The creature was lurching about in its own acidic blood as Rohan cut through more of the links of chain that bound the three remaining humans to the pillar. The spider slammed into it and partially unearthed the base of the pillar like it was a rotten tooth. The humans did not race towards the path. Instead, they hid behind him. He didn’t know if that was any safer. The corpse of the woman impaled on the spider’s leg was smoking as the acidic blood splashed up over her limp corpse.
“Stay back as far as you can!” Rohan ordered the humans.
They did as he said, but there was nowhere for them to go unless they entered the web-filled forest itself. He had a feeling that even touching one of those webs would cause them to become hopelessly entangled, and even Lightbringer would take too long to cut them free before the spider or its babies were upon them. Those babies still had not come back. Perhaps the Battle Mages were dealing with them. He could only hope.
As if the spider heard his thoughts, it staggered towards them and shot a web strand at him. Rohan dove to the side. The formerly kneeling man let out a wail as the web hit him directly in the center of his chest. Within an instant, the spider reeled the man in. Its fangs struck down on either shoulder. The man let out a gurgle, then went limp before the spider wound him in its web.
Rohan hardly had a chance to process what had happened to the man before the spider spat another web at him, then another and another. He dodged. He rolled. He leaped out of the way. The last web strand caught his calf. The spider made a sound that reminded him of dry, rustling laughter and began to reel him in towards those monstrous fangs.
Rohan flailed to grab hold of something--anything--but his fingers just ripped through dirt. The one remaining woman lunged for him and grabbed his right arm, but he was yanked from her grasp. If he used the sword on the webbing, it might get tangled and stuck in the sticky stuff and then he would truly be lost. There was only one way he could survive this. He was only five feet from the monster. He would wait for the last moment when those fangs came down and the creature’s head was as close as possible to him.
Time seemed to slow. He was pulled those last, final feet. The spider’s fangs clacked with hideous eagerness. Its head reared back to strike. He twisted to the side at the last moment so that the fangs would not spear him as they had the other man. At the same time, he lifted Lightbringer. The sword’s blade was blazing as bright as the sun. The spider did not have time to stop its downward thrust and impaled itself on Lightbringer’s blade.
The spider went utterly still. Everything seemed to go still. The forest itself seemed to hold its breath. And then… the spider fell. Lightbringer sliced through its head as the creature slid to the other side. Rohan rolled as fast and as far as he could out from under the falling spider. There was a wrenching sound. The pillar was completely unearthed as the spider crashed into it.
Then there was silence.
Rohan’s heartbeat and breathing were the first things to pop back into being. He quickly shifted his body as the blood pool from the spider widened and made for his still trapped leg. With a burst of strength, he slashed Lightbringer through the webbing. As he had feared, it stuck for precarious moments as the smoking blood drew ever closer, but with a final wrench and two more hacks, he was freed and jumped to his feet.
His muscles quivered. Sweat coated every part of him. His right arm was burned by acid, but he was mostly intact and most certainly alive. Which could not be said of the humans he had tried to save. Rohan turned back towards the single woman who had survived the fight. She was not looking at him though. Instead, she was staring at the end of the path into the clearing.
There stood the three priestly Fae. Two of the Battle Mages were also there. One of them had Serxio in a set of chains. Serxio’s mouth was also bound. His eyes showed both his gratefulness that Rohan was alive but also shame that he had been taken prisoner. Thomas stood beside the middle priestess, smirking.
The woman who he had saved said softly, “Thomas has no honor.”
The urge to throw Lightbringer at Thomas burned within him, but revenge would leave him weaponless. He gritted his teeth. He had doubted his ability to defeat two Battle Mages. Now there were five Fae, and he was shaking from exhaustion after killing the spider.
They cannot blame me for destroying that monster! They should be thanking me! Rohan thought.
Their eyes were not on him but on the dead spider. Their faces were pale. None looked triumphant or grateful, but instead horrified as if they couldn’t believe the spider was dead. As if they were upset at what he had done.
Did they worship it? He wondered. Have I killed a god of theirs?
But that didn’t quite fit their expressions either. Just then, the priestess--Thomas’ mistress, he intuited, and the healer that Finn so desperately needed--lifted a hand towards Rohan. It was limned in golden magic.
In perfect Common, she said to him, “You fool. What have you done? You’ve condemned the entire village.”
Rohan had only a second to open his mouth to object before a bolt of magic left her hand and struck his chest.
Then all was darkness.
CONNECTION
Cold sweat coated Finn’s body even as he felt the warmth of Rohan’s form. Finn’s heart was practically beating out of his chest, but it started to slow as Rohan’s started to slow. He’d been with Rohan throughout the fight. Somehow, he was experiencing what Rohan was experiencing. It was like their souls were linked. He could not hear Rohan’s thoughts or speak to him though.
Not yet, a voice whispered in his mind.
But he could see what Rohan was seeing. The Lupine Woods and Marikoth were gone. Likely only for the moment, even though he was more desperate than ever to wake. Rohan needed him!
Rohan had been amazing. More than that. Rohan had done the impossible by slaying that monster by himself. Rohan had killed it! He had done it! Finn could not have been more proud.
But then… then the priestly Fae had come.
And Rohan was down.
Finn could almost taste the magic racing through Rohan’s system on the tip of his tongue. There was something scratching at the back of his mind, telling him that he could free Rohan from this… if only he knew how.
Christopher was right! I should have looked for help to master my magic before! Now, I can’t help him!
Rohan was lying prone on his back. His eyelids were just cracked open. That small opening allowed Finn to see what was happening. There were three people looming above Rohan; two female priestly Fae and a human male.
The female Fae to his right gave off more of an air of command than the other, though Finn couldn’t have said why. She had skin the color of ebony and white hair which was shaved on the sides but long on the top. The long part was elaborately braided and fell past her shoulders.
The other Fae was pale as milk. Her hair was also shaved at the sides, but it was a blonde and her braid was not as long. The end of it barely brushed her chin. Perhaps it indicated her rank.
The human male was well-made with short, black hair and eyes. Finn felt Rohan’s lips tremble. He would have writhed his lips back from his teeth, but the spell kept him mostly frozen.
Thomas betrayed Rohan! Rohan risked everything to save him, and he ran and got the Fae! Finn realized with a flash of anger.
The blonde Fae was the first one to speak. At first the liquid-sounding language was unfamiliar to him, but somehow Finn’s brain translated it, “How did he kill Hex, Ryleth?! He’s a human! No human could do it!”