We broke camp while breakfast was being made and ate the hasty meal on the move. The sun was just lighting the ugly land of Withermoor, but in the distance was its northern border of greenery and wildlife.
By noon we’d come upon the canyon that formed Withermoor’s northeastern border, a barren wasteland of nightmares on one side and a thriving high-altitude forest on the other. Without a word, our guides vanished into their fog for the last time and, one by one, we crossed a narrow natural granite arch that connected the hundred foot abyss.
Back in the world of the living, the mountains we found ourselves in were a thriving subalpine ecosystem. Birds flitted from tree to tree, singing happily. Deer graced us with indignant stares before scampering away at our passage and foxes dashed about looking for an easy meal. Only a hundred feet from Withermoor, we were in paradise.
Moods noticeably changed. Our stresses and fears vanished with the crisp air, sounds of nature, and clear mountain springs. We stopped in a clearing at the top of a hill, thick with ancient silver firs and huckleberry bushes. While Tallus prepared a feast that included a snack of fresh berry puree, the rest of us studied the map Vale had provided.
We allowed ourselves a day’s recuperation in that little paradise, then set an easy pace for the next few days as we regained our physical and mental strength. We weren’t happy about it, but we had little choice other than to trust the map Vale had given us. To his credit, it was extremely detailed and turned out to be just as accurate. It showed several passes through the mountains to the expansive plains beyond and marked several points only as ‘danger’.
The home of Vetta Winters was signified as a cabin directly north of our position. But the map only showed two routs there: one that passed through a village of giants, the other through something called the Caves of Arachnea. Over the next month, opinions and ideas bounced back and forth as how to proceed while we hiked toward the inexorable point on the map where we’d be forced to make a choice. But no matter what other ideas were suggested, it always came back to those final two choices.
“The choice is simple,” Shieldwall said around a mouthful of chow. “We take the caves. Giants are dangerous most of the time, but we dwarves hunt cave spiders from the moment we can heft a weapon.” She winked at me. “Besides, they make good eating.” I and the elves noticeably cringed at the comment, but the dwarves all smiled.
“The only reason you think giants are dangerous is because you always approach them like rivals,” Lanisa said scowling. “I will never understand why dwarves who live under mountains and giants who live on top of them can’t get along. We elves quite often have peaceful dealing with giant-kind.” She sniffed superiorly.
“Often have peaceful dealings…” Shieldwall said, her tone leading. “…but not always?” Tallus raised an eyebrow and watched Lanisa for her reaction.
“Well, no,” Lanisa admitted. “But actual conflicts are extremely rare.”
“How many times have you dealt with them when you had dwarves in your party?” the dwarf asked. “And in their own village where their young are?” Lanisa could only shrug helplessly.
“The simple fact is that you can’t be sure the giants will be peaceful,” Shieldwall said. “And an angry giant is far more dangerous than any spider.”
“What if we sent a representative the giants might like,” I said. All eyes turned toward me. “Maybe one or two elves to ask if we might pass.”
“Not a bad idea,” Tallus said. “I’ll go.” Each of the Rangers nodded their agreement and, after several more minutes of discussion, it was decided that Lanisa would accompany him.
After lunch was over, we traveled for two hours until we reached a pyramid shaped stone landmark. According to the map, it was the proverbial fork-in-the-road. Lanisa and Tallus memorized the rout they needed to find the village of giants and set off.
During their absence, the elves crafted more arrows, the dwarves repaired and soundproofed their armor, and I crafted torches out of reeds, vines, moss, and pitch. While we worked, Kiinna and I joked about the pros of a tribe of friendly giants with massive feasts as opposed to crawling underground in the evil warrens of massive spiders that had poison dripping fangs. It was almost night when our compatriots returned.
“How’d it go?” I asked hopefully.
“Yes,” Kiinna added with a smirk at me. “How did it go? Jacob has his heart set on a tribe of topless females.” I shot her a dirty look.
“Not well,” Tallus said, his usual grin turned in my direction. “Not only were their females a bit modest, the giants weren’t that happy with us just approaching their village. Once we told them there were dwarves in our group, we were asked to leave.”
“Strongly,” added Lanisa with emphasis. “I think if we’d showed up with the dwarves…” She let the thought hang.
“So it’s the spiders then,” Shieldwall said with a grin. “Be sure to collect some firewood. We’ll be eating good tomorrow morning.”
The moon was high in the sky when we reached the Cave of Arachnea. Its mouth was covered in thick spider webs, strands far thicker than a normal spider could spin. The webs seemed to glow with an iridescent blue-white in the moonlight.
“Ok,” Shieldwall said walking to the front of the group. She turned to face us, her face hard. “While you light your torches, I’ll set some ground rules. First, five Invincibles will be up front, the rest at the back. The smell of smoke is going to drive the spiders wild, so be ready to drop the torches and hide. If you can’t see something, ceiling, precipice, or wall, stay away from it. Cave spiders love to ambush. If we have to enter a cavern, we stay to a wall the entire time. The more area we have exposed, the more danger we’re in. Finally…” she took my torch and held it to the spider web near the entry. The strand flared away almost instantly. “If you get caught in a web, burn it. If you reach a web-wall, burn it. If a spider sprays its webbing onto you, burn it. The webbing burns so fast that it’ll be off your skin before you can burn. Even your soft human and elf skins.” As she placed her helm on her head I lit three more torches, passing out two, and we entered the darkness.
The four torches we had blazing weren’t enough to chase away the cave’s oppressive darkness, but they cast enough light for me to move without tripping over the uneven floor. I could see the walls of the cave, and the floor up to about twelve feet, but that was all. The quartz crystals in the granite around us sparkled like billions of tiny diamonds in the torchlight, the random spider webs along the walls and ceiling flickering iridescently with that same light.
Once we’d entered the caves the Invincibles stopped speaking altogether, instead using hand and body signals to communicate with each other. They slowed our pace and, in spite of their metal armor, were surprisingly quiet. I’d hoped to be through in a couple hours, but our progress was slowed even more by the need to burn away the thick spider webs stretched throughout the caves.
Each time we reached a fork in the cave system I checked our map, but Shieldwall’s memory and sense of direction underground were flawless. She led us through the tunnels as though she’d grown up in them. Countless times she recognized signs invisible to anyone but a dwarf of upcoming tunnel collapses, faults leading to bottomless drops, and noxious gases. Using her skills we avoided the deadliest of the cave’s pitfalls and found alternate routes to our destination.
We must have been in the tunnels for almost an hour before we encountered our first spider. The dwarves sensed them first, signaling us drop the torches and leading us into a side tunnel. We waited there for several long minutes before the creatures scampered into the light.
They skittered forward slowly, stopping often in caution. Their eight eyes were ash white and completely blind but they could navigate the tunnels as easily as the dwarves. The creatures, about the size of ponies, encircled the burning torches. An occasional leg reached out hesitantly to test the mysterious items. When one happened to touch the burning head of the torches it gave a skin crawling shri
ek, scattering the pack into the darkness.
After long seconds of waiting, I pushed on Sheildwall’s shoulder and pointed at the torches, but she held up a hand. Her eyes and knowledge of these creatures saved my life as, a minute later, the spiders returned. They made an almost purring sound, this time keeping a respectful distance as they milled around the flames. Five minutes later they returned to the shadows.
Shieldwall continued to hold her hand up, still as a statue for almost fifteen minutes. There was nothing to do but listen to the echoing sound of water dripping onto cold stone and the pounding of my heart in my chest. When she was sure the spiders were gone, she motioned us forward. We lit fresh torches off the one still aflame on the ground and set off again.
Over the next hour it was the same: move through the caves, drop torches when the spiders approach, and wait for them to leave. I was growing complacent, starting to believe it would be this easy the entire way through. Of course, my luck is never that good.
According to the map, we had to keep moving in the same direction through those tunnels to get out. But when we reached a tunnel system that was extremely overgrown with webbing she motioned for us to move into a side tunnel. She remained at the tunnel entrance examining what rock could be seen and seemingly random strands of spider silk before joining us.
As she approached, I held up my hands questioningly. She held her hand the same height of the spiders, then waggled her fingers near the tunnel’s floor. I had to think for a second before a sinking sensation hit me. ’Nest?’ I mouthed. Shieldwall flashed the hand signal that meant yes and motioned for the map. I took it out, but no amount of staring changed it. We had to pass straight through the spider’s nest.
‘Can we sneak through?’ I mouthed.
‘No’ Shieldwall signaled.
Shieldwall was still for a moment, assumingly lost in thought. Then she motioned toward the torch I was holding and again to the seven remaining strapped to my pack. I pulled them free, and handed them over. Shieldwall passed them out to the other Invincibles and started motioning with her hand signals.
First she pointed at herself, then made a talking sign with her hand in front of her faceplate. Next, she pointed at me and the elves then waggled her two fingers downward like running legs. When I say so, run! Everyone nodded, and we formed a line outside the heavily webbed tunnel. Her helm now in place, Sheildwall burned away the thick webbing.
Instead of yet another tunnel in this massive complex, we had to cross a cavern. While its limits were too distant to see, the strands of spider silk spun along it were acting like fiber optics and shimmered with the torchlight in the dark. Thousands of tiny yellow-orange flickering filaments appeared suspended in the black midair and were so thick along the stone none could be seen. Huge round sacks of spider eggs, some larger than us, spotted the entire room. Dozens of spiders attended to them, skittering here and there and spinning even more webs.
Again, I mouthed to Shieldwall if we could sneak through. She shook her head, picked up a rock from the floor and tossed it inside the cavern. It hit the filaments causing a vibration that sent the spiders into a frenzy. Instantly they swarmed the area, searching for any sign of what might have caused the disturbance in their nest.
The dwarves, holding our remaining lit torches, fanned out. Shieldwall and another Invincible stood by the web covered cavern entrance, a pair of lit torches in their hands. The others took positions mixed through our ranks. If anyone got separated or lost their torches, the dwarves would have to be their eyes.
Seconds before Shieldwall was ready to implement her plan, smoke from the torches drove the spiders crazy. That strange purring sound they made became so loud it almost rumbled through the cavern and they skittered erratically. Shieldwall and the Invincible tossed their torches into the cavern. Instantly, the spider silk set ablaze, flames racing along the filaments. Fire from the blazing filaments raced along the spiders too quickly to set them ablaze, but the egg sacks became instant fiery pyres.
“RUN!” Sheildwall screamed as all hell broke loose.
We rushed into a cavern that was now well lit from blazing spider egg sacks. Spiders poured into the room from caves and crevices we couldn’t see, purring angrily. The beasts swarmed all over the cavern, dropping from the ceiling onto the nearest sound of rushing footsteps.
One of the hairy beasts plunged onto a dwarf, driving him to his back and tried to punch its fangs through his armor. His growl echoed through the cavern as he grasped those poison-dripping teeth and yanked razor sharp death away from the chink in his neck armor. Its fangs sent a loud grating sound through the cavern as they scraped against his breastplate. A passing dwarf swung his massive warhammer, crushing in the head of the spider and covering his compatriot with its gore. The dwarf heaved the dead spider off himself and was charging after us a moment later.
We only had two torches left, the others we’d lost in the nest. My eyes being the weakest, I’d made sure to keep on in hand. We ran down the tunnel as fast as we possibly could, the sound of clicking legs and purring chasing after us.
From the corner of my eye I saw a flash of movement in a side passage we passed. The leaping creature missed me, but drove into the elf directly behind. He screamed as he flew off into the darkness, locked tight in a spider’s mandibles.
We burst into another cavern, the light of the torches too meager to illuminate its thick black void. Somewhere ahead of me in the cavern, I could heard the running water of an underground river but couldn’t see it. I stopped instinctively, worried about running off a precipice or being swept away by the torrent. I heard the purring a split second before the spider’s body slammed into my chest.
I skidded across hard stone smoothed by centuries of high waters, barely yanking my sword up in time to stop the arachnid’s fangs from stabbing into my neck. The beast purred, its fangs snapping back and forth trying to find purchase on my jugular. Only my sword, which just happened to end up between the creature’s fangs, kept its poison from ending my life. It purred as its fangs snapped back and forth, my arms slowly giving way as those threatening fangs inched closer and closer to my neck.
A flash of auburn and steel caught the corner of my eye as the spider atop me suddenly started spasming. Its fight suddenly gone, I was able to shift it off my chest. There was a muted ring of steel as my savior’s sword slid out of the creature’s exoskeleton.
“Why’d you stop?” Kiinna asked as she pulled me to my feet.
“I can’t see anything!” I growled. Instead of letting go of my wrist, the auburn-haired Ranger never yanked me along behind her.
“River’s about twenty feet ahead,” Kiinna called back as we rushed toward the sound of the running water. “I see a shallow spot where we can ford.”
Kiinna’s shallow spot turned out to be almost waist deep and crossing such a fast and deep current slowed the group to a crawl. Out of the darkness, a spider suddenly materialized and pounced on one of the trailing dwarves before he could get into the water. Resting its weight on his back, it drove its fangs deep into the chink of his neck armor. The dwarf cried out, spasmed once, then lay still.
At the opposite bank, I hesitated, waiting on the rest of our party to arrive. Stupid, I know, but there was so little light I was worried I’d get lost if I ran on. My hesitation cost me as a thunderous impact on my back drove me to the floor. I skidded across granite smoothed by years of high waters, a massive spider riding on my back and purring. Struggle as I might, the strength of my two arms couldn’t match its eight legs.
With its poison dripping onto my neck, I knew I was done for. My life was flashing before my eyes when the spider suddenly began to spasm. Its legs stumbled as it fought against something I couldn’t see, two of which slammed hard into my back. Then the creature collapsed on me, shuddering. As I shifted its weight off, pain erupted in my back from the ribs it had broken. I gave a shuddering moan of agony as I rolled onto my back.
Gallinea hovered over the creature
, her arms disappeared inside its body and grinning like a maniac. The spider thrashed weakly for another few moments before it finally stilled. Her grin turned to me.
“I won’t let them hurt you,” she tittered. “You’re mine!”
“Shit!” I gasped. Every breath and movement sent shooting bolts of agony through my back and chest. “Help everybody else.” I said looking at the carnage in the cavern.
My torch still lay where I’d dropped it, several feet away. Its light couldn’t illuminate the entire cavern, most members of my group lost in the dark. The screams of my injured friends that were lost in the dark echoed off ever cold stone surface.
To my left, the far edge of the torch’s illumination barely lit the assault on Tallus and Lanisa. They were alone and fighting desperately against four advancing spiders. I struggled to my feet and rushed to them, gritting my teeth against every agonizing step.
I drew my sword and picked up the torch as I passed. One spider turned just in time for my sword to drive into one of its eyes, another shrieking as I poked the flaming torch into its body. Surrounded and distracted, the remaining three spiders fell quickly to us.
Looking about the carnage, I could see three dwarves were down, and yet another elf was being dragged off into the dark. A spider attacking an elf was, itself, suddenly set upon by Gallinea. She was shrieking in glee as she hovered halfway inside the toxic beast, its legs kicking futilely. Torchlight picked up two other knots of resistance that formed against the onslaught of spiders, but they were close to being overwhelmed. Other sounds of resistance filtered in from the darkness, but I had to assume they weren’t fairing any better than the rest. Tallus, Lanisa, and I appeared to be forgotten, but that was most likely an illusion born from my inability to see the creatures approaching from the dark.
I made a decision based off haste and desperation, but I had little other choice. We were about to be wiped out. I pulled my pistol and aimed at a spider that was lowering itself toward Kiinna and another elf as they tried to fend off six others. My pistol roared and the beast lowering itself dropped between the startled elves, legs twitching before it curled into stillness.
A New World Page 16
