Goblin Diaries, Vol 13: Escape!
25th
Day of Winter Moon, 1218th Year, Human Age of Magic …
I’m still unsure of the date, but I now
have hopes that I can verify and track it accurately, for I have escaped!
I am writing this from a temporary hiding
place in a copse of cypress trees in the great swamp that forms the northern
border of the castle in Zemburith, where I spent my first night of freedom. I
waited until morning to make this entry, afraid the glow from the screen of my
journal might draw attention from some sentinel in one of the high castle
towers.
My escape opportunity presented itself
yesterday afternoon when the physician returned to extract my infected tooth.
He was unable to get permission to take me to his offices in the city, which
had been my hope, but he was accompanied by two of Mazuom’s mind slaves who
shackled me and took me to another room in the castle where there was at least
some light for the physician to work by.
The “operating room” they had chosen for
me turned out to be an unused torture chamber. I imagine they had abandoned it
because it wasn’t as dark and sinister as other rooms in the dungeons—it was a
room in one of the towers, with a huge skylight that let in plenty of light
from the afternoon sun. I tell you, despite my predicament, that precious light
elevated my mood!
The guards locked us in the room and
waited outside, and while the physician began to examine my jaw, my hopes for
escape began to dim. The skylight seemed to be the only way out, and the
prospect of disabling the physician, scaling the high wall, breaking the glass,
and somehow descending the outside wall of the tower undetected seemed
unlikely.
And then, everything fell into place.
The physician was puzzled at the swelling
in my jaw, which on closer examination in the light, he determined not to be
from a bad tooth, but from some foreign object lodged within.
I knew right away what it was. The faerie,
Floreze, had managed to plant a small tracking needle in my jaw when she
touched me back in the Forest of Baeth. Then she had given Mazuom a ring that
would track the signal. That’s how he’d been able to find me so quickly!
Of course, I didn’t tell the physician
that, and when he went to get a scalpel with which to remove the object, I was
left alone to examine my surroundings closely. There was a raised fireplace in
the room, once used to heat hot irons for torture, and I found the flue
connected to a chimney that ran from the bottom to the top of the tower. My
goblin frame was small enough to negotiate the space, and I wriggled my way down the chimney to
the sewers below, eventually emerging into a spillway into the swamp.
I was able to gouge out the tracking
needle with a reed from the swamp which, broken just so, created a razor-sharp
edge. Messy, but effective. I sent the device floating over the falls inside a
piece of the reed, which hopefully will lead Mazuom to scour the lake below for
my body. So far, no search party has been dispatched into the swamp.
The day dawns bright with hope.
