A/N: For the record, I am not at all happy with this chapter. I know what I want to say, but can never really work out how. :P It's decent as it is, but it might undergo a major re-format between now and Chapter 12. Be warned.
Thank you all for your kindness and reviews!
888
Forest
Chapter 10: It's sensible to argue when you're surrounded by enemies. Really.
Or: The return of the sticky situation
888
As soon as Daine opened her eyes, the trees spun frighteningly around her. All the sickness she had felt as a spirit was returned tenfold to her physical form. She tried to move, to cradle her aching head, and remembered that she was well and truly stuck as she was for the moment. Warily, she glanced towards the guard Spidren- who was gone. She blinked in confusion, hoped fervently that they hadn't already launched their attack, and closed her eyes again to make the spinning stop.
The run back had been more difficult than the outward journey, and slower, but she had made it. By the time she reached the woods, she was doubled up with a stitch in her side, and almost as tired as she had been before, when she was… dying.
Fear drove her through the trees to her body. Once she reached the web, she stood and looked down at her unnaturally still body. It was barely breathing, past caring about the winter cold that was turning its fingertips blue.
I look dead… Daine had whispered in shock to herself. Cautiously, she reached out and touched her own hand. To her amazement, the body actually felt solid to her. As soon as she made contact, the sensation of being pulled returned. With a sickening jolt, she slammed back into the mortal realm.
I have to get out of here. She thought desperately, pulling at the web with her free hand. The movement sent a wave of nausea through her. Retching, she stopped and tried to lie as still as possible.
Watching the leaves spin above her, Daine tried to think of anything she hadn't already tried to get out. Snow clouds built above the trees ominously, making her wonder if the webs would melt in the wet. She wished she had her belt knife, so she could try and cut the threads…
Absently, she wondered if Scul or the Badger would know how to get out. She dismissed the idea of falling asleep to ask them, giggling at a mental image of Scul's many feet tied into a knot, while the Badger's grumpy voice was silenced by threads typing his muzzle to his claws.
Claw… frowning, Daine looked around cautiously for the discarded talon, wondering if she could use that to cut through the strands. It was laying an arm's reach away. To her normal eyes, the dark ooze the claw produced was invisible, although that didn't make her feel any less queasy as she picked it up. Trying to shake off the horrible feeling that the thing was wrapping dark tendrils back around her hand, she put the serrated edge to the strand that held her other arm, and sawed at it. The thread was like wire. Daine gritted her teeth and kept sawing.
"Break, damn it!" She hissed at the web. Instantly, the strand fell brittle and snapped. Daine gaped at the claw and touched it to another piece of web.
"Break." She said clearly. This time the web snapped with hardly any pressure at all. Uneasily, she snapped all the threads she could find, and tried to inch away from the web. Delighted, she realised she was free. Careful not to tread on any other threads, she made her way dizzily across the clearing and sat down against a dead tree stump, staring at the claw. Puzzled as to how it had stayed with her when usually she would lose everything when she shape shifted, and incredulous that it had snapped the threads so easily, she placed it against the tree.
"Grow…?" She asked it, embarrassed. The tree seemed to shiver, and suddenly rotted away behind her, falling into powder and mould. Daine grimaced and dusted off her hands. Why would the Badger tell her to keep a horrible, oozing…thing that could only destroy?
A flash of white interrupted her from her thoughts. Cautiously, listening for the strangely absent Spidren, she glanced into the next clearing and immediately wished she hadn't.
A deep pit in the ground echoed strange noises into the forest. Glistening green web was thrown around carelessly, making an impenetrable barrier. Stuck in the web were skeletons of birds, wolves and- Daine smothered a gasp- humans. The skeletons continued deep into the cave, as if the creatures wanted a meal close to them as they dug. The deeper in the tunnel Daine looked, the fresher were the bodies.
Various piles of clothes, jewellery and weapons were next to each human skeleton, thrown away as they got in the way of the meal. The smell was unbearable; a sweet, rotten scent of fear and death. Daine inched towards one of the nearest heaps and took some clothes, muttering a silent apology to the dead person's spirit as she dressed herself and took their dagger out of the skeletal hand, destroying the web that bound it to the ground. Feeling better armed and less dizzy for the warmth and protection of the simple leather clothes, she crept uneasily into the tunnel. It reminded her of something…
The sides of the tunnel were clumsily propped up with random branches, with rock falls between them. Every so often there was a rough route upwards, towards light. Every one of these entrances led into a building- Daine guessed this was where the bodies had come from. Quietly, she climbed back into the tunnel and headed back towards the forest, not wanting to go any nearer the Spidren she could hear at the end of the passage.
As silently as she could, she headed for the outside edge of the forest and sat in the cover of a rock, waiting for Numair to arrive. Yawning, she pulled the folds of the overlarge tunic around her as a makeshift blanket, and tried to find a soft spot on the solid rock to lean against. Despite her weariness, her traitorous mind kept dwelling on that brief moment with Numair. Blushing to herself in confusion, she savagely told herself to stop acting like a fool.
He only kissed me to make that spell work. She thought firmly. And I acted like a stupid… lovesick fool! He saved my life, and I probably embarrassed him for it! Now, I bet the first time he mentions it will be an apology…
But the spell worked fine without it. Reasoned a more persistent part of her mind. Daine shifted against the rock, finding a patch of moss that cooled her aching head. The spell didn't work that quickly, though, and he knew there was no time… she conceded logically, and decided that yes, that was what had happened. She curled up against the moss and tried to sleep, suppressing the chaos in her mind.
Why do I feel so confused about this? She thought suddenly, waking herself up. A few weeks ago I'd have thought nothing of it. It's not like I haven't been kissed before. Kat and I used to gain information for Ozorne any way we could. And kissing someone as a spy is probably about as personal as making a spell work.
But none of them cared two coppers about you. The traitor half of her mind whispered again. They were just using you. If you had told them that you would make it back on your own, they would have let you take the chance.
I think the problem is: he didn't have to help me, but he did. Why would he do that? What does he want in return? I don't understand!
He did it because he cares for you. Because he's your friend! The traitor thought said triumphantly. Don't complicate things just because you think you owe him something. He will only ever ask you to be a friend, nothing more."
"A friend?" Daine smiled as she ended the internal conversation out loud. "I'd like that."
Having convinced herself that the kiss was just part of a spell cast by a mere friend, she curled up more peacefully and managed to settle her thoughts.
Within a minute, she was asleep.
888
As a rule, the first thing a person says when they are shaken awake is "Where am I?" That night, Daine's stubborn streak rebelled against this unconsciously. She forced her eyelids open, her brown eyes confused and distant, and muttered, perplexingly, "That was strange…"
The person who had shaken her awake grabbed her shoulder urgently. "You're not hurt, are you?" There was a sigh of relief as she shook her head, blinking her eyes to try and see in the moonless night. Still half caught in her dream, she focused on the man's face.
"Numair? What are you doing here? Where are the Runners?" In the confused silence, she stared into the night sleepily, her voice a tired singsong. "There's nothing here, just the endless darkness and the… the…"
"If we had a light, the Spidren would see us." Numair said sharply, "Wake up!"
"Spidren…? The Spidren!" Daine's eyes widened as she woke up fully. "They're digging a tunnel! I don't know why, though. They came up in the middle of people's houses and ate them. The tunnel is full of bodies…" She shook her brown curls out of her eyes and sat up straight, her legs cramping from being curled under her for hours. "I bet they're planning to dig right under the port's defences. And they might have noticed that I'm not there any more, so they might be on their guard."
"How do you know that, about the tunnel? I couldn't even get past the webs." Numair's dark eyes narrowed as Daine considered her answer. "Don't tell me one of your stories, either. You're a bad liar."
"Who put a bee in your bonnet?" Daine retorted, stung. The mage glared at her.
"You did! You had me worried sick! You've taken the most stupid risks possible, and you won't even tell me why! You disappear without telling anyone, and conveniently reappear in places where there is danger only you seem to know about.
"You speak to Spidren as if they knew something vital, you find out secrets they would kill to keep, but of all the people in Tortall they do not harm you! You don't know anything about this Rancune, or the Spidren, but they all seem to recognise you… You're still acting like a spy! Why do I trust you?"
He realised his voice had risen and glanced warily at the trees not far away, then back at Daine. She sat quite calmly, keeping her face carefully blank as she waited for him to finish. An emotion like regret passed over her eyes and she looked away briefly, but her voice was coldly composed.
"I didn't disappear, I ran away."
"From what?" He snapped, and instantly wanted to kick himself. Daine's icy composure slipped.
"From everything! Before I left, I was just about to get lynched by a cook because she had heard somewhere that I was the one who killed my family. No-one would have blamed her for it- they all think the same. I have no money or name to hide behind, I can't shape shift in case it scares someone- I had more freedom as a slave!
"And now you're yelling at me for keeping secrets? Why didn't you tell me about the Nobles, or about them thinking I'm a threat?" Daine noticed him flinch, but took no satisfaction from it. She forced herself to calm down, realising that she was cold, dew-covered and sore, and was taking it out on someone who was probably feeling just as bad. He had only yelled at her because she hadn't explained anything to him, after all. "Secrets are important. You've been a spy. I thought you'd understand." She whispered.
"I'm sorry." The mage said quietly, staring at the ground. "You're right. I thought that if you knew about the Nobles, you would leave. I couldn't stand the thought of you going back to Carthak…"
An uneasy silence spread between them. Abruptly, the girl stood up and walked around the rock, adapting her eyes to a cat's so she could see what the spider-creatures were doing. As far as she could tell, they were all still in the tunnel, digging.
I must have arrived there in their one and only break time. She thought wryly. Behind her, she heard the mage stand up.
"Daine?"
"I'll tell you everything. As soon as we finish here. Can you think of a way we can stop the Spidren?" Daine asked quietly. Numair tugged on his nose, his expression slowly brightening as they settled back into their old, familiar friendship.
"No, there's too many of them. But the tunnel could be collapsed quite easily." He smiled and rubbed his hands together. Daine frowned thoughtfully, scuffing the ground with one foot.
"It would work… as long as you could collapse all the other tunnels with it."
Numair looked up at her, surprised. "I only saw the one- where are the others?"
Daine pointed east, towards the coastline. "They're natural caves, in the cliffs. Merchants use them for getting less… visible… wares to the ships- I know of at least two that go between warehouses in the docks to the coast, and there's likely more. Carthak probably wasn't the only country to send smugglers to this dock."
Numair looked absently in that direction, unable to see anything in the dark, and glanced back at her. "Daine, I've stayed at this port many times, and I've never heard of these Merchant tunnels. Whoever is controlling the Spidren won't know about them either- or else why get them to dig another tunnel? And closing a cliff-face may damage the port, or…"
"Why can't the third tunnel be a decoy?" Daine saw that the man still looked ready to dismiss the idea. "The Rancune knows those tunnels exist. I'm absolutely certain of it! I know who he is!"
