The Last Satyr: The Two Paths Part 2

Leradien once again picked up her pace, but more carefully now. Who knows what danger lay ahead? What might they run into?

Her mind raced with conflicting thoughts, each one pulling her in a different direction. Her resistance to Lolth’s blood was weakening yet a nagging sense of duty tugged at her conscience. She told herself there was no sense in trying to find the boy, anyway. The cavern was enormous and her eyesight limited. She did not have a clue where to look for him. Yet she definitely knew how to find Lolth. It was almost as if she could smell the goddess’ tasty blood. With it being hopeless to find the boy, her hunting instincts were taking her to what she could find.

A noise fell upon her ear from not far in front of her. She stopped at full attention in an instant, for her hearing was more acute than any drow or elf. A riding lizard crawled along the cavern ceiling ahead, moving away from her. There were vaguely two others to be seen on each side. They would have seen her, but she was a black spider and they all had their backs to her. Curiously, they were not headed towards the Three Candles but away from it, in the same direction they were. She might illuminate them for Ronthiel’s bow, but riding lizards were no match for her, no matter how big they were. They lacked sharp teeth and claws. Leradien could take on a dozen of the giant beasts without them hurting her with her armored shell. And she and Ronthiel (though he did not know it) were both immune to their riders’ poison darts. Eliminating these three would be simple, and then she could continue after Lolth.

But wherever these drow were now headed, it probably also led to where the boy was. It was better to find the boy first and leave Ronthiel with him. She did not want Ronthiel with her when she took on Lolth. No, she would stay behind these three drow and follow them; trusting her stealth and her pitch-black body in the dark to prevent discovery. So deciding on her course, Leradien stepped forward once again and slipped along behind the three drow, pausing, almost cat-like, with her clawed tips ready to pounce and strike if discovered, while still allowing the drow to keep just far enough ahead to remain visible to her.

The three lizard riders moved along the cavern roof, very quietly, for a riding lizard is soundless, even for its great size. They might have heard her pointed claws on hard rock. But if the drow heard, they paid no heed. Still, she had been lucky to hear them first and not the other way around. Doubtless, it had been one of the three riders that made the noise she heard versus their mounts, for, although slow, they slithered along as silent as snakes.

The three turned to the right of a stone column suggesting they were making for Thera Pass. Good, thought Leradien. They will take the Pass and lead her directly to her quarry, Lolth. Only they never went to the Pass. They turned sharply instead towards Mills Breath and then plunged down the cavern sides, whereupon they were at once hidden in the gloom. Leradien closed up and shortened the distance now, for they would never be able to see her above them. She scurried along for a while; then slackened her pace, fearing she was gaining too fast; moved on a piece, then stopped altogether when she lost them; listening; no sound; none, save that she seemed to hear the beating of Ronthiel’s heart. A drip of water sounded off the cavern roof, an almost perilously loud sound in so much quiet.

But everything else was silent. Had she lost them? As that was all too easy to do, considering her vision was nearly only half theirs. She was about to spring with all eight legs over the edge of the bank when a drow cleared her throat within touching distance below her! Leradien’s heart shot into her throat, but she swallowed it back down again; and then, being the natural huntress that she was, plotted her attack.

Riding on her thorax, she felt Ronthiel come alert. She had never told him she was tracking the three lizard riders, so the sound of a drow so close by startled him. He raised his bow in indecision, uncertain of where they were or what they were doing.

But Leradien knew where she was. They were within five steps of the trail leading down to the grounds of Mill’s Breath. Very well, she thought, if the boy was here; he won’t be hard to find.

Now there was another voice—a very low voice—a drow male’s:

“Lolth’s made a mistake,” he said. “Not leaving a garrison here is an open invitation for the dwarves to take the city back.”

“There's no need for a garrison. The man-orcs are up at The Three Candles, killing the rest,” answered a woman. “Why garrison a dead city when The Candles control the way in? You’d do well not to criticize Lolth!”

Leradien’s first thought was to attack. All three drow plus their reptiles had red blood; blood to her liking and she was hungry.

But then she realized that, even if the now captured Mills Breath had no garrison, the boy might still be there. These three riders had come here for some reason. Otherwise, they’d have headed to Thera Pass or up to The Three Candles. Something important was here.

“There sure weren’t very many dwarf prisoners taken,” a second woman noted.

“Lolth was expecting a lot more slaves,” said the first. “She’ll be angry.”

“I told you this isn’t right,” said the male.

“Shut up, scum!” said the first woman. “Or maybe you’d like to be my bitch?”

He fell silent.

“I think,” said the second woman, “that he’s wondering why we attacked a city with fire beetles just to leave it abandoned after taking it? And it is odd to find so few dwarves inside. What did we capture—three tens? What happened to the others?”

“There weren’t any others,” said the first. “They were all defending Thera Pass, and they all either died there or running away from it.”

“No slaves,” sighed the male. “Lolth will be angry. We’ll all pay.”

“Will you shut up?!” said the first woman. “We’ll be bringing back slaves! There is still the wounded enemy in their infirmary. That’s who we’ll be taking back with us to her now.”

“If they can even walk,” said the second.

“We’ll make them walk or feed them to the orcs,” said the first. “So? Do you see anything?”

“We haven’t seen a thing.”

“Well! Something’s out here!” said the first. “We’ve got sentries gone missing and we’ve all of us seen elf lights flickering coming from The Three Candles. I tell you somebody’s out here! I’m sure I heard the sound of claws on rocks back there.”

“I don’t hear anything now.”

“I heard it too,” added the male.

“You heard your own fears! The enemy can’t walk on walls and they don’t have claws! We’re safe enough! So how long are we going to wait here before we go down and round up the wounded prisoners?”

“And get ourselves killed riding in? Do you trust an orc sentry not to shoot you? Besides! I told you, something’s out here! No! We’ll wait till it’s safe—there’s no hurry.”

Leradien felt that silence was going to ensue amongst the three—a thing far more dangerous than talking. They’d be listening now and looking around; maybe even looking up, in which case they’d see her for sure.

She at least ought to back up some to where her head wasn’t hanging over this ledge and looking down on them. So she held her breath and stepped gingerly back; planting one leg carefully and firmly. One advantage of being a spider is that a spider always knows exactly how to place all eight of its legs, even when scurrying across a web. A spider’s legs always move with perfect precision and with never a missed step.

She took another step back, with the same perfect elaboration and this time pulling herself back from the ledge and then a rock rolled loose under her pointed claw! Her breath stopped, and she listened. There was no sound. The stillness was ominous.

Leradien waited, tensing to spring at the first sign of a head looking up over the ledge.

The silence, dead still, hung in the air like so much lead. The drow had to have heard. Where were they? What were they doing?

She waited until it became unbearable to wait another moment. She stepped forward and looked over the edge.

Nothing!

Those three lizard riders had slinked away! She’d lost them!

Despair seized her as the realization sank in that she had lost her only lead to the boy’s whereabouts. The cavern’s oppressive silence mirrored the weight of her failure. Leradien’s heart fell, knowing that her next move could decide everything—would she continue to try finding the boy, or succumb to the dark desire to confront Lolth that threatened to consume her?