Chapter 15
Chapter Fifteen
Esme heard the sound of heavy boots on the stairs, and hurried over to where Darro and Rory were distributing the last of the arrows they had modified with the stone arrowheads. “They’re coming for us.”
“We shall draw them into the tower storage and barricade them inside, Chieftain,” Rory whispered. “You and your lady take the hidden passage down to the forge. I shall meet you there once I secure the rooftop to safeguard our brothers.”
“Keep watch for more spiders, too, Brother,” the chieftain said, and then took hold of her hand and led her into the stairs on the other side of the solar.
Stopping halfway down, Darro pushed in a stone, and a narrow opening appeared in the rounded wall. They stepped inside and he pushed the stone again from the other side, closing the panel. Esme went still as the rooftop outside the passage shook, making bits of dust rain down on her and her lover.
He pulled on a heavy glove and used a fire steel to light a torch, handing it to her as the flames set his glove on fire.
“What are you doing?” she whispered as she jerked the torch out of his reach.
“You cannae see as well as me in the dark.” He pulled off the burning glove, stomping on it a few times before he leaned down to kiss the top of her head. “Come, my lady.”
They got as far as two levels down when they ran into a wall that blocked the passage. It looked as if it had been built that day, with the mortar between the stones still damp to the touch.
“Did Torra MacBren do this?” she murmured. “Or is it another alteration?”
“’Tis likely another change in the enchantment.
” Darro glanced all around them. “We must get out of this passage before we’re walled in.
” He backtracked a short distance before opening another panel.
This one led out into a hall Esme had never before seen, one that glittered with strands of golden spider webs.
They seemed to get thicker at the far end of the hall, except where they crisscrossed in a heavy layer over one of the doors.
The latter were as wide as her wrist, as if spun by a much larger spider.
“Let’s go back,” Esme whispered to him.
He shook his head. “We cannae run from this, my lady.”
Her fear of arachnids rose up inside her as if it were a huge fist around her throat, choking her. Suddenly the voice in her dream came back to her.
Remember, to save all, you must slay the first.
“The first spider that came in, it would be the biggest, right? Maybe it hatched all the small spiders?” she asked Darro, who nodded his agreement.
“Torra said in my dream that to save everyone, we have to kill the first. I think she meant the mama spider.” She looked all around them. “It has to be here somewhere.”
On the other end of the passage she noticed for the first time a half-wall, also hastily built, with a row of torches at the top. She could see a figure in a strange suit made of dripping burlap with a sack over his head with only eye holes behind the wall. The disguised person beckoned to them.
“’Tis Ben,” Darro said, and nodded in that direction. “Go to him and he’ll keep you safe.”
“Giant spiders can crawl over walls, Chief,” she told him, placing the torch in a sconce before hurrying down to the healer, who lifted the bag to grin at her.
“I’m glad you’re not a zombie, Ms. Martinez,” Ben said. “I’ve got Ulf and one of the maids holed up in here with me. I think there’s something in the library. It shot that thick webbing out from under the door.”
“It may be the mama spider.” The smell of him hit her, and made her cough. “Whew. Why did you take a bath in vinegar, Dr. Miller?”
“It’s homemade spider repellent. Vinegar contains about five percent acetic acid, which burns the insects on contact. They also seem to hate the smell,” he told her. “We’ve got enough to soak you and the chieftain, if you want a bottle.”
That reminded her of her grandmother’s homemade insect spray, which had worked better than anything store-bought. “Can you add some of that lye soap they use here to it?”
Ben went into his work room and returned with a corked whiskey jug. “There’s enough here to cover both of you.”
“I don’t want it for that.” She took the jug and glanced at where Darro had been standing, but the chieftain had vanished. “Oh, this man and his heroics. Stay safe, Doctor.”
Esme hurried down to the other end of the passage in time to see Darro slicing through the golden webbing over the door. “I’ve got liquid spider killer in here.”
He tapped the gap between the door and the jamb. “’Tis a web inside as large as the room. Go back to Benedict.”
“No, Chief,” Esme said when he tried to take the jug from her. “I don’t run. I stand with you. I fight with you.”
Darro looked at her as if he wanted to shake her. Instead he pulled her close and held her for a long moment.
“Make ready to fight, then,” he said as he released her. When she uncorked the jug, he yanked on the latch.
Inside the room, the gleam of gold dazzled Esme for a moment, and then she saw it was an actual library of scrolls and crudely bound books on rudimentary bookcases built into the walls.
They and their contents had been turned into anchors for an enormous spider web that stretched from floor to ceiling.
With all the gold in the room it was going to be hard to spot a spider of the same color.
But as her eyes adjusted, they grew wide.
Under the glittering web was a very still Olivia, who looked up at them.
“Where is it?” Esme said quietly.
In answer, Olivia slowly shook her head.
Esme pulled the dagger that Rory had given her. She wasn’t going to watch her friend become spider food.
“Lass,” Darro hissed. “You mustnae trigger the web.” Although his hand shot out to grab her arm, her dagger cut one of the fine strands.
Olivia shrieked and Darro cursed as something large and heavy fell on Esme, knocking her flat. She flipped over to see a giant golden spider crouched over her, a huge bundle of webbing in its jaws. It was the stuff of all her nightmares, and it was going to eat her.
“Darro.”
A big fist grabbed her and dragged her out from under the arachnid.
As the chieftain yanked her to her feet Esme uncorked the jug.
A thick strand of webbing wrapped around her forearm, binding it to her waist. More thick golden threads came flying at her, smacking into her upper arm, snaking around her chest, shoulder and other arm to immobilize her.
Then she saw what it was binding to her body.
“Don’t,” Olivia called to Darro as he lifted his sword.
The large golden sac of webbing the spider had lashed to Esme’s arm began to bulge all over, as if something inside were fighting to get out.
Esme used all her strength to stop shivering and stand very still. “It’s an egg sac, and it’s about to hatch.”
As the huge spider skittered toward them, its fangs dripping black poison, Darro took the dagger from her hand and sliced through the webbing binding her arm and the jug she still held in that hand. “Douse it now, lass.”
Tossing the soap and vinegar concoction at the arachnid made it drop to the floor.
It rolled onto its back, its legs and body writhing as it began to shrink.
Darro reached through the webbing to put his hand near the still-burning fire in the hearth, and drew the flames out before thrusting his hand down toward the spider.
The arachnid caught fire and shriveled even more.
At that moment the egg sac bound to Esme began to crack.
“Hold very still, my love,” the chieftain said as he cut the webbing lashing it to her body.
As the cracks in it widened he finally wrenched it from her and tossed it onto the burning mother spider.
Flames engulfed the sac, burning the hundreds of tiny legs trying to push out from the inside.
Like the now-tiny mother spider, they burned to ash.
She threw her arms around him and let the sobs in her throat pour out. “Gracias, mi corazon, gracias.”
Once the fire died down the golden web turned gray and fell down like wisps of ash onto the stone floor, freeing Olivia.
As she scrambled to her feet and out of the library, the webbing there did the same.
Several black spiderlings skittered out of the wall cracks as if to attack, and then dissolved into ash like the webbing.
“It’s over, I think,” Esme said, leaning against Darro and smiling at an ash-covered Olivia.
He put his arm around her. “Aye, for now.”
Olivia wiped some burnt remnants of the web from her face. “I picked the wrong room to barricade myself in.”
The sound of heavy footsteps pounding in the passage made all three turn that way. Esme blew out a breath when she saw Tasgall and two guards rushing toward them.
“The zed enchantment, ’tis broken,” the laird said. He eyed the room beyond them and the heap of ash on the floor. “Mayhap you ken how.”
“Aye,” Darro said grinning.
“Teamwork,” Esme added.
Tasgall nodded to her and clapped his brother on the shoulder. “The telling of it must wait. We go to find the barricaded and ensure Bodach hasnae hidden.”
As the laird headed back down the passage with the guards trailing behind, Olivia said, “And I need to go find the war master. When he doesn’t find me in the dungeons, there’ll be some explaining to do.” She grasped Esme’s hand. “Including how you two rescued me.”
Esme drew her into a quick hug and then Olivia turned and followed the laird, brushing more ash from her clothes.
Once they were alone, Darro drew her into a gentle embrace. They stayed like that for a long time, and then she drew back and pressed her hands to his face.
“When we fight, we win. Even girls.” She stood on her tiptoes to kiss him. “You see?”
“Aye, my girl.” He held her tightly.
“Okay.” She thought of what she would write about the battle with the spiders in her notebook, and then got an entirely different idea. “I need to go back to the guest room.”