Page 258 of Eldritch
Before it could reach the flame, Maevyth struck out with her whip again, the spinal bones clanking to a useless pile onto the ground. “Oh gods!”
Sword in hand, Ravezio swung out at its leg as it stepped over the flames and the beast let out a roar that shook the ground. It lurched toward the other Letalisz, snapping its fangs at Ravezio who met each lunge with a fast strike of his sword.
“Go!” Zevander crushed his lips to Maevyth’s wishing it was another time, another place.
“Promise you’ll follow after me.”
“Believe me when I say I’ve no intentions of staying here.” He turned to face the beast, and she tugged on his arm, swinging his gaze back to her.
“I love you.”
“And I love you. Now go!” He spun back around, sending a blast of flames toward the creature which abandoned its attack on Ravezio. Sablefyre skated over the thick black carapace, causing nothing more than a few distortions in the surface.
“Fuck! Something’s pulling me!” Kazhimyr’s shrill outcry cost Zevander a split second when he glanced back toward the archway to see his friend digging his boots into the ground, an unseen force dragging him toward the Umbravale.
A hot searing pain streaked across Zevander’s arm, and he looked down to see the wet glisten of saliva sinking into his leathers. The creature lunged for Zevander, fangs first, just as Ravezio swung out his sword, slicing through the beast’s hind leg. It tumbled backward, those vicious fangs just missing Zevander’s face.
“Help, Kaz!” Ravezio shouted, drawing the spider back toward him. “I got this one!”
Zevander joined Dravien who yanked at Kazhimyr’s arm in a futile attempt to pull him away from the archway.
“Godsdamn, I see the chasm!” Kazhimyr shouted, his voice pitched with panic.
No. The Umbravale was rejecting his passage.
Zevander glanced back to see Ravezio fighting off the spider’s snapping fangs. He exhaled a long breath, in an attempt to clear his head, and summoned the new glyph to mind. Each intricate symbol was memorized in perfect detail—the one he’d learned back in the Lyverian mountains. He held out his palm and shot a torrent of flame toward the barrier that was absorbed into its shimmering surface.
It flickered and wavered, the silvery barrier dulling to a dark gray.
Kazhimyr flew backward as it released its hold, and the gap in the barrier flickered back to silver as if it repaired itself.
Zevander lowered his hand and breathed hard through his nose. “I’m going to open it again. You have to slip through quickly before it seals itself again.”
Dravien stepped forward. “I’ll go first, just in case.”
Zevander frowned but didn’t dwell too much on it as the Elvyniran rolled his shoulders back and hunched forward, ready to dart through it. “I’m ready,” he said.
Again, Zevander let out a long exhale and called upon the glyph one more time, focusing on the shimmering wall. “Go!”
Dravien leapt through, just before the barrier sealed itself again.
Zevander’s knees buckled beneath him, his energy slowly fading, as his body shook with weakness, but he held his hand out again. “Both of you! Go!”
Kazhimyr nodded, pushing to his feet, and before she could protest, he swiped Maevyth into his arms.
“Put me down! No!” she screamed, clawing at his grip, but thankfully, Kazhimyr held steady. As much as it crushed Zevander to see her in distress, he had to ensure her safety.
The moment he shot the flame toward the barrier again, Kazhimyr slipped through, Maevyth’s screams fading behind them.
Zevander collapsed to his palms, breathing hard as the glyph devoured what little energy he’d gotten from the vivicantem. He twisted around to see the massive spider had pinned Ravezio to the ground, but the beast didn’t snap at him. Instead, its eyes were focused elsewhere.
Mesmerized.
A crackling sound emerged over the dying hiss of the creature as the black carapace of its body slowly turned gray, the lifeless shade crawling over it like frost. A quick twitch of its leg slowed as the joints froze, its entire body turning to granite.
“Fucking hell,” Ravezio said, sliding from beneath the spider’s monstrous maw. “Glad those things have a hundred eyes. Think that was the fastest I’ve turned anything that size to stone.” The moment he’d cleared it, the stony statue fell forward, the spider’s face smacking into the ground with a hard thud.
Both Letalisz chuckled as Ravezio rose to his feet.
