BLUE
The primordial bastard is definitely teasing me by keeping the key to my cage so close to my prison. He knows I can’t reach it. He knew the other day when he closed his eyes that I wouldn’t be able to take it.
I’m trapped.
Truly fucking trapped.
A shadow darts in the periphery of my vision, and I whip around, stomach tightening at the sight of the eight-legged creature scuttling toward me. It’s nowhere near as large as Aserathiin, but it’s bigger than me, and that’s enough to make me whiskers twitch and me bowels go all hot and liquid.
“You are Blue?” it asks.
I lift me chin, determined not to be freaked out by the fact I’m in a cage that the hairy thing might be able to squeeze its spider body into. Damn me and my rotund form. But if it wanted to eat me, it probably would already be chomping on me.
I quieten me nerves. “Yeah, I’m Blue. You one of Aserathiin’s children?”
“I am. Mother has sent me to help you escape.” It scuttles around my cage as if looking for a weakness. “You are trapped well. Not able to squeeze through the bars. Not able to climb past the power above you.”
“Observant little thing, aren’t ya?” I point to the key. “But you missed that.” I grab the bars to my prison. “If you nudge it closer, I can use it to get out.”
Its mandibles twitch. “Cruel to leave it so close yet too far.”
“Tell me about it.”
It nudges the key close enough for me to grab it, and I use my tail and my arms to maneuver it and slot it into the keyhole.
The spider scuttles back a little as I unlock the door and step out. “Where to now?”
“Now I go. My task is complete.”
The fuck? “I thought you were meant to help me escape?”
“I have done so. You are no longer caged, and I must return to Mother for the great sleep.” It scuttles off the table and out of view.
I guess I’m on my own, and honestly, I ain’t thought this far. Where do I go? To the nest? Can I free the others? What am I doing? I falter at the lip of the table, suddenly riddled with doubt.
The air to my right shifts. I freeze, fur standing on end as the awareness that I’m no longer alone in the room rushes over me.
A set of large brown eyes peers over the edge of the table. I fall back with a yelp, my heart slamming against my ribs.
The eyes sit in a brown oval face that seems too small to hold them. Wisps of dark hair cling to a scalp that is defiantly smooth as if determined to shake off the strands clinging to it.
“You are Blue?” the brown-eyed man says, though man’s an optimistic word considerin’ he’s barely four foot tall with arms like twigs and a head much too large fer his body. His tunicis skintight. Black, like shadow clinging to his form. “Are you Blue?” he asks again when I don’t answer immediately.
“Who wants ta know?”
“My name is not for you to know. My mistress Arpita and liege Chandra send me. They have a task for you. Find the dagger in the bottom drawer of Chandra’s study and bring it to the rose garden. I will take you to safety.”
To Chandra? Which means he’s not under evil’s control. And a dagger? Oh,thedagger. The one that can stop the primordial evil if wielded by Leela.
The study is next door. Escape is now a real possibility. A bubble of euphoria expands in my chest then bursts as a new scenario fills me head.
If I leave, then the primordial evil will come looking fer me. He’ll start searchin’, his attention in places that it don’t need to be, and then…What if he finds Chandra and stops whatever plan’s in place?
Feck my life. “I can’t do it.”
“What you mean? You find the dagger and?—”
“I know what you want me to do, but I can’t leave here. Look, the study is next door. You can get to the dagger and take it yourself.”
