Ruby Shadows (Born to Darkness #3)(71)
“Trust you? Why—?”
Before she could finish her question I had caught her by the waist and was lifting her clear of Kurex’s back. As she screamed, I tossed her lightly over the monster’s head and out of the mouth of the tunnel. I barely had time to ascertain that she had landed safely in the snow drift before the huge Skitterling roared in anger and turned to go after her.
I saw the danger at once. Despite their dislike of sunlight, their hatred of the girl who had killed one of their own was greater. He would come for her, even if it meant going into the sun.
I dug my heels into Kurex’s flanks, urging him upward. Being a war horse he knew what I wanted at once. His hooves came down upon the heaving, hairy body at the same time I shouted a word of power—a killing word this time.
I had just time to see the surprised look on the Skitterling’s face before its head exploded, spraying black ichor everywhere. Kurex finished trampling its spasming body beneath his hooves, neighing wildly and then I urged him forward, out into the light.
* * * * *
Gwendolyn
“Gwendolyn, come!”
I was still struggling to my feet, trying to brush the freezing snow off my soaked dress when Laish reached down and dragged me up into the saddle again.
“What—?” I began but he was already wrapping an arm around my waist and urging Kurex into a gallop. We rushed over the snowy, slippery ridge we found ourselves on much faster than was probably safe but when I looked back, I saw why speed was necessary.
A horde of the animal-headed spiders was pouring out of the mouth of the tunnel. They hissed and hooted and growled as they scuttled towards us. My heart was pounding in my throat and I thought I might be sick. Would they keep on following? What if they caught us? I had seen Laish explode the human head of the one that seemed to be the leader but there were several more his size and none of them looked like they were giving up.
“Laish!” I gasped as we continued to pound down the snowy ridge. “Laish, they’re gaining on us! I thought you said they didn’t like the light!”
“They hate it,” he said. “But just at the moment they hate you more for killing one of their kind.”
“What are we going to do?” I demanded, tightening my grip on his arm. “What are we going to do?”
“We may have to stop and take a stand.” He sounded grim but calm. “We are coming to the Drowning Pools soon—it is not safe to gallop through them. They must be skirted carefully like the sand traps of Minauros.”
“Make a stand?” I nearly shrieked. “Are you serious?”
“Deadly serious, Gwendolyn.” His arm tightened around me. “What is more, I may have to take my dragon form again. I am sorry if it disturbs you but it is the quickest way to drive them all back. Words of power will only work on one at a time and there are far too many for that.”
I swallowed hard. I didn’t like the idea of seeing him morph into that huge dragon-snake thing again but I didn’t think we had much choice. The awful human-headed Skitterling’s words came back to me—”We will feast on her flesh…” it had hissed, right before Laish exploded its head. It didn’t take me long to decide it was way better to watch him barbeque the spider-things in dragon form than to end up as their lunch.
“All right,” I said. “Do what you have to do.”
Laish stopped and wheeled Kurex around so that we were facing the seething, teaming mass of spiders flowing down the mountain side towards us. He dismounted quickly and handed me the reins.
“If they overcome me, Kurex will take you to safety,” he said. “Whatever you do, do not leave his back.”
“Laish—” I began but he was already changing—swelling and morphing into the thing with black scales, steak-knife teeth, and a furnace in its belly.
I watched, numb with cold and fear, my hands gripping the reins, as Laish stepped forward to meet the flowing horde. There must have been thousands of them—tens of thousands. The white snow was black with their bodies. Even as huge and imposing as Laish was in his dragon form, I was frightened for him.
If his change into a massive fire breathing monster bothered the Skitterlings, they didn’t show it. They rushed forward, flowing like a horrible, hairy, many-legged tide and I knew it was me they were aiming for—me they wanted to kill. And Laish was the only thing standing between me and being swarmed and eaten by the awful horde.
“Get back!” he roared in that deep, inhuman voice. “The human girl is mine!”
They paid no attention—still they came and now I could see their individual heads and faces. So many of them and such strange mixtures—bird-spiders, goat-spiders, bull-spiders, grizzly bear-spiders…I even saw one as big as a fishing boat that had the head of a great white shark. That one was looking straight at me with flat black eyes, its jagged teeth gnashing in eagerness to get to me.
The shark-spider was coming faster and faster but before I could open my mouth to scream, Laish opened his. A vast jet of liquid fire belched from his glowing throat. He sprayed it back and forth, covering as many of the Skitterlings with it as he could, like a fireman working a fire hose.
All around piercing, hissing shrieks went up. The spider creatures curled into flaming balls, writhing wildly in the snow, trying to put themselves out. But Laish’s fire was like napalm—it stuck to their hairy hides and refused to be extinguished.