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

“Jane.” Ruric said quietly, gesturing with his hand for her to come closer. “There are some watching us.”

“I know.” She responded.

Ruric nodded in response, his eyes swallowed by the darkness of his pupils. “They appear to be desperate.”

Her eyes drifted towards the group of skinny youths that had been watching them for much of the ride now. They were halfway through their journey, and at least one of them had always been staring directly at her small group.

She knew what they wanted. There were sick people here, easy to steal from. Pickings were easy on the train because no one wanted to fight back. They were so close to the end of their journey, people would allow them to take the clothes off their back. Nothing would stop them from getting off this train.

She let out a long sigh.

“They’re going to try something.” The low grumble from behind her warned that the heat was also trying the goblin’s tempers. She had no desire to see their anger raised again so soon after the massacre.

Jane splayed a hand out towards them. “Let them approach us.”

“It is unwise.”

“That is how it is done here.” She said quietly.

“I do not trust it. There are too many females here who could be harmed.”

Anger sparked inside her. It burst higher against the heat in her body and the discomfort that was already making her irritable. “There are too many people here. Period.”

Ruric heard the tone in her voice, and his eyes drifted over her tense muscles before lowering once more to the floor. They had agreed that the goblins wouldn’t attempt to raise any suspicion. Whether Ruric agreed with her that there were too many people or too many women, the goblins would not raise a fight.

They would wait instead. As Jane suspected, the gang of thin boys waited until nearly the last minute before they made their way towards her group.

Their hips swung in a tell tale confidence that meant they would make mistakes. One fiddled with a blunt knife at his hip, another spit towards her as they stopped not three feet from her back.

“Pity to leave the train with so much clothing on your back.”

“I suppose.” She answered quietly. Her eyes didn’t move from the still forms of the goblins.

“You could leave your clothing with us. We’ll keep a good watch on it. Only going to get hotter once you get off the train. The lines’ long.”

“We’ll keep our things with us. My thanks.”

A prick against her spine warned that the boy with the blunt knife was leaning into her now.

“I don’t think we was giving you a choice.”

His hot breath only added to her discomfort.

She was seated on a crate, her weight leaned forward onto her knees. Her hands hung limp and her breathing was carefully measured.

Jane did not want to appear worried. She didn’t feel as though she was in danger. Instead, she was just angry. There were so many things that could have gone wrong on this trip, and so many things that had gone wrong. A few little boys on a train trying to rob her blind weren’t going to stop her.

She didn’t move.

“You’ll be taking that little prick away from me now.”

“Oh really?” The boy chuckled from behind her and Jane watched as Ruric raised his head slightly.

She jerked her chin towards the goblins. “Those three are dying from a highly contagious disease.”

“And we care why?”

She shrugged a shoulder. “It killed our whole village. Wiped everyone out in three days. Started with a cough, so we didn’t think nothing of it. Next thing we knew, there was blood coming out of every crack that it could and creating more to slip out of. Dead the next day. The only way we could find it spreading was through the blood itself.” She tilted her head so she could see them. “You cut me, or any of them, and you expose everyone on the train to a disease that will kill them in three days. Less for some of the younger ones.”

Her voice carried, and everyone on the train stopped.

The boys nervously looked at each other. They were just children. As Jane slowly turned, she could see how thin they were.

Her world had always been so sad.

“Go on with you.” She said quietly. “If we find what we’re looking for in the City, our clothes are yours.”

They obviously didn’t know what to do with that information.

One of the older boys whipped his hat off of his head and scratched the base of his skull. “Well we’ll be holding ye to that then.”

Jane nodded. “I would hope you would.”

As the boys drifted away, she turned back towards the goblins and raised an eyebrow towards Ruric.

The goblin didn’t say anything at her challenge. He was impressed at her handling of the situation, and stunned that somehow blood had not been spilled.

If there was anything a goblin knew, it was the scent of a fight. They had all tensed in preparation. They were created to spill blood and had been honed in battle since they were very young. Ruric was part of a warrior class, he did not know how to be a peacekeeper.

Yet somehow this small human had managed to do just that. Words were her weapon, and Ruric knew well how sharp those words could cut.

He nodded in her direction.

Shusar grumbled, but turned to hide his face against the side of the train car once more. The tension slowly eased.

A beam of light flickered through one of the cracks and struck Jane across the face. She could see the reflection of the City through the small crack.

They were close.

A soft scampering sound pattered next to her and a small child pressed itself against the crack.

“Mama!”

“Hush child.” The woman grabbed onto the child’s chubby arm and wearily plucked her from the ground. “We’re almost there.”

The burble of sounds grew as the train started to slow. Even the grinding scream of the breaks couldn’t quiet the people who were plastered