Page 157 of Vasmora

He stepped away for a stretch of the wall adjacent to the vault and drew a circle with his fingers, then set his hand in the center of it, as he called upon Eidolon’s dungeon. On the other side, gray stone walls and familiar statues flickered into view. He returned to the door, resuming his place, the spider growing impatient as it beat against the other side.

“Go!” he ordered. “Go now!”

Allura swiped up Calisza’s arm and tugged her toward the shimmering portal, through which they both stepped.

Dolion let out a sigh of relief and screwed his eyes shut. Giving one more heave of the door, he released it and darted across the room, not daring to pause before he jumped through the portal.

His feet hit the stony floor of Eidolon’s dungeon and Dolion’s knees buckled beneath him. He turned back to the portal in time to see a leg push through. “No!” he cried out, backing himself away.

A scream tore out of Calisza, and before Dolion could summon his own Nexumis, Allura cast her hand outward, a blue glow flashing across her palm.

Fluid shot through the portal, striking her palm, and she cried out as the acid sizzled across her flesh.

As Dolion raised his hand to summon the Aeryz glyph, the spider slipped through entirely, the portal sealing behind it, and the gale of wind meant to throw it back into that vestibule knocked the creature into the wall next to the door of Branimir’s cell.

Unfazed, the spider scrambled for Dolion again, and he kicked himself backward.

Fangs twice the size of the creature’s head struck down from above it, sinking into its skull, as a much bigger spider attacked first. Branimir emerged from behind his colossal pet, studying the foreign spider as it twitched.

When it finally stilled, the larger predator quickly consumed it, leaving behind only a soft exoskeleton that collapsed to the floor in a heap.

“Oh, gods, no.” Dolion kicked himself backward. “That spider was infected with plague.”

Branimir swung his attention to the beast looming over him and backed away. The spider shuddered and stepped toward him. “Stay where you are,” Branimir commanded, holding out his hand.

It stepped closer, refusing to follow its master’s command.

“Back away!” Branimir’s voice thundered, and still the beast lurched closer.

It sprang upright as if preparing to pounce on him, and as it shot forward, its body froze mid-lunge. Black carapace crackled as a pale gray slowly crawled over its gleaming surface, the color moving up its bulbous abdomen like frost. Its legs twitched and slowed, its exoskeleton turning to glittering granite.

Dolion twisted toward Princess Calisza, whose glowing glyph confirmed she’d killed the creature. For the second time, Dolion let out a shaky breath, holding his palm to his chest to calm his heart. “I am too old for this shit.”

“It was plague, you say?” Branimir glanced back at Calisza and quickly looked away.

“Yes. The Umbravale has fallen.” Dolion glimpsed the remains of the infected spider. “Strange that he never sensed the bigger predator. Is that common?”

“No.” Branimir affectionately ran his hand down the spider’s leg, his brow furrowed. “They’re sensitive to movement. Unless it’s one of their own.”

“Interesting.”

“What is all the ruckus down here?” The sound of Rykaia’s voice took his attention toward the corridor, where she stood chomping on an apple. When her gaze fell on the giant stone spider in the center of the room, she startled then frowned. “What in Nethyria is this?”

Branimir groaned, rubbing his head as he made his way back toward the door in the floor and disappeared below.

“A souvenir, you could say,” Dolion answered, resting his elbow against his bent knee as he paused to catch his breath, before pushing to his feet.

Rykaia stepped closer and tore another bite of her apple as she examined the stony creature. She shook her head and whistled. “Zevander is going to be furious when he sees this.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

MAEVYTH

The ever-present darkness that loomed overhead skewed any perception of daylight, even when the forest’s canopy broke for the open stretch of sky. The sun was nothing more than a smudge of darkness, a shadow of itself, where it sat behind a veil of ominous clouds. Violent waves crashed against the narrow shore of the Australius Channel, the sea heaving and thrashing like an angry leviathan.

“Couldn’t travel by ship, even if we wanted to,” Daelan remarked beside me. “Not with the waves lookin’ to claim something with all that restless smashing about.”

The horizon stood somewhere beyond the thick mist, the ocean immeasurable and boundless. Impossible to imagine crossing it in mere hours. We’d abandoned our horses at a nearby farm run by an acquaintance of Lothare. Which meant the trek would be entirely on foot.