As I arrived at the tavern the next morning, Digits told me that there had been a big group of students that had gathered at dawn, and then headed off in wagons or mounted on horses or wolves toward the mountain road that would take them to the university. He told me it was “at least five dozen,” which was more than I’d expected, but not a really large number considering that there were over a thousand students at the university. Digits also said that he thought he’d seen the ghost-cat in the lead wagon, and was happy that the creature had at least left town.

  I did my prep work to get the tavern ready for the breakfast crowd. Then, just as the first customers were sitting down, there was a thump at the back door, followed by a scratching sound.

  I opened the door to find myself staring directly into the muzzle of a giant wolf. The wolf sniffed me and then licked me across the face.

  The giant wolf was Sergeant Luna, who barked urgently to me. “Gharol, jump on. The king wants to see you. We need to go fast.”

  If there are humans reading this, I should probably explain that I can understand the giant wolf language. It is called Northern Pointed Canine, and we study it at the College of Healing, as healers are expected to be able to understand the major species of the kingdom. I can’t speak it myself, but I can understand simple sentences.

  I spoke back to Luna in the common tongue of the kingdom, High Goblin. Luna can understand it well, having been raised in Pelsa and all.

  “Why? I didn’t do anything! I was just serving food and drinks,” I protested.

  “He knows. There were long discussions with the whole team last night. Now the king wants to talk to you to get your own take on the ghost-cat situation,” barked back the wolf.

  Luna crouched down, and I climbed onto her back. I held on tight as she raced through our town of Lagar’s Haven, then up the road on the hill to take us to the castle.

  Luna didn’t even need to slow down as the castle gate opened before her, and then the door to the great hall. She wiped her feet briefly on a rug just inside the door, then bounded through the great hall and up the elegant, carpeted main stairs to the personal office the king kept in the chancery on the second floor of the main tower.

  I fell as I climbed down from the giant wolf, but the king was there to catch me and set me back on my feet.

  King Jend is larger in person than he looks when you see him giving speeches. They say he is seven feet tall, but I suspect he’s taller. Even back then, he was well dressed, in his trademark blue jacket with the red velvet collar, which went nicely with his deep-blue skin and his red-flecked eyes.. His fangs were nicely polished and gleaming white, and he smiled at me as he set me down.

  , I thought to myself. . But other thoughts of things I'd learned recently intruded:

  I fought to keep my intrusive thoughts down.

  “I understand you had an unexpected visitor at the Inappropriate Unicorn last night,” said the king.

  I felt guilty on so many levels. Listening to the Lothar-ghost-cat thing, bringing it tea, helping work the situation so that we'd have a lot of sales. Did any of that count as treason?

  “Yes, yes Your Highness. But I swear I didn’t invite him! I tried to throw him out, but my hands went right through him and he shot the ticklish death rays at me and I didn’t know what to do, I didn’t know what to say, I had…”

  “Oh, do not worry Gharol. Sergeant Luna reported what happened, and my wife and daughter added all the details. I’m just glad that you are neither marching on the university nor trying to blackmail me,” said the king, still grinning.

  “Blackmail you, sire? Oh, no, I am a loyal goblin and I like the College of Healing and I don’t know how blackmail even works,” I told the king.

  “Well, we have about seventy students heading to the university as we speak, and that merchant Ghershod seems to have some idea about blackmailing me. He was in my office this morning telling me that if I didn’t lower the import duty on strawberries, he would reveal the truth to the kingdom about Snuggles.”

  “Oh, sire! How could he?” I was really shocked at the disloyalty. I mean, things were generally going well in the kingdom, and we’d won the war and all. You’d think the citizens would remember that, but here they were trying to profit from Lothar's return. People’s memories can be so short and selective on certain topics.

  “Don’t worry. Merchants are almost as tricky as humans. I think I can handle it – I’ve dealt with more serious threats in my time. Gershod is due for a tax audit.” The king spoke as he paced the room. His pacing included a stop by the mantel over the small fireplace. He picked up a small, worn plush toy – it looked like a kraken or octopus – considered it for a moment, and then placed it back on the mantel.

  “I’m sure everything that evil creature said last night was just propaganda,” I opined. “I’m sure he was just saying things to try to get back at you, for vanquishing him and taking over here and all.”

  “Well, some of what he said was true,” said the king. “Which is why I need to head out later this morning with the navy to deal with a particularly difficult sea serpent. Lothar’s lies were mostly on what he left out.”

  I had no idea how to respond. I wanted to know the full story. The best I could come up with for a response was to just nod a bunch of nods.

  The king continued. “Everybody has trouble when they first try to master magic. And I was very young when I first tried. In the College of Magic, they usually begin at sixteen. The stories that Lothar told of my mistakes were from when I was eight.”

  “Oh, I see! He let kids that young learn magic?”

  “He taught me how to blow things up when I was nine. Lothar had … practical training methods. For combat training, and most of his training was combat training, he sent us to kill things. Those things fought back. One I remember in particular, when I was eleven. He sent me and another apprentice to clear out giant centipedes from the Deepdark Mine. I still have the bite marks on my arm.”

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  He began to pull up his sleeve, which I guess was to show me the bite marks, but then he thought better of it, and just continued his story.

  “When I began as his apprentice, there were ten other apprentices. Only Anik and I survived. One of his apprentices I was forced to kill, when he stood with Lothar after my rebellion began. Getryg, who had been my friend.”

  “Sire! Lothar didn’t mention any of that. And he gave another reason for why you started the rebellion,” I said, and then wished I hadn’t.

  “I thought the reasons behind the rebellion were taught in our schools. Did they not tell you?” asked the king.

  I hadn’t been the most attentive student in the history classes. “Well, they just mentioned you and General Garaxas wanted to end the evil wizard’s tyranny and bring peace and prosperity to the northern lands.”

  “Garaxas and I started the rebellion when we were ordered to destroy the village of Grendom,” the king began. “The villagers had protested because they were almost starving, and then sheltered a village child who had thrown a rock at Lothar’s son. I refused to incinerate the village, and Garaxas, the lieutenant who commanded the soldiers who had gone with me, decided to join me instead of attacking me or reporting me to Lothar.”

  “But Grendom is so nice! How could he?” It really seemed awful to think the creature I knew as a cute ghost-cat had had the habit of destroying villages.

  “The secret to being a tyrant is to allow no opposition to go unpunished. Even the small things. He kept everyone but his soldiers in rags, and there was constant hunger. He would tell me how he hated the creatures of the land. He only needed a few for the mines, and for guarding his fortress. The rest were just to be exploited or killed.”

  “I really did try to throw him out, sire, he just started talking, and people listened, and…”

  “Again, Gharol, I certainly do not hold you responsible for Lothar’s return or any of his actions. And this time, if properly handled, something useful may come of it.” The great king’s grin returned, which I thought was an odd reaction.

  “Useful? So you aren't mad? You think this ghost-cat situation could be useful?” I asked.

  “No, I won't get mad about this. So many times in life I have found that you have to choose between either getting angry, or getting what you want. I generally choose getting what I want, and we have a prosperous kingdom to show for it,” explained our wise king, flashing those beautiful sharp fangs of his.

  At that point he came and sat down in the chair at his desk. He motioned to me to sit down at the goblin-sized chair across from his desk. I did, and he leaned toward me and asked me “Tell me honestly. What do you think of the tuition at the University of the Northern Lights?”

  It wasn’t a question I’d been expecting to get from the king that morning, but I answered the best I could.

  “My family pays twenty-five gold tails each year for me to attend. It is sort of a lot, but my father is a miner at Deepdark, and there has been so much gold found recently, and the miners each get a share, so, really we are doing okay. My little brother will probably start at the College in two years…”

  “Yes, excellent,” said the king. “That is what we want to hear. You know that the royal family pays for most of your tuition?”

  “I didn't know that, no. They didn't mention that.”

  “I'm sure the university didn't. They charge us two hundred gold tails per year per student in the College of Healing. Aida and I estimate that the teaching costs per student come to about eighty tails per year. They make a profit on each student, and it goes either to building more buildings and centers and institutes, or directly to the bonuses to the administrators.”

  He shook his hands in the general direction of the university, then leaned back to me. “And it is much worse for those students in the other colleges of the university. We know we need as many healers as we can get, so we subsidize those students. But about wizards and the engineers, well, we have debated if having more of them is a good idea. They seem to create two problems for every one they solve.”

  “But the engineers are useful! I mean, toilets! No goblin wants to go back to using holes in the ground, or that horrible pot!” I said, fighting for our right to plumbing.

  “Indeed,” replied the king. “So, recently, we've decided that we even need more engineers, and wizards, and maybe even writers and historians.”

  “I'm not sure more writers are really necessary, sire,” I said. I had dated a writer once, and wow, so much angst. I hope he eventually got a real job. I wasn’t sure it was moral for the government to encourage that sort of lifestyle.

  “Nonetheless, the queen and I have decided that tuition needs to come down across the board, for all students. But to just pay the tuition for every student to the university would end our budget for roads and half the army. So we think it is better if the university lowers it of their own free will, to about the price it really costs for the education.”

  “But how will they build all the new buildings they want?” I asked, perplexed at the thought of a university having to somehow survive without three new buildings under construction all the time.

  “They will need to slow down, or get funding from our prosperous merchants, or even use the endowment for those things – did you know that Cradel and Komtogk have enormous wealth? They were Lothar's lieutenants for years, after all.”

  “But why don't they use that wealth instead of making all the students go into debt?” I asked. I figured out the answer just after I’d spoken the question. I had met both of them.

  “They may just need some convincing. And it is good for the creatures of this kingdom to get used to standing up for themselves. Which leads me to the reason I asked for you to come here this morning: Gharol, you are a loyal creature to the kingdom?”

  “Yes, of course, sire! I served in the war and everything.”

  “Yes, I understand you performed admirably, serving as a healer near the front lines. You treated those who stood against the humans’ cavalry charge.” The king seemed to be appraising me as he said it.

  “I did, yes Your Highness. I was proud to serve.”

  “So, now your nation asks something more of you. I ask you to again serve, this time as my agent.”

  “What sire? What does an agent do?”

  “We maintain a small intelligence service for the kingdom. We call its members ‘agents.’ They spy on situations we need to keep a special eye on.”

  “Spy? I'm just a small goblin healer. I'm no spy.”

  “And nobody would ever suspect you of being one. It is perfect,” said the king. “Plus, you were there when Lothar's ghost revealed itself, and the people now leading the march on the university saw you,” explained the king.

  “I even served them beer!” I said, starting to think maybe the king was right. What kind of spy serves beer in a tavern?”

  “Exactly! Nobody ever expects the people who bring beer to be a spy. Those are just two different things,” mused the wise orc king.

  “How am I supposed to spy on them?” I asked.

  “If you agree to this mission, we will transport you by giant wolf to where the students are camping this evening. You can camp with them, and join a wagon in the morning. They should make it to the university in three days. There, just stay with them. Find out who the leaders are, how they make decisions, and what their plans are.”

  “Will I be alone? I mean, I will certainly do it, but will I have any help?” It sounded like it could be dangerous. But I am a brave goblin.

  “We will have another agent placed with the students. He is travelling with them now. He may not be able to get as close to the decision making as you can, however. I think they will trust you more, as they already associate you with the ghost-cat. The other agent will reveal himself to you and help you escape, if the situation requires it.”

  “And if the students actually attack the university, should I go along with it?”

  “We plan to extract you before it comes to that. You will be contacted at an appropriate time, and brought from the students to where we will need you to report. The information you provide will then be used to make sure there is a satisfactory conclusion, with a minimum of violence.”

  “How will I know the contact?”

  The king shook his head. “It is better if I don’t tell you how it is going to happen, so that you can’t give anything away, even inadvertently. But, be assured my brave goblin, you will know the contact when they appear.”

  He signaled, and Sergeant Luna got up from where she had been crouched at the back of the room. Luna was an enormous wolf, but I’d forgotten she was even there. It is like that with canines. They merge into the background.

  As King Jend lifted me onto Luna’s back he told me, “Good luck with your mission, Agent Gharol. The kingdom is counting on you.”