EPIC: Fourteen Books of Fantasy (373 page)

Lay eggs in them when they are dead.”

Khavi twisted around, staring wide-eyed at me. “What in the name of the dead gods?”

From above, moving its many legs and nimbly skittering down the oversized web, came a spider with eight eyes as red as ruby jewels, its mandibles clacking with anticipation. It was the largest specimen I’d ever seen by a significant margin, three kobolds tall and ten wide. It had six legs, four on one side and two on the other, and two blackened, writhing stumps where legs should’ve been.

“Stay back!” I shouted, gripping my sword tighter in my claw. I raised my shield, fingers twitching eagerly as I summoned words of power in my mind.

The spider did not slow its descent, its surprisingly articulate jaw clicking as it spoke.

“Foodling yells and has a blade,

But in its home it should have stayed,

A tasty morsel I shall eat,

Kobold juice is oh so sweet.”

I kept my blade pointed right at the creature’s many glowing eyes as Khavi thrashed and squirmed in the web. “Let us leave,” I said. “We mean you no harm. We didn’t hurt the other spiders until they attacked us.”

The spider continued descending, its jaws widening, a pair of long fangs dripped venom.

“Indeed you didn’t, little folk,

But Six-Legs needs—”

I shouted words of power, a surge of fear blasting away my fatigue and the lingering traces of the spider venom within my body. A roaring sheet of flame leapt from my fingers, engulfing Six-Legs and pouring over the web behind it. The thick strands beneath its legs caught fire and snapped, sending the flaming ball of spider crashing down onto the stone floor.

I relaxed, lowering my sword, but as the flames died, the spider stood, its body cloaked in smoke as the hairs on its exoskeleton burned down like little wicks.
 

Down the length of its back were great spines, each tipped with a barbed stinger. No natural creature could survive such a roasting, but I stared into its eyes and saw a malevolent darkness there, cunning and patient, beyond the intelligence of a mere giant animal, or even most sentient creatures. I knew this was something more. It was a creature with a demonic taint in its blood, a filth that could only have come from some other lower plane of existence. A demon from the pits themselves had somehow bred into the monster’s line and filled it with its power.

“How rude it is to interrupt,

Food’s end shall come, swift and abrupt.”

The spider arched up on two of its rear legs, its forelegs curling as it darted towards me.

I held my sword out in front of my body, expecting it to impale its head on the sharp edge. My blade struck the hard carapace of the spider’s head and bent almost in half. The sword was fine kobold manufacture, and it did not break, but the strain tore it from my hand, bouncing and skidding across the stone.

Fortunately it slowed the monster’s bite. I jumped out of the way, poison spraying in a wide arc as it tried to skewer me.

Fire would not harm a creature of the lower planes. Flame was my element, but I knew at least one other trick. I held out my throbbing hand, summoning the last of my magic, shaping the raw energy into a dart of force. It leapt from my open palm but evaporated harmlessly as it touched Six-Legs’s hide, dissipating into the air.

Fire could not burn it, steel could not pierce it, and magic itself recoiled from it. I frantically racked my mind for alternatives as the spider closed in on me once more.

With a roar, Khavi finally managed to tear his arm free of the sticky spiderweb, his two-handed blade returning into his grasp. His eyes lit up, glowing an eager crimson as spittle flew from his lips, charging the spider with his blade held high.

The spider saw him too, but I was closer. The spider nipped at me once again, its fangs closing around my torso and squeezing. They pressed against my newly acquired mail, and its eating tube slathered against me, the fluid dripping between the metal rings, fangs scraping against my scales. My fists thumped against its head, then I stabbed at one of its eyes with a broken claw.

The spider howled, dropping me right as Khavi’s blade nicked into its abdomen, slicing through its thick exoskeleton and finding flesh. It dropped me right on my snout and turned on him, hissing. Khavi raged in return, shrieking his war cries as he hacked at the spider’s body over and over again.

I drew the Feyeater from my belt. Its enchantments were only effective on gnomes, but it was better than nothing. As I looked for an opening to close and engage, the spider nipped at Khavi and missed his shoulder by a hair. I could see that the beast’s wound on its abdomen, minor though it was, had already closed.

I knew this was a fight we could not win.

“Run!” I shouted, pointing to the hole in the web my flame had left. “This way!”

Khavi could not hear me. He continued to fight, slashing and hacking at the spider while the spider made measured nips, slowly wearing him down.

I jammed the Feyeater back into its sheath and ran for the hole, leaping through the ring of burning spiderwebs and rolling back to my feet on the other side. I whirled and faced the fight, just in time to see Six-Leg’s fang slice into Khavi’s shoulder, tearing through his scales, and leaving a thin line of black blood and poison where it struck.

“Khavi!” I shouted. “I am your patrol leader, and I order you to retreat at once!”

Perhaps it was the pain of the wound or the orders given to him by his direct superior, but the burning light faded from Khavi’s eyes and his posture shifted, becoming more defensive. He blocked a second bite and sliced at the spider’s mandible, then ran towards the burning hole, an open mouthed Six-Legs in hot pursuit.

I grit my teeth. Despite his strength, jumping was not Khavi’s strong point.

Khavi leapt into the air. He snagged on a burning tendril of web and Khavi fell snout first on the other side, his blade flew out of his hands and nearly sliced off my foot.

My short sword lay on the stone on the other side of the web, my magic was all but exhausted, and I couldn’t manoeuver my flame to avoid burning my prone and squirming friend.

“No weapons have you,

Such a shame, what can you do?”

We needed options. I did the only thing I could think of; I drew the Feyeater and aimed with my hand.

“Catch!” I threw as hard as I could. The weapon sailed out towards a wide-eyed Khavi. He caught it and slashed off the strand of web.
 

“Nice throw!” He said.

Khavi’s footclaws scratched gouges in the stone as he scrambled away from the web. Six-Legs, hissing as it clambered through the hole, snapped at Khavi. I swore that Khavi was doomed, but through sheer luck Six-Legs’s fangs failed to pierce his scales.

We ran. Khavi scooped up his blade, both of us running for all we were worth.

But Six-Legs had more legs than the two of us put together, and this was its home. It knew every nook and cranny, every stone and pebble that littered the ground, while Khavi and I were running blind. It gained on us, closing ever closer, all of its multitudes of eyes focused on us, each glowing with an infernal light.

Claws scraped on stone as Khavi and I stumbled through the dark until the tunnel began to narrow and climb. A glimmer of hope shone in my heart as I detected warm air moving down from the tunnel, but as we ran, the truth was less comforting. A web blocked the way out, a thick wall of sticky thread that reached from wall to wall, floor to ceiling.

I looked for a way around it, over it, through it, but there was none. Six-Legs slowed, clearly confident that we were not going anywhere, its eight eyes flicking amongst each of them with a hungry glint.

“Foodlings run into my web,

Feel their life force wane and ebb,

Six-Legs hunt you, tasty treats,

Six-Legs drink you, eat your meats.”

“To the hells with you!” spat Khavi. “I’ll make you Five-Legs if you come near me!” He handed the Feyeater to me, gripping his own blade in both hands as he slipped into a combat stance, standing at the ready and a snarl on his lips.

It was merely bluster. We needed a way to fight the spider and had none. I turned my mind inward, trying in vain to conjure another gout of flame. Another spell of that strength was beyond my drained and exhausted mind, and the weaker cantrips would not be effective at harming Six-Legs at all.

The enchantments on the Feyeater may not work against such a monster, but if there was one desiccated corpse around here with a magical weapon, there might be more. Something that might be able to help them.

I murmured an arcane phrase.
Dragonsight
. The colour drained out of my vision and the world became a monochrome sea, the yellow light of Khavi’s blade turning grey. The Feyeater radiated blue, the only colour I could see, and all around me sapphire blue twinkled in the distance of the cave, pinpoints of light in the darkness as my spell made visible the magical aura of enchanted items.

All too far away to help; all but one. A bright blue light shone from behind a rock near the cave wall, its faint glow barely visible except through the cracks in the imperfect seal. There was a tunnel there.

Reaching out and grabbing Khavi’s shoulder, I yanked him over with me as Six-Legs began to advance. Grasping the rock, I rolled the boulder aside, finding a crawl space big enough for a kobold.

“Come on!” I hissed as Six-Legs skittered towards us. “This way!”

Khavi didn’t need to be told twice. He dove headfirst into the tunnel, pushing through the thin cobwebs that filled the cramped space and disappearing into the gloom.

He had escaped, but Six-Legs loomed over me, mouth open to bite. Without any idea of what else to do, I held my shield up and crouched in front of the opening.

The fangs pierced my shield, stopping an inch away from my scales, the force shoving me backwards into the hole. I scrambled away, dragging my damaged shield behind me as Six-Legs bit and spat down the passage.

“Six-Legs suffers with a powerful thirst,

Which of you shall I feed on first?”

I turned, watching the spider’s fangs miss my feet by inches. I drew the Feyeater and let it give my answer for me, swinging in a wide arc and missing the spider’s head. The creature seemed more amused than alarmed, pulling its head back to the entrance of the passage and eyeing my dagger. It opened its jaws to speak again, but I thrust the Feyeater towards it, and it scampered back.

I crawled backwards, moving with my right hand and clutching the dagger with my left, but then I touched something soft.

A lump of web, sticky and unyielding, and my hand was stuck fast.

I tugged frantically to no avail. Six-Legs, seeing me stop, bit at me through the opening. Even with my legs tucked up against my body, glancing hits from its fangs scratched into my scales, threatening to dig into my flesh beneath.

Khavi grabbed my shoulders, and he pulled me free, tearing a chunk of the webbing away with my hand. He dragged me back through the cramped tunnel, bumping and scratching my knees and elbows. Something else was stuck to my claw. Khavi pulled, yanking and tugging until we burst out into a cavern lit with crystals. There were no webs.

“Thank you,” I gasped, sliding the Feyeater into its scabbard, its eerie blue light shining out of the humanskin.

“Don’t thank me yet, I think this is just an antechamber.”

“Are you okay?” I asked. “You were bitten.”

“What do you mean?” said Khavi, “I feel completely fine!” He gave a bold smile, then pitched forward, smashing his snout on the hard stone.

I touched his back. He was still breathing, but his limbs were as limp as moss. I had nothing to help him, so I could only wait for the poison to run its course and hope it was nothing more than paralysis. I shook my other hand, still sticky with web, and found the goo impossible to shake away.
 

A hilt protruded from the sticky mess, bathed in the blue light of my magic. Curious, I tugged the exposed handle, sliding it with surprising ease from the clump.

A long, thin blade, thinner than my short sword but almost twice as long. It was a rapier, forged from some metal I didn’t recognise. Its hilt was carved and felt vaguely similar to stone. Its pommel was a heavy lump of pewter shaped into an open dragon’s claw.

There was something about the weapon that called to me. Something that told me that finding it was no accident. It felt like another racial memory but more intimate. This wasn’t some ancestor who had used this weapon; it was closer to me than that somehow.

I let the magic of my detection spell fade and colour returned to my sight. The glow faded away from the rapier. I ran my broken talons over the brown hilt, tracing down to the pommel, our recent peril forgotten. The incredible workmanship was something special, and it felt as though this weapon were made for me.
 

The Gods were dead, everyone knew that; the sentient races had risen up eons ago and slain them for their meddling, but there was some hand of the divine in my finding it. Although my body was weary as if I could sleep for days and lingering traces of spider venom coursed through my blood, I was energised. Alive. After all that had happened, the collapse at Atikala and everything since, finding this weapon was a bright spark in a sea of grim tidings.

But we could not stay here. Six-Legs was not far away. Although Khavi was helplessly paralysed, his face contorted like the dead Darkguard’s, I pulled his stiff body to his feet. I staggered onwards and upwards, hoping to put as much ground between us and Six-Legs as possible.

Chapter VI

K
HAVI
STARTED
TO
TWITCH
AND
groan some minutes later, much to my relief. I shouldered him off, watching as his limbs shook. He clumsily found his footing on the stone, a hand clasped around a light crystal for balance.

“How are you feeling?” I asked, handing him the dried exoskeleton of a glowbug containing some water. Khavi unscrewed the creature’s head then tipped a mouthful down his throat.