The Shadow Companion - Laura Anne Gilman [26]
His teeth gritted, he gave one last pull, and the spider-silk strands warmed almost unbearably under the friction of his palm. It frayed and snapped and finally splintered apart.
Thrown onto his backside, Newt blinked up at the sky, then realized that Sir Brand was moving, the rest of the bonds falling loose as the one strand parted. He didn’t wait to see how the knight was doing beyond that, but immediately got back up on his knees and moved over to Sir Daffyd.
Time seemed to speed up and slow down all at once, so that Newt felt like he was moving very quickly while everything around him was moving as though underwater, or caught in thick mud. He had finished with Daffyd’s bonds and turned back to see if Brand needed any more help by the time Gerard returned with Sir Thomas.
“Ailis…”
“Still holding them off,” Gerard said. There was an ugly green-and-black mess on his pants leg. Newt decided not to ask about it.
“I’ll get Sir Ruden, and we’re done,” the squire said, before scrambling back into the village. Brand made a move as though he wished to go with him, then his knees gave way and he sat down hard.
“Sir, you might want to rest a bit,” Newt said, already too busy to worry about offending the knight. Some of them were on their dignity about the slightest thing, especially if they felt they had been made to look foolish in front of a servant. Fortunately, either Sir Brand wasn’t one of those men, or he was too thankful and sore to argue the point. He stayed where he was, watching Gerard go back to Sir Ruden and start to drag him back.
“Who is she?” Sir Brand asked suddenly. “The serving girl?” His voice was incredulous.
Newt looked up in time to see Ailis drop down beside them.
“I’m done,” she said. Her hair was dripping with sweat, and there was a bruise on the side of her face, as though something had smacked her. Her eyes were exhausted as well, but there was an oddly calm look to her face.
“Any trouble?”
Newt tried to keep his voice nonchalant, not sure how much she would want to admit to having done. Ailis shrugged, clearly aware of the three knights around them. Being cautious, she replied, “I did what had to be done.” Newt looked carefully at her, hearing something odd in her voice.
“Girl, you should not be here.” Sir Brand’s expression changed mid-sentence, from dismay to surprise. “You shot the flaming arrows that distracted the…those things?”
“I…yes.” Ailis was still surprisingly subdued. Even if she was finally learning the wisdom of caution, it was so unlike her usual reaction to using magic—especially such an impressive and successful spell—that Newt’s level of concern rose. Before he could press Ailis for details, Gerard came back with Ruden, and Ailis moved to take care of his bonds. She used her body to block what she did from the other knights. Whatever it was, it took far less time than Newt’s attempts, because Sir Ruden shook off the strands a breath later.
“What were those things?” he asked, looking to Gerard for answers.
Newt was just as happy to let the squire take the brunt of the knights’ attention, because he had just noticed that something was moving under the back of Ailis’s tunic, half-covered by her hair—something that had a long, narrow tail which was sticking out from under the bottom of her tunic. He opened his mouth to say something, then closed his jaw quietly. If Ailis wasn’t screaming about it, it was clearly something else she didn’t want brought to the knights’ attention.
“Ah,” Gerard said. “You see…I went back to camp and sent a message to Sir Matthias, but then I ran into Newt, and we came back directly to lay a better track for Sir Matthias when he came. He saw the spiders simply sitting, as though they were waiting, and…”
The knights were all standing up, testing their legs, trying to get feeling back in their limbs once again, while Gerard attempted to explain himself without actually saying anything that might get them in trouble.
“And you thought that they, like normal spiders, might be afraid of fire? Well done, lad,” Sir Ruden said