'No!' she said, her voice filling the enclosed space. 'Don't you dare put your hands on me!'
As a spider standing on six of her eight legs, the woman was taller than Borran Kiosk, almost to the point of bumping her head on the ceiling rafters, and she was almost four times as large. She struck with her other forward leg, slamming into the mohrg's chest and head with incredible strength.
The impact lifted Borran Kiosk from his feet, though if Borran Kiosk chose not to be moved, not much could move him.
He flew across the room, mind working with lightning speed, and slammed against the far wall. He broke through the thin boards that covered the bare bones of the wall and stopped against the inside of the outer wall without breaking through. The impact fractured his left femur in two places, the breaks quite apparent.
Borran Kiosk threw a hand out, a spell already on its way. He watched the giant spider bob and weave at the other end of the room. The realization that she was afraid of him soothed the mohrg's nerves like a healer's balm. He was more in control of the situation than he'd expected.
His anger vanished, replaced by triumphant humor. In the past, his peers had pointed to those quicksilver mood changes as proof of his madness, but he knew he only looked on the world in a manner different from most. He closed his hand, stilling the destructive magical energies he'd almost unleashed.
Borran Kiosk grabbed the edges of the wall and extracted himself. Debris from the shattered wall rained around him, but he ignored it. His left leg moved awkwardly as the broken ends of the femur grated against each other. He reached down then spat his tongue out.
Wrapping the broken bones in the thick purple tongue, he used the magic that was an inherent part of what he'd become. Pain flared through his leg for a moment, then was gone. When he removed his tongue, the femur had been healed and nothing remained of the breaks.
Borran Kiosk raised his fierce gaze to the werespider and said, 'You're afraid of me.'
The huge spider shifted back and forth, scuttling on the tips of all eight legs, the fat body hanging ponderously between them.
'You are evil,' Allis accused.
'And what are you?' Borran Kiosk advanced on her.
'I am a servant of Malar.'
'Then why fear me?' Borran Kiosk asked, continuing to walk toward her. 'I, too, walk in the Beastlord's shadow and serve his wishes.'
'I don't fear you.'
'You lie,' Borron Kiosk said, letting his tongue whip through the air. 'I can taste it.'
The spider retreated, pressing up against the wall behind her. She was too large to attempt to go through the door or any of the windows, and returning to human size would weaken her.
She said, 'You live only to kill.'
'As does Malar,' Borran Kiosk said.
'That is but one aspect of his nature,' Allis objected.
'A very important aspect.'
The spider reared up on her four back legs, flattening against the wall. She held her four front legs before her, raised to defend herself if necessary.
'Malar called me here to help you,' she said.
'Malar doesn't speak directly to someone like you.'
Borran Kiosk stopped in front of her. He shook broken pieces of boards and splinters from his bloody priest's cloak.
'Who?' he asked.
The spider didn't hesitate. 'I can't tell you,' she said. 'If I did, they would kill me.'
Summoning a fireball, Borran Kiosk held it dancing in his fleshless palm. The heat was intense. He heard leftover cartilage in his hand pop and crackle, surrendering to the heat. The fire couldn't actually harm him, but the effect of the crackling sounds on Allis was immediate.
The spider shivered and drew back, the flames of the fireball reflected in all of her eight eyes.
'What do you think I will do?' Borran Kiosk whispered.
The cold, dispassionate words hung in the emptiness of the room. The spider shifted, and for a moment Borran Kiosk thought she might try to escape from the building. The thought of a gigantic spider suddenly scuttling across the rooftops of Alagh?n amused him. Everyone in town would assume it was his handiwork, and in a way it would be.
'It is a group of wizards,' Allis said. 'They serve Malar, follow his bidding, and work to strike against the Emerald Enclave.'
'Wizards?' The thought excited Borran Kiosk. 'Compatriots, then?'
The promise of allies held a certain allure, but it might also mean having shackles. Since his return from the grave, Borran Kiosk had known no master and recognized no peer save for Malar. Meeting other wizards who served the Beastlord was not something Borran Kiosk looked forward to with any relish.
'No,' the spider answered. 'You'll find no friends among them. The wizards serve Malar for their own desires, and the only company they want is their own.'
Starting to feel pain from the magic flame, Borran Kiosk put his other hand over the fireball, extinguishing it. He was certain the werespider didn't know extinguishing the fireball showed greater power than creating it. Unleashing destruction was always much simpler than harnessing the same energies.
'Return to your human form,' he commanded.
Allis hesitated for a moment, then she quivered and slowly dwindled into herself. In only a short time, she stood naked before the mohrg.
Even though much of the way of the flesh had deserted him, Borran Kiosk still felt a hint of desire stir within him. The werespider was a beautiful woman, and standing before him as she did while totally defenseless made her even more desirable.
'How did you come to be part of this group?' Borran Kiosk asked.
'They recruited me,' she answered.
'How?'
'By blackmailing me. And they made sure the Emerald Enclave knew of me.'
'Knew what?'
'That I am dual-natured,' she answered.
'Why should the Emerald Enclave care?'
'They think that lycanthropes who were turned rather than born are an abomination against nature and should be forced into one nature or the other or killed outright. Those born into the life naturally are tolerated as long as they remain true to themselves.'
'The wizards are lycanthropes?'
'No.' Allis kept her gaze directed over Borran Kiosk's shoulder, as if she were staring through him. 'They all practice necromancy.'
Borran Kiosk laughed, and the harsh, bitter sound echoed in the room.
He asked, 'A league of undead wizards?'
'They aren't undead,' Allis said. 'At least, not the wizards I've seen, but they are all evil. The Beastlord offers them power, just as Malar offered you power all those years ago.'
'The power didn't come soon enough,' Borran Kiosk said. 'I was unable to assemble the jewel in time to use it against the druids of the Emerald Enclave.'
'Your task remains to assemble the jewel,' Allis said, and the sparkle in her eyes told Borran Kiosk that she delighted in telling him that. Attempting it would surely draw the wrath of the Emerald Enclave down on him, though the fear never quite left her.
'You are to call down the destruction,' Allis said, 'that Taraketh's Hive will open for you. Once you have done that, the druids will be driven from Turmish-perhaps even farther beyond before they are able to gain mastery over the jewel's power.'
Anger twisted inside Borran Kiosk. He spat out the thick purple tongue, tired of tasting the bile that seemed to hang in the air. 'I do not do their bidding.'
Allis lifted her chin and rebellion fired anew in her eyes. 'You will.'
