this magical bitch you weren’t telling me?” My brother was most certainly right there, but now was not the time, which was why I told him,
“I will explain later, but all you need to know right now is that she is our enemy, she is more powerful than any other witch I have ever encountered and if there is a way for her to get to me, she will find that way with a blade in her hand.” He raised a brow at this, no doubt questioning, like I did, who could possibly come by that amount of power for a witch. Instead he refocused his question on my Amelia.
“And what of the girl, I take it this is also a means of—”
“The girl for the time being is not your concern.” I interrupted quickly and now we were alone, this prompted him to ask,
“And what of when it does become my concern Šeš, what then?” he asked referring to what was code for brother and derived from an ancient form of cuneiform and usage of Akkadian language. It proved useful to us for it was an extinct East Semitic language, one that was used in ancient Mesopotamia and dating back from the third millennium BCE. That was until its gradual replacement by Akkadian-influenced Old Aramaic among Mesopotamians by the 8th century BCE. In short, it was one not known in Hell and that suited us just fine.
“The day she becomes a concern is the day she becomes a threat to us but until then, leave her to me.” At this he finally conceded and nodded in understanding. I ignored his keen eyes and focused instead on when he asked,
“What are your instructions?”
“Send Carn’reau and my army to the first town when entering the Kingdom of Death, for it is likely that will be the first place they stop.” I told him, after first getting a bearing on where they would possibly land.
“I believe they are shortly to enter the shitty place, for it was naturally the first town to look at being as it is the closest from the wastelands. But what makes you so sure the brothers even found her here?”
“I have evidence to support that theory…” I said as I absentmindedly rubbed my fingertips together again, as if I was able to feel her presence in my realm by a single drop of blood.
“…but as you know, I am nothing if not thorough,” I added, making him chuckle as I had Arachne in my sights. Then I left him standing where he was as it was time to discover the truth.
Once again as I approached, what was left of her children scattered, dropping the broken pieces of their Queen after they had been still trying to drag them back to the cave. The battered female form of Arachne lay still with her face down in the ash coloured dirt barely even looking as if any life was left in her. So once close enough I flipped her over with my boot and faced what I wondered if at one time had ever been a beautiful face.
Her dark hair was matted with dirt, blood, and what looked like white vomit caught in fist size globules. This I soon discovered was from being forced to produce a stream of webbing that had first been impregnated inside her belly, before being regurgitated and directed at her foe.
I knew this after I had grabbed the top part of her head, placing my palm to her eyes and forced my way inside her brain to breach her memories. After this…I saw it all.
I had been right, my girl had fought, not once giving up despite her fear. But even then, had the shifter brothers not turned up when they had, then she wouldn’t have lasted long, for they had protected her and saved her life. A few minutes later and I didn’t need to see anymore, dropping my hold on her and ignoring the moan of pain the second I did.
“Was it as you suspected?” Dariush asked as he approached.
“It is,” was all I said in a tense tone, for seeing her in danger that way wasn’t exactly easy despite knowing the outcome. My brother nodded and told me,
“Then I will return to the castle and wait for them to arrive with the girl, that is if Carn’reau doesn’t get to them first.”
“I care little who walks her through my doors just so as when she arrives she does so walking unaided,