The rangers had made camp in a hidden glade some way from the river. They had laid their fire in a small earthen pit, so that a lot of the glow was screened by the sides of the pit. Grinna invited Dawn to sit down on the ground while Teren busied himself with stoking the fire and putting a kettle on.

“So, you are worried about your lynx companion. Is it so unusual for him to be out on his own?” Grinna asked

“Ankou has been at my side since he first saved my life in a fight against beasts,” Dawn retorted. “He went out in the middle of the day and hasn’t got back until now. It is very unusual for him to be gone that long. I think he wanted to see what the hunters were up to, though I can’t be sure of course. As clever as he is, Ankou can’t talk.” She smiled sheepishly.

“Hmm, but if he were trapped in a snare, he surely would make a ruckus.” Grinna remarked. Dawn shrugged. “I don’t know. Ankou is quite capable. I didn’t really expect him to fall for a simple snare, but I got worried after he was gone so long.”

“I don’t see how traipsing around in the dark aimlessly helps.” Grinna told her. “Better to wait until daylight, then we can take a look and see if we can find any tracks your lynx might have left. You might also want to consider the possibility that he just left. He is a wild animal, don’t forget that.”

Dawn shook her head wildly. “I don’t believe it.” She said stubbornly.

Grinna smiled a bit lopsidedly. “Be that as it may, we will wait until daybreak for any search and rescue missions.” She decided. “Where have you been staying? Do you have a camp in the vicinity?”

“I’m staying in an abandoned Kharlin village. It’s about three hours walk from here I think, though it may be a shorter walk in daylight.” Dawn told her.

“A Kharlin village. I remember Nathan’s message said something about a Kharlin companion. Did he let you search for your lynx alone?” Grinna asked.

“Kharma left with the other Kharlins. They decided it was too dangerous to stay here after the demons had abducted the villagers.”

Grinna raised her brows at that. “The demons! Yes, I’d like to hear about these spider-demons. Nathan mentioned them in his message. Something about huge spiders that appear as grey demons when analyzed. As far as I know, the only place monstrous spiders have appeared until now are the jungles of Merovia, and those are decidedly smaller than a human being. Though generally there are a lot of them around. I mean, there have always been tales of huge spiders, but these were well-known fairy tales. How large are those huge spiders exactly, how many of them are there and where can they be found?” Teren approached then and passed both of them a mug with hot tea, sipping out of his own mug as he sat down beside Grinna.

“Umm, they are bigger than you or me by quite a lot and they have huge bulky bodies and long spiky legs that end in something knife-like and sharp. They have red eyes, six of them and they have venomous fangs. They paralyze you if they bite you.” Dawn told the rangers.

The female ranger looked a bit incredulous. “And they abducted some Kharlins?”

“They caught and abducted practically the whole village except for Kharma - that was my companion - who wasn’t at the village at the time. They are dangerous and intelligent and their queen can talk.” Dawn reported. Grinna, who was taking a sip of her own tea, choked on it.

“A spider queen who can talk! That is impossible.”

“Well she talked to me while she was butchering Kharlins left and right. It is not something I would forget about, believe me I wish I could.” Dawn was upset now, she leapt to her feet and started to pace.

“I should probably tell you the story from the beginning,” she said and proceeded to tell the rangers about her discovery of a ruined city underground and the events that followed after that. It made for quite a long story. She left out only the name of the city and its inhabitants and the echo stone. That, she wanted to keep for herself.

“And the Kharlins were furious with me, because half of the people in their village were killed by the demons and they said it was my fault because I burned the demon eggs. They decided it was too dangerous here, even after the exit from the caves was blocked by the cave-in, and have left to build another village elsewhere. They didn’t tell me where they intended to go. Kharma went with them because he had to care for his younger sister. His father was killed by the demons too.” She ended her tale, resting her head in her hands. It was silent in the camp for a long while.

Grinna massaged her neck thoughtfully. “That is a lot to take in.” She said finally. “And you have to understand, I’m not saying you’re lying, but your story is the only evidence of these demons we have. There is no hard proof of their existence.” She exchanged a long look with Teren.

“I know,” said Dawn dejectedly. “But, nevertheless I will be very happy if you find no further proof of the demons’ existence. I don’t care to meet or fight them again. I had quite enough of that.”

“What scares me most is your tale of the queen sacrificing Kharlin villagers to her eggs.” Grinna said. “It sounds a lot like blood magic. Though a beast should not be able to practice magic, and neither should it be able to talk. Blood magic never ends well. Its practice comes with an automatic death penalty for a reason.”

Dawn blinked when the ranger mentioned blood magic. That was the kind of magic the stranger from the echo stone had talked about.

“Why does blood magic never end well?” she asked. “I don’t know a lot about magic, other than that some people get spells with their path.”

Grinna grimaced and mustered Dawn intently.

“Blood magic is a difficult topic. Basically, blood magic requires the sacrifice of a living being to work. So the cost is death, the more complex the living being is, the stronger are the spells. In the end, it means a thinking being like a human or a Kharlin would fuel the strongest spells. You see a part of the problem here. And its practice is said to be incredibly addicting. Once you start, it is almost impossible to stop. That’s the second part of the problem. And it is said, not that I know enough about the topic to be accurate, mind, that the spells never work the way you expected them to. There is always a hidden twist or something, that changes the outcome. You will hardly find anyone who can tell you more about it than this. Even the study of the topic is mostly forbidden. There are some scholars who get access to some older scripts about it, but they are monitored closely. You’re lucky I can tell you even this much. Rangers get a pretty broad education in all kinds of subjects, because we never know what situations we may be confronted with.”

Dawn swallowed. “And you think the queen might have been practicing blood magic?” she asked.

“It sounds farfetched in one regard, but the whole story with huge spider-demons and a talking spider queen stretches credibility.” Grinna shook her head.

Dawn sighed “I didn’t…” In that moment Grinna and Teren leapt to their feet, weapons at the ready. A shadowy figure ambled into the camp, that on closer inspection turned out to be the missing lynx. Dawn exclaimed. “It’s all right, it is Ankou.” And breathed a sigh of relief. The lynx flicked his tufted ears and settled down next to her nonchalantly.

Grinna sat down again. “Well, at least we don’t have to spend tomorrow searching for him.” She commented wryly.

Teren said: “We should look at the exit from the spider’s caves tomorrow, inspect the cave-in she talked about.” His voice was a deep rumbling basso and Dawn noticed with astonishment, that it was the first time she had heard him speak. He had faded into the background the whole time she had been talking with Grinna. Now she took the time to look at him more closely. He was a heavyset man with crew cut grey hair and a deeply tanned face. His cool ice blue eyes made him look dangerous.

Grinna nodded. “That is a good place to start. Do you think you can lead us there?” she asked Dawn.

“Ankou can lead us,” Dawn told her. “I get lost easily, but he is good at finding the way. Though I have to say I’m not exactly thrilled to go there. Though this exit may be closed, we can’t be sure that there are no others. And I’m certain there are quite a few demons still alive. I can’t be sure of the exact numbers, but it must have been several dozen originally. We trapped about ten in the third level and I think we may have killed half a dozen with the fire arrows, but there should still be plenty of live ones. Apart from the queen.”

Grinna smiled at her. “We might teach you a trick or two about orientation in the wilderness while we’re together. How a babe in the woods like you managed to survive in the wilds for weeks… You must have had the luck of the dark one.”

“I was lucky enough to meet Ankou. He kind of adopted me. And believe me, without him I would have been dead three times over.” Dawn retorted.

“I can well believe that.” Grinna shook her head. “I won’t force you to accompany us on our hunt for the demons, but it would be helpful if you could at least lead us to the cave-in. And I might argue that you may be safer with some rangers by your side than you are alone. But let’s get at least some sleep this night. I can lend you a blanket. We’ll want to be on our way early in the morning.”

Dawn took the blanket she was offered and laid down with the rangers close to the fire. The presence of Grinna and Teren gave her feeling of deep security. Only now, she realized how much she had been missing the presence of other people during the last days. It was one thing to think about spending a year on her own in the forest, but she had never taken into account how lonely a life that would be.