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.”