“Now the hobgoblins think I’m their general,” Ragh told the goblins with a grin. “I’m not going to try anything so suspicious as ordering them all to leave. I’d wager some of them would contest me. But I’ll order them to come out here with me in small groups that you can manage. Enough will follow my orders that we can decrease their number, I think.”
“As we follow the orders of the greatest of Takhisis’ creations,” Yagmurth pronounced. “As we serve the perfect child.”
It took several hours but the plan worked brilliantly—so brilliantly that Ragh, disguised as the hobgoblin general, was able to lure every one of the hobgoblins out to the forest, in relay groups, until the entire force was vanquished, killed, or fled. Unfortunately, however, this tactic cost nearly a dozen goblin lives. Only fourteen of Yagmurth’s people survived the sometimes chaotic fighting. Yagmurth himself survived and was eager to follow Ragh to any other battle he might suggest, but the draconian was able to dismiss the goblin leader and his dwindling army with a false promise to meet them in two days at the stream where they had first confronted the umberhulk. Sadly, as though he suspected the truth, Yagmurth shook Ragh’s hands and left with the goblins.
Fiona had loved the fighting, and now she detested Ragh for sending the brave goblins away. “Liar.
Liar. Liar,” she muttered as she watched them retreat from view.
Ragh shook out his shoulders, shedding his hobgoblin form and returning to his wingless sivak shape.
“You lied to them, sivak.”
“Yes, Fiona. I lied to them,” the draconian admitted, “and I’ll probably have to tell some more lies in order to get Riki and her baby and Varek away from here safely”
She tossed her head. “Yes, Riki and Varek and… the baby That is my mission now.”
“We’ll go together,” Ragh said tersely. As much as he would prefer to send her back alone—for the humans were bound to wonder at the disappearance of all the hobgoblins and the sudden, alarming presence of a draconian—he still couldn’t bring himself to fully trust Fiona. Her eyes no longer flashed any semblance of sanity.
“Together, then,” she reluctantly agreed. “Then I must hurry after Dhamon.”
Things didn’t go well. The alarmed villagers had already prepared themselves for some crisis and started at the sight of Ragh strolling down their main street. The draconian was wounded by a badly tossed hobgoblin spear before he could shout anything to quell their fears. Now he was in the care of Riki, who had him seated on a chair inside her small house—the only chair she trusted to support his considerable weight—and she was bandaging the sivak. She smoothed ointment on his ribs where he had been gouged and blotted blood from his forearm and shoulder, where he had been pelted with rocks.
“Pigs, but they got you good, beastie!” the half-elf said. Riki fussed over the draconian, as Varek and Fiona looked on. “My new friends in this place didn’t know you weren’t no evil beastie. They were just tired of all the…”
“Hobgoblins,” Ragh supplied.
“Hobgoblins and such that been keepin’ us from goin’ anywhere.” She twisted a bandage around his shoulder, one that looked suspiciously like a baby diaper, and stepped back to admire her handiwork.
“That should do you, Ragh.”
The Solamnic had picked up the baby and was cradling it maternally. A baby boy with flashing dark eyes and wheat-blond hair. On the baby’s leg was an odd-shaped birthmark. Fiona traced it with her finger. It looked vaguely like a scale and was hard to the touch. Her finger caressed the baby’s face. The child’s ears were gently rounded, giving no hint as to his mother’s heritage. As far as Fiona could see there was no resemblance to Varek, only to Dhamon. She wondered if Varek had guessed the truth.
“I have to admit I’m surprised you’re alive,” Riki chattered away to the sivak. “You and Dhamon… and Maldred, too, I heard you say.” She wagged a finger at him. “I figured you would all have been hanged months ago. I didn’t mean to just leave you in that jail, but I had the babe to think about. And me and Varek.”
Ragh recalled with a grunt. Riki had denounced them to some Legion of Steel Knights months ago in a gods-forsaken jail on the Plains of Dust. She’d done it to guarantee the safety of Varek and herself, and she’d done it apparently with no remorse.
“Don’t get me wrong, beastie,” Riki added, as she adjusted the bandages one last time. “I’m glad you didn’t die. You’re not a bad sort for a beastie. But I don’t understand how you and your friends avoided that noose.”
“The tale is a long one and for another time, Rikali,” Ragh said wearily.
“I’ll have quite a few such tales to tell my babe when he gets older,” Riki returned merrily. “Tales about this village, too. Them horrid hobgoblins kept us all from goin’ anywhere for quite a few months, and all because Varek and some of the others were workin’ to help the Legion o’ Steel. Doesn’t pay to act good in this sad world.”
The draconian nodded. She was right. It didn’t pay to act good.
“What about the Solamnics?” Fiona cut in. She didn’t look at Riki, she didn’t raise her eyes from the baby’s. “I understand there are Solamnic sympathizers in this village, too.”
“Pigs, but there are!” Riki continued, slapping Ragh on the back to show that the job was done. “All manner of too-good-to-stomach folks here. I’m surprised I was gettin’ along so well with them all—me and Varek and the babe.” She paused and glanced around the one-room home. “Where’s Dhamon? You don’t know where he is?”
Fiona shook her head. “No, but I will find him. I will track him down, I promise you.”
“Good,” Riki said, not completely understanding. She balled her thin hands and planted them on her hips. “You can tell him Varek and me have left here—we’re not wasting time, waitin’ for hobgoblins to come back. We’re goin’ right today. Going to…” The half-elf turned to her husband. “Where did you say we was goin’, Varek?”
“Evansburgh, I think.” He glanced around nervously. It didn’t look as if they had gotten very far with their packing. “Maybe not today, but we should leave soon, Riki. If… when… word gets to the Knights of Takhisis that their little monsters have been—”
“Slain,” Fiona interjected.
“Slain, yes, they’ll send Knights instead of hobgoblins. Evansburgh’s a larger place. Or maybe we’ll go to Haltigoth and lose ourselves there.” He rubbed his palms on his tunic. “I want my family to be safe.
I’m loyal to the Legion, but this is no time for me to risk my life. I’ll not make the same mistake and put Riki and our child in danger.”
Riki glided over to Fiona and took the baby. “Tell Dhamon where we’re probably goin’. Mal, too, OK? You’ll tell them? I wouldn’t mind seeing them again.”
Fiona said nothing.
She turned back to Ragh. “You tell them, and tell them I’m real sorry I turned them over to those Legion o’ Steel Knights a few months back. Did what I had to do, you understand.” She cooed over the baby and gently blew at his forehead. “You tell them.”
“I will tell them,” Ragh said. It was, perhaps, another lie. Then he was at the door, looking out and grimacing to note a knot of curious villagers waiting outside.
Fiona brushed past him out into the bright sunshine. “Yes, you tell Dhamon, sivak, but you’ll have to speak quickly, for when I find him, he won’t have long to live.”