Rohan let his eyes slide to the right and then the left. In the trees surrounding the clearing were at least a dozen spiders, far smaller than this one, more the size of a large dog. Their fangs clacked and dripped as well, but they were hanging back from the clearing as if respecting the big spider’s right to feed first. Perhaps if there was anything left over, they would get their chance to suck the remaining juices from their corpses. Rohan wondered if they would stay out of the fight.
“Free me and leave the rest!” the black-haired man shouted. His eyes were wild. Sweat poured down his face. “You can’t save everyone!”
Rohan knew that, but he couldn’t simply leave these people to this terrible fate. He drew in a breath.
“You can’t leave! Oh, by the gods, it will suck us dry!” Someone shouted.
“Is there life after this? Is there something beyond the Veil? Pray let it be so,” another whispered.
The others simply let out incoherent wails. Some covered their heads with their arms, straining as far away from the spider as they could, but it was nowhere near far enough. The spider’s hiss was becoming more a bubbling sound as if it were readying poison to inject them with that would turn their bones soggy and their flesh into pure liquid.
“Serxio, when I say to run, you run,” Rohan commanded under his breath.
“You’re not going to run with me though, are you?” Serxio asked.
“No, I am going to cut this man’s chains, and then the creature will be upon us,” Rohan guessed.
The spider regarded Lightbringer as if it knew this blade and, potentially and hopefully, feared what it could do. It was a royal Fae blade that had come down through his family through the ages. The power it emitted now made it feel to him as if it were an extension of himself.
“Give me your crossbow,” Serxio stated.
“Serxio, if I don’t survive this someone needs to try and get a healer--”
“A healer? If you need a healer, my mistress is one,” the black-haired man rushed out. “She didn’t want me sacrificed. She’ll help you for saving me!”
Rohan wondered if this were, in fact, true. The man was so eager to leave his fellows behind but it didn’t matter either way, because he wasn’t freeing the man due to anything he might give Rohan in return. But his offer would encourage Serxio to leave with him.
“On my honor!” the black-haired man cried.
“You have no honor, Thomas!” One of the women shouted.
“Don’t listen to them. They’re criminals. I was falsely accused by a rival of my mistress! That’s the only reason I’m here!” Thomas stared at Rohan as if he might imprint the truth of his words by a glance alone. He spared not a look for the one who accused him.
Again, Rohan was not certain what was the truth, but if there was even a chance that this man’s mistress was indeed a healer--and none were gainsaying that--then he was the exact person they needed to save Finn. He would have taken a chance on this man before, now he most definitely would.
“You heard the man, Serxio! No matter what happens here, you must get his mistress to tend to Finn,” Rohan stated, even as his eyes did not leave the spider.
The monstrous creature was starting to shift. It could spring at any moment. Rohan took out his crossbow. He would break Thomas’ chains while firing a bolt right into the center of the creature’s eye sack.
“I don’t want to leave you!” Serxio cried.
“I know, but it is what I want you to do. In fact, I am ordering you to do it,” Rohan commanded.
He hoped that Serxio understood that these were orders from his king.
“All right. I will do as you command,” Serxio said with huge reluctance.
“After this, I will tell Leonid and everyone of your bravery, Serxio, in wishing to stay,” Rohan told him with a rather wild laugh.
“I look forward to it, not just to be praised but to have you there to do the praising,” Serxio told him.
“Good man! Now… GO!”
Rohan roared the last as he brought down Lightbringer on the final chain that held Thomas to the pillar. It snapped with a visible spark, and both Thomas and Serxio ran at full speed back towards the village. The smaller spiders in the trees did not immediately surge towards them, but instead looked at the large one as if for instructions. There was a clack, clack, clack from the huge spider’s fangs and the others dashed off, scuttling over branches swinging on gray, sticky webs after Serxio and Thomas. Rohan hoped to the gods he had not sent them to their deaths as well, but he had enough to worry about on his own hands.
Rohan brought up the crossbow even as he maneuvered around the pillar to cut as many chains as he could before the spider leaped. Already, he saw its legs flexing. Any moment now it would jump up into the air and come down on him if he let it.
The spider seemed completely unphased by the sight of the crossbow. Perhaps it had not been hunted in so long that it had forgotten any fear of humanoids. Like a pet, the Fae had fed it so maybe it simply didn’t associate danger with soft-skinned creatures that walked on two legs. Perhaps, too, such a weapon appeared puny and insignificant to it. If he had aimed at its chitinous armored body then yes, it would have been right, but those soft and gushy eyes were a huge target.
The spider leaped twenty feet into the air. It was going to crash down on Rohan and spear him on one of its razor-sharp leg points. Rohan let loose three bolts in quick succession at the huge eye cluster before he dove forward and rolled out of the creature’s landing path. There was a squealing sound that had his eardrums throbbing.
He leaped to his feet and whirled around just in time to see the huge spider wobbling from side to side. Two of the bolts had gone wide, but one had sunk almost all the way in to the end. Black and green fluid poured down the spider’s head and hit the ground sizzling.
Rohan took advantage of its pain and shock to cut more of the chains from the sacrifices. The brown-haired woman was freed next. She staggered back from the pillar and tried to flee down the path within the spider’s way.
“NO!” Rohan shouted. “Not that way! Over here! OVER HERE!”
But one of the spider’s legs rose up and came down, spearing through her breast. Blood arced up and immediately stained her white robes red. Her mouth opened in a silent scream as her eyes became glassy with death. The other humans screamed and shuffled around the pillar as far away from her and the spider as possible. When the spider whirled around to face him again, the woman’s body stayed fixed on the leg like she was meat on a skewer.
Rohan’s eyes narrowed. Rage filled him. She had been so close to freedom but then death took her. The damned Fae had left all of these people to be food for this thing. He would not give it the satisfaction. It lunged forward. He sidestepped then rolled beneath its body. He dropped the crossbow in the process so he had two hands to swing Lightbringer. He slashed the sword through the air at the nearest leg. Lightbringer did not let him down. It sheared through the monster’s chitinous armor like it was paper. The sword’s runes gleamed white-hot as if it were made to kill creatures just like this.
More green-black blood poured from the beast and it staggered, nearly collapsing as it lost one of its eight legs. He dashed towards its back end so as not to get crushed, but he didn’t lose an opportunity to stab at its undersides. Lightbringer bit through the spider’s flesh like it was hot butter. That acidic blood gushed out. Some of it splashed his right gauntlet and ate holes through the leather. His flesh beneath was scalded. He gasped with the breath-stealing pain but didn’t stop moving.