The guard around me surged into action. Valeria put her hands on me and started healing me. Lesseth popped out of the bag, turned into water, and smothered me for a moment.

“Stop!” I said.

Everyone stopped. But that might have been because my thin pink halter top was both singed and soaking wet.

“You’re like my ticket out of here,” said Princess Maggie. “I’m the only one with magic, and I have to listen to these old men all the time? I mean, buh-leeze!”

“Darling!” exclaimed the goblin king.

I’ve been in relationships with girls with hot tempers before. Never again. Passion is awesome, but one had to draw the line somewhere.

Any stunning effect from my transparent shirt faded quickly. It was curious, though, that it had any effect at all, given that they had just seen me with the shirt practically off.

Human and demon guards had surrounded the little princess.

“Okay, people. Let’s simmer down.”

“I’ll bring you all to a boil if you don’t get me away from this geezer,” Maggie said.

She was plucky, I’ll give her that. It couldn’t be easy to be her father. Maybe she had reason for her rebellion, or maybe she was just a brat.

I made a quick decision. “Valeria, bind her,” I said, hoping that she needed to point to do her thing. “And bring her to me. I’ll talk to her later.”

“You can’t just take my daughter!” said the goblin king. Original content can be found at novｅlfire.net

“Oh yes she can,” Maggie said. “Totally. Into bondage, huh? Gingy.”

King-like? Kinky? Whatever. Maggie was going quietly for now. The goblin king tried to get at Val, and a couple of goblins joined him, but the guards blocked them off.

Val lifted the bound Maggie and carried her over her shoulder. When she was out of ear shot, I asked the goblin king, “What’s with offering me your women, and for what? It’s not like I couldn’t take them if I wanted to, and what would you get in exchange?”

“Our lives?”

I shrugged. I supposed I could hold a threat over them, but I didn’t play that way. “I wasn’t going to kill you, anyway. I’m just protecting the beastkin in these woods, in exchange for valuable considerations. Just go back to the forest you came from and don’t come raiding again.”

He turned a very pale green. “Go-go back?”

“Sure.”

The other goblins looked frightened too. The king shook his head. “Please no. Enslave us. We can work in mines. All night long, all day too until we go blind. You can feed us scraps. But don’t send us back.”

“Um, I’m not doing that, either. Wait – what’s wrong with where you came from? You’ve been there for a while, haven’t you?”

“Generations. But now the golden one roams, seeking souls. Swords do not cut it, and fire does not burn. Its breath brings instant death.”

“I see.” Although I didn’t really. “Can you draw me a picture?”

He looked aghast. “I’m royalty! Did you mistake me for a painter?”

Given that I was the most famous artist in Avonia, I thought that was amusing. Not that I could draw worth a lick, either. “Could you have someone do it, then?” I got paper and pen out of my bag.

He barked orders for a particular goblin to be found. But that goblin was probably a mile away at least. It was going to take some time while the whole group continued on their path. I hated herding them around like that. They were all so cute and defenseless, and memories of other prisoner marches in history reverberated in my mind. But I intended to treat them all humanely.

“I’ll catch up when I have time,” I told the king. “Have the picture ready for me.”

Over the next few hours more goblins surrendered, and were marched toward where we were holding them. I sent more and more zombies to serve as guards. We found a lot of bodies, too, many of which were small, green, and had claw marks. I hooked back up with Gren and her scouts and sent some of them to the beastkin to tell them we had won, and to stop the killing.

I didn’t really know what I was going to do. I couldn’t hold the goblins prisoners forever. Even just rounding them up like that gave me the creeps about myself. I had no intention of making them work in the mine as slaves. Perhaps they could build a little settlement? It wasn’t that I wanted to expand Abbyland, now that we had a source of wood, but I couldn’t think of another solution at the moment.

The military operations didn’t really require my attention, and I didn’t think I was a brilliant strategist, anyway. I mostly stayed on top of things to stop everyone from unneeded slaughter.

You know, you could have a lot of very short zombies by now, if you wanted. And a goblin vampire would probably make a great spy. So hard to spot, can hide almost anywhere.

“If there are even any high enough level,” I said.

Only one way to find out.

“Ask? I scarcely think anyone’s going to volunteer that they are ready to be turned into undead.”

Oh, lots of people want to be vampires. But no, I meant kill them all and then sort them out.

If I could handle talking to Enash, I could definitely deal with a chat with the shortstack pyromancer.

Valeria had gotten tired of carrying her around, and they were both leaning against a particular large tree. For once, it wasn’t Val who was tied up. I wondered if she was jealous. Ah well. It was good for bottoms to top sometimes, and tops to bottom. I should probably follow up on that thought for myself.

I noticed Valeria had gagged her with a wad of blue fabric.

“What’s with the gag?”

“She’s got a mouth on her,” Val said.

“Mmuhmmehmmuhn.”

“Well, yes, of course she does. How else would she eat and talk. Mind taking it out?”

“As you wish,” Val said, her voice implying that it was a bad choice I would learn to regret. She untied the gag.

“That’s not all I can do with my mouth,” was the first thing Maggie said.

“Inka came by, and told her about you,” Val said, dropping her gaze meaningfully to my crotch.

I sighed. “I thought with Gren off scouting maybe we’d skip that part. Well, I suppose that saves some explanations. So, Maggie.”

“Princess Maggie.”

“Really? That’s going to get tiring. You’re going to have to say Queen and Uber Archfiend Uberabberubeyabby all the time.”

She frowned. “That’s really your name?”

“Yes.” At least according to some. “But you can call me Abby, if I can call you Maggie.”

“Uh, deal.”

“So, you, um, don’t get along well with your dad.”

She shook her head. “He’s a rat bastard.”

“Do I want to know?”

“There were these trolls that came through, and he wanted to get on their good side. So what’s the first thing he thinks of doing! ‘Here, I can give you my daughter.’ He surrenders here, and what’s the first thing he thinks of? I’ll find the guy in charge and whore out my daughter. I mean, really.”

Right. I’d been so used to rolling with what various cultures did on Amaranth that I hadn’t been shocked at the goblin king’s offer. I needed to watch out for that kind of complacence.

“Anyway,” she continued, “so when I saw you were a chick like me, I’m like, I’m out of here. Ya know? But you made me mad when you wouldn’t take me, so I decided to cause a scene.”

“Riiight. How old are you, Maggie?”

“Twenty-one.”

“She’s lying,” Valeria said.

Maggie glared at her. “Nineteen,” she said, after a moment.

Valeria nodded at me.

“So, what do you say, Abby?” Maggie asked.

“What do I say to what?”

“Am I worth keeping around? I’m told I’m just the right height, and that I’m pretty good with my mouth.” She licked her lips, and winked broadly. “If ya know what I mean.”

“I know what you mean,” I said. “And I won’t make you go back to your father, if you behave.”

She nodded. “Is behave code for spreading my legs? I want maidenfriend.”

“No,” I said. “Behave is code for not burning things down.”

“Oh.” She frowned, and then grinned. “Most goblins think I’m pretty hot. That troll did, too. We kinda reached an understanding, in the end, but then --”

“The one who your father gave you to?”

“Yeah. He did teach me how to do this.” She wiggled her finger, and a flame danced on it.

“His name wasn’t Baradzem, was it?”

She blinked. “Yeah? You know where he is? I mean, I gave it up for him, you know, if you know what I mean, even though that wasn’t the deal my dad made, and then the next night he just vanished.”

“When men get what they want, they lose interest,” Valeria said. “That’s why I decided on a life of chastity.”

Maggie gave her a look.

“Then I met Abby,” Valeria amended. “Decisions change.”

“Not all men,” I said, cringing.

“Not all men,” Valeria agreed. “Too many. But not even close to all. Futanari, on the other hand…”

“You don’t have a statistical sample,” I said.

“I don’t need one,” Valeria said with a grin.

“Anyway,” I said, turning back to Maggie. “You agree not to burn things down, and you can stay around. Uh, wait a minute. There is one thing you can do.”

“If it’s anal,” she said, “I’m really small back there, and you’d need literally buckets of lube, and even then it probably wouldn’t work.”

“It’s not anal. You said Baradzem taught you fire magic?”

“Yeah.”

“So you could teach someone else?”

“Yeah, I guess I could.”

“So there you go. That’s how you’ll earn your keep.”

“Not with my smokin’ hot body?”

“What you do with your smoking hot body is your business,” I told her. “Do we have a deal? No creating mischief, and you teach one person of my choosing, and in return, you can stay with us as long as you wish.”

“I still have to decide whether I’ve just been insulted or not. Don’t you think it would feel good? And what about me being just the right height?”

“The rest of us can kneel, and it all works out fine,” Valeria said. “Also, it really works better lying down. Otherwise Abby has to stand the whole time, and when she comes, sometimes her knees buckle. Which is satisfying in its own way, but then I have to catch her with her cock pressing on my gag reflex. Not something one wants to do every day.”

“Really?” Maggie asked.

“Really.”

Maggie looked at me. “Alright. You have a deal. I’ll behave.” She paused. “But you did say I could do what I wanted with my smoking hot body.”

“You can, providing you have consent from anyone else involved.”

“Oh,” she said. “Fine. Wanna blowjob?”

“Not right this minute,” I said. “Thanks.” I bent down to untie her. My breasts ended up in her face in the process, and I’d forgotten how wet my shirt was. She managed to latch on to a nipple through it and give me a suck.

“Consent, remember?” I said.

“But it was right there.”

“Doesn’t matter.”

She pouted. “Okay, fine. But don’t put them in – no, I take that back. I’ll be good. Mash ‘em up against me all you like.”

I managed to untie her. “I need to give you an escort, because otherwise people will toss you in with the prisoners.”

“Her,” Maggie said, pointing at Valeria.

“No, I need her for lots of things.”

“I bet,” Maggie leered.

I spotted Inka and waved her over. “Hey, Inka, can you watch over Maggie here, and keep her out of trouble?”

“Sure,” Inka said.

“Princess Maggie.”

“But then you’d have to say Master Chef and Accountant Extraordinaire Inka every time,” I told her. “And that would get tedious.”

“Fine,” Maggie said.

“Just Inka will do,” Inka said. “And I don’t mind calling you Princess.”

“Have you fucked her?” Maggie asked Inka, indicating me.

“Why yes, yes I have.” Inka winked at me. “Come on, let me show you around.” Inka put her arm around Maggie, and guided her away.

Maggie looked back over her shoulder, and asked, unnecessarily loudly, “Those two are gonna do it, aren’t they?”

“At some point,” Inka said. “But probably they just want to talk about you.”

Well, she wasn’t wrong.

“You aren’t seriously going to add her to your harem, are you?” Valeria said. “She’s just nineteen.”

“How old are you?”

“Twenty-two.”

“Right. Huge difference.”

“It is!”

“Valeria, my love, I am not looking to increase my number of lovers. I’m very satisfied. And whether she’s nineteen or if she was ninety, I think she has some growing up to do.”

“I don’t think she’ll get any taller,” Valeria said, her voice flat.

I looked at her and decided she hadn’t misunderstood.