Page 38 of Moon Chosen

“Wolf spiders! Back-to-back, Mari! Wait for my signal!”

Leda was shouting and all thoughts of stealth flew from Mari’s mind as surely as did the homey, perfect picture of reassurance she was transmitting to Rigel. Thankful for the years of drill and practice Leda had insisted on, Mari automatically pressed her back against her mother’s as she and Leda moved in tandem, unstrapping the goatskin bags from over their shoulders, breaking the wax seals, and lifting them to their mouths.

“Hold, Mari. Hold. Ground yourself. Be apart from the danger and madness—just as you’ve practiced—just as you’ve done. And remember, I have your back. I’ll always have your back.”

Mari breathed deeply and slowly as the horrible humming vibrated through her body. Her mother’s signal seemed as if it was never going to come, but Mari felt oddly calm, almost detached as she waited. Mari took a deep pull from the goatskin bag, holding the strong mixture of saltwater and lavender oil in her mouth. Using the preternaturally sharp night vision that she had inherited from her mother, Mari scanned the area around them, trying to see through cloaking night to the predators that were stalking them.

Then the humming stopped and the world around Mari exploded into chaos and danger.

Leda nodded, but Mari didn’t need her signal. What had looked like a clump of fallen leaves only seconds before had shifted, turned, changed, and become a spider the size of a squirrel that gathered itself and then leaped at Mari’s face.

With a cry that was equal parts rage and fear, Mari spat her mouthful of saltwater and oil at the creature, soaking its face and all eight bulbous eyes. The spider fell harmlessly past Mari as it writhed in agony and hissed like a hot coal being doused with water and she stomped on it, feeling the satisfaction of crushing its pulsating body.

“More coming!” Leda warned her.

Mari drew another mouthful of the concoction that blinded the hunting spiders and managed to fumble in her pouch to draw out her knife before the next creature hurled itself at her. Mari spat the spider poison, hitting two of them, and followed by quickly kneeling and stabbing the flint knife through each of their writhing bodies.

“Remember, no running. That’s what they want us to do.” Leda spoke quickly but calmly before drawing another mouthful of the liquid. “Keep walking. Slowly. Together. I’ve got your back. You’ve got my back. Do you have a full skin of repellent?”

“Yes,” Mari assured her.

“Then we have enough to hold them off if we don’t panic.”

“I’ll move with you, Mama. We’ll make it home—I know we will.”

“Get ready. More are coming,” Leda said.

Mari readied herself as the sickening humming vibrated through the forest around them. She was lifting the goatskin to her mouth as the next wave of arachnids materialized from the darkness.

There was a ferocious snarling and snapping, and Rigel was suddenly there, fighting through the tightening noose of spiders to press against Mari’s side.

Leda spit a spray of repellent at the attacking horde, soaking three of the creatures and knocking a fourth from her arm and stomping it into the ground. Mari did the same, stabbing two with one swipe of her blade.

“Stand over Rigel,” Leda said, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. “Don’t let them lure him away from you. They get Rigel alone and they’ll wrap him in their web so the nest can devour him.”

Mari stole one moment to hug the pup to her before she positioned herself so that she was standing over Rigel, her back still pressed against her mother, telegraphingdon’t leave me, don’t leave me, don’t leave me…over and over to the pup. Rigel growled low in his throat. His attention was riveted on the skittering darkness around them, but he was pressed against Mari’s legs reassuringly. “Don’t you worry, Leda. He’s not going anywhere.”

A new wave of arachnids descended on them, and Rigel fought with Mari, snapping up any spider that got past the repellent and Mari’s knife.

“As one, we move forward. Slowly, carefully, Mari. Between attacks on my word,” Leda said, but before she could signal her daughter, light bloomed on the path ahead of them and first one man carrying a torch, then a line of them, rushed toward them, batting at the spiders with clubs.

“There are female Scratchers in the path! Grab them and let’s get the hell outta here!” came a Companion’s command.

For half a heartbeat Mari froze, thenthey will not take Rigel away from me!screamed through her mind and she bent to scoop the pup into her arms. She was already moving as she grabbed her mother’s arm, pulling Leda with her off the path, when something big and powerful shoved her, so hard that Mari fell forward, taking Leda and Rigel with her. She curled into a ball around Rigel, so that as she hit the ground she was protecting the pup. Before she had even stopped rolling, Mari was reaching for her mother when the shout cut through the night to them.

“Run!”

Scrambling to her knees, Mari looked up to see the big man standing where she and her mother had been. Spiders swarmed over him as he used his fists to batter them away. And beyond him the torches drew ever closer.

With a sense of unreality, Mari watched Xander’s gaze find her. Then his eyes grew huge with disbelief and disgust, and she remembered that she was clutching Rigel in her arms. Xander’s head began to shake, back and forth, back and forth as he stared at her incredulously.

“It’s a male! Kill it!” a Companion shouted at the same time a frightened scream split the night.

As one, Mari and Xander turned toward the scream in time to see a Companion holding a torch high, and dragging Jenna behind him.

With an inhuman cry of rage, Xander raced for his daughter. He ignored the spiders that sprang on him, covering his back, neck, and head. He ignored the Companions that sighted crossbows at him. And, even for a while, he ignored the barbs that struck him, over and over. Mari counted a dozen arrows buried to the feathers in his body, but he was still running toward the man holding his daughter.

“We can’t help him. Run, Mari! Now!” Leda’s frantic whisper brought Mari back to herself.