Chapter 8

It wasn't until the rumbling subsided that I worked out what it had been. All the pieces came together; the rumbling, the New Queen's words, the fact that there was a pack of goblins right next to us when she squealed ... and even when I explained it, it took a few minutes before the reality set in for everyone else.

"What do you mean 'she's sent all of them'?" Vernita snapped. She'd been acting strangely ever since her panicked attack on the New Queen earlier - it was the first moment of weakness I'd ever seen from her, and I suspected that if there was one thing Vernita hated more than weakness in others, it was weakness in herself.

"Exactly what I said; she's sent all of them. The Queen has sent her goblins.

"All of them."

The girls paused. Some swore. All of them immediately understood. The tunnel suddenly filled with military chatter; Beatrice making plans, Cameron listing weapons - no one had ever faced what we were facing before, an entire city of goblins after one group. Thousands upon thousands of dedicated, mindless, self-sacrificing creatures against four warriors.

And me.

Even when they chase the last few humans out of a city, no Queen sends this many troops. It's unnecessary to risk such a huge proportion of your army - if the retreating party is lucky enough to have a few land-mines left, sending too many goblins to one location can mean the risk of losing them all.

The official collective noun for goblins has never been officially decided. Soldiers will refer to a 'mob' of goblins when the goblins aren't in battle, a 'pack' of goblins when they're fighting a small group, and a 'horde' of goblins when they face a large group. Back home, I've heard of people refer to a 'vomit' of goblins, but that's people who have never encountered them, have never felt the effects of the musk, have never seen how sensual a goblin can be...

The discussion stopped, and I tuned back in to see why. Everyone was staring at me, and it took me far too long to work out why. Someone had asked me a question, and I hadn't noticed. I had been too busy thinking about collective nouns.

"Pardon?" I asked, my cheeks flushed. I was mentally kicking myself - I felt like a child again, disappointing my mother. I wondered if the others resented me, if they were acutely aware of how much I was slowing the team down.

I quickly silenced that train of thought, and paid attention to what Vernita was asking me.

"I asked if the Queen up top could see what this bitch sees??" she asked, gesturing to the New Queen.

I paused, not wanting to answer before I was sure of my response. Vernita glared as I pondered the question, and I wondered how much of that anger I deserved, and how much of it was anger at herself.

"No," I concluded eventually. "If they knew where we were, she wouldn't have had to ... you know, squeal. That noise she made earlier."

The New Queen watched the conversation, her purple eyes flicking between Vernita and myself.

"What was that, anyway?" Whip asked.

"The squeal? I think it was... -"

"Not that," Bea snapped, cutting me off. "The ... the thing.

Vernita and Cameron just looked confused, while Whip and Bea waited anxiously for my answer. They'd seen it too.