They tumbled over each other, jostling for position, no two alike. Their fleshy, leering faces varied from broad to narrow; some had long pointy ears while others had no ears at all; some had button noses and others long protruding beaks.
Squabbles broke out between them constantly, and they pushed and poked each other with spiteful glee. I watched as one vicious little devil punted its smaller opponent across the deck. It landed with a thump, rolling several times, its three goggling eyes making it impossible to tell which side was up.
My wonder almost outweighed my fear. So these were imps – the things Angelica had wanted to set loose on Jeremy before we’d ended up in our bizarre little love triangle. I was glad I hadn’t consented to her releasing them in our house.
I decided, however, that I wouldn’t mind sic-ing the whole lot of them on that succubus tramp, Edie.
“The imps truly are entertaining creatures,” the dark woman said affectionately. “But I am being discourteous. I am Lady Nightwing, mistress of the Hell Barge. Please rise and introduce yourself, little human. You have the scent of magic upon you. Are you a witch?”
I pushed to my feet, doing my best to ignore the complaints of my aching body as I debated the best way to answer her. It might not be a bad idea for her to believe I had some magical power. I executed a stilted bow, hoping the courtesy was appropriate.
“Pleased to meet you, Lady Nightwing. My name is Sydney. And I have been known to cast the occasional spell.”
‘Tell the truth’ had always been my motto. And if you happened to mislead someone – well, that didn’t make it a lie.
Her crimson-tinged eyes flashed with interest. “Few are the secret ways to join the Hell Ride uninvited.” She smiled, a slight baring of teeth. “Fewer still are those brave enough … or foolish enough … to make use of them.”
I held onto my calm facade with a death-grip, hoping she couldn’t hear the accelerated beat of my heart - or smell my fear the way she had smelled the magic. “I apologize for my presumption, Lady, but I am searching for a goblin. And I have been told that he is a frequent guest on your ship.”
A hissing murmur went up and a gravelly voice spoke from behind Lady Nightwing. “I told you Nugratz must have sent her.”
“Silence!” she demanded imperiously, irritation darkening her tone.
Nugratz … why did that name sound familiar?
I peered into an unnatural patch of shadow behind Lady Nightwing. A pair of glowing blue eyes looked out at me, feral in their intensity. I had to force myself not to step back when the shadows dropped away like a discarded cloak and revealed the creature behind them.
The thing was a perversion of a forest spirit, like the demonic incarnation of a rotten-hearted tree. Jagged, branch-like antlers sprouted from a mane of hoary moss atop its head. Its arms extended the length of its body, studded with foot-long thorns that angled upward in wicked spikes. Fingers grew out of its wrists like crooked sticks sharpened into spears, and its thick trunk sat atop bowed legs ending in gnarled, root-like toes.
It fixed me with its hateful blue gaze, but paid obeisance to Lady Nightwing’s demand for silence.
“Now then, Sydney, was it?” Lady Nightwing continued in a cloying tone. “What is the name of this goblin you seek?”
“I’m afraid I don’t know his name,” I answered, keeping a nervous eye on the wicked-looking creature by her side. “But he has a mark on his hand, like a tattoo, of an infinity symbol.”
She fixed me with an odd look. The imps began chattering again and the tree creature stepped forward menacingly. I couldn’t stop myself from taking a step back this time.
“You dare to try the Lady Nightwing’s patience,” it growled. “Goblins do not allow themselves distinguishing marks. What is your real purpose here, human? Do not take me for a fool. I know that you have been in contact with Nugratz. What does that pitiful excuse for a goblin think to gain from us?”
I stared at the creature, the name Nugratz like an ember burning a hole through my mind. Then my eyes widened in recognition.
“Nugratz was the goblin that killed the Unseelie leader and started a rebellion against the Seelie Court,” I murmured, my confusion warring with excitement over remembering the name from Sparrow’s story about his parents.
The creature narrowed its feral blue eyes at me, crossing its thorn-spiked arms in a threatening stance.
Lady Nightwing gave the thing a dismissive wave, genuine amusement curving her chiseled lips. “Can it be that you don’t know?” She clasped her fingers together and regarded me with a delighted expression that I found unsettling.
“I truly don’t believe that you do. It will be my pleasure to educate you further on this matter, Sydney. But first, answer me one question – and I shall know if you lie,” she warned. Her voice was light, but the underlying threat made my stomach drop.
“Did the human, Leslie Horowitz, have anything to do with your visit here this night?”
Surprise shot through me. “He owns the store I work for. But no,” I answered with a frown. “He knows nothing of this. What does he have to do with …”
“I thought not,” Lady Nightwing interrupted. “Next time, Hob, you will hold your tongue, or you shall find yourself without one.”
“Yes, my lady,” the tree creature grated with a bow of its mossy, antlered head. I shifted my feet uneasily at the look of unbridled fury it directed at me.
“Now, let me see,” Lady Nightwing mused, tapping the end of one lavender-lacquered fingernail against the curve of her lower lip. “It is true that Nugratz murdered our weakening leader and made an unsuccessful bid for power by stirring up a rebellion against the Seelies.
“In actuality, many of us shared his sense of outrage that our Court had allowed itself to become so cowed by them. If he had bothered to recruit the older members of the Court, it is likely that many of us would have followed him. Just as it is possible that, had he taken the time to plan his attack better, he might have been victorious.
“But, alas, goblins have never been known for their foresight. They tend to get wrapped up in the moment and play their hand far too quickly, which is perhaps why most of them are such enthusiastic, yet poor gamblers.”
Lady Nightwing offered a tongue-in-cheek smile and the imps erupted in raucous laughter. Even Hob barked out a gruff snort of amusement.
“Sadly, Nugratz was no exception,” she continued with an exaggerated sigh of regret. “I’m afraid that after the dismal failure of his plot, not to mention the loss of many of our strongest young warriors at his command, he became rather unpopular. No longer welcome in Unseelie society, he disappeared into the goblin territories and set about drowning his regrets in drink and gambling. However, it was not long before his luck ran out completely.
“You see, one drunken night, Nugratz made the mistake of engaging in a high-stakes game with a death djinn. He bet a large sum, which he was unable to cover, and lost. Not only did he lose, but being ever prideful and incapable of keeping his foolish mouth shut, he gravely insulted the death djinn.
“Were it not for that, the djinn would have likely let it go. But in the fire of his anger, he demanded satisfaction from the only thing that Nugratz had left to offer – his immortality. Nugratz had so offended the djinn, in fact, that he took it a step further and cursed him into human form, forcing him to leave the faerie realm and live amongst the humans he so despised.”