Conrad Edison and the Anchored World (Overworld Arcanum Book 2) by John Corwin Read Free Book Online Page A

of cloth drew our attention to the wall behind us. Ambria was the first to shriek at the top of her lungs. I stumbled backwards over a lamp table, sending its contents crashing to the floor in my mad dash to escape a massive red spider on the wall.
     

Chapter 5
     
    Max didn't seem the least bit frightened of the massive arachnid. "Wow, you've got a ruby spider?"
    Shiny red fur coated the spider from the tips of its eight long legs to the top of its eight-eyed head. Black bands striped the fur on the legs, and formed a crooked E on top of the abdomen.
    The headmaster walked over to the huge spider where it clung to the wall. The creature extended a strand of web with several scrolls attached to it. The front legs on its head rubbed together, making the whispering noise I'd heard earlier.
    Galfandor chuckled. "Why, no, Shushiel, you look perfectly fine to me. I think our friends have never met anyone so lovely and were quite overwhelmed." He turned his gaze on Ambria and me. "Correct, children?"
    Ambria clutched me like driftwood in a storm-tossed sea, but still managed to nod. "V-v-very lovely, sir."
    "Yes," I croaked. "Beautiful." I felt a stirring in that part of me where Vic and Della resided and felt a sense of awe and resentment.
    Shushiel leapt to the floor, eliciting another shriek from Ambria, and performed an eight-legged curtsey. She stood as tall as my knee and each of her furry red legs looked nearly as long as mine.
    "She is pleased to meet you," Galfandor said.
    Max leaned toward the spider. "How do you understand her?"
    Galfandor smiled. "You simply have to listen carefully to her susurrations." He looked fondly at the huge spider. "The Overlord—Victus Edison—created a mutant gene in cobalt spiders in his early attempts to create allies. The gene turned them from blue to red and branded them with his initial."
    I stared at the E on Shushiel's back. "My father is responsible for her?"
    "For her entire species," Galfandor said. "The mutant gene caused not only unusual growth in size, but also increased the intellectual capacity of the affected spiders."
    Shushiel rubbed her forelegs together in an excited whispery monologue for several moments while Galfandor listened thoughtfully. He finally translated. "Her parents were of the original thirty spiders Victus mutated. Once they realized what he intended for them to do, they escaped his menagerie of mutant monsters and made a home in the Dark Forest."
    "So, she won't eat me?" Ambria said hopefully.
    Galfandor shook his head. "She prefers rodents or spider bats."
    The spider walked over to Ambria and susurrated.
    "Shushiel says you are less horrendous looking than most bipeds," Galfandor said.
    Ambria frowned. "Tell her she is a lovely shade of red."
    "She can understand what we say," the headmaster replied.
    Shushiel made a sound not unlike a laugh and extended a leg toward my friend. Ambria shivered and held out a trembling hand. They touched.
    "Ooh, she's soft," Ambria said. She stroked a hand across the fur. "She's so fluffy!"
    "Can I touch?" Max asked.
    Shushiel extended another leg toward him and he eagerly ran a hand across the spider's fur.
    "Well, now, isn't this nice?" Galfandor said. "Come, Conrad. Say hello to Shushiel."
    I'd never been particularly afraid of spiders, primarily because I'd been too dull-witted thanks to the living curse my parents bestowed on me. Now that I was a little smarter, it was hard to approach such a large, venomous arachnid without my chest tightening. I held out my arm. Shushiel's leg reached out and touched my hand. Her fur felt velvety soft, and not the least bit bristly like it looked.
    "Hello, Shushiel," I said.
    She made a whispering noise with her mandibles. The words were so soft I could barely hear them, but I made out two of them. "Hello, Conrad." She continued to speak, but so quickly I couldn't discern the words.
    Galfandor chuckled. "Shushiel says since your father created her kind, she and you must be