A Poison Dark and Drowning (Kingdom on Fire #2)(89)

“Come on, then!” Magnus roared, using his sword to hack at the monster. He thrust upward, getting her beneath the jaw. Black blood coated him as Nemneris’s high-pitched squealing shattered my ears. She rose onto her legs again and spewed a jet of white foam.

Dee shoved Magnus away and fell beneath the liquid. He shrieked, trying furiously to wipe it away. There was a hissing sound like acid, and then the smoke of burning flesh.

I ran to help Dee as the Spider released the ship and slid back beneath the waves.

“Maria!” Magnus bellowed, ripping off his coat to wipe at the foaming venom that still covered Dee. The boy lay unnaturally still. Please, no.

I reached them as the bottom of the boat ruptured. Below us, three hollow black eyes stared up as the boards tore apart like thin paper. I stumbled for the railing, flinging myself over and twisting before plunging into the cold waves.

She’s supposed to die! Dammit, the prophecy said, “You shall know her when Poison drowns beneath the dark Waters of—”

Wait. Poison drowns beneath the dark waters.

Our ship’s name was the Bella Donna. Belladonna was a type of poison.

Nemneris wasn’t fated to drown. God, perhaps our ship was fated to sink.

I pulled my head up just enough to break the water’s surface and take a breath. There were no more screams. The ship had vanished completely. Chunks of debris and canvas bobbed around me, ensnared in her webbing. The silence was more awful than the fighting.

Her webbing. My arms and my back were practically welded to the web. Despite my thrashing, I couldn’t break free. Porridge was still in my hand, at least. But I was a fly awaiting certain death. I let out a frustrated cry.

Magnus and Blackwood both shouted, but I couldn’t see them. Thank God, they were alive.

“Who else is there?” I yelled.

“We’re bloody stuck!” Magnus cried. The web jostled beneath us at his attempts to break free.

“Dee’s beside me.” Blackwood sounded stunned. “He’s not moving.”

“Maria?” I waited for her response. There was none. No. I called for her again, tears in my eyes as I yanked my head away from the webbing. It took probably half my hair to do it, but I was able to crane my neck and look about more. The broken bits of ship, the boys, the lowering sun on the coast. I could see it all except Maria.

Once more the web jerked. My breath lodged in my throat as Nemneris clambered out of the sea to stand over us, lifting her dripping body high. She regarded us with those bulbous eyes.

She was relishing this kill.

Blackwood ordered us to try freezing the web, to light her on fire. But if we couldn’t move, we could not do any sorcerer spells. When I attempted burning, the water extinguished my flame. Swallowed by the sea, I was worse than useless.

The boys’ thrashes and screams ceased as we realized the truth. I lay before the monster, helpless; the only bitter triumph was the fact that R’hlem would lose me to the jaws of one of his own beasts. Let that haunt him.

Her Majesty commended you. Whitechurch had died for nothing. His message had been for nothing, and rage boiled inside me to see that creature deciding which of us to devour first, like dainties in a shop window.

Her Majesty commended you.

“God save the queen!” I yelled into the hideous thing’s face. “God save the queen!”

“God save the queen!” Magnus took up the cry, and so did Blackwood. We shouted in unison, our voices rising as Nemneris opened her jaws.

And then the world exploded.

The sea went wild; white-capped waves shot ten, twenty feet in the air, as though an underwater volcano were erupting. Nemneris squealed in surprise as Maria rose up atop that column, red hair streaming behind her like fire. She’d her arms out, palms turned to the sky.

With her whipping hair, her bared teeth, her outstretched arms, she resembled some great and terrible god. She sized the Water Spider up…and attacked.

With one sweep of Maria’s arm, the wind rose into a frenzied gale, battering us like toys. Waves peaked and sloshed over me, water flooding my nose. I strained for air. She pointed one hand to the sky, and clouds brewed with a violent storm. Nemneris backed away as Maria put another hand toward us.

The web beneath me froze into ice. At Maria’s gesture, the ice shattered, plunging all of us into the sea. My skirt, petticoats, and boots filled with water, dragging me below the surface. But a current caught me, and as one the boys and I were raised up on a steady column of water.

When we were safe, Maria turned again to the gargantuan spider. Nemneris had got over the shock and spewed more of that venomous foam. Maria was too quick: a barrier of water enveloped the girl, and the foam was harmlessly absorbed. Nemneris gave a thin, nervous chittering.

Maria brought her hands together over her head and then swung them down. Lightning forked out of the sky, striking the Ancient. She fell backward, eight legs flailing as three more bolts shot through her. The smell of something burned and rotten wafted over me, and I gagged.

With Nemneris down, Maria stretched one hand back into the sky and made a fist.

“Now!” she screamed. I swore I heard two voices come from her mouth, her own and that honeyed, deeper, womanly voice. The waves swelled up and covered Nemneris’s stunned figure, rolling her. Maria clapped her hands together, and the webbing on either side of the shore ripped up, twining itself about Nemneris. The waves rolled her again, entangling the Spider in her own web. The monster screamed but didn’t free herself. Her bulk vanished beneath the waves.