Chapter 6 The Recapture

Lilet once again looked at her hut, waved her fingers and made her home disappear before the eyes of Gwidon and Edwin. 

‘I should have done the same!’ Edwin slapped his hand over his face, ‘Brilliant! Have you shrunk it?’

‘No, I made it invisible. I’m tired of losing pots and herbs. You know how difficult it is to find some of them in this area and in this season? And peasants think it is for free for them to take when I’m away! Unbelievable what these burglars can do when they don’t read prescriptions. And then you hear about the cases of overdosing or misuse of natural medicines. Cactuses growing on palms, children born with a third eye. And it’s easy to blame the witch and burn her in the fire. People don’t realize how dangerous this job is!’

‘And how exhausting!’, Edwin added to the complaining tone of voice of Lilet. 

‘You, guys, should start some trade unions,’ Gwidon suggested, ‘How are we planning to find Gustaw?’

‘Don’t you know where he is?’

‘I only know that he is kept in the underground city of Goblins. I was told that you, Edwin the Great Wizard, can find anything anywhere, and if you can turn a rabbit into a horse, I’m willing to believe it.’

‘Yes, as a matter of fact, I excelled at pinpointing unknown locations. I was honored by the king for finding his beloved pet, which went missing. But for that, I need the virgin’s blood!’

‘And where do you think we would get it from?’

Edwin looked at Lilet and raised his eyebrows encouragingly.

‘She’s not a virgin.’ Gwidon said with a tone of certainty.

‘Then maybe yours?’

Gwidon ignored the suggestion. From the pocket of his trousers, he took a standard human map.

‘Not far away from here, there’s a village of peasants. We should go there and ask. We come to fulfill the king’s orders. Villagers are loyal to the king. They should be willing to help us.’ 

The village consisted of fifty or so wooden huts, the central market, the common well, and the village major’s hut. There was also a church, but Lilet and Edwin decided to skip its sightseeing (supposedly both a little bit afraid of being captured and burned alive).

‘Villagers,’ Edwin started his speech in a ceremonial fashion, ‘I need you to help us and thus help the king. We are looking for a virgin. A real virgin! We need a few drops of her blood for searching purposes. No harm will be made to the girl and we are willing to pay with gold! We will be waiting in the mayor’s house for those willing to accept our deal.’

Almost twenty girls were sent to the mayor’s hut.

‘Girls,’ Edwin was looking at young innocent faces, ‘This is an important factor. I need the blood of a genuine virgin. Any other blood will blur the vision and the prophecy will be inaccurate. I promise to be discreet with your parents, but I need you to be honest. If there is a girl who cannot be considered a virgin, please, leave this place at once.’

Girls looked at themselves and as quickly as they came inside, all of them left. 

‘Why so empty?’ the mayor came down from his upstairs room.

‘Have you got any children?’ Edwin asked, disappointed, looking at the closed door. 

Among the child’s screams, Edwin managed to fill a file of blood, which he stored for future purposes. In the center of the market, he killed two goats and a cock, spread their intestines among the bones he took from his pocket sack and wooden twigs he picked up in the forest. He spelled some spells incomprehensible to village citizens, who fearfully paid attention to his every word, poured a few drops of child’s blood, and looked at everything in an insightful way. 

‘They keep him in the palace’s prison. He’s well and healthy. He is painting. The closest way to get there would be through the salt mines. There’s a hidden staircase. Not even Goblins know about it. Let’s go!’

They jumped on horses and left the village behind them, not aware that its citizens had already started packing their belongings. The heap of bones, intestines, and blood was left in the middle of the market and they knew that it would give an unbearable stench and poison the air in the nearest proximity. All of them were also afraid to touch it, remove it or even go near it, and when the next day the priest woke up to witness the village abandoned, it left him with a lifelong state of consternation. 

‘It’s really nice to have a wedding in this salt chapel,’ Lilet expressed her opinion when they were passing the altar.

‘Are you planning to get married?’ Gwidon asked, feeling something, which he couldn’t name at that time, ‘Any time soon?’

‘I would have to be asked, I suppose. These days you never know, people get married after a day of acquaintance and are happy, some are engaged for years and run from the altar at the last minute...’

‘I ran!’ Edwin confessed,‘I was almost married. But always the vocation for being a wizard was stronger. To be honest, I ran from the altar three times. Once I even disappeared. It was completely independent of me. I just felt that I would be a poor husband. Besides, you should get married for love, not for jewels or promises of career.’

‘Promises of career?’, Lilet laughed.

‘These were powerful witches, my dear. Some of them probably still bear a grudge for me. I was too involved in social life. Erwin just ran around playing his tricks. I tried to blend in the society and this complicated my course.’

‘Women are a distraction,’ Gwidon agreed, ‘You want to focus on your work, be your best possible self and they walk into your life and make everything you cared about before insignificant!’

‘Oh, poor you, my fellows!’ Lilet expressed her frustration ‘Do you think men are better? First, they tell you that you are the most beautiful woman they have seen and provoke a romance, and then you are a distraction! And how many of us are left with children or a pang of lifetime guilt, or broken hearts because you are so easily distracted? And aren’t you a distraction? Think about these women who stay at home while you play this game with the Turks. They just wait for the news that you, men, are running around beheaded and they became widows!...’

‘Hush!, We’re approaching the city of Goblins!’ Edwin stopped the heated discussion between Lilet and Gwidon. 

They arrived in the most marvelous city. It felt as if they were in heaven. They found themselves in the most meticulously constructed wonder, planned with every minute detail, perfection, and thought. Every street was an actual architectural designer’s dream, every building rose admiration, every tree was like a piece of jewelry melted by a giant sculptor. 

‘This is outstanding! I have never seen anything so impressive!’ Gwidon said honestly. ‘Where is this palace? We cannot go along this city looking like this, we should go undercover. If we meet any Goblins, they will kill us instantly.’

‘When in Rome, do as the Romans do!’ Edwin suggested.

‘Which means?’

‘Which means we have to turn ourselves into Goblins.’

‘Can you do this?’

Edwin rolled his eyes.

‘And what do you think I did when another witch asked me to marry her? I turned myself into the most hideous creature I could think of at that time.’

‘But not any Goblins, wizard,’ Lilet interrupted, ‘We need the highest rank Goblins to be able to win something here.’

‘The highest rank Goblins, you say... Let me think...’

The wizard was looking into his mind’s eye, trying to picture Goblins’ figures in his head. 

‘I know!’ he exclaimed and started whispering words and moving his fingers. 

After a moment, he magically changed himself into prince Vandarok. Lilet, following his example, turned herself into princess Marva and Gwidon was turned into the General of the Army. 

He watched his reflection in the underground mirror and couldn’t believe that his skin was green and he looked more like a reptile than a human being.

‘We should divide. I will check the army’s plans, you two will release Gustaw. We have no time to waste!’

‘Prince! Why do you return so late?’ the guard opened the door to the prison, ‘I thought you have already finished your questioning here.’

‘We’re here for the prisoner. I thought about it for some time,’ Edwin lowered his voice to let the guard in the secret of his actions, ‘We have decided to resolve to tortures.’

The guard smiled in a nasty way.

‘Finally! Maybe he will say something about the army of humans. We have been too kind to him. But the princess? She seems to be fond of him...’

‘I promised her to be merciful, but you know women. She has to see it with her own eyes. That is why she’s with me.’

Lilet smiled and felt intuitively that she looked even nastier with the smiling face. She tried to hide her teeth, but it didn’t help much.

They approached the cell in which Gustaw was napping. His locks fell gently onto his face, his feet were placed on a pillow, above the rest of his body. His cell was turned into a little art gallery, covered in his self-portraits. 

‘Prisoner, wake up!’, Edwin ordered and spat at Gustaw to achieve a more theatrical effect.

The guard giggled. 

Gustaw opened his eyes and saw Vandarok and Marva for another time during his stay. He wasn’t even surprised. 

‘Oh, your lovely sister,’ he smiled to Marva, and noticed that she behaved in an unusually cold way. When he saw her last time she seemed to be head over heels to see him and couldn’t take her eyes off him or stop smiling. Gustaw became anxious. Something wasn’t right.

‘What are you going to do with me?’

The guard giggled again.

‘Show me the maps!’ Gwidon was in the armory, looking through military plans, inventory of weapons, lists of higher rank officers, and the number of soldiers.

‘General, everything is perfectly ready. You yourself told me that our army is unbeatable. It hasn’t changed overnight.’, the soldier was trying to comfort the worried general. ‘We are going to smash them to pieces. Crush them like worms under our feet. We will make them lick the dirt from our fingernails and kiss the soles of our feet. Their women will be our slaves, you said it yourself.’

But Gwidon became uneasy for a different reason. Taking into account the preparations of Goblins for this war, the number of troops, the quality of weapons and armory, the evidence of training and high morale of all those living underground, they needed a miracle to win this war. They needed an actual miracle not to be swiped from the surface of the Earth. 

Prince Vandarok entered the prison first thing in the morning.

‘Where’s the prisoner?’ he looked at the empty cell.

‘You took him, my Prince’, the guard answered, ‘Yesterday you and Princess Marva came here and took him for tortures!’

Vandarok called for the princess.

‘She’s not in the palace! She’s nowhere to be found!’

Vandarok sensed deceit. He was betrayed by his own sister.