Total pages in book: 194
Estimated words: 187021 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 935(@200wpm)___ 748(@250wpm)___ 623(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 187021 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 935(@200wpm)___ 748(@250wpm)___ 623(@300wpm)
Graves stood stone-faced, and Niamh could barely contain her disgust, but Kierse felt nothing but pity. She had seen the same thing on the streets during the Monster War. Jason always kicked out any of his thieves in the guild who got addicted. There was no point. Even if there were a cure, no one wanted it.
Luckily, publicly distributing the fruit was made illegal, and most of the crops were destroyed after the Monster Treaty was signed in the city. Goblins raged about the hypocrisy since humans could still be blood donors to vampires and soul patrons to wraiths and the like. But people could survive that; humans didn’t survive goblin fruit.
They stepped forward as the girl headed through the gate, munching on her fruit. The goblin at the entrance was roughly Kierse’s height with a humanoid appearance save for the greige tint to his skin, long, wide, pointed ears, and deep, inset forehead around unnaturally large eyes.
“Fruit?” he asked, gesturing to a carton filled with the reddish purple fruit. They almost looked like plums the size of apples, with the skin of a peach.
“No,” Graves growled.
“Pass,” Niamh agreed.
“Hello again. Remember me?” Kierse said.
The goblin glanced at Kierse and then revealed a row of razor-sharp incisors. “Ah, little girl, did you bring me my bracelet?” He laughed uproariously and elbowed another goblin at his side.
Kierse tugged the bracelet out of the small bag and twirled it before him.
The goblin’s jaw dropped open in shock. “Blessed ore.”
The other goblin punched him in the arm. “Fucking hell, Fraan, is that what I think it is?”
“It is,” Fraan said, slack jawed.
“Where’d you get that?” the second goblin demanded.
“Off a queen,” Kierse told him. “And it’s the price you claimed I needed to pay to get a coin inside.”
“It was a joke, Chots,” Fraan said. He pushed the other goblin away and held his grubby hand out. His nails were nearly black and razor sharp. “I’ll take that off your hands.”
“Rio is going to want to see that,” Chots said.
“Shut the fuck up,” Fraan said, shoving him away irritably. Chots clamped his mouth shut.
Nying Market translated to “gift market,” and the motto over the entrance read A gift for a gift. And while there was always a cost to get in the market, they made it obscenely high because they wanted more people to get addicted to the goblin fruit. So she was unsurprised that they were trying to dick her around when she could easily become another cog in their machine.
“We can all agree that’s not a fair price,” Graves argued.
“This is clearly worth more than the price of entrance,” Kierse agreed.
“Doesn’t fucking matter,” Fraan snarled. “We agreed. Fair and square.”
“You said it was a joke,” Niamh countered.
“That’s not how the market works,” Fraan said.
“We all know you were dicking me around because you thought there was no way for me to get my hands on this bracelet,” Kierse said. “But I delivered. So why don’t we figure out a good trade?”
“You really took it off a queen?” Chots asked.
“I said shut the fuck up, Chots!” Fraan bellowed. His bulging eyes narrowed, and he plucked a shiny gold coin half the size of her palm out of his pocket. “This is what you asked for, and by rights of the market, you agreed in good faith to the trade. Going back on it now would be against the goblin code.”
Chots eyes widened. “Fraangyng!”
Graves sighed as if he had anticipated something like this and stepped up next to her, casually placing his hand on a gun at his waist.
Kierse glanced around and saw that the goblins who had been stationed at the doors had noticed their confrontation and were heading toward them. They had battle axes resting on their shoulders and AK-47s slung into position in their arms, ready to fight.
“Uh,” she muttered. “What just happened?”
“He called you a cheat,” Niamh said.
“And they take that kind of thing very seriously,” Graves added.
Taking a battle axe to the head was not her idea of a good time, but Kierse was confident she could take on a few goblins. With Graves and Niamh at her back, maybe more than a few. Still, they were on goblin turf. This was not a fight she wanted to engage in.
“Fine,” Kierse said, holding the bracelet out. “A gift for a gift.”
Fraangyng grinned wider and signaled to the approaching goblins. They stopped in their tracks, then retreated to their positions. Fraan snatched the bracelet from her hand and dropped the coin into her palm. “Happy doing business with you.”
Kierse fumed. “Sure thing.”
His large eyes lifted to Graves and Niamh. “You’ll have to pay separate.”
Graves revealed his own coin. “I’m good.”
“Same,” Niamh said cheerfully. “Well, this was lovely. Think we’ll move along so you can sell someone else into goblin fruit addiction.”