Saturday, February 5, 2011

Part XLIX

Part XLIX

The glut of small spiders things hit us like a wave. I found a hand hold and tried to let it sweep by. I mumbled under my breath just in case they were hungry and dropped a small repelling charm across my body. I forgot about my guide though and his screams almost burst my ear drums. Evidently there is no love lost in the mountain. I looked down just long enough to see him get carried past, half the demon he used to be.

Like water, they passed by and I was soon able to push myself off the wall. I tried to orient myself, and pushed my werelight further down the tunnel. I added four more balls to the mix and sent them in formation ahead of me. If the brood was this close, then there was no way momma could be too far ahead.

Grandfather Lee had figured out what Momma was. She was a special kind of demon. Her brood weren't so much her children as her mouth. She birthed them once every few years and they ate everything they could, then scampered back to her and entered her mouths and fed her. Kind of like a long distance stomach with a lot of mouths. He estimated I had a few hours before they returned, and she would be fairly weak before they did.

Twenty minutes or so later, time was a bit odd in the mountain, I came to the end of the corridor we'd been walking down, and where there had once been a web covering the cavern entrance, there was now a well chewed web with a big hole in it.

I stepped through and shot the werelights up and in all directions lighting up the cavern like some rave.

The scream that echoed through the room just about brought me to my knees. I mumbled under my breath and protected my ears so I could at least stand back up. I hoped my ear drums had survived.

The demon had tried to scramble away into the dark, but her egg sac hadn't broken free yet, and even as big as she was she looked like she was dragging a deflated hot air balloon behind her. I mumbled under my breath again and dimmed the werelights as far as I was willing to go, then brought the ear protection down since she'd stopped screeching once she'd tried to escape the light.

Once the lights dimmed she turned her head and drew a bead on me with all 30 eyes. I stood my ground and brought a canister of the sauce I'd made back at hotel from off my belt. It was basically Valium for demons. I filled the air with the aerosolized mixture and waited for her to calm down.

I need you to tell me where the Tall Man walked?

Her voice sounded like children crying.

He has walked many places, and has stood his ground.

I just need to know where the reliquary is. Tell me that and I'll let your brood live. Don't and I'll burn 'em before you taste even a single bit of sustenance. You might make it to brood time again, and you might not. Your choice.

What business do you have with him?

Just the business of killing.

She picked at her brood sac with her hind legs, finally freeing it from her body. She came at me fast, and I wasn't ready. One of her front legs took a swipe and I left the ground, just long enough to make returning to it hurt. She was on top of me by the time I rolled over. Her pincers just inches from my face and her breath hitting me like stale urine.

I pulled the trigger on the can and gave her a full spread in the face. She screamed again and backed up enough for me to pull myself up off the ground. She tried to charge again, but the sauce had set in and she looked like a giant drunk spider trying to walk on greased glass. I posed my question again.

Where is the reliquary?

She finally succumbed to the sauce and slumped to the ground.

You're standing in it.

She passed out cold. I guess I'd given her a bit too much, and as I thought back through everything that had happened I realized one thing. I didn't know if she meant the cave or the mountain, and I only had 30 minutes to figure it out before the brood came back to feed their queen.