Key To A Goblin's Heart

Victoria's POV

The Queen was reluctant to let us in, after everything we had done on the Island, I would say that was an expected response. But, Cassie's father was adamant….he went over the Queen's orders and let us enter the palace. 

We had arrived in Mafhaelore when it was almost mid-day, but now the sun had set casting it's peculiar orange glow all over the place. The sky here is strangely purple, a shade hardly seen anywhere on Earth, and the Trees that grew in this part of the Country were all white.

I don't think I have ever seen such white trees before, even the leaves were albino. How did these plants make food? Don't they require chlorophyll? I made a mental note to ask Sofosys later, about the myriad peculiarities of this place. 

Mike would have liked it here, I thought. It's the perfect sort of place for his curious mind and might I say, he would find a lot many things here to be curious about. I wondered how the land of fairies might be? I shall go there someday, preferably along with my brother because it happens to be his native land. Gosh! It has only been a few hours and I am already missing that goofy soul. 

The castle itself was strangely built. From a distance, nothing seemed out of sorts, but now from a close up...it looks a bit tilted. As if some strong hurricane had blown over it, shaking the whole castle but unable to uproot it entirely and had rather bent it slightly. It was a huge thing, bearing numerous turrets and porticoes, the ceiling was almost sky high and there seemed to be uncountable number of rooms in here. 

Presently, I was being led by a short Goblin man, carrying a yellow lantern(The Goblins didn't have electricity) to my room. I had requested them to lodge me near Cassie's room, but for some unknown reason the Goblins hadn't accepted my proposal. They had muttered something about preventing the heir's contact with unreliable strangers, and thus I have been designated quarters at the farthest corner of the Palace. 

We seemed to be walking forever, and the silence was suffocating me. I had tried to strike a conversation with my grim faced host, but he had not responded beyond a handful of words. It was quite evident that he didn't want to talk to me. Are the Goblins usually this morose? I had only known few of them intimately, during my stay on the Island, but they had seemed friendly enough. Maybe something is wrong with the people in this palace particularly. 

Once again, my mind was diverted to the Queen. Did she instruct these people to be deliberately uncivil towards me? Maybe that's the case, I thought. But, I might take a chance to know better. 

"So, how long have you been here?" I asked cheerily, trying to start a conversation again. 

The short Goblin grumbled, "I have been with the Queen my whole life." He said, "like my father was before me and his father, before him."

"So, you are some sort of a butler to her, right?" I asked. 

"What?" He replied reluctantly, "I know of no such thing."

"A butler." I tried to explain, "one who looks after the Queen's familial matters, fixes her appointments with other and does other kinds of households jobs for her."

"I am not a butler." He shrugged, "I am a farmer. But, I do all those things too."

"But, you said that you have lived with the Queen her whole life. How can you be a butler and a farmer at the same time?" I asked confused. 

"You are mistaken. I am not a butler." The man replied frustrated, "I just work for the Queen because it's an honour to serve her. My occupation is that of a farmer."

This was clearly not working as my host seemed even more hostile than before. So, I tried to steer the conversation in some other direction. 

"So, how much do you get paid?" I asked cheerily. 

He stopped in his track. 

"Paid?" He frowned, "For what?"

"For your work…. er with the Queen." I suggested. 

He looked at me haughtily and then answered in a grave tone, "I don't get paid by the Queen! That would be blasphemy, to take money from Her Highness! I only serve her because it is my duty, like it was the duty of my father and his father before him."

"But you work for her! You must get paid for your labours!" I asked, with bulging eyes, "Do you mean to say that the Queen doesn't pay her servants?"

The man looked really uncomfortable now. His shoulders tilted a little before he answered, "After the war, the Royal coffers have been confiscated by the Arphoelians. The Monarchy is left with no money, so we can't be paid. We have to do our daily labours, then work in the fields to grow crops which shall feed our families."

I couldn't believe what he had to say. Still I asked, "So, why does the Queen employ you? She should let you guys work in the fields more, so that you can grow more crops. Why are you working double time, when you only get paid for half of it?"

The little man seemed to consider my question carefully, before answering with a short laugh, "If we don't work, who will fetch Her Majesty water when she need it? Who will look after this enormous castle? Who will wash the clothes, clean the place and prepare the food?"

"She should do all these herself!" I said horrified, "She shouldn't keep servants if she can't afford to! How can she expect you people to work so hard and do everything, when she just sits upon her throne and munches on grapes?"

The man looked shocked. 

"Please don't let anyone hear you saying all these!" He insisted urgently, before stealing surreptitious glances all over the place. It was empty, save for both of us. 

Then, he sighed and answered in a very soft voice, "You are right, girl. But, we have no other option. We are mere servants, we can't protest against the Monarchy! And, it would be treason if we spoke against her. Be careful, you too shouldn't say all these lest you want to find yourself in the prison."

"I don't fear her." I said haughtily, "you people are cowards! You really should stand up against such injustice."

"It is our duty to serve the Queen." The man resumed his impassive demeanor once more, "and I would happily do it. Moreover, The Queen has better things to think about….like ruling a country and defeating those wretched Arphoelians. She can't be bothered with trivia stuff like doing her own laundry!

Now, here's your room. You will find everything inside it. Good day, Mistress."

He gave me a short bow, and then strode off without any further words. 

I took a deep breath and entered the room. It was quite non-descript, a small room with a huge King-sized bed in the centre of it. The bed occupied almost the entire room and there were no furnitures, except a small sofa and a bedside table. I perched on the top of the bed, and started to change my clothes. It had, indeed, been a long day. 

I woke up with a burst of sun ray entering my room. I had fallen asleep half naked, and I didn't even bother to close the door last night. I mean, who shall peep? The entire castle is almost empty, and I happen to live at the farthest and most neglected corner of it. 

I yawned and then realized I didn't have a clock. It might as well be noon now, and I have slept through breakfast. My stomach kept making strange noises, and I decided to look around the castle, searching for something to fill it. 

The day was splendid, and my mood immediately lifted on coming out of the Castle. People went about their daily business as the sun shone overhead with an intensity that quickly made me sweat all over. I had forgotten about my empty stomach and I decided to take a walk. 

The Entire Kingdom seemed to be divided into two parts- Residential complexes and farmlands. I could see many people bent over their equipments, ploughing the fields manually and sowing seeds with their own hands. The lack of technological advances was striking here, the work that would otherwise take an hour on Earth seemed to take the whole day here. 

I wondered why these people weren't using magic to sow their crops. I asked a passerby, who grunted something about the Queen's orders about limiting the use of magic in the farmland, for the fear of being exposed to enemies who can sense the use of magic. It seemed that only the Castle had protections which would enable its residents to use their magical powers freely, without the fear of discovery. 

But why didn't the Queen extend the jurisdiction of these protections? Why didn't she apply them to the Entire Kingdom? I got my answer from an old farmer, who was sweating from his daily labours. The charm can only be extended to one place at a time and it can't cover the entire Kingdom, else it's power will be diluted. 

So, the Queen had once again managed to provide for her own convenience, while she wilfully ignored the pains of others. The more I saw, the more convinced I was that she is not a good monarch. She hardly cared for the troubles of the common people, rather she spent all her days locked in her chambers, idealizing about a perfect Kingdom and war which will bring her glory. 

In her lofty dreams, there was no place for these poor people who toiled all day and yet starved.