Revenge of the Skull Spiders

by Ryder Windham

  Korgot said, “You searched for her?”

  “Yes. I crossed the bridge, and found marks left by skull spiders on the bridge, but no sign of Harvali. I suspect spiders attacked her. I considered destroying the bridge to prevent others from crossing it, but it occurred to me that if Harvali survived, the bridge could be her only escape route. So I told the villagers to leave the bridge as it was, but to stay away from it.”

  Narmoto said, “How much farther?”

  “Just around that bend,” Vizuna said as he pointed ahead to an area where the cliff’s edge curved around the base of a stony slope. He jumped over a tree that had fallen across the path. His allies followed him over the tree, up the path, and around the bend. Clouds continued to drift through the deep chasm beside them.

  Vizuna came to a stop at a rocky formation that overlooked the chasm. At the base of the formation, an arrangement of long wooden poles stuck up from the ground, angled and tied to one another to form a simple weight-bearing tower that served as the gateway for a rope bridge. Additional poles had been used to anchor the ropes and vines that secured the bridge to the cliff top. The bridge’s hand and foot ropes, and also the stringer ropes that connected them, appeared to have been skillfully knotted, but most were covered with moss, and some with jungle rot. The Protectors could see only a fragment of the bridge’s length before it vanished into the clouds.

  Eyeing the rotted vines, Izotor gasped. “That’s the bridge?”

  Korgot said, “Looks more like a deathtrap to me.”

  Vizuna hopped down and landed beside the wooden poles that formed the weight-bearing tower. He delivered two swift kicks to one pole and then kicked another. “These poles are still solid,” he said as he turned his attention to the anchors. “Harvali overbuilt the bridge, so it’s plenty strong, but as you can see, some rot has set in, so we’ll need to move carefully. I suggest three of us go first. I’ll lead.”

  “Naturally,” said Izotor. “As the Protector of this region, that’s your privilege.” He looked to the other Protectors and said, “Korgot, what say we tag along with Vizuna?”

  Korgot grinned behind her mask. “By all means, let’s.” She turned to Nilkuu, Narmoto, and Kivoda and said, “If things go bad on the bridge, feel free to join the fight.”

  “Count on it!” said Narmoto.

  As Izotor and Korgot followed Vizuna onto the bridge, Vizuna said, “I hope no one here is afraid of heights.”

  Looking down at the clouds below the bridge, Korgot said, “The Region of Earth is filled with pitfalls deeper than this.”

  “Heights don’t scare me, either,” Izotor said as he fell into step behind Korgot, “but I’m not so crazy about impacts. I do whatever I can to avoid falling and smashing into the ground.”

  Korgot responded with a hearty chuckle. Vizuna said, “All right, let’s keep it quiet. If there are any spiders in the area, we don’t want them to hear us.”

  Izotor and Korgot moved carefully after Vizuna, who carefully inspected the bridge’s hand and foot ropes as he walked. He had taken only twenty steps onto the bridge when he glanced back to see that they were already so completely surrounded by clouds that he could no longer see the bridge’s gateway.

  A strong gust of wind swept past the three Protectors on the bridge. They clung to the ropes until the wind passed. Vizuna had just resumed moving when his sensor tail tingled and he whispered, “Hold still.”

  Izotor and Korgot froze. They heard a whooshing noise, and then they saw the two cliff vultures materialize from the dense blanket of clouds overhead. The vultures’ wingspans were extremely wide, and they passed closely over the Protectors’ heads before they vanished back into the clouds.

  Keeping her voice low, Korgot said, “Do vultures ever attack live prey?”

  “Rarely,” Vizuna said, “unless they’re really, really hungry.”

  “Then let’s hope they just had a big meal,” said Izotor as he proceeded after the others.

  Although the three Protectors moved as quietly as possible, the bridge creaked and swayed under their weight as they moved forward. Vizuna said, “We’re about halfway across. Just up ahead is where I found the marks left by skull spiders the last time I was here.” He looked to his left. “Careful. The hand rope on the left is badly frayed, so lean to the right as you—”

  Vizuna was interrupted by a vibration that traveled along the hand rope on the right, and then he felt the foot rope bounce. Behind him, Izotor whispered, “Is the wind making the bridge bounce?”

  “I don’t think so,” Vizuna said. As he moved past the frayed hand rope, he reached for his elemental flame bow. Izotor and Korgot drew their own weapons as their eyes darted behind their masks, searching for any trace of movement on the bridge in front of them or in the surrounding clouds.

  Vizuna was first to see the shadowy forms of the skull spiders as they approached from the opposite direction on the bridge. He counted five spiders. Their eyes glowed and grew brighter as they advanced. Knowing that one wrong shot could split the ropes that kept the bridge suspended over the chasm, Vizuna took careful aim and released a volley of green projectiles. The blasts knocked three spiders off the hand rope and another off the foot rope, but the remaining spider sprang from the bridge, launching its body at Vizuna’s head.

  Vizuna swung his flame bow and struck the spider hard, knocking it aside. But just as the spider began to fall, it rapidly released a sticky strand of webbing thread to snare the bridge’s foot rope. The spider swung out beneath the bridge, and its momentum caused the bridge to swing out hard to one side.

  Izotor braced his left foot around one of the stringer ropes as he raised his elemental ice blaster and squeezed off a shot at the swinging spider. The spider was instantly enveloped in ice. Korgot fired her rapid shooter at the spider’s thread and split it. The frozen spider fell away noiselessly and vanished in the clouds.

  “Ha!” Korgot said. “Skull spiders will have to try harder than that to get the best of us.”

  Vizuna sighed. “I wish you hadn’t said that.”

  “Why?”

  “Because my sensor tail tells me that we’re about to get hit by more spiders. A lot more!”

  The bridge jounced violently, prompting Korgot and Vizuna to brace their feet around the stringer ropes to avoid being tossed into the chasm. As Izotor checked his weapon to make sure it was fully charged, he muttered, “I don’t have a sensor tail, but I have a feeling this fight is going to be ugly.”

  More spiders materialized from the clouds, crawling rapidly on the foot rope toward the Protectors. Vizuna’s finger was poised on the trigger of his flame bow when he saw shadows out of the corners of his eyes. Looking quickly from left to right, he saw spiders rappelling on threads, swinging down from the cliffs overhead. Keeping his voice remarkably calm, he said firmly, “Korgot, left. Izotor, right.”

  While Vizuna kept his eyes forward, Korgot and Izotor pivoted their bodies to aim their weapons at the spiders approaching from different directions. Izotor was first to activate his weapon, launching instant-freeze projectiles at three spiders as they swung toward him. Korgot fired her rapid shooter at four spiders as they rappelled to the left of the bridge.

  Vizuna squeezed the trigger of his flame bow to release green bolts of energy at the advancing skull spiders. The spiders shrieked and leaped away to avoid the bolts. Some spiders fell into the chasm, but many managed to spin threads that snared the foot rope. In a desperate effort to strike as many spiders as possible, Vizuna squeezed his trigger faster as he swung his weapon from side to side, and then down at the spiders that dangled below the bridge. But no matter how many spiders he struck, more spiders kept coming.

  Two of the stringer ropes near Vizuna snapped. He realized that the spiders dangling from the foot rope were putting enormous stress on the bridge. As he blasted more spiders, he shouted to his allies, “We have to push forward!”

  Korgot moved after Vizuna as they continued blasting the spiders that
were rappelling down on either side of the bridge. Korgot shouted, “Vizuna, there’s something I’ve wanted to ask you for a long time! Remind me if we get out of this alive!”

  Vizuna called back, “When we get out of this alive, I’m looking forward to that conversation!”

  The bridge began bouncing even more vigorously, making it more difficult for the three Protectors to hit their targets. Vizuna assumed skull spiders had landed on the foot rope behind Korgot and Izotar, and also wondered how much longer they could hold off the monsters. He risked a quick look back and realized he was mistaken about the cause of the bouncing.

  He saw Nilkuu, Narmoto, and Kivoda moving as fast as they could on the bridge, racing to help their allies. Seeing them, Vizuna felt relief, but then another stringer rope snapped and he had no doubt that the bridge would soon fall apart from the additional weight. He shouted, “Forward, Protectors!”

  Spiders screeched as the six Protectors blasted their way toward the far end of the bridge. Vizuna was first to see the crisscrossed wooden poles and anchors embedded above a narrow ledge in the cliff wall below the City of the Mask Makers. As soon as he reached the poles, he turned and shot at the spiders behind him while he shouted at his allies to move onto the ledge beside him.

  All six Protectors scrambled onto the ledge. Braced against the face of the cliff, they turned and blasted at the spiders on the bridge. Kivoda said, “Our weapons will run out of energy before we can stop them all!”

  “Then we need to aim at a different target,” Narmoto said as he set his elemental fire blaster at full power and shot at the bridge’s anchors. The anchors exploded, obliterating the poles and ropes that supported the bridge’s weight. The broken ropes whipped free from the anchors and the bridge fell away, carrying the spiders with it into the chasm. The spiders plummeted and vanished into the clouds.

  The Protectors stood on the ledge, and were still recovering from the skirmish when Nilkuu looked at Narmoto and said, “So, when you destroyed the bridge, did you have a plan for getting us out of here?”

  “Nope,” Narmoto said with a shrug. “But look on the bright side. We’re still breathing.”

  Because of the dense cloud cover, the Protectors couldn’t see more than twenty feet in any direction. Vizuna tilted his head back to survey the cliff wall overhead, then lowered his gaze to the ledge. He said, “Climbing up would be too risky, especially if we ran into more spiders. As for this ledge, it will bring us to the ancient reliefs that I told you about. If I remember right, the ledge continues past the reliefs, so let’s see where it brings us.”

  Sticking close to the wall, the other Protectors followed Vizuna along the ledge. Glancing back at Korgot, Vizuna said, “So, you had something you wanted to ask me?”

  “Later,” she said. “When we’re on safe ground.”

  Landing hard on the rocks far below the broken rope bridge, the skull spiders were initially disoriented. They wandered through the chasm until they arrived before an immense pile of rubble, which was all that remained of the monumental bridge to the City of the Mask Makers. Wending their way over and around the rubble, they eventually found the defeated Lord of Skull Spiders.

  The sight of their fallen master filled the spiders with rage. The spiders chittered to one another. Although their intelligence was almost as limited as their ability to communicate, they agreed to bring their master to a safe place to help him heal and recover. They vowed to honor him by continuing to capture and enslave the islanders of Okoto.

  They were also determined to hunt down the Toa and the Protectors, and they were willing to do whatever was necessary to accomplish their goals.

  Still dazed from their fall, but eager to resume their reign of terror over the island, the spiders worked fast, spinning protective webs around their master. Once their master was secured, one group of spiders began hauling him toward the base of a cliff, where another group of spiders was already busily spinning long threads that traveled up and down the cliff’s face. Although clouds obscured the view overhead, the spiders knew that the cliff led all the way up to the City of the Mask Makers.

  Working together, and fueled by thoughts of revenge, the skull spiders began hauling their unconscious master up the cliff.

  Vizuna led the Protectors along the ledge, which began to curve around the cliff wall. They moved slowly, facing the wall as they shifted their hands from side to side, their fingers seizing upon any rocky outgrowth or small crack in the surface that could serve as a grip. No one looked down, because there was nothing to see but clouds.

  The ledge widened slightly, and Vizuna realized they were approaching the reliefs that the archaeologist Harvali had shown him years earlier. He said, “We’re coming up on the ancient carvings now.”

  And then the Protectors saw the reliefs. The carved pictograms displayed six different creatures configured within a diamond-shaped pattern, a symbolic map of Okoto. Each creature represented an Elemental Creature of the island and were dragon-like versions of existing animals. Melum, the Creature of Ice, seemed like a hybrid of an ape and a rhinoceros. Akida, the Creature of Water, resembled a shark. Uxar, the Creature of Jungle, a dragonfly. Ikir, the Creature of Fire, was some sort of bird of prey. Terak, the Creature of Earth, appeared as an apelike lizard. And Ketar, the Creature of Stone, was a scorpion. Additional pictograms, symbols, and possible letterforms radiated around the ancient map.

  “Fascinating!” said Izotor. “This map appears to indicate the location of the Temple of Time, and also the regions of the Elemental Creatures. But most of the letters baffle me.”

  “I’ve never seen writing like that, either,” Korgot said. “And the carvings don’t indicate the Mask Makers or their city.”

  Nilkuu stared hard at the map. “Perhaps these reliefs were made long before the Mask Makers were born?”

  “Possibly,” said Vizuna. “That’s what Harvali believed, and what she hoped to determine.”

  “Enough sightseeing,” said Kivoda. “If we’re going to find the Toa, let’s move!”

  Leaving the reliefs behind, Vizuna resumed his steady shuffle, leading the others along the ledge. As he began to edge around another curve, Nilkuu said, “Vizuna, can you see anything up ahead?”

  “No,” Vizuna replied. “The clouds are too thick, and … Oh! I see something dark.”

  “What is it?”

  Vizuna moved closer to the dark area. “It looks like the mouth of a cave. I can’t see how deep it is, but I think it’s large enough for us to rest for a few—”

  A strong gust of wind struck the Protectors, prompting them to flatten their bodies against the wall. The wind tugged at the turbines mounted to Kivoda’s back, causing him to lose his balance. He gasped as he began to fall away from the ledge, but then he felt a tight pressure against his left wrist and he stopped short.

  “Got you!” said Izotor, who clutched at Kivoda’s wrist with one hand while clinging to the cliff wall with the other. Izotor was just starting to pull Kivoda back toward the wall when the two vultures appeared from out of the clouds.

  The first vulture swooped so close to Kivoda that the large bird’s wing knocked him away from the ledge. Kivoda fell back again, this time taking Izotor with him. Korgot jumped after both of them and managed to simultaneously hook her feet over the edge of the cliff while she reached out and grabbed Izotor’s left leg. Izotor held tight to Kivoda, and they both dangled below Korgot’s tight grip.

  Narmoto, Vizuna, and Nilkuu had already drawn their weapons as the second vulture dived down from above, its talons poised to tear Korgot and the others off the ledge. Narmoto and Vizuna aimed for the vulture’s right wing while Nilkuu fired his sandstone blaster straight at the vulture’s head. The vulture shrieked as the Protectors’ combined firepower knocked it off course, causing it to swerve past Korgot’s position and slam into the mountain wall below. The vulture bounced off the wall and disappeared into the clouds.

  Vizuna saw one of Korgot’s feet begin to slip ove
r the cliff’s edge. Keeping his flame bow aimed at the sky, he crouched down and used his free hand to grab Korgot’s foot. The first vulture swooped back and Vizuna launched a round of projectiles that whizzed past the approaching bird. Nilkuu and Narmoto saw the vulture, too, and fired at it, catching it in the chest. The vulture let out a loud squawk as it descended fast in pursuit of its falling partner, and then both vultures were lost from sight.

  Nilkuu and Narmoto moved fast to help Vizuna haul Korgot, Izotor, and Kivoda back onto the ledge. As soon as Kivoda caught his breath, he said, “Next time we go mountain climbing, remind me to leave my turbines at home.”

  “Come on,” Vizuna said. “Let’s get going before those vultures come back.”

  Vizuna moved off the ledge and was about to enter the nearby cave when Korgot stopped him and said, “Hold it right there. Caves are my specialty, and I have excellent vision in darkness. Allow me.” Korgot adjusted her chest-mounted rapid shooter as she moved past Vizuna to enter the cave first. The others followed.

  The cave’s rocky ceiling was just high enough that none of the Protectors had to duck. “Watch your step,” Korgot said. “Some old spiderwebs are stretched across the ground. I don’t think any spiders have been in here for a while, but the webs are still sticky.”

  Vizuna said, “My sensor tail doesn’t detect any life-forms in here except for us.”

  “Keep your eyes open for spiders anyway,” said Narmoto. “They have a nasty habit of appearing when we least expect them.”

  Korgot chuckled. “If I see any spiders, you’ll know, because I’ll be the first one to open fire on them.” She moved deeper into the cave until she came to a stop and said, “Narmoto, can you shine a light over here?”

  Narmoto ignited one of his flame swords and the cave’s walls were suddenly illuminated by the blade’s warm yellow light. He moved closer to Korgot, who pointed to a large pile of rocks that sloped down and away from one wall. Korgot said, “I feel a slight breeze. Beyond these rocks, there’s another chamber.”