Harmonic Magic Series Boxed Set

by P. E. Padilla

  Yes, I do. Please tell him.

  Sam didn’t want to put his friend in danger again, but he was right. There was no other way they could think of. “Skitter asks for you to shoot another arrow. He’ll try again.”

  Emerius nodded and set about pulling in the rope from the pit.

  And Sam, Skitter sent, tell him to do a better job of it this time.

  Sam laughed out loud, more from the tension than anything else. When everyone looked at him strangely, he said, “Skitter says to do a better job of it this time.” The others wore expressions ranging from mild amusement to relief.

  As they waited for Emerius to shoot the rope across again, Shonyb came up to Skitter, still curled in a ball and shivering, though less than earlier. The big wolf nudged the hapaki with her nose. Skitter curled more tightly into a ball and tried to ignore her.

  The rakkeban, insistent, nudged him again, pushing him a few inches across the floor. When the hapaki poked his head up, Shonyb licked him so thoroughly that it pushed him another few inches across the floor. Skitter hugged the wolf’s nose. He seemed to have stopped shivering, but Sam could still feel trepidation in his thoughts. He could also feel his affection for the wolf and his thanks for her support. His little paw reached up and rubbed the ear that was many times its size.

  Emerius, wanting to be sure of the strength of the arrow this time, got on his back and put both feet on his bow. He drew the arrow back with both hands, the bow creaking so loudly that Sam thought it might break. When he released, the sound was much louder than before, the rope playing out so quickly it seemed the entire coil might take off into the darkness. A loud crack confirmed that the arrow head had struck stone.

  Ready? Sam sent. Are you sure you want to do this again?

  Yes. It was kind of fun swinging on the rope like that. I might do it again sometime, as long as I don’t have to hit a wall. Not now, though. Not now.

  Sam smiled and rubbed the hapaki’s head.

  After Emerius secured his side of the rope, Skitter climbed up and began to go across the chasm again. He moved so quickly Sam could hardly keep up with letting the rope out. As Skitter got halfway across, the drag on the rope, and its weight, caused the hapaki to slow down. Sam started to fear that the weight of the it would tug his friend down and make him fall. Skitter just lowered his body and crawled on, slower but still steady.

  Sam had wedged Ahimiro into a space between two rocks, projecting out into the chasm, but even its light had limits. Skitter had passed out of the ball of the illumination. He looked into the blackness but couldn’t see a thing except the silhouettes of the rock formations.

  Are you okay? Sam sent.

  Yes, Skitter answered. He was panting. This rope tied to me is getting heavy. I’m almost there, though.

  There was a moment of panic, shared by Sam, when Skitter missed his footing because of his fatigue. The rope didn’t seem to be where it was supposed to be, so his right front paw met empty air and the hapaki stumbled. He tried to compensate by shifting his balance and it only caused him to become more unbalanced. Sam could feel the hapaki’s stomach drop as Skitter knew he was going to fall but couldn’t do anything about it.

  Sam cried out as he shared the feeling the hapaki was having, pitching headlong into the blackness. One tiny paw was able to grasp the rope to keep Skitter from plummeting. For the moment he hung on, little claws straining to hold a weight they were never meant to hold. Sam didn’t know how long his friend could maintain his grip. Skitter didn’t know himself.

  One. Two. Three. Four seconds. At five seconds, Skitter’s strength gave out and thoughts that he might die rushed through his head. Sam was surprised the hapaki didn’t make a sound. Not a scream, not a whimper, nothing.

  Skitter’s back paws hit something immediately after his grip had given way.

  He had only been a few feet off the ground. On the other side of the chasm.

  Sam slumped against one of the cave formations, trying to control his breathing. “He’s…fine,” he said to the others’ questioning looks. “He fell, but he was already on the other side.” Rindu slapped Sam’s back while Nalia kissed him. Ix and Emerius breathed out in relief and smiled.

  It didn’t take long for Skitter to tie both ropes in knots around good, solid rock formations. When Sam and Emerius tightened the ropes and secured them on their side, they were ready to go.

  “The mounts can’t go across,” Sam said. Remembering how the passage narrowed again on the other side, he turned to Emerius. “Will you stay with them, to guard them? We should be able to get through to the artifact and get out of there in no time.”

  “Yeah,” Emerius said. “I can do guard duty. Someone’s gotta cover our backs.” His mouth formed a sly smile. “Thanks, Sam.”

  Okay, so he was transparent. It was the thought that was important anyway, right? He slapped the hunter on the back. “Any time.”

  “I’ll stay, too,” Ix said. “If Rasaad catches up to us, wild man here won’t be able to hold them off.”

  “That sounds good to me,” Sam said. “We’ll be back as soon as we can. Relax, have something to eat. Enjoy yourselves.” He winked as he started across the ropes. They were taut and solid and before he knew it, he was on the other side. Nalia came over and then Rindu, and, just like that, they were ready to go get Orum.

  Chapter 58

  Sam looked back across the pit to where Ix and Emerius were digging through their packs for food. Their features flickered by the torchlight, making the scene surreal. He pulled his eyes away from them, starting at the sudden feeling that the party was splitting up, no matter how briefly.

  It was silly, really, but he had become accustomed to his new friends. Nalia would give him that patient you-just-don’t-know-how-things-are look if he told her. Maybe she was right. He had no reason to trust Ix, or even Emerius for that matter. But he did. He hoped that when this was all over, they could get to know each other without the constant threat of danger hanging over their heads.

  He looked longingly at his friends, including his rakkeben friends, one more time and turned to go forward.

  I have become rather fond of everyone myself, Skitter pushed into his mind. Even if you all are an inferior species. His humor recalled the old joke they bandied back and forth.

  Yes, Sam sent back. Even if. Are you ready?

  I was thinking that maybe I should rest here, if that is okay, Skitter sent with a feeling that Sam thought was close to embarrassment. My heart is still beating quickly from thinking I was going to die and I am very tired from it. I can go with you if you like, though.

  Sam patted the hapaki’s head. No, he sent. Rest. We will probably just stroll down the passageway and collect the artifact. We’ll be back in no time.

  Okay, I will be waiting here.

  “Are we ready to finish this thing and get out of here?” Sam asked Rindu and Nalia.

  “We are,” Rindu said. “Lead on, Sam.”

  Nodding firmly and smiling at Nalia, Sam started down the passageway. It was almost exactly as the passage they came through, the one on the other side of the chasm. He soon lost his sense of direction. It was disconcerting, but he didn’t worry. There were no side passages, just the one narrow winding tunnel. They couldn’t get lost.

  After a few hundred feet, the passage they were traveling widened out again, more gradually than before. It roughly doubled in size in ten feet, then doubled again in another twenty. By the time they had gone thirty paces, the walls disappeared within the inky blackness. But that wasn’t what concerned Sam.

  Well into the chamber, they came to the first object. It looked as if it had grown from the stone floor itself. Roughly spherical, it was large enough for Sam to stand up inside, and shone a dirty white in the light of Ahimiro.

  “What—?” Sam began, but stopped when Rindu put a finger to his lips. The Zouy pointed out two more of the shapes that were barely visible on the edges of the light. He motioned with his other hand, opening his fis
t and raising it up and away from himself.

  Sam understood and increased the light at the tip of his staff. As he did, the breath caught in his throat.

  They were in a cavern that was maybe fifty feet in diameter, with both sides pinched into smaller passageways. He could just see what looked like the end to the tunnel across from where they entered. In the dead center of the chamber was a glass case and under the glass, clearly evident, was what looked like an ancient tribal drum. It had to be the artifact they were looking for.

  Orum was roughly the size of a basketball, a rigid cylinder that appeared to be made of wood. The top was covered with leather drawn so tightly that Sam could almost hear it hum from where he was. Laces that were similar to leather, but looked stronger and more durable, kept the drum covering taut. On either side of the main body of the instrument were sticks mounted on brackets. They were simple, with a ball of hardened leather stuffed with some kind of padding. Sam wasn’t sure if it was his imagination or if the artifact actually glowed slightly.

  As impressive as it was, though, Orum was secondary. Surrounding the glass case, more than twenty feet from where Sam and the others stood, there were many more of the soft-looking, dirty white objects scattered across the floor. As he watched in stunned disbelief, he saw movement in one of the shapes. A shadow seemed to be flickering through the barely translucent wall of the sphere.

  Three sets of eyes were locked on the movement. The tip of an appendage thrust through an opening that Sam hadn’t even realized had been there. It was as thick as his wrist, covered with coarse hair and, once it had emerged enough for Sam to see it, displayed joints or segmentations.

  An involuntary shiver ran up Sam’s spine. Please don’t be what I think you are, he thought, afraid to even whisper it. Watching intently, hardly breathing, he didn’t blink as the hairy appendage was joined by another, and then two others just like it. Each segment above the ones on the ground grew in thickness, all moving in perfect synchronicity, exiting the den of the creature.

  Sam looked around at the other spheres, seeing now what he had missed. They were spun, like cocoons. Or nests. Thankfully, the only movement so far was from the one he had been looking at, the one showing half of the massive body of a spider as it moved slowly out into the open.

  The creature was huge, as big as Sam. The same coarse hair covering its legs made a thick layer over the entire bulbous body of the arachnid. The shape of the monster was the same as tarantulas Sam had seen, thick strong legs, fur, and a fear-inspiring face. The color was strange, sort of a pale green, almost translucent, with the hair a slightly darker shade

  As the spider exited its den completely, Sam couldn’t help but notice how graceful it was. The front walking legs of the creature probed ahead of it, seeming to feel its way around. The pedipalp, the set of legs directly in front of the monster’s face, waved as if feeling the air.

  Compound eyes stared blankly ahead above two wicked-looking curved fangs and chelicerae, plump with poison ready to inject the deadly venom into any prey it found.

  Sam froze, mesmerized by the motion of the creature. All thought left his head but his fear of being struck by those fangs. He had always had a tenuous relationship with spiders. While not really having a phobia, they made him uncomfortable. He was fine with the smaller versions, as long as he knew where they were. When they surprised him, however, such as one that had jumped on him when he was a child, he lost all sense of sanity and panicked. He was feeling that panic now.

  “Sam,” Rindu whispered. “Do you remember the snakes? The ones in the caves the last time you were in Gythe? Sam?”

  He hadn’t even realized Rindu had spoken until he played it back in his head. “Yes,” his whisper sounded more like a croak. The spider was moving toward them. Slowly.

  “Spiders can see with their eyes,” the Zouy whispered, “but they rely more on their vibratory sense. They have fine hairs that detect vibrations and give them information about their surroundings.”

  Rindu was silent for a moment. Sam could not take his eyes from the slowly approaching monster to look at him. Finally, the monk whispered again. “I will try to do what I did with the snakes, or at least try to distract it. While I do so, get the drum. We must escape before the others sense us and come out of their nests as well.”

  Sam willed his body to move, but it was not cooperating with him.

  “Sam?” Nalia whispered, close against his right ear.

  With as great a feat of willpower as he had ever displayed, he tore his eyes from the spider and swung his head toward Nalia. Her green-tinged blue eyes captured him, cradled him, calmed him. He took a breath, the first he had taken in hours, it seemed, and he shook his head. “I’m good,” he whispered to her, trying to force a smile, but failing, displaying instead a sickly grimace. He swallowed hard. “Let’s go.”

  “Slowly,” Nalia told him, and then suited her words by turning at a glacial pace and shuffling toward the glass case in the center of the cavern. Sam was reminded of the drills Rindu had forced him to perform, the kori rohw exercises that he had to move through with such a slow pace that the butterflies would not fly off him. He was suddenly glad the Zouy had insisted on perfection.

  As he and Nalia moved toward the drum, Sam cast a look to Rindu, who was trying to find a vibration that would pacify the spider less than ten feet in front of him. So far, it didn’t look like he was having success.

  When they were four paces—normal walking paces, not the slow shuffle they were now engaged in—from the case, Sam saw a quick movement out of the corner of his eye. The spider in front of Rindu had reared up on its back legs, first two walking legs in the air and the pedipalp waving madly toward the monk. Sam’s stomach dropped when the creature unfolded the chelicerae and extended fangs as long as Sam’s forearms out in front of it, ready to strike. The venom on the tips of the fangs shone cruelly in the light of Sam’s staff.

  With a look and nod at Nalia, they quickened their pace. There was nothing he could do to help Rindu right now other than getting the drum as soon as possible. In a few fast steps, they stood before it.

  Sam reached for the glass case and then pulled his hand back. What if it was trapped? What if touching it set off some sort of device, making things even worse for them? He looked to Rindu, standing in a ready stance to dodge the deadly fangs in front of him, to the spider, waving its appendages to and fro and looking ready to strike, and finally to Nalia, face wearing a tight expression, her mouth a thin line and her eyes ablaze. What should he do?

  They are here, he heard a very faint whisper in his mind, so faint he wasn’t sure it was there.

  Sam, Rasaad is here. We will need you. It was Skitter, sending a thought to him, further than they had ever communicated before. They were trapped, with death all around.

  He had to make a decision. There was no time for deliberation. Taking a deep breath, he did what he had to do. He reached out and touched the glass case protecting the drum artifact Orum.

  Nothing happened.

  Sam thought that was probably a good thing. Then he saw movement from all around him. The other denizens of the cavern were rousing. From each side, hairy legs were making their way out of their spherical abodes, bulbous bodies trailing. Sam gulped and looked to Nalia.

  “We must get the artifact and leave quickly, Sam, before the creatures are fully in motion.” Nalia was looking around them as if gauging an upcoming battle.

  One of the spiders closest to the pair was fully outside its nest. It was looking right at Sam with those multiple eyes. It seemed to sense something and suddenly hunched down low, its legs ready to spring.

  Sam traded a look with Nalia. He wasn’t sure if his expression showed the fear he was feeling, but the empathetic look on her face told him that it probably did. He took a breath and let it out slowly, then moved around the glass case with a purpose, not at a snail’s pace but not rushing either. As he did, the spider that was staring at him scuttled and pivoted so it was
always facing him. It seemed ready to jump on him at any moment, but it had not extended its fangs yet. Sam took that as a good sign.

  He made a complete circuit of the glass case, which was sitting on a stone pedestal. The glass was in an octagonal configuration, coming to a point at the top. It rested at just above waist level to Sam and was probably three feet tall. As he moved around it, looking for some type of door or hatch, he found it to be perfectly crafted, each side identical to the others. The spider was still locked onto him, acting as if it thought Sam would attack it.

  With no way to get into the glass, Sam caught Nalia’s eye and motioned toward his staff. She understood. Her shrapezi were already in a guard position. She tightened her grip and nodded. Sam struck the glass as hard as he could with his staff, averting his eyes at the last second to prevent having glass sprayed in his face.

  There was only a dull thud, as of a heavy wooden mallet striking a large boulder. The glass wasn’t even scratched. At his sudden movement, the spider watching him hunched lower, on the edge of springing, but waited.

  Nalia stepped toward the glass and motioned for Sam to watch the arachnid guarding them. When he turned from her, she struck the glass with her shrapezi. A high-pitched metallic ring filled the air and the monster in front of them scuttled a foot closer. Sam could see its appendages trembling in anticipation and something moved below its eyes. It had decided to bring its fangs out.

  The glass was still unblemished, despite Nalia’s strike. Rindu was still in his faceoff with the spider that was rearing toward him and threatening to strike. The other creatures, while not seeming too interested in the humans, nevertheless were moving around with more energy. If Sam didn’t do something soon, they would be surrounded and outnumbered, a battle they could never win with these giant poisonous monsters.

  Sam had a thought then, so ridiculous that he was embarrassed even to think it. Despite that, he acted. Putting Ahimiro in the crook of his arm, he reached over and put both hands on the glass case. He could see Orum just inches from his hands, on the other side of the transparent covering. With a heave, he lifted up on the case. It raised easily off the pedestal and over the drum, exposing the artifact.