“Gnat, are you sure you don’t need a jacket or hood?” Thia asked him as they rode in the downpour. The storm had strengthened during the night, and Jinaari wasn’t letting the horses run in the muck.
“Gnat is fine,” the cobalus replied. “Is Friend Thia okay?”
She looked at the small creature that rode in front of her. “I’m fine, Gnat. I’m just anxious to be done with this.” Jinaari kept a slow pace. The idea he’d had the night before about returning to Solace was now a certainty. There was no way they’d reach Tanisal in this weather.
Bryant rode up front, next to Jinaari. I was surprised to see him this morning, she thought. Maybe there’s more to him than his hatred of the Thahion. Spurring her horse forward, she moved on the other side of Jinaari.
“How close are we, Bryant?” she asked, keeping her voice even.
“Why?” he growled. “Are you eager to see the plague you’ve brought to Solace?”
“I warned you, Bryant.” Jinaari’s voice was low but held the note of command she’d heard so many times before.
“Not far,” the man grumbled. Pointing out to the horizon, he said, “Just on the other side of that hill’s where I burned my cattle. Couldn’t save any of them, and at least the eggs died that way too.”
Jinaari looked at her and said, “Get ready.” Turning in his saddle, he gestured to Adam and Caelynn. The two turned aside, taking a path that would bring them around the hill ahead.
“Gnat, stay with me. Okay?” she said.
He looked up at her, his ears drooping. “Gnat can fight.”
“I’m sure of it. But,” she said, “I don’t want you to get trampled if the horses get spooked.” She scanned the terrain ahead of them. Grassland for the most part, with a few hills. In the distance, she saw the forest that separated them from Tanisal. The land dipped ahead of them, and the ribbon of a road led into the trees. If he burned his cows yesterday, we should still see some smoke. Even in this rain. It’d be smoldering. Something’s not right. She swung her leg behind her, dismounting her horse.
“Thia?” Jinaari said, his voice barely registering in her ears.
“This isn’t right.” The words came out as a breath. She glanced to her left. Bryant’s horse was riderless. “Where’d he go?”
A blast of red light exploded on the bottom of the hill, shaking the earth beneath them. “That came from Adam’s staff!” Jinaari dismounted, drawing his sword as his feet hit the ground. “Take Gnat, head to the right!” he screamed at her before running to his left.
“Come on, Gnat,” she said as she reached up for him. “Stay with me, okay?”
“Gnat keep Friend Thia safe. Gnat promised Nice Brother!”
The ground beneath her was soaked from the storm. Her feet sank into the mud, slowing her down as she chose her path around the hill carefully. Rounding the corner, her eyes bulged in terror.
Adam was pulling Caelynn back, his staff shooting out beams of light toward a cave in the hill. Jinaari stood where the light stopped; his shield was raised as his sword slashed at something in the darkness.
Movement within the blackness caught her eye. The spider was easily the size of a barn! The head filled most of the opening; thousands of glassy eyes stared at Jinaari as mandibles snapped at him. A single leg, the tip dripping ichor, slashed at him. As he parried the blow, the creature reared up and a thick rope of webbing surrounded his legs. The spider jerked, pulling him off his feet and dragging him closer.
Thia stared at the creature, thinking of the sigil she used against Drogon, and let loose a blast of flame toward the strand dragging Jinaari. It caught fire, spreading toward the beast. “Get him free!” she screamed at Adam. Stepping in front of the cave, she made hailstones the size of small boulders rain down on its head.
“Kill it!” Jinaari ordered.
Turning her head, she saw one of the legs catch the webbing still attached to him. With a sudden jerk, he flew toward the razor-sharp mandibles.
“No hurt Nice Brother!”
Thia looked up as Gnat screamed. The cobalus launched himself from the crest of the hill, landing on top of the spider’s head. With his short sword in both hands, he began to furiously stab at the creature’s eyes. “Gnat make it so you can’t see Nice Brother! No hurt Nice Brother!”
“Adam! Aim for the eyes he’s damaged!” Thia began to throw energy into the bleeding holes as Gnat continued his rampage. Adam ran up to her, adding blasts of his own. “Caelynn!”
“I’ve got Jinaari! Kill it!”
Thia thought of a new sigil and created a ball of pure light. “Can you guide it?” she asked Adam. “I need it to be in the spider before I make it explode.”
“Absolutely,” the blonde man said.
She made it fly toward the spider, then waited for Adam to guide it into one of the larger wounds. Once inside, Thia changed the sigil. The energy detonated. Blood and ichor covered them as the beast exploded.
Gnat landed hard at Thia’s feet. Kneeling, she released healing magic over his prone body. “Gnat?”
“Gnat didn’t think he could fly. Flying is fun but landing hurt!”
“Stay still. I healed you, but it’s going to hurt a while longer.” Thia rose, looking around for the rest of her friends. Adam knelt next to Jinaari. The two men watched as Caelynn cut through the webbing that bound his legs.
Walking over to them, she forced her voice to stay calm. “Anyone else hurt?”
“Bryant will be, when I find him,” Jinaari said. Caelynn sawed through the final strand and he jumped to his feet. “How’s Gnat?” he asked as he wiped his sword clean with a cloth.
“He’ll live. Had the wind knocked out of him, broke a couple ribs when he hit the ground. I’ve healed him.”
Jinaari nodded. “Good.” He sheathed his sword and looked at what remained of the spider. “We were led here. There was never any nest of eggs. Just one that it handed over,” he pointed at the corpse, “so Bryant could convince us to come.”
“Why?” Thia asked. “I mean, what would be the point?”
“Test your power maybe. Or to try and kill one of us.” He turned around and looked at Caelynn. “Track Bryant. Find out where he went. He left as soon as we got here. I’d like to discuss his actions. At length.”
Caelynn grinned. “Can I make him fall down a few times if he doesn’t want to come quietly?”
“I won’t argue if you do.”
She grinned, then headed up the hill where they’d left the horses. “I’ll go with her,” Adam said.
“We’ll get the horses and follow once Gnat’s able to walk. Make sure we know which way you go.”
Thia stepped back and began to look at the cave opening. “This isn’t normal,” she said.
“Not much about giant spiders are,” Jinaari said.
“No, but look at the way the earth curves at the top.” She pointed as she spoke, “You can make out spots where it was enlarged. Also,” she continued, looking behind her toward where Tanisal would be, “we’re still hours from the city walls. The monastery is between here and there. This one couldn’t have made it out here unseen. It’s too big. So,” she looked at Jinaari, “how’d it get here? That was huge, even by the standards of the species. It doesn’t make sense.”
“You’re right. It doesn’t,” Jinaari said. Walking forward, he said, “I wonder how far back this cave actually goes. It’s too big to have moved underground. That means either it came on its own or something else.”
“What do you mean by ‘something else’?”
“Gnat,” he said, glancing at where the cobalus sat on the ground, “how are you feeling now?”
“Friend Thia made Gnat feel better. Is Nice Brother okay? Gnat didn’t like that Big Spider wanted to eat Nice Brother.”
“I’m fine, Gnat. Thanks for asking. You’re smaller than we are. Can you get behind the corpse? See what else is back there? Thia and I can’t get in there, and we need to know if there’s another way out of that area.”
His face lit up, “Gnat glad to help Nice Brother!” He scampered off, disappearing between the legs of the spider.
“Does he still make your teeth itch?” Thia asked, looking at Jinaari. “He did really well in that fight. Distracted it so you didn’t die, made it so Adam and I could do some real damage.”
“Only when he calls me ‘nice brother.’ But,” he sighed, “you’re right. He did better than I thought.”
“The nickname’s easy to fix. Just tell him that your name is Jinaari and you’d prefer he used that. He’ll ask if that means you’re his friend, probably get excited. He can’t call someone by their name unless they say they’re his friend. Something tells me his life has been full of rules we don’t understand.”
“He likes you and Adam well enough. Can’t the two of you figure out these rules of his so we know what he’s going to do? Pan talked all the time, but he knew when it was time to get to work. I don’t want to go into a fight only to find out he won’t because the wind is blowing from the south instead of the east.”
“He saved your life, Jinaari. Can’t you trust him a little? What happened to someone’s actions determine who they are?”
He turned and looked at her. “Something’s not right and I don’t know what it is. I’ve had the feeling ever since he led us through that tunnel.”
“It was the crystal he has,” Thia said, “that’s all. It was affecting all of us until Adam figured it out.”
He shook his head. “I know, but I can’t shake the feeling. It should’ve left me when I was Samil’s prisoner, because Gnat wasn’t anywhere near me. By the time I was back with the rest of you, Adam had dealt with Spoone’s problem. I know there’s something going on, a missing piece to a puzzle, that’s right in front of me but I can’t see it.”
“Jinaari,” she took a deep breath before continuing, “could it be something that Samil planted in you while you were his prisoner? He was manipulative on a level I can barely comprehend and played a very long game. And was host to Lolc Aon’s spirit.” He turned away from her and she reached out, putting her hand on his arm. “Think about it, anyway. Talk to Adam. He’s the one that saw it in Spoone. If he can find something, then we can get rid of it. If you let us look.”
He nodded, and she saw his jaw relax slightly. “Later, when we’re back in Solace. Right now, we need to find answers out here.”
“Gnat have answers!”
Thia turned at the sound of his voice and saw Gnat scampering out from the cave. “What’d you find, Gnat?”
“It’s one big hole. Lots of bones and sticky balls, but no tunnel that Gnat could find. Gnat knows how to find tunnels, too.”
“I know you do, Gnat,” Jinaari said. “Did the sticky balls look like the one at dinner last night?”
Gnat nodded enthusiastically. “They were smaller sticky balls. Couldn’t see things inside them, but same type of sticky balls.”
“What are you thinking, Jinaari?” Thia asked.
“I’m thinking we torch the inside, burn both the corpse and the eggs all at once.” Jinaari said.
“Nice Brother believes Gnat?”
“Yes, Gnat,” he said with a sigh. “My name’s Jinaari, not nice brother. I’m not always as nice as Amara thinks I am.”
“Gnat has two friends now!” Cackling with glee, he began to jump around in circles.
Jinaari threw Thia a look of exasperation that caused her to giggle. “You didn’t tell me he’d do that,” he muttered under his breath.
“It’s actually more contained than the one he did when I said he could use my name. He must like me more than he does you. That arrogance of yours can be off-putting,” she said, smiling.
“It’s not nearly as bad as your stubborn streak.”
“Hey!” Thia and Jinaari both looked up at the sound of Adam’s voice. “We found him.”
“Take Gnat and go,” Thia said. “I’ll ignite the nest. The fire will be hot enough to keep going even in this rain, but stay contained. We’ll want to move the horses back, though. That roof may collapse in.”
“Come on, Gnat. We need to move the horses.”
Thia waited until they were at the top of the incline before starting to form the sigil. A tweak or two beyond the fire. There’s still life in the eggs; I don’t want them to feel pain. When she knew she had everything right, she positioned the fire at regular intervals beneath the legs of the creature. The flames appeared and grew together, forming a wall of white-hot flame burning every inch of the space.
Carefully, she walked up the hill. She saw Jinaari and Adam standing over Bryant. Caelynn held the reins of the horses. Gnat was already sitting on one. Jinaari looked up at her as she came closer. “Are we good?”
“Yes,” she said. “It’s all taken care of.” She nodded at Bryant. “Where’d you find the coward?”
“He wasn’t far,” Adam said. “He was watching from a safe distance.”
“Bryant was in Tanisal when we were, Thia.” Jinaari’s voice was even, and she recognized the tone. “He took an egg, hoping to sell it. When he couldn’t find a buyer, he let it hatch and gave it a home in that hill. The more it grew, the more he dug it out.”
“Why?” she asked.
“We haven’t gotten to that part yet.” Jinaari said. He turned back to Bryant. “Answer her question.”
The man took a deep breath. “I met someone when I was trying to sell it. He said that someone was going to be Marked, and that the scepter would answer to them, but that you’d end up being worse than Lolc Aon. He said you’d come this way again one day. If I raised the spider, it could be trained to attack you. He said you’d be a curse on the world if you weren’t killed before it was too late.”
“Nannan has Lolc Aon’s spirit now. If the mother of the Gods doesn’t want her to return, she won’t.” Thia said. “And I have no aspirations to take her place.” She kept her voice even. Why would someone think I’d be worse than Lolc Aon? The Goddess was nothing but hatred and malevolence incarnate!
Adam interrupted her. “Who was the man who told you this?”
Bryant shook his head. “Didn’t get a name. He had a southerner’s accent, like you hear from the merchant caravans that come up from Tavisholm. Tall, lean fellow with strange eyes.”
“How were they strange?” Thia asked. Was he Thahion?
“They weren’t like yours. They were blue where they should be white, then white where the color should be.”
Adam’s head snapped toward her and she drew back from the fear on his face. “Later,” she whispered. He knows something, but we need to get back to the inn. Be some place we can speak without being overheard.
“Mount up,” Jinaari ordered. “Bryant, give your reins over to Adam. He’ll lead you. When we get back, you’re to surrender to the council. Tell them everything. It’s up to them to determine your fate.”
Thia mounted her horse behind Gnat. Picking up the reins, she waited until the rest of her friends were ready. It would take time to get back, and that gave her the chance to think of questions to ask.
Adam knew something, but what? And would they still need to go into Tanisal and deal with the other spiders?