3 When Darkness Falls.8 by 3 When Darkness Falls.8 Read Free Book Online Page B

peace of mind.
    They had to keep their Allies in the field and with the army. The Herdsfolk and the Mountainfolk were their Wildmages and their mountaineers and light infantry; the Centaurkin were their heavy infantry. Right now humans and Centaurs made up about a third of the army; in the spring, when the full levies arrived, they would make up two-thirds of it. According to the Teaching Songs he'd learned at the House of Sword and Shield, maintaining the Alliance had always been the main difficulty for the Allies, and one the Demons always exploited. If they left to protect their own lands, the Demons could destroy all of them piecemeal.
    If they stayed, it would be to watch their loved ones die while they did nothing, for even if he wanted to, there was no way Andoreniel could protect all the Wild Lands, the High Reaches, and the Elvenlands at once.
    Even though everyone knew the stakes if the Demons should win, it was a hard thing to ask someone to let his family, his village, everyone he knew fall prey to Demons and their creations — especially when it was clear that the Elves were not suffering the same losses.
    It hasn't started yet, Kellen told himself. I know it will — if I can think of it, They certainly can. But we still have time to come up with a countermove. I'll ask Jermayan's advice. He's older than I am — a lot older. And he's trained for this all his life, even if he never expected it to happen …
    Just then he became aware of a faint scuffling sound.
    "They're here," he said quietly.
    A vast living carpet of spiders was moving across the floor of the cave toward Kellen and Vestakia. Each of them was the size of a large cat, and their bodies were covered with thick transparent bristles, giving them something of the look of puffballs. Both Kellen and Vestakia could see them clearly, because the Crystal Spiders radiated their own light in a rainbow of pastel colors: green, pink, violet, yellow, blue…
    "They're beautiful," Vestakia said in surprise.
    "I guess they are — for spiders," Kellen said, trying not to grin. He knelt down and pulled off one of his armored gauntlets. Contact with bare skin made it much easier to communicate telepathically with the creatures.
    The Spiders clambered up over his body. Their legs made a faint scritching sound as they passed over his armor. One of them settled into his hand, and its bristles tickled his skin. As always when he was in contact with them, a sense of peace and warmth filled him like phantom sunlight.
    :Welcome,: the Spiders sent. :You have brought the one who will help to fight the Black Minds?:
    "Yes," Kellen answered. He spoke aloud — it was easier that way to focus his thoughts for the Crystal Spiders to hear. "This is Vestakia. She helps us fight the Black Minds."
    Vestakia had already knelt down and removed both her gauntlets. More Spiders appeared out of the darkness, and clambered up her body.
    "Hello," Vestakia said, more calmly than Kellen would have under the circumstances.
    Something happened then that he hadn't expected — though he should have expected it. He knew the Crystal Spiders were telepathic, and seemed to function as a group mind. The whole basis of his and Vestakia's plan relied on the hope that the Crystal Spiders here were in touch with their brethren elsewhere — in all the caves everywhere across the Elven Lands — and would be able to tell Vestakia the location of other Enclaves of the Shadowed Elves.
    It simply hadn't occurred to Kellen that the Crystal Spiders would put them in touch with each other.
    For a moment the cold dampness of the cave fell away. Instinctively Kellen reached out toward the warmth — human warmth — and love embedded in the web of the Crystal Spiders' linked minds —
    No!
    He lunged to his feet, hastily dislodging several Crystal Spiders. They scuttled backward, and Kellen strode quickly away into the darkness, gripping the haft of his sword until his fingers ached.
    Gods of the Wild Magic,