“You did it again. I can’t believe you.” Her fingers clicked as she tapped them together. “You couldn’t just wait for me to say yes, could you?”
“I…” Arachne sighed. “I didn’t want to risk you saying no.”
Eva turned away, pulling her arm out of the legs holding it. She carefully kept her hands away from her bare skin. Probably a good idea until she got used to them.
“I don’t know why I bother trusting you. You clearly have no trust in me.”
“I just want what’s best for you.”
“And this is what’s best for me?” She held up a hand, clacking the long fingers together. “How am I supposed to hide these from people. Let me decide what’s best for me and I’ll let you know how you can help. This is not it. You didn’t even let me agree on my own…”
“Humans have gloves. If you fold up the top two segments, you’ll fit.”
Eva sighed. She fell backwards on the bed and just lay there.
This wasn’t how it was supposed to be. Eva should be fired up. Yelling. Angry. Or Eva should be thankful. Glad. Happy.
This was…
Pathetic.
No. Arachne shunted the voice from her mind. This was her domain. Her rules. There would be no machinations of the Void here.
“Can we go now?”
Arachne looked down at Eva. She hadn’t moved except for a slight drumming of her fingers.
“Eva, I’m… sorry.” This felt gross. Arachne didn’t like it.
“Me too.”
Using all of her legs to help hold Eva, Arachne picked the girl up. At least she isn’t flinching away.
She carried her Eva through the halls to the gateway chamber. It was a small place. No ostentatious carvings or tapestries. Apart from the last several years, it went mostly unused. The only real designs were the gateway diagrams on the floor. Almost a mirror of what summoners in the mortal realm used.
Arachne walked up to the gateway and channeled magic into it. She focused on the necklace as she did so.
“Remember, if you don’t make it through–”
“Place my left hand on a wall and follow it until I reach a sandy beach. Then think of the island.”
“I will come for you. I promise.”
Eva didn’t acknowledge anything. She stared off into a corner of the room. Or she would have, if she could stare.
The floor rippled. A black emptiness tore open.
Arachne fell. She kept all her legs tightly wrapped around Eva as the void swallowed them whole.
— — —
Nel Stirling concentrated on the floating strand of hair in front of her.
Her concentration yielded nothing even after hours of searching.
It was next to impossible to hide from an augur when one had something personal. Hair should definitely work. Yet there was nothing but darkness in her vision.
If this went on, she’d be excommunicated for being abandoned. Or worse. Very probably worse. The Sisterhood wouldn’t leave a rogue augur running wild.
With fear in her heart, Nel redoubled her efforts.
Nel pulled her hand away from the long strand of black hair as if it shocked her.
She felt her eyes fade from the glowing white back to their normal brown as she glanced at the person impatiently tapping her foot.
Sister Cross stood next to her, arms folded with an obvious question on her face.
“I found her,” Nel said.
“But?”
Nel bit her lip. Sister Cross was already on edge from losing one of the sisters. Now this.
It wasn’t my fault. Sister Cross wouldn’t do anything to me. The reassurance rang hollow in her own head.
Delaying telling would only be worse. Sister Cross would find out anyway. In a quick decision, Nel began telling everything she saw in the instant the endless abyss opened in a small cave north of the academy.
Chapter 027
The pleasant heat vanished. A cool musk rushed in to replace it.
Slowly, carefully, Arachne set Eva down on the slightly uneven ground. She used all of her legs to help steady Eva until she got her balance under control.
Eva shrugged her off and kept her own balance.
She stumbled forwards almost immediately. One of Arachne’s limbs reached out and steadied her.
Without toes, Eva had to pick up her feet straight up in order to walk. It wasn’t quick and it wasn’t elegant. More of a waddle. Hopefully I can come up with some way to rig toes into shoes, Eva thought with a sigh.
Eva reached out with her sight. Arachne stood just to her left. All her limbs were hovering just inches away from Eva. Her hands were mere stumps, both still bleeding. Either Arachne didn’t notice or she didn’t care.
Eva certainly didn’t at the moment.
The blood dripped down, splashing on the rough floor. It formed a rough topography as it ran down a slight incline. They were almost certainly in a cave.
Some distance away, Eva could feel a lot of bodies. Their biology was weird. Weirder than Arachne’s even. Large sacks with small tubes connecting them. Flesh golems perhaps? Maybe zombies.
“Arachne,” Eva snapped, “where are we?”
“A cave. Maybe a storage room of some sort? There’s a lot of junk lying around.” Eva watched her limbs as they moved off to one side, seemingly picking up something. “Your necklace.”
Eva almost pulled away. Instead she put on her best glower as Arachne’s legs reached around her. Had she been less angry, she might have appreciated the way Arachne manipulated the necklace to attach it behind Eva’s neck with only her legs.
“Arachne,” Eva said. “I am mad at you. More than mad, I am disappointed.”
The muscles making up Arachne’s face contorted. Eva wasn’t sure what to make of the expression. She couldn’t see Arachne’s chitinous face, just the meat beneath. “Eva, I–”
“You’re lucky. For two reasons,” Eva held up one of Arachne–one of her fingers. She’d been trying not to think about it. Her fingers were long. They had too many joints. Moving them was clumsy and unnatural. “The first reason is that I cannot see. I can’t move around this place and it is full of enemies. I can see flesh golems, maybe zombies too. Skeletons? Ghosts? I doubt I’ll see anything.”
Eva extended a lengthy second finger. “The second reason you are lucky is that I am furious with the necromancers. I will tear Sawyer apart.”
No response came except a slight bowing of her head.
Eva shrugged it off. She could yell at Arachne later.
“Is my dagger around here?”
Arachne rummaged through boxes and drawers, by the sound of things. Eva wasn’t expecting results.
The bloodstone she made in the abattoir glowed in her vision as it rested against her chest. It was crumbling and cracked. The escape from the Abattoir cost it a lot of integrity. Controlling so much blood just wasn’t healthy for the poor thing.
Without her dagger, it was all she had.
She knelt down, careful to keep her balance, and dipped it in the small puddle of Arachne’s blood. The blood swirled up to form a small handful of marbles. Not even enough to make toes out of. She needed more.
The flesh golems stood, unmoving, a distance away. They were folded up on each other like chairs might be in a storage room. They would do.
“Enough, Arachne. It isn’t here.”
Arachne stopped searching. The blood in her eyes focused on Eva.
“Anything useful?”
“Books, lots of books. No weapons that I could see.” One of her legs lifted up near Eva. “Your clothes, though it looks like they cut you out of them rather than simply undressed you.”
“Leave them,” Eva sighed. She did not miss the edge in Arachne’s voice when she spoke of undressing. “As much as I would like to take the books, they aren’t much use to me at the moment.” She resisted an urge to tap at her eyes. “Maybe later.