Page 184 of Mud

Except it didn’t happen quite that way because one of those eight fucking legs gotthisclose to my face while she fell and lost balance, and I panicked a little bit.

I panicked and cut the wrong threads when we were just a level above the surface of the water.

I fell in it together with the Madame.

It couldn’t be helped. I tried to hold on, but as if to spite me, the threads decided that they wanted to beslipperywhen I tried to hold onto them now—or maybe it was because of the handles of the daggers in my hands.

Water everywhere, ice-cold and almost weightless. Instinct moved me as my mind repeated,Taland made it, Taland made it, Taland made it,like some kind of a mantra, like it was going to save me. I pushed myself up with all my strength, and it was dark in the water, for which I was thankful. If the spider was right behind me about to slice me wide open, at least I wouldn’t see it until it was too late.

Air in my mouth and nose and lungs. I broke the surface, still alive, and I tried to stay up, tried to reach for the threads closest to me, my survival instincts still at it.

But they were too far. I couldn’t reach them unless I spontaneously grew twenty inches. That’s how close life was to me—twenty inches, yet a world away.

Then she broke the surface, too.

TheMadame. The house-sized spider that was going to eat me raw right now.

Eight wide blue eyes. Eight long legs, a mouth somewhere between those fucking eyes, and it was open, lined with razor sharp teeth as big as my fist, and she wasscreeching.She wascryingas she tried to reach for the threads, not even bothering to look at me.

Guess it was safe to say she was panicked, too.

“Rose!”

I could have imagined it, but my name in Taland’s voice filled my head, my mind still not made up on whether I wanted to try to fight the spider, or just give up and let her get this over with quickly.

But I looked up and sure enough, Taland was there, hanging onto a thread, reaching out a hand for me.

Close.Close enough that I could touch him.

I dropped a dagger in the water, and I grabbed his hand without thinking.

Taland pulled me up with such ease you’d think I weighed nothing at all. The threads of the web strained with the weight, but not him. He wasn’t smiling, and he looked murderous, but he put me on the threads and made sure that my legs were up, too. Made sure I wouldn’t accidentally fall into the freezing water again.

There was no time to be relieved, though, because unfortunately for us, the Madame was alreadyspittingsilk out of her body, creating a link to the nearest thread, because she was too unstable in the water to reach it with her legs.

Taland grabbed my chin and our eyes locked.

“Move as fast as you can.” And he pushed me to start climbing up the threads.

Forget freezing. Forget how heavy my wet clothes were. Forget everything because the spider was already climbing up, half her body out of the water.

Forget everything and just move!

I did.

Taland led the way, showed me which threads to grab and which space to move through, and maybe it was the fear, but it felt like we were up there again in the blink of an eye. Madame Weaver’s screeching cries were far,fartoo close to me for my liking, but if I turned back to seewhere she was or how fast she was moving, I’d freeze, so I didn’t.

I kept my eyes on Taland and on the other player who was already pulling her key out of the nest since we’d gotten rid of the spider for her. It was the Whitefire woman we’d seen before. Then Taland turned around and grabbed my arm and propelled me forward, closer to the nest, just as the Whitefire let go and fell, and the threads didn’t stick to her at all. She just fell all the way into the water.

We were next.

“Put your hand in there, now,” Taland ordered, and I did.

Without realizing that things weremovinginside that big ball of silky threads, I did.

Tiny spiders with tiny legs that tried to break free—they were all in there. So many of them. Black and blue and white.

So many, and my hand was inside the nest.

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