Venom and Song (16 page)

Jimmy?
Maybe
. He had a good sense of humor. But he was moody and seemed too much of a loner, like one of the kids who wore black all the time . . . and eye makeup. Tommy laughed quietly. He couldn't picture Jimmy wearing eye makeup. But still, there was something about Jimmy that warned you to keep your distance. It was like hearing a snake's rattle every time you got too close.
Jimmy might be a friend,
Tommy thought.
But not a close one
.

That left Kat. Tommy rolled back around to face the others.
She'd still be a friend,
Tommy thought. In fact, he couldn't think of any of his friends back on Earth who had seemed so genuine. Kat was on his mind all the time, too. He wasn't sure why, then immediately shook the thought out of his mind.

A brief change in the ambient sound, a flash of light. Tommy turned his head and saw Claris emerge from the trapdoor, where nearby there was a pile of ropes and timber.
She didn't use the rope ladder?!
Just the thought made Tommy feel sick.

Mr. Wallace and Grimwarden met her there. They whispered, but Tommy heard them.

“All clear?” asked Grimwarden.

“Not quite,” she replied. “We're safe enough. But two miles east there is a Gwar search party. They are organized and systematic. I watched them map out a fair stretch of the wood before I returned.”

“Even if they come this way,” said Mr. Wallace, “they will find nothing.”

“Agreed,” said Grimwarden. “Still, we will need to alter our route to the Spine.”

“There is something else,” said Claris. “They have spiders with them.”

“Warspiders?” Grimwarden kept his voice low in spite of the revealed threat.

“Yes,” she replied. “But they are young, not a third of their mature size. Still.”

Grimwarden nodded. “Understood,” he said. “We will be wary.” He turned to Mr. Wallace. “You have the next watch. Be careful.”

“I will,” he replied. “Should I monitor the enemy's movements?”

Grimwarden nodded. “From a safe distance.”

“Of course.”

Tommy watched the Sentinel descend. Mr. Wallace didn't use the rope ladder, either. Tommy shivered, but not from cold. When the trapdoor closed, a breeze rustled one of the shades so that Tommy saw a crack of the afternoon sky. Once more he was awed and frightened by their height. He rolled back to face the trunk again.
What am I doing here?
he thought sadly. Hundreds of feet up in a tree . . . in another world? His stomach tightened and churned. He thought of his parents, his home back on Earth.
What have I done?
All at once regret poured over him like a dark waterfall. He'd made an awful, awful decision.
I don't want to be a lord. I just want to be a normal kid. I want to go home and play catch with Dad. I'll even eat Mom's meat loaf . . . and love it
. The tree shuddered.
And she can be as overprotective as she wants
.

But the pangs of regret were made all the more miserable by the certainty that he could not change his decision. It was too late. Exhausted both mentally and physically, Tommy fell into a hard sleep. So deep was his slumber, in fact, that he didn't hear Mr. Wallace come back, nor Brynn when her turn at the watch was over, nor when Mr. Spero's turn began.

Outside the flet, the sun had dipped below the eastern horizon. Night had come swiftly.

9
High Treason

“KIRI LEE,” whispered Goldarrow, gently shaking the young lord. “Kiri Lee, wake up, you're having a bad dream.”

Startled, Kiri Lee opened her eyes wide. She gasped and frantically crawled backward until her back hit the trunk of the tree. “No, no!” she whispered urgently. “You stay away! You're not real. You're . . . not . . . her!”

“Not who?” Goldarrow asked, cautiously approaching. “Kiri Lee, it's me, Goldarrow.”

Just then Mr. Spero opened the trapdoor and emerged. Kiri Lee screamed, “No! Not him, too! Stay away from me!”

Shocked and dismayed, Mr. Spero held up his hands in a pleading manner, rooted at his spot by the trapdoor. “Keep her quiet.”

Claris and Brynn rushed over to Kiri Lee. The other lords began to wake up.

“Kiri Lee, there is no danger here,” said Grimwarden from the other side of the flet. Mr. Wallace stepped away from the group gathering around Kiri Lee, but froze when Grimwarden lifted one of the shade tarps and proclaimed, “
Vex lethdoloc vitica anis. Senesca, mi'jena, baden wy feithrill adin ny!
”

The moment the Guardmaster spoke the First Voice phrases from ancient Elven scriptures, Kiri Lee snapped out of the waking dream and began to weep. And Mr. Wallace fell to his knees and shook as if struck by sudden cold. But Grimwarden had not seen. He had joined the others around Kiri Lee.

Still rattling the sleep from his mind, Tommy sat up on his fletroll. “What's all the noise about?” he asked, squinting at the light from the now raised tarp. Ignoring the hushed conversations to his left, Tommy stared with drowsy fascination at the opening just above the rail. There seemed to be something there, a small patch of prickly-looking black. It reminded Tommy of one of the stickerballs from the sweet-gum trees in his grandmother's backyard. That or a small sea urchin.

A sea urchin . . . in a tree?
Tommy thought. With eerie quickness, it moved, coming into full view—an adolescent Warspider about the size of a basketball. Motionless on the railing it sat, glassy black eyes staring in all directions at once.

“SPIDER!” Tommy yelled, at last free of the sleepy trance. He tumbled across his fletroll, grabbed and strung his bow, and then loosed an arrow into the cluster of dark eyes.

Screee!
The creature tumbled backward over the rail. Two more took its place. All at once, shadows skittered across the tarps on the three other sides. Forelegs appeared in the cracks. Something clattered above.

“We are found out!” Mr. Spero yelled. “Guardmaster, to arms!”

A great spider leaped just as Grimwarden wheeled around. His axe flashed and split the spider from fangs to spinneret. The pieces of its ruined carcass fell on either side of him. But more spiders sprang up to confront him.

Meanwhile, Goldarrow flicked out her rychesword and impaled a gray arachnid that had just appeared over the solid railing. Grimacing, she used her free hand to push the ruined creature off her blade. She watched it tumble over the edge and plummet. Then she gasped. “Grimwarden, there are Gwar, more than a hundred rallying at the base of the tree! Some are climbing!”

The Guardmaster finished bludgeoning one of the larger spiders. “Goldarrow”—he shouted, wiping gelatinous green muck from his face and beard—“you and Mr. Wallace, take the Seven. Hit the chute!”

“Right!” she called back, already moving.

Near the trunk, Tommy spent his last arrow felling yet another spider, but there seemed no end of the creatures. Two raced along the flet floor toward his feet, but Jimmy was there in a flash. He leaped on top of one, crushing it with his full body weight. The other snapped its fangs and lunged for Tommy, but it didn't get far. Jimmy had grabbed one of the creature's back legs and now held it fast. Tommy had a hard time getting his short sword out of his scabbard, but at last managed to pull it free. Then, just as Jimmy lost hold of the spider's leg, Tommy plunged the blade into the creature's eyes. The sword stuck deep and wrenched from Tommy's hands. The spider thrashed about until flipping over in the corner, its dead legs curling inward.

“Come on!” Goldarrow yelled. “Follow me!”

Jimmy ran on, but Tommy spun on his heels, searching. He spied Kat, ran to her, and pulled her along.

Keeping more spiders at bay, Mumthers stood on the trapdoor, the strong latch broken loose. At the same time, she swung a long-handled cast-iron skillet and dueled a slightly larger spider with striped fangs. The creature lunged, but each time, Mumthers gave it a clanging blow that sent it reeling backward. Finally, it caught the skillet in its fangs and began to pull. Mumthers fell forward, off the trapdoor. Up it popped and immediately a spider began to climb in. Still engaged in a tug-of-war with the other spider, Mumthers didn't see the one coming up behind her. “Let go, you wee beastie!” she yelled. “Or I'll make a soup of ya!”

The skillet came free suddenly. Mumthers raised the heavy pan over her head and brought it down like an axe, crushing the spider's head. Then, hearing a loud crunch from behind, Mumthers jumped and spun around. She found Jett standing on the trapdoor with a half-smashed spider beneath it. “Oh, that's a good lad,” said Mumthers. “I owe you a pie.”

“Jett, come ON!” Goldarrow yelled from across the flet.

“I'm not leaving yet!” Jett yelled back.

“Jett, what are you doing?” demanded Grimwarden.

“There are too many spiders,” said the young lord. “You need me to stay and fight.”

Grimwarden thrust the bludgeon end of his axe into the face of a charging spider and yelled, “What I NEED is for you to get out of this tree! We will take care of the spiders! Now, go!”

Jett hesitated another moment and then ran past Grimwarden, Brynn, and Mr. Spero.

Johnny had Autumn pinned behind him against the trunk. He held his hands up, and licks of flame appeared in his palms.

“NO!” shouted Goldarrow. “Johnny, you can't use fire here. It could trap us and kill us all. LORDS, this way! Wallace, take the rear guard!” Her blond hair whipped as she rounded the bend and led the lords up the corridor on the narrow side of the trunk.

Mr. Wallace did as he was commanded and pushed the lords to follow Goldarrow. Tommy, Jimmy, Kat, Kiri Lee, Autumn, Johnny, and Jett—they all went by.
At least one of them should have died,
Mr. Wallace thought. He charged after them.

On the other side of the tree, Tommy and Jimmy raced across the flet and burst through a tarped doorway out onto an uncovered deck area. “Whoaaaa!” Tommy slid to a stop at the edge of the flet, clinging to a vertical post, feet dangling over open air. Jimmy saw Tommy nearly go over the edge and grabbed his shirt just in time. Tommy stood mumbling, looking down at the seemingly endless fall from their high perch into the forest depths below.

The others crashed through the door, immediately bumping into the back of the person who preceded them as the line halted. They found Tommy clinging to a railing post, panting. “OH—
huff, huff—
MY—
huff, huff—
GOSH!” gasped Tommy. “I almost died!”

“We're trapped,” said Kat. “We can't get down.”

“It's not over yet,” said Goldarrow, rushing past the gawking lords.

Mr. Wallace came around the bend last. Sword drawn, he turned to intercept anything that might have been following them.

“This is our way out,” said Goldarrow. She cast a quick concerned glance at Tommy and then reached up into the air above her head. She grabbed something no one could see, gave a great tug, and then released. Puffs of shimmering powder appeared directly overhead and continued like a wave along a cord that sloped from the top of the flet's roof far into the forest.

“Look at that,” said Johnny.

“Did you just make that cable . . . appear?” asked Jett.

“Elves are not sorcerers,” she replied. “We coat it with crystamine to keep it hidden. I'll explain later.”

“Are we going to do what I think we're going to do?” asked Autumn.

“I think I'm going to be sick,” muttered Tommy.

Screee!
More Warspiders. “Let's get moving,” said Goldarrow.

“What about the others?” asked Kiri Lee.

“They are fighting so that we can escape,” said Goldarrow.

“But will they get away?” asked Autumn.

“They had better,” said Goldarrow, her last glimpse of Grimwarden flashing in her mind. She knelt by a large chest, fumbled with a key, then flipped the chest open. From within she drew several bundles and began tossing them to the lords. “Unwrap them,” she commanded. “They are harnesses.”

Screee!

Goldarrow hurriedly took one of the bundles, unlatched a metal clasp, and unwound several loops of material. She hooked loops around her arms beneath the shoulders and one around her waist. “Do as I have done—EXACTLY as I have done. Quickly!”

Tommy was at it in a heartbeat. He unwrapped his harness, put it on, and turned around in front of Goldarrow several times until he was absolutely certain he had it on correctly.

“I will go first,” said Goldarrow. “Follow my lead.”

“Um, Sentinel Goldarrow,” said Johnny, “we
have
to follow your lead, don't we? We're all on the same wire, right?”

She looked at him affectionately. “Yes, of course, my lad. But there may be places ahead where tree limbs or clefts of rock poke out. We may need to swing ourselves one way or the other, so it is best that I face them first. Each of you keep your eyes riveted to the one in front of you. Do as they do!”

“Uh, I'm not sure I want to do this,” said Tommy.

“Tommy,” Goldarrow said, “you have no choice.” She looked to Jett and said, “Only if you have to.”

Jett nodded.

“What?” Tommy asked, but he got no answer.

“You'll be fine, Tommy!” said Goldarrow. She grabbed the chute line, pulled it down, and attached the metal clasp. “Count to ten after I'm gone and leave the platform.” With that, the Sentinel leaped off the platform and sped away down the chute line.

Tommy clicked his hook onto the cord and gave it a hard yank. It seemed like it would hold. He stepped to the edge and made the mistake of looking down. A twisting vertigo of dark limbs and green foliage rose up to meet him and he stepped back.

“Tommy, you need to go,” said Jett. “Goldarrow's going to get too far ahead.”

“I know,” said Tommy. “But I'm—hey, whoa, stop!”

But Jett pushed Tommy off the flet as easily as a father might push his toddler on a swing.