The Devil's Ante Chapter 6: Chapter 6 - The Stone Throne

Read chapter 6 of The Devil's Ante by Lerion on NovelPedia.

As I landed on the cold marble floor, being thrown to the ground by a green equivalent of a Schwarzenegger, my health bar flickered in the corner of my vision. Thankfully the value didn't move so I was still at full health, although my body and ego would certainly disagree with that assumption. The incense was even stronger inside. It filled my nose and throat with that sickly sweet smell from before. Every breath I was trying to take filled my lungs with a mix of herbs and that odor I couldn't name. It smelled like old churches that even God would forget to visit on some Sundays. I tried getting up a bit to see what was in front of me, but a large hand quickly grabbed my head and put me to the ground again. "Hey, easy there big guy. I don't even know what I'm supposed to be looking at." My face almost kissed the ground and I was close enough to see the distorted reflection of my face in the perfectly clean marble. Man, I looked like shit. My hair was stuck to my forehead and there was some blood still stuck to my face from that self-inflicted hit. I didn't even know it was there, but even if I knew, I wouldn't have had a chance to clean myself. I got up again, just very slightly to not get my face pushed through to the floor below. The big hand resisted, but I got myself in a position that was comfortable enough to at least not get cramps. I looked at the reflections in the marble as now I could see some more. All the goblins were holding their heads low, not looking at what was in front of us. I could only assume that they had taken me to the throne room and I was in the presence of their king or queen or whatever they had decided on. The important-looking goblin got up from his knees, still keeping his head low and moved forward. He stopped after a few steps and started talking in his own tongue. There was a response from above, their voice rather harsh and he seemed to enunciate parts of his speech, as if he was letting his sibilants linger. A few exchanged sentences later, the goblin that ordered me out of the cell moved back and the one he was talking to loudly called out. Quick footsteps echoed through the room and heavy panting accompanied them. As the sound got closer, I could see in the reflection that it was a small, frail-looking goblin rushing through the hall with his head down and a book that was almost the size of him. He ran past me and answered the call. A goblin voice barked something from above and the little one moved again. He stopped right beside me and spoke up: "You are humie. You speak the humie common language?" Would you look at that, a goblin I could speak to. "Yeah, I do speak common." The goblin opened his book and sifted through it. A moment later he spoke up again. "State your birth call sign." "The what? You want to know my horoscope or something?" The goblin ignored the question and looked into his book intensely. "Your birth name. State it humie." "Well you should have said so the first time. My name is Kai, your royal smallness." The goblin didn't look into his book this time. He looked to the side and said something in his goblinish and the big goblin pushed my head right into the marble. I hit it right with my nose and I felt something shifting in there. He picked my head up by the hair and a small pool of blood had already formed with more dripping from my nose. My health bar now showed 7/10. "Consider this a warning humie. Respect the Fortunate One or die." Shit, I pushed my luck too far this time. Not like I had a lot to push though. The goblin that had translated before stepped right in front of me. He carefully avoided my blood and cleared his throat. "You stand accused before the Stone Seat of the Fortunate One." "And what's the charge your highness? Being kidnapped?" The goblin pushed my head again, much lighter this time but I could still feel it in my spine. If it went for much longer that fucker would break me in half. "You stand accused," he continued, louder this time, "of kil