10
Luxa paced back and forth in their prison hole, losing more and more patience with each passing minute. They had decided on a strategy over an hour ago, and now all that was left to do was wait. Truly, it was insulting to wait so long to be executed. Prisoner or not, Luxa was a queen, and expected better treatment.
"What is keeping them?" Luxa demanded. Howard looked at her lazily, but did not say anything. "Tonex was clearly intent on executing me, so why make me wait?"
"Perhaps she was advised not to have you killed. Or perhaps she was advised not to have you killed yet. The spinners may want information from us before that." Luxa stopped pacing, and looked up to the top of the hole several yards above them. She could hear the spinners walking about up there, and it took everything in her not to yell at them to show her some respect. "Luxa, calm down," Howard continued. "When they come for us, we sh-"
Howard was cut off by the sound of more spinners from above. He stood up, and Luxa moved to stand next to him near the wall. A large spinner looked over the edge, then began lowering herself down in the hole. Luxa nodded to her cousin, who bent into position. She quickly grabbed the small dagger she always had in her boot, then backed up, and with a running start, she used Howard's help to give her a boost up. She leapt off his hands, and nimbly landed on the lowering spinner. Before the spinner was able to react, Luxa cut the thread and put her boot on the spinner's head, so that the force of the landing helped her crack its skull. Luxa stepped off the twitching spinner body, and looked to her cousin.
"We will not be able to continue this," Howard said. It was true. Their strategy took too much work to be continually repeated, and only worked if the spinners came down one at a time. Once they came down in greater numbers, there would be no fighting them. Not to mention, Luxa's wrist was already in a good deal of pain again. She put her knife back in her boot.
"Yes, I know. But that is not the point. We fight them as long as possible. The spinners will learn we humans do not give in so easily. We can at least send that message for Regalia." Howard nodded, and stared curiously up at the top of the hole.
"I expected them to send more soldiers down immediately." Luxa looked up with him. The wait was odd. Suddenly there were the loud noises of fighting and… "Is that growling?" Howard asked.
"Gnawers?"
"That's right, You Highness." Ripred looked down over the edge of the hole, and smiled down at them smugly. "Just as soon as we finish up here, we'll finish rescuing you." Luxa was speechless.
"I found some of the spinner silk," Gregor said, looking over the edge too. He started lowering the rope down. "Come on, Ripred. We need to hurry." As soon as the rope was within reach, Luxa grabbed it with her good hand, and Gregor started to pull her up. When she reached the top, she looked around and saw the torch lit cave and saw four gnawers, beside Ripred, sitting over the bodies of spinners. "Are you guys ok?" Gregor asked, touching her shoulder.
"Yes," Luxa replied. She shook her head, and focused on the problem at hand instead of being rescued by gnawers (something they probably would not soon forget). "Now we must find Aurora and the other fliers."
"We only agreed to help with the queen," a dark grey gnawer growled.
"Fine. That's fine," Gregor said quickly.
"It is not fine," Luxa snapped. Gregor ignored her.
"Let's get back to the others, then we split ways."
"You heard the boy, move out," Ripred ordered. Luxa pulled away from Gregor surprise. How could he just abandon Aurora and the others? She just wanted to get to her bond, and he was going to run away? Gregor pulled her to her feet, and began dragging her down the tunnel.
"No!" Luxa pulled her hand from Gregor's. "We must fin-"
"Go, Luxa," Howard said firmly. "We cannot do anything without a plan, and your protests will only draw attention to us. We will not leave the fliers, but we must go with them first." Luxa fought to calm down. She knew he was right, but she it felt as though she was leaving her bond.
"Luxa, it's ok," Gregor assured her. "Trust me." He looked into her eyes, and gave her hand a squeeze before rushing down the tunnel again. Luxa pulled her hand away again, but this time it was just so she could run faster. The hurried ran down the tunnels, passing the dead, and occasionally still twitching, dead bodies of spinners along the way. It would not take long for the other spinners to notice these ones were missing, and investigate. They did not have much time.
Finally they came to a sort of intersection, with six tunnels leading into one cave. Another group of three gnawers sat waiting. Wynn was leaning on one. When she saw them enter, she leapt up, and rushed to make sure Gregor was safe. The gnawers grouped together to discuss what happened in their own language, while the humans tried to catch their breath. Luxa prided herself in her physical fitness, but she was absolutely exhausted at this point.
"It would seem," a grey gnawer began, "that you returned all my soldiers to me unharmed. A shame, but a deal is a deal. You may have the girl back."
"Oh you are too kind," Wynn said sarcastically. Luxa exchanged a look with her cousin, who shrugged. They would ask about that later. For now Luxa wanted to know why the gnawer was wearing her crown around her ear.
"Leave it, Luxa," Gregor groaned. "It's just a hunk of metal." The gnawers laughed, played with the crown.
"They ins-" Luxa began.
"We must find the fliers," Howard reminded her.
"Yes, so you all can leave now," Ripred told the gnawers. "Shoo." They laughed again, and turned and left, tossing the crown amongst themselves. Luxa felt her chest burn in anger at the treatment of the Regalian antique, but she had to ignore it at the moment.
"So what now?" Gregor asked.
"We stick to the plan," Ripred said.
Gregor and Luxa snuck along the corridors with Ripred leading the way (their cousins had been sent to the storage room as planned). They were making their way back to the entrance of the spinner compound, which was the only place large enough to guard four fliers and two shiners. Luxa looked behind her, and nodded, which was Gregor's signal to get ready to run.
They only went over a plan (if you could call it that) briefly, so he wasn't too sure of himself. It would be his job to get Luxa safely to the fliers, free them, then escape. Meanwhile Ripred would try to distract the other spinners, and hopefully leave with Nike. This is never going to work.
Ripred darted out of the tunnel without a sound, and Gregor and Luxa followed, running as fast as the, running as fast as they could. Now he could see the fliers and shiners, who luckily were giving off light, and Ripred at the opposite side of the room fighting.
"Run Gregor!" Luxa ordered. He didn't realize he had slowed down. He ran straight for the fliers, grabbing Luxa's good hand to drag her along behind him. Most of the spinners were distracted by Ripred, but there were still several guarding the fliers. Gregor's rager instincts cut into his vison, and he found they were useful in dodging attacks. He weaved his way through legs and stingers, and Luxa followed with perfect grace. She was far more nimble than him, and he made the snap decision that she should get the fliers.
"Get any weapon you can and let's go," he said, nodding toward Aurora, who was fighting against her restraints to cause as much damage as she could to the spinners around her.
Luxa was already on it, doing a series of flips to avoid the spinner legs. At this point, Gregor was just narrowly dodging the attacks by stumbling (there was only so much he could do with his unstrained rager senses). They both made it with difficulty, the few yards to where the fliers and shiners were held. Gregor knew that if Ripred had not been there as a distraction, they all would have died. The only reason he made it this far was because over half the spinners were preoccupied with the gnawer. And luck. I am getting so lucky right now. He avoided a spinner leg by pure chance that he tripped.
Luxa went right for her bond, and grabbed Gregor's sword, which was on Aurora, just in time to strike down a spinner. She yelled in pain, and Gregor saw that she could barely hold the weapon with her hurt wrist.
"Gregor, catch!" she called, and threw him his sword. Now I got this. He smiled as he caught the sword and swung it around. He let his rager senses take over, knowing Luxa could take care of cutting the others free, and hacked and spun through the spinners. He wasn't fully aware of anything other than legs and felt himself get cut a few times, but didn't care. He just had to fight them.
A neck. Gregor spun around to slice it. Wait, I'm not supposed to hit necks. He stopped himself just before hitting Luxa.
"Pay attention, Overlander," Luxa said angrily. He had somehow cleared the area of spinners momentarily. The bodies of those he had killed lay all around them on the tunnel floor. He used the second to wipe the spider goo from his hands onto his pants. It didn't help much. He and Luxa were both covered in the stuff.
"We must flee." Luxa dragged him onto Aurora, and they took off. Nike had already gone to help Ripred escape. Apollo stayed close beside them, the shiners were close behind, and Persephone brought up the rear. More spinners were pouring through the door, and climbing along to walls to catch up.
Gregor struck out with his sword, and cut down each spinner that dove for Luxa, who tried to use her left hand to defend herself. He then jumped onto Apollo, and the flier helped him get a better angle to attack the spinners.
Then Gregor heard a screech. He turned around and saw two spinners on Persephone, piercing her with their stingers. One stab to the neck, and Persephone fell to the ground dead.
"Persephone!" Apollo cried out, and turned to return to her.
"Do not go back, Apollo!" Luxa yelled to him. "She is gone!"
A spinner leaped out at Gregor and hit him the shoulder while he was watching Persephone. He stabbed it, and Apollo threw his weight to send the spinner flying. Apollo turned around again and raced onward with Aurora.
Gregor didn't think they could go on anymore; he was exhausted from the fight and Luxa lost her sword. Apollo was badly injured from before and now struck with grief. There was no way they continue fighting like this. Just then he heard a low rumble far behind them.
"What was that?" Gregor called to Luxa.
She looked at him with fear in her eyes, and shrugged. The spinners seemed to be communicating, and soon they were retreating. Gregor had no idea what happened, but all the spinners were leaving quickly.
"This is our chance," Luxa said, her face set with determination to escape.
Wynn and Howard hadn't made it far before they were discovered by the spinners. They had been making their way through the almost completely dark tunnel, when they walked right into a group of spinners. Wynn stood in shock, too afraid to even breathe. She felt a hand grab her arm roughly.
"Move," Howard snapped, and pulled her after him as he raced away from the spinners.
Howard was running his free hand along the tunnel wall for guidance while the other one painfully gripped Wynn's arm. She was so focused on running that she went right past him when he stopped. He pulled her back and into a small crevasse in the wall. As soon as she was in there, and felt real panic set in. Howard looked up to where the crevasse extended up into the darkness like a chimney.
"We are climbing up," he said.
"What?" Wynn didn't think she could climb under normal circumstances, and right now she was shaking. "There's no way. I-"
A spinner leg thrust into the crevasse, and Howard blocked it from hitting Wynn. She saw that it tore deeply into his arm, and blood gushed out onto both of them. Wynn gasped, and shoved for Howard to start climbing, and followed him. Luckily, the large, soldier spinners couldn't fit in the crevasse.
They climbed up the crevasse, which closed up so that it felt to Wynn as if they were really climbing up a chimney. She forced herself to keep breathing in the tiny, dark space while she hoped more than anything that it would open back up again soon. When they finally reached the top, which opened into a cave, she thought she might cry from relief.
Wynn grabbed her flashlight from her belt, and shined it around the cave. There were large metal barrels everywhere, sacks of all sizes, and crates. They had somehow found a short cut to the storage room. At the far end, a cliff led straight down to what sounded like a river.
"The supply room," Howard said. He held his bleeding arm. "Take the lids off all the barrels," he ordered. Wynn didn't question him, and popped off all the lids. All the while they kept checking to see if the spinners had made it to them yet. He kicked one barrel over, emptying out what was inside. Fuel. The smell burned Wynn's nose. Howard picked up the empty barrel, and carried it over to the river. He had at some point found a rope, and quickly threw it around Wynn. Howard began fumbling around in his pockets, and Wynn handed him matches that she kept in a small pack on her belt with her at all times.
"I am glad you understand," he said. He took a deep breath, and took hold of the empty barrel. Wynn grabbed his shirt. She was terrified, and really didn't want to lose the one person who was with her. Especially when he probably knew a whole lot more than her right now. Howard struck the match, dropped it on the fuel, and the two of them jumped into the river. Wynn had not yet hit the water when she heard all the open barrels explode above them.
Then she did hit the water, and was immediately swept away by the current. She lost hold of both her flashlight and Howard, while the current dragged her underwater. It was a fast moving section of the river, and Wynn scraped along the bottom bumping into rocks. She slammed her side into a large rock, and when she gasped she sucked in water. Her panic made her want to hyperventilate, but she had to get to the surface first. She kicked off the bottom and broke through the surface of the water.
She gasped and coughed water, causing her throat to burn. Her side was badly bruised, and she knew she had several cuts. Wynn didn't care about this though. Everything was pitch black, and it made her dizzy. Worst yet, she had lost Howard. The river had slowed down, and she tried looking around for any sign of him. She knew it was hopeless in the dark. She fumbled in her pack again, this time finding the tiny flash light she kept, silently thanking Gregor for finding every flashlight in the museum.
"Howard!" she called out as she shined the dim light around. "Howard!" Images of him floating face down in the water flashed through her head. She had to find him. "Howard! Answer me!"
"Wynn," came a weak response. She almost laughed in relief.
"Yeah. I'm here. Keep talking."
"I believe I am down river from you." So he was in front of her. Geez, floating down a river after almost being killed, and he still can't use contractions. Wynn swam toward his voice, and as she neared him she saw his eyes reflecting the light of her flash light. She crashed into the barrel. She felt around until she found him, and sighed in relief. He really was there. Not just a hallucination.
"I cannot let go of the barrel. Please get the flash light from my pocket." Wynn thought she must be going crazy because she laughed at that. It just seemed like a great line to get her to reach into his pants. She grabbed his flashlight, and turned it on. That was much better.
"What's up, home boy?" she asked, trying to joke to cover up her fear. He looked at her like she was crazy.
"I do not know the meaning of half the things you Overlanders say."
"That's ok, only about half is important. How's your arm?"
"I am bleeding out," he said calmly.
"What?" Why wasn't he freaking out? "Shouldn't we, I don't know. Tie it off? Or apply pressure?"
"Applying pressure will do little too nothing with the water, and tying it off will more than likely lead to me losing my arm with the cold of the river."
"Why aren't you panicking right now?" Howard smiled weakly.
"Would that help?" Wynn just scowled at him. She remembered the rope, which was still around her, and began tying it too herself. She tied the other half to Howard. It was slow work considering she was shivering now and her hands were going numb.
"I do not think that is wise," he shivered. "If I were to-"
"Shut up. I'm not getting separated from you again." He kept quiet, and leaned his head heavily on the barrel. She had to get him out of the water.
"Stay awake." Wynn cursed at Howard in every language she could think of. Her mother always did hate her foul language.
"I am," he mumbled, but his eyes were still closed. Wynn held onto him tighter to keep him from slipping under the water's surface. She listened carefully to the echoing of the river. She knew that the last time they saw the river was where the buzzers attacked, so that was the spot she would be able to get out. What she didn't know was if the river was a short cut or a longer route than they took with the spinners. She figured if she listened close enough, she would hear the change in echoes that would come from the tunnel opening up.
"Come on, you lazy bum. Can't you talk to me?" she asked desperately. "Like uh. Something inspirational? You have to avenge your father? You have a girl you just have to get home to?" Howard laughed harshly.
"My sisters?" His lips had turned blue over an hour ago. At least she thought it was an hour. Maybe more… Either way they had been in the water for a lot longer than that.
There it was. The change in echoes, as if the sounds of the river were now bouncing off the high ceiling of a cave instead of the tight confines of a tunnel. She had already worked her way over to the right side of the tunnel in preparation of getting out.
"If I'm wrong, and our stop is on the left, this is your fault, mister," she snapped at Howard. She felt the bottom of the river under her feet, but she struggled to slow down with the fast current. This was going to be almost impossible holding onto the barrel, flash light, and Underlander. She shined the light up ahead, saw where the bank of the river was, then slipped the light into her belt. With a deep breath, she let go of the barrel and held on tight to Howard.
He was heavy, and Wynn was convinced she was going to let go of him. The river got shallower, and she could now stand on her knees, though the fast current threatened to knock her over again. She pulled Howard with all her strength, and he seemed to be able to drag himself a bit too. With a final effort, they pulled themselves out of the water, and onto the rocky bank.
Wynn grabbed her flash light again, and shined it on him. That last effort seemed to knock him out. She scanned the cave with her light, and almost cried out in joy that it was the right one. The supplies they had left here were still stacked by the wall. She quickly ran to them, stumbling over herself, grabbed the box of medical supplies, and hurried back to Howard.
She checked the wound on his arm, and saw that it was puffy and white. He had lost a lot of blood. Wynn grabbed some cloth, shoved it on the wound, and tied it on. Between being freezing cold and near panic, Wynn's hands shook, but she willed them to stop.
"Ok, lazy bum. Wake up." She grabbed Howard's arm roughly, and he woke with a cry of pain. "No more sleeping," she said firmly. "I'm going to do something, and you're going to have to talk me through it ok?"
"Yes," he replied weakly.
"Good, so you're not useless after all." She rummaged through the supplies and got to work.