The Kingdom - Clare B Dunkle - Hollow Kingdom 01 - The Hollow Kingdom

“Look at me,” Marak ordered again, and Kate looked up into those odd-colored eyes. He knelt close by her, holding her hand in his strong, knotted fingers. Kate closed her eyes to block out the horrible sight, drawing in shallow breaths.

“And did we have a pleasant sleep?” he inquired sweetly. “Nice dreams?” Kate shivered and kept her eyes tightly shut. “No, not a nice dream,” the goblin remarked with satisfaction. “So you spent a little time stumbling around in the dark. And no worse than you deserved, either, for smacking yourself into a tree. What a fool stunt, Kate.”

Kate’s breathing slowed, and she began to remember where she was. She sat up a little unsteadily, pulling away from him. She was free of the nightmare, and her mind was beginning to work. She frowned as thoughts began to connect themselves.

Marak studied the sullen face. “No gratitude at all?” he asked. “Not one kind word for patching you up after you tried to batter your brains in?” Kate’s hand rose to her forehead, and she felt about for a bump. Then it traveled to her hair and encountered the dried blood. She retraced the track of blood. No break in the skin. No pain, no soreness. She stared at the goblin, eyes round with surprise.

“Kate,” he told her seriously, “that was a stupid thing to do. What if I hadn’t been here? What if you had died? I lie awake worrying about what’s happening to you out here. You could be falling down a well, or breaking a leg, or catching a fever. What if you need my help, and I can’t come in time?”

Kate continued to prod her forehead, feeling rather foolish. If he hadn’t been here, she certainly wouldn’t have run into the tree. Need his help? Why would she need his help? She couldn’t imagine wanting him anywhere near her, broken leg or not.

“And what were you doing, anyway, wandering around the woods at night? I wasn’t expecting that,” he admitted. “I thought you’d be barring yourself in your room or maybe locking yourself in a wardrobe.” He chuckled at the thought. “What happened?” he asked, grinning at her. “Did you come looking for me?”

“Of course we weren’t looking for you,” Kate said warily, moving a little farther away from him. She spied Emily lying in the grass, and her heart almost stopped.

“What did you do to her?” she cried.

“I answered her questions,” Marak said carelessly. “Almost all of them.” He leaned back contentedly against a tree trunk. As Kate began to shake her sister, he added, “Leave her alone. She’ll wake up when I tell her to.” He laughed. “Did you know that she wants to be stolen by goblins? She actually asked me.”

Kate’s heart sank. The world was going horribly wrong. A few weeks ago she had been sitting with her sister in this very spot under the stars, perfectly happy. Now a grotesque monster was haunting her and menacing her with a terrible future. Poor Em lay motionless, locked in his magical control. Kate looked down anxiously at her sleeping face. They had to find some way to escape.

“We found out what really happened to Adele Roberts,” she said quietly.

“Oh, really?” asked Marak, interested. “Well, don’t look so tragic about it,” he smirked as she raised her sad eyes to his. “My mother’s life was happy enough.”

Kate gloomily thought about the unlikely possibility of Adele having had a happy life. What terror and loathing she must have felt, captured by freakish monsters and locked away in a dark cavern far below the earth! An airless tomb, thought Kate in horror. A living tomb from which that bright, brave girl was never able to escape.

“I’m not going down there!” she cried desperately. “I won’t go down into those dark caves away from the light, away from the stars. I won’t live underground in some ghastly hole, sealed off from the air under mountains of rock.”

The goblin King crossed his arms comfortably and smiled in wry amusement. “Kate,” he remarked, “your ignorance is colossal.”

Kate stared. How typical! He was just making fun of her. He was threatening the loss of everything she loved, and he didn’t even care. He closed his eyes, leaned his head back, and continued calmly, “If that’s what you think my kingdom is like, I certainly know not to ask you to come.”

Hope swept through her. “You won’t?” she gasped.

Marak opened his eyes again and frowned at her eager expression. “Of course not.” He shrugged. “I’ll just take you there. No sense in asking.”

Kate felt her stomach lurch. Her pulse began pounding in her temples.

“No!” she declared emphatically. “I won’t let you take me away.”

The goblin put his head to one side and grinned at her through his rough hair.

“You won’t let me? How are you going to stop me? After all,” he teased, “you can’t bash your head in every night. What if you’re too far from a tree?”

Kate jumped to her feet and began to pace, beating her hands together. “There’s a way out, I know there’s a way!” she cried. “I have to find out what it is.”

Marak watched her attentively. “Sit down, Kate,” he said.

“After all,” she observed, stopping and pointing a finger at him, “you don’t have me yet.” She sat back down on the grass nearby, not even noticing her own obedience. “You haven’t been able to catch me,” she declared excitedly. “I’ve stopped you so far.”

Marak shouted with laughter.

“You stopped me?” he whooped. “Stopped me from doing what? Did you lead yourself home when you were lost? Did you tell yourself to go to sleep from the other side of the mirror? You haven’t stopped anything. I stopped myself. I didn’t want to upset you too much. Human minds are fragile. They don’t come back from that kind of shock.”

A feeling of despair washed over Kate. She looked down, struggling against tears.

“I could have put you kicking and screaming on my horse that very first night,” he pointed out cheerfully, “but I’m very glad that I didn’t because you interest me. You’re so terribly determined. I never know what you’ll do next.”

“So this is all just a joke to you,” she cried savagely. “A cat-and-mouse diversion. I never heard of anything so cruel!”

“Careful,” the goblin advised, holding up a bony hand. “Don’t forget logic. If I’m cruel to be patient, what would I be if I had put you on the horse that first night? Compassionate?” He chortled. “Kindly?” Kate glared at him.

“I think you’re hideous,” she said forcefully. “You’re mean and hateful, making a game out of someone else’s misery.”

The goblin King stopped laughing and studied her pale face. “Do you know, Kate, I believe you’re right,” he declared. “I am being cruel to you. You seem to be taking this very hard. You’re starting to lose sleep and fret about the future, and you’re listening to all sorts of ridiculous tales. This kind of delay isn’t good for you, either. The sooner it ends, the better.”

Kate paused, alarmed. This was not the point she had been trying to make. She didn’t seem to be getting anywhere. In fact, she was making things worse.

“But I don’t want to marry you at all!” she shouted.

“Of course not,” Marak agreed. “I never thought you did. There aren’t any volunteers to my kingdom, but we try not to let it discourage us.” He rose and walked slowly to the center of the tree circle, studying the clear night sky.

“I hope it won’t offend you if I leave you now,” he remarked pleasantly. “Several matters still need my attention tonight. Since you consider us enemies, I’ll guarantee your safe arrival at the Lodge, and since I consider us engaged, I’ll provide you with an escort. I’m not going to let you come to harm while you’re still outside.” He knelt by Emily’s sleeping form. As he took her hand in his, she sat up, speaking.