Page 3 of The Night Prince

Declan smoothly launched himself over the bar and approached their table.Strofin was a newcomer to the Dawn and so had no idea of the mistake he had made.It was only when Declan stopped beside the red-skinned creature that Strofin realized that Declan had moved at all.The entire bar had gone silent.Only the Sun Elves, Finley and Snaglak looked at the scene openly.

“You have something to say to me,human?”Strofin practically spat the last word.

Finley released a very loud sigh as he clearly knew what was going to happen next.Snaglak let out a loud gurgle of laughter and looked on with bright eyes. Varhad hunched so low in his chair as to almost disappear into it despite him being as broad and solid as a fireplug.

“I do,” Declan said softly.

With a movement too quick for Strofin to counter, Declan caught hold of the plentiful ear hair that sprouted out of Strofin’s pointed left ear and pulled it until the goblin let out a yelp.The goblin reached for the curved dagger at his waist, but it wasn’t there any longer.Declan had disarmed him at the same time he’d grabbed his ear hair.

“Hey!How did you do that?Humans can’t do that!They can’t move that fast!”Strofin yelped.

In a conversational tone that never rose much above a murmur, Declan said, “You’renewhere so perhaps you don’t know the rules of the Dawn.”

“Rules?Rules thatyouenforce?Please!You’re nothing!You’re–AH!”Strofin hissed at the renewed pulling on his ear hair.

“Don’t speak.Just listen,” Declan said.The only other sound in the place was thecrackandpopof the wood in the fireplace as it was consumed by fire.“In the Dawn, you get the best wine, beer and spirits in all of the former United States of America.Service is given with a smile.You pay your bar tab at the end of the nightwitha generous tip.Thank you very much.”

Strofin’s large black eyes grew larger as Declan expertly spun his dagger between the fingers of one hand very near the goblin’s face.The blade was a blur.It danced so close to the goblin’s rough, red cheeks that if Strofin would have had a beard it would have been shaved off.

“Disagreements are known to happen though we ask that you keep them civil inside these walls.Fights are fine.Outside.”Declan paused and then asked, “But guess what is the one thing you must never,everdo?”

Strofin stared up at him.His lips parted showing his triangular, serrated teeth and long, slithery tongue.He did not speak.He’d evidently gotten the message about keeping silent.

Declan continued in that calm, conversational way, “You must never,everinsult the staff.”His green eyes burned into the goblin’s black ones as if he could sear the next words into the goblin’s tiny brain, “Respect will be given at all times.Are we clear?”

Strofin nodded even though his ear hair was pulled painfully with each movement of his head.He reallyhadgotten the message about not speaking.Declan spun the curved blade one last time before he slammed the tip of it into the table’s already scarred surface.Two inches of the blade were swallowed by the wood.The goblin would have a hard time prying it out of there.Strofin swallowed.Declan released the goblin’s ear hair and picked up his empty cup.

“Would you like a refill?Brandy, wasn’t it?”Declan asked.

Strofin nodded briskly.Declan was certain that Strofin wouldn’t say another word about humans–racist or otherwise–ever again, which meant that Finley was safer.He supposed other humans were, too, but it was Finley that mattered to him.So if putting bastards like Strofin in their place needed to be done a hundred times, a thousand times, or even more, he’d do it gladly.Even if it revealed just how different he was from everyone else.

“No problem.Coming right up,” Declan told him as he headed back to the bar.

He heard Varhad mutter to Strofin, “I told you Declanisn’tlike other humans.He’sdangerous.”

Wrong Is Right

Finley West tapped his pen against the open journal laid out on the table before him.It contained his notes for the final battle at the end of his current D&D campaign where his players would face off against the “Big Bad.”Only they would discover that it was not Ikkut Grieffinger the Ghoul who was behind the nefarious plot to take over the Adamantine Empire, but another far more powerful and dangerous foe: Xelroth Vex, the Night King.

But Finley wasn’t obsessing as he usually did on getting the lore just right even though the Night King had, in fact, existed and, according to some, still might.What worried him was his best friend.Something was wrong with Declan.Except wrong wasn’t exactly the correct word, because, depending on how one looked at it, some would say there was too muchrightwith Declan, too.

Watching Declan put the obnoxious, human-hating goblin in his place with such style and ease wasn’t unusual.Unfortunately, there had been many times that Declan had to step in when certain high fantasy beings decided to spew their vile thoughts about humanity being useless or worse. The thing was that Declan was too good at dealing with it.

Too strong.

Too fast.

Too everything.

For ahumananyway.

Not that Declan’s abilities surprised Finley.From the moment they’d met in fifth grade when Declan had pounded Steve Riker and Ronnie Dunford into the ground after they’d cornered Finley at recess and broken his glasses, he’d known that Declan was different.Special.And that had been more than confirmed the day the Leviathan came.

But Declan didn’t want anyone else to know about what he’d done that day.How he’d saved Finley and Gemma.How he’d done what no human supposedly could, which was use magic.He’d kept them all alive for twelve long hours while the Leviathan had slaughtered everyone else in Lightwell until King Aquilan had arrived with his army of Battle Mages.

Gemma was Gemma Baston, the now thirteen-year-old daughter of General Michael Baston and his wife Councillor Shonda Baston.The five of them had become a found family since the Leviathan had invaded.But before that Gemma had just been a neighbor that neither he nor Declan had known much about.

But for all the power–therightness–that Declan had shown with the Leviathan five years ago and with the goblin today, there was one thing that was genuinely wrongwith his best friend, which was Declan’s growing aversion to the Sun.More than an aversion.Sunlight made his friend deathly ill.

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