Lose A Princess, Lose Your Head (Merchant Blades Book 2)

by Alex Avrio

  “So many,” she whispered. Everywhere there were body parts, some with flesh still attached, some with clothes, an arm in a lovingly patched up sleeve, a foot in a small slipper, a head with blond curls, eye sockets empty, half the cheek missing, still wearing a little green hat with white velvet trimming. Regina vomited. Jaeger passed her his hip flask. She washed her mouth, spat out the first sip, then drank a good draw. She pushed past him and the obstacle as quickly as she could. As she did, with no warning, two forms jumped from the high ceiling, hanging down from silken threads. Regina swung her saber and took four legs off one of them. It squealed and scuttled off to a corner. She saw its sibling’s head rolling to the edge of the cave dripping green slime, severed by Jaeger’s saber. Regina followed the whimpering form to its hiding place behind a rock, ready to slash at it. The small creature lifted its four remaining arms protectively in front of its face and made a sobbing noise.

  “What are you waiting for?” Jaeger asked.

  “It’s injured.”

  “I can see that. Finish it.”

  “It’s a child.”

  “No, it’s not. It only looks like one.”

  The little creature whimpered again. Between whimpers came a word.

  “Mummy.”

  Jaeger let out an ugly oath. “Did you not see the pile of human children’s bones?”

  “I did.” Regina said, not moving. “Do you always do what you’re told without thinking? These things are sentient. We can’t kill them like pigs.”

  “You’ve killed sentient Eressians before.” Regina went red in the face. “This is not the time to get philosophical, Fitzwaters.”

  The creature shivered, its back to the wall, green blood running freely from its wounds. “Help! Hunters! Mummy said fear the Hunters. They come in the night and kill us.”

  Jaeger took the creature’s head off with a single stroke. “It would have bled out soon. Come on, we’ve got a job to do.” He looked into Regina’s eyes. “Don’t be fooled by how they look or what they say. They ate those children, gnawed on every bone in that pile. By the Mother and Child, Fitzwaters, don’t turn soft on me now! Imagine what will happen when they grow and are unleashed into the world,” he warned, misinterpreting her silence.

  “Let’s get this done,” she said. Jaeger patted her shoulder.

  “It’ll take forever to flush them out individually,” he observed. “We'll have to destroy the eggs.”

  Regina nodded. “Let’s go kill these little bastards and be home for breakfast.”

  61 THE CHAMBER OF COCOONS

  “SO how do we find the eggs?” Regina asked after half an hour of fruitless walking. The mud had given way to slick wet floor, and she had to sheath her saber to keep a hand free to grab rocks and stalagmites and keep from stumbling.

  Jaeger didn’t answer. Ahead was another heap of bodies, fresh this time, cut into pieces. This pile reached the ceiling. She saw a young woman’s torso in a green dress, a hand still grasping a brown cloak.

  “This is where the Stonebridge children ended up. And the innkeep’s boys,” Regina said. Shadows scuttled from the pile into the darkness. One dragged a severed leg. Regina pierced the creature with her sword. “Those boys wanted to be Merchant Blades,” she said. “They won’t even get a proper burial, they’re just food.”

  “We might be too,” Jaeger said.

  Regina followed his gaze. A huge shape descended from the ceiling, hissing and clicking its talons. Regina drew her sword again. Jaeger tried to slash it, but it turned and spat at him. He ducked, the venom hissing when it hit the rock behind him. The deformed spider landed softly on its feet and clicked its pincers. Regina slipped, hitting her head hard on the floor as it jumped at her. It flew over her head, but was soon back at her. She shook her head to clear it, and rolled away as Jaeger cut two of the spider’s hind legs off, green liquid spurting from the wounds. It turned towards him and spewed wet thread from its abdomen, covering his right arm and shoulder. Before he could pull it off, the spider jumped, bringing him down and attempting to wrap him in a silk cocoon. Regina ignored the hot blood running from the back of her head down her neck and with one sure slash cut a chunk off the spider’s abdomen. The creature’s shriek echoed through the cavern. Regina swiped at its nearest legs, severing three, used her boot to roll it onto its back and sank her sword into its body. The spider thrashed. Regina kept clear. After a moment, she went to Jaeger’s side and cut the sticky web off him with her dagger. Angry red marks stood out on his hand.

  “Can you still use it?” she asked.

  “I’ll live,” he replied, pulling the web away from himself. “Something in that web, though. I couldn’t move once it caught me.” He rubbed his wrist and then grabbed his saber. “I guess that’s why two Hunters.” Regina smiled.

  “So that's the end of Mother Spider?” she said.

  “Not by a long shot. That was one of her teenagers.”

  They moved to the end of the chamber. “This way,” Jaeger said, pointing to a line of cobwebs that ran down one of the corridors.

  They moved on, dodging past the silk threads hanging from the ceiling. Blue veins intermingled with pink on the walls now. Large white crystals caught the light of the storm lamps, casting rainbows. The passageway opened out and the sound of Jaeger's breathing stopped. Regina came to his side. The cavern was vast, disappearing into the shadows. The weak light from their lamps reflected off the crystals in the wall, illuminating the chamber around them, revealing walls draped in thick cobweb. Near their feet was a cocoon. Regina brought her lamp closer. Inside she could make out egg sacks, thin veins pulsing in the translucent membrane, millions of eggs in a single sac, tiny monsters stirring. Jaeger nudged her and pointed towards the ceiling. Thousands upon thousands of cocoons hung down, as far as the eye could see.

  “In the name of all that is holy,” she whispered.

  They stared at the ceiling in awe, then Jaeger walked among the cocoons examining them. “Big job. Any ideas?” he asked.

  “Fire,” Regina said. She walked around mesmerized by the cocoons. Some looked different. She beckoned Jaeger over to them. She touched the surface of one with the tip of her dagger, cutting in. As the opening tore wider, she recoiled from a man’s face staring back at her.

  “She’s taken adults too,” Jaeger said, putting his hand on the man’s neck. He shook his head. “Looks like she’s gathering food stores. For a hatching.”

  “This one was whole,” Regina said. “Do you think he could have been alive when she stored him? I’ve heard spiders can store live prey for later. Haven’t you seen them?”

  “I’ve better things to do than watch spiders.”

  “Between crocheting and learning to punch someone’s lights out? It fills the time,” Regina said dryly. Jaeger smiled.

  “Have I ever told you I like your sense of humor?” he said.

  “First, who said I was joking. Second, of all the inopportune moments.”

  Jaeger’s broad smile faded as the light fell on another smaller cocoon, the silk fresh and sticky. He sliced it open with his dagger and a child fell out. Regina caught it and let out a little cry.

  “He’s alive!” She wiped his face clean and gently shook the still unconscious boy. Jaeger quickly searched for similar cocoons, and found two more. From one he extracted a barely breathing girl. From the last he extracted an older girl, with no pulse.

  “These must be children from the villages near Seaham,” he said, his voice heavy. He walked briskly, carefully, among the cocoons, further and further into the cavern, until Regina had to whistle to get his attention. She waved him back and after a moment’s hesitation he reluctantly returned.

  “It’s too big. It’ll take too long to check everywhere.”

  “I know,” he said darkly. “What can we do? Every moment we spend here puts us in more danger.”

  “I think we’ve just got to save these two. We can’t carry any more anyway. I don’t think we’ll find any mor
e alive. These are the most recent ones, here near the entrance. Deeper in cocoons get brittle, dried out. If there were any more alive they’d be around here. I’ve checked, and found none. Perhaps if we kill off as many eggs as possible, she’ll have no reason to go hunting for a while.”

  “If I see the mother, I’ll take great pleasure in hacking her legs off.” Jaeger went through the bag he was carrying, found what he wanted and took it out. “We’ll torch this place, take the two children on our shoulders and get out of here as fast as we can.”

  “Sounds like a plan, if we can keep our feet,” Regina said. “But how? Burn all these?”

  “Nathaniel gave me a flask of extra lamp oil. We’ll use that, one of our lamps, plus a little secret ingredient.”

  “What?”

  “Wouldn’t be secret if I told you.” He opened a large cloth pouch he’d taken out of his bag.

  “That’ll blow everything to hell and back,” Regina said. She rummaged through her bag, found her powder pouch and handed it to him.

  “That’s the idea. We don’t have much but the bang will spread burning oil quite a distance. The dry spider silk should burn. I doubt there’ll be much left.”

  Jaeger found the best place to put down the gunpowder, while Regina went round soaking the cocoons in oil. They met at the mouth of the cavern, Jaeger with the larger child, Regina with the small girl over her shoulder.

  “I put a ten-minute delay fuse,” he said while they were slipping and sliding as fast as they could through the cavern.

  “Ten minutes? It took us half an hour to get here. More.”

  “I only know how to do ten minutes. That’s all they teach you for artillery. We'd just better get a move on!”

  “I thought you were in the cavalry,” she said, grabbing a hold onto the wall to avoid falling.

  “I’ve been around. Learnt some things.”

  Regina’s foot slid on a wet patch of smooth rock and she lost her balance, throwing her hand out to break her fall. Jaeger came back and helped her up. The skin of her palm was shredded; the tip of her chin was scraped. Both stung like bastards but were manageable. She realized then that Jaeger wasn’t looking at her. Regina turned. Behind her was an old woman in a shawl, her mouth a rockery of needle sharp teeth, her fingers clicking.

  “And where are you going, little ones?” she hissed.

  62 MOTHER SPIDER

  “MOTHER Spider!” Jaeger said under his breath. A child over his shoulder, a storm lamp in his other hand, he was defenseless. Regina’s free hand went to her sword: she winced as she grabbed the hilt. The old woman moved closer. Her fluidity of movement reminded Regina more of a snake than a spider.

  “She doesn’t look that tough,” Regina whispered to Jaeger.

  The old woman stopped and watched them. “Where are you going at this time of night?” she said sweetly. “Come closer. I’ll take you somewhere to rest.”

  Regina found herself lowering her saber.

  The old woman came closer. She made a clicking sound as she spoke. “Come with me, food and shelter for the night.” She smiled. Regina felt childlike, lured by the soporific voice, until her pointed teeth showed, disturbing Regina’s trance. In an instant, Jaeger hurled his storm lamp at the old woman. As it smashed against her feet, the flame caught the rags she was wrapped in, engulfing her rapidly in flames. She shrieked almost loud enough to pierce their eardrums: her clothes blazed, her skin started to melt. Jaeger edged backwards, eyes on her. As she pulled off long strips of charred skin, the old woman revealed black hairy limbs. The mask of her face melted apart to reveal eight black eyes. Two small pincers budded out of her mouth and grew to tusks. Her body became fatter, eight claw-tipped legs sprouted. The chamber reverberated to her low-pitched growl as Mother Spider expanded to fill the cave from ceiling to floor. Her face retained a malformed semblance of humanity, venom dripping from her mouth. Her pincers clicked.

  “You have been naughty children,” she hissed. “You must be punished. It’s the pot for you.”

  “Nathaniel didn’t actually say we had to kill her, did he?” Jaeger whispered to Regina.

  “No, most definitely not,” Regina whispered back. She felt sweat droplets run down her back. Mother Spider brought down the scythes at the ends of two of her legs. Regina, with little space to move, leaned back, narrowly avoiding the hit, scraping her back on the cave wall, feeling the air from the swift movement on her face. Jaeger tried to swing his sword but the space was too small. He held the saber with his left hand and drew his dagger from the leather sheath at the small of his back attached to his sword belt. He lurched forwards and slashed a cut on one of Mother Spider’s legs. Green blood flew and sizzled as it hit the wall.

  Mother Spider turned her attention to him. “You, young man, have been very, very bad,” she hissed.

  “Tell me something I don’t know,” Jaeger said, and moved out of the way as she thrust another leg towards him. She missed by a few inches, and angry hissing and clicking sounds echoed off the walls. Regina thrust her sword towards the huge mass and was rewarded with a deep cut in the creature’s hairy body. Mother Spider turned again and a cobweb rope wrapped around Regina’s hand and wrist, gluing her to the cave wall. The touch of the web burned, leaving ugly red welts. Jaeger was immediately by her side, cutting the webbing away. He winced when he touched its sticky substance.

  Mother Spider was close now. She stooped and brought her face near the pair but didn’t spit venom, just observing them for a moment through her eight obsidian eyes.

  “Why do you persecute me, Hunters?” she hissed. Jaeger’s dagger cut through the last of the web and Regina’s hand came free, throbbing angrily.

  “You have killed all these children!” Regina shouted. “So many of them!”

  Mother Spider brought her face even closer to Regina’s. Her putrid breath hit Regina so hard she thought she might faint, the smell of death and decay, of rotting flesh and broken marrow bones.

  “I have always taken the children of your kind, since before your kin was wrapped in furs, living in the ice valleys, waiting for the long winter to end.”

  “Only monsters take children, so many children,” Jaeger said.

  “Do you not take the children of the ewe, the cow, the sow? Are you not monsters to them?”

  “That is different,” Jaeger said, his fists clenched.

  “How so?” The body of Mother Spider shook with a wheezing sound that turned into something like a hacking cough. “You are very young. You do not understand. It is a shame a wolf takes a lamb to feed her young. But if the lamb does not die, then the wolf’s cubs will. How do you judge who shall live and who shall die?”

  Regina and Jaeger exchanged a brief look.

  “Why do you come here, young Hunters?” Mother Spider demanded. “Why does your Master send you here? They know what is coming. The darkness that is building in the desolation of the Eastern Steppes. I am taking measures against it. I am making more children, an army against it. If the children of man wish to fall once more, it is their own affair. I will not allow my brood to be destroyed by what is brewing in the murky shadows of the furthest corners of the world.”

  Jaeger tilted his head towards Regina. “The fuse is about to go. When it does, run and don’t look back.”

  The earth shook and fragments of rock crashed down to the muddy floor. Regina's ears rang from Mother Spider’s scream.

  “My children!” The creature turned and scuttled towards the explosion. Regina and Jaeger ran for the exit. Jaeger kicked a small creature out of his way, but most of the brood had scurried to hide in the darkest corners.

  They reached the narrow passageway and emerged through the crevice, sliding down the slope, feet slipping on the rotting leaves and icy mud. Jaeger lost his footing and fell gracelessly on his bottom, but got up without a word. They continued through the thick trees as the forest floor leveled out.

  Nathaniel was sitting on a rock, his large storm lamp alight, guiding the
m. Next to him, Fidel watched their approach. Regina noticed a strange glint in the cockerel's eye. Suddenly he sprang at Jaeger, vicious curving talons outstretched. Jaeger ducked; with a flap of his wings Fidel cleared him, and sank his talons into a dark shape behind. Jaeger put the boy down and turned to find Fidel pecking at the carcass of a large member of Mother Spider’s brood.

  “I told you he was the finest battle rooster, didn’t I?” Nathaniel said with a self-satisfied smile.

  Jaeger took a moment to catch his breath.

  “I take it from the smoke that you’ve done what was needed. What are these?” Nathaniel asked, looking at the children.

  “They’re alive, but barely,” Regina said. “They need care immediately. They were the only ones we found alive.”

  “And very lucky they are,” Nathaniel said. “The sisters will take care of them. You must take them there now. I will find you again tomorrow.”

  Jaeger fetched the horse blankets and wrapped each child in one. Regina tipped her water canteen to their lips, trying to get a few drops of water into them. They placed them over the horses’ backs and led them back as fast as the terrain would allow.

  It was nearing daybreak when they arrived, and some of the sisters were awake attending their various duties. They rushed to meet them and immediately took the children down and into their care. A young sister brought Regina and Jaeger hot herbal tea with a plate of bread lathered with honey, which they drank and ate ravenously. Regina used her left hand, as the right was a mess. Eating made her realize that she’d also bitten her lower lip, which was now cut and swollen. Another young sister came with some clean clothes, water and other medical supplies to wash, clean and dress their cuts and bruises.

  As the sister finished dressing Regina’s hand, Sister Superior arrived. She did not look pleased.