The Goblin Warrior (Beneath Sands Book 2) by Emma Hamm (100 books to read txt) 📕

Jane knew at that point that she was not going to be able to stop them. As shock forced them all to pause, she had a moment to think about the one thing she had forgotten to remind the goblins.

Women were treated differently here.

She had been spared the affliction of her own sex simply because she was a large woman. Jane was tall and strong and stocky and because of that she had been overlooked. Many women were not as lucky. There were good men Above. But there were just as many bad men who took what they wanted. Unfortunately, that frequently seemed to be the women around them.

Jane peeked over the edge of the sand dune to look down at the scene below. A woman in what had once been a bright blue dress was hunched near the metal skeleton of the well. The man was already walking away from her, but Jane could see that her hands were tied to the metal frame next to her.

She managed to catch Ruric just before he launched over the sand dune.

“No. No listen to me.” His eyes didn’t focus on her. Instead, his gaze was locked upon the female kneeling in the sand. “You cannot run blindly into a fight. Those men have weapons, Ruric listen to me.”

“No.” He growled.

“You have to. We will get her, Ruric. I promise that we will get her.”

Slowly the anger faded from his expression and he focused back on the woman he called wife. “How.”

“Wait. Just wait for them to settle down Ruric. They will sleep. We can take her without waking them, without a fight. She could get hurt if you rush in and startle them.”

She had him. Jane knew that she had him. Even though she couldn’t see in the moonlight whether or not he was truly meeting her eyes, his muscles slowly eased underneath her hands.

Jane did not have enough hands for the other two. When a loud sob shattered the fragile control Jane had gained, Shusar leapt past them. His sleek form skidding down the sand dune in complete silence. Illyrin followed him.

Her hand slid from the wide chest in front of her. “Be careful.” She said quietly.

Ruric brushed aside the swath of blonde hair that had fallen in front of her face. But then he too was gone. And the screams began.

She stood with her back to the chaos as the wind ruffled her hair. The screams swirled around her until memories merged with present. She stood with one foot in her own world and one foot in one much darker. Death had left its mark upon her mind. It was a black stain that spread across her very soul.

One raider lay dying in the sand as he choked upon his own blood. He was the first to fall beneath flashing claws and teeth. The gash in his throat was too wide for his frantic hands to hold closed.

His last sight would be the shadowed tall figure that had turned away from him. It stood at the top of the dune and as he watched, the cloak it wore fluttered in a wind he did not feel. The last breath eased from his lungs and his eyes closed upon the image of the solitary figure.

Jane flinched when she heard the first gun fire. Then another. Shots that burned within her ears. Beneath her closed eyes, she imagined that every shot was striking yellowed skin and blooming bright red.

The screams were cut short with soft bubbling gurgles. The gunfire became sparse until it stopped entirely. The fighting was over as quickly as it began. The goblins had been right. There hadn’t been enough men to stop their teeth and claws.

“Jane!”

Her heart beat hard against her ribs at the sound. She turned and tumbled down the dunes, worried that she would find a massacre behind her.

She did.

Blood looked black splattered across sand that was white in the moonlight. As though she was moving in slow motion, Jane paused as her eyes danced upon the still forms of men.

They lay staring up at the stars as she had so many times before. Their eyes did not blink. Though she knew these were bad men, Jane had the urge to close their eyelids.

As she stepped away from one, her foot touched the hand of a man who was still fighting to breathe. His fingers brushed against her soft leather shoe. Jane watched the movement with horror. He had touched her with a grace that no dying man should have. Or perhaps every dying man should.

Their eyes met, and she swore she saw his soul leave his eyes.

“Jane!”

She turned upon an exhale. Her breath eased out of her body with the man who lay dying at her feet.

The goblins were gathered around the prone body of the woman. She lay with her head upon Illyrin’s lap as Ruric held her hand. Her dress pooled around her in grey fragments. Pitch black hair spilled from Illyrin’s lap and in the moonlight Jane imagined it looked just like blood.

She had no idea how right she truly was.

Her footsteps were loud to her own ears, but the woman did not react. She wasn’t reacting to any of the monsters gathered around her. Nor was she reacting to the bullet hole in her stomach.

Jane shuddered as Shusar moved to press cloth against the gaping hole in smooth pale flesh. The woman was clutching the wound at her stomach. There was too much blood oozing from between her fingertips. Jane knew she wasn’t long for this world.

“Please.” Ruric’s head tilted so she could see the tears that left dark tracks upon his cheeks. “Save her.”

“I can’t do anything.” Even to her own ears, Jane’s voice sounded numb.

“Please.” The other goblins revealed tear streaked faces. Females were sacred to them. And the first that they had seen in this journey would die in their arms. “We do not know how to heal human bodies. You do.