A Time of Dying (Araneae Nation)

by Edwards, Hailey

  Cocking his head to one side, Bram leaned forward. “I don’t hear anything, even breathing.”

  Murdoch turned to me. “Your earring. Is it humming?”

  I touched it. “No. It hasn’t since we reached the city.”

  We three shared a cautious look. I was first to break away and continue down the path. Steps fell faster and faster the closer we came. The more silent it was, the dustier, the darker, the more dread balled in my gut. This was not right. There should be sound. Soft moans had led me to her nest last time. My ears weren’t as keen as Bram’s, but I heard nothing as obvious as chains rattling.

  “Perhaps he moved her.” Bram kept pace with me.

  “Where?” I flung the question at him. “Where does one hide one’s rabid, winged mother?”

  “Bram has a point,” Murdoch said. “Hishima knew you saw her. Once you escaped, he must have realized there was a good chance you’d come back, with help. With your earring we can—”

  “The tunnels would amplify the sound. There would be an echo. There isn’t. That means she is either dead or gone.” At the spot where I expected to find Lailah, I saw manacles anchored in a smooth slab of rock. Their cuffs hung open, empty. Bones were scattered around, some too thick to belong to wildlife, too thin to belong to varanus or other livestock. No. They were Araneaean.

  I had dug up enough graves these past few months to know their origin with certainty.

  Though Murdoch tried to stop me, I shrugged him off and walked until the cuffs were within touching distance. My hand lifted, but I forced it back to my side before hefting the foul things.

  “We tried.” Murdoch pulled me against his chest long enough to kiss my temple.

  Bram ignored our display of affection so pointedly I knew he must burn to tattle to Isolde. It required too much effort recalling why that should frighten me. Hishima was in Cathis. I wished he was here, burnt as crisp as the male whose scorched hair had tangled in my seeking fingers. It should have brought me joy to know he lived, that as long as he survived there was a chance for Titania to be rebuilt, to regain a fraction of her former glory, but it made me heartsick to think it.

  “It’s been quiet since we cleared the pass,” Bram said thoughtfully.

  “Risers are afraid of fire.” I hadn’t remembered that until now.

  Murdoch nodded as if recalling the way they scattered from it. “Who torched the city then?”

  “The harbinger’s my guess. The risers are all but blind and deaf without her. If she ordered them to start the fire, who is to say they could refuse her? More than one set of hands held torches tonight, and she’s far too intelligent to waste her resources,” I said. “She would have put her army of risers to use.”

  Murdoch studied the manacles as if expecting they would reveal a secret weakness we might exploit against the harbingers. “Now they’ve herded us into the caverns like they did the others.”

  “What are the odds she knows where the tunnel we’re taking exits?” Bram wondered.

  “Slim.” We reached a double-pronged fork in the paths, and I stood at their head. “I have yet to decide which path is the best for us. She can hardly wait for us in a location I haven’t chosen.”

  “We haven’t seen anyone else down here, but the city must have been burning for hours.” It took Murdoch a few whiffs at the fork to decide which direction my clansmen had gone. “There. I smell soot and blood, both faint, both strongest down the western tunnel. Where does it lead?”

  I had to sort through the tangle of map in my head. “It leads below the mountain and lets out in the denser part of the forest closest to the Mimetidae border.” My foolish heart sped at the possibility of being reunited with my clansmen. Forget the number, it didn’t matter. Despite what the harbinger had done, regardless of the heavy casualties my clan had suffered, there were a few of us alive. That meant there was a chance our clan home might be salvaged, assuming Hishima kept his head once returning home to find all his treasures burned and his precious manor ruined.

  “Can you find your way?” Bram studied me, making me aware of how haggard I must look.

  “If she can’t,” Murdoch said, “I can track them. The trail is fresh enough to follow easily.”

  “This route adds days onto the time it took us to reach Titania,” I warned them. “If survivors are found, and there are children or wounded among them, it will be the better part of two weeks before we reach Cathis. There are underground streams fit for drinking, but food will be scarce.”

  “What choice do we have?” Murdoch patted his pack. “We have some supplies. We’ll make them last.” I heard the doubt in his voice and knew our next days would be lean, dry ones.

  “The sooner we start, the sooner this nightmare is over.” Bram struck out ahead of us.

  I walked beside Murdoch. His elbow brushed mine once in a while. It was almost a physical apology for the insults we had hurled at one another. He could no more help what his paladin had ordered the warriors to do than I could help what my paladin had done by releasing our guards in a fit of pique without replacing them first. He had set us firmly in the Mimetidae’s palms, and I got no comfort in knowing it was Vaughn and not Isolde who was preparing to squeeze.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Murdoch crouched before us, filling his lungs deeply while rubbing a viscous liquid between his fingers. He brought his hand to his nose and scented the congealed blood with a slight wince.

  “I see what attracts you to him.” Bram smirked. “If he had a tail, it would be wagging.”

  “Ah. The cause of Isolde’s fondness for you becomes apparent.” I ruffled his hair as I might one of the small, tufted canids some kept as pets. “I suppose one cur would recognize another…”

  Bram’s response was to bare his fangs, which impressed me less the more I saw of them. He tempted me to quip about being all fangs and no follow through, but it sounded too much like an invitation. A tingling sensation brought my hand up to my ear. Glaring as he was, Bram noticed.

  His hand covered his sword’s hilt. “What did Murdoch mean earlier, about your earring?”

  At the sound of his name, the mention of my earring, Murdoch glanced up at me. “Kaidi?”

  I held the crystal while it trembled. “She’s coming.”

  “No,” a deep voice rumbled from the shadows. “He is already here.”

  My heart slammed against my ribs. “Hishima.”

  “What have you done to my city?” he bellowed. “Is this your idea of revenge?”

  “Me?” I turned toward the sound. “You can’t think I would do this to Titania.”

  Hishima was as tall as I recalled, but leaner and less muscled than the males at my side. His mental acuity was hidden behind an unintimidating façade. Sweat from exerting himself to come so deep into the cavern stuck his pale hair to his brow. His clothes were extravagant compared to ours. We had dressed for comfort. He had dressed for style. Crystals glinted on his fingers and at his lapel. The lavender eyes I once saw my future reflected in narrowed on me with such a stark, furious hatred that it stole my breath. What had I ever done to him? Nothing. Except to escape.

  He glanced from Murdoch to Bram. “Do you think I haven’t heard about this little crusade?”

  I stepped between Bram and Hishima. “They have nothing to do with this, with us.”

  His gaze latched on to Murdoch. “That one there would murder me if you but stepped aside.”

  “Some might say you deserved it.” Bram nudged me behind him, smooth as silk. “If you had retained your Theridiidae guards until new ones might be assigned or, better yet, if you had accepted Paladin Vaughn’s offer of protection, then your city wouldn’t have fallen the second you left it.”

  Hishima glared up at Bram. “Who are you to speak to me this way?”

  “I am Bram of the Theridiidae.” He executed a curt bow that was a mockery in and of itself.

  “Theridiidae,” he thundered. “You prove your own case. The Araneidae were right
to be rid of you, and so was I.” To me he said, “You ran from me. You escaped your sworn duty. Then, as if you had not vexed me enough, you enlist the aid of traitors to help you commit your treachery? How fitting. Tell me, dearest Kaidi, do you pay their wages with what’s between your legs?”

  “You would speak to your betrothed that way?” Murdoch rose, hand on his sword.

  “Be careful of your heart, warrior.” Hishima studied him. “You wear it on your sleeve.”

  I put a restraining hand on Murdoch’s chest, which made fury rouge Hishima’s cheeks.

  “Let them go,” I demanded. “They are in service to other clans and not yours to punish.”

  “My city is burning. What would one or two more bodies found in the rubble mean to anyone?” His jaw flexed. “What would the paladin say? You think Vaughn would defend these two by admitting he knew their purpose in Titania?”

  My lips parted on a protest, but I pressed them closed. Vaughn knew nothing of our purpose or our whereabouts. I offered him what I had. “If you free them, unharmed, I will stay with you.”

  “Kaidi—” Murdoch growled.

  “You are mine.” Hishima closed the gap, cupped my jaw. “Whether or not I let these two go, you will remain here, at my side, as you were meant to be, as your parents wished for you to be.”

  “They would never have agreed to your proposal if they knew what you had done.”

  His gaze hardened. “What I did, I did to ensure our clan’s place in a new world order.”

  “What you did was kept a pet that turned on her master.” I jerked from his hold. “Either she led her kin here or you invited them to nest here. You brought death and destruction to our clan.”

  “You have no idea what you’re talking about.” He pointed at me. “Alliance with the Necrita is our only hope at survival. When the Necrita lay waste to the Araneae Nation, we will remain.”

  “Are you mad?” I flung out my arms to encompass our problem. “Titania is lost. Our people are dead or in hiding. I see no benefit to this imagined alliance with these—these—Necrita. They are a plague infecting all corners of our nation. You do not side with the enemy in times of war.”

  “A war can be won.” Hishima eyed me with pity. “This cannot.”

  “I beg to differ.” Bram cleared his throat. “The Salticidae have cultivated a cure.”

  I swung my head toward him. “What?”

  Hishima echoed me, adding, “It’s not possible.”

  “I assure you, it is.” Murdoch refused to look at me. “Ask Maven Kokyangwmana.”

  “And me?” I challenged him. “Who should I ask?”

  He met my gaze then, and it was heavy. “The secret was not mine to tell.”

  “Nor mine.” Bram shrugged. “Though it did seem relevant to our current conversation.”

  “What do you think of that, dear one?” Hishima rubbed his jaw. “A cure your…associates…saw fit to keep from you. I wonder what other secrets they’ve kept. Your parents were two of the first who died by plague. You have my sympathies. Had their maven chosen to share her cure…”

  “The cure is weeks old.” Murdoch’s gaze bored through me. “Kaidi left you months ago.”

  I trusted him that far. If Mana had discovered a cure, despite the restrictions of her faith and those her new clan placed on her, even those of her birth clan, she would have found a way to see that cure administered.

  I faced Hishima. “Leave my parents, my family, out of this.”

  “They were good people.” His nod was gentle. “They knew their place.”

  “My place has never been with you.” What I would have paid for that knowledge years ago.

  “It was once. It will be again.” His gaze swept over Murdoch. “Despite your indiscretions.”

  Pride stung and heart sore, I readied an acid retort but winced as the buzz at my ear grew to a throbbing sting. I held the crystal still for respite, hating that it made me deaf to the harbinger’s approach but aware Hishima was our immediate concern. Still, my skin crawled as I ignored her.

  Agony punched through my ear, the pain too stark to shove aside.

  My frantic thoughts turned the darkened tunnel at Hishima’s back into a nest of risers led by a frothing harbinger. The unknown was too much. The hairs on my nape lifted. “Where is she?”

  “Who do you—? Lailah?” His eyes narrowed. “She is where she always is.”

  “I hate to be the bearer of bad news,” Bram started, “but the old girl is long gone.”

  “Her scent’s faded.” Murdoch let that sink in. “How long were you hunting Kaidi?”

  Weeks, long enough for Lailah to escape, long enough for her to reunite with her kin.

  Hishima lifted his hand, and two males lumbered forward. “Check the tunnel for Lailah.”

  How sad it was that she had lost the distinction of being his mother. She was merely his key to gaining an imagined alliance with an unearthly force bent on the corruption of our very selves.

  But he had given me something of value, a name for my nameless foes—the Necrita.

  While his guards stalked toward his mother’s former chamber, axes raised—a feat made easy by the fact I had hacked the boards from the entrance—the three of us shifted closer. If Hishima’s pacing was any indication, we had been wrong assuming he had moved his mother for her safety.

  An eternity passed while my ear thrummed and Hishima mashed his lips into a bloodless line.

  When his guards emerged, they exchanged a wary glance. The bulkier one cleared his throat. “Lady Lailah is not in her chamber,” he said to the rocks at Hishima’s feet. “Nor is Edgar.”

  Edgar? The Araneaean bones we found… Had they belonged to a guard left to care for her?

  “Where is she?” he asked me softly. “What have you done with my—with Lailah?”

  “See these?” I held out my hands. “They’re empty.”

  “We came here to find her,” Murdoch said. “We had the same luck as you.”

  “If something happened to her…” Hard as his throat worked, I doubted grief was the cause.

  “She was gone when we arrived.” Murdoch’s breath fanned my neck. When had he come so close? Near as he stood, I heard each of his sharp inhales, felt each of his exhales warm my nape.

  “That’s not possible.” He pointed a finger at me, and it trembled. “She warned me that night to kill you where you stood, but I said no. I thought we had scared you. That you would keep out of the caverns, out of our work, that you would be frightened into compliance. But I was wrong.”

  I wiggled my outspread fingers. “You honestly believed I’d stay after what she did to me?”

  “I thought perhaps…” He blanched at my missing ring finger. No. At something behind me.

  Shivers swept over my skin. The impulse to turn tightened my neck. Murdoch put his hands on my shoulders, holding me still as he bent down, his lips a breath from my ear. “Don’t move.”

  Bram pressed against my side, his shoulder half in front of me. “I hear it,” was all he said.

  “Lailah.” Hishima took a cautious half-step forward. “I was concerned for you.”

  “Lies,” she hissed.

  The pitch of her voice made my eardrums ache. I covered my ears but still felt her speak.

  “We agreed you would wait for my return in your chamber.” He advanced another step.

  “He’s insane,” Bram muttered.

  “No,” Murdoch whispered. “Look.”

  The tunnel’s gloom parted to reveal six guards armed with nets and what looked like spears, but the tips were three times the size of normal spearheads. These bore hooks with serrated jaws. The leader was of average height, of average build, but his broad nose and wedge cheeks pegged him as Deinopidae. His slow assessment of me showcased gray eyes, the hallmark of his people.

  Standing at an angle as he was, Bram saw what Murdoch and I did not.

  “Hishima is luring her down. She’s perched on a ledge just over our head
s.” His voice held a sort of misplaced awe. “Her wings, there are two—four, flitting so fast at times I can’t see them.”

  “Come down.” Hishima presented his arm as he would for a falco trained to perch on his wrist.

  “Food.” She sounded closer. “Now.”

  “Get down first.” His gaze slid over Murdoch. “I’m sure we can find you something to eat.”

  “You wouldn’t dare.” My voice was a bare whisper.

  “I dare very much these days. You will be surprised how desperate times have changed me.”

  “I doubt that very much.” I winced when Murdoch’s fingers dug painfully into my shoulder.

  “Hush,” he breathed into my ear.

  “Will you do as he says? You never listen to me.” Hishima returned his attention to Lailah. “If you had only listened to me, if you had stayed in your room, none of us would be here now.”

  The truth of his words cut deep, shoring my resolve that I would protect Murdoch and Bram. I had led them here, and I would lead them out. “Yet here we are. What’s done can’t be undone.”

  “I confess I am a tad more optimistic than you.” His eyes narrowed. “Lailah, no. Not her.”

  Claws scrabbled on rock over our heads. Pebbles bounced off my shoulder. As if compelled to do the very last thing I wanted, I rolled my eyes upward, not daring to blink even when Lailah stirred grit with her frantic wings. Fearful she might consider direct eye contact a challenge, I let my gaze slide over her body, cataloging differences I had not noticed at our first meeting. On her feet, where her toenails should be, were pearlescent, hooked claws. Her skin was pale as a corpse, but I no longer believed the harbingers were dead. At least not entirely. Her hair was a filthy knot on top of her head. Her wings, and I counted four, were exact matches for the one Isolde found.

  “I kept my word.” Hishima softened his tone. “I returned. Come to me, and we will talk.”

  “Kept your word? Not hardly.” My voice wavered. “You came here after me. Not for her.”

  “What are you doing?” Murdoch’s hand crept up my neck as though he meant to gag me.