Goblins Vs Dwarves by Philip Reeve Page B

bound!”
    There was no point in denying it. “I have to have some way to pass the time,” Skarper said. “We’re waiting to see the High King, just like you.”
    The girl’s anger faded. After being cooped up in a cellar with only three grumpy dwarves for company, she was glad of somebody new to talk to, even if he was only a goblin. “Oh, isn’t it boring ?” she said. “We’ve been waiting for days and days. And my father won’t even let us leave our rooms, for fear we’ll be jeered and pointed at by biglings, or trampled by their great big horses, or run over by their mighty wagons.”
    â€œHow did you get here?” asked Skarper, thinking that the dwarves should have got used to being pointed at and trampled if they’d come along the main road like Henwyn and himself.
    â€œThrough the tunnels, mostly,” Etty said. “Dwarves mined all this country long before biglings came, and a lot of the tunnels are still open. They are quicker than your roads, and we travel easier in the dark. But oh, I would dearly love to see something of this city of men! Is it very splendid?”
    â€œWhy not come with me now and take a look?” asked Skarper.
    â€œBecause you are a foul goblin!” said the girl, shocked. “Because you’re a sneaking, thieving maggot man who’ll murder me most probably!”
    â€œNo I wouldn’t!” said Skarper (although actually he did have a vague, goblinish plan to kidnap her and send notes to her father saying things like Leave Coriander NOW or you’ll never see your girl again ).
    Etty looked hard at him. “No,” she said, “I don’t believe you would.”
    â€œWell, come on then,” said Skarper. “It can’t do any harm, unless your father finds out.”
    Etty shrugged. “We dwarves mostly sleep by day. They’re all off to their beds now, and they think I was in mine ten minutes ago.”
    â€œCome on, then,” Skarper said.
    The girl pulled her black glass goggles out of a pouch on her belt and put them on as she followed Skarper up the steps, out of the basement shadows. Skarper wondered whether he should kidnap her straight away or wait a bit. He decided to wait: she was a sturdy little person, and seemed more than able to look after herself. In fact, he realized, kidnapping her would probably be impossible unless he could find Henwyn and persuade him to help, and he was fairly sure that Henwyn did not approve of kidnapping.
    So he abandoned the kidnap plan and came up with an easier one. He’d just learn all he could from Etty about the dwarves and their designs on Clovenstone. As he followed her through the streets he began thinking up cunning questions which would make her reveal all sorts of secrets about the dwarves and their schemes.
    But Etty had questions of her own.
    â€œWhy such big houses?” she asked. “And why so many?”
    â€œSoftlings – biglings as you call them – are big folk,” said Skarper. “And they have a home for each family, if they can.”
    Behind her tinted goggles Etty’s eyes were two O’s of amazement. She turned around, staring up at the tall fronts of the houses. “Just one family in each of these great places? Oh, what wanton waste!”
    â€œDon’t dwarves have houses, down underground?” asked Skarper, pulling her out of the path of a passing cart.
    â€œOh no!” said Etty, and began to tell him in great detail about how dwarves lived. In their great dark burrows each family was allowed one small cell. They did not need much space because they had no possessions; they just signed out the clothes and tools and lanterns that they needed from communal stores, and returned them when they needed them no longer. It sounded horrible to Skarper, but he kept listening politely, and went “Oh!” and “Mmm,” and “Really?” whenever he