‘Who is Alpha?’asked Slivver.
‘He was myfamiliar.’
‘Oh.’ saidSlivver. ‘and he died?’
‘No. I tradedhim for my cousin’s life and I was cheated. I lost both him and mycousin.’
‘Well don’tworry about me then.’ replied Slivver.
‘I’m notstupid. I won’t let you trade me for some worthless female.’
‘Watch yourwords Slivver! My cousin was not some worthless female.’ he saidquite venomously then
‘Could I have alittle mental peace. I’m trying to get us out of here!’
‘Okay, okayI’ll keep quiet. It’s always the same. I get no thanks for helpingand all the blame for disasters. I’ll just sit here and let you getyourself into more trouble and I won’t lift one of your fingers toget you out of it.’ he said sulkily.
Aquitainscrambled around the cell then up the walls and across the ceilingchecking for gaps or weaknesses. It was all the same type of deadmagic rock and there was no easy way out. He would have to wait forthe guards to open the door and then somehow surprise them.
He sat clingingupside down on the ceiling for some time thinking of all sorts ofelaborate plans to incapacitate two large Elendari guards when hismind wondered back to the Crin.
He had onceasked one of them how they would incapacitate a large dangerousanimal and they said they would use a sticky net. Here he was aspider and hadn’t thought to use a net. The more important questionwas did he have enough skill to make one. He had had one go at itbefore and messed it up getting sticky web all over himself. Thistime his life depended upon it.
For the nextthree hours he spun web, both sticky and non-sticky and by trialand error eventually managed to produce two sticky webs that wouldbe about the right size for catching an Elendari guard. He thenmade a non-sticky version and practiced throwing it around thecell. Glammer came back and very quickly realized what he wasplanning to do. She again zipped away this time without saying aword.
About an hourlater, in flew Glammer all excited.
‘They’recoming, they’re coming and there’s three of them.’
‘Oh no, I’veonly got two nets. This had better work or I’m dead again; thistime probably permanently.’
He heard thefootsteps plodding down the corridor. He could hear the sound ofmetal tapping against armour. There was definitely more than thetwo that came last time.
He positionedhimself on the wall above the door. He had shaped the chaos matterinto a hollow shell roughly the shape of a gnome lying on its sidefacing the far wall.
With luck whenthey used the torch to look in it would look like a gnome sleeping.Since there should be a spider in here, hopefully they would runover to see what had happened and he would get a chance to netthem. Surprisingly, Glammer flew down behind the decoy just as thedoor started to open.
Two guards andthe guard officer peered in one holding a torch above his head toshed more light into the cell.
‘Go away andget some real food. I don’t like eating rats.’ said the decoy.
The officerpulled out his sword and ordered one of the two guards to go in ahave a look at the gnome that should be a spider. The one with thetorch walked over to the decoy and the other guard stepped into theroom stopping immediately below Aquitain.
This is what hewas waiting for. He dropped on top of the guard below him holdingsticky net with four of his legs. He completely covered the guard,leaped to the floor then ran back up the wall again. The nettedguard yelled and the one with the torch spun around to see what washappening just in time to see Aquitain scamper up the wall.
‘The bloodything’s tricked us. It’s grown legs and has run up the wall.’ heshouted as he grabbed for his sword. Before he could pull it out ofits scabbard he felt the prick of a small weapon in the back of hisneck. His eyes went blurry and the room began to spin. He droppedto his knees and fell face forward unconscious. No one noticedGlammer dart quickly back behind the decoy with a small dagger inhand.
The officertried to pull the net covered guard out of the cell but the nettingstuck to the wall, the floor and the officer himself. Aquitainswung the second sticky net out through the door further coveringthe net-covered guard and partly over the officer who swore loudly.He then followed it, climbing out the top of the door opening andran up the wall on the outside. His nets had done their job. Now hehad to incapacitate them.
The officer sawhim climb out the door and swung his sword around ready to stab athim. He had no doubt that this was going to be dangerous. He couldeasily get skewered here. The officer was probably a much betterfighter than the guards and didn’t seem to be afraid at all. He randown to the floor and the officer followed him with his swordextended, all the time trying to remove the web with his otherhand.
Moments laterhe was staggering and falling forward, Glammer had stabbed him inthe back of the neck. Unfortunately for her he had flung hisweb-covered arm backwards when he fell forwards and she was caughtin the net and dragged down with him.
The net coveredguard realized that he was the only one conscious but couldn’tescape so he began to scream loudly for help. Aquitain didn’thesitate; he scrambled over to the guard and bit him on the necksquirting poison over his fangs as he did so.
The guardscreamed at first as if in pain then over the next few seconds wentrigid, foamed at the mouth, shuddered all over and stoppedbreathing.
‘Whoops. Toomuch poison, I didn’t expect it to be that strong,’ he thought.
‘Anyway I’dbetter keep going. If anyone heard that noise they’ll comerunning.’
Fortunately, noone seemed to hear the shouts so he was left to tidy up the mess.He moved over to Glammer and carefully extracted her from the net.She was very scared of him touching her and flew out of reach assoon as she was free.
‘I have helpedyou get free. Please release Llalorax.’
Aquitain noddedbut decided that it was more important to
