Chapter 19
The giant orange spider drooled on me even as that terrible face filled my vision. And what a big, ugly maw it had.
The gunshot was loud. My ears rang with it. But it wasn’t as bad as the orange spider head exploding in a rain of yucky stuff that I couldn’t bring myself to name. I was terrified and relieved in equal measure for half a second, until the massive body went slack and collapsed on top of me.
“Ah!”
The massive beast hit me in the ribs, and I gasped. Then I went about spitting. I’d opened my mouth, and there’d been gooey, runny stuff all over, and…well. Some of it got in my mouth.
“Fucking hell, you’re high fucking maintenance, aren’t you?”
Vergis. That was Vergis’s voice, and if I’d had the energy to cry with happiness, I would have.
Instead, I managed another “Ah!” after I’d spat out more spider goo.
Vergis was somewhere to my left, his voice nearly drowned out by my thundering heartbeat. Moments later, his tall form loomed above me, horns moist and somewhat sticky with tree sap or something. Who knew what was what in this place. They had giant orange spiders here.
“Get up,” Vergis ordered as he shoved the dead monster insect off me with his boot. “We can’t stay here.”
I lay there and didn’t move. My brain wasn’t following, and also, the panic. The threat was gone, I knew that, but the panic remained. And possibly, Vergis was just another threat.
My body locked me out of the higher functions main office. I froze. I was a bug on my back in the dirt, covered in orangey and—quite frankly—smelly gunk.
“I said move.” What patience Vergis might’ve had drained from his voice. It ramped up the panic all over again. It was surreal. I was experiencing all of it as if I weren’t really in my body, just sort of on the outside, looking in. He groaned. “Oh, fuck me.”
Vergis grabbed my arm and pulled me upright.
That I felt, and my whole body launched a strong protest. I felt dizzy, nauseated, my ears began buzzing, and before I really knew what was going on, I threw up.
All over the splattered bug. Earlier, we’d had red apples and blackberries we’d picked at the farmhouse the previous day, and that color combo didn’t make the experience any better.
Vergis was hissing out a steady stream of curses as he stepped back so the vomit wouldn’t hit his boots. They were pretty dirty already though, looked like he’d been hiking through the mud for a while.
When I was done being sick, my vision narrowed, and I didn’t feel all there. Vergis dragged me along, much like he’d done before.
“He had to pick you. Of course he did,” I heard him say. “Fucking stupid mate call bullshit. Goddamnit, just fucking lift your feet.”
I felt bruised all over, and I wanted to cry, so I did. “Ink,” I mumbled in between sobs. And on and on. It was getting dark now, and I could barely see where Vergis was leading me. At least his cussing had quieted.
After I didn’t know how long, the forest parted, and we stood at the shore again. It was past sunset, that time when the horizon turned blue and dark purple and sparkly where the stars rose.
Vergis grabbed me by the shoulders. “Listen. Rory? You with me?”
“Please don’t kill me.”
He hissed under his breath. “If I wanted that, you’d be rotting. You’re cold, and you’ll get colder, and I am not spending the night here, so we’re taking another trip. This time around, you do what I fucking tell you to do, and you don’t let go of me, is that understood?”
“W-where are you taking me?”
He tilted his head in a very bagu-like way. “Aer. Where nothing will want to eat you.” He paused. “Seriously, how do you manage it? Finding all these beasts who think you’re yummy?”
“We need to go back. We need to help Ink and the others and—”
“No. We wouldn’t be helping. We’ll meet them at the Stone as planned.” He crossed his arms, looking all firm and certain.
“Did y-you bring the cola ash people? Lead us into a trap?”
Vergis snorted. “You sound like one of the crazy conspiracy theorists. No, I did not bring the Koa Esher down on us, because I am not fucking stupid. They’re every hillbilly horror flick ever rolled into one, and I don’t need that in my life.
“We’re going into the water again, and when I tell you, you’re going to wish for clear skies.”
“Clear s-skies?”
He grabbed me by my arm again. “The wish doesn’t matter, just something easy you can’t mess up so I can use you to get some power. Which I need to push us through the veil. Just do as you’re told.”
His voice had the tone of an or else, and I didn’t want to argue, not with him in a foul mood. And his mood was rotten.
I was freezing, and I didn’t think it would be possible for me to feel any colder, but when my feet went in the lake, I shuddered as the icy water bit into every part of me.
Not that Vergis cared. He moved me forward, and my body followed, that vise grip he had on me inescapable even if I’d had much strength left.
Going deeper into the lake was like taking an ice bath.
It made my breathing stutter, and I was trembling uncontrollably, the chattering of my teeth noisier even than our splashing.
“This should be fine,” Vergis said when we were in to our thighs. He shifted his grip and interwove our fingers. I really didn’t want to be holding hands with him, but I didn't dare push him off. “Wish for clear skies.”
I opened my mouth, but no sound came out.
I tried again, concentrating, forcing my protesting muscles to make the words.
It was stuttered and rough, but once I’d said it, I felt heat, blessed heat.
Then color, and dizziness cutting into me sharp and sudden.
With it came the pins-and-needles feeling, only stronger. Vergis held me tight this time around.
Whatever happened, it didn’t dump us right into deep water this time, and when the heat subsided, I collapsed closer to shore, all of me a trembling, wet mess.
“Well, you sure look like shit,” Vergis said. He was still holding my hand, but now he let go to adjust his grip. “We need to move. Come on.”
There was nothing I could do to make him stop, so I let him move me.
He slung my arm over his shoulder and took most of my weight.
I did try walking, but I was exhausted. I had trouble keeping my eyes open and looking at our surroundings.
Wherever we were now, it was dark, as if night had fallen not minutes ago but hours.
Did time move differently here? I didn’t have the energy to ask, and I wasn’t sure the answer would make me feel better anyway.
I could only tell that we’d gone from the shore to a wooded area by how the ground beneath my feet felt and by stars above peeking out from behind what had to be leaves.
It was too dark for me to see much beyond shadowy outlines.
I could smell the place though, even through my own stench of panic and exhaustion.
It wasn’t like the other place with the spider monster, and it didn’t smell like forests back home.
Something sweet hung in the air, as if flowers had been blooming nearby, casting their heavy perfume on the breeze.
“Where…are we?” I managed through chattering teeth.
“Aer. Bit off the beaten path, but there’s a wayhouse here. Count yourself lucky on that, human.”
It could’ve been my waterlogged and half-frozen brain not working properly, but I thought I almost detected something like concern in Vergis’s voice. I still didn’t fully believe that he hadn’t left me in that other place, that he hadn’t helped plan an ambush, but I also had to face facts.
I was a helpless baby kitten right now with no fighting skills whatsoever.
The only thing that had ever worked for me before was running and avoiding.
Even if I’d been able to grab Vergis’s gun or knife, I wasn’t sure I’d have been able to use it.
And anyway, if this was Aer, I needed him. To get back home, at a minimum.
We stopped, finally. “Oh, dammit.” Vergis grabbed me tighter around my waist before lifting me, and my toes touched something solid. Stairs, I realized.
“It’s too dark.”
“Yeah, weak human eyes. I know all about that. Cry me a river and see if I care.”
I heard a noise like wood sliding against wood, and felt the air shift against my face like a door in front of us had been opened. Sure enough, I could tell we were indoors by the absence of starry sky and by how his footfalls sounded in the smaller room.
Vergis let me down, and I sagged to the floor, my legs giving up on carrying my weight even another step. I was cold and filthy, but I was too tired to care. So long as I was allowed to just sit here and rest, I was happy.
Vergis shuffled around in the darkness. It sounded as if he were opening cabinets or other doors in this dark house. Did no one live here? Would someone attack us at any moment? The worries were distant. I wasn’t even really scared anymore.
The only thing that happened was a rough metallic noise ringing through the darkness not too far away from me, and with that noise, sparks brightened and light hit my retinas.
I saw Vergis’s face briefly illuminated, saw the rough outline of a room, before the sparks died.
He struck whatever he was striking a second and a third time, then something caught, and he bent low to blow on kindling.
I was looking forward to a fire, but I wasn’t even trembling anymore, so this wasn’t so bad after all. What I really wanted was sleep. My eyes fell shut, and I drifted off.
I woke once again, but it wasn’t really waking, more like coming up from a dream for a moment before going back under.
Fire crackled, and shadows danced over wooden walls. An arm was draped over me, and I felt blessedly warm.
“Ink?” I asked, so glad that he was back and holding me.
“No.” Vergis’s voice. A nightmare, then. I closed my eyes, determined to shut it out. Nightmares ended, and when I woke, I was sure Inkiri would be there.