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

She would be giving her choice to him if she agreed with him. Females did not do this as a rule. Males were too volatile, too easily angered to make choices like this. They made decisions based off of emotion. Females could remain neutral.

  The Queen had nodded. And so it had fallen onto Ruric’s shoulders to decide Jane’s punishment.

  Her hand clutched tightly onto his. He knew how nervous she was. He knew that she likely thought she was being led to her death. As much as it pained him to know that she thought so little of him, he let her continue to think dark thoughts.

  She was meant to learn that the goblin world was not like hers. That was the lesson that he had been trying to teach her for so long. Ruric had been so certain that she had listened to him. Her actions proved that she had not.

  Once more they were in the large chamber where they had feasted after the binding ceremony. This was where they had killed the humans.

  She was brought to the small outcropping of stone that lifted them above the crowd of goblins staring. They parted as the couple walked upwards, staring at her with eyes that were filled with hatred and anger.

  This time they would not touch her. He was too close. The big goblin who had been her protector for months now would not let them. Ruric hated to see the dried blood upon her skin from where they had attacked her before. It was within their right to draw blood. The families who had lost their own deserved that much at least.

  He forced her onto her knees. Jane went without complaint. As she bent, he noticed that her eyes were strangely blank. He had seen the look before on others who thought they were going to their death. It was a withdrawal from the situation. Her soul was moving somewhere else.

  “Jane.” He clacked his nails loudly in front of her eyes. “You stay with me the entire time.”

  A muscle on her jaw flexed but she nodded slowly when she looked up at him.

  He addressed the crowd and knew that she would not understand him.

  “My brothers and sisters, you have asked for retribution!” A loud cheer followed the words. “The Queen has given me the right to choose what this female’s punishment will be.”

  Even Jane noticed the strange stillness after his words. Her head lifted slightly to look out over the crowd, that furrow between her eyes deepening. She would not know that the goblins stilled because he had not called her human, but female. They would be reminded how grave this situation truly was.

  “I have chosen the chaining.”

  A ripple went through the crowd, slow murmurs as he turned to take a golden collar from a goblin that held it up towards him. Gold was useless to goblins. Too soft to put to work, too weak to be used in any way, it was merely pretty. They used it for decoration or buttons if need be, but usually it was simply thrown away when they found it.

  He turned towards the human woman who made him so weak and knelt before her.

  The collar was clasped onto her neck. The filigree made it beautiful and delicate. The yellow matched her hair. It covered her from collarbone to nearly underneath her chin. His nail traced the fine work of it before looking up at her.

  “Seventeen goblins dead. Nearly fifty humans dead.”

  “I did not let that many humans go.” She said quietly.

  “They freed others. We have lost nearly seventy lives on this day.”

  Her jaw quivered for a moment before he watched it lock into place. “What are you going to do to me Ruric?”

  His nail clinked down the fine metal work. “We call this the chaining. It is your punishment.”

  She could hear the goblins murmuring. The sound was disquieting when she realized it was not that they were disappointed with the punishment. It was that some were worried it was too much.

  “What is the chaining?”

  “When we were bound, we were equals. I was your protector and sword. You were my haven. A binding creates a bond that can never be broken. Two lives made into one.”

  “What is the chaining, Ruric?” She asked once more.

  He tapped hard against the gold. “This changes the binding. We are not equal. You have no say any more. It takes away your power as female.” He leaned in close to her. His gaze locked upon hers. “There is no where to run now, Jane. You are mine.”

  As he turned to look at the sea of green faces staring back at him, he wondered where their journey would take them. He could not dispel the sinking feeling in his gut. This was where their story ended, and also began.

Stay tuned for Part II, The Goblin Warrior