The Goblin Bride (Beneath Sands Book 1) by Emma Hamm (good short books TXT) 📕

Though she was in a room full of people, Jane felt utterly alone as she climbed. Every heartbeat seemed to take longer, every breath felt as though it could be her last. Death loomed over her shoulder like a shadowy figure nudging her hands into the wrong place.

The stones held.

Eventually she reached the top. Her feet were wedged into the small gaps securely while one hand held her firmly against the wall. Jagged edges dug into her breasts and stomach, but she did not shift. She was frozen for long moments. Fear lanced through her veins in ice cold spikes that refused to allow her to move any more than a hairs breadth. She was here, she had survived, and now she could very well bring it all crumbling down with her.

Slowly she raised her hand. She reached towards the stone that had been pointed out to her. It was small enough to be removed without affecting the entire structure. The sight of it was imprinted on her mind. Plain, gray, nothing spectacular about it in the slightest. Other stones had gems wedged in them, or were speckled with stars.

This stone was manageable. It did not intimidate or make her fear. This stone was nothing more than a stone. This was why her hand could reach out and place a palm flat against its surface. She pushed hard.

There was a slow grind as it shifted among the other stones. For a moment Jane thought she would not be strong enough. It wasn’t going to move, she was going to be stuck up here forever.

But then it moved. With the slow glide of birthing it slid from its place and out the other side. She could hear the sound as it skittered down other rocks, striking hard until it rolled to a stop. It was the first step.

Relief nearly had her hands slipping from their firm hold. She had done it. At least she had managed to do something that would help these other goblins trapped on the other side.

A whistle had her arching her neck, looking down to see the hand movements of the goblins below her.

Clear the stones away, they seemed to be trying to say. Leave the sides, but in the center start pushing the stones away.

She could do that.

Jane started the slow and painful motions of pushing the stones one handed. There needed to be a long pause after every stone that shifted, making sure that the others had settled firmly into place before she could move the next one. Her back was aching, her arms felt as though they were made of water. She had to grit her teeth near the end.

Every push had her wanting to moan in pain, but all the goblins had gone silent. She had a feeling that too much noise was likely to bring the stones down around her head. It was enough to keep her silent, though her jaw was beginning to ache as she strained.

The hole grew until she could have fit her body through it. Then that the goblins below her started trilling again. She paused, pushing her hair out of her eyes with a hand that smudged dirt and blood over her forehead.

“Done?” She asked them quietly.

At their gestures, she carefully started the climb down. The journey down was shorter than the climb up, perhaps because her arms were so tired that much of it was an uncontrolled slide that had her heart beating just a little faster than before. Exhaustion like this could breed mistakes.

A goblin scooped her up at the bottom and deposited her a safe distance from the stones before he rushed back to the opening.

She caught her breath as she watched the goblins slowly hand body after body through the hole. They seemed to be alive at least, though there was more blood than she had wished to see. Streaks of dirt tinged their bodies almost to the brown skin tones she was used to.

Her elbows were propped on her knees, spine curved as she tried to force her body to stay upright. Tears pricked her eyes as more bodies were pulled through. She had helped them, but what if she had been too slow? What if they had all been too slow?

These people were not what she had expected. Their children were kind and sweet. They did what they could to make her comfortable around them, to encourage her curiosity with surprises that constantly had her laughing with them. She had expected the stories she had heard Above to be true. The flesh eating goblins that terrorized the humans were an easier story to deal with than the imaginative people that lived here.

Twelve bodies were removed in total. She counted each one as they were slid through the hole she had made. Some of them could help themselves and were handed to the line of goblins that slowly shifted them over their heads. Their hands were gentle. Their soft murmurs kind. Those that were injured would be helped in the best way that the goblins knew.

She was staring at the injured laying out next to her when she heard another low grumble. Was there another? Had they forgotten one more that was just now crawling to the mouth?

She hadn’t expected to see the wide shoulders and braided hair that she knew so well emerge from the hole. Ruric wedged himself into the opening, one arm sliding through as he tried to angle himself through it. Of course it had been him. Who else would have been strong enough to hold the others so that they could get to safety?

But the hole was too small. She could see it from where she sat. His wide shoulders wouldn’t fit through there, not without shifting the rubble. Perhaps the cut over his eye impeded his vision, or perhaps he was simply too exhausted to notice that he wasn’t going to fit.

She heard the rumble