Venom and Song (59 page)

The grating sound continued, but Tommy found himself staring at the Spider King's features. He looked familiar somehow. Not the eyes. No, the eyes were very foreign. But there was something in the shape of his face, the high cheekbones and the way they tapered back to the ears. Even the ears were different from the other Gwar he'd seen. His were less like an oak leaf, more compact. More slanted.

“You know, it's fitting that we should duel here,” said the Spider King, pressing the point of his strange dagger into the tip of his finger. He laughed quietly as he went on. “When the Drefids showed me how to breed the Warspiders and . . . make them mean . . . my wife and I used to hold tournaments.”

Wife?
thought Kat.

“We'd watch from that balcony up there,” he pointed with the dagger to an opening some fifty or sixty feet up. “Watching as Gwar, spiders, or other things fought to the death. It was quite entertaining.”

Half listening, staring full on at the Spider King's face with telescopic magnification, it finally clicked. The thought blasted into Tommy's mind like a freight train smashing into the station house at full speed. He blurted out, “You . . . you're half Elven!”

The Spider King stopped cold, just staring at Tommy. His hands dropped to his sides. “Yes,” he said at last, a strange disconnect in his voice. “My . . . father . . . was Elven. What does that do to your categories, young lords . . . your theories about me? About my motives?”

“Don't let him get to you
,
Tommy,”
came Kat's thoughts.
“Remember, like Grimwarden said, ‘Evil or good, black or white, there's no in between
.' ”

“You know,” said the Spider King, “I married an Elf maiden. I guess you could say such prejudices run in my family. Would you like to meet her?”

Kat!
Tommy thought as loud as he could.
Tell Johnny to ready his flame
.
When I give the word, I want him to blast the Spider King and everything around him
.

“Got it,”
Kat said in his mind.

A strange voice came out of the shadows somewhere above and to the left of the Spider King. It was a female voice but raspy, with a subtle buzzing undercurrent. “They speak,” she said, “in their minds. They prepare for us . . . a fire.”

“That is no concern for us, Navira,” said the Spider King. “Come . . . meet our guests.”

“NOW!” yelled Tommy. He and the other Elves parted, giving Johnny a clear shot.

Johnny stepped up, braced his feet, and expelled his flames. The darkness of the chamber fled from the inferno, rising as high as the balcony. The walls around them seemed sheer. No way out. No place to hide.

Johnny could not see past the flare of his own hands, but the others could. Through the ten-foot blaze, they saw Johnny's fire cling to something immense, in the shape of a Warspider but with other features. Six legs, not eight . . . a more slender, oval abdomen, rather than the bloated bag common to most arachnids. From the torso rose something humanoid, but the arms were longer and had sharp, pinching claws instead of a hand with fingers. The head was angular and extremely misshapen. It looked like it had long narrow ears that tapered to a point. And where the jaw was supposed to be, a pair of massive curving fangs protruded.

“Your fire avails you not,” said the creature with an unnerving hiss. “For I am made from the fire of this realm by the dark arts, far more powerful than those things . . . those spidersssss.”

Johnny turned off his flames. His mouth dropped open.

The fire clung to the creature's frame, but bit by bit, it was extinguished. And they all beheld her true form, glistening in the red light from above. She had no skin, but a hard, black, shell-like surface covered her entire body like articulated armor. Whiplike horns protruded from her segmented limbs, up the middle of her torso, and a great many from the back of her head like thick locks of hair. She had two large eyes, slanted ovals . . . dark, shining like black glass . . . and perfectly emotionless. And above these were three smaller eyes. They all seemed to be staring at the Elves. “Your fire tickles,” she said.

The Spider King stepped out from behind her and said, “I, too, am unharmed.”

“By my protection,” Navira said with another hiss.

“Yes,” he replied. Then he removed a large ring of keys from his belt. “You will need more freedom to move around this time,” he said and he went to work unlocking a great many shackles that bound her long legs and a harness around her abdomen. “Now, kill them.”

Navira hesitated a moment. She took one step toward the Elves and said, “I will kill . . . and feed . . . slowly.”

The Elves spread out and made ready. But instead she turned on the Spider King, lunged, and sunk her fangs into his neck.

The Spider King pulled himself off of Navira's fangs. “What . . . have you . . . done?” His eyes bulging with shock and rage, he clutched his bleeding neck, stumbled backward out of the red light, and collapsed with a wet thud somewhere in the back of the chamber.

“You . . . you killed him,” said Tommy, already rehearsing attack possibilities in his mind.
Go low and evade,
he thought. Johnny's fire was completely ineffective, but if he could use it to hide them, then Autumn could run . . . she might be able to get to the Spider King's body, get that dagger and put out Navira's eyes. Maybe they'd have a chance.

Navira turned and raced with spider swiftness to the Elves. She slammed forelegs down on either side of Tommy, stone splitting underfoot. He was about to try to roll beneath her when she said, “I perceive your thought, Elf. Do not try to escape me.”

“Jimmy!”

“I . . . I don't think she's going to kill yu!” he yelled back.

“Don't
think
?” Tommy growled.

“I do not plan to kill you,” Navira said. “I was once your kindred.”

There was an awkward silence. “Our kindred? I—I don't understand,” said Johnny, pointing to where the Spider King had fallen. “Why'd you kill him?”

“That is a long tale,” she said, no emotion in her dark eyes, her voice raspy but somehow sweet. “I loved him once, but what began in him as bitterness became something far worse, and he grew to hate even me. I became a prisoner in this land, and everything I knew of him died away. But when he discovered the Drefid clans and their dark arts, he became consumed, experimenting with ancient relics, poisons, and strange elements.

“Each time he created a new potion, he tested it on me. I grew very sick, on the verge of death even. And that was when he inoculated me with venom from creatures that dwell in the deep place of Vesper Crag where volcanic gases replace the air. I became”—she tilted her massive head back and shrieked—“this! He used me to breed his Warspiders . . . and other things. But he was furious with me because my offspring shared only my size, not my power. He put those shackles and chains upon me and tightened them whenever it pleased him to see me in pain. I . . . I murdered for him . . . so many times.

“That,” Navira said, “is why I killed him. Those chains have restrained me for nearly a thousand years. When he released them, I had only a moment to act.”

“Navira, you mentioned something about your power,” Tommy prompted.

“Yes,” she replied. “Lords of Berinfell, did you not recognize it? Did you not hear me as I spoke your thoughts? For I am born Navira Hiddenblade.” She looked to Kat.

Kat rocked in place and was speechless.

“Does that disturb you?” Navira asked.

“I'm sorry,” Kat said. “I did not mean . . . that is, I just wasn't expecting it.”

“Remember, I was not always as I am,” she said. “I once had beautiful blue skin like yours. I am eighth-generation Hiddenblade. What are you?”

“I, um, don't know,” said Kat. “I haven't learned that much about my—
our
—family.”

“That is of mixed consequence,” said Navira. “Now, young Elven Lords, I am sure there are others in this war who might need your assistance.”

“And we need to get Jett,” said Kiri Lee. “I had no choice but to leave him.”

“How do we get out of here?” asked Jimmy.

“His portal is still active,” Navira replied. “It is the only way, unless you can climb sheer rock like I can . . . or fly.”

“Some of us can fly, er, sort of,” said Tommy. “But we'll take the portal. Our weapons are in the high tower and . . . and we need to get our friend.”

They turned to leave, but Johnny hesitated. He looked back at the creature who had once been an Elf maiden. She sat in kind of a crouch and rubbed her leg where a shackle had been for so long. She wasn't so frightening now. In fact, he felt sad for her.

“Navira?” he called back to her. “Where will you go now?”

She looked up. “I—”

“Rrrrraaaahhhhh!”
The room shook with a deep, rolling roar, and the young lords covered their ears as the horrible sound ended with a high, wailing shriek. Luminous red eyes appeared in the back of the chamber.

Faster than blinking, something massive leaped out of the dark and landed on Navira's back. She hissed and clawed at this sudden intruder. But the creature, larger and heavier than Navira, crushed her to the ground. In one swift, violent motion, it grabbed her head and wrenched it. Her flailing stopped, and she fell limp.

“Nooooo!” Johnny yelled, and he loosed his fire upon the murderous beast.

Laughter rolled out of the inferno . . . familiar laughter. It was the same otherworldly sound that spoke not of joy but of agony and malice . . . the same they had heard near the tower of red light.

“The Spider King,” whispered Autumn. “No . . . no, it can't be.”

“We need to leave, right now! Follow me!” Jimmy yelled. “He won't fit through.” Jimmy stepped into the portal and disappeared.

Roaring, the creature leaped through the fire directly at the Elves.

Johnny shoved Kiri Lee into the portal. Autumn shoved Johnny. Kat shoved Autumn. Tommy shoved Kat, but something struck him hard on the back and he fell through the portal into the tower of red light.

“Tommy, you're bleeding!” yelled Kat.

Rolling his shoulder blades, he stood up. “I'll be fine,” he said. “Get your weapons. If there's a way to get here quickly from inside, he'll know it.”

“But that's not really him . . . is it?” asked Kiri Lee. “Navira killed him.”

“Maybe it was another Wisp,” said Jimmy.

“No,” said Tommy. “Not a Wisp. And Navira didn't kill him. We all just thought she did. Her venom . . . it must . . . it must have changed him, turned him into that thing.”

“Tommy, what do I do?” asked Johnny. “My fire won't work against him. I have no other weapons. Nothing.”

“Remember your Vexbane training,” said Tommy. “Use your fire for movement, for cover, for distraction. Remember, if we work together, we are far more powerful.”

Emboldened, Johnny nodded. “Okay, okay, got it.”

Kat strapped on her long fighting knives. “What about the Rainsong?” she asked.

That stopped Tommy cold, and he closed his eyes. While training and reading the book of prophecies back in Whitehall everything had seemed so possible. And after finding the Keystone, Tommy felt sure that everything in the prophecies would come true . . . well, true the way he thought they should. Now what?
We needed all Seven. Jett's gone. What good is the Rainsong, and what good are any of the prophecies?

“I heard all that, you know,” said Kat. “I think we should try it anyway.”

Tommy looked at his feet for a second and then turned to Kiri Lee. “Kiri Lee, do you—?”

Kiri Lee sat six steps down from the balcony. She wept quietly into her hands. Tommy went to her and sat down next to her. For once, Kat didn't mind. In fact, she joined him by sitting on Kiri Lee's other side. Jimmy sat down behind her. Johnny and Autumn stood nearby.

“We're going to get through this,” Tommy told Kiri Lee. “We will.”

“Jett didn't get through it,” Kiri Lee cried.

“Jett made a choice,” Tommy said. “The right one.”

“How can you say that?” She turned and pounded on Tommy's chest. “He was our best warrior, our strongest. He was our healer. All I'm good for is getting away.”

“Hey, now,” Johnny intervened. “That's no good. If it hadn't been for you, I'd be smeared all over the rocks down there.”

“That's right,” said Kat. “If it hadn't been for you, we'd have been killed at Dalhousie. Every gift is important, Kiri Lee. Remember what Grimwarden taught us from First Voice? Ellos uses the weak and foolish things of this realm. He gives gifts and prepares good things for us all to do.”

Kiri Lee sobbed. “I watched him die,” she said. “I told him to let go, but he wouldn't. And I watched the light in his violet eyes fade.”

Tommy pulled her to his shoulder. “I'm sorry,” he said. “I know it hurts. But we're all glad you're still with us.”

“Tommy.” Jimmy's voice was tight and clipped. “Tommy, stand up. He's coming.”

Tommy was on his feet in an instant, watching the Spider King clamber up the mountain with dreadful speed. He could hear his heart beating in his ears.

“Well, m'lads and lasses,” said Jimmy. “This is it.”

“What do you mean?” asked Autumn.

“It's quite simple really,” Jimmy replied. “He's comin' to get us, so either we figure out a way to kill him, or we all die.”

41
Stalemate

AS THE creature traversed the final hundred yards, the young lords saw him clearly for the first time. He was, in general form, very like Navira, only larger. His legs were thicker and had spikes of bone jutting from each joint and segment. His arms, more bulky with muscle, and his clawed fists, heavy and vastly oversized . . . like weighted clubs. His shoulders were peculiarly humped as if an immense tumor had spread across his back, and there was a black socket on either side as if the tumor itself had eyes. But it was the creature's head that was most different, and rather terrifying.