Vashti Valant - Slave of the Goblin

The instant he awakened from a troubled sleep, Akraz knew she was gone. He leapt to his feet and lit a candle to be sure. The cavernous den showed no sign of her and the deadbolt across the door had not been replaced.

She left me .

He fought down panic. Akraz had hoped Laya would have the good sense to be too frightened to try to escape the subterranean hell of Mount Murk by herself. He should have known better. Terrors of all the things that could befall her assaulted him. He must find her, and soon. Before someone else—or something else—found her first.

Grudgingly, Akraz admitted that Laya had come much further than he’d ever expected. She had threaded her way through the densely packed military barracks, through the lower warrens filled with goblin women and children, through levels filled with smoky factories and smitheries and dungeons. He had been so busy enjoying the sumptuous innocence of her body, that he had forgotten she was also Nemesis, expert tracker and stalker.

Furthermore, she obviously knew about the Sticky Tunnels, the secret maze of caves that even most goblins knew nothing about. The Sticky Tunnels were the only underland route out of the valley below Mount Murk. The mountain passes otherwise all crossed beneath the baneful eye of Zathstragomal’s tower.

All well and good. But how in the name of the Thirteen Hells did Laya think she was going to pass through the Sticky Tunnels by herself?

Akraz tracked Laya’s trail deeper and deeper underground, until he reached the level where noxious fumes more often than not crowded out the breathable air. As a goblin, he could deal with it, but he worried about Laya.

He slowed down when he saw the first wisps of webbing draping the cave walls. The Sticky Tunnels commenced here. The further in he ventured, the more webbing clung to the walls, until soon the stone could not be seen for the hazy curtains of gooey thread. Larger, intact webs crisscrossed the corridors, sometimes blocking the path completely. Red-eyed things skittered in the dark, always out of sight of the torch that Akraz held.

Her spore was harder to follow here. Other, fresher marks, obscured it, a disturbing notion. The only good news was that he was closing on her. Originally he had trailed her by several hours, now less than one.

He traversed several corridors so narrow that he had to crouch to fit his massive shoulders through the crevice. But shortly after that, a large cavern yawned open, illuminated by the glow of iridescent lichen growing on the stalagmites. Hundreds of giant webs connected the cones of stalagmites. Unfortunately, hundreds of giant spiders, each the size of a full-grown goblin, crawled among the webs. Many of the webs boasted of man-sized cocoons as well.

There, near the far left of the cavern, one of the giant spiders busied itself wrapping up fresh prey into its web. The prey kicked and fought, but was already too tightly caught to escape.

It was Laya.

The spider had her legs and arms pinned in the web. The harder Laya struggled to free herself, the more securely she entangled her limbs in the giant web. Ignoring her thrashing, the spider looped strands of sticky silk around her limbs, fastening them securely into place.

Laya’s first glimpse of Akraz was actually of his massive two-handed broad sword rising and falling to hack off one of the spider’s eight fleshy limbs. He wore his monster face and an enormous scowl.

“Akraz!” she shouted for joy. “Thank the gods!”

The spider, sufficiently annoyed at losing a leg, turned from Laya to advance on Akraz. It spit out a stream of silk. Akraz rolled out of the way. He came back up swinging again, and sawed at a second leg. The spider chittered angrily, and swiped at him with its fearsome mandibles. Akraz spiked it in one of its four, multifaceted eyes. Puce slime squirted out of the wound, but the spider did not slow down. It charged Akraz again.

Akraz performed another acrobatic roll. This one took him directly under the spider. He lifted his sword straight above his head, into the spider’s soft underbelly. He rolled away again in time to escape the sleet of purplish ooze that showered down from the abdomen of the oversized arachnid. The spider collapsed, chittering and flailing and spitting web. With cool butchery, Akraz chopped the dying thing into pieces, until only slime and a few twitching legs remained.

He hurried to where Laya struggled in the web, before he even finished wiping the sweat and purple ichor from his brow.

“Laya, are you all right?” he asked anxiously.

“Yes, I’m fine, except that damn thing tied me up,” she said in a huff.

Akraz frowned at remains of the spider. “I was afraid I might have to take on all hundred spiders in the cavern. Why didn’t they come to help it?”

“They aren’t like that, they don’t give a damn about one another. Each spider only protects its own web. And they are very territorial. No spider will venture into the area controlled by another. We should be safe from the rest of them, as long as we do not stray into their territory, or their webs.”

“How do you know so much about them?” Akraz asked curiously. “How did you even know about the existence of the Sticky Tunnels?”

Laya debated whether to tell him, then, with a sigh, decided it could not hurt now.

“Lathaniel and I once planned a spy mission on Mount Murk itself,” she said. “In the end, we decided it was too dangerous. But we would have entered by this route.” Her jaw set in a stubborn line. “And this is the route by which I will escape now. Do not try to stop me, Akraz.”

Akraz tilted his head innocently. To enhance the effect, his facial features slid from bestial and bloated to smooth and seductive. “I? Try to stop you? Because, of course, I can see you are well on your way without any interference from me.”

Laya wiggled helplessly in the web. Her arms were stuck to her thighs by one thin band of web, another band secured her neck and shoulders and a thick cocoon encased her legs like a mermaid tail up to her mid-thighs. Her feet dangled a foot off the rocky floor of the cave. She had lost her tunic in the initial struggle with the spider, so her sex, her belly and her breasts were exposed between the tight bands of silk.

“It is not funny! Cut me down at once, Akraz!”

“Why should I?” he laughed. “I rather prefer you in this position, if you recall.”

“This is neither the time nor place for one of your depraved games!”

“You said it yourself—the other spiders will leave us alone as long as we are in the territory of this one. We have all the time in the world.”

“Akraz!”

He pinched her breasts. “You are at the perfect height.”

“Akraz,” she groaned. “Please.”

“You were beautiful last night,” he said in his sultriest voice. “Aglow in candlelight. I grew hard for you but did not take you. I think I will take you now.”

At the memory of the night before, her face flamed. She still felt “branded” as he called it, by the bright red wax that had left a stain like virgin’s blood on her pubis and nipples.

He circled around the strands of the web, careful to avoid catching himself, until he came around behind her. It made her nervous not to be able to keep an eye on him.

“What are you doing?”

“With you? As always, whatever I want.” His arms snaked around her from behind to knead her breasts. With one hand, he gathered them both together and squeezed the nipples into one peak of flesh, while his other hand smoothed down her belly to the crevice between her tightly bound legs. His probing fingers somehow found her hooded clit. With just one finger, he swabbed the nub in tiny circles.

“Why did you leave me, Laya?” he asked. “Why did you not trust me? Couldn’t you understand that I didn’t dare tell you my true feelings or my true plans as long as Zathstragomal could eavesdrop on us with his magic?”