Page 105 of When Ashes Fall

“I’ve seen a couple, but not many,” Zephyr whispered back.

As I turned to survey the room, I wondered how many sets of eyes were staring back at me, assessing the situation and calculating their next move. I had to find a silkfang before they left the kingdom… or perhaps they didn’t plan to leave at all.

“What’s going on?” Gizzi whispered.

I had no idea why he was being so quiet when the spiders couldn’t hear him. “I have to find a living silkfang as soon as possible.”

“Zephyr, can you fly into the rafters to see if you can spot any. If you find one, bring it to me, but make sure it’s alive.”

“Can I bash myself into the wall instead?” he inquired.

“Right after you bring it to me.”

“Do I really have to touch it?”

I worried that if he touched one, it might cause some venom, or whatever the spiders contained, to secrete on him. “If you can get a jar and get it into the jar without touching it, that would be preferred.”

“I can do that.”

He turned and flew away. I continued searching the rafters as Gizzi leapt onto the tree and scrambled up through its branches.

“What are you doing?” I asked him.

“Looking. There’s not much more venomous than me.”

“That doesn’t mean you’re immune to venoms.”

He stopped and turned to me. “My skin’s a lot thicker than it looks. It takes a lot to get through it.”

“Just be careful.”

“You don’t need to be careful when you’re as good as me.”

I rolled my eyes as Zephyr buzzed back into the room. He shot into the rafters with a jar and spoon in hand.

He searched the shadows as he flew across the beams while Gizzi continued through the tree. Gizzi’s movements caused more leaves to fall, and the last of the flowers settled on the ground, but I didn’t stop him. This was more important.

I glanced back at the hole in the floor and the silkfang embedded in it. No, not a silkfang… something designed to resemble it. Which meant it was also designed to appear beneficial while sowing an insidious poison throughout the kingdom.

How did I miss this?

How could you have known?

That inner voice was completely right, but I couldn’t shake the guilt enveloping me. There was no way I could have known the spiders hid a deceptive secret, but I should have looked more closely at them when things started going wrong around here.

Why? You haven’t seen one in weeks, and in the history of the kingdoms, silkfangs have always been good.

Again, that little inner voice was as reasonable as ever, but the guilt remained.

That’s because you know the truth. If the spiders are the reason the roses and the tree are dying, it’s because your mother sent them here.

And there it was. While I couldn’t blame myself for not suspecting the silkfangs, and I wasn’t responsible for her actions, it was my mother who’d somehow done this. I did not doubt it.

“I’ve got one,” Gizzi said. “It’s trying to run.”

“Be careful,” I cautioned.

He was at the very top of the tree. The spider must have settled there in the hopes of going undetected, but it couldn’t know Zephyr wasn’t the only one looking for it.