Page 41 of Eldritch (The Eating Woods #2)

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

MAEVYTH

A half-hour earlier …

I urged Aleysia behind me, while the two of us cautiously crept toward the door.

“One two, three, four, four, three, two, one …” she whispered at my back with a whimper.

“You’re going to be fine. Do not make any sudden moves.”

“What do you expect me to do, if they decide to attack? Calmly walk away?” Her voice trembled, and she kept on with her counting.

Two more pasty creatures emerged from my bedroom on long, spidery legs, their bodies wriggling to squeeze through the doorframe.

Bringing the total in the room to eight—all of them very slowly making their way toward us.

The largest one, across from me, pushed up onto its hind legs, revealing a horrifically deformed human face fused into its black carapace. Its haunting expression sent a chill down the back of my neck.

“No, no, no, no.” Aleysia whimpered again, and I reached back, gripping her arm to settle her, my palm nearly vibrating with her shaking muscles. “Four, three, two, one, one, two, three, four …”

“We’re going to get out of this. Do exactly as I say, do you understand?”

No sooner had I spoken the words than a spray of fluid ejected from the spider’s mouth, just missing me as it landed on the floor beside my boot, where it sizzled. The wooden floor curled and warped as the acid chewed at its surface.

“Oh, god. Oh, merciless bastard that I prayed to every night without fail, if you abandon me now, I will commit every sin The Red Book denounces!” Aleysia said behind me, and while I was glad for the amusement in her words, I couldn’t fully appreciate them right then, with my heart slamming against my ribs like a drum.

“Have we reached the door yet?” I asked, keeping my eyes on the creatures.

“I …. I can just reach the knob. Yes. Yes, we’re at the door.”

“Very slowly turn the knob.”

“What if they’re outside, too?” Her voice cracked to a pitch of panic.

“Then, we’re going to have to get really creative with prayers. But, at the moment, it’s the only way we’re getting out of this.”

The creak of the door alerted me that she had slowly gotten it open, and as the human spider stepped toward us, I threw out my trembling hand. The Aeryz glyph threw the creature backward into the wall, sending out a shiver of dust and dirt from the ceiling.

Another spider skittered toward us, and I blasted that one backward, too.

“Watch out, Maevyth!” The panic in Aleysia’s voice forced me to shift my focus to four more spiders descending on us from the ceiling, sliding down silky strands of their webs.

Both of us ducked low and scrambled backward, through the front door, to avoid them.

The larger spiders lurched forward on their hind legs, their forelegs grasping at the walls as they hustled toward us.

I threw out my hand, and a blast of air hurled them back just enough for me to close the door.

Grabbing Aleysia’s hand in mine, I led her from the cottage through the snow and darted across the open field toward the road.

Daring a glance back, I saw spiders of all sizes pouring out of the cottage after us, and had to swallow back the panic rising into my throat.

So many!

“Maevyth! They’re…going to catch…us!” Aleysia’s words were broken by wheezing breaths, her grip of my hand going lax.

“Keep…going! Don’t look…at them!”

One of the spiders darted alongside us, and I threw out my hand for Aeryz, knocking it away. A massive shadow passed over top of us, and the two of us skidded to a stop as the largest leapt into our path.

“Oh, God. Maevyth!” Aleysia’s hand trembled in mine, and I glanced around to see the spiders circling us, trapping us.

An unbridled fear hooked itself in my gut, intensifying when they all reared up on their hind legs and made a strange chittering sound with their teeth. I held out my trembling hand, knowing damned well there were too many to take on, on my own.

A streak of warmth on my forearm drew my attention to the silvery metal embedded in my scar.

Raivox.

Gods, I hoped he could hear me on this side of the Umbravale. I closed my eyes, imagined that magnificent glyph, and opened my mouth, breathing the high-pitched whistling sound into the air.

At first, it arrived low and raspy, like the first night when I’d spoken in the cottage, but it quickly sharpened into a pitch that had Aleysia slapping her hands over her ears.

The chittering grew louder. One of the spiders broke formation and scurried toward us. I knocked it backward with a powerful thrust of the Aeryz glyph.

Two more followed suit. The spine glyph burned inside my thoughts. I threw out my other hand, and the whip hurled out of my palm on a thump, snapping the spider closest to us. Instead of retracting my hand, I spun it over my head, the end of it knocking the second spider off its path.

“Maevyth!”

Face to face with the largest, I drew back my arm, yanking the whip back into my palm, and thrust out my hand again. One hard snap sent bits of carapace flying, along with two of its legs.

The creature let out a high-pitched screech, and two bat-like wings sprouted from its back.

Aleysia screamed, and it jumped into the air until it was looming over us.

“Run!” I took hold of Aleysia’s hand and sprinted toward the road, through the large gap between the spiders. Throat hoarse and body numb from cold and fear, I held back tears as I heard those damned things tearing over the snow after us.

Closer. Closer.

I’m not dying here. Not like this. I won’t die like this!

It was futile trying to outrun them. Instead, I slowed my pace and turned to face them once again. The whole horde of them formed a line only a couple of meters from where we stood.

“What are you doing!” Aleysia’s panicked voice was a distant thought, as I curled my hands into tight fists.

Where was that voice in my head?

Morsana! Help me!

Nothing more than silence answered my plea.

Please!

The creatures lurched, and my thoughts snapped back into focus.

Once again, I called on the bone whip, thrashed it around my head, and snapped at whatever target I could hit.

The spiders closed in, crowding the two of us in a tight circle, just as before.

I hurled the whip, sending carapace and legs and guts flying about, splashing blackness across the snow.

In spite of my stiff muscles, I kept my arm moving, maintaining a shrinking halo of safety between them and us.

I won’t die like this.

I won’t die!

An ache bloomed in my shoulder, the weight of the bones growing heavier. As the spiders advanced, I swung out, desperate to keep them from swarming us, but the circle grew smaller, while I grew wearier. Some of them perished, but there were still too many to fight myself.

“Maevyth, they’re getting closer!” Aleysia screamed at my back, her fingers digging into my tunic as she pressed herself against me.

Morsana! I’m begging you!

The distant sound of cawing hardly registered in my thoughts—not until the spiders skittered backward, and I looked up to see hundreds of black birds flying overhead.

My heart leapt in my chest, tears wavering in my eyes as the birds converged, and from their cluster, an enormous Corvugon soared over Aleysia and me.

Aleysia let out a gasp, falling to the ground, but I watched in awe as Raivox swooped down, landing beside us on a vibrating thud that sent a blast of snow into the air. With his enormous wings shielding us, he let out a roar that rattled inside my chest and shook the ground beneath my feet.

The smaller spiders scampered off.

The larger ones reared up, as if challenging him.

Raivox twisted around, as though taking stock of how many he’d have to fight off, those massive wings shifting like a dizzying black squall above us.

He screamed again and a deep growl rumbled in his chest, erupting out of him as a silver flame shot through the air, engulfing the spiders in swirls of liquid metal.

My jaw nearly unhinged itself, as his flames struck fast and true, catching every spider before it had the chance to escape.

Their bodies froze in place, the look of agony permanently etched on the few that had human faces fused within the carapace, mouths agape as if they were screaming out for something.

I stared at one only a few meters from where we stood, watching a shadow flicker across its face, and from its mouth emerged a swirling mass of smoke-like blackness.

It coalesced into a wraith-like creature that floated over the spider’s silvery carcass, which had become nothing more than a lifeless chunk of metal.

Glowing eyes appeared from its shifting form, tracking our movements.

Raivox let out another blast of silver, but the strange creature dodged it, its movement fluid, like ink in water.

It shot through the air toward me, and I clawed at Raivox’s enormous leg, desperate for escape.

Sharp scales bit into my palms, my hands and feet sliding down the surface of the Corvugon’s skin.

Before the wraith could get close, Raivox hopped around and snapped it up into his beak, biting down with a surprising crunch.

It was only then I noticed Aleysia hadn’t spoken a word.

I spun around to see her lying in the snow, eyes shuttered. Thankfully, her chest moved. “Aleysia!”

She let out a quiet moan and slowly blinked her eyes open. Her body shot upright on a sharp breath, and the color drained from her face as her gaze trailed up. “M-M-Maevyth! It’s behind you!”

Raivox swung around to face her and let out a roar that sounded like a violent crack of thunder. My pulse hammered in my throat, and I leapt in front of her, laying across Aleysia’s body to protect her.

“No! She’s my sister!”

Raivox let out a deep, guttural chirp, flapping his wings as if in warning. I exhaled a trembling breath when his agitation settled.

Aleysia shuddered and wrapped her arms around herself. “Maevyth?” Her tone carried a pitch of terror.

“It’s all right. He’s with me.”

“With you? How?”

“Remember that silly-looking egg I picked up a while back, and you told me not to bring it into our bedroom?”

“You’re…you’re telling me, th-th-that thing was in the egg?”

“Well, a smaller version, but yes.”

She shuddered a breath and wrapped her arms around herself. “M-M-Maevyth…I’m so cold.”

I looked down at my own worn and battered boots.

My feet were so cold, I could hardly feel the tips of my toes.

“C’mon, we need to find somewhere warm. Quickly.

” I pushed to my feet and, in reaching out a hand, noticed a strange, glittery blackness, like that of Raivox’s scales, crawling from my fingertips, over the back of my hand to my wrist. Sharp metallic nails had sprouted over my own, their smooth surface engraved with swirls and symbols, looking identical to those on Raivox.

“What is it? What’s happening?” Aleysia asked, staring down at my hand.

“I don’t know.” I shook my arm to loosen it, but it wouldn’t come off, as if it had somehow fused with my skin like a delicate glove.

Embedded in the scales appeared tiny, silver symbols that looked like glyphs.

Long and skinny, vein-like fibers filled with molten silver weaved themselves over the black scales and gave a faint pulsing sensation across my hand, as if the glove were alive, somehow.

Panic settled over me, and I shook my hand again.

“It won’t come off! I can’t get it off!”

“Here, let me try.” Aleysia attempted to dig her fingers into one of the veins, but quickly retracted her hand on a yelp. “Ouch!” Blood trickled over her finger from a small cut at its tip.

“Maevyth!” The distant sound of Zevander’s voice carried over the field, and I looked up to see him striding toward us.

Raivox let out another furious roar, and the ground shook as he hopped around to face him. His thick, scaled tail gouged deep furrows in the ground, where he thrashed it behind him, and that strange, growling sound in his throat coiled around my lungs in a suffocating dread.

“Raivox, no!” I dashed in front of him, standing in the path between Zevander and the Corvugon, just as I had with Aleysia, and held out my hand. “He’s also with me!”

Raivox flapped his wings and let out a snort, the feathers on his neck standing upright.

Clearly rattled by Zevander’s presence, he squawked and growled aggressively.

Then, just as he had with Aleysia, he backed off, but he didn’t avert his intimidating stare that hooked onto Zevander like a deadly threat.

“What in seven hells …” Zevander said from behind, and I turned around to see him staring up at Raivox, a look of awe sketched across his face.

“His name is Raivox.”

“Your bird?”

“My bird.”

Aleysia drifted to my side. “ That is not a bird.”