Ruby Shadows (Born to Darkness #3)(70)

“But—” I began.

Laish, paid me no attention. He was already spurring Kurex forward, into the mouth of that black and awful tunnel. That tunnel that I now knew was crawling with hundreds and hundreds of huge spider things that were shortly going to be extremely pissed off at me.



Chapter Twenty-one

Laish





We raced forward, into the darkness. I was not worried for myself—I knew perfectly well that the Skitterling venom, while intensely painful, could not kill me. But I did not want Gwendolyn to be bitten even once. She was weak from going without food and riding all day in the scorching sun. Plus, I wasn’t sure how her human body would react to the bites—not well, I was sure. So I spurred Kurex onward, trying to get through the Jealous Heart before the word of the emissary’s death spread to the rest of the Skitterling tribe.

Overhead, I could hear their masses gathering. The soft, scratching sound of their many legs and their high, questioning calls to each other indicated their confusion. No one simply charged into the Jealous Heart without first striking a deal with the Skitterlings. Even the demons raiding parties that went back and forth between Stygia and Minauros almost every night had long standing agreements with the hybrid tribe. Often the smallest and weakest demon was left behind as tribute—to be devoured at the Skitterlings’ leisure. I myself had been prepared to offer them some of my blood or flesh but they wouldn’t be interested in that now. Now all they would want was the one who had killed their emissary—now all that would satisfy them was Gwendolyn.

Well, they would not have her, I swore to myself as we galloped through the black tunnel. When I looked up I could see their eyes glowing poison green in the darkness. Then I heard the timbre of their calls change from confusion to anger. Word must be spreading from the mouth of the tunnel, they were learning what had happened, what my little witch had unwittingly done.

I spurred Kurex faster even as I felt one of the Skitterlings drop onto my shoulder. I brushed it off and another dropped down and then another.

“Laish!” Gwendolyn’s voice was as close to panicked as I had ever heard it. “Laish, they’re coming down! I think there’s one in Kurex’s mane! Oh my Goddess!”

“Hold tight,” I told her. “I’m going to make a light—they don’t like that and it should drive them back.” She wouldn’t like it either, I was sure. It would illuminate the tunnel and show her our true danger. “Don’t look,” I told her, knowing it would do no good. She wasn’t good at following such orders as I knew from experience.

Leaning a little away from her, I spoke a word of power. I didn’t like to use the Dark Language so close to Gwendolyn, fearing to cause her pain but in this case I had no choice.

Light blazed out around us, illuminating every crevice and cranny of the vast tunnel. In my arms, Gwendolyn stiffened and gave a small, breathless scream.

Every square inch of the rocky walls was teaming with Skitterlings—most of them quite large. The emissaries, like the one Gwendolyn had killed, were the smallest caste of this demon species—and the only ones who would willingly withstand the light. The others were considerably larger. In fact, I saw a few quite as large as myself crawling on the walls. If one of them decided to go for us, we would have a difficult time indeed.

“Goddess,” Gwendolyn whispered, pressing herself back against me. “They…they’re not all chipmunks!”

“What?” I wasn’t sure what she was talking about at first—I was too busy brushing off the smaller Skitterlings that had fallen on Kurex and myself.

“There are some with other heads—dogs and cats and goats and owls…Goddess, that one has the head of a lion—how is that even possible?”

“All terrible things are possible in Hell,” I said grimly. “Hang on, Gwendolyn, we are coming to the end of the Heart and it may be difficult to get out.”

“Difficult? Why?” She sounded even more frightened and I felt her grab the arm I had wrapped around her waist in a tight, panicky grip.

“Just hold on,” I told her. The light from my word of power was fading but already I could see the pale blue illumination from the Stygia end of the tunnel. We were extremely lucky that this had happened during the daylight hours. If we had been coming out into a cold, black Stygia night the Skitterlings would have pursued us for miles. As it was, all we needed to do was get out of the Jealous Heart and we should be all right.

If we could get out. Up ahead I saw the tunnel’s exit…but I also saw something else. The most monstrous Skitterling yet awaited us, crouching at the mouth of the tunnel, blocking our way out. He was as massive as Kurex, though lower to the ground, and had the head of a man with long wild black hair and yellow eyes. When he opened his mouth, I saw the jagged, serrated teeth of a shark.


“Give us the human girl!” he hissed, his eyes glowing in the dying light, his long hairy legs poised to spring. “Give us the one who killed our emissary! We will feast on her flesh in retribution for his death! Give us the girl!”

There was no time to argue. Outside, just past the huge demon, I glimpsed the Stygia landscape, a mountainside covered in ice and snow. In particular, there was a large drift piled up just outside the mouth of the tunnel.

“Gwendolyn,” I breathed in her ear. “Trust me now.”