Twice Drowned Dragon (The Gryphonpike Chronicles Book 2) by Annie Bellet Page A

front legs, and bolted for the trees on the remaining six.
    I shoved my way to my feet, reaching for an arrow. My shot was tangled in the thick moss and I stumbled forward, spitting bile. A glance at the sky told me Rahiel, now riding Bill, her mini-unicorn, was still busy throwing spells at the injured spider, keeping it off the men in the cart. Makha glanced at Azyrin, and then at me, before she charged into the swamp after the spider that had taken Drake.
    I followed her, slashing at the brush with my heavy bow. A roar cut into the sound of battle and ahead I saw the silver-and-black flash of the mist-lynx as Fade materialized, stopping the fleeing spider in its tracks. He crouched, tail whipping back and forth, his snarls driving the spider back. I doubted it had ever seen a cat half its own size before.
    Makha charged and bashed her great shield into the protruding spinnerets in the spider’s rear abdomen. Sticky fluid and black blood splashed her and she fell back with a cry.
    I strafed to the left, closing in and shooting arrows into the spider’s exposed abdomen as quickly as I could draw them. Drake was still alive, struggling beneath the creature, and I tried to put arrows where its acidic blood wouldn’t rain down on him. I couldn’t shoot into its soft belly from this angle, especially not without damaging Drake, so all my arrows did was slow and anger the spider. I winced as the wooden shafts smoked and started to dissolve beneath the coating of its blood.
    A hideous scream rang out behind us and a moment later something pink and green flashed overhead. Rahiel. Blinding white light zinged from her fingertips, lancing into the spider’s gleaming black eyes. It shied sideways, but didn’t release the rogue.
    “Kill it! Kill it with fire!” Drake yelled.
    “No angle!” Rahiel yelled back. “You will burn.”
    We needed the spider to drop him but it was hanging onto its prize with stubborn tenacity even as we surrounded the creature. I aimed another arrow at one of the legs gripping Drake, but the wedged broadhead arrow only gouged the tough hide. Makha was on her feet again and leapt for its injured spinnerets, but the spider twisted and spit a gob of black fluid at her. She brought her shield up just in time. The poison splattered and smoked on the metal.
    I reached for another arrow as an idea hit me. This time I drew one of the snake-tongue arrows. The heads were special, forked like a snake’s tongue that gave them their name, with sharpened edges on the inside. Taking a half step forward as I gauged the distance the arrow needed to spin, I aimed for the joint between the upper and lower part of the already gouged foreleg.
    My arrow flew true. The sharp fork sliced into the joint, severing the leg completely. Not daring to breathe between shots, I aimed, shifted, and sent another at the other leg holding Drake captive. The spider had no chance to react before that arrow severed its other leg.
    Drake dropped and rolled free with a shout of “fire now!”
    Rahiel’s spell started as a gleaming red bead sparking its way through the damp swampy air. It hit the spider and turned into an immolating ball. The creature shrieked and curled in on itself, crumpling into a steaming black ball the size of a small cottage. It smelled no better dead and burning, unfortunately.
    I threw Thorn over my shoulder and drew my dagger, moving to cut Drake free. The spider’s silk was a sticky mess but sullying it with mud did the trick and we got him loose.
    “No saving this shirt, eh?” Drake sighed and yanked the tatters off himself.
    “Looks as though your chest hair made the sacrifice as well,” Rahiel pointed out as she and Bill flew down to level with our faces.
    Drake brushed flaking black blood off his chest and winced at the patchiness of his dark chest curls. His bark-brown skin was red and pink where the acid had burned him. “Son of a bitch.”
    “You’ll heal, knucklehead.” Makha wiped her shield