The Claw sprang into action, tumbling into the center of the fight and raking his blades down the entire length of one tentacle. A single long slice of flesh fell from the creature's body, the suction cups making a slight squish as they hit the floor.
The head attached to that tentacle hissed and reeled back, releasing Evelyne from its grip.
The Claw ran to the other side. Jabbing out with his fists, he pierced the snakelike hide and jammed his blades deep into the tentacle. The creature let out another hiss and pulled back, letting go of the half-elf's other arm, but yanking the Claw off his feet-his gauntlet jammed deep inside the beast's body.
The Claw was dragged across the filth-strewn floor, reddish-brown guts flying everywhere, as he tried to pull himself free. The creature flailed, its hissing turning into more of an angry screech as it flung him side to side, trying in vain to dislodge the bladed human. It smashed him into the ruined half bodies of the giant spiders, sending them rolling and wobbling across the uneven paving stones, leaving a trail of gore behind.
The creature slammed the Claw against the wall-upside down. Pulling himself over, he kicked his feet into the air, bracing them against the solid stone. With all of his might, he yanked down on his blades, using the wall as leverage. His razor-sharp gauntlets slipped through the flesh and came out the other side, and the Claw fell to the floor, finally free.
The round, rubbery abomination pulled back. Its tentacle was almost completely severed in two. Wrapping it against its body, the head hissed in the Claw's direction. Then the entire beast convulsed, its round core expanding and contracting in an undulating motion. Its eyes, protruding from its body on narrow stalks, darted this way and that, scanning the entire room.
Lowering its body close to the floor, it seemed to strain its muscles, as if laboring with something difficult. The pillars it held between two powerful tentacles cracked under the pressure, sending stone and dust tinkling to the floor. With one final push, the creature opened its backside and deposited a huge, silvery-white sack on the ground. Then the beast retreated, gripping the pillars with its tentacles and pulling itself through the room.
Ooze dripped from the side of the sack, and it began to move. Something inside poked at its edges, making strange shapes in the stretchy, elastic sides of its cocoon. Then a hole appeared, and a pair of long thin tendrils slipped out, forcing the opening to widen. Two more tendrils, then four more after that, groped their way out as the sack was turned inside out and a large spider appeared.
Maybe half as big as the smashed vermin whose guts were now caked on the flagstones of the chamber, this new spider had silvery legs that ended in bladed tips-natural swords attached to each of its eight spindly legs.
Evelyne dashed past him, grabbing his shoulder. 'This way!'
Rolling back to his feet, the Claw followed. He didn't need to be told twice.
Evelyne led him deeper into the room, hugging the wall. The tentacled creature was on the other side of the chamber. The Claw could see it through the pillars as they ran. Its body opened to deposit a second silvery sack on the ground.
Behind them, the spider's legs tapped out a rhythm of sharp clicking sounds as they scampered across the floor. Evelyne dashed ahead at full bore, her arms pumping. She was quick, so was the Claw, but the spider with its eight legs was faster, and it gained ground.
They reached the corner of the room, the spider bearing down on them. It was dark here, darker than the rest of the room. Even the purple glow from the ceiling didn't reach into the recesses of this chamber. Evelyne gave a quick look over her shoulder, then dived head first into the darkness.
The Claw was startled. What sort of magic was this? She'd led him into the farthest corner and disappeared, trapping him behind a spider and a spider-making monster. Slowing his pace, he steeled himself for a tough fight.
If he ever found this Evelyne again, she was going to be very sorry she-
'Don't stop! Just jump.' Evelyne's voice came out of the darkness, coaxing him on. It sounded hollow, almost echoed, as if she were inside a well. 'Hurry!'
The spider was nearly on him. It ran with six legs, swiping its front two out trying to corral him. Not having much choice, the Claw leaped into the dark corner, the spider's limbs nearly on his back.
Flying through the air, he braced for impact, half expecting that he'd knock himself cold running full speed into a brick wall. But instead, he slipped right through. A large chunk of the wall was missing here in the corner. The absent piece was broken in such a way that it was covered perfectly by the shadows.
Jumping from the solid stone into dark nothingness was tremendously disorienting, and the Claw opened his palm, trying to see where he was before he impaled himself on a piece of stone-or worse, another spider.
He fell for a moment longer, then his magical light revealed the dirt floor. It came up fast, and he crashed to the ground with a tremendous thud.
'Not very sturdy there, are you?' said Evelyne, helping him to his feet.
'You might not think that,' he replied.
'That wasn't bad fighting back there,' she said, with a wink. 'Maybe I won't kill you just yet.'
'Thanks,' said the Claw. 'I appreciate that.'
They were inside what amounted to a large hole in the brick wall. The floor was big enough for four or five men to stand around comfortably without bumping into each other much. The crack they had jumped through was up high in the wall, maybe twice his height from the floor. He could just make out the faintest bit of purple glow, rimming the broken stone above him.
As he looked on, the spider's legs shot through the opening, probing the air and the stone.
'Are we trapped in here?' asked the Claw.
'No. There's a passage,' she replied, taking him by the arm. 'It's small, and we'll have to crawl, but it'll lead us out of here.'
'What about the spider? Holes in walls seem like the last place we want to fight one of those things.'
'It won't leave that room. It's bound to the deepspawn that created it.'
Jess Lebow
Obsidian Ridge
The Claw looked up at the spider. So far it wasn't making any real attempt to follow them, only waiting at the opening.
'So that thing's called a deepspawn?' he asked.
'No,' replied Evelyne, dragging him toward the crawl-space. 'It's called Clusterfang.'
'A deepspawn with a name.' He was shoved toward an opening in the wall, down near the floor. 'I can't wait to hear this story.' Dropping to his knees, he held his palm out and followed the light into the darkness.
Chapter Nineteen
Everything shook. Only slightly, but it shook all the same. The walls hummed with power. The floor swayed like the deck of a ship on a gentle sea. The chandeliers, 'decorative reminders of a time long past, swayed gently, constantly.
Resting his bone-thin arm on the chiseled obsidian throne, Arch Magus Xeries twirled the stem of his wine goblet between his fingers. He watched the red liquid inside swirl. Its surface trembled, never smooth, shifting like everything else.
On the dais in front of him, an image fluttered-Erlkazar, the plains of Llorbauth. His pets gathered below, waiting. And they would continue to wait, just as he would.
He had not been patient as a younger man. He had, in fact, hated waiting for anything. In truth, he didn't much like it now. But as an immortal, waiting had become a simple fact of life.
He had grown better at it, through practice. He had had a lot of practice waiting, though he wasn't as rash and reactive as he had been long ago. There was a limit to all of his learned patience.
Xeries was approaching that limit now.
'Do you remember our first ride through the countryside here?' he asked, not taking his eyes off of his wine.
'I've… never been here before,' replied a weak, shaky woman's voice.
Xeries turned his attention to his left, where his wife, his queen, sat. Their thrones were carved from the
