Jake yawned as he raised his head up. Opening his eyes, he took in the sight of Serena sleeping peacefully next to Asbiorn in cat shape. It looked so strange that he could watch nothing else for some time.
When he finally could pull his eyes away, Jake found himself wondering where Shyla was. He’d talked to Brian the night before and knew which room she would be at, so moving quietly as if her were stalking prey, he moved all the way to the end of the hall where his friends were sleeping. There , in the final room on the left, was an immense oak door, painted blue and yellow, and locked by the means of a stone bench placed across the entrance (as the door, by some curious chance of construction, opened outward into the hall instead of in).
Jake removed the lock carefully and noiselessly and opened the door, finding the inner locks left unengaged, as they had required.
Inside, sleeping very peacefully, Shyla sprawled on a goose-down mattress set inside a huge four-poster stone bed with slightly moth-eaten sheets.
The blankets and sheets had been found last night in their wanderings tucked away inside a stone chest carved with runes that Brian and Rachel said were runes of protection. While slowly becoming a student of the dwarf writings himself, he doubted he could understand a quarter of the intricately carved letters on the chest.
Again Jake marveled at the completeness of the dwarf city and how it always seemed to provide when they most needed it. He had no doubts now about surviving any disaster if the worst came about; they’d be able to find all they’d need.
Replacing the locks, Jake made his way back to the entrance hall. He felt hungry now and he chiefly wanted something to eat. Afterwards, he felt he’d visit Nacomi to learn anything more about their guests.
After all, there is so little we really know about them. Maybe Nacomi could dig something up from the internet, he reasoned. It wouldn’t hurt to check.
After devouring a couple of sheep he found lost deep in the forest, Jake went on to the city.
As he neared the apartment, however, a commotion further on distracted him and he passed over his objective and headed, instead, towards the series of lights flashing like a convention of red and blue fireflies.
He soared perhaps a mile into the sky to remain unobtrusive, and to avoid the helicopters flying around three hundred feet beneath him. Yet, for all his height, he could read every scrap of paper as if it were a mere foot away.
A large sign out in front of a cluster of buildings beneath him read: WELCOME TO FOREST GLEN COMMUNITY COLLEGE.
This isn’t that far from the edge of the farm lands, Jake realized, looking further around the college.
The farm lands started at the westernmost edge of the city and spread out for a hundred miles or more north, south or west before tapering off into true wilderlands dotted by small towns or farms until the next big city, about four hundred miles north and slightly west. It consisted of an insane patchwork of dairy farms, cattle ranches, tree farms and large tracts of logging lands. Rivers, small lakes and streams dotted and meandered through on their way to the sea.
Having a better grasp of where he was now, Jake returned his attention to the activity below him. It was a veritable anthill of police, technicians and reporters milling around. He wondered why, had a bomb threat been phoned in? Had an attack happened by extremists? He could see several damaged doors where the technicians were clustered around in large groups, but they had more the look of forced entry then bomb damage, and there were no bullet holes to indicate an attack that he could find.
Jake circled in baffled bewilderment for a long while before returning to his original objective. Fortunately, it seemed almost dead and empty, so most people were probably heading out for the weekend. That would make things easier on him.
In the nearly deserted courtyard of the complex he found Nacomi pacing nervously with her cell phone in hand.
“Come on, pick up! Pick up!” she kept muttering as she completed one pass and spun around to start another.
“Nacomi, what is wrong?” Jake asked quietly. He allowed a small patch of his snout to become visible so she could see him.
She honed in on him immediately.
“Jake! Thank the Great Spirit you’re here. It’s bad, it’s really, really bad.”
She kept on repeating “It’s bad, it’s really, really bad” for some time; gesturing wildly and pacing frantically in front of him, not letting him speak while at the same time not telling him anything useful. Jake found it maddening, and at last broke in.
Placing his paw in front of her, she rammed it and bounced off.
“Nacomi, what is so bad?” he asked while she rubbed her nose with a slightly ticked look on her face.
That look vanished to be replaced by dawning comprehension.
“Of course! You don’t have a phone or TV!”
“It’d be kind of hard for me to use.” Jake agreed dryly.
She lightly smacked his snout. “Don’t be a smart-aleck.” She scolded. “But for your information, nearly a hundred people disappeared from morning class period at—“
“—Forest Glen Community College.” Jake finished. The flashing lights made sense now.
Nacomi looked at him in surprise. “Yes! How did you—“
“I spotted the lights while flying in to see you this morning.” Jake told her.
Nacomi cocked her head. “Why were you coming to see me if not about this?” she asked.
Jake remembered his reason for coming to the apartment this morning. Shortly, he recounted the story of Shyla and their need for information about her. Nacomi had a stunned look on her face when he finished.
“An actual witch,” She muttered, “and a new store of black magic. This is not good.”
“No kidding.” Jake said gently. “So, can you help us out in looking up her information?”
“Sure, my sister—oh my gosh! I almost…Jake! My sister was at Forest Glen this morning for a lecture! Her company made her go!” Nacomi squealed.
Jake reared his head back, startled. He hadn’t known that!
“Nacomi, I—I don’t know what to say.” Jake admitted.
“Just find her!” Nacomi pleaded.
“All right. I’ll go, but I’ll have to take you to the Fortress first.” Jake said firmly. “If this is a human attack, I need to make sure you’re safe. If it isn’t…same thing. Anyway, I’ll need the others’ help as well.”
“But we could be running out of time!” Nacomi urged worriedly. “We need to go now.”
“Whoa. No. I’m going alone.” Jake said. “I’ll have to get pretty close to the campus in order to find out anything. That’s going to be tricky enough without you adding to the difficulty. No, I need you to get to the forest as quickly as you can. Once under the boughs call Serena’s name over and over as loud as you can. Add Lady of the Forest to it, if you think it will help. Regardless, the message will make it to her ears, I’m sure of it. Have her look into the pool and find out what happened and where those people are. She’ll come find me and we’ll go get them back.”
Nacomi looked like she wanted to argue a few moments longer, but at last nodded and ran back to her apartment without so much as a “good luck”.
Jake took to the sky, having to carefully climb to the roof again. He’d just gotten too large to safely take off inside the courtyard, or land there without leaving some sort of sign of his passing. He hoped no one noticed the unusual dimples in the corner of the building, or his secret would be out.
In the air, he headed immediately to the college. Instead of soaring to height, however, he stayed low to the ground and swept towards the lights.
Below him, he noticed a sudden wind whip up in front of his passing. Some sort of bow wake, he wagered. Whatever it was, it was enough to bend trees over and make hanging traffic lights dance wildly against their lines, while passerby shouted in surprise and bent forward in the unexpected gale.
As he approached the college, he noticed a helicopter circling close to the buildings with the local television studio painted on the fuselage. When he passed it, the helicopter spun helplessly like a top and nearly fell from the sky. Managing to right himself, the pilot took the helicopter away, heading back towards the city and its landing pad, Jake didn’t doubt.
I’ve got to be more careful, or I’ll get spotted.
Jake angled for a more controlled landing at the very edge of the college. He landed as gently as he could, but the noise from his wings sounded terrifyingly loud in his ears. He circled noiselessly and started to make his way in, listening intently for whatever scraps of information he could catch.
Dragons have excellent hearing, and he was able to catch every conversation on the campus. He quickly isolated one from the rest and focused on it.
“I don’t understand how anyone could take sixty-two people and not leave some sort of trace.” A frustrated male voice said.
“I know chief.” An equally frustrated second male agreed. “But that’s what the techs say. Well, what they say doesn’t make any sense. No bullet casings, no video, no security cameras! Whoever attacked this place was smart. They somehow cut the feeds to all the cameras almost at once, and then overran the guard house first. They moved so fast that there’s no sign any of the guards got a single shot off. Not even Tasers; they were still plugged in and charging, I checked. Then they took the rest of the campus as quick as you please and got out before the sun came up or anyone else pulled in from the lot.”
“Don’t we have any witnesses?” The chief almost pleaded.
“None.” The second voice, who Jake assumed was a detective, spoke flatly and almost disbelievingly. “The attack was early enough in the morning that few people without classes or work were up, and everyone that was working had left already. There wasn’t even a jogger nearby.”
“What about the traffic cams? Surely they caught something?”
“Nope. Checked there too. Some friggin’ spider spun a dense web in front of the lens. Not sure what he was trying to catch, but the techs say he’d been pretty good size when they shooed him off.”
“You’ve gotta be kidding.” The chief said unbelievingly. “A stupid spider fouled up the only working camera in the area?”
“Yep.”
A moment of silence followed, while Jake crept in closer and closer, ascending to the rooftops from one of the pathways.
“Well,” the chief said heavily. “I can’t keep the vultures away forever. At least I can quash the ‘hundreds taken’ rumor. You know, this is almost as bad as those messes with the National Forest lately.”
“Yeah. Still no word on any of those, either.”
There came a big sigh, and then the sounds of footsteps walking away. Jake stopped focusing on them and let his attention encompass the whole campus again. Several times he found variations on the same conversation, but nothing really interesting at all until;
“Hey! Julie, look at this.”
“What?”
“I swear I was just over this patch of ground a few minutes ago, but look at this concrete path now. It’s been pushed into the ground several inches, and the concrete’s broken.”
“So?” the pretty alto voice asked in annoyance. “Steve, we’ve got more important things to think about.”
“No, you don’t understand. I was just over this patch of ground. Julie, this wasn’t here five minutes ago, I’d swear it. Something is odd here. I think we should take a closer look.”
“All right, Steve. Why not? Not like we’ve found much anywhere else, just some odd holes in the ground and a strange hair the labs are trying to analyze.”
Oops, Jake thought. He hadn’t realized how much of an imprint he’d made. He needed to be more careful, he berated himself. If he didn’t take better care, then he’d get caught.
A slight change in breeze brought an odd smell to the forefront of his attention. He couldn’t identify it, although something about it triggered feelings of grim anger deep inside. He started to grip the building he was standing on, causing chunks of brick to fall down beneath him, almost on the techs working on the doors.
There was a chorus of shouts and screams as they scattered for cover. Jake ignored them; the smell was imprinting itself on his mind, bringing an almost-recognition feeling to his mind. Whatever had created the smell was something that his dragon body did not like in the slightest; an enemy that he’d encountered before. Or at least, the dragon whose claw had changed him had.  
He continued to sniff the air for signs of where they had gone. Soon, he discovered a trail that seemed a little stronger than the rest of the campus, leading away from the buildings. He thought that could be the direction the creatures had come from.
With a boom of his wings that made people duck and look around wildly, Jake launched himself off the building and soared in the direction the smell had gone.
Leaving the baffled and bewildered crowd behind (they hadn’t seen him, but his antics had told them something had been there), Jake landed far past the campus. The smell was still strong here, but he feared he wouldn’t be able to follow the scent from the sky, so he risked losing them. He couldn’t see anything else that would hint at the passage of a large host, except for some curious holes in the ground. Deep and round, they looked almost like the holes left behind from tent pegs.
Jake puzzled about them for some time, but remained mystified to their origin.
No one would plant so many tent pegs in the ground, even when they had stopped, and certainly not while on the move. Yet there they are in a straight line towards the edge of the farmland.
Jake shrugged to himself. He’d find the answers further on, he didn’t doubt, when he confronted whatever they were to battle and brought them down.
That he would win he didn’t doubt, which he realized later sounded pretty arrogant, but it was true. No thought of defeat entered his mind, only concern that the battle would take so long as to render any aid he could give Sam and the other victims useless. The thought made him hurry as quick as he dared, so as not to miss a single turn the path took.
He treaded through pastures devoid of cattle, empty patches of forests that should have been filled with game yet remained silent, and over rivers and streams. There, at least, he found fresh signs of activity beyond running; the creatures or whatever had pulled several logs together at each crossing into a simple bridge and bound them together with a strong silver rope.
Jake wanted a moment to study the rope, but he was painfully aware of how long he’d already taken; the sun had started to sink below the clouds, turning them a blood-red hue. Somehow, it did not bode well, he thought.
At long last, he came to a particularly large patch of trees that stretched several miles across and who knew how many in front. It was, he didn’t doubt, a harvest plot planted by a logging company. The trees were all young (he didn’t see any that had achieved the century old mark) and straight. Soon they would all be harvested…if whatever had taken refuge there didn’t interfere. Directly in front of him there was a wide passage that had been trampled through the dense brush.
Jake paused to catch his breath and look for any hidden traps or tripwires that could doom his efforts. He didn’t find any, and he continued on, remaining camouflaged to increase his chances of catching his foe off-guard.  
 
#

Jake walked carefully along the path, trying to remain as quiet as he could on the cover of fallen leaves, broken branches and snapped brush. Most of the path had widely spaced, deep holes in the ground, looking nothing less than a series of tent pegs had decided to get up and take a walk. From this sign, the almost musky smell he’d been following emanated. The smell made him feel...uneasy. Not afraid, but keyed up, ready for anything.
My dragon instincts are talking to me again, he thought. I wonder what the message means now? I'd wish they'd be clearer at times, or that scents and, well, everything else came with an instruction manual!
He suppressed the thoughts; they distracted him from his primary goal, after all. Yet, his mind stubbornly continued to go over the facts of the case so far. He wondered what would have managed to overwhelm sixty-two people. They weren't kids, after all. Many of them were probably in the ROTC program even. They'd at least by a trifle more difficult to take down then a normal civilian, he thought. But the fact remained that something had taken the earliest classes from the campus and disappeared into the morning gloom without anyone being able to get a call for help off. It seemed utterly impossible, yet it had been done. He’d leave the how up to the police, for now he had to remain worried about the who. He didn’t think it would be human, whatever it was. The planning was certainly an indication that it was, but the scope, speed and utter lack of normal human tools used in such things were all utterly against it being carried out by human or robot.
He wondered for the thousandth time if he shouldn't fly and search for them and just as quickly rejecting the idea. The path had swerved several times already, so if he took to the air and missed a point where the trail turned away, he would lose far more time than if he stayed on the ground near the scent.
Fortunately, his long legs allowed him a surprising speed on the ground, even while staying quiet, and he managed to keep up a strong pace that devoured the miles in a very short amount of time. It wouldn't be long, he felt, before he caught up.
He looked at the trees around him; they were primarily of fir and spruce. Very similar to his sister's woods, but these had a darker feel to them. Fouler would be a better word perhaps. He thought it very strange that an entire forest would feel that way, and it only got worse the further in he got.
He noticed a few of the trees had abnormally sized webs connecting them, huge strands of silk stretching from trunk to trunk with vast numbers of finer threads running between them in mammoth nets, filtering thousands of insects out of the air, as well as the occasional bird, lizard, bat and squirrel.
Jake paused at one such catch; a little songbird that had been caught in the web and was struggling for all it was worth, chirping heartbreakingly in despair. Jake freed the creature carefully, shooing a set of spiders that, had he been human, he would have stayed far away from. They were the size of tarantulas, and he thought they must have been so, perhaps an invasive species brought in as pets and released when the owners didn't want them anymore; their bodies were black with gold and red stripes running in beautiful patterns.
People are far too careless with their pets. They don't realize the harm they can cause the balance of the forest when they bring them out here to get rid of. They really should know better.
Jake growled softly to himself, not noticing the song bird perching on one of his cheek spikes. He'd need to tell Serena about this, perhaps she could do something to restore the balance. Send them home or something where other predators would keep their numbers down.
Ahead of him the trees seemed to be closer together, joined by more and more of the greater webs and darker than the rest of the forest and through occasional breaks in the canopy he could make out a morose cliff rising nearly a thousand feet above him, its crown heavily encrusted with trees and boulders.
Jake stopped, studying the land ahead. The trees were getting closer together, he saw, but not because they were planted too close together or acorns had fallen and sprouted; no, they were pulled together up at their tops by silvery nets that closed the top of the trees like a solid roof, leaving the ground in shadowed darkness. Several had died from the rough treatment, and their dead corpses were left suspended in the air, held up by their companions and unable to fall.
The smell of rot was in the air; dead flesh, mold, crumbling wood and something else, creating a nauseating mix that made his stomach rebel.
What is this thing? Jake wondered. He knew he’d found the heart of the problem, the nest perhaps, but he still wasn’t sure what could have done it all.
Moving absolutely quietly, he eased under the branches, his eyes rapidly adjusting to the failed light and letting him see clearly the hordes of tiny spiders everywhere.
There were spiders on the trees, crawling along the ground, laying webs along leaves of bushes or strung between branches. The place seemed almost white as snow from the silken lines, giving it a bizarre feeling of a haunted forest in the dead of winter.
In the heart of the cluster of trees, Jake discovered a small clearing had been created by the simple expedient of knocking over several smaller trees and then stringing the tops of larger trees close together to close the canopy overhead. So many lines connected overhead that it seemed an almost solid white dome had been constructed in the forest, with the trunks of trees growing straight out of the roof. Along the ground were bits of bones, shattered pieces of antler, a smattering of old boots and rags. Jake realized that they were clothes, some still inhabited by pieces of their former owners.
Seeking to control his gorge, he looked around wildly for the victims from this morning. At last he found them, suspended forty feet in the air by webs and cocooned until only their shapes were visible.
“What have we here?” A voice hissed in the dark. Jake whipped around, focusing on the source. He found that one side of the roughly oval clearing touched the cliff face, which was pockmarked with fallen stones and a single, gaping cave large enough to run an elephant through. In the dark of the opening, red eyes gleamed bright and unblinkingly at him; lots of eyes.
“Two red eyess, floating above the ground and glowing. How curiousss, esspecialy ssince nothing elsse can be sseen. What are you, I wonder? A tassssty morsssel perhapsss”
Jake dropped the camo; it wouldn’t be of use here anyway, curse his eyes! Now standing revealed, he let out a terrific roar that shook the trees and made the cocoons jounce and sway, though they remained unmoving.
“Release your prisoners and surrender, or I will destroy you.” He threatened.
“Hssss! A dragon! Sssso, you have found that ssstore asss well.” The voice spoke slowly a few minutes later.
Jake jerked slightly. “Do you mean to say you are Roland’s victim as well?” He asked slowly.
“Roland? Who isss Roland? I am ssspeaking about that witch, Melinda.” The voice snapped.
Jake felt his eyes narrow. “Then we are not talking about the same store.” He spoke slowly. “But it shouldn’t matter. You shouldn’t hurt innocent folk—“
“What innosssence?” The voice hissed again, this time Jake could hear a solid clack of jaws moving. “No one is innosssent. No one isss guilty. There isss only prey. Prey for me and my children.”
“Children?” Jake asked. He glanced around again, noticing for the first time, that there were eyes watching him from the edge of the clearing…lots and lots of unblinking, red eyes.
“What are you?” He demanded.
There came a crash and the shaking of earth as an enormous spider, fat-bodied, with two bony crests running up the back until they met in a V close to the join of the front portion to the grotesque abdomen. There eight huge legs joined up just behind the face where as many as a dozen eyes glared at him above four terrifying jaws that glistened with poison. A scraping sound dragged his eyes down, and he noticed a long, fleshy clear tube dangled at the back and slowly retracting, glistening with slime.
“What are you?” he whispered in horror.
“I am Casssandra! Queen of the Sspiderss.” She snarled. “And I will kill who I wish, when I wish. Sssoon I will cover thiss world in a sssecond darkness, and all will bow before me.”
Jake could see there was no reasoning with the maddened creature. Setting himself for battle, he growled “I will make sure that day never comes.”
“Then die, dragon.” The spider chittered a command that Jake didn’t understand.
Immediately, hundreds of smaller spiders, Jake assumed that these were the “children” spoken of, rushed into the clearing. They were fast; nearly as fast as a horse galloping, but much more deadly than any horse ever envisioned.
Jake shot a jet of fire that roasted the closest spiders on his right, the flames and smoke enveloping all of them on that side, but that left the ones on his left. They collided with him, knocking him off balance as they swarmed up his body, fangs striking his scales in a desperate search for a soft part to sink their fangs in.
Jake jumped up and fell hard on the ground several times, dislodging some of the spiders and crushing several more, but there was always one more climbing on his back or trying to grab his wings.
He snapped on one spider that had gotten too close to his head, feeling the armor shatter under his teeth and a hideous green liquid squirted into his mouth, leaving the worst taste imaginable in it. Jake wanted to throw up, but instead he simply dropped the dead spider and continued the fight.
He seemed to be winning, he thought with some relief. The numbers seemed much less, and the attacks were losing some of their force.
A hammer hit his right side and hurled him from his feet, sending him sliding into the trunk of a tree. He felt bruised and winded, wondering what had hit him.
Movement caught his eye, and he saw Cassandra charging him, her jaws gaping wide to snap down on him again.
He rolled, avoiding her rush and leaving her to run smack into the tree and up it; spiders couldn’t turn while at speed, it seemed. Jake filed the knowledge away; it would be useful he knew.
The two combatants circled, Jake snapping and snarling fiercely to keep the other at bay and Cassandra seeking any opening to attack him. Her remaining army stayed at the outer limits of the fight, their numbers reduced but still formidable.
In the midst of the standoff, a songbird flew into the ring, chirping wildly. For whatever reason, it attracted everything’s attention, and they stared at the little fellow as he spun and bobbed in the air.
Realizing the precious distraction the bird had afforded him, Jake recovered and rushed his opponent silently. Biting down on three of the legs, he yanked hard, causing the spider to shriek in surprise and agony. As she struggled to remain upright, the legs tore away, still wiggling slightly in Jake’s mouth.
Spitting them out, Jake turned to deal with the onrush of the smaller spiderlings as Cassandra began to limp back.
She was retreating! Jake realized. She’d try to escape and come back for a later match up.
He found himself in a mental quandary. She’d been human, and a victim of the black magic shop that had turned her into a monster. She might not even be in full control of her body, the spider’s instincts taking over her normal thought processes. On the other hand, if he let her go, she could try to rebuild her army for a second showdown. With the callousness she’d already shown to humanity, she could hurt a lot of innocent people and creatures.
Jake made his decision. He jumped over the remaining spiders and rushed at Cassandra. She saw him coming and tried to turn and face him, hissing warningly.
Jake smote her with his fire, causing her to shriek in pain and agony. Blocking out her voice and whimpers, he kept up the attack, trying to finish the fight quickly. Too late.
Her brood, what was left of them, swarmed over him like ants on a caterpillar while he struggled to finish her off. Their savage bites slid off his scales in many places, but his wings proved more vulnerable in the end, and red drops of blood began to appear on the ground.
Realizing that he had to face the brood or lose his wings, and possibly his life, he let off his attack against the badly scorched and wounded mother, and faced off against her children.
To get rid of the ones on his back, he started to roll on the ground like a dog. Not dignified, perhaps, but it worked like a charm; those that were not crushed into a slimy, gooey paste were forced to jump off and scurry away for their lives.
When Jake regained his feet however, he discovered that Cassandra had somehow managed to pull herself free of the fight and disappeared.
Where the hell did she go? He wondered. He looked distrustfully at the dark mouth of the cave. Could she have gone in there?
At that point, however, he had no more time for wondering as the last of the spiders had come back. Somehow, however, they’d seemed to have been reinforced. Much larger versions of the lean-bodied spiderlings he was used to facing had come to aid their brothers; these looked more like giant orb spiders like the ones he used to see in his backyard sitting on webs, waiting for a tasty fly or droll bee to get caught in their webs.
Jake bared his fangs, feeling his fire stoking up again. He’d need all of it to stand against this rabble! There was no doubt in his mind that they’d soon overwhelm him with sheer numbers, and that brought the question to his mind on how Cassandra had managed to breed so many so fast.
The spiders started to move in warily, chittering in excitement as he let them draw ever nearer. To his disappointment, however, the spiders started to circle him, seeking to ensure that some of their number got through. He had to act now!
He scorched the front ranks of spiders, letting the smoke billow behind in a nauseating stench that obscured the forest beyond as it billowed into the sky. The rest of the horde charged in, mad and angry.
Thunk! Thunk! Two arrows filled the eyes of one of the spiders and it fell dead on the ground. There came a drumming of hooves and then Brian and Rachel soared over his tail in a prodigious leap. Their bows sang death one more time before they slung them on their backs and drew their swords in one smooth motion.
Charging the ranks of badly surprised spiders, they crushed several underfoot while their blades sliced legs, gouged eyes and stabbed through armored bodies with ease.
Spiders shrieked and turned to face the new threat, but Asbiorn came in on the right in catamountain shape, tearing at their vulnerable eyes, biting at their legs, crushing their bodies under his titanic paws and tossing their corpses almost casually away.
Jake gained a second wind and he thundered into the fray with searing flame, gnashing tooth and slashing talon. Bodies fell before them and the spiders fell back in dismay, several of them ascending the trees to get away from the group. Some made for the bundles, apparently seeking to take them away from the carnage while others fought to distract Jake and his friends.
If they get away now, who knows what will happen to those poor people. And Sam! Nacomi will be destroyed if I let anything happen to Sam. Jake thought.
Jake reared into the air, extending his neck. He was long enough now that he could easily reach the bundles and the approaching spiders. They stopped when they saw him and started to retreat, but he burned them all and let the smoking corpses tumble from the boughs.
Only a dozen spiders remained now, the others dead or fled. Jake hoped he’d be able to find them all again. Even one spider that size alone would be dangerous, he thought. And what about Cassandra? Despite her appalling wounds, he didn’t think she was dead. She would be a menace for as long as she remained a spider. They’d have to stop her one way or the other, but right now he had to help her victims.
Jake turned his attention to pulling the bundles down from the trees as carefully as he could while Brian, Rachel, and Asbiorn dealt with the remaining few arachnids that defiantly stood against them.
Once the bundles were down, Jake could see that the cocoons were actually two sets per person; an inner cocoon of strong, almost slime-like, transparent inner silk that formed a second skin over the victims, suspended inside a much larger and denser outer shell that seemed designed to protect the inner from bumps, shakes, or other outside problems.
Most of the boys and men had been poisoned; some had already been partially eaten. Nearly all were dead and the seven or so that were left wouldn’t last much longer, in Jake’s opinion. Their pale, bulging faces stared unblinkingly up at him as he cleared away the last of the silk.
The other cocoons were much more puzzling to him. These had signs of slime around their stomachs, all of which were swollen like they’d eaten a ten-course buffet.
That’s really odd. Why would every woman on campus be pregnant at the same time? I’m missing something here.
The fight now over, he called Rachel and Brian to look at what he’d found. They approached with looks of disgust on their faces; the dead bodies were not pleasant to look at. Once they saw the living women however, they’re looks changed to horror.
“What is it?” Jake asked. He had the unpleasant feeling that he wouldn’t like the answer.
“One moment.” Rachel said shakily. “We need to make sure of our guess first.”
She bent over the first cocoon where a young woman of about nineteen or twenty lay, lightly probing the distended stomach with her fingers. Brian did the same on another. When they’d finished they came together and started to whisper.
Asbiorn walked over to him and sat, remaining in lion-shape. He growled angrily as he looked towards the cave. Jake nodded.
“You’re right. Regardless of what this means, we need to get Cassandra immediately. She’s too much of a danger to let live.”
Rachel looked up sharply. “Who is Cassandra?”
Jake explained in short sentences his meeting with the Spider Queen. When he’d finished, Rachel let out a slow breath.
“Of course. I never expected this, but it should have been obvious.”
“What?” Jake demanded. “Rachel, you and Brian are playing this awfully close. What’s going on here?”
“Are you familiar with arachnids at all, Jake?” Brian asked.
“Not really.” Jake admitted. “Just the ones that eat the bugs on my plants back at the apartment.”
“Right. Well, this behavior is more closely associated with wasps anyway. However, there was (or is, I forget which) at one point a certain arachnid that used live hosts in which to incubate its young.”
“You mean like the facehuggers in Alien?” Jake asked in horror, looking down at the impregnated people lying at their feet.
“Er…something similar to that, yes. Actually, the inspiration for that creature came from the deep sea and a type of parasitic creature that dwells more than a mile beneath the surface. But that’s as good a comparison as any. It seems that Cassandra has the ability to lay her eggs inside a host and expect them to hatch.”
Rachel looked up from her examinations. “Yes. The unusual factor is the fact that it appears to be only the females left like this. The males appear to be used solely as food sources. Why she would neglect other potential hosts…Anyway, judging from the mouths of some of the older cocoons here, I’d say that they were fed the digested remains; probably to keep the hosts fed and healthy.” She added disgustedly.
Jake shuddered at the inhumanity of it all. “What else can you tell me?” He asked with trepidation. He didn’t really want to know what he’d already been told, but if it was important he’d listen.
“Well, obviously we’ve only just begun to look. However…” She broke off and trotted to the farther edge of the clearing, looking down at discarded bundles that had been piled there. Some had been disturbed in the fight, but many lay where they’d been left. Taking her knife, she cut the fibers and looked intently at the contents, turning slightly green as she worked.
“Well, I think I can take another guess at things here.” She announced as she trotted back. Tears were in the corner of her eyes and she looked distinctly ill. “It appears that the spiders have been using the surrounding countryside for some time. Many of the bundles were cattle, deer, horses, and a few other humans as well. That would explain the numbers of spiders we saw. I cannot guess much more until I’ve had more time to look around, but I think we need to make sure we have all living people here right now so Serena can…where is Serena?” She asked, looking around in surprise.
Everyone turned, wondering the same question.
A chirping brought their attention to the edge of the trees just as Serena walked in. Her horn glowered brilliantly in the murky light of the clearing, banishing the shadows.
“Serena!” Jake said in relief. “Where have you been?! We need your help.”
‘I know, but your friend came to me and told me that the cave that Cassandra fled into had several exits. He knew where all of them lay, so we went and sealed them first.’
“My friend?” Jake asked in confusion.
‘Him.’ Serena pointed with her horn at the small songbird that was flying around the clearing and twittering excitedly. ‘He was quite helpful.’
“Well, thank you.” Jake said to the bird. To his surprise, the songbird landed on his nose and bowed! Then it took to the clearing and chirped gaily on a branch, snagging a pair of regular-sized spiders that were crawling along it for lunch.
Jake chuckled at the satisfied tweet of his friend before turning his attention back to the human victims of Cassandra’s treachery.
“Can you help them?” He asked hesitantly while she ran her horn down the length of the first one.
‘Hush. Let me work.’ Serena said distractedly, but not unkindly. Her sole focus now was on the victim in front of her.
The moment her horn touched the woman’s shoulder, her skin began to regain a healthier complexion. Yet at the same time, the stretched skin of her stomach began to writhe, like something was moving under the surface.
“Serena, hurry.” Jake whispered as he watched the brood beginning to hatch. The movements of the skin on the victim made him feel queasy.
‘I’m nearly done.’ She told him. At which point the woman’s stomach shrank dramatically, becoming flat and toned. Jake nodded in satisfaction. The woman would be safe now, as would all the remaining victims of…wait!
Jake realized that in all the cocoons he’d uncovered, he hadn’t found Sam! He quickly looked over all of them again. Nope, she wasn’t there. Nor was she amongst the dead, either. In fact, there were fewer cocoons than the sixty-five that had been taken. The spiders could have eaten some before hanging the rest, but Jake didn’t think so. That just left…
Jake stared at the cave. He’d known he’d have to go in it, but he’d hoped for a chance to put it off and rest. With the cave entrances sealed, there was no way for Cassandra to escape, and so he could wait and deal with her at his leisure. The discovery that Sam was still missing nixed that.
“Asbiorn, Brian, Tom.” Jake called them over. “Sam is still missing, as are several others. The police said there were sixty-five, and there are only fifty-eight here. She must still be in the cave, along with anyone else we’ve missed.”
“And Cassandra herself is still in there.” Asbiorn said thoughtfully in his man-shape. Jake nodded, thinking to himself about how cool that changing shape trick actually was to watch.
“We need to go in to get her now, before anything terrible happens.” Tom agreed.
“Right. And we should leave the others outside to deal with the victims.” Brian nodded.
“Right. Rachel and Serena can easily deal with any more spiders that come out.”
Brian looked up at him. “But I wonder, would you even be able to fit into those caves?”
Jake shrugged. “Cassandra did, and she’s almost as big as me.” He commented. “I may not be able to get down any passageway smaller than the entrance, but I should be able to get inside. After that? We’ll have to see.”
“Right. I would recommend that you go last then, in case there is an abrupt narrowing of the cave tunnel.”
Jake nodded. “Makes sense. Let’s go then.”
The four friends headed for the cave entrance, passing inside while the others remained caring for Cassandra’s victims.
The cave proved to be as spacious as Jake had hoped. Once through the entrance, the floor sloped downwards while the ceiling arched high into the darkness. Stalactites and stalagmites formed graceful columns in the dark, patches of water on them shimmering like diamonds whenever a stray beam of light hit them.
Once past the first gallery, however, obvious signs of habitation began to appear. Long silken threads ran along the walls like guidelines, while dense netting ran along the floor and ceiling, dulling their footsteps. Jake also knew that it was providing an early warning to their prey.
“She’s going to know we’re coming for her.” He warned quietly. His voice sounded muffled, the sound absorbed by the webbing.
“Yes.” Brian agreed. He fingered the feather of the arrow he’d set in his bow. “We must be cautious.”
They continued for several minutes, heading ever further into the cliff. Privately, Jake was amazed at the size of the cave; it seemed much larger than hinted at outside. At last they abruptly entered a huge chamber with arching wall and a large pool or lake in the middle.
A soft scrape from above was the only warning that Jake had. He dodged to the side, nearly trampling Brian who leaped away, as Cassandra fell down where Jake had just been standing.
“CASSANDRA!” Jake roared.
“Fool! To follow a ssspider into itsss lair!” she hissed furiously as she struggled to stand up and withdraw. The one remaining leg on one side worked furiously to keep up with its three brothers.
“He is not alone!” Brian said bravely, holing the feathered shaft to his cheek, point aimed directly at her eyes.
Jake could see that Cassandra wasn’t sure what to do now. The loss of three of her legs had rendered her almost helpless until her next molting, when he knew she’d grow them back. He had to end this now.
Before they could do anything however, give battle, threaten her into submission, or even speak, she made her next move.
“Well, if I can’t beat you thissss way, then perhapssss I can ranssssom thesssse.” And from behind her she plucked yet another bundle from the wall and drew it forward. To Jake’s horror he realized that it was just one of perhaps a hundred secreted through the cavern.
He immediately decided to bluff. “What makes you think that we would be willing to deal with the likes of you? We can find all the people you have taken after you are dead. In fact I think it would be easier.”
“She would die firssst.” Cassandra said warningly.
“Perhaps. But that is one life out of dozens, even hundreds. The rest you have already cruelly killed, anyway. What’s one more if the rest are safe?” Jake waited to see what her response would be, while his mind raced through the options available to him. Fire was the obvious solution, he could control it so that it only burned her and not the person she was holding. However, to get it hot enough to roast his intended prey thoroughly, he could warm the air around the victim considerably, which could hurt her in ways that he wasn’t prepared for. Still, the risk was low, he decided. He might risk it. But his intake of breath wouldn’t go unnoticed; she’d be able to kill the person inside before he could use his fire. They needed to distract her someway.
His empty words had the desired effect; the spider looked unsure of herself now. She retreated a single step backwards, her surviving leg seemingly barely able to move. Unless that was an act? He doubted she could move very fast even if she wanted too, but she could be playing up the wounds a little, to make them underestimate her. He vowed not to let that happen, and waited as tensely as a coiled bowstring as he chose his next words carefully.
“However…I am willing to believe for the time being, that you are a victim of the Black Magic shop and that the spider whose body you are currently inhabiting is actually in control of your actions. If you surrender now, and aid us in bringing everyone you’ve captured into the light and safety, we would be willing to let you live.” He offered. He watched intently to see what she would do, barely aware of the others looking at him like he was crazy.
Cassandra looked curiously at him, and perhaps a little hopefully at the offer.
“You would kill me after sssuch and arrrrangement.” She said.
Jake shook his head. “That we would not, we are honorable creatures.” He told her. “No, you would simply be under our eye to make sure that you don’t cause any mischief while we search for a cure.”
“You think I am disseasssed or sssomething?!” Cassandra shrieked in affront. “I am the Queen of Ssspidersss! Not sssome ssilly little ssschool girl”
Brian seized upon that. “A school girl? Cassandra, how old were you when you walked into the shop?”
“Why ssshould I tell you, horssse meat?” Cassandra snapped. “I don’t need to tell you anything.”
“No, but it offers you a few more minutes of life, assuming you don’t take Jake up on his offer.” Brian pointed out.
Cassandra seemed to think about this, and then looked at him. “Sssso, your name isss Jake?” She asked slowly. Jake got the uncomfortable feeling that revealing his name was a bad thing, but it was too late now.
“Yes.” He told her. “We didn’t have time for proper introductions I’m afraid. Nor do I think that this is the right place for such things either.” He added pointedly.
Brain coughed slightly in embarrassment, but Cassandra leaped at the chance to distract everyone for a while.
“Very well, dragon. I will tell my tale to you…much good asss it will do you. And I will make you thissss offer. I will not be a prisssoner, but nor ssshall I kill needlesssssly. We will both withdraw after I ssspeak, and after a ten minutesss, we can resssume our fight.”
“You will seek to escape.” Jake pointed out. “Thereby putting many more people at risk.”
“True, but I will sssswear to you that I will not attack any more people…for a while at least.”
“Ever.” Jake insisted. “Or I roast you now and be done with it.”
“All right. But in exchange for that warning, let me passs on another. Thingsss are not going to go all your way. A darknessss isss coming. One that will cover thisss earth and drive humanity from itssss lofty pillar. I had thought to be the bringer of that darknessss, to end the onesss that seek to bring it about. Now I will let it happen, and make my living on the outssside.”
“What darkness?” Jake demanded.
“Ah, ah, ah. That would be telling.” Cassandra chided. “It is enough that I told you. Asss my ex-girlfriend would sssay, sssserves you right!” As she said “ex”, it came out like the rest of her “s’s”, long and drawn out. Jake caught a hint of anger there, and began to get a hint of Cassandra’s backstory.
“So, your girlfriend dumped you.” He said aloud; he was trying to make her angry. Inwardly he was starting to put it together.
“No! I dumped her!” Cassandra clacked angrily, her jaws working in anger. “Sssheee wasss no better than a man anyway! Pathetic, angry, abusssive! The world isss better off without her anyway!” She desisted into angry ranting, the words coming so fast as to be one long hiss in Jake’s ears. He didn’t mind as he was using the time to learn more.
Cassandra had obviously been a lesbian, and had been in an unhealthy relationship. From the clues she dropped in her rant, Jake thought she might have been the dominant of the two, and the other girl finally stood up to her and got out from under her thumb. It had shocked Cassandra, and made her question herself, which she didn’t like at all. Also, she was virulently angry at men. Why remained a question, but it began to explain her odd behavior and strange selection choices for her brood.
But knowing her backstory doesn’t bring me any closer to understanding her choices to begin with. Were they a natural extension of her anger? Had she been on the path to becoming a killer even as a human, or was this something the spider part of her brought about during her change? Did becoming the Spider Queen finish pushing her over the edge? I have so little information here!
Jake didn’t know what to make of the hissing, spitting spider in front of him. If she was a victim, then despite the wounds he’d already inflicted on her, he should help her. If she was, as he suspected, a maddened killer looking to take revenge on the world, then he needed to stop her. But which was she?
Cassandra evidently realized how long she’d been going on, for she abruptly stopped speaking.
“Hah! You’ve let me go—hah!—on longer than I should—hah—have.” She panted.
“It seemed needed.” Jake said delicately. “Do you feel better now?”
Cassandra considered. “Perhappsss a little.” She admitted.
“Good.” Jake nodded. “It seems to me that it was over-due.”
He took a deep breath. A notion had occurred to him and he wondered if it would work. It would be his only shot at a different outcome than the one he feared, at least.
He lifted his head to give him extra height and increased the light from his eyes, banishing the shadow and revealing the startled faces of the assembled. His power was in his voice now, as noble and regal as a line of kings, as confident as a house full of lords.
“Cassandra, the evils you have wrought are unforgivable, regardless of your original intent. You have willfully done murder against the innocent, and performed far worse tortures solely for the sake of your own amusement.”
His voice cracked like a whip in the cavern, making it echo even despite its padded walls. Cassandra actually winced, lowering herself slightly as if in mute acknowledgement of the pronouncement.
Jake continued, softening his voice slightly.
“But even now, all is not lost. You can still walk into the light. It won’t be easy, I know, but it is worthwhile. You can work to atone for your past, and make a better future for all.”
All was silent for a moment. Then—
“KssSssSsss” Cassandra began rock slightly. It took Jake a full minute to realize that the whisteling pressur-cooker-like noise she was producing was actually laughter. She was laughing at him!
“A pretty ssspeech, wasssn’t it? I wassss almossst within your sssway there. However, I am not assss dumb assss you ssseem to think I am. I know what will happen to me if I ssssurrender. Incarsssseration, behind a plastic box with humansss all around and ssstaring at the sssspider freak.” When she said “freak”, her ‘f’ came with a horrible spitting sound and a spray of venom. Her jaws clicked angrily.
“No thank you! I will remain free or dead!”
With that declaration she stabbed into the cocoon she was holding with her fangs and hurled the body at them before darting down a tunnel entrance just big enough to squeeze her immense bulk through.
Tom sent ice hurtling at the fleeing spider while Brian dropped his bow to catch the cocoon before it hit the ground.
Jake stared down the hole in the cavern that Cassandra had gone down, trying to figure out what to do net. It’s smaller than I expected, he thought to himself. He didn’t think he could go after her, but he didn’t have to. Serena said that the caves were sealed, so she couldn’t escape him. Somewhere in the system, he would find her, and they would finally end this. In the meantime, he could help save her victims before anything bad happened.
The matter settled in his mind, he turned his attention back to the cocoon. He noted with some relief that the pretty, dusky-skinned woman was not Sam, but she had still been poisoned.
“Brian, get her to my…uh…the unicorn, fast. Tell her what happened. Cassandra can’t have escaped; she must be here. The rest of us will look for her.”
Brian nodded and carried his burden swiftly away. Tom lit up a small ball of blue magic and darted down the tunnel Cassandra had taken before Jake could stop him. Asbiorn, in man-shape, shrugged and followed quickly, having to stoop to keep from bumping his head against the ceiling. Jake took the roomier tunnel on the left, hoping to discover a crossway or weak wall where he could smash through and find Cassandra.
For three days they looked, searching all of the many tunnels, rooms, galleries, larders, and lairs but never finding the spider.
Tom discovered a tunnel on the far side of the cave system that led out into a narrow gully outside. Thought it seemed too small for Cassandra to use, Jake didn’t doubt that, like an octopus, she’d somehow managed to do so.
During their searches, they came across dozens of human victims lying in neat bundles, some with already hatched baby spiders feasting and some without, and hundreds of animals. The baby spiders were killed with fire or frozen with water, depending on who found them, and taken outside for healing and release from their silken prisons.
Serena healed them all in mind and body, laying an enchanted sleep over them after she’d finished nursing their wounds. The clearing looked like a giant sleepover now, with people sleeping comfortably in sweet dreams.
One hundred and two people were pulled from the cave, including Sam. Of that number, eighty-nine were women. Jake was hardly surprised at this, as some of the victims had been awake and alert enough during the healing to give some news of Cassandra and her methods, none of which were particularly pleasant.
A farm girl who’d been amongst the first humans taken by the Spider Queen explained how the spiders had carefully sorted them and then the queen had placed her egg sacks inside the bodies. The hatchlings, once hatched, weren’t big enough to kill the hosts right away, and spent some time draining them from the inside out, a painful process that felt like liquid fire had been set alight inside them. Cassandra never let them kill the hosts, though some had died by accident and been simply consumed. Instead, after the emergence, the weary and pain-addled host was moved to a recovery chamber and carefully nursed by other spiders, fed a special mixture from the mouths of the spiders to heal them and strengthen them, though it was “yucky” and she didn’t want to know what was in it. Eventually, the host was recovered enough after two weeks to repeat the incubation process, which could last anywhere from four days to a week.