It gave a long sigh, and then it was still. I didn’t have to check its pulse to know it was dead.
My back collided with the wall. I needed to leave. Kull followed as I exited the room and entered the hallway.
“What was that?” I said while trying to catch my breath. “Was it a… a goblin?”
“I believe so.”
I steadied my breathing as I tried to come to terms with the enormity of the situation. “This is where the elves experimented on the potionmakers. They were trying to learn how to manipulate the goblins’ powers and use them for their own. But they failed. They never discovered the secret of how to use liquid elements in place of spoken spells.” I thought of the rows of skeletal remains we’d passed as we’d entered the fortress. “They must have killed hundreds—thousands, perhaps—trying to dissect the potionmakers’ DNA.”
“Yes, I agree. Although I was unable to reveal the truth to you, the princess told me as much, but seeing it for myself is alarming. I always considered Wults the more violent species, but now I am not sure.”
“Let’s go,” I said. “I’ve seen enough.”
Kull nodded and then led me away from the room and back to the library, our footsteps echoing eerily through the empty halls. We entered the domed room once again, the sunlight flowing through slats in the ceiling, motes of dust gliding silently through the still air.
Waiting for the princess to return, my imagination ran wild as I came to terms with the truth of this place. It must have been built thousands of years ago, before the sky king, before Pa’horan, when elves were bloodthirsty and war was a way of life. They built this temple—or more appropriately, laboratory—for the purpose of experimentation on elves who used gray magic and manipulated liquid elements. After transforming their subjects and being still unable to find the source of their powers, they must have shipped the survivors back to the mainland and forced them to live in the most desolate place on the planet—the Northlands. The elves renamed them goblins after that, most likely to hide and aid in destroying the knowledge of what had happened in this place.
At some point, the elves had manipulated history. How were they able to do it?
The Gravidorum. It was their express duty to keep all knowledge of this very place hidden. And now we were here to destroy it—further erasing all evidence of the past.
The princess’s footsteps echoed, and soon she returned. She gave no explanation of her previous whereabouts, although I couldn’t mistake the look of desperation on her face.
“I was unable to locate that which I sought,” she said. “This is troubling indeed, but I dare not delay our quest any longer. Follow me. We must make haste to the second gate.”
We entered the hallway once again, where we followed the beam of enchanted silver light as it led us deeper into the fortress.
Princess Euralysia walked through a large, arching doorway, and we followed. The hall widened into a round room surrounded by marble pillars. In the room’s center sat another silvergate. It looked similar to the first, but instead of a moon-shaped symbol on top, we found a symbol in the shape of a five-pointed star.
The princess quickly removed another Illumina crystal from her necklace and handed it to Kull.
Something moved behind us. Kull unsheathed his sword.
A translucent, white-robed figure moved from the shadow of one of the pillars. My heart rate quickened as I stared at its grayish form, its wispy robes moving on a phantom wind. It had no discernable pupils. Instead, its eyes shone with a grayish glow. It had the face of a goblin.
It moved toward me, it eyes locked with mine. Gray magic encircled me. Icy bands wrapped my ankles, my wrists, pinning my arms to my sides. The inky magic entered my lungs and stole my breath.
I tried to cry out, although the magical fog muffled my voice, and I only managed a gasp. My vision clouded. Before the darkness overtook me, I saw Kull and the princess rushing toward me, and then my world went black.
“You are in danger here, Earth dweller,” the strange voice whispered in my mind.
When I opened my eyes, I found that I floated, weightless, in the gray mist. The spirit creature drifted before me, its eyes piercing and glowing white.
“Where have you brought me?” My voice sounded as if I spoke in a drum. I tried to move but found I had no control over my body.
“You are safe for now, although once you return to your body, that shall not be the case. You should be wary of those who journey with you.”
“What have you done? Why have you captured me?”
“I merely mean to speak with you.”
The spirit-goblin’s lips didn’t move as it spoke. It only stared at me with those hollow, blank eyes.
“In my mortal life, I was called Xanthocus. You may call me that now, if you wish. My spirit is all that remains of the old ones. Once this temple is destroyed, all my knowledge goes with it. The elven one has attempted to destroy this knowledge, but I cannot allow that to happen. The truth of this place must be preserved. Will you aid me?”
“Aid you? How can I help you if you’ve stolen me from my body?”
“It was necessary in order to preserve the truth. Even now, as we speak, the elven one tears my spirit apart. What is left of my essence will not exist much longer.”
I almost pitied the thing, but could I trust it? “How do I know you aren’t tricking me? Was it you who distorted my friends’ minds?”
“It was I. It has been the nature of my kind to protect this island.
