I hear a sigh from somewhere behind me. Then, a thin shot of water sails arrow-like through the air and severs the spider’s web. I fall abruptly onto my ass, then scramble backward until my back hits a pair of black leather boots.
“You’re welcome,” Soren says from above.
Had I possessed the courage to take my focus off the hissing arachnida, I might’ve glared at him. As it is, I keep my eyeslocked on my target, even as Soren’s hands slide under my armpits and lift me up onto my feet. Across the deck, the foul beast is skittering from side to side, agile legs clicking against the splintered wood. I get the sense it is evaluating us—or, more specifically, contemplating how best to wrap us in its webs and suck us dry.
When it springs again, I am ready with a counterattack. My chest flares with ice as I summon another blast of wind that bursts forth in an indiscriminate—and ineffectual—wave. Not only does it miss the arachnida entirely, it manages to crack the foremast clean in half. The rigging comes down on the bow in a tumble of canvas and line and fragmented timber. Before it can be crushed, the creature scurries up the central mast, spewing sticky webs from boom to boom as it ascends toward the crow’s nest.
“Damn it!”
“Are you even attempting to aim?” Soren drawls. “As a reminder, you’re meant to eliminate the venomous spider, not the ship.”
“Feel free to pitch in anytime,” I growl without bothering to look at him. I’m trying to keep the enemy in my sights, but it’s moving so fast I catch only blurry glimpses of black among the tattered sails.
“Oh, I think we’ve ascertained I’m quite useless in this fight.” There is a smile in his voice. “Besides, you’ve got it well in hand.”
Well in hand?
Is he insane?
“Soren, would you just—”
“Incoming,” he warns lightly.
I intercept the spider’s attack by the skin of my teeth, throwing up my arm to blast it backward at the last second. It gets soclose, I can make out the white froth of venom around its pincers, the chunks of desiccated tissue caught in its coarse hair. I shudder in horror as it is flung into the rigging. While it is briefly tangled up in the lines, I spin around to face Soren.
I am fuming.
He, on the other hand, is leaning back against the rail looking for all the world like a man at utter ease. His lips twitch when he sees me glaring daggers at him. “Do you always use your powers like this? With the light touch of a battering ram?”
“I don’t use them at all,” I grit out. “Not since Fyremas.”
His ocean eyes swirl with dark currents. “And why is that?”
“Do we have to talk about this now?”
“What else would you like to talk about?”
Peering over my shoulder, I see the spider’s bulbous body dangling from a fresh web near the crow’s nest. No doubt preparing a sudden descent onto my head as soon as my gaze is averted. “Perhaps the giant, unkillable monster intent on exsanguinating us.”
“Oh. That.”
“Yes, Soren.” I send another blunt air blast at the rigging.“That.”
“It’s not unkillable.”
“It seems pretty godsdamned unkillable to me.”
“Try some finesse.”
“You want finesse?Get me a bow!”
“A bow is merely a tool that fires a projectile. You don’t need a tool when you are fully capable of firing projectiles with the flick of your fingers.”
My teeth gnash together. “You are the most asinine—”
“Incoming.”
Swallowing a scream, I again whip around just in time to fend off another assault. The arachnida hisses as it is hurled back intothe air, legs pinwheeling like hairy scythes, shredding through sails and halyards as it goes.