Steel Sirens

by Maxx Whittaker

  From the crack, a long, black leg extends.

  Glossy, ink dark, and smooth as new glass, it steps through almost delicately. One leg becomes two, then four, followed by a head straight from a nightmare. A thousand blinking eyes above wet mandibles that extend, testing the air for our scent. A fat drop of liquid drops from one, hissing on the stone floor below.

  A spider. And judging by its head, it’s at least as large as me.

  “Behind me,” Siri says urgently, breath hot on my shoulder. She tries to push past, but there’s no room. The passage is so narrow we’ve already had to turn partially sideways to get through, and as huge and armored as she is, there’s nowhere I can go to let her through.

  “No time!” I shout as the spider drops fully through the crack. It hangs obscenely on the wall, its enormous body paused as its eyes track us. “Back up. Slow,” I whisper, bringing my bow up. But I don’t draw it, not yet.

  We take slow steps back, and it doesn’t move, just watches. Thick ropes of venom lattice it’s mandibles, dripping to the floor like thick tar. The smell of it assaults me, like vinegar or lye, bringing tears to my eyes.

  Siri's whispering in my ear. “When it attacks, and it will, be ready. It’ll be fast. Don’t let it bite you. Your death will be painful, and will last a very long time.”

  “Great. Don’t get bitten. Got it,” I mutter, still backing away.

  And still, it doesn’t attack. We’re a dozen paces away, now, and the only movement from the spider come from its mouth as it slowly tests the air. My heart beats like a bellows and I can barely catch my breath. I wish it would attack. The anticipation is worse than whatever’s coming after.

  “Behind us. Glowing.” Siri's words are measured, barely concealing her excitement. “I think a chamber opens up not much further down. If we can get there, surround it–”

  Before she can finish, the spider attacks, so quickly I don’t have time to shout a warning. It goes from statue still to explosive motion in less than a heartbeat, covering the distance between us in an eyeblink.

  If not for Emeree, I’d be dead. I tug my connection with her just as one of the spider’s long legs pierces directly at my thigh, an incapacitating blow. The tips of its long legs are sharper than daggers, reflecting the torchlight like a spear of flame.

  I have only moments, need some distance. I pull my bow free, try to push Siri back, but she’s a wall of frozen flesh, immovable as a mountain.

  My heart beats faster, and faster. I can barely breath. It’s been only seconds, but Emeree’s gift courses through me like wildfire, and I don’t have long.

  A wild idea strikes me. The spider still hangs from the wall but fills far less space than Siri. I dart below it, dancing between frozen legs, trying to avoid touching it. I almost reach for Emeree, but I can’t even tell where’d I’d stab it, and I’m too close for a clean swing. Instead, I opt to get behind it.

  But it’s so tight, too close, and my arm brushes one long tendril of venom. It’s a glancing touch, barely an inch along my forearm, but the pain is instant, blinding, and I almost lose control of Emeree’s gift. I moan, tears blinding me as I push past the spider, clearing its mass and stumbling a few steps beyond it.

  I have to release the gift. I’m about to pass out, from the pain and Emeree’s power. The edges of my vision blacken, and my breath comes in agonizing little pants.

  I really hope that Siri's ready.

  I release the bond.

  The tunnel fills with the Siren’s roar, at first strangely drawn out, in slow motion, then speeding to a bellow that deafens me. The spider stumbles, it’s quarry suddenly missing, and Siri, with no sign of hesitation or surprise, is in motion. I feel her gift fire to life, infusing her with inhuman strength, and grabs the dark leg that would have skewered me in one massive hand. With the other, she chops down with her axe, severing the leg like a cord of firewood.

  The spider shrieks, so loud it feels like my head will burst like a melon. I clamp hands to my ears, one arm still burning with venom, and fall flat on my ass.

  Not very dignified.

  The spider’s howl ends, and it backs a step, turning to and fro. It’s searching for me, not sure where I’ve gone. Siri spins her axe, advancing slowly, watchful. I use the seconds long lull to pull my waterskin from my pack, and thanking Cook, I pour water over the burning mark on my arm.

  My low moan of pain alerts the beast, and it spins on the wall with a sharp jerk, tracking me.

  Shit. I can’t use Emeree’s gift again, not yet. My blood still thunders through my veins like waterfalls of fire, and one more tap at a gift would kill me.

  Siri saves me, chopping roughly down at the spider’s hind legs. It shrieks again, dodging around her blow, somehow, and skitters upward to the ceiling, turning to watch us both.

  I stand, shakily. My arm is burned, red and angry, but I can stand it. I move slowly, taking my fallen bow, and as I do the spider lurches for me, quick as an eyeblink.

  But again, Siri is there, her blade a wall that the spider rears back from, hissing. It moves around her, it’s motion smoothly alien, drawing back. Its mandibles begin to move faster and faster, and venom rolls into a thick ball in its mouth. Siri makes ready to rush it, tensing.

  Oh no.

  “Siri, duck!”

  My screamed warning is too late. Just as she springs forward, axe high, the spider spits. A fat gobbet of burning acid venom hang in the air for a frozen moment before impacting her in the chest and throat, splattering across her exposed skin.

  Siri's eyes widen at the pain, and long, dark cracks spiderweb her skin instantly. Her battle roar turns into a shriek of agony, but for all that, she never falters, never stops. Her axe comes down like an avalanche, severing three legs in one mighty swing.

  The spider drops from the ceiling, and I’m sure they can hear it’s scream in the city above. It’s thunderous, shaking dust from the ceiling, and once again I have no choice but to clamp hands over my ears.

  Siri staggers back, dropping her axe, and falls against the wall, trying desperately to claw acid from her chest. Her hands blacken with cracks, and she moans. “Water, Siri! Use water!” I throw her my skin and it rolls to a stop at her shins.

  But the motion attracts the spider. Even with half its legs gone, it still flops across the floor, turning, tracking me. One bladelike limb stabs out, missing my foot by a finger’s width.

  And in its mouth, another ball of venom rotates, growing larger, already almost ready to fire.

  But this time, so am I.

  I bring my bow up, drawing smoothly in a motion that comes like breathing. A blazing arrow of light shimmers into existence, crackling and churning, lighting the cave like daylight.

  I fire just as the spider spits. My arrow passes through the ball of acid, vaporizing it before disappearing into the spider’s mouth.

  Its head explodes in a shower of flame and flesh, spattering us with bits of its armored skin and wet chunks. Its body falls heavily to the floor, flopping like a landed fish, and for long moments its legs still pump in the air, a thicket of razors swaying with its death throes.

  When it stills, I stumble to Siri, kneeling beside her. She’s emptied my skin and is pouring hers across her chest with shaking hands, hissing. Her face is drawn tight with agony, and her skin is a lattice of black lightning. “Siri?”

  “I’m… Alright…” she grunts. “Just… Give me a moment.”

  I settle next to her, gasping huge breaths. Thank the Gods, we survived. If that’s what’s been killing people down here, I can see why the tunnel was abandoned. “You sure? We killed it. I can carry you both.”

  “No… Just need a moment, and I will walk. Unlike that barnacle on your back,” she says, nodding to the black blade jutting over my shoulder.

  Emeree vibrates with outrage. And concern. I can tell she’s moments from reforming, but her spirit is still damaged. Badly. I can feel it in her soul, and the black and silver link that connects us is thread
bare, wan and weak. Not yet, I think, sending reassurance to her. We’re okay.

  Or, maybe not.

  There’s a sound behind us, the same skittering from before, but magnified over and over, and impossibly quieter.

  What the hells?

  Siri stands with me, axe back in her hand, the other still gripping her charred skin. “What…?”

  The spider’s corpse is bloating, expanding, like a bubble of shining black tar. I stumble back, pushing against Siri, who moves with me as we watch, wide eyed.

  The body continues to expand, until it’s twice its original size, and then, with a wet pop, it explodes into a thousand chunks.

  Not chunks.

  Babies.

  “Back!” I cry as thousands of tiny spiders, miniature versions of their mother, rain down along the passageways, coating the ceiling and walls like a moving carpet.

  One lands on my hand and immediately bites down, and I have to bite back a scream as agony turns my hand into a rictus claw. It’s a mirror to the pain on my skin but magnified to the point that I can barely breathe or think.

  Others land near our legs or along the walls next to us. “Run!” Siri shouts, grabbing me by my pack. She tugs and I stumble after her, barely staying on my feet as the sound of an ocean of tiny legs pursues us.

  Pain consumes me. It’s too much; my eyes dim and sparks fill my vision. “Bitten,” I heave, ragged, barely able to form the word.

  Siri doesn’t respond, is too busy running, but she sends a silent command along our bond. Tug.

  I do, instinctively, and her raw power, her strength, floods me. My muscles expand, ripping free of their mortal moorings, and my strides lengthen as the pain in my hand fades. I raise it, amazed, even as I run.

  It’s not healing, exactly. I can still see the twin punctures of the tiny spider’s mandibles. But Siri's bond is somehow driving the poison from me, and I can see it beading on my skin, flooding from the little holes in twin rivulets that I barely feel.

  I could really, really get used to this.

  Before I release the gift, I run my hand along the exposed wall, brushing off most of the venom.

  Then I let go.

  For a moment, I sag, stumbling, like a marionette with its strings suddenly cut. Siri is ready, slowing enough to lend me a hand while instincts kick in and my body remembers how to use its muscles. “Good?” She grunts, still moving.

  “Yes, gods yes. Thank you.” I pick up my pace. My skin still burns where a bit of the acid lingers, and my hand is strangely numb, but I flex and feeling returns to it.

  We run, turning sideways at times when the passage narrows, handfuls of steps at a time. And all the while, I can hear them behind us, chittering and clattering along the rock.

  Chasing us.

  I start when I realize that I’d dropped the torch back where we battled the mother, and never picked it back up. Yet, somehow, I can still see.

  My answer comes almost immediately. I trip and almost fall, so surprised that my body needs a moment to realize that something has changed.

  There’s no widening of the passage, no sign that the tunnel is about to end. One moment, we’re running in quarters so cramped I can barely extend my arms, and the next we’re in a vast cavern, so long I can’t see the far end.

  Siri stumbles, too, trying to stop, but her inertia is such that she can’t, not immediately. Which is bad, because directly in front of us is a massive chasm.

  She shouts, arms windmilling as she tips over the side. “Siri!” I shout, reaching for her. My hand closes around the back rim of her chest piece and I pull with all the strength I have left.

  It’s not enough. It’s like trying to lift a mountain, she’s so heavy. She tips further, pulling me with her.

  It’s been only moments since I used her power, but I didn’t connect with her for long. Maybe…

  I tug.

  Once again, strength floods me in a torrent, ripping through my body. My arm, too weak to stop her descent, hardens like rock, stopping her fall cold. I grunt, shaking, as her gift begins to shred my muscles, and with a shout that rends my throat, I pull again.

  She falls backward, into my arms, and we tumble to the ground.

  I release the gift.

  Immediately, I weaken, and this time, it’s worse. I feel like a newborn, limbs weak and shaking, and my breath comes in gasps that feel too short to fill starving lungs.

  “Idiot,” Siri whispers, but pride pulses from her in waves. “Wait, it’ll pass.”

  “I can...I can see,” I whisper past trembling lips.

  Glowing moss. Finally. If we survive, I’m having a word with Brecan.

  It clings to the walls, the ceiling, carpeting the cave with low radiance. It’s beautiful, casting a soft blue glow, almost ethereal. There’s so much that, despite none of it being very bright, its combined effort lights the cave like its midday.

  I lay in Siri's arms for long moments, eyes half closed, letting it wash over me. Agonizingly slowly, power returns to my limbs, my heart, and in a few moments, I start to feel like myself again. “Gods damn.”

  “In time, you’ll be able to harness our gifts safely. Especially when we find the others. But for now, don’t do that again,” she chastises, no rancor in her voice.

  “Emeree said the same thing.”

  She shakes her head. “Men.”

  Then I hear it. Thousands of tiny legs, an avalanche of motion. Still coming. They’re slow, but never stop, and I judge we have less than a minute.

  Gods damn it.

  Siri hears it, too, leaping up. She brings me with her, bracing me, and we take stock.

  Ahead of us is a wide ravine, too vast to leap. Wooden braces jut from the far side, and the remnants of a rope bridge hang impotently. The glowing algae extends downward, along its walls for a ways before petering out, and the bottom is far enough down that it’s not enough to illuminate how deep the chasm goes.

  “Ideas?” I have rope with with enough coils to span the distance. But how to secure it?

  Siri bites her lip a moment, and then seizes my rope. She takes the end and in deft movements, ties it around the haft of her axe.

  “What are you doing?”

  Her gaze rises, hard. “You have to throw me.”

  “Throw you?” I let my eyes run along the length of her. “Ah–”

  “Not like that. Just be ready,” she says, cinching the rope tight. She takes my hand in hers, closing my fingers around hard leather. “Throw me.”

  And with that, she shimmers into a thousand shards of light, which swirl only moments before fleeing into the axe.

  Oh.

  I can hear them, louder now, behind me. Coming. Unstoppable.

  I have to move. Now.

  Siri is light in my hands. The chasm is wide, but I can do this. I wrap the other end of my rope around my bicep, tying it hastily. Then I grip Siri at the end of her haft, extend my arms, and spin in place. I turn, once, twice, gaining momentum before releasing.

  My aim isn’t perfect, but it’s enough. Siri sails through the air like a comet of silver flame, reflecting glowing algae as she hangs for long moments. She arcs upward, peaking over the center of the ravine, the rope trailing after her, a thick tail. Then she descends, and I eye her flight, measuring, hoping.

  Shit, it’s going to be close.

  I turn, chance a glance behind me. They’re close, a nightmarish ocean of black legs and glassy eyes that reflect the blue glow.

  I don’t have time to wait, and hope with my life that I understand Siri's plan.

  I take a few steps back, gripping the rope for dear life. They’re so close. I can feel them, almost on top of me. I wait as long as I dare, and then, even as Siri clangs to the ground, barely over the far lip of the gap, I leap after her.

  Time seems to slow, and it’s not Emeree’s gift. Baby spiders, a finger’s width from my foot as it leaves the ground, fall over the edge of the pit, screeching in frustration, releasing long strands of si
lk. Siri swirls into human form, axe in hand, turns and braces her feet as I plummet into the chasm.

  For a moment, nothing exists except the roaring of the wind in my ears as I fall, only a few heartbeats that feel like an eternity. The rope snaps wildly, uncoiling as I plummet, and I wrap my forearm, ready myself.

  This is going to hurt.

  From above, I can feel her pull forth her gift, become an immovable pillar so I don’t yank her off the cliff. So far, so good. Gauging as best I can, I try to infuse myself with Siri's bond just before the rope snaps taut. But I’m a heartbeat too slow, and even as strength ripples through me, something tears in my shoulder. The pain is instant, incandescent, so blinding I almost black out. My head snaps back so violently that I know my neck would have broken, if not for Siri.

  I swing, barely conscious. I know what’s coming, just have to hold my connection with the Siren a heartbeat longer.

  I smash into the wall.

  Even powered by Siri’s gift, it feels like every bone in my body shatters. I open my mouth to scream, but my skull impacts hard stone, jarring everything from me. Words, thoughts, my connection with her.

  This time, I pass out.

  I dream, but it’s not like any dream I’ve ever had before. I’m aware of my body, dangling from the rope, as Siri hauls me upward. Another part of me is a thousand leagues away, drifting home, to Ora.

  To peace.

  Not yet. The words are as clear as a bell’s chime in my mind, snapping me awake.

  Siri. And Emeree.

  Their bonds pulse, rippling with strength, which flows into me, twin umbilical cords of vitality. They pour into my body like water into dry sand, absorbing, spreading deep. The bonds twine, wrap around each other like fine rope, silver, black, and crimson, piercing my soul.

  I gasp with fresh agony as my body knits together, as muscles flex rigid, as hairline fractures in my bones solidify. I can feel my flesh and bone repair itself, sucking the Siren’s power into everything that is me. My mouth is locked open, unable to scream, and I’m rigid, clawing at unyielding stone, laying on my back.

  Laying on my back.

  The pain fades slowly as the Sirens withdraw their power. Emeree’s cord slumps. Whatever they’ve done, it took enormous strength from her. Strength she needed to mend, to come back to us.