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

goblin to groan in pain. He could feel Shusar moving his eyelid, but saw no light through his right eye.

“Still in there.” Shusar stepped back and shook his head. “Doesn’t look good. You’ll have a scar better than mine.”

Ruric didn’t need to see the other goblin to know that he was dragging a finger down the scar on his cheek.

It mattered little. Ruric was a warrior and they all had scars. But there was a part of him that was concerned that she wouldn’t find him attractive anymore. She had found him pleasing in his differences, perhaps she wouldn’t mind if his skin was marred as well?

Shusar leaned down to kick at Frank’s ribs until he groaned.

“Get up.” Ruric winced as he recognized the disappointed tone. Shusar used to use that on him when he was a boy and getting into trouble.

Frank made a strange gurgling sound as he slowly sat up.

“What?”

“Ruric tell him to free you.”

“Frank.” It was the first time he had said the small human male’s name, and he could see the way the word had made the man’s shoulders quake. “Time to let me go boy.”

“I can’t. They’ll kill me.” The whimper nearly made Ruric feel back for him.

“He’ll kill you too.” Ruric nodded towards the other shadow he couldn’t quite see. “You can choose not to die right now and take a chance to not die later.”

Frank slowly stood and made his way towards the back of the room. Shusar dogged his steps, but Ruric heard the jangling sounds of metal that seemed to ring through the room.

Good. The boy had made the right choice.

He sagged against the table as relief made his muscles weak once more. He was so incredibly tired, but his mind was racing. He had to get out of here, get to Jane. Save the goblin boy. Get them out of the City.

Make the long trek home.

He was already dreading being back out on those hot sands and hiding from the sun. He longed for dark caverns and the save haven of a cool cave.

Those were far away from him now. But he was going home.

Frank’s hands were shaking as he unlocked Ruric’s shackles. He struggled with the first one and had to pick the key up from the floor more than once. Releasing the beast on the table was likely going to get him killed one way or another.

He remembered all too clearly walking into this room and seeing the large creature stretched out on that table. The last round of exploratory surgeries hadn’t been easy on him. Though they had assessed the organ structure in the last surgery, this time they had been viewing the finer details of the goblin.

The eye had likely been tinkered with beyond sight. The claws of his left hand had been removed. Frank didn’t know much about what his team did, but he didn’t think they needed to be pulling out the creature’s nails.

He had been standing in the doorway wondering when his life had become so twisted, when the other creature had shown up. This one scared him even more than the large one he had grown accustomed to.

This new creatures had scars upon his body and a glint in his eyes that made Frank shiver. He was dangerous. The creature on the table was dangerous as well, but in a different way. There was an intelligence to the large goblin. He understood what this world was and understood Frank’s language.

The same guarantee could not be said for this smaller battle hardened goblin.

He gulped as the last shackle was freed from Ruric’s body.

Though, in a way, Frank realized he shouldn’t be frightened. Ruric’s painfully slow process of easing onto his side and using his wounded hand to push himself into a sitting position made even Frank’s side ache in sympathy.

“Shall I get you water?”

Ruric shook his head, but Shusar cocked an eyebrow at the smaller human male.

“He’s trying to bribe you.” Shusar said in the goblin language.

“I doubt it. The boy isn’t that dangerous.”

“He kept you locked up in here looking the way you do.”

“He didn’t do any of the cutting.”

“How would you even know?”

Ruric paused to give Shusar a glare that was ruined by the way he was weaving even as he was seated. “Does he looked dangerous to you?”

The topic of their conversation was twisting his hands at his waist and staring at them with wide eyes. He had lost all blood in his face. Even his lips looked to be bloodless.

Even through his fear, Frank was standing and staring at them. He wasn’t running. He wasn’t fainting again. He was simply waiting for the next thing they wanted him to do.

“No perhaps not.” Shusar stroked his chin while staring at the boy and then turned back to Ruric. “He won’t make a decent miner.”

“No.”

“Think he’s any good at cooking?”

“No.”

“Watching children?”

“Won’t know until we try.”

Ruric slowly eased himself off of the table until his feet touched the cold floor. He didn’t have a stitch of clothing on him and the chill seemed to spike from his toes straight into his head.

“Oh dear.” Frank had noticed the shiver and was slowly inching his way towards another cabinet. “Let me get you something to put on.”

Ruric stretched out his arm to place a weak hand against Shusar’s chest. “Let him.”

As Frank rummaged, Ruric had time to speak with his old friend.

“How much longer do we have?”

“A while, I killed the guards and this hallway seems to be abandoned.”

“I’ve learned to not underestimate them.”

“Then we have very little time.” Shusar answered.

Ruric nodded slowly and held out an arm for Shusar to slip under. He grunted as Shusar took some of his weight. Goblins were strong creatures, but even Shusar struggled to hold Ruric’s weight.

“Jane?”

“Haven’t seen her.”

“I have to find her.”

Shusar snorted as he tried to support Ruric’s weight. “What is your obsession with this female?”

“She’s my wife. I’m supposed to be obsessed with her.”

“This is why females are not good for our people. They