Free The Goblin King by Shona Husk

surprised. He turned and stalked away before she could see a similar expression etched on his face.
    Eliza was his. Yet he was waiting for permission.
    ***
     
    The battle swept across grass that shivered and fell as it was trampled beneath the hooves of the horses and feet of the soldiers. Roan watched the dirt become mud weeping with the blood of the Decangli. He knew every move, every thrust, every man who fell. Yet he still summoned the final battle of the Decangli out of the dust time and time again. This was the result of his failure to win enough support to stall the rebellion. On days like today he liked to wallow in the past, wishing he could go back and change it. Kill the traitor before the general found out. Kill the druid…anything to save his people and change their fate.
    He’d been forced to watch the rebellion fail the first time, and had watched it fail a thousand more times played out in the dust as he relived the battle that should never have happened. Watched, unable to do anything as his tribe was slaughtered. Summoned by the Roman general, imprisoned in goblin flesh, he couldn’t move until ordered. The orders had made him a slave to Rome.
    Bitterness filled his mouth like rancid meat. Seeing the Roman Empire crumble under the feet of invaders had been poor compensation for the theft of their land and lives of his people. He watched on, unable to look away. His sword pierced the ground in front of him. His legs ached from squatting. But the pain meant he was still alive and he would enjoy it a little longer while he could. Did goblins feel pain? Was death the relief he wanted to believe in? Horses shrieked as they fell. Men looked surprised as metal appendages bloomed in their guts. The fortunate ones didn’t have time to realize they were dead.
    Roan sensed Eliza’s approach. She stood behind him. He didn’t turn and acknowledge her. The battle was almost over. The remaining few would surrender. Their heads would hang outside the walls until their skulls shone white in the moonlight. Rome would take his home. The military would command where kings had once led.
    She sucked in a breath. He supposed the violence was shocking to one who hadn’t lived it, and who didn’t understand the reasons.
    “What will happen to the dead goblins?” she whispered as if she were afraid of interrupting the battle.
    “The Shadowlands will reclaim them.” Their bodies lay by the river, without life there was no decay. The corpses would remain as fresh as the second they died until the magic stopped working and they turned to dust. No warrior’s flame would take their absent soul.
    “You said they were scouts. What were they looking for?”
    “Gold,” he glanced over his shoulder, “women.”
    Eliza flinched.
    Her reaction was almost enough to raise a smile. The Shadowlands wasn’t the realm of nightmares without reason. Existing here was dangerous. Roan turned back to the muck of battle.
    “Is it safe to be out?”
    “No.” Go away and leave me to dwell on my past. “Go back to the caves.”
    Her hand settled on his shoulder with no more weight than a butterfly. “Dai said this is the rebellion you tried to stop.”
    He shrugged and scowled. He didn’t need her pity. “I tried to stop the battle. The rebellion would have gone on.”
    A body rolled to his feet. The eyes were wide open, seeing nothing. Eliza’s fingers dug into his shoulder.
    With a thought Roan returned the body to dust. “Then Dai told you about Elryion and the other men.”
    “Yes.” Her feet shuffled in the dust. “I’m sorry for your loss.”
    The once proud warriors of the Decangli laid down their swords before the Roman army. The injured ones were killed. The leaders were tied and taken away. What happened next he didn’t need to see again. He had been ordered to kill his tribesmen by the Roman general as punishment for refusing to yield to Roman rule, and he had been helpless to disobey. The compulsion had torn at his