Betrayal

Chapter Thirteen Mazes and Veils

Maldred hurried toward the southwest, eyes trained on the forest and hand wrapped tightly around Riki’s. “Faster,” he told her. “I’d rather face another village of spawn than deal with the Legion of Steel right now.”

The half-elf could hardly keep up. “Slow down, Mal,” she gasped, attempting to pull her hand away. “I ain’t so fast anymore, what with being pregnant. I’m runnin’ for two now.”

He accommodated her, but only a little.

“Pregnant? Running for two? Well, you’ll be dead for two if the Legion catches up with us.”

“Pigs, but we shouldn’t’ve stole from them in Khur,” she said “Should stick to stealin’ from common folks.”

“Common folks don’t have much worth stealing.”

They ran toward the trees, weaving their way around a tangle of bushes and finally reaching the rise. Maldred paused so the half-elf could catch her breath.

“I hope Dhamon finds Varek and don’t find no trouble there,” Riki said. She was bent over, hands on her knees, sucking in air. “None of us needs more trouble.”

Maldred nodded in agreement. “Come. Let’s wait in the woods for Dhamon. I’m sure he won’t be long, and I’m sure he’ll find Varek and keep out of trouble.” He was halfway up the rise when he added. “This Varek, Riki. Do you really love him?”

The half-elf pretended to keep her eyes focused on the ground so she wouldn’t trip over the myriad of fingerlike roots that seemed to run everywhere. “Yeah, Mal. ’Course I love Varek. I wouldn’t’ve married him otherwise. And I wouldn’t be havin’ his baby if I didn’t care for him.”

The trees at the top of the rise were varieties of maples, oaks, and walnuts. Maldred’s boots crunched over acorns that had fallen. He put his back to an especially thick oak and looked out toward the town. From here, he could easily see if someone was coming—Dhamon or Legion of Steel Knights.

Riki sagged against a crimson maple. “That map of yours, Mal… how much farther past that town is this pirate treasure?”

“Some distance,” he answered after a moment.

. :

“Pigs, but I’m tired of walking, Mal. We’ve got to get us some horses if we’re goin’ ‘some distance.’ And I think…” She pushed away from the tree and turned to peer deeper into the woods.

“Did you hear that, Mal?”

“Hear what?”

“A babe cryin’. I’m sure I heard a babe cryin’.” She glided away from Maldred and down a narrow path. “Hear it? So soft. I think it’s a babe cryin’ for help.”

Maldred shook his head. “I don’t hear anything, Riki, and I think we should stay here, wait for Dhamon and your Varek. Riki?” He glanced over his shoulder and groaned. She was gone. “Riki.”

A last look toward the town and he hurried down the path, catching up to her in minutes.

“Hear it, Mal?”

The big man nodded, finally hearing a soft cry. “Might be an animal, though, Riki. Hard to tell.”

She shook her head and pressed forward. The woods were darker here, the leaves close and thick overhead and blocking the sun. It was pleasantly cool, and a faint breeze stirred the air.

“It’s not an animal, Mal,” she said after several more minutes. “I don’t see any animals here. Not even a bird.”

A shiver danced down his neck. There were insects, as he pointed out to her, beetles in profusion along some of the lowest branches. Spiders the size of walnuts clung to the maple trunks. Large webs hung from some of the trees, and these were dotted with dark green spiders that scurried toward the center of the webs when Maldred and Rikali passed by. The webs were thicker ahead. The cry persisted.

“We’ve got to be gettin’ closer, Mal.” “Closer to something,” he answered.

* * * * *

“Riki?” Dhamon shouted. “Riki!”

Varek pumped his legs harder in an effort to catch up, but he could not muster the same speed. Dhamon raced out of his view, followed by the wingless sivak.

There were no immediate signs of the half-elf or Maldred, but—beyond the screams he had heard—no obvious indication of trouble. A cursory search revealed Maldred’s and Riki’s footprints headed west toward where the smaller trees gave way to older oaks and maples. Dhamon followed their trail, listening as he went, moving briskly, then stopping when the sun suddenly disappeared. Foliage had not shut out the light—webs were responsible. A few were artful, huge and beautiful with intricate patterns that shimmered in the diffused light, but most were ugly masses as dense as a dwarf’s beard. They stretched between the tallest branches, in several spots reaching the ground.

He pressed forward more cautiously, walking now, keen eyes scanning the ground in search of more of his friends’ tracks, glancing at gaps in the webs, where he thought he spied something moving. What’s there? he asked himself. “Who’s there?” He stared and saw nothing. The woods became grayer the deeper into the forest he went—thick with night-dark shadows and with heavier curtains of webs that hung from practically every tree. There were hundreds of spiders everywhere. Some were so small they were barely discernible, black specks jumping from strand to strand. Others were larger, the size and color of steel pieces, and these moved slowly if at all. Dhamon noted a few as large as peaches, shiny black and with eyes that appeared sunken. Others were brown, long-legged varieties, like some he’d seen in the woods near far-away Palanthas.

“By my father!” Dhamon faintly heard a voice up ahead. “Is there no end to these?”

“Mal?” Dhamon called. Louder, “Maldred!”

He heard the half-elf scream again, but faint and muffled this time. In response Dhamon tugged free his long sword. He listened, hearing nothing but the coarse breath of the draconian and footsteps pounding behind him—Varek.

“Where’s Riki? Where’s my wife? Riki!”

Dhamon tried his best to ignore Varek. He concentrated on Maldred’s voice hailing from somewhere to the west.

“Maldred!” Dhamon shouted. “Mal! Keep talking!”

“Here!” came Maldred’s reply. “We’re in here!” He kept shouting, most of it curses in his ogre tongue directed at something Dhamon couldn’t see.

“Here,” Dhamon muttered. “Just where is here?” Dhamon headed toward the voice, slicing through veil after veil of gossamer web. Ragh followed, using his claws to tear at the thickest veils. Varek was behind them, constantly calling for the half-elf. Some of the webs were so thin Dhamon simply stepped through them, brushing at his face afterward. He marveled that they felt like pieces of damp fog.

“This is your fault,” Varek hissed. “You sent them here, Dhamon. You were so worried over the Legion of Steel Knights. Your damn fault. You—”

“Quiet!” Ragh warned. The sivak and Dhamon brushed aside another curtain of webs and pressed on.

“No, Dhamon. The tracks lead this way! This way!” Varek insisted, pointing at the ground. “Riki!

Riki, I’ll find you!” Varek was almost screaming, and he had angled to the southwest now, moving away from Dhamon and Ragh.

Dhamon had spotted those tracks, too, but he was instead relying on Maldred’s voice to guide him—it hinted at a different direction.

“The boy—” Ragh began.

“Can take care of himself,” Dhamon finished. “I just wished he wouldn’t bellow. Makes it hard to hear.”

“Riki, where are you? Please, Riki!” Varek frantically shouted the half-elf’s name. Dhamon and Ragh slipped behind the web curtain, and then behind another one, and another, moving deeper into the woods. The webs were dampening and distorting everything—sometimes Varek’s voice seemed closer and other times it was Maldred.

“A rat in a maze,” Dhamon grumbled.

The farther he went, the thicker and even more plentiful the webs became, obscuring most of the trees and effectively forming corridors. He and the sivak followed one twisting path, then paused only a moment when it forked. To the right were elaborate webs with great gaps between the strands, looking like crocheted quilts dotted with beadlike green spiders. “Left,” he decided, thinking Maldred’s voice was coming from that direction. Another dozen yards and he was staring at a dead-end veil of webs directly in his path. Everything was night-dark. The webs were thick overhead and allowed only the faintest bit of light. He saw the webs move in places from the myriad of spiders crawling over them, not from any wind. He knew there were far more spiders than he could see.

He breathed deep, smelling the damp ground beneath him and an odd muskiness. It left a sour taste in his mouth. He reached to his backpack, finding it covered with webs and spiders. Brushing both away, he tugged free one of the bottles of liquor he’d taken from the spawn village, uncorked it, and took a deep pull.

“Better,” he pronounced. He took another sip and held it, then forced himself to recap the bottle and put it back in the pack, offering none to the sivak.

He thought about going back to where the web corridor forked and taking the other path. Indeed, he had turned and started to do that, when, with his acute hearing, he heard Maldred’s voice clearer and louder than before. He spun and approached the web wall.

“Your friend sounds close,” Ragh observed.

Dhamon nodded. This was all so unnatural. Spiders didn’t spin webs like this, at least not that he’d ever heard of. So just what was responsible? Magic? A Legion of Steel sorcerer’s spell? Perhaps, he mused, the ghost of Cazen Graelor from Graelor’s End was playing tricks. He decided he didn’t want to know who or what was responsible. He just wanted to get away. He would find Maldred and Riki before nightfall and get as far away from these woods and Graelor’s End as he possibly could.

Whatever would draw Riki and Mal into this… mess? he wondered, as he reached out and tentatively touched the dead-end wall. It was spongy but firm, and he couldn’t move it aside as he had the others. He knew that despite the half-elf’s bravado, she was squeamish and wouldn’t traipse into this web maze without a good reason. She had been lured, perhaps by the promise of treasure. Maldred no doubt had followed her.

“Maldred!” Dhamon shouted as he swallowed the wine. It slid pleasantly down his throat and warmed a path to his stomach. “Riki! Maldred!”

He could still hear Varek. The young man had apparently given up on the tracks and was again following him and the sivak.

“Wonderful,” Dhamon said aloud. “Ah…” He smacked at a spider that had dropped on his sword hand and bit him. A red welt immediately formed. He used his free hand to brush at his arms and neck, knocking more spiders loose—there seemed to be an endless supply of them. He felt something tickling his ankle and kicked out, managing to lodge his foot in a sticky web mass. It took a moment to tug himself free.

The sivak was brushing at some spiders, too. The large ones were able to bite through even his scaly hide.

“This is your fault, Dhamon!” Varek was somewhere close behind, hoarse from all his shouting.

“Your fault! You sent Riki here because you were afraid of the Legion of Steel Knights. If she’s hurt, you’ll wish I would’ve turned you over to Commander Lawlor. Why, I’ll…”

Varek stopped short, having finally managed to find Dhamon and Ragh and the dead-end corridor.

“Aye, boy, it’s my fault. Everything’s my fault. Now, shut up about it, and listen.”

Varek cocked his head. “A voice.”

Dhamon nodded. “Uh-huh. Maldred is calling to us. He’s somewhere on the other side of this wall. I suspect there’s a far easier way to get to wherever he is. He certainly didn’t come this way.”

“How do we get to him and Riki?” A mix of worry and anger playing on his face, Varek slipped past Dhamon. He thrust his staff at the web wall and tried to find a way through it, as he had with other veils. This one defied his best efforts, however. He beat at the wall with the staff.

“I propose we take what I suspect is the shortest route to reach him,” Ragh said. The sivak chose a spot near Varek, careful to remain just out of reach of the staff. He sliced his claws into the webs. They were as least as thick as his arms were long, and Dhamon noted that the web wall was home to thousands of tiny dark yellow spiders.

“Maldred!” Dhamon paused and listened again. “Are you truly on the other side of this mess, my friend? Or is sound playing tricks on me?”

He took a deep breath, took a position near the sivak, and sliced into the web wall with the sword again and again. Finally he was able to push himself into the web.

“What in the levels of the Abyss are you two doing?”

Varek stared dumbstruck as he watched Dhamon and the sivak allow themselves to be swallowed by the web. He beat at the wall a few more times, then tried to plunge after Dhamon. Dhamon could see nothing as he moved slowly through the webs.

Perhaps this isn’t real, he thought. None of it. The unpleasant muskiness was real enough, stronger man before, coming from all around him and settling in his mouth, making him gag. He could feel spiders crawling over his face and hands, squirming in his clothes. Some of them bit him. But he couldn’t feel the web. He couldn’t touch it and tell if it was silky or hard, damp or dry. There was resistance to his every step, but Dhamon found he could breathe. He could hear—

Maldred’s voice was still coming from somewhere ahead. He heard Varek behind him making slapping noises. Ragh was just ahead.

Dhamon worked up enough saliva in his throat to spit, trying to get rid of what he was certain were tiny spiders that had wriggled their way inside his mouth. He was able to move faster now, the resistance of the thick webs giving away and the air around him lightening. Dhamon pushed into a clearing, one surrounded by webs but open to the sky in the center. The sivak had emerged a moment before.

Maldred was several yards away, busily cleaving through a spider the size of a large house cat. There were dozens of similarly sized spider carcasses all around him.

“Glad you could finally join us, Dhamon!” he shouted over his shoulder. Maldred’s clothes were plastered against him, wet with sweat and the dark blood of the spiders. His legs were coated with webs. “Some help here, please!”

Ragh paused for only a moment before joining Maldred. The sivak clawed at a large brown spider, stomping on several gray ones the size of large rats.

“Keep them off me,” Maldred told the sivak. “I can’t use my magic and fight them at the same time.”

Several yards away, Dhamon spotted the half-elf, hanging suspended from a massive oak. She was wrapped in a web cocoon dangling a dozen feet off the ground. There were several huge spiders on branches near her, one hovering directly over her head. Riki was breathing, though it took him a moment to be sure of that. Her eyes were wide, and her mouth was stuffed with webbing.

“Be careful of those spiders, my friend,” Maldred called. “They die easily, but they have a vicious bite.”

Dhamon looked for handholds amid the swaths of webbing. He started climbing, keeping his sword out and digging the fingers of his free hand into indentations in the bark while clamping onto the trunk with his boot heels.

“Riki!” Varek had emerged in the clearing. “Oh no!” He dashed toward the tree, dropping his staff and attempting to climb the trunk with Dhamon. The bark was slick with webbing, and Varek slipped to the ground in his panicked rush.

“Riki!” he shouted again.

“Over here, boy!” Maldred shouted. “Ragh and I could use some help. Another wave is coming.”

Varek made another failed attempt to scale the tree, eyes locked onto the bundled half-elf.

“Varek! Some help!”

He reluctantly picked up his staff, glanced forlornly at Riki, and opened his mouth to say something to Dhamon.

“Now, boy!” Maldred shouted.

“Hurry!” the sivak urged.

Varek finally turned to see the big man and the sivak covered from head to toe with the great spiders. He stumbled forward, leveled the staff over his shoulder, and brought it down in a sweeping motion, brushing a spider off Maldred’s arm. He brushed off another and another, making it easier for the big man to strike at the ones still on his legs. Beneath the spiders, Maldred’s bare arms were covered with large purple welts.

Varek turned his attention to the sivak. Most of the spiders Varek knocked off the sivak looked like hairy brown lumps atop jet-black legs. They had fangs—the cause of the stinging welts on Maldred’s arms—and eyes that looked as blue as a still, deep lake. A few that were even larger, just now emerging from the webs, were the size of full-grown sheep. They were nut brown with intricate yellow and black patterns on their backs that resembled the visages of dwarves. Varek brushed a few more of the creatures off Maldred and started clubbing the ones on the ground, grimacing at the sickening popping sound they made when he bashed in their heads. He paused between blows to look over at Riki. Dhamon was cleaving through the spiders around her and edging toward the branch she hung from. The spider that was directly over her was spinning a web to encase her entire head.

“Here come some more, boy! Look lively!”

The sivak moved forward, positioning himself to buy Maldred time to use his magic.

“Help Ragh!” Maldred encouraged.

Varek reluctantly joined the sivak, who had turned to face another swarm coming through the web to the left of them. The pair worked fast, claws rending, staff smashing, feet kicking away spider corpses or tramping across the larger ones that couldn’t easily be budged. Behind them, Maldred was deep into an enchantment, eyes wide, mouth forming words in a silent, arcane language. He thrust his hands above his head, thumbs touching, and concentrated until sweat beaded his brow. His body grew warm as the spell took effect. The heat raced from his chest to his arms and his fingers. Flames arced from his palms up to the webs above in the trees. There was a great “woooosh!” and a mass of webs caught fire and melted. Twitching, burning spiders fell like rain. Maldred turned to face another section of web and released another jolt of flame. The webs were so dense, and there were so many of them, he could only burn a section at a time.

Varek cried out. He had become distracted by Maldred’s magic and found that dozens of the peach-sized spiders had swarmed up his legs. A few purple welts appeared on his arms. The sivak paused in its slaughter of the rat-sized spiders and brushed the smaller ones off Varek. Varek crouched and smashed another hairy spider that was advancing, stepping on the body and swatting at another and another. At his side the sivak waded through crowds of the creatures. The largest spiders had chitinous shells covering their heads, and it took several blows to kill them. Varek was bitten a half-dozen more times before there was a pause between the waves of arachnids. He gagged from the smell of the dead spiders and from the burned corpses. There was another great roar as Maldred managed to burn away another section of webs. More spiders dropped.

Dhamon had worked his way onto the branch, killing all but one large spider that remained directly above the half-elf. The thing stared at him. Its bulbous black eyes, shiny as mirrors, reflected Dhamon’s determined face. Fangs protruded from the bottom of its head, dripping an ooze that smelled strongly of the musk Dhamon loathed.

It made a mewling sound, like a helpless babe, as he raised his sword and cleaved the thing in two, barely slamming his eyes shut in time. Blood sprayed on his face and tunic, and the musky smell soaked his clothes. He wiped at his eyes and carefully approached the web bag, the branch sagging under his weight the farther out he went.

Riki was gagging. The webbing was so tight she could hardly breathe, and Dhamon worried that he might not get to her in time. He sheathed the sword and, warily but quickly, straddled the branch, pulling free a knife he’d taken from the spawn village. He stretched down and with one hand gripped a mass of web at the top of Riki’s cocoon and started cutting at the threads that tied it to the branch.

“Be careful!” This came from Varek, who’d left Maldred and the sivak to deal with the last few spiders and was standing below the tree. He shouted the warning louder.

“I can hear you well enough,” Dhamon returned grouchily, intent on his task. He’d nearly cut through the strands when he hooked his feet around the branch and leaned precariously forward, his arm reaching down toward the half-elf. He grabbed her shoulder, fingers digging in, as he cut through the last of the strands holding the cocoon. He let the knife fall, as his free hand shot down, grabbing Riki by the other shoulder and pulling her up. The branch bowed perilously under their combined weight. Dhamon hauled her back to the trunk.

He felt around and pulled the webbing away from her nose, paused to catch his breath, then arranged Riki—still inside the web cocoon—over his shoulder and started down the tree. All the while, Varek was calling to her from the ground. Dhamon laid her at the base of the tree and stepped back as Varek frantically pushed him aside. The youth dug the webs out of her mouth and away from her eyes.

“Riki! Talk to me!” Varek gently shook her, as he continued to tug at the webs. The webbing closest to her body was like gray paste.

Dhamon drew his sword again, looking around for more spiders. Seeing none but a pair the sivak was fighting—and none in the webs save those the size of his fist or smaller—he allowed himself to relax a little. Within the span of a few heartbeats, the sivak slew the last of the huge ones and trundled over, his large clawlike hands swiping at the webs that covered him. Maldred was scanning what remained of the webs, his fingers still working their magic.

“Riki!” Varek had finally managed to free the half-elf’s arms and cradled her, rocking back and forth on his haunches, paste and webs covering both of them.

The half-elf was sputtering, spitting webs and spiders out of her mouth.

“Pigs, but that was awful. I thought I was gonna die. All them spiders, crawlin’ all over me. Her voice was hoarse, and Varek fumbled at his waist for a water skin. He let her drink her fill, pouring the rest on her face and hands to clean them, then continued to rock her, unaware that her eyes were on Dhamon the entire time.

“Thanks,” she mouthed.

Dhamon looked away, scanning the webs and searching for… something…anything to give him a clue to this place and what was responsible for the spiders, and if any more might be coming.

“Unnatural,” he pronounced. Then a shiver crept down his spine. Had something moved in the webs? He blinked. He’d been staring too hard at a tree trunk. The shadows were playing tricks on him. “No,” he whispered. “I did see something.” He gestured to get his companions’ attention, but Varek was absorbed with the half-elf, and Maldred was looking elsewhere.

The sivak followed his gaze. “By the memory of the Dark Queen,” Ragh breathed. Dhamon crouched. “Spider!”

“There’re spiders all over,” Maldred said dryly.

“Not like this one,” the draconian offered.

What remained of the webs in the clearing wavered, and what Dhamon had believed was a tree trunk moved. It was the leg of a spider—a huge spider. The other “tree trunks” nearby moved also—eight of them—as the monstrosity lumbered forward.

The ground trembled from the thing’s weight. Patches of webbing fell like nets to blanket a surprised Riki, Varek, and Maldred. Dhamon and the sivak were barely able to avoid the webbing—at least the first batch.

“In the name of my father!” Maldred exclaimed as he clawed at the webs that covered him. The spider’s body was suspended on legs easily thirty feet long. Its body was black, its charcoal-gray head swivelled to take in its prey below. It had fangs too, and these dripped a caustic liquid that splashed on the ground and sizzled.

As they watched, the giant spider opened its jaws wide, releasing a stench into the air. This was quickly followed by a stream of webbing that struck the ground where Dhamon had stood a heartbeat before.

Dhamon was already on the move, racing forward, sword waving over his head. He let out a cry as he swung the weapon with all his strength, howling as it only managed to graze me thing.

“I-i-i-it’s as big as a dragon,” Riki stammered. She pulled furiously at the webs that covered her and Varek. Finally they managed to scramble out from beneath the webbing. Riki pulled a dagger.

“Stay behind me, Riki,” Varek said.

“You can’t protect me from that thing,” she returned. “We’re all gonna die this time, Varek.”

Dhamon attacked the spider leg again and again until his arms felt on fire from the effort. Finally he managed to cleave through one of them, but the creature still trundled forward, ground shaking and trees swaying in its path. Dhamon barely avoided being stepped on. Taking a deep breath, he steadied himself and began hacking at another leg.

In the center of the clearing, Maldred had managed to pull the largest mass of webbing off himself. The spider headed towards him, its great bulk cutting off the sun and plunging the clearing into darkness. Maldred spread his legs to keep his balance and began a spell. The sivak had also crawled out from beneath the web blankets. He spotted Dhamon swinging at a leg as big around as a healthy birch tree. Snarling, the sivak chose another leg and another tactic. Ragh bunched his leg muscles and sprang up off the ground, claws outstretched, and grabbed onto the thick, jagged hairs that covered the spider’s leg. He began to climb the leg. In the clearing below, Maldred felt the heat building in his chest, his arcane words speeding the enchantment. The heat was hurtful as it raced down his arms and leaped from his fingers, forming a ball of fire in the air that grew as it raced toward the head of the gigantic spider. The flames cackled like a demon as they cut through the air and splashed against the spider. The creature screamed, a shrill human sound that in its intensity paralyzed all but the still-climbing sivak. The flames spread across the spider’s head, then to its bulbous body, and it screamed louder still. Flames leaped to the webs around it, to the surrounding trees, which were slow to catch fire. All the while the sivak fought its way higher, clawing at the thing’s belly, spider blood covering it. Below, Maldred focused his mind and coaxed the heat into his body again. He mumbled the words even faster, feeling the burning sensation in his chest and arms as more flames sprang from his hands. Again a ball of flame struck the monster.

The giant spider’s scream was long and deafening as it was engulfed in flames. The sivak clawed at it again, then dropped, strong legs absorbing the impact from the fall. He scrambled to get out from beneath the spider, as the creature started gyrating in pain.

Flames spread down its hairy legs. Dhamon avoided a flailing limb and edged back to the trees that ringed the clearing, which, one by one, were catching fire. Everywhere webs were melting, and hundreds of spiders of all sizes were falling and burning.

“Let’s get out of here!” Dhamon called.

Maldred was ahead of him, tugging Varek and Riki. “We have to be fast,” he shouted, pointing to the web maze, which was burning, too. “If we don’t move, we’re going to be kindling.”

The sivak sped by them, pushing Dhamon out of the way of a burning tree limb, then continued on, barreling through a wall of flaming webs.

It took them only moments to find their way clear and reach the rise outside the forest. Maldred was panting, exhausted. “The fire,” he gasped, “will not burn the whole forest. It’s too damp.”

“It will finish that creature,” Dhamon said. “By all the vanished gods I didn’t know such a thing could exist.”

Ragh was shaking his head and looking at the welts on his scaly arms. “In all my years on Krynn I’ve never seen such a thing,” the sivak said. “Birthed of sorcery, to be certain.”

Maldred edged down the rise. “I hope there aren’t any more of these spider-woods. We’ll be wishing we were back in Blöde.” He gave Dhamon an appraising look. “I also hope I don’t look as bad as you.”

“Worse,” Dhamon answered.

There was no part of them that wasn’t covered with sweat or webs or spider blood. Purple welts dotted their exposed skin. Varek was carrying Rikali, despite her protests.

“Mal and I were just standin’ in them woods,” the half-elf explained. “I thought I heard a babe cryin’. Pigs, but it was them spiders. Cryin’ Like babes, those big ones were. Those horrible, horrible spiders.”

Varek hushed her, and when they’d returned to the stream just north of Graelor’s End, he fussed over her. He smoothed the rest of the webs away from her as best he could.

“We could all use a bath,” Maldred said, sniffing at his tunic and making a face. He studied the welts on his arms and tentatively touched them. They felt warm. “That town you visited…” He nodded toward Graelor’s End. “If there’s not too many Knights there, we could…”

Dhamon shook his head. “We’re not going into that town. Ever.”

Varek gave Dhamon a wry smile. “I talked to Commander Lawlor there. He said more Legion of Steel Knights would be marching in today or tomorrow. Graelor’s End is a staging point, it seems. Word is the Dark Knights are out in force.”

Maldred raised an eyebrow. “Then we’ll keep a good distance from Graelor’s End, my friend.”

“Aye.” Dhamon reached into his backpack and retrieved a bottle, took a few swallows and replaced it. He glanced toward the forest, where a thick plume of smoke was rising. He did not realize that he was being watched from inside the forest. The child with copper-colored hair was perched in a tall maple tree. She stared out of an elaborate web that shimmered like her diaphanous dress.

“I believe you are the one, Dhamon Grimwulf,” the child said.