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

her head. “Juo was never taught our language. Many of the little ones weren’t.”

Illyrin grunted behind her and let out a soft warble of warning. The group of humans in front of them flinched back in one, as though the sound was something to be terrified of.

“Please.” Jane’s word was meant to scold them. “They have their own language that we cannot hope to decipher. You’re lucky they are kind enough to learn ours.”

She stepped backwards until she felt Illyrin’s arm bump against her back. The soft touch would reassure the goblin male just as much as it would her.

“Catherine why hasn’t Juo woken up?”

“He’s on heavy sedatives. We interrupted an operation to grab him.”

The answer was enough for her. Jane nodded and turned on her heel towards Illyrin once more. There was a more pressing issue, one that made her heart beating painfully against her ribs.

“Ruric and Shusar?”

Illyrin shook his head once more, his large dark eyes gave her no hint to his meaning. She shuddered and felt the tear in her soul rip open. It nearly tore her apart and threatened to swallow her whole at the same time. Slowly, she breathed out through her mouth and stiffened her spine. A nod was her response back to him as she turned to look at the people risking their lives for them.

“Let’s go.”

Ruric was groggy as he slowly awoke once more. His limbs felt uncomfortable and his tongue hurt once more. As he attempted to shift, a fire bloomed across his stomach again. This was a concerning new development that made him anxious.

He needed to be healthy to escape from this place. He needed to be able to stand and walk out on his own so that he could save her.

Her.

Just the thought of the word burned through his mind far worse than the pain in his stomach. She was his first thought and his last thought every time they knocked him out. He had to find her, to save her, to do something other than lying on this table with his arms and legs strapped down.

But he could do nothing. Every time he was lucky enough to be aware of his surroundings, it was only for a few moments. They kept him sedated enough to move his limbs. He had sluggishly awakened once to find them rotating his legs. As soon as they noticed, they had knocked him out once more.

The room was usually silent. He had grown weary of this silence. In his home, there were constant sounds. He missed the gentle dripping of water that came off of the ceilings. He missed the rustling sound of goblins as they awoke to do their chores throughout the day. This place was twisting his mind and his soul.

He feared he was losing his mind with the constant pain and light.

Ruric started to slip back into his dreamless sleep when he heard the sound. Or multiple sounds as it were. There was a commotion next to him that his drugged mind hadn’t even noticed.

The struggle to stay awake was a battle he thought he might lose. Eventually, he managed to open his eyes to slits and turn his head just enough so that he might see the shadows near him.

He instantly recognized one. The lean body and small frame could only be described as the odd chattering human that constantly seemed to want to talk to him. Ruric hadn’t said much since their initial interaction and he didn’t plan on saying more. The young man was tenacious, Ruric would at least admit that.

The other shadow was not familiar to Ruric. He squinted and tried to lift an arm to rub at his right eye. His mind tried to muddle through the blurry images he was peering at and why he could only see part of the room.

Goblin language filtered through his startled mind. The sound of something dropping on the floor and angry muttering from a voice that was as familiar as his own.

“Shusar.” His own language was so much easier to speak. Even with his throat raw and his mouth desperately needing water, Ruric was capable of speaking to his oldest friend.

He saw the shadows pause for a moment, before he saw Shusar hook an arm around the throat of Frank and step closer.

Now Ruric could see him clearly, and the sight was a welcome one.

“You look like the underside of a raw fish.” Shusar told him, squeezing a little harder against Frank’s flesh.

The human man let out a squeak and went limp.

Shusar tsked loudly and dropped the human onto the floor.

“They’re so weak. How they managed to capture you, I will never know.”

“They shot me with feathers.” Ruric said as he tried to force his body to work. “Medicine that made me weak.”

“Of course they did.” Shusar’s claws scraped against the metal strappings that held Ruric to the table. “They do not know how to fight honorably. Only from far away.”

“They fight well enough to fell me.” Ruric attempted to move, but found even his head refused to follow his directions.

“Apparently so.” The warm trills of the goblin language were soothing to Ruric’s ears. They comforted him even as he became to grow distressed at his lack of movement.

“How bad is it.”

Shusar hesitated.

“Tell me, brother. I am as weak as a child.”

“You have lived through worse.” But Shusar’s tone was gruff as though even the battle hardened warrior was affected by the sight in front of him.

“I have lived through much, but I do not know if worse than this.”

“You’ll have to get used to walking without that eye of yours.”

Then Ruric’s arm did flinch. His biceps flexed once before the metal bit too far into his wrists.

“They took my eye?”

Shusar leaned further down until Ruric could see him clearly. His vision of the scarred goblin’s face was skewed as he leaned over him.

“Most of it. I think it’s still in there, but it’s too swollen to tell.”

His clawed hands prodded at Ruric’s eyelids, causing the bigger