Heirs of Prophecy - Lisa Smedman [100]
As he drew nearer to the spot where Larajin and Gold-heart circled, Leifander caught a glimpse of movement in the forest below. Several dark shapes were moving along the trail-two or three, maybe more. He cawed and banked sharply to the left, trying to direct Larajin to a clearing a safe distance from the moving figures, but with catlike perversity she ignored his warning. Instead she dived down and landed on the trail itself, in a spot that would place her directly in the path of whoever-or whatever-was moving along it. Even the tressym had better instincts than that. It circled above the spot where she'd landed, refusing to join her.
Angry, Leifander changed his course, flying toward Larajin. She ought to have more sense than to risk exposing herself to what might turn out to be an elf patrol. He swooped down to treetop level, angling toward the trail.
Leifander gave a strangled caw as he passed over the trail and got a good, close look at the figures moving along it. They were enormous spiders-four of them. Bloated and hairy, as large as dogs, they moved in a tight group like a pack of trained hounds. Even from treetop level, Leifander could smell the foul stench that clung to them like mold to a dead leaf.
What were they doing in this part of the wood? Had they been feeding on the corpses of the human caravan drivers along Rauthauvyr's Road? Or was there a more
sinister reason? Leifander prayed it was not so. This part of the forest was supposedly free from drow.
The spiders glanced up at Leifander as he soared past them. More than one set of legs flailed in the air in his direction, as if the creatures wished they could climb into the sky. Leifander flew on, shuddering. One bite from those venomous creatures would cause a slow numbness to spread through the body until it was paralyzed, and the spiders would feed…
Larajin had landed about a hundred paces up the trail, where the spiders couldn't see her, but they could see the tressym that fluttered nervously above the spot where she stood. They paused, questing Larajin's scent. A vile chuckling sound filled the air, and they broke into a skittering run.
Frightened, Leifander flew as quickly as he could to the spot where Larajin had landed. He saw her on the trail below, crouched on the ground with arms outstretched and head bent. She must have just completed shifting back to human form. Unable to do more than caw at her, Leifander was forced to land and shift. As he rose to his feet, the spiders came into sight.
Larajin, however, gave them no more than a quick glance.
"It's Dray!" she said, pointing into the trees at a spot where the mist had blighted the underbrush, opening up the forest to view. "Something's happened to him."
Leifander gave the briefest of glances in the direction she'd indicated and saw a human, either unconscious or dead, who appeared to have been hung by his doublet upon the broken branch of a massive oak tree like a coat upon a hook. The man's feet dangled a full pace above the ground, just above where drifting mist had discolored the trunk.
Leifander had no time to wonder who the fellow was or how he'd wound up hanging from the tree. The spiders were almost upon them.
"Pray to your goddess!" he shouted at Larajin. "Either
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skinwalk or do something to help me fight the spiders."
He heeded his own advice. Touching the feather in his braid, he uttered a quick prayer to the Lady of Air and Wind, beseeching her for just a fraction of her power. At the same time he raised his right hand and fluttered it, as if fanning a breeze.
The spell came-swiftly, thank the goddess. Leifander's hand speeded to a blur, and a roaring wind sprang from it. He directed the wind at the spiders, no more than a dozen paces away. As it struck, they slowed and hunkered to the ground. Struggling like men in a gale, they at first were blown backward a step or two, but after a moment's confusion they bent low and used their claw-tipped legs to drag