Page 84 of Eldritch
So many!
“Maevyth! They’re…going to catch…us!” Aleysia’s words were broken by wheezing breaths, her grip of my hand going lax.
“Keep…going! Don’t look…at them!”
One of the spiders darted alongside us, and I threw out my hand for Aeryz, knocking it away. A massive shadow passed over top of us, and the two of us skidded to a stop as the largest leapt into our path.
“Oh, God. Maevyth!” Aleysia’s hand trembled in mine, and I glanced around to see the spiders circling us, trapping us.
An unbridled fear hooked itself in my gut, intensifying when they all reared up on their hind legs and made a strange chittering sound with their teeth. I held out my trembling hand, knowing damned well there were too many to take on, on my own.
A streak of warmth on my forearm drew my attention to the silvery metal embedded in my scar.
Raivox.
Gods, I hoped he could hear me on this side of the Umbravale. I closed my eyes, imagined that magnificent glyph,and opened my mouth, breathing the high-pitched whistling sound into the air.
At first, it arrived low and raspy, like the first night when I’d spoken in the cottage, but it quickly sharpened into a pitch that had Aleysia slapping her hands over her ears.
The chittering grew louder. One of the spiders broke formation and scurried toward us. I knocked it backward with a powerful thrust of the Aeryz glyph.
Two more followed suit. The spine glyph burned inside my thoughts. I threw out my other hand, and the whip hurled out of my palm on a thump, snapping the spider closest to us. Instead of retracting my hand, I spun it over my head, the end of it knocking the second spider off its path.
“Maevyth!”
Face to face with the largest, I drew back my arm, yanking the whip back into my palm, and thrust out my hand again. One hard snap sent bits of carapace flying, along with two of its legs.
The creature let out a high-pitched screech, and two bat-like wings sprouted from its back.
Aleysia screamed, and it jumped into the air until it was looming over us.
“Run!” I took hold of Aleysia’s hand and sprinted toward the road, through the large gap between the spiders. Throat hoarse and body numb from cold and fear, I held back tears as I heard those damned things tearing over the snow after us.
Closer. Closer.
I’m not dying here. Not like this. I won’t die like this!
It was futile trying to outrun them. Instead, I slowed my pace and turned to face them once again. The whole horde of them formed a line only a couple of meters from where we stood.
“What are you doing!” Aleysia’s panicked voice was a distant thought, as I curled my hands into tight fists.
Where was that voice in my head?
Morsana! Help me!
Nothing more than silence answered my plea.
Please!
The creatures lurched, and my thoughts snapped back into focus.
Once again, I called on the bone whip, thrashed it around my head, and snapped at whatever target I could hit. The spiders closed in, crowding the two of us in a tight circle, just as before. I hurled the whip, sending carapace and legs and guts flying about, splashing blackness across the snow. In spite of my stiff muscles, I kept my arm moving, maintaining a shrinking halo of safety between them and us.
I won’t die like this.
I won’t die!
An ache bloomed in my shoulder, the weight of the bones growing heavier. As the spiders advanced, I swung out, desperate to keep them from swarming us, but the circle grew smaller, while I grew wearier. Some of them perished, but there were still too many to fight myself.
