I backed away as the girl and the spider approached. “What?” I asked, shocked. “Cyren, why are you doing this? What’s going on?”
“I cannot allow you to be here any longer.”
“Then we will leave,” Heidel said. “You have no reason to kill us.”
Her eyes flashed bright red in the moonlight, and it was then I got the impression she wasn’t telling us everything.
“Cyren, tell me again why the bloodthorn did not kill you?”
She glided forward as the spider followed. “I have told you—I hid from him beneath my bed.”
“That is odd, though, don’t you think? It killed all your people. It had more than one opportunity to kill you, but it didn’t. Why is that?”
Her eyes narrowed. “I have told you enough already.”
“Who are you really?” I demanded. “Why did the bloodthorn let you live when it killed all the others?”
She moved forward without answering.
“What is this creature that follows you now?”
A smirk caught her lips. “You will soon find out.”
She moved aside, and the spider leapt at us. Curved, chitin-covered claws tipped each leg, and it thrust them outward. Kull struck at the legs as it darted up. Suspended on its web, it disappeared into the trees.
I held tight to the knife, feeling my magic beg to be set free, but I didn’t dare use it. There was a chance we could all end up dead if I released my powers.
A clicking sound came from the trees overhead. We stood, blades at the ready, when the monster dropped to the ground and swiped at Heidel. She jumped back, avoiding the full brunt of the attack, but the claw managed to gouge her wrist.
She clutched at her wounded hand, dropping her knife, but she grabbed it up again quickly as she backed into the cover of the trees. Once again, Kull exploded with a powerful attack, driving his weapon at the beast’s legs.
His blade severed a leg. The monster’s humanoid face contorted with pain as it let out a soundless scream. Instead of retreating, it barreled forward, its remaining legs swinging scythe-like at the Wult warrior.
Kull lashed out, severing another leg before the creature once again returned to the trees.
Cyren cried out in frustration. “Stop injuring it! You’ll only make it angrier.”
Kull stood tall, smiling a leering grin that looked almost animalistic. “Let it come!”
Dark droplets fell from the tree canopy, landing in puddles on the leaf-strewn forest floor. Clicking sounds came from overhead, though it was difficult to tell where exactly the creature was located.
Heidel found a handkerchief and tied it around her wounded wrist, keeping her blade clenched between her teeth. After tying a tight knot, she removed her blade from her mouth and held it tightly, then turned as the rustling leaves came from directly overhead.
“There!” she said as the spider dropped fast.
One of the spider’s humanlike arms grabbed me around my waist and lifted me up. The overpowering stench of decay came from the beast’s rotting flesh. I screamed as its grip tightened and made me drop my knife, so I kicked as hard as I could into the exoskeleton, but the creature didn’t flinch.
A sword flashed in my vision as the world spun. The monster let out a high-pitched shriek, and I heard one of its limbs fall to the ground, yet it still held me tight.
I kicked again, and suddenly the arm lurched, ripping free from the spider’s body. A loud rushing wind filled my ears right before I hit the ground hard, the ripped arm landing beside me. My breath left my body, leaving me panicked as I tried to inhale.
Finally, my lungs recovered, and I took several deep breaths. Stinging buzzed through my body as I rose onto my hands and knees, trying to make sense of the chaos. The spider was on the ground, and I had to turn away as Kull stood over it and hacked the thing to pieces.
Soon, the sounds of the spider’s screams stopped. Heidel stood beside me, and together we walked to the center of the clearing where Kull stood over the spider’s remains.
There was no sign of Cyren.
Bile rose in my throat as I glanced at the decimated creature, black fluid slowly pooling on the ground around it. I tried to pull my gaze away, but something out of the ordinary caught my attention. Surgical thread lay in ripped bits on the body and spread over the grass.
I knelt to inspect it more closely, nudging a piece of thread with my knife. “This is odd.”
Kull knelt beside me. “What do you make of it?”
“It’s possible this creature was created in a lab of some sort. If it had been transformed by magic, then I see no purpose for the thread. This is surgical thread, meant to hold flesh together.”
I searched the area for a better specimen and found one of the humanoid arms. The thick thread had been laced through the skin in neat, precise stitches around the shoulder’s skin.
Heidel stood near us as she also examined the pieces of thread. “It is very unusual. Who would have created a creature such as this? And why?”
“The elves were experimenting on the goblins in the outer isles,” I answered, “but I didn’t see any evidence they were conducting tests on any species except goblins.”
“Then who was conducting this experiment?” Kull asked.
“Whoever it is, they must somehow be connected to the bloodthorn, but as of yet, I’m not sure how.”
“Cyren seemed to know more than she was telling us,” Heidel said. “Perhaps we should track her down and get our answers.”
“I’m not sure it would do any good,” I said. “She knows these woods much better than us. She grew up here. Finding her would be a problem, and then we would have to make her talk, which would also be a problem. I’m not sure if we have time for all that.”
“I agree,”
