Still tied up with the ropes, they were dragged down the tunnels, and into the throne room of King Grinthal.
Alfred was still there finishing up his breakfast when they were brought in. He jumped up from the table in surprise. “Oh no!” he said. “Did they get you guys too!”
“Ah, Alfred,” Shawn said wryly. He was tied up, but he managed to wriggle around so that he could see Alfred. “Don’t worry, we’re here to rescue you.”
“Are you okay, Alfred?” Catherine called out.
“I’m fine,” Alfred said.
“Silence!” King Grinthal called out. “You will not speak unless I speak to you first.”
Grinthal then turned to his goblin soldiers. “Who are they?” he asked.
“Intruders, your majesty,” said one of the goblin soldiers. “We found them in the tunnels.”
“What?” Grinthal squeaked. “Intruders? So they are not escaped slaves? But they’re humans. How did humans manage to get into our tunnels?”
“We found the entrance to your tunnels,” said Carlyle. “We’ve come to get our friend.”
“I’ve already told you,” Grinthal exclaimed. “You are to keep silent.”
Grinthal turned to the goblin soldiers. “Well?” he demanded. “How did they get in?”
The goblin soldiers squeaked excitedly, and all began talking at once. “Quiet, quiet, one at a time,” Grinthal demanded. A silence fell over the goblin soldiers, and in the silence, Grinthal thought he could hear something. “What is that sound?” he demanded. “Who is singing? Is anyone humming?”
Carlyle spoke up quickly. “I can tell you how we got here, your majesty, if you allow me to speak.”
Grinthal hopped up and down in fury. “I’ve already told you not to speak,” he said.
“But do you give me permission to speak now?” Carlyle asked.
“You are not to speak unless I speak to you?” Grinthal demanded.
“But then, how would I ask permission to speak?” Carlyle asked again.
Grinthal’s face turned red with fury. It actually turned red. It was a brighter shade of red than Carlyle had ever seen on any human face, but goblin faces can sometimes be more expressive than humans. “Bring me my whip!” Grinthal yelled. “We shall teach these human children some manners.”
Several goblins scattered to find Grinthal’s whip.
“Now,” said Grinthal. “Who is humming? That sound shall cease as well!”
While Carlyle had been distracting Grinthal, Catherine had been summoning the energy by softly humming. Her hands were tied up behind her back, but she was slowly burning through the rope that held her hands together. Once she had burned through the rope, she was able to free her hands. Moving slowly to attract as little attention as possible, Catherine moved her hands out from behind her back, and then reached to her legs to burn through the ropes that held her legs.
The goblins didn’t notice. They were too busy squawking about, and fetching whips for King Grinthal.
Finally a suitable whip was found for King Grinthal, and presented to him. “Now,” Grinthal said menacingly to Carlyle, “I will teach you to be quiet.”
But just at that moment, Catherine was standing up. She had freed herself from all of the ropes. She strode over to King Grinthal.
King Grinthal was so surprised to see Catherine out of her ropes that for a couple of seconds he froze up and didn’t know what to do. But then he lashed out with the only thing he had in hand--his whip. Grinthal cracked the whip, and the lash shot out towards Catherine.
Catherine was still humming, and her hands were glowing. She reached out and grabbed the lash and the electric power protected her hands. A jolt of electricity traveled back along the whip and gave Grinthal a shock. He yelped and dropped the whip.
Catherine still kept walking towards Grinthal, and Grinthal was now getting scared. He backed away from her, and hid behind his throne. “Don’t come near me,” he said.
At this point some of the other goblins ran forward to attack Catherine, but before they could get to her, she darted forward and grabbed Grinthal by the back of the neck. Lifting Grinthal into the air, Catherine said to him, “tell the other goblins to stand back.”
The other goblins hesitated slightly, but then Grinthal yelled out, “What are you waiting for? Get her!”
As the goblins rushed forward towards Catherine, she felt herself in danger, and energy flowed through her freely. Now she didn’t even have to hum to try to summon it. It just flowed out. And poor Grinthal, who she was holding, got badly burned.
“Yeow!” he screamed out in pain. “Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!” He then stopped forming recognizable words, and just squealed in pain.
“Tell the other goblins not to attack me,” Catherine demanded.
“Yes, yes!” Grinthal agreed.
“Tell them to untie my friends,” Catherine said.
“Yes, yes, anything,” Grinthal said. “Anything, just please, stop it. The pain!”
Because Catherine’s adrenaline was racing, she actually wasn’t able to stop the flow of energy. The only way she could stop the flow of energy was to remove Grinthal from her touch. Which she did by simply dropping him.
The other goblins stood momentarily stunned, not daring to move. “You heard your king,” Carlyle shouted. “Untie us!”
The goblins looked at Grinthal, who was picking himself up from the floor. “Don’t just stand there!” Grinthal commanded. “Kill her!”
Catherine immediately bent down to pick up Grinthal again. But Grinthal evaded her hand, and ran out of reach. He ran straight across the room, but he was so focused on running away from Catherine that he didn’t see Alfred.
Alfred had stood up from the breakfast table, and had picked up one of the chairs. As Grinthal came running by, Alfred swung the wooden chair and hit Grinthal right in the face as Grinthal was trying to run by. He knocked Grinthal over, and Grinthal lay flat on the floor, dazed.
Meanwhile, the other goblins attacked Catherine. They came at her, thrusting with their knives and short swords.
Catherine was discovering that when the power was flowing through her body, the inside of her hands where the energy manifested itself seemed to be invulnerable. If she could catch the point of their small swords on her palms, it did her no harm. But when their swords nicked her legs, or anywhere else on her body, they drew blood. Catherine tried to deflect the sword thrust with her hands as best she could, but she also was forced to slowly retreat. There were too many goblins for her to block all at once.
As Catherine was forced to slowly back up, she found herself taking shelter behind Grinthal’s throne. It was a heavy golden throne, but the energy seemed to give Catherine extra strength, and she found she could push the throne over. The throne tumbled over, crushing some of the goblins beneath it and sending the rest fleeing.
In their terror, the goblins fled to the edges of the room. Although once they realized that the throne was once again inert, and that Catherine now stood without protection, they slowly started to regroup.
But as this was going on, Alfred rushed over to where Catherine was standing, carrying Grinthal’s body with him.
“Here,” Alfred said. “Take him.”
Grinthal was still stunned from the blow that Alfred had given him with the chair, and was only now slowly moving his head and refocusing his eyes. Catherine realized that if she grabbed Grinthal now, she would just send electricity shooting through his body, and she didn’t want to do that. “I don’t want to touch him now,” said Catherine. “I would just shock him. When I’m scared, I can’t turn off the energy.”
“Could you calm yourself down then?” Alfred asked.
Catherine looked at him with disgust.
“Sorry,” Alfred said. “Um… what about just touching his feet a little then?”
Alfred held Grinthal, and Catherine reached out her hand and gingerly poked his foot with the tip of her index finger. Grinthal’s eyes immediately opened, and he squealed with pain. “What’s happening?” he said. Then his eyes focused, and he saw Catherine standing before him. “No! No! Nooo!” he yelled out.
“Untie my friends,” Catherine said.
“Untie them!” Grinthal shrieked the order to his goblin soldiers. And then he started sobbing.
The goblins rushed forward to untie Carlyle, Shawn, Lucinda, Molly and Kevin.
Carlyle stood up, rubbing his wrists where the rope had rubbed against his skin. “And give me back my father’s sword,” Carlyle demanded.
Catherine opened her mouth to repeat Carlyle’s demand, but before she could even say anything, Grinthal burst out, “Give them back their weapons. Give them back all of their weapons.”
“Thank you,” said Catherine.
“What do you want?” Grinthal wailed.
“We want you to release our friend,” Catherine said, pointing to Alfred.
Grinthal twisted around to look at the boy who was holding him up. “I order him released,” he said.
“Not just me,” said Alfred. “Release all the children that you are holding prisoner in these tunnels.”
“All of them?” Grinthal said. “Why do you want them all released? You don’t know who they are.”
“We want them all released,” said Catherine.
“You ask too much,” Grinthal said, a note of defiance creeping back into his voice.
Catherine grabbed Grinthal’s leg, and the electricity flowed out through her again. Grinthal shrieked and shrieked. Catherine released his leg. “We want them all released,” Catherine said.
“Fine,” sobbed Grinthal. “I order them all released.”
“And one final thing,” said Catherine. “You goblins are to leave these mountains.”
“What?” Grinthal was more surprised than anything else. “But where will we go?”
“Anywhere you like. You can go down to the forest. But you must not stay in the mountains anymore.”
“But what kind of talk is this?” Grinthal was genuinely confused. “The mountains have no laws. That is why all the evil creatures make it their homes. The ogres, the witches, the vampires, the goblins, we all live on the mountains. Why would you tell us to leave the mountains, and go down to the forest?”
“Because the mountains are no longer a lawless place,” said Carlyle. “The mountains are now a safe place for the mountain folk to live in peace.”
“And we are banishing all the evil creatures from the mountains,” said Catherine.
“But where will we go?” wailed Grinthal.
“Jack said that you have tunnels going all the way down the mountains and even under the forest lands,” said Alfred. “You can go down to your tunnels under the forest, but you must never return to the mountains.”
“I have many friends among the mountain animals,” Catherine said to Grinthal. “And the wolves are my friends. The ravens are my friends. And they will report to me if the goblins are ever seen on these mountains again. And then, we will come back into these tunnels and find you.”
Grinthal looked back and forth from Carlyle to Catherine. “Who are you?” he asked. “The mountain folk have no kings or queens. They have no rulers.”
“They do now,” Carlyle answered.
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