Spiderstalk

by D. Nathan Hilliard

  Antonio frowned a second then answered in what Adam could only assume was the same language. But the Chieftain’s response had a different accent and timbre even to his inexperienced ear. He also noted how Antonio spoke with expansive gestures while the other had left his thumbs hooked in his pockets. It made for an awkward contrast between the two, and Adam could see why Olivia felt it necessary to point out. The potential for misunderstanding, even on something as basic as attitude, was immense here.

  And there were far too many concealed firearms and big spiders in the clearing for any misunderstandings to end well.

  Apparently, the Spider Tribe leader felt the same because his next move was so simple and basic that even Adam understood it. He nodded to each of his companions in order, while giving a name and a few other words that Adam assumed were titles or roles in their tribe. Again, Antonio responded in kind, although with more flourish. Then another pregnant silence filled the clearing.

  Adam began to wish they would knock it off with the long pauses. He could see the perspiration on several foreheads despite the wooden expressions.

  Then Antonio spoke again, gesturing at Adam while making a slow and careful point of some kind. Whatever it was, the Spider Tribe leader apparently agreed. He nodded, and then nodded again in the direction of the old woman sitting on the bench. Grandma Lilah put down her knitting with a disgruntled snort.

  “Mr. Sellars,” Antonio muttered, “it appears you are up.”

  “Me?”

  “Yes. It seems your big moment is here. Please walk over to Grandma Lilah and conclude your business with her.”

  Adam could feel every eye in the clearing settle on him…allies and adversaries alike. The feeling was daunting, but he told himself this was what he had come for. This was what it was all about as far as he was concerned.

  It was time for Tucker to come home.

  Adam took a deep breath, tightened his grip on his cane, and made a wary but steady approach toward the old woman. Remembering his cringing performance on the video, he set his jaw and made sure to stand up straight. He reminded himself he now had the psi-blocker, which should protect him from her powers. On the other hand, the big arachnid looming behind her reminded him she also presented dangers that were all too real.

  He came to a stop about fifteen feet in front of her…unwilling to get any closer to her massive companion.

  “You still need that cane, boy?”

  Her voice was sharp, but held an edge of amusement Adam found irksome.

  “Off and on.”

  “You want to give it another couple of days before you decide? It’ll continue to get better for two or three more days before startin’ to get worse again. Might want to get a good taste of what I’m offerin’.”

  Adam looked down on her hunched frame, trying not to grimace at the sewn eyelids. It took an effort of will, but not as much of one as it took to not look at the spider behind her. He couldn’t imagine how anybody could get used to being close to these things.

  “No. I don’t need it. I remember well enough what I lost.”

  “Then turn around,” the woman snapped as she pushed herself to her feet. “I need to check somethin’.”

  “I didn’t say that’s what I decided!”

  “I didn’t ask yet,” she retorted. “But I want to make sure I ain’t made nothin’ worse either. Now turn around.”

  Adam sighed and did as instructed. The last thing he wanted was to start an argument with this woman while everybody watched. She was obviously high in both status and rank with her own people, and antagonizing her would be counterproductive. Besides, he could still feel the tension in the air between the two groups, and suspected they were both using his encounter as a chance to try and buy time and get a better feel for each other.

  He winced at the feel of her leathery hands slipping under his shirt and exploring his spine. Once again they crawled like large withered insects across his back. He could only grit his teeth and remind himself he was enduring this to get Tucker back. Then he could focus on raising him while adjusting to his new life with Olivia. Anything getting him closer to that goal was worth enduring. Besides, this process didn’t take very long back in the hotel hallway so he comforted himself with the thought it shouldn’t take too long this time either.

  It didn’t.

  “That’s what I thought,” the woman old grumbled. “Go back over there and stand with your new chief. The deal is off.”

  It took a second for her words to sink in.

  “What?!” He whirled in alarm. “Wait!”

  “I said the deal is off. Now git!”

  ###

  “Now hold on! What is this bullshit?!”

  Adam glared at the hideous old woman with outrage. This was unbelievable! He had been about to turn down her offer to heal his legs so he could have Tucker back, but then she had called the whole thing off! Like hell! After everything he had been through he wasn’t about to take this lying down. He took a step toward her, his fists clenched in anger…

  …but then froze as the huge spider dropped onto the bench behind her.

  The big horror reared, raising both its front legs and its fangs in a display leaving no doubt as to its lethality. It stayed on the bench but Adam knew it could cover ground fast if it needed to. The fact the old woman hadn’t even flinched told him volumes about her confidence in the beast’s abilities.

  And apparently that wasn’t the only threat in the clearing.

  “Adam!” Antonio barked. “Step away from her! Now!”

  Torn with fury, fear, and confusion, Adam looked over to see the entire clearing had tensed. Every hand still remained visible, but hovered near pockets and concealed holsters. The three spiders near the other tribe’s men had all dropped to the ground as well. The whole situation had become one giant tinderbox, and he suddenly realized his own role as the match. He was one angry move away from starting a bloodbath.

  A bloodbath he wouldn’t live long enough to even see start.

  “Okay,” he breathed and took a big step back. “Okay. Hoooolllld on a second…I’m not going to do anything. I just got caught by surprise there.”

  He could feel the whole clearing exhale as he stepped away.

  Adam really didn’t want to be any closer to the spider rearing at him from the bench anyway. Yet at the same time, he would be damned if he wouldn’t get any answers about this new development.

  “Now,” he continued, eyeing the old woman and the threatening spider behind her, “what do you mean the deal is off?”

  “Just what I said.”

  “You want to explain to me why? I’ve done everything the way you wanted. I’m here, I passed your message to Chief Antonio and they’re here. What haven’t I done? Dammit, I want you to tell me why!”

  “You sure about that?” the old woman queried with a nasty grin on her blind face. “You really want me layin’ it out there?”

  “Yes!”

  “It’s a fair question,” Antonio added mildly from his place in front of the others. “I’m a little curious about this myself. I’ve just watched one of the people I’m about to negotiate with appear to welsh on a deal. It certainly doesn’t bode well for future trust.”

  “I didn’t welsh on nothin’,” the woman snarled. “He’s the one who changed his standin’ and took himself out of the negotiatin’, not me. And don’t tell me your law ain’t the same on this!”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Adam fought the urge to yell.

  “I’m unclear on this, as well,” Antonio frowned. “What standing are you referring to.”

  “His standin’ as his own man in this business. Once he joined the Dog People, he lost all that. Now the boy is a matter between tribes.”

  “What? I didn’t join their tribe! At least not yet!”

  “It’s true,” Antonio agreed. “Our council won’t even take up the matter of considering him for another week. At this point, nothing is guaranteed.”
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  “I think you’re forgettin’ something,” she sneered. “That ain’t the only way in.”

  Her hand darted forward and caught Adam’s wrist. He froze at her touch, taken by surprise. Before he had a chance to recover she pulled his sleeve back to reveal the braided leather cord Olivia had tied around it earlier in the day.

  “You can marry into a tribe as well!”

  Stunned silence filled the clearing.

  Adam barely breathed as all eyes first stared at the cord on his wrist, then turned to settle on Olivia.

  The Spider People regarded her with open curiosity. The old man and Aurelio snarled at her with contemptuous condemnation. Cristobal gaped at her in surprise. And Antonio turned four shades of red while fixing her with a glare that could melt glass. Adam himself could only stare at her with helpless despair…horrified at this turn of events, and having been used to put her on the spot like this.

  They had agreed to wait until they were back in Houston to let Antonio in on their engagement. Now it had just been used as a weapon against him, and maybe ended up hurting her every bit as badly.

  If so, she didn’t show it.

  “You have misunderstood the situation,” Olivia replied calmly. “Mr. Sellars and I have agreed to be each others’, but it has not been formalized yet. We are…engaged. There are protocols to be observed, such as my presenting him to my chieftain and the council before we could marry. There is also the matter of my family head’s permission.”

  Grandma Lilah gave Olivia a nasty grin.

  “You must be new at your job…and maybe the first female sub-chieftain at that, eh?” she cackled. “You forgot who you are. You’re thinkin’ like a woman, not a chief.”

  Olivia frowned and looked down at the ground, obviously thinking hard.

  “I’ll save you the time,” the old woman continued. “Our laws are pretty much the same as yours. When a chieftain takes an outside woman—or in your case, a spouse—it’s “official” right then and there unless your Council of Elders forbids it later. But up until then, he’s yours…and he’s Dog Tribe.”

  Her words hung in the air like a cloud of wasps.

  “She’s right,” the old man named Cesar snapped. “Although our chiefs haven’t been taking wives outside the tribe in a long time, we do have tales of it. By our own laws, her interpretation stands. I suppose congratulations are in order.”

  The situation was now officially a nightmare.

  Adam groaned internally and looked to Olivia for help. It wasn’t supposed to be like this!

  Olivia stared at the ground for a few seconds before raising her head and facing Antonio. Even under the combined scrutiny of everybody in the glade, her demeanor remained unruffled. Yet this time, despite her calm bearing, her voice was subdued and solemn when she spoke.

  “I have to concur with Elder Cesar, sir. I have made a grave oversight. I was so focused on protocol concerning our meeting tonight, and other recent developments that I failed to consider the technical ramifications of my relationship to Adam. Even worse, I have endangered his entire cause for being here tonight. The fault for this situation is mine, sir. Please don’t take it out on him. I’m afraid any hope he has of attaining a solution now resides in you.”

  “Of course,” Antonio growled. “It would, wouldn’t it.”

  His stony expression didn’t bode well for somebody counting on him for solutions…at least not the kind of solutions that didn’t involve grievous bodily harm. And the look he favored on Adam certainly didn’t inspire confidence either. At the moment it was harder to tell who looked more venomous…him or the large spider.

  The Chieftain folded his arms and stared off into the darkness for a few seconds before bestowing another black look on the pair of them and then turning to the leader of the other tribe.

  Once again Antonio spoke in his own version of Karankawan. He spoke slowly, making careful gestures, and once paused as if hunting the proper word. Olivia started to speak but he held up a hand to silence her. He proceeded onward, choosing his words carefully.

  Even though he couldn’t follow what was being said, Adam could tell he was building a case of some kind.

  Antonio continued on. He gestured at Adam, then Olivia, and then at Grandma Lilah. The old woman snorted and turned away, obviously unimpressed. The other Spider Chieftain followed the speech more diplomatically though, and Adam had hope whatever Antonio said was getting through to him.

  Unfortunately, that hope was short lived. At the end of Antonio’s little speech, the Spider Tribe’s leader gave a single syllable response even Adam understood to be “no.”

  Apparently, Antonio wasn’t giving up though. He studied his counterpart for a minute, then started speaking once again. Like before, he spoke slowly and carefully, obviously concentrating hard on minimizing the chance of misunderstanding. This time Grandma Lilah snorted even louder than before and barked something, only to be shushed by the other tribe’s Chieftain.

  The man followed Antonio’s speech with care, and considered a moment in silence once he had finished. He nodded slowly, then answered Antonio back. Whatever he said didn’t sit well with Grandma Lilah, for she had to be shushed again. Then everybody in the clearing looked at Adam again.

  Whatever it was, Antonio’s expression told him it wouldn’t be good news. But the fact the conversation had continued past the initial “no” meant something had been agreed to.

  “Adam,” Antonio spoke in a slow, serious voice, “I’m afraid I was not able to convince them to relinquish Tucker.”

  Adam closed his eyes in defeat.

  “But,” the Chieftain continued, “I did get a concession on their part. It’s not one they had to make, and it’s not one you’re going to like, but you are going to take it. Is that understood?”

  “Concession?” Adam opened his eyes and saw Antonio regarding him with steel in his eyes.

  “Yes. A concession. Since the decision leading to your loss of status was made in ignorance, it has been decided you will still get the compensation originally promised you for the boy.”

  “But…” Adam started to protest.

  “No!” Antonio cut him off. “No buts. This is what could be salvaged, and this is what you will take. That’s an order. Now stand still and let Grandma Lilah do her work.”

  Adam almost gasped in dismay. This was not what he had come here for.

  Yet one look at Antonio convinced him any further argument on his part would be a very bad idea. A glance over at Olivia showed her to be giving him a look of silent appeal. And it was when he met her eyes he understood the stakes involved, and what he had to do.

  He was going to have to accept this defeat…at least for now.

  Antonio had done what he could, and considering how pissed he had to be at the pair of them, Adam realized he should be grateful the man had managed that much. Any further protests on his part would only cost the Chieftain face in front of his enemies and would likely force him to retaliate. The only thing Adam could do at the present was accept things for what they were and bide his time. At least now with Olivia at his side, he would have no lack of brain power to apply to the problem.

  “Right,” he sighed. “You’re right. Thank you, Antonio.”

  The words tasted like bile in his mouth.

  “Hmph!” the old woman grouched as she approached again. “You shouldn’t even be getting this. Being rewarded for stupidity is a damn poor way to learn much, if you ask me. Turn around.”

  Adam wasn’t asking her, but he was simply too numb to do anything but go along with it.

  “He won’t be affected as long as last time,” Grandma Lilah addressed Adam’s companions as she pulled up the back of his shirt and brought out the old needle he had seen before. “I’m only finishing what I started at the hotel. But he’ll still need rest for a few hours. You might want to see to that.”

  “Cristabol,” Antonio ordered, “once she is done, take Mr. Sellars back to his hotel room and wait wi
th him there. Aurelio, you will help Cristobal if he has to carry the man.”

  Lovely, Adam grumbled inside, just once I would like to walk away from these people conscious and not bleeding or being shot at.

  As promised, the treatment didn’t take long. Once again he felt the onset of the drug as it began to creep over him. But this time Adam fought it with a renewed vigor. This time he vowed to leave the clearing on his own two feet, and it was this determination that kept him erect long after the point he had fallen in the hallway before.

  Between his disability and the effect of the drug, walking seemed almost impossible. But with Cristobal lending a shoulder to lean on, Adam managed to leave the clearing with his dignity intact. He even managed to struggle his way back to the car with only the assistance of his mute companion.

  But once he hit the seat, the battle was lost.

  He had no idea how Cristobal managed to later get him up to his room.

  ###

  They were all over her…eating her alive.

  A living carpet of scrabbling legs and tiny fangs erupted out of the egg sac and filled the cocoon they shared. And they were hungry. They spread across her chest and flooded down her neckline and sleeves, their tiny fangs lancing into every square inch of her body. Even the act of screaming resulted in them pouring inside of her mouth, causing her to crunch down on a mouthful of wriggling, biting spiders in reaction.

  Her curly hair came alive with struggling vermin as they worked their way down to her scalp.

  All coherent thought fled, and the scream that ripped from Sonni Manzell as she thrashed herself awake was as much mental as verbal. Why was she still alive? Why couldn’t she just die? The woman writhed in the darkness, slapping herself all over with her hands as she screamed again. She struggled in the dirt for half a minute before realizing she could move.