14 Negotiations
1333 Words
It was a wooden door that barred the cave entrance. He found the hinges at each side, it was held by a lock with a set of three gears that would only open if you had the right combination.
Janus couldn't believe it. Adduk was capable of making a combination lock? This was more advanced than any of the technology in the castle. Then again, humans here had access to magic. So they tended to lag behind on the technology side.
Panic swept over him, however, as there was no way to know the combination of the lock, and he didn't have much time to work on it. The shackle that was wrapped around his foot now dangled in the rope ladder and he was having a hard time balancing. He yanked the lockout of the latch. Pieces of rock crumbled and gave away from the ceiling. Janus glanced at the goblins, they were still fast asleep.
Janus yanked again, and again... to no avail. Unlike the shackles, it seemed though the lock was made of tougher metal.
Adduk looked up from his workbench towards Janus, then there was a look of recognition from his face.
The goblin shouted.
"Princey! The passcode is three two seven!" Adduk's yell reverberated around the cavern. Waking up the goblins close to him.
Janus fumbled at the lock, three! Two! Seven! But he couldn't understand the goblin script. Good thing the scratch marks were easy enough to decipher, two and three were represented by the same number of sticks. Except for seven, he had to manually try every number for that.
Goblins were now rousing from their beds and fumbling for their weapons.
"Kazzuk! Wakey Kazzuk! The Princey is trying to escape!"
A pack of goblins charged towards him.
Janus fumbled through the last number and the hatch was open. But just before he could escape, his chain was caught by a goblin. It could have been Kazzuk or Dinggey or Addukk or all of them, he couldn't see clearly.
Janus could also hear commotion from the other side of the trapdoor. It was Hazzak, who stood as guard.
"Kazzuk! Help! Knightey is here! And the guards are coming."
Janus peered outside to take a look, he could see shapes and shadows, outstretched torches and rakes and spears, and a lot of people yelling.
Looks like his men were looking for him.
"HELP!" he yelled before being pulled down by a gang of goblins.
The thing about goblins was, they weren't very heavy. Even though there were four or five now tugging at the chains, it was quite easy to shake them off. So he did, after flinging away three other goblins away, he hurriedly escaped outside. He closed the hatch immediately.
"It's him! This way!" yelled a familiar voice.
The shape of Arthan came hurrying across the woods towards him. With the guards and few of the serfs behind him. They were carrying spears and rakes and torches. They had tired, weary faces.
Arthan was holding a goblin by the scruff of his shirt, pointing his dagger at the creature. It was probably the one sent to carry the letter.
"Stop don't hurt them! I'm safe! I'm safe!" Janus called.
"Muzza!" a screeching voice came out of the bush, it was the lookout.
Cedi took out his sling and hit the goblin square in the foot, the creature tumbled over and dropped his weapon.
"Guards! I don't want any goblin hurt, I repeat I don't want any goblin hurt." Janus wanted to de-escalate the situation before it devolved into chaos. Thankfully, he was able to close the hatch just in time. Most of the goblins would be safe inside for now.
One of the guards tied Hakkar up with the goblin courier.
"Your highness, my apologies for failing you." Arthan bowed before him.
"Nonsense, it was my fault for going away without informing you. It was my stupidity that got me captured. No one else should be blamed."
"Your highness" Dulfo stepped in " I'm sorry I had to betray your trust, I know you said not to tell anybody but I was worried that you weren't back by sundown. So I alarmed Arthan and the guards." Said Dulfo.
"You have done well Dulfo, no need to worry about it. I'm safe now, and we have to take care of a few matters."
Arthan spoke. "I can do it sire, it should be easy. It's great that they're all stuck in a hatch underground. We can burn them all from here."
The tied up goblins wailed.
"What? No! That's ridiculous!"
"Arthan, I can't believe you're such a barbarian!" came a familiar-sounding voice.
A familiar figure came out of the forest.
She was struggling to traverse the forest undergrowth with her dress, slowly muttering under her breath.
"Burn them all?" she looked at the knight "Are you mad?"
"And you!" she looked at Janus. "The day I come to visit you and you get yourself kidnapped by goblins?"
"It's nice to see you too, Yvaine." Sweat dripped all over his face. "Didn't know you were coming. It's been a long day now hasn't it?"
"And no, Sir Arthan. We won't be burning any goblins." He added.
"We're gonna recruit them to the manor."
"What?" Yvaine yelled.
#
"Are you out of your mind?" she repeated. It was the third time she said it.
Everybody had settled down now. The two goblins were tied to a nearby tree. The guards were stationed at the top of the trapdoor. The serfs who had to work in the morning were sent back to their homes. The only ones left were Janus and his trusted retinue, along with his sister.
"Think about it. We are struggling with our tools in the Manor." Said Janus.
"Because they were stealing them." Said Bodwin.
"Yes, but they could make us more. Master Ringo, do we have the means to get more iron?"
"No your highness. We source our ore from the town, but supplies are low at the moment due to the war."
"But still, we won't have to look for blacksmithing work outside if we could employ the goblins. I'm telling you, they have a genius down there creating tools out of scrap metal and wood and stone. Who knows what they could make us with the appropriate supplies? We need them as much as they need us. They were illegally enslaved by Lord Padron and used for his own means. That's why his manor has more income than most, he didn't have to pay for much of his labor. Now that they've escaped there's nothing left for them. They'll most likely be hunted down and killed. That's such a waste, we could use their expertise. I saw some orcs working for farmers on the way here, what harm would it do to employ these goblins ourselves?" Janus said.
Everyone looked at each other.
"Your highness, this will be a source of a lot of conflict between the men. These goblins have been looting them for weeks now." Said the knight.
"Which I'm sure you and the guards could handle fine right?"
The knight hesitated but nodded gently.
Yvaine sighed. "The Holy See might look at this as a transgression, the lower races are looked down upon in our society. I know your intentions are pure but others might not look at it in a different way."
Master Oswald added. "We might lose the favor of Lord Padron with this, your highness."
"We could say that these goblins are refugees from a war, and we offered them a safe haven to work in service of the Throne and of the Holy See. Lord Padron would never talk, or he would reveal his illegal slave operation."
Nobody said anything for a few minutes. Janus looked at their faces. They were all hesitant, just the same as the overseers were when he started changing things in the manor.
But something about this time was different, it was either Janus felt more confident or the ones around him had a strange feeling about the new Prince.
Yvaine was the first to talk. "I have ore reserves in my manor, we could organize a trade."
"That's settled then. Any objections from anyone else?"
This time it was Master Oswald who spoke. "You know what... It just might work."
- Writer
