The Case of Firebane's Folly

by Liam O'Donnell

  “Our driver got us into this mess!” I said.

  “He just left with a dwarf that climbed out of that hole,” Tank said.

  “You must be mistaken.” Miss Blinx dismissed us with a wave of her tiny hand. “I’m sure Mr. Ravel is around here somewhere.”

  I bit my tongue to stop from yelling. Why didn’t adults ever believe kids?

  A scream sounded far below us. The webby ground shook. More shrieks followed.

  “What was that?” Miss Blinx asked.

  Dark shapes moved quickly through the web walkways below.

  “Something’s coming,” Tank said. She had her zoomers over her eyes and stared at the web beneath her feet. “Something big.”

  The ground around us exploded. Dark shapes crawled out of the white. The ogre’s parting words ran through my terrified brain.

  “I think we’re about to meet the queen,” I said.

  CHAPTER THREE

  Caught in the Spider Queen's Web

  The spider queen’s lair smelled like an old lunchbox.

  Sticky webs hung from the rocky cliff walls and stretched overhead. Piled against the wall a stack of bones lay in the corner, the remains of the previous day’s meal, waiting to be taken away. Today’s meal dangled above the massive spiderweb at the end of the lair, ready to be eaten. Twenty-one little fourth-graders wrapped up like web-encased sausages ready to be the main course in a spider smorgasbord.

  “This is the worst school trip ever,” I grumbled.

  Beside me, Tank squirmed in her own sticky cocoon. Next to her, Rizzo Rawlins dangled like a hairy sock on a washing line. He hadn’t stopped moaning since we’d gotten here. For once I didn’t blame him.

  I’d never thought I’d see a spider scarier than Principal Weaver, but the spider queen definitely won that contest.

  After she had burst through the web under Coppe’s Bridge, the spider queen had ordered her eight-legged soldiers to wrap us up and carry us deep beneath the surface. With our whole class tied to the backs of spiders, we passed layers of woven walkways and sticky streets spanning the width of the deep canyon. Beneath the spot where our bus had crashed thrived a city of spiders. Along the walkways stood homes and shops, all crafted from spider’s silk. Dark shapes crowded the streets, eager to see the queen’s latest catch.

  This was the Vale of Webs, home to the spiders of the Dark Depths. At the very bottom, the spider queen’s royal chambers stretched across the canyon floor. And now, dangling high over the royal web, was a group of terrified fourth-graders.

  The queen and her court of spider generals and advisors watched us hungrily with their countless eyes. She scurried to the center of her web and stopped only a fang away from two small figures stuck in place.

  Mr. Mantle’s mustache trembled. “We are from Gravelmuck Elementary and—”

  “Enough!” the queen snapped. “I will not hear that story again. I do not believe you are an innocent school group betrayed by your bus driver on a field trip to see some silly glowshrooms. You are thieves.”

  “We’re not!” Miss Blinx whined. The blaze fairy pulled on the bonds holding her to the queen’s web. Her fairy strength stretched the web a bit, but it soon snapped her arms back into place. “We were on our way to the Glowshroom Glades, and we took a wrong turn.”

  “Nonsense,” the queen snapped. “I know you took the Crown of Peace! Where is it?”

  Spiders had gathered around the edge of the queen’s web. They chattered to each other as their queen interrogated the prisoners.

  “Crown of Peace,” Tank whispered. “Where have we heard that before?”

  “Really, Tank,” Henelle chuckled from her web cocoon beside me. “You need to listen in history class.”

  I hid my snout to stop from giggling. It was a rare day that Tank was told to pay attention in class. It was also a rare day to be captured by the spider queen.

  “The Crown of Peace is an ancient artifact held by the lords of the Dark Depths,” the octoclops continued. “It’s priceless. Everyone knows that.”

  “Yeah, Tank, everyone knows that!” Rizzo Rawlins snickered from the other side of my detective partner.

  Suddenly my tail tingled. “A crown! That dwarf had something like that. I saw it when he nearly knocked me over.”

  Below us, a large spider stood beside his queen. He was hairy and had many medals pinned to his chest.

  “Queen Azelia, let us not bother ourselves with these fools,” the new arrival said. “They do not have the crown. My soldiers have searched each of them and their bus.”

  “They must have it, Captain Scorn!” Queen Azelia snapped. “One of the little monsters snuck through my webs and into my royal chamber and stole it. We caught them just as they were making their escape.”

  “Perhaps, my queen,” Captain Scorn agreed. “But the Crown of Peace is nowhere to be found. I can alert the dwarf and dragonkin territories. With all three ruling lands of the Dark Depths searching, we will find the crown.”

  “No!” Queen Azelia barked. “We cannot let the others know the crown is missing. That will make us look weak. We must keep the theft a secret until the crown is found.”

  “As you wish.” Captain Scorn bowed his head. “But if you would allow me to search the Dark Depths, I can find the crown. I will search for this ogre bus driver the tentacle-face spoke about.”

  “The driver was with a dwarf,” Miss Blinx said.

  All spider eyes turned to her.

  “Go on,” said the queen. “How do you know this?”

  Miss Blinx bit her lip, realizing she had said too much. Queen Azelia skittered closer and loomed over the terrified fairy.

  “One of my students saw it,” Miss Blinx said quickly.

  The spider queen looked up to us, dangling above her. Her multiple eyes took in each of us, one at a time.

  “Which student saw this dwarf?” she said.

  “Um, I don’t remember.” Miss Blinx’s voice trembled.

  “Really? What a shame.” Queen Azelia flashed her fangs. “Perhaps we should just eat a few of them to help jog your memory.”

  “Fizz Marlow!” Rizzo Rawlins yapped so loud, he nearly burst from his web wrapper. “He’s the one.”

  I nearly jumped out of my cocoon at the sound of my name.

  “Quiet, Rizzo!” Tank growled. “You’ll get us all eaten.”

  The kobold turned his long snout toward me and kept yapping. “Fizz and his friend Tatanka Wrenchlin saw the whole thing! They just told me. They always see stuff. They’re detectives. They can help you.”

  Queen Azelia’s eight eyes locked onto me. Each one chilled me down to my tail. Her gaze pierced my web cocoon and bored right under my scales. It was like she could see everything I had ever done.

  “Detectives? How interesting.” She waved a leg to the spiders behind her. “Hugo, be a good spider and bring our detectives down to me. I want a closer look.”

  “Yes, my queen.” A young spider scurried up the web-covered walls and over to us. With a snip of his fangs, he cut us free from the others.

  We told the queen everything.

  Tank told them about Mr. Ravel and his “shortcut” that took us into the Depths. I told them about the dwarf with the scar on his face and the crown in his hands. When we had finished, the queen slammed her foreleg on the web, making the whole thing shake.

  “Dwarves!” she growled. “I knew those bearded rockdiggers would be behind this.”

  “We do not know that for certain, my queen,” a gray-furred spider said from the edge of the web. “Stealing the Crown of Peace would break the agreement between our three kingdoms. It would be an act of war.”

  “Lord Dunhelm of the dwarves has never been a friend to the spiders, my queen,” Captain Scorn said. “And I need not warn you of the danger Firebane Drakeclaw can bring. Both would gain much from taking the crown from you.”

  Tank’s panicked eyes met mine at the mention of Firebane Drakeclaw. He was only the most feared creature
in all of Rockfall Mountain. He was as old as the mountain itself and as tall as the Shadow Tower.

  “Then it is settled, Captain Scorn,” Queen Azelia said. “You will take your best soldiers and search for the thieves who stole my crown.”

  “As you wish.” Captain Scorn bowed before his queen. “If they seek to sell the crown, then they will most likely head to the town of Lava Falls.”

  “Travel to Lava Falls, if you think it best.” The spider queen’s eyes returned to me. “And take our little detectives from Gravelmuck Elementary with you.”

  “My queen!” Captain Scorn scowled. “I do not need the help of a pair of children. Especially not a goblin and troll from the Shallows.”

  “I think you do, Captain,” the spider queen said. “They are the only ones who saw the thief. Take them to Lava Falls. They will be able to point out this dwarf and ogre in the crowds that gather there.”

  “As you wish.” Captain Scorn gave us a venomous glare.

  “Well, Fizz Marlow and Tatanka Wrenchlin, detectives of Gravelmuck. You have a new mystery to solve.” Queen Azelia’s eight eyes flashed with satisfaction. “If you fail, your classmates will be my main course.”

  There are times I regret ever becoming a detective. Now was totally one of those times.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Swampy Sabotage

  The spider convoy was ready to roll.

  Ten of Captain Scorn’s best trackers and hunters waited on the edge of the spider queen’s web. Ten spiders and two terrified monsters.

  Tank and I were strapped to the backs of the sturdiest spiders, still wrapped up like lunchtime sandwiches.

  “You could have untied us!” Tank grumbled to Captain Scorn as he skittered by.

  Scorn turned and fixed his eight eyes on my friend.

  “You will be untied when you find the dwarf and the ogre. And not a moment sooner.” The spider captain hurried to the front of the line of soldiers, where Queen Azelia waited. “Our border scouts spotted the thieves and their strange machine heading to Lava Falls.”

  “It seems your suspicions were correct, Captain,” the queen said. “Travel swiftly and bring back my crown.”

  The spiders scurried up the web walkways, through the Vale of Webs and back to the web under the bridge. Our school bus was gone, and the hole made by the dwarf had already been repaired. All traces of our crash had been erased by the spider queen’s web-weaving minions. If anyone from Slick City came looking for us, they wouldn’t even know we had come this way.

  Hopes of rescue got me thinking about my mom and all the parents of my classmates. Instead of admiring the wonders of glowshrooms, their children were hanging in a spider’s pantry, ready to be served up as a feast. That is, unless Tank and I could travel across the most dangerous place in Rockfall Mountain, strapped to the backs of two goblin-eating spiders, and find a dwarf we had only seen once. Just thinking about it curled my tail.

  Soundlessly Captain Scorn and his soldiers scurried across the sea of webs. Their spidery legs carried them across the surface like they were skating on ice. We raced along the length of the valley, running alongside the bridge and deeper into the Dark Depths. When the valley ended, the spiders climbed up the web-covered cliffs. They paused at the edge of a narrow road. The spider carrying Tank stopped beside me. She was wrapped tightly in her web cocoon but managed a smile.

  “Fancy meeting you here,” she said.

  I was terrified from my tail to snout, but seeing my friend put a grin on my face.

  “Wouldn’t have missed it for all the choco-slug cookies in the mountain,” I said.

  “Silence!” Captain Scorn hissed. He spoke to his soldiers in a low voice. “That road leads to Lava Falls. I don’t need to remind you—beyond these webs our queen’s power is limited. Our fastest route takes us straight through the Swamp of Sorrows.”

  “Would it not be best to travel around the swamp, Captain?” one spider asked.

  “We have no time,” Scorn said. “If we are to find the thieves in Lava Falls, then we go through that stinking marsh.”

  “But Captain, the slimy ones will be waiting,” another spider said quickly.

  “Then we will move swiftly.” Captain Scorn stood to his full height on all eight legs. He looked to Tank and me. “I have a surprise in store for the big-eyed water dwellers.”

  The spider captain hurried down the road. His soldiers exchanged worried looks before falling into step behind their leader. Wherever we were going, the spiders were even less thrilled about it than Tank and I were.

  Soon the sticky web that had covered every surface disappeared. In its place glowing fungus bloomed on rocky outcrops, and the air grew heavy with moisture. The sound of dripping water echoed somewhere in the distance. The spiders slowed their pace as they moved farther away from their home.

  The spiders threaded their way through the narrow path in the swamp. They really should have called it the Stinking Swamp. All that fungi and dirty water combined to create a stench worse than Rizzo Rawlins’s gym shoes after a dodgeball tournament. Encased in my sticky cocoon, I couldn’t even cover my snout from the smell. The odor would have knocked me out if it wasn’t for the bouncing of the fast-moving spider I was tied to.

  Scorn’s soldiers followed their captain’s orders to the letter. They moved quickly along the path. They hopped from rock to rock and stepped around pools of murky water like they were in an eight-legged running race. That was probably why they didn’t see the shapes moving through the water beside us until it was too late.

  We were halfway across a long rock outcrop with large pools on either side of it. Suddenly the water exploded with a large splash. Dark shapes with large eyes and long arms leaped from the pools and landed on the rocks behind us.

  “Lagalanders,” one of the spiders whispered.

  “The Fallen Ones have found us,” said a second spider.

  “Keep moving!” Captain Scorn growled.

  The spiders doubled their speed and skittered to a larger patch of solid ground. But it was too late. The lagalanders had spotted us and were coming closer.

  The slimy ones lurched closer. My heart pounded under my scales. I wriggled, twisted and pulled but could not break free from the sticky web that bound me.

  I was wrong—Swamp of Sorrows was a perfect name for this wretched place.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Fish Heads and New Friends

  “So this is how it ends,” Tank moaned. “Stuck on a rock and snapped up by a bunch of fish-headed freaks.”

  Tank and I thrashed against our web wrappings. But we were as stuck as grubnubs on a candy wrapper. Four lagalanders stepped off the path and onto the large rock where Captain Scorn had abandoned us. Their eyes glowed in the dim light as they circled around us. Their wide mouths hung open just enough for me to get a good look at the rows of razor-sharp teeth within.

  “G-goblinssss,” said the largest.

  “And a t-troll toooo,” said another.

  “We ain’t had goblinssss for ages,” said the third fish-head. A meaty, thick tongue slid around its fat mouth. “Tasty.”

  My tail unfurled as the webby bonds fell to the ground. It felt good to finally scratch my snout. The good feeling didn’t last long.

  “Come back, tasty goblinssss!”

  The lagalanders snapped their fish jaws at us from the rocks below. Hugo skittered away from the edge and into a small cave just off the ledge.

  “Be careful,” he whispered. “Those lagalanders can jump surprisingly high.”

  A fishy hand slapped onto the ledge next to my foot. Sharp claws dug into the rock as one of the lagalanders pulled himself up.

  “See?” Hugo hissed.

  Tank moved quickly and stomped on the slimy hand. “Get back down!” she growled.

  The creature yelped and let go. It landed with a splash.

  “Ow!” it moaned. “Why you do that, troll? We just want to eat you.”

  The lagalanders splashed through t
he water below.

  “They’re going away,” Tank said. “They’re scared of my trollish stomp!”

  “They’ll be back,” Hugo said from inside the small cave. It was just large enough for the three of us to huddle together. “We need to leave this swamp as quickly as possible.”

  “Hold on to your spinnerets, Hugo,” I said. “We need some answers. One minute you’re tying us up for your queen, the next you’re setting us free. What in the name of the Depths is going on? Did Queen Azelia send you to follow us?”

  Hugo shook his head quickly. “The queen does not know I’m here. If she did, I would lose my job as one of her royal attendants.”

  “Captain Scorn doesn’t seem worried about upsetting the queen. What’s with him ignoring her orders?” Tank said. “I thought she was the boss of all you eight-leggers.”

  Hugo rubbed his front legs together quickly and sighed. “She is our leader. But there are many in our webs who feel Captain Scorn should be our ruler.”

  “Including Captain Scorn?” I asked.

  “He was not always like that,” Hugo said. “Captain Scorn was once a kind spider, but something has changed him recently. Now he acts like a bully who dreams of ruling the entire Dark Depths. He would march his soldiers into this swamp and start a war with the lagalanders and other fallen beasts. Queen Azelia is scary, but she doesn’t pick fights with our neighbors, even if they are slimy fish-heads.”

  “Those lagalanders look a lot like the stream elves we’ve seen back home,” Tank said.

  Hugo nodded. “They are very similar, but lagalanders cannot use magic like their cousins the stream elves.”

  A pair of glowing eyes appeared in the darkness at the back of the cave. A lagalander had slipped through a hole there and flopped onto the ground.

  “Yummy goblin and tasty troll!”