Rescuing Layna - Chapter 10

Chapter 10.

Nyve reached down toward Layna, but already she was gone, leapt off the ledge and onto the platform beside Janessa, the little girl held firm by Regina’s threads.

Nyve roared. “Unnngh!” He turned as quickly as his lumbering form could move toward the ledge, but then he caught something out of the corner of his eye. A little prey creature was standing in front of him defiantly, waving its arms.

“Hold, monster!” said Rohn. His sword was back in their cave, but he had not been unarmed: A dagger danced between his hands. “Leave her be!”

“Very well then. Crush the human, Nyve!” said Voole, his face wrenched up into a grimace.

“No!” cried Layna.

“Stop,” said Regina, and a whirl of white webbing looped around Layna’s torso, pulling her back. “My Voole gave an order; and we do not disobey his orders, darling.”

Rohn raced forward in a blink, the dagger first in his right hand and then his left. Nyve startled for a moment, surprised that the little prey-creature would run right toward him. Rohn skidded and slid under Nyve, his arm swung wide! — and Nyve roared in pain as the dagger sliced through his left foreleg. The severed limb spurted blood and swung about weakly as Nyve leaned back away from it. Rohn rolled and scampered, sliding on the rough rocks, and emerged behind Nyve, managing to deliver severe cuts to one of his rear legs and to his soft underbelly.

But the monster was not to be outdone. Howling, he whirled around and leapt onto Rohn. Rohn rolled aside, but not before one of Nyve’s sharp claws cut his arm, and pinned him by his sleeve.

“We’re waiting, Nyve,” said Voole.

The monster glared at Voole for a moment, just enough for Rohn to cut the corner off his sleeve with his dagger and leapfrog away. He rolled once, and crouched near the edge of the cliff — but an inch more and he would have fallen over the precipice into the blackness below.

Nyve balled his fists and lowered himself to the ground. This little creature! It would not get away this time. He roared with anger, then darted forward, faster than they had seen him move before, and with the force of ten horses launched into the air to come down once and for all and crush the human —!

But Rohn was gone, having rolled forward to the space where Nyve had been.

Nyve looked behind him to the little prey creature, and three of his legs slipped off the edge of the precipice as he came down. He scrambled, hard, his gnarled hands grasping at the cliffside, and came back up and over to stand on its edge.

The momentary distraction was enough for Rohn’s dagger to slice Nyve’s other foreleg. Its lowest segment fell clean off his body, and toppled into the blackness.

The monster screamed and howled in pain. Nyve banged his fists hard on the cliff, and the rock itself shook like an earthquake, knocking Rohn off his feet and onto his back.

“Kiiiillll!” screamed Nyve, racing forward, ready to crush and slice and utterly destroy the frustrating little human. He would squash it and watch it bleed, and he would laugh! He ran over top of the prone figure of Rohn, and began pounding at the human’s body with two of his undamaged legs. This little thing would die! It would be a flattened mess of blood and bones for what it had done!

Rohn rolled to the left and to the right to avoid the strikes, each as forceful as a sledgehammer’s pounding, and one contacted his shoulder, eliciting a cry of pain, but each time the monster seemed to slide farther and farther over him. In a moment he would be unable to dodge, unless he —

Nyve froze. His eyes bulged and his jaw opened. He stood like that for a moment, and a drip of blood slipped from his lips.

Then he roared again, whirling about uncontrollably. Rohn struggled clear of the writhing monster, and at last, Layna could see what had happened: Rohn had struck the beast in its soft abdomen with his dagger, and blood was spurting out around it.

Nyve spun about, howling and rolling, curling himself up into as much of a ball as he could to remove the dagger, but his hands could not reach it no matter which way he turned, and his ruined forelegs could not bend close enough. In a last moment, he thought to reach for Rohn, to kill that rotten little human for what it had done to him — but distracted, Nyve lost his balance on the edge of the cliff and rolled over the edge, and screamed and screamed in pain and anger as his body spun and vanished into the dark abyss.

There was a hard squishing sound, then another, and then a distant splash, and then silence.


“You filthy little human,” said Regina. “You killed Nyve. You killed Nyve.”

Rohn crouched against the wall silently, holding his bleeding shoulder.

Janessa began to cry.

“Voole!” cried Regina, glaring at him. “He killed Nyve!”

“I saw what he did,” said Voole, exchanging a glance with Myrron.

Regina whirled back to face Rohn. “You wretched brat!” she said. “How dare you kill a member of a superior race! How dare you even have touched him with your filthy human fingers!”

“Quiet, Regina,” said Voole coldly, and Regina’s jaw snapped shut. She raised her chin to look as far down at the bleeding human as she could.

“What is that?” said Voole, pointing beside Rohn.

The human glanced to where Voole was pointing. A tiny white-and-blue speck glimmered in the torchlight.

“No,” whispered Layna, her heart freezing.

“Just what is that?” said Voole. “It looks rather interesting. Regina, dear, fetch that for us.”

Regina grinned. In a moment, a whip of sticky webbing sailed from her, and as Rohn dove for the spot, the item was already gone, sailing through the air in a high arc to land neatly in her outstretched manicured fingers. She held it up victoriously, and the little crystal vial glistened and gleamed.

“No,” said Layna again.

“Well, now isn’t this interesting,” said Voole. “You were carrying it all along, weren’t you?”

“It was safest with me,” said Rohn, still crouching by the wall. “I carried it on the Council’s orders.”

“No,” said Layna, beginning to struggle.

“Victory!” cried Regina. She grabbed Layna’s lines again and tugged. “Voole, darling, you know what this means!”

“It means the inevitable,” he said. “The superior race has won, as it always will.” He turned about to face the silent humans who had been watching from the far side of the room. “The superior race has won!”

The rabble raised its voices in reply. “Yes, my Lord! You are truly superior! Bless us all with your greatness!” Voole took the vial from her and began to cheer them on, his hands raised over his head. He began to shout to the crowd, and their chants filled the chamber in reply.

Rohn crawled toward the raised platform, and slowly pulled himself into a standing position.

“Tut, tut, darling,” said Regina. “We really would appreciate it if you would hold still and not spoil the moment.” She threw a ball of sticky webbing at him, and he dodged at the last moment, but not before part of it stuck to his injured shoulder, and another part to the floor. He winced, pulling at it.

“Regina, you have to stop this,” said Layna. “This is madness. You can’t use that spell. Not now. Not ever.”

“I’ve had just about enough of you, love,” said Regina coldly. She took another ball of sticky webbing and walked over to Layna. “Now just sit back and watch. You’re a member of the superior race; you should act like it.”

She reached out to jam the ball into Layna’s mouth, and then froze.

One of Layna’s sharp claws hovered in front of Regina’s face, dripping with blood. A scar welled down Regina’s left cheek.

Regina reached up with a finger and touched it. She held up her finger. A drop of red hung from it for a moment, and then dropped onto the velvet cloth below.

“You cut me,” she said. Myrron grinned from the far side of the platform.

“I — I’m sorry, Regina, I didn’t mean to, I was just defending myself — ”

“You cut me,” she said. “You bitch.”

She pulled at Layna’s webbing with one of her legs, and brought her face to within inches of Layna’s. “Voole wanted to keep you. He was going to keep your pretty little face as one of his prize whores. He was going to do you the honor of impregnating you with the children of a living god. But I never liked you. I knew it was a bad idea from the very first moment. Filth like you doesn’t deserve to even breathe the same air as us.”

Regina grabbed Layna’s chin with her hand, her sharp fingernails inches away from Layna’s neck. “I should have killed you when we were in school, you useless little peasant. But there’s always time to make up for past mistakes.”

She punctured Layna’s neck with one finger, and Layna swallowed hard. Then Regina withdrew. She stretched, and laughed.

“Oh, you should see the look on your face!” said Regina. “That look of terror! Beg, then, beg like a beggar and maybe I’ll spare your worthless little life! Bend down! Cower like the coward you are, and beg for my forgiveness!”

Layna breathed hard for a moment.

“Well, go on, love, what’s it going to be?” said Regina.

Layna lowered herself to the ground, and began to lean forward.

The sound of knives filled the air as Layna’s claws sliced through the webbing wrapped around her torso. In a sudden rush, she darted forward to take Regina’s legs out from under her.

But Regina was already gone, hopping to the far side of the platform.

“So that’s how it’s going to be,” she said, breathing hard. “I should have known. Once filth, always filth, aren’t we, love?”

Layna was inches from the whimpering form of Janessa. Quickly, she began to slice through the little girl’s bindings.

“You’re fighting me!” cried Regina. She swooped down, grabbed an axe from the back edge of the platform, and ran forward.

Layna darted to the side, narrowly missing a swing of the axe. But with her rear leg, she was able to swipe underneath Regina, temporarily knocking her off balance.

“Argh!” said Regina, righting herself.

Layna backed away, and Regina swung the axe once. “Let me show you,” said Regina, “how to unmake a drider. You separate the human filth from the godlike spider, just like this.” She swung the axe, and it passed inches from Layna’s midsection as Layna jumped back.

They circled around the platform, slowly, Layna just barely dodging Regina’s swings. “Regina, you have to stop this!” said Layna.

“Or you’ll what?” said Regina.

“I don’t — I don’t want to have to — ” said Layna.

The axe swung closer, and now even Voole paused to turn and watch. The audience began to cheer the fight.

“Regina, stop!” said Layna, backing away from the axe again. Her hind legs slipped off the back edge of the platform, and she began to scramble with the others.

“Well, now this feels familiar,” said Regina. She stepped closer, and held the axe still, inches from Layna’s face. “Except this time, the right team wins.”

“Rohn!” cried Layna. “Get her out of here!”

Regina paused, and looked over toward the little girl. The human had regained his strength, and still bundled, she was held over his head as he leapt off the platform to the cliffside. In a flash, he had disappeared into the spiraling tunnel.

“You filthy little — ” began Regina.

“Regina! You’re fighting me!” cried Layna.

Brilliant sparks flew from her hands, illuminating the whole room, and blinding Regina and Voole and Myrron.

“Yaaahhh!” cried Regina, swinging the axe wildly into space.

Layna stepped forward.

The platform’s edge crumbled.

Layna scrambled, all eight legs swinging wildly as she tumbled off the eroding edge. She slipped and slid, and for but a moment, her hands and elbows held her up, just long enough for Regina to see the look of surprise on Layna’s face and glare back at her with one last look of blinding rage — and then Layna disappeared over the edge, spinning, flailing, falling silently into the jagged mouth of darkness below.