Standing beside me, Hugo gulped in a sharp breath, his eyes flicking from side to side as he assessed the situation. Hester had no such compunction. She was already flying over and yelling at the top of her voice, ‘Where is my brother, you eight-legged freak?’
The giant spider jumped; apparently it had been unaware of our approach. It executed a perfect half-turn and I caught a brief glimpse of Otis trapped in the sticky folds of the glittering web before his body was obscured again. My stomach lurched with fear. I wouldn’t allow him to become a spider’s lunch. I couldn’t.
‘You and me, buster!’ Hester shouted, her voice cracking on the last word. ‘You and me! Put ’em up! Come on!’
The spider, an immense creature of monstrous, cold beauty, gazed at her with its eight glistening black eyes. I could see images of Hester reflected on the shiny surface of each eyeball. Compared to the arachnid, she was minute – she had no chance.
Panic clawed at my throat, then my limbs acted almost of their own accord and I lurched forward with Gladys raised. I barely managed three steps before Hugo grabbed my collar and hauled me back. I hissed at him angrily but he shook his head, his expression far calmer than mine. Wait, he seemed to be telling me. Just wait.
The spider chittered at Hester as it rubbed its pincers together. I heard a whoosh as it exhaled a blast of air, then its vast mouth opened revealing a gaping black hole. Terror for Hester and Otis rocked me to my core.
‘Good morning,’ it said.
I blinked. So did Hester. Even Hugo, who had acted with far more sense than the rest of us, appeared stunned. The spider spoke in a deep male voice – and he had an accent. In fact, he sounded almost exactly like Alan the shopkeeper. A Brummie monster spider with good manners? I shook my head. What on earth was going on?
Hester recovered first. ‘Free my brother,’ she shouted, ‘or prepare to die!’
‘That is exactly what I am trying to do,’ the spider huffed. He reared up and rubbed two of his legs together in front of Hester. ‘However, it is not easy with these limbs. Perhaps you can help. Your fingers appear dainty enough to extract him safely.’
Hester didn’t relax; she was squinting at the giant creature with undisguised suspicion. ‘This is a clever trap, right? Encourage me to help free Otis and trap me in the process!’
Her concern was reasonable until you considered all the facts. ‘It’s not a trap, Hester,’ I said softly. ‘The spider speaks the truth.’
‘You don’t know that!’ she protested.
Hugo gave her a crooked, gentle smile. ‘Yes, she does.’ He glanced at me then at the spider. ‘The smell,’ he said. ‘That deep scent that pervades these woods, and the magic that accompanies it, are designed to repel curious passers-by. That came from you, didn’t it?’ he asked the spider.
The creature stared at Hugo. It was impossible to tell what he was thinking; it could have been disgust, admiration or even love. The facial features of enormous spiders were not designed to give much away, not to my eyes anyway. ‘It is clearly not as effective as it used to be,’ he said finally. ‘After all, you are here.’
‘Oh, it’s effective,’ I told him. ‘It was so strong that it ramped up our curiosity. Most other people would have turned and walked away but I’m afraid we like to investigate places that others would avoid.’
The spider tapped another of his long legs on the ground. ‘Hmm. You are not the first to enter these woods in recent days.’
He was talking about Amy. ‘Did she see you?’ I asked. ‘The other person who was here?’
‘No, but she saw one of my children.’ He raised his body an inch before lowering it again: I supposed that was the arachnid version of a shrug. ‘Elves have always been more resistant to my spells than other creatures. That makes you … more annoying than the others who walk on two legs.’
I wouldn’t disagree with him on that point. Hell, I wouldn’t disagree with him on any point. I wouldn’t dare.
Hester had no such qualms. ‘Why are you all standing around talking?’ she shrieked. She flung herself at one of the spider’s massive legs as if she were trying to knock him off balance. Unsurprisingly, he didn’t move an inch. ‘Otis is still trapped! Help him!’
‘Sorry, Hester,’ Hugo said.
I nodded. ‘Sorry.’
She glared at us. ‘Don’t apologise to me! Apologise to Otis!’
The spider shuffled to the side and exposed the full scale of his vast web – and Otis’s tiny, trapped figure. ‘Iamsorry,’ the spider murmured. ‘It was never my intention to trap your kind. We do not eat two legs – only six legs is food for us.’
Six legs? Insects, then: flies, beetles, those sorts of creatures. But it would take a vast amount of normal-sized insects to fill this spider’s belly. Horrified, I wondered if there were bluebottles flies zipping around these woods who were similarly gargantuan but I shook off the thought before it took hold. Hester was right: our priority had to be Otis.
He’d been silent since his scream for good reason. As far as I could tell, he’d flown headfirst into the web and instinctively started to struggle. The more he’d thrashed around, the more he’d been trapped as the silvery web silk had reacted andwrapped more tightly around his body. Several strands around his head had forced his mouth closed, and his poor wings were similarly bound. No wonder the spider had told us he couldn’t free Otis from his own trap; disentangling the little brownie was not going to be an easy feat for anyone.
‘Don’t worry, Otis,’ I told him. ‘We’ll get you out of there.’ Somehow. Unable to speak, his body twitched in silent response. Unfortunately that only embedded him further in the tricksy web.
‘Try not to move,’ Hugo advised. Otis glared at him to indicate that was easier said than done.
Hester sniffed wetly and reached forward to touch him. ‘Don’t,’ I advised her. We had enough problems; if Hester brushed against the web silk, she’d probably be trapped as well.
