Not that Eva minded much. This would just be an extra cushion on the stipend that came with her scholarship.
They went to bed after coming up with the full plan. Juliana would begin quietly testing for interest and advertising for anti-scrying shields. If enough people seemed interested, they’d go get some supplies and begin production.
Chapter 010
A hard hand clamped itself around Eva’s mouth. Her eyes snapped open. She reached for the vial of Arachne’s blood hidden between the wall and her bed.
Her hand froze half way there as her brain registered the eight red eyes staring at her. A slim finger was placed vertically over Arachne’s lips.
Eva glared at the spider-demon as she withdrew her hand from Eva’s face.
“Eva, I–”
Eva slapped her own finger over Arachne’s mouth. She pointed to the window, then upwards, then at her sleeping roommate.
Arachne nodded and stepped towards the window.
Slipping out of bed, Eva quietly slipped into some clothes and grabbed her daily carry of a set of blood vials, her usual dagger, and her wand.
Whatever the demon’s reason for coming back now was, Eva wanted to be ready for anything. She showed up in Eva’s room, while her roommate was in it, in her human form. Eva felt angry at that, and that was before the fact that it had been nearly four weeks since Eva had even seen her contracted demon.
Ready, Eva moved to the window and grudgingly let the spider pick her up and carry her up the side of the building. Eva could have made it to the roof herself, but it would have taken several steps without a handy fire escape in sight.
When they got to the roof, Arachne turned on Eva and said, “I found a place I think you might like.”
“Arachne,” Eva said, “you’ve been gone almost a month. I thought you had run out on me.”
Arachne shifted where she stood. “I’d never.”
“We were contracted for less than a week. I thought that maybe you decided I wasn’t as great as you had hoped.”
“Nothing like that. There were just some things I had to take care of. And then I found this place but it wasn’t ready yet.”
“Things to take care of?” Eva crossed her arms. “Do I want to know?”
Eva did want to know. If only so she could deal with whatever fallout presented itself sooner rather than later. Most of her imagination revolved around blood and viscera dripping off of Arachne’s claws. She just hoped the owners of her imagined blood were people deserving of such a fate.
Then again, Arachne had felt different since their contract. Sure, she pulled out the throat of a nun after impaling her several times. The nun attacked first though. Yet the very next day, Eva expected to find a trail of dead people until one of them could point the spider-demon in Eva’s direction.
Instead there was a nearly panic-stricken spider almost crying tears of relief when Eva returned. Not that Eva thought Arachne had tear ducts; her face might resemble a human face, but Eva was pretty sure that resemblance was only skin deep, if that. Or carapace deep.
Perhaps the spider-woman’s viciousness could be attributed more to Devon. Eva knew it was on her master’s orders that Arachne had torn apart four grown men the night they met. It took Eva years to get over that image, even with the circumstances.
She was thankful now. Eva didn’t even want to imagine a version of that night without Arachne or her master.
Of course, his orders were just to kill, Eva was pretty sure. Arachne had taken it upon herself to rip the men to bits and slowly dismember the last man, laughing all the while.
Which made it all the more worrying that Arachne had been missing for a month.
“Arachne,” Eva said when the spider didn’t respond. “What were you up to?”
Arachne thrust her hand out. A short silver chain dangled from her open fingers. A black orb was inset in a silver binding attached to the chain.
If Arachne could blush, Eva imagined she would be bright red. Eva herself felt terrible for her earlier thoughts as she took the necklace from the demon.
The orb itself seemed to absorb all light. Eva could scarcely tell it was a sphere and not a disk without touching it. As she rolled it over in her fingers, a glint of light caught her eye. She turned the orb over and gasped.
Hair thin strands of spider silk weaved around the inside of the orb. The intricate web was not a flat spider web. It stretched in all directions, seemingly further than the edges of the small orb, though that might just be a trick of the light absorbing material. The entire web revolved slowly behind the viewing window, giving ample view of all angles.
“This–” Eva cut herself off. She didn’t have any proper words for this.
“A gift,” Arachne said. “I never gave you one, and when you got that skull from the hel,” she half growled out the word, “I decided that was a mistake.”
“If you giving a gift earlier meant I wouldn’t get to see this, I’m glad you waited.”
If Arachne could blush… Eva thought again.
“There’s one more thing,” Arachne said as Eva attached the silver chain behind her neck.
“Oh yes, you said you found a place. Where’s it at?”
“Probably best if I carry you. It is out of the way.”
“Sounds like an excuse.” But Eva didn’t protest as the spider-woman put her arms around her.
Arachne picked Eva up and leapt from the roof. They roof hopped until the city ran out of roofs to hop on. Arachne hit the ground and sprinted full tilt.
Sagebrush and craggy rocks passed by them as they left the outskirts of the town. Arachne carried Eva up hills and down hills without slowing in the slightest.
Eva had yet to purchase a watch, but Arachne had to have carried her for at least an hour. She started to cramp up in Arachne’s arms. She was about to ask for a break to stretch her legs when they crested the top of a hill.
Eva could see their destination.
It looked like a castle. High walls completely enclosed what looked like several buildings poking out over the top. Turrets rose higher at each of the four corners and a few places between.
As Arachne ran closer, Eva could see the bricks of the walls and several of the buildings. They jutted out at odd places and had very rough texture. The main gate had light blue bars in a dual gate system with a long tunnel between. Eva doubted it was possible to open both at the same time.
An idea began to form in Eva’s mind about just what this place was, but she still had to ask. “Where are we?”
Arachne grinned with her sharp teeth bared in full. She jumped straight to the top of the wall and dropped down on the other side. She set Eva down and led her by the hand to the nearest building.
Another two sets of iron-barred gates awaited them inside. Unlike the gate on the walls, these looked to be opened by hand rather than a contraption. Arachne stepped forward and opened the gate, giving a slight bow as Eva walked past. A resounding clang echoed through the building as she shut the gate behind her.
Through the second gate, Eva could see the main room.
The building was three stories tall and all could be seen from the room. Bright light flooded in through tall, thin and barred windows on her left. They ran from the floor to the ceiling.
On Eva’s right were rows and rows of iron bars. They may have been painted white at one time, but many spots had worn off leaving red rust visible. Eva walked up to the nearest one. As expected, a small room maybe eight feet deep and five feet wide lay behind the bars. Two cots, equally rusted, hung off one wall by two chains attached to the outside corners, one on top of the other.
Eva walked down to the end of the hall. Every cell was the same, some in better condition than others. Halfway down the hall a single pipe stuck out from the wall just higher than an above average human. A rusted and worn plaque read ‘shower’ hung from the top.