He got quiet after that. Shea left him to histhoughts. She edged forward, trying to see out of the webs whilelistening for anything that suggested Eamon had made his move.Enough time had passed for him to get into position and set up. Hadhe started already? Perhaps he had and his distraction was beingwasted while she hesitated.
On the other hand, if she started cuttingthem down too soon, the spinners would descend on her and anyaction he took would be pointless. She wished they had arrangedsome signal so she could be sure.
As she waffled, a bright red light shot intothe sky followed by a high pitched whistle. The red briefly castthe canyon into sharp relief showing dark blotches high up on someof the walls and closer than Shea would like on the ground. A highscreech echoed off the cliffs, and the blotches burst intomovement, heading towards the light’s origin.
Shea drew her blade, moving to Fallon first.She sawed furiously at the strands holding him, careful not totouch any of the threads with her bare hands. Falling into aeuphoric stupor wouldn’t help any of them at this point.
Getting one of his hands free she shoved aspare knife at him, directing him to cut himself free beforeheading for the stranger. The web strands were thicker around him,nearly cocooning him from the neck down. There might not be enoughtime to cut through everything before whatever distraction Eamonhad created wore off.
She hacked at the strands above him with asingle-minded desperation. Counting on the surge of adrenaline tocounter the effects of the web, she used her other hand to pullthreads away. He fought and struggled against the thread bindinghim, nearly driving his skin onto her blade a few times.
Only a quarter of the web had been cut awayand already she could hear the enraged screams as the spinnersrealized their prey was escaping.
She cut faster, tugging and pulling, as asweet euphoria stole through her veins making her head feel lightand disconnected. Still, she hacked and cut, nearly jumping out ofher skin as hands appeared before her to help pull the lastresisting threads from the stranger’s body.
She blinked dumbly up at Fallon as he shovedhis shoulder under his friend’s arm and half dragged him out of theweb. The stranger’s lower body was still covered in the whitestrands, but he was no longer chained in place.
All around them spinners screeched in angerand pain.
Free at last, Shea glanced down the canyon,noticing the orange light bouncing off the walls as web after webcaught fire. Larger than life shadows were cast against rock asspinners fought to smother the flames with anything they could.More than one cast their own bodies onto the flame. Their blackbodies caught fire, and they fell from their webs, the canyon’swalls reverberating with their death screams.
It was a tension fraught run from thespinner’s lair. Shea was still feeling the effects of the webs andknew the other two were probably dealing with a lot more. Herfingers felt thick and her legs heavy. She was overcome with theurge to just stop, lie down, and sleep.
Her mouth opened in a jaw-cracking yawn, andshe focused grimly on the task at hand- setting one foot in frontof another until they reached safety.
It was easy to find the horses, for whichShea was grateful. She wasn’t too confident about being able tofind her way in anything but a semi straight line at thispoint.
Once there, she stared stupidly at the beastsand then at her companions. There were three of them and only twohorses. How were they supposed to ride if there were only two?
Maybe two of them could ride and the thirdperson could run alongside. Then they could trade off after a fewminutes. Would it be possible for a half a horse to carry oneperson?
Shea was deep into trying to figure thisproblem out when Eamon came sliding down the canyon’s slopedwall.
Great, now there were four people and onlytwo horses.
“Shane, what are you doing? We have to getout of here,” Eamon said, moving to his horse and preparing tomount.
“But there are only two.”
“What?”
“Two horses, four of us. The math doesn’t addup,” Shea told him.
“So two people to a horse,” he said, stressmaking his voice tight and tone sarcastic.
She blinked at the horses again and then atthe other two who looked even more befuddled then her. Oh. Whyhadn’t she thought of that?
“Tonight, Shane. Before those things catchup.”
Shea nodded, forgetting it might be difficultto see her in the dark and then kept nodding until she reached upand grabbed both sides of her head to make it stop.
“Fallon’s with you.” Eamon mounted and helpedthe stranger up behind him.
Shea turned to look at Fallon’s dim figure.“But I don’t want to ride with him.”
“I don’t care,” Eamon said sounding angry.“What’s the matter with you?”
“He must have touched the webs,” Fallonanswered for her. “It can make acting normal difficult.”
