Then they quietly returned to their blankets when the song was done.

I strummed through a few songs, most of which I’d carefully chosen to nix any modern references. Then switched to a tale about Jack and the Beanstalk.

Of course, I’d edited it to make sense to a goblin. My ‘Jack’ had to win over his three favorite girls with a never dying flower instead of a golden goose.

I had enough material ready to last all night if I needed to. But after two more stories and three more songs, I caught Croix’s eye.

The little ones weren’t used to being up so late and at the first sign of drowsiness the festivities ended.

I sang one more song to welcome the little goblin prince and bid my audience goodnight.

Mothers ushered their little ones to various huts and to bed while I put away my guitar. Feeling elated with my success for the night.

“Thank you, our witch.” Thirteenth Wife shyly shifted on her feet as I looked up at her. Then, chin ducked, she held out the baby. “Do you want to hold him?”

I froze.

For a second, I couldn’t answer. Then I blinked rapidly to hide the tears that suddenly burned my eyes as I quickly stood up and reached for the little bundle.

Goblins are like most animals. Adorable as babies, not so much as adults.

So I fully admired the infant as I carefully held him. All while trying not to be overwhelmed by the gesture of trust from Thirteenth Wife.

“I thought he was getting a name?”

She shrugged and smiled timidly.

“Fourth Wife of Oel didn’t receive his name. We’ll have to wait a little longer.”

I didn’t understand what she meant, but I didn’t press. I could see Ghana scowling at me. Not at all happy to see me holding their future so close to my chest.

“He’s beautiful.”

She beamed.

“Could you… bless him?” she asked timidly.

Bless him? Uh… I looked down at the cute little face and bit my lip.

“I don’t- I’m a witch. I do spells.”

“Please?”

What on earth could I bless him with?! I wasn’t prepared for this!

Hesitantly, I shifted the baby in my arms and closed my eyes.

One thing I’d been doing was ‘infusing’ magic into my plants.

They got bigger, healthier, and more resilient than the goblins’ plants. They were also… I don't know how to explain it. They felt happier to me, too.

Which is a strange thing to say about plants.

So, that's what I did for this little one.

I poured my native, bloodless magic into him.

When Gran first started training me, I'd had so little native magic that I could barely tell I used it before it ran out. But apparently it was like a muscle. The more I used it, the stronger it got.

And I used it a lot.

Enough that I could use illusions for hours and have plenty left over for this ‘blessing’.

I handed him back to his mommy.

“I predict he'll be a very healthy baby.”

Thirteenth Wife thanked me and scurried away. That's when I finally gave into Ghana’s impatience and slipped out of the village without talking to anyone else.

“So, are you escorting me home to watch out for my safety… or to keep me from causing trouble?”

Ghana grunted.

“Well, you're right about trouble. I saw trolls when I went out for wierny flowers yesterday. Three of them. I kept hoping the sun would turn them to stone so I wouldn't have to deal with them.”

“Why would they turn to stone?”

She was getting impatient with me. How far can I annoy her just by talking?

“Well, where I'm from, everyone knows that trolls and sunlight don't get along.”

“They're nocturnal unless their hunt takes them into daylight.”

“Sunlight means death. Of course, where I'm from trolls don't exist.”

She made a satisfyingly exasperated grunt.

“Then this is useless information and should be forgotten.”

“Not useless. I can make you mad with it.”

She growled and I started humming under my breath. Which also annoyed her, but she must have thought it was better than my talking because she didn’t try to stop me.

We’d made it to House, and I turned to thank Ghana for her unwilling escort… when I saw something odd. I stared at the treeline for so long that Ghana turned to see what I was looking at.

It was… like the sunset behind the trees… what did it remind me of?

“Fire.”

Ghana said it so calmly that my mind didn’t catch it right away. It only caught up when Ghana abruptly broke into a dead run, right where she was standing.

Racing back the way we’d come.

Fire.

My heart pounded the word and I gripped my jacket, closing it tightly.

Fire.

From the direction of the village.

“House, protect yourself,” I ordered and jumped back over the fence.

The way back grew into more shadows and twisting shapes as the fire became more obvious. As I got closer to the village, I heard the screams.

It wasn’t just by the village.

It was the village.

Somewhere, I heard roars as trolls attacked the outer edges of the village.

And I felt the flare-ups as Gran’s old wards shot upward and around it, trapping goblins in pockets. I broke through the edges and looked around wildly at the goblins.

Some trapped in bubbles of ward shields, others heading for the forest, and still others trying to deal with the trolls.

Some huts were on fire but, thank god, all the fire was trapped inside the biggest ward around the village. A ward I was able to step through easily.

How were the wards being used?! They were mine! And I hadn’t touched them since that day.

“Wife!” I didn’t remember which one, I just grabbed her by the arm. “What’s going on?!”

Her eyes were wild with fear and she had two children clutched to her chest. She yanked her arm away. Stumbling away from me like I was the danger.

Dang it!

They’ve looked at me like that before.

I looked around, seeing where people were running to or from. Ok. The center of the village. I took off that way.

When I rounded a burning hut, I saw the problem immediately.

The man had greasy green hair, and he cradled something in his arms. Cooing at it as Thirteenth Wife begged him to let the child go and take her instead.

The three of them were trapped in a bubble in the center of the village with Croix and other warriors trying to break in.

It was my nightmare from the outside.

I felt my whole body go to jelly in terror.

Then… I gasped and slapped a hand over my mouth as he abruptly, and with superhuman speed, stabbed Thirteenth Wife in the back.

Killing her instantly. 

No…

“No!”

I held my mom’s pendant around my neck as I raced for that bubble. Having to break through the different wards as I went. Which allowed other goblins to get through at the same time.

“Well, Chief?” said the man lazily. Croix stared in horror at his dead wife. “What do you say? I can easily break all the ties. I just need your say.”

He held out a hand to Croix, willing the goblin Chief to give in. To say yes.

To what, I didn’t know.

All I knew was the baby, the tribe’s future, was in his hands. And Thirteenth Wife was dead. And… and… Croix’s face was frozen in grief as he took a deliberate step back.

“Don’t be so hasty.” A vortex appeared at the man’s waist and the man held the baby over it. “I’ll give you some time to… think about it.”

“Let him go!”

I rammed myself into the bubble, breaking it after just an instant of resistance.

Startled, the man did. He let the baby go.

Even as I was barreling into him from one side and Croix unfroze himself to ram into the man from the other, the baby fell into the vortex.

And vanished.

I don’t know where she came from, but it was Ghana who got her fangs into the man’s neck. Clawing at him as I tried to capture and suppress the spell he was desperately enacting.

He was powerful and the wave of death and blood magic made me instantly ill.

I dropped to my knees and threw up.

I’m not sure about all I did for the next hour. I was just… dazed by what had happened.

The village had half burnt down. The wards were flickering but slowly dying away and letting the goblins move around as I tried to reign them in. I kept up the ones still containing fires but otherwise cautiously pulled them back to dormant.

And I struggled not to throw up again.

Death magic was disgusting. Especially second hand death magic. It was almost like smelling rotten meat. Or tasting it.

No one was paying attention to me.

Why would they?

There were two dead so far. Some missing, though probably from running off into the forest and wandering around. If it weren’t for the trolls that monster had brought with him, those probably would’ve been back by now.

For now, we’re just praying there weren’t any more deaths.