In addition, we needed to maintain the illusion that we were still in our chambers. If any servants came by, or indeed Layna herself, the others could excuse our absence by saying that I’d taken two of my favorite women to a more secluded spot so that, to be blunt, we could fuck. Layna understood that the beautiful women in my party were more than just allies and warriors. This came with the additional advantage that, even as part of a hypothetical story, the idea of a threesome with these two gorgeous ladies had been put out there. And once a good--no, a great idea is let loose on the world, how long does it usually take for it to be put into action?
As for how we planned to kill the spiders without getting ourselves killed or triggering a mass counter attack, well, we had a pretty novel idea on how to get that done, courtesy of Isu and her knowledge of the giant spiders of Aith. It was such a brilliant idea, in fact, that we didn’t even need weapons to achieve our aims. I kept Grave Oath sheathed at my side just in case, of course, and strapped on my wrist crossbow with its Tree Magic darts.
According to Isu, the human bodies hanging in spider cocoons all over the city were spider food, although many of the Arachne themselves enjoyed munching on certain cuts of human flesh too. While the giant spiders had very robust digestive systems, certain substances were extremely toxic to the behemoths. Indeed, if they ingested them, they would quickly die. One of these substances was the fruit certain trees that grew in the oldest district of Aith.
Isu’s plan was simple, but particular aspects of it would be a challenge to pull off. We were going to sneak through the city and to the trees. After that, we would climb a few towers and cut down two or three cocooned corpses. Isu said the sewers were near the trees, so we could go there to complete the rest of our plan. In the sewers, we would retrieve the corpses from their spider silk tombs, smear the corpses with juice from the fruit, then stuff the fruit down their throats and up their asses and other cavities for good measure. And for a laugh, which always helped on tense missions with high stakes. A second bit of fun would be to resurrect the fruit-doused corpses as zombies and send them walking into the spider pens.
Isu had explained that the spiders were like attack dogs trained to kill humans. The sight of a human walking casually into their enclosure would set them off right away. They would, of course, attack the “humans,” but every spider that managed to bite one of my poisoned zombies would soon be on its back, twitching in its death throes. Hopefully, enough of them would be killed this way for me to resurrect a substantial force.
Moving through the city unnoticed was easy enough. The layout had barely changed since Isu had lived here, and as it was freezing cold in the mountains at night, most of the Arachne stayed indoors after dark. A few guards were patrolling the streets, but Rami-Xayon and I were able to use our stealth experience to slip by them unnoticed, even with Isu trailing along behind us.
After about half an hour of sneaking through alleys, climbing through half-ruined buildings, and jumping from rooftop to rooftop, we finally reached the park with the trees that bore poisonous fruit They were strange, twisted things, strings of root hanging down to the ground like beards.
“If these trees are so poisonous to spiders,” I said pensively, “why didn’t the Arachne just cut ‘em all down?”
“These are spider-root trees,” Isu explained, “and there are few drinks the Arachne love more than spider-root tea.”
“Ah, so Layna wasn’t trying to poison us.”
“What?”
“She offered to bring us all some spider-root tea earlier.”
“A common courtesy offered to guests of the Arachne. You should have accepted. The effects are quite… pleasing.”
The way Isu said that, and the glint that entered her eye, made me think that this spider-root tea did more than merely put a smile on your face. I made a mental note to try a mug when all of this was over.
I climbed up into the tree and soon found a few fruits. They were bright pink, and they looked kind of like spiky peaches. I was about to pluck one with my bare hands when I paused, my fingers hovering inches from the fruit.
“So, Isu, these things are deadly poison to spiders,” I said, “but uh, are they also poisonous to us?” Sure, the Arachne made tea from the fruit, but there could have been some process that removed the poison from it beforehand.
Isu chuckled. “No, they’re quite delicious, another reason the Arachne never cut these trees down.”
Sure that it was safe, I plucked a few fruits from the tree and tossed them down to Rami-Xayon and Isu, who caught them and stuffed them into the little cloth bags we’d brought along. There was still plenty of bad blood between Rami-Xayon and Isu, and on more than one occasion while we were sneaking through the city, I caught them firing glares at one another, but for the moment, they rose above this rivalry.
“That’s enough now,” Isu said after a while. “Now the easy part’s completed. Are you ready to go pluck some larger, fleshier fruit?”
I smiled at her not-so-bad attempt at a joke. “I sure am.”
We reached the base of one of the towers with cocoons easily enough.
“All right,” I muttered, staring up at the sheer walls of the cylindrical tower. “It’s been a while since I’ve done a climb like this, but it shouldn’t be a problem.”
“Choose
