Chapter 18 One Last Chance

Erwin noticed Prince Gustaw kissing a beautiful lady in the courtyard. He approached the couple and stood for a moment curiously looking at them.

‘Excuse me, Prince’, he asked shyly ‘I would like to ask you about the battle, why is it so clean around here? Where is everybody?’

‘We’re waiting for the battle, don’t you know? Half an hour ago you told me off and said I wasn’t even able to help with making this magical soup you were so busy with and asked me to get lost, as everybody here does. So I’m taking Marv… Avram for a walk around the castle.’

‘What day is today?’ the wizard ignored Gustaw’s complaining, ‘Is it Friday?’, he tried recalling when the last time he spoke to Gustaw.

‘Yes, it’s Friday! Do you feel fine? Have you got too much of this soup?’

‘We have a day! Prince, I need to ask you a favor. You were the only one there. I need you to take me to Prince Vandarok! It’s a matter of life and death!’

‘Old man! I have been captured there! Blinded! You ask me for the impossible!’

‘I can bring you to Prince Vandarok, wizard’, the woman said suddenly.

Erwin looked at her.

‘You’re Marva, right? Prince Vandarok’s sister?’

‘How do you know?’ Gustaw was surprised.

‘I’m an old wizard, boy. I can see beyond any new magic. Especially, done by mermaids.’

‘Fine, but I want you to give us a wedding!’ Gustaw started his bargain.

‘Can I give you a wedding?’

‘Of course. All Royal Wizards can conduct weddings, funerals, and christenings, can’t they?’

‘Christenings? Wizards?! Boy, stop with this blasphemy! We pray to different gods. But we can fetch a Christian priest on our way. I don’t have time for discussion. Fifteen minutes for the wedding and then to Vandarok!’

The priest was almost nude before his hut as it was early in the morning and he thought no one could see him. He was washing his underwear and hanging long pants on a thread on his own since his house lady rushed to the castle to prepare for the battle.

‘Priest! Dress quickly and come with us! We need your services!’ Erwin shouted to the startled religious officer.

Gustaw and Marva waved to him and smiled in a welcoming way.

In the same miner’s chapel in which Karina and David had their secret wedding, now Gustaw and Marva with blissful happiness exchanged their vows with their only witness being Erwin the Royal Wizard, sitting on the bench and smiling at the young couple. It was fascinating to take part in this misalliance between two races and the old man hasn’t lost the idealism of his young years yet. The priest looked terrified, whether it was for the presence of the prince or the wizard, but he fulfilled his tasks beautifully.

Prince Vadarok was by himself in his chamber, sitting at a desk, carefully watching battle plans. The war wasn’t his idea, it was his destiny. It was the dream of his father and his grandfather who still remembered how mistreated were Goblins in the world of humans. It was the result of years spent underground and his dignity built, each and every day of his childhood, by constant comparisons and conclusions that humans weren’t as great as chronicles portrayed them to be. Vandarok took his grandfather’s and father’s resources to create the most powerful army the world at that time was about to welcome. He created the arms of death for anyone to oppose it.

The day that he chose for the battle was the day of his grandfather’s death. It was the last breath of a ruler who passed on with a sense of being defeated by the sun and earth. In Goblins’ eyes, it was once the death of deprivation and unfulfillment. And now it was about to change.

Vandarok knew that the human citizens of the kingdom were expecting him, forming a front to fight him, but he thought their efforts futile. He was aware that Marva was missing but what his silly sister knew about the seriousness of his affair? His family was built on hatred for the human race and it was the only family he grew up in, the only point of reference he had ever had.

The air stood still. The Prince broke the silence only with a silent bang of a golden coin, struck repeatedly against the table, which with every second brought him closer and closer to his final orders.

‘Prince, there are people who would like to see you’ the knight interrupted this silence, knocking at the door, ‘They say that they come in peace.’

Vandarok impatiently rolled his eyes but he knew the rules of war and any peace correspondent had to be heard.

“Yes?’

The old man entered the chamber along with two younger individuals.

“You!’ Vandarok recognized Gustaw, ‘I didn’t think that you would return. You didn’t like it here, I was sure.’

‘Now I came back with my wife and things look a bit different. This can be my second… home.’

Vandarok didn’t understand. He looked at the red-headed woman but he didn’t recognize anyone familiar.

‘I want to show you something, Prince,’ the wizard approached Vandarok’s desk ‘Do you, perhaps, have a bowl of water?’

Erwin was given a golden bowl of water and poured there something extremely stinky, which made Vandarok, Gustaw, and Marva cover their mouths.

‘My God, what is this stench???’

‘I want to show you the future.’

Erwin placed the bowl in front of Vandarok.

Prince Vandarok, still covering his nose and mouth, looked at the images which appeared in the water.

‘So… I’m going to be killed… by a woman?’

‘Yes, Prince. Beheaded as a matter of fact.’

‘And that is how I will be remembered?’

‘I’m not sure yet what will be done to your head, maybe it will be impaled and placed as a warning for centuries. But yes.’

‘And what will happen to us, Goblins?’

‘Centuries of hatred and discrimination, I suppose. How many wars have you waged between Goblins?’

‘None. This is the first one. We focus on craft.’

‘Yes, and you’re good at it.’

‘I want to show you something else. Something which will make you understand humans a bit more. Look!’

Vandarok looked into the bowl. And now images turned into countless other battles, with changing weapons and uniforms, and millions dying in different periods of time.

‘The problem with humans is that not only do they hate Goblins, Prince Vandarok. They also hate themselves. They don’t understand different cultures, they fight over religions. It takes years for them to accept something and they run around in circles. You’re here for a limited time. But you love your people. I’m not sure that this obsession with the human race is worth it. It wasted your father’s and your grandfather’s lives. And soon it will waste yours.’

‘What about all these preparations? All futile? All to waste?’

‘You can expand your empire, Prince. You’re an ambitious Goblin. Keep the peace with mankind and turn your efforts elsewhere. Expand these cities underground. They are masterpieces!’

‘But how can I keep the peace? Everybody hates humans here.’

‘Everybody hates what you hate, Prince. If you change your attitude, others will follow. And how better to keep the peace than by an act of true love and marriage?’

Erwin invited Gustaw and Marva to come closer.

‘Yes, brother,’ Avram said in her Marva’s natural voice ‘How about some love?’

Vandarok looked at this beautiful red-headed woman and gasped in astonishment. It was his own sister.

As the battle was canceled, all war efforts were turned elsewhere. The Turks were smashed by the Giants, the Dragon, fierce armed women, and sleeping soldiers led by Gwidon. Han became the Giants’ king and was, as promised, given land to rule over (just by chance located nearby another hostile border). The second and third prize were given accordingly to San and Tan. The Dragon was awarded the egg and soon there were legends of two dragons flying around the caste, one big and one small. And from then on there was peace.

When the king sat at the dinner table with two young couples, his son and a Goblin, and his daughter and a peasant boy with no money, no connections, and no blue blood, he wondered what he did wrong as a father. But while his wife had affairs, leaving him every night to his unhappiness and sense of failure, these were two happy marriages which were to last lifetimes. Marva and Gustaw were perfect royals for peace as they invested gold in art, music, and architecture, making the kingdom beautiful and admirable by other nations. And David and Karina brought the Royals closer to the common folk, making them liked and popular for decades.

Meanwhile, Edwin returned to his wizard’s retirement hut and enjoyed evenings with his brother, playing card games, exchanging memories, and drinking home-made liquor (and other magical spirits). The battle and the time travel brought two brothers together, making Erwin (due to seeing his brother’s death) a bit less royalty and work-obsessed. And Edwin, who retirement and rest had managed to perfection, found that there were some interesting things at the court to investigate and visit all the young that he was lucky to meet over the past days.

Because Karina was married there was no army for Gwidon to inherit. There were also no wars to wage so he chose a different profession. He got a job in Vandarok’s expansion project and every day he came back to his own little army of half witches and half wizards, whom Lilet was bringing up in her little witch’s hut. With sentiment, she looked at the river and smiled to herself. The Golden Fish seemed to make all her wishes come true.

THE END