Free Goblin Hero by Jim C. Hines Page B

had lit up most brightly when he used his wings, but even when resting, he gave off as much light as a good lantern. If there was a pixie anywhere near that cave, Veka would see.
    “Stay with me,” Veka said, stepping into the clearing.
    Slash’s fingers snagged her cloak and yanked her back. She fell, banging her shoulder on a tree. “What are you doing?” she shouted, climbing to her feet and shaking her staff at him so hard one of the glass beads broke and fell into the snow.
    “Keep your voice down, idiot! If you’re so eager to get yourself killed, at least let me do it.” He used his spear to knock her staff to one side. “Any hobgoblin child would know better than to go out there.”
    Veka stared back out at the clearing. “It’s not even guarded.”
    “Exactly.”
    Veka’s fingers traced the outline of The Path of the Hero beneath her cloak, wondering if Josca included any instances of the Hero killing her own sidekick.
    Then she spotted it. The body of a small rabbit, half buried in the snow. In the dying light, she had mistaken it for a bit of wood or dirt. She couldn’t see any blood, so it hadn’t been killed by predators. From the amount of snow on the rabbit, it had been dead a while. Someone could have killed it with a rock, she supposed. A number of goblins were quite good with rocks. But why would they leave the corpse?
    No, this had to be a trap of some sort. Judging from the angle of the body, the rabbit had been coming from her left. It had died a bit short of the cave. The trap must cover the area in front of Straum’s lair. Using the rabbit as a marker to judge the distance, that meant it probably extended right up to the edge of the woods. A few steps and she would have triggered it.
    That only made her angrier at Slash. A Hero shouldn’t need her sidekick to save her. She knelt, determined to figure this out for herself. Slash leaned against a tree with his arms folded, amusement plain on his face.
    The land looked no different. Ice encased the grass and shrubs poking up from the snow. The grass was a bit taller here, maybe. And there were holes in the snow where the ice protruded, almost as if the grass had melted the newfallen snow around it. But if that was the case, why hadn’t the ice melted as well?
    She pushed her staff forward, breaking bits of ice and snow. She glanced at Slash for some clue whether this was a good idea, but he only smirked. Her face burning, she jabbed the staff farther.
    The ice didn’t break. She tried again. A bit of snow fell away, but the ice was solid as rock. It seemed to pulse with a dim red light. Another jab confirmed it. “There’s something inside the ice.”
    The taller shards of ice were literal spikes. She could see it now, how they came to a sharper tip than the rest of the grass. They had to be magical, probably strong enough to pierce the leather soles of her boots, as well as her feet.
    She crawled forward, using her staff to test and break the ice until she reached the closest of the spikes. With one finger, she brushed the snow away.
    The base was as thick as her thumb, and appeared to extend a little way into the dirt. The ice was perfectly smooth, so clear she could see something coiled at the base. She gave it a quick tap.
    The ice flashed red as a thin tendril uncoiled, shooting up to the very tip of the spike.
    “Looks like the rabbit managed to hit two of them,” Slash said. “I’m guessing whatever’s inside is poisonous. Their prey dies on top of their little trap, and they get enough food to last for weeks.”
    Veka’s stomach rumbled again at the mention of food. “So how do we get past them?”
    “If it were me, I’d toss a bunch of goblins out there. The spikes would hold them in place, and all I’d have to do is stroll along the goblin path.”
    What she needed was the ability to fly, like the pixies. If only she could make her levitation spell work. She pulled out her spellbook and opened it to the spell. The