XVIII

Long legs protruded through the dark crack, the hairs—more like spikes—dangerous and glinting in what little light they had to see by.

Dantera tossed her torch forward. “They do not like fire!”

Morryn and Xanderial glanced at their torches and threw them at the crack with ardent intention. But it didn’t stop the spiders. Another strange thing, Yoreno thought as he gripped his blade. A cold sweat was beading on his temple and making his back itch.

There was something unnatural about this spider nest.

They scurried forward, across the wall, staying away from their torches burning on the ground at the foot of the crack.

How had they not been burnt up in the other chamber?

Unless…

“There must be another chamber beyond even the one we fired,” Dantera said, as if she had read his mind.

“My thoughts as well.”

“Why are you talking?” Sir Morryn screamed. He took a step back and held his blade forward. “They’re coming!”

“Then do something about it!” Yoreno snapped, and lunged forward. He took the first spider down by stepping on it. It was small, about the size of a dinner plate.

The small ones were faster, but less dangerous typically.

Yoreno struck at another spider scurrying a semicircle around him, killing it as well while Dantera cried out, killing spiders in a similar fashion as she slashed about with her large sword.

Yoreno glanced at Sirs Morryn and Xanderial. “What are you doing? Help us, you fools!”

“If we die!”—Dantera kicked her boot forward and the spider went flying—“then you also die! Fight!”

“All right!” Sir Xanderial said, and moved forward. He shouted, stepped over a spider and crunched it into a glob of viscous spider parts. Then he struck out with his sword, his blade cutting through a small spider and clanging loudly against the rocky ground.

Yoreno cut the legs out from under a larger spider and then finished it off with an overhead strike, being careful not to let his blade pass through the monster where it would be damaged on the hard rocks.

“They have no armor!” Yoreno called. “There is no need to use such force, Sir Xanderial.”

“Right!” the other man said, and sliced a spider down the middle. This time his blade didn’t hit the rocks.

“Yes!” Yoreno said with a grin. “You’d make a good adventurer, Sir.”

“My thanks, Lord.”

Then clearly realizing Morryn wasn’t fighting, Xanderial turned. “Come on! Fight with us, or die with us!”

“I… I can’t.” He hissed the words.

Dantera shook her head and sliced at more spiders. Yoreno glanced up at the crack. “There’s so many!” As he said the words, legs came out to reveal the biggest spiders yet.

These ones could knock a man down. Their powerful jaws could puncture armor that had no defensive runes inscribed into it.

“Be careful,” Dantera said and lunged forward. She cried out and swung her sword in a complete arc, the air about her weapon streaming off her blade as spider parts flew through the air.

The guts covered Dantera’s armor. As she swung her blade, the spiders’ bodies seemed to separate before her blade even touched them.

It was an advanced blade master’s magic, a magic Dantera had meant to teach Yoreno, but never managed. First it had been the king’s assassination, then Dantera’s banishment from Aevalin that had prevented her.

The spiders scurried.

With Dantera in their midst, there was no way these spiders would overrun and then eat them. And just as the thought went through his mind, Yoreno spotted a spider crawling on the back of Dantera’s leg.

“Look out!” he called, and lunged toward her. He slammed his blade into calf, the flat of his sword the part impacting against the spider.

She jumped back and looked at him.

“Spider on your leg.”

She swirled on the point of her boot about the dead spider bits. This one had been little more than a hatchling, but even so, if this breed of spider was poisonous—which of course it was—evil monsters were always poisonous, then that could have been her end right there.

With a nod to Yoreno, she jerked her chin Morryn’s way. “Why did you not say anything?!” She lunged into his space and grabbed the edge of his armor where his neck protruded.

“I’m sorry!” he screamed. “I can’t. I just… I just can’t!”

The cold sweat over his face resembled a soaking man come out of the rain. “Dantera!” Yoreno called. “We need you!”

He turned back to assist Sir Xanderial and swung his sword in a wide arc, cutting the front leg off of a bigger spider.

It recoiled back into the crack so quickly it was hard for Yoreno to keep his eyes on the monster. As they thinned out, the littler ones scurried in zigzagging patterns in retreat.

All became quiet, save for the heavy breathing of the three.

“Are they gone?” Myrrin asked.

Yoreno glanced about, his brow dripping sweat. It was quite hot in here.

“Are they gone?” Morryn repeated.

Dantera turned. “No,” she said. “Only retreating. We were making short work of them just now.”

“They are not warriors,” Xanderial said as he echoed Yoreno’s earlier thoughts about how spiders defended themselves.

“Then why… then why did they attack us so?”

Yoreno thought he knew the answer to that question, and he didn’t like that answer. Not at all. He regarded Dantera and she nodded, understanding the graveness on his face.

Xanderial seemed to pick up on it. “What is it?”

“We cannot be certain… yet,” Dantera said. “But we think it may be a spiderling.”

“A what?” Morryn asked.

“A spiderling,” Yoreno repeated. “It’s a monster. A higher thinking type. Typically they command others of lower status.”

“And?” Morryn asked, his tone rising.

“And they are dangerous,” Dantera said. “But it is the only explanation for how these spiders are behaving.”

“Like a colony instead of individually?” Xanderial asked.

She nodded.

“How can our luck be so horrid?” Morryn said, his eyes darting about as he asked the question of no one in particular—or perhaps he was asking of the gods.

Choosing to answer his question anyway, Yoreno said, “It makes sense. This is an odd place for a spider nest to take hold. Usually spiders are found deep within the darker recesses of the world—in caves, deep down in dark valleys.”

Dantera nodded. “I would not be surprised if we later learned this spiderling was put here by the Schuarists.”

“Nai Sha’el,” Xanderial said.

“We must destroy this nest,” Yoreno said. “And we must kill the spiderling.”

“Otherwise he will escape,” Dantera said. “He will return.”

Morryn swallowed as he glanced between them. “We should leave this place—get help. We need reinforcements.”

Yoreno shook his head. “No.”

“What do you mean ‘no’?” Morrin asked. He took a step back and waved his arms. “We can do no good if we are all dead!”

Xanderial faced him. “Pull yourself together, man! You are a knight of Kornet and of the Kingdom of the Blue Dragon. Comport yourself as such. Do you think I am not afraid? I am terrified. But this must needs be done!”

“He is right,” Dantera said. “There is no shame in fear. But what you do with that fear…”

She didn’t say the rest. The implication was obvious. Sir Morryn could choose bravery over cowardice in spite of his fear—in which case he would gain honor. If not, then he would forever be a coward unworthy of his noble status of knighthood.

“We are all knights here,” Yoreno said. “Each one of us fights the evils of the Age of Darkness. Together we are strong. Do not falter now.”

“Don’t lecture me!” Morryn said, his finger jabbed forward like the point of a knife. “I know what is expected of me, and this is suicide!”

“They stay in the chamber beyond,” Dantera said. “We will send help when we have found a way out. After we kill the spiderling.”

Suddenly something echoed out of the crack, the sound of a deep and angry cry from the maws of something inhuman.

Morryn jerked his gaze up and gasped. Yoreno looked at the crack, and Dantera narrowed her eyes.

“The spiderling?” Xanderial asked.

Yoreno looked at him and nodded.

Visibly fearful, Xanderial swallowed. “Then what are we waiting for? We should rid ourselves of this evil.”

“Yes,” Dantera said.

Shaking his head, Morryn backed away. “No, we should get out. Escape! Live to fight another day. If we all die down here, it will mean nothing! Do you hear me?! It will mean nothing!”

“We are killing this spiderling!” Xanderial shouted. “With or without you. Stay here. Coward.”

“How dare you call me a coward if I’m not eager to throw my life away! You—“

“Enough!” Yoreno bellowed. “This isn’t going to get us anywhere. We’re going deeper. Come with us or not.”

He turned and strode toward the crack, bent and picked up his torch. He turned and glanced back at the others. Dantera was right there, Xanderial making to follow as Morryn looked at them with wild eyes, the sweat on his brow beading like a sheet of smooth leather, oiled and splashed with water.

Yoreno turned and glanced back into the crack they had traversed previously. Somewhere in the deeper recesses of the cave, the spiderling cried out in anger and lust to kill.

Taking a deep breath, he turned his shoulders and stepped forward in search of the horror.