The Goblin Bride (Beneath Sands Book 1)

he would not fight them. He could already hear the excited clacking of Dumar’s teeth.
  “You will protect her now.” She let go of the woman and turned back towards the throne. “If we must mix blood to preserve our kind, then it is a risk I am willing to take. I entrust that you are capable of fulfilling this duty as honorably as you have your last?”
  She always had enjoyed her games. The queen never liked life to be boring, and for her the years always seemed to go by slower and slower. Courtly intrigue had diminished as the females left for other courts. Males bowed to her whim whenever she wished for anything.
  The only way she could entertain herself was to do things like this.
  Ruric could see the sparkle in her black eyes as she looked at him. She knew he had thought she was throwing him out, only to raise him up to the highest level he could be offered without becoming part of the court.
  “If that is what you wish, I would be honored to take on the responsibility.”
  He bowed before her, hand fisted over his chest.
 On her knees before them, she realized quickly how much she was at a disadvantage. The female had pressed that curved black claw against her cheek, reminding her firmly that Jane was not in a world she knew anything about. Those teeth had glinted in the dim lights around them, bared in what seemed like a macabre grimace. Her heart pounded loudly, nearly painful as it rocked inside her chest.
  But then, just when she was certain she was going to die, the creature had turned away from her. She had stepped back and started once more that trilling sound that was both beautiful and terrifying.
  Jane had tried very hard to keep her spine straight. She had too much pride to be on her knees before them without showing some kind of strength. It was foolhardy perhaps, but she wasn’t going to go to her death like the others.
  As the butterfly like creature moved away from her, Jane could not hold onto the edges of her tattered strength anymore. Her body curved. Her shoulders slumped until her hands were pressed against the floor in front of her. Shudders fluttered through her every few seconds though she tried very hard to control her breathing. Never in her life had she assumed that death would come in a garb of so many colors and with a voice that sounded like singing.
  There were so many ways for her to die in Silnarra. Starvation, thirst, someone killing her over a dispute in the sands. Then she had lied and started working in the mines, knowing full well that she could follow in her father’s footsteps and be crushed under the weight of stone. If she was lucky, she would have followed Luther to the City and ended her life on the stones of the City’s floor. At least then she would have had the knowledge that her brother and sister were safe and happy.
  Now what would her siblings do? Would they leave as she had asked them to? That bird man at the glass wall was hardly going to give them the money she had worked for. They had no way to prove that they were related to her in any way. Jane had lied about who she was to get in and had left no ties to the Penderghasts for fear of being caught. Now that could backfire on her family.
  Jane had failed their parents. It would have been a blessing to be torn to shreds by these creatures but she could not force herself to be brave in this instance. The thought of those curved black claws raking through skin would have made the bravest of men quake.
  Surely it was not a terrible thing that she was admitting to such weakness.
  There were a few more words said, and she could only call them words now that she understood it was a language. Still she remained folded as she was, her braid falling over one shoulder to touch the ground next to her hands.
  So entranced was she that the other humans were shuffled away and out of the cave without her notice. Her breathing was steady and even, though it was clear that her mind had vacated her body for the time being.
  Soon the rest of the goblins had left too, walking back down the peak and disappearing. Jane would remained crouched as she was with her hands pressed hard against the stone in front of her. The pricks of pain reminded her that she was alive. And if she was alive, that meant she had to show at least a little bit of strength. It was what she was raised to do. Dignity, even in the darkest of times, could change many things.
  Eventually she raised her head and looked around herself in shock. She quickly realized that she had been left alone on the flat peak.
  There was a stillness that was left behind. The ghostly imprints of footsteps and too bright colors could be seen behind her eyes. Colors that she had only seen in the wake of the sun. She had been blinded by the beauty of those creatures, as well as by the oddity of them. Now that they were gone it felt almost like a dream.
  It would be so much easier if this had all been a dream. Perhaps soon she would see the bright lights of the helmets she had become accustomed to. Simon would likely slap her back harder than ever before just because she got lost in the tunnels, but would remind her that there was natural gas here that caused hallucinations. She could regale him with her stories of goblins that seemed like butterflies who spoke in ringing tones of beauty.
  He would laugh her for such fanciful thoughts. Then remind her that a man didn’t talk like that, and wink at her with his cheeks bright