then tried to get up.

  “Woah… what’re you doing?” Pug said, trying to place a hand on his shoulder, but Rufi brushed it off.

  He willed his broken body to move, and with Mikkel’s assistance, he stepped back out of the carriage. Chuch was seething. He was so angry he was panting. His chest rose and fell like a piston, his clenched fists shook, and his eyes had grown red with bloodlust.

  “Who are they? Who the fuck did this, Rufi? You give me a fuckin’ name and I’ll wipe them from the face of this fucking Forest before the nights done. I’ll kill every last one of ‘em. I’ll rip their fucking guts…”

  Rufi fell on to Chuch and wrapped his good arm around the raging Goblin. He hugged him as tight as he could.

  “This ain’t on you,” Rufi said in his ear.

  “Rufi… look at you. If it ain’t on me then…”

  “It’s not on you,” Rufi repeated gently. “This is my mistakes coming back on me. I had to take this one alone. There was nothing you could have done.”

  “Rufi…”

  “I’m good. I’m still breathing. It looks worse than it is.”

  He felt Chuch’s body calm, his thumping heart slowed down, and his breath steadied. Rufi was barely standing but he put on a front. His vision still swam but the fog was slowly clearing.

  “I took on a fucking Mountain Troll, Chuchy, and I won!” Rufi growled in his ear, taking a half step away from him, a wicked grin on his swollen face. “Bare handed. I killed him with these claws.”

  Rufi held up his swollen fist. Chuch looked shocked for a moment, and then a grin appeared on his face.

  “Grashnok!” Chuch growled, using the Goblin title for a Troll Slayer.

  He took Rufi’s fist in his.

  “You hear that?” he roared into the street. “You came at my Shoya! The Grashnok and he sent you to the fucking dirt!”

  Rufi wobbled as Chuch whooped excitedly.

  “That bastard was massive!” Mikkel said, discreetley grabbing Rufi's arm to hold him up. “You gotta tell us the whole thing!”

  “Later,” Rufi said, his face darkening. “First, let’s go kill the fucker that sent that Troll.”

  “Now you’re talking,” Chuch said.

  “Rufi… are you sure?” Pauli said.

  “Tiko set me up to die,” Rufi said. “I don’t care who he is or who he knows. Tiko doesn't see the sunrise.”

  “Rufi, you need to visit a doctor,” Pauli said.

  “Later,” Rufi snarled.

  “Tiko?” Mikkel said. “That Gnome from the Golden Bowl?”

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  Rufi sighed and looked at his friends.

  “I got some shit to tell you guys. Let’s move and I’ll fill you in on the way.”

  *

  “Shit Rufi,” Mikkel said. “You sold the Bad Batch?”

  Rufi nodded and winced. Now that his brain had unscrambled, the pain was almost unbearable. He had no idea how many bones he’d broken or how much of his insides had been turned to mush, all he knew was he ached. Telling them the whole sordid tale was too much for Rufi’s swollen jaw, so Pauli had given them the short version of affairs. Luckily, Pug had supplied him with a package thick enough to choke a pelican, and the drugs were slowly numbing him.

  “This is why you’ve been running around in secret?” Chuch said.

  “Yeah… I wanted to keep you all out of it. The less you knew, the less it could hurt you if it all came to light.”

  “But you told him?” Chuch said, jabbing an accusing finger at Pauli.

  “Paul’s good with numbers,” Rufi said. “I needed his help.”

  “Wait…” Pug said. “So you were sent by the Kings to find who sold the Bad Batch, but you were the one who sold the Bad Batch. So you were looking for yourself?”

  “Yeah,” Rufi said.

  “That’s pretty fucked up,” Pug sai.

  “Shut up Pug,” Mikkel said. “So this whole time we were chasing around after the Bad Batch…”

  “You were getting back what me and Tiko sold,” Rufi said.

  “Including Cameron’s?” Chuch asked.

  Rufi looked at him and nodded. Chuch had taken a crossbow bolt to the leg on that job, and even though he’d never admit it, it was still hurting him. Rufi felt shame wound him deeper than the damage inflicted by the Troll.

  “And now Tiko set you up to be killed?” Mikkel said. “Why?”

  “I don’t know,” Rufi replied. “It all stinks of Gnommish games. Some sort of power struggle within the Triad maybe. I don’t know, but Tiko was the only one that knew about that place, and he sent me the message to meet him there.”

  “Why a Troll though?” Pauli asked. “Gnomes could kill you a thousand ways without ever leaving a mark. Their assassins are the best in the business. Why a Troll?”

  “To make it look like it wasn’t them,” Chuch said. “Everyone knows the Troll’s have been gunning for you since you done over that fat headed fuck in the pub. If a Troll killed you, it would just look like revenge.”

  “Well that backfired!” Pug said with a grin. “Oh and a bonus, Rufe.” Pug pulled a heavy bag of coins from his pocket. “Found this on the dead Troll.”

  “Must have been his payoff,” Mikkle said.

  Rufi looked at the jingling pouch of coins. It was tied at the top with red string. Rufi’s nostrils flared. There it was again. That fucking string that had been mocking him this entire investigation.

  “I can’t wait to get my claws on Tiko,” Rufi growled. “He’s been playing me this whole time.”

  “You know he’s gonna be at the Golden Bowl?” Chuch asked.

  “Yeah, it’s his main stash and office. He’ll be holed up in there waiting for the good news that I’m dead,” Rufi said.

  “Gonna be tough to break in there,” Mikkel said. “Locked doors, too many hallways, and probably a small army of Triad.”

  “Fuck ‘em,” Chuch growled.

  “Don’t worry,” Rufi said. “I know the back way in. We sneak in and we grab Tiko. Take him somewhere quiet and ask a few questions.”

  The Goblins fell into silence as the carriage approached Little Kang. Rufi held his ribs and sucked on the package, willing the drugs to kick in.

  “Was it a good score?” Mikkel asked after a few minutes.

  “The Bad Batch?” Rufi said.

  “Yeah.”

  “Enough for two Tributes up to Uncle Sam.”

  Mikkel whistled and nodded appreciatively.

  “Any of it left?” Pug asked.

  “You’ll get your tastes,” Rufi said with a lopsided grin on his face.

  “Nice!” Pug said.

  Mikkel clipped him around the ear and shook his head.

  The carriage stopped down a disused side street off the main thoroughfare in Little Kang. The Goblins slipped out of the carriage, helping Rufi down after them. They flitted through the network of back alleys and cemented lots until they came to the back of the doctor’s office that hid the Golden Bowl restaurant. Rufi indicated the small metal shed. Hugging the shadows, Chuch crossed the backlot, and with a single blow from the back of his tomahawk, he broke the padlock and caught it as it fell. The Goblins were in the shed and down the ladder in less than a minute, even with Rufi hobbled as he was. They gathered in the mouth of the hallway and listened. The restaurant was silent. Rufi looked curiously at Chuch. Something felt wrong. There were no guards. No noise of any kind. It was too early for the restaurant to be closed already. With Chuch in the lead, the Goblins, with weapons in hand, crept down the dark hallway. They hugged the wall as they approached the first door. Chuch peeked the door and then stood back and nodded his head. They walked through the door, weapons raised and ready, but the next room was empty. This was the space where all the Gnomes illegal product was packed and shipped from. It was empty. There were half unloaded boxes laying around, goods spilt across the floor, and half melted candles still flickering and spitting.

  “This ain’t right,” Rufi whispered.

  “I smell blood,” Pug murmured.

  “Look,” Chuch hissed, pointing towards a corner of the room.

  There was a glistening trail of blood leading behind one of the stacks of boxes. Chuch held up a hand to Rufi and then gestured for Mikkel to follow him. They carefully stepped around the discarded boxes towards the trail of blood.

  “Fuck me,” Mikkel breathed. He lowed his tomahawk and looked at Rufi with wide eyes.

  Rufi hobbled over and looked behind the boxes. There were at least half a dozen dead Gnome workers piled up behind the box. They had all been stabbed and had their throats cut. Rufi looked from them and then around the room, realising there were splatters of blood everywhere in the dying light of the candles.

  “Mik, Pug, go check out the front.” Rufi said. “Chuch and Paul, with me.”

  The Goblins split up, and Rufi limped towards the office at the back of the sorting room. The door was ajar. He hesitated, and Chuch put a hand on his shoulder. Rufi stepped aside, and Chuch raised his tomahawk and pushed the door open. The three Goblins readied themselves. What they saw inside turned their stomachs. Three Triad Gnomes lay on the ground with the stomachs cut wide open, their guts oozing from their bodies. Slumped across the desk, his long purple hair splayed across the back of his skull, soaking in an oozing pool of blood, was Tiko. His throat had been carved wide open, a look of shock fixed across his face, his mouth slightly open as if crying out for help.

  “Rufi!”

  All three Goblins spun to see Mikkel and Pug running towards.

  “It’s a massacre out there!” Mikkel said. “They’re all dead. All the servers, the cooks, the Triads. There’s gotta be a dozen bodies out there… is that Tiko?”

  Rufi looked from Mikkel to the dead Gnome. He felt dizzy and weak all of a sudden. His stomach churned. He couldn’t stop staring at Tiko’s pale, bloodless, face.

  “Rufi! Rufi, we need to get out of here,” Pauli said, pulling on Rufi’s sleeve.

  Rufi snapped out of his daze and looked around at the other Goblins. He opened his mouth to speak when they heard the front door open. All five of their heads snapped up at the sound.

  “Shit! We need to go!” Mikkel said.

  They turned to run back down the hall they had come from when they heard footsteps on the ladder.

  “Form up!” Chuch snarled.

  He pushed Rufi behind him and the other three Goblins formed a protective semicircle around him with their weapons raised. They could hear running footsteps closing in on them from the front and rear entrances. There was a moment of silence and then the doors burst open. Heavily armed Triad Gnome flooded into the room. They stopped for a moment at the sight of the Goblins. Then the front door burst open, and Gnomes flooded in, chattering excitedly in their own tongue. Rufi knew a bit of Gnommish, but he didn’t need to be fluent to know what was being said: they had found the bodies of the dead workers and Triads. Dozens of rapiers were suddenly levelled at the Goblins.

  “Come on then,” Chuch growled, baring his teeth as he crouched, ready to attack.

  “What do you we do here, Rufi?” Mikkel muttered out of the corner of his mouth.

  The Gnomes slowly surrounded the Goblins. There had to be two dozen of them crammed into the small space. The Goblins instinctively shifted back, closing their ranks.

  “Ruf’Gar?” a voice said from the crowd of Gnomes.

  Rufi looked over the shoulders of Mikkel and Chuch. He vaguely recognised the speaker. He was one of the Gnomes in the warehouse when the Kings had met. Rufi knew he was a high ranking Triad from the black star tattoo on his neck.

  “What is this?” the Gnome demanded. “Why have you killed our men? Where is Tiko?”

  “Wait,” Rufi said, stepping between Chuch and Mikkel. “We haven’t done this. We just came to speak to Tiko…”

  “Where is Tiko?” the Gnome repeated, his rapier raised and pointed at Rufi.

  Rufi looked over his shoulder and sighed.

  “He’s dead.”

  The Gnomes bristled and began chattering again, advancing on the Goblins.

  The lead Gnome snapped something at them and they stopped. He stepped forward, and Rufi pointed at the office behind them. The Gnome walked slowly past the Goblins and into the office. A moment later he came out, his face dark but his voice steady.

  “Take the Goblins. If they resist, kill them.”

  Chuch rounded on the Gnome with his tomahawk raised, but Rufi grabbed his wrist and shook his head.

  “Put your weapons up,” Rufi commanded his Goblins before looking at the lead Gnome. “We didn’t do this.”

  “You can explain to the Yano. If any of you so much as twitch, we will cut you down.”

  Rufi nodded and dropped his tomahawk. He was so tired and sick with pain he was actually glad when the Gnomes grabbed hold of him because he might have collapsed under his own weight otherwise. The Goblins were led at rapier point out of the room. Another Triad Gnome came hurtling down the corridor in front of them.

  “Police!” he gasped. “Police are raiding.”

  “What?” the Lead Gnome snapped.

  “Police at the front door!”

  “Shit! Get the Goblins out the back. Move! Move!”

  The Gnomes jabbed at the Goblins and forced them to the back exit. Rufi looked over his shoulder and heard something heavy slamming against the main door.

  “Fuck!” Rufi snarled.