The Long Journey Home (The Legend of Vanx Malic Book 8) Read Online Free PDF Page B

watches, even though Poops was a better alarm than stringing intrusion bells. Zeezle even went as far as to sharpen some limbs into spears and leave them pointing skyward, in case something attacked from above.
    The night went uneventful for Vanx’s, and then Castavonti’s, watches. It wasn’t until Chelda and Poops were the only ones awake and the nearly full moon was high overhead that Vanx fell asleep.
    Poops started barking, and Vanx sat up. In the moonlight, he saw a handful of giant black spiders emerging from the hole and scrabbling toward them. He was on his feet in seconds, using his and the dog’s senses together.
    The spiders weren’t hard to see, for they had glowing, red streaks along their furry, segmented legs, and there was a bright red design, each one unique, on their underbellies. They were just low enough to the ground that a man couldn’t run under them. Roll and stab up maybe, but even getting that close, Vanx decided, would be foolish, for there was a stinger dripping glowing red venom on the ass end of each of them, too.
    Chelda was so terrified, she couldn’t even scream to wake the others. Luckily for them all, Vanx thought, Poops had already done the deed.

Chapter Nine
    If you think you are the hunter
,
    prepare for a surprise
.
    ‘Cause sometimes that little rabbit
,
    is a lion in disguise
.
    V anx and Zeezle must have had the same idea at the same time, or maybe it was because they learned from the same lesson masters growing up together on Zyth, but two spheres of light appeared over the group—one over Vanx and one over Zeezle. The stark light from the two glowing orbs stalled the spiders, but only long enough that nearly a dozen had time to get out of the hole, and now had the group pinned against the boulders they’d chosen to keep at their back.
    “Start blasting them,” Vanx called, as he ignored the instinctual urge to grab the bow lying beside the rest of his gear. He used magic instead, and wondered as he did, why?
    It didn’t take long to figure out that magic was faster and more potent, and that their backdrop only served to give a few of the braver spiders a ledge to scrabble up and use to drop on them from above.
    Vanx used a
Tempus
Fist and splattered one of the first spiders back over the others. It was a bad mistake, because the ground now was covered with glowing red splashes of the pulverized victim’s guts, and the other spiders were harder to see because of it.
    Chelda swung at one of them with the dwarven hammer, but almost stumbled into the thing when she missed. Poops got between her and the spider and snapped at it, causing it to skitter back and turn swiftly, bringing its stinger to bear.
    Castavonti saved them from its venom by using one of the few kinetic pulses he could summon each day. Vanx decided he owed the man one. Not only had he just saved Chelda and Poops, he’d shown Vanx what spell he should be using against these things.
    Zeezle was using one of his sharpened spikes, waiting on the next one to leap down. Already a spider was shafted through by his quick placement of one of the sticks, but some of the glowing red stuff was smoldering on his cheek and shoulder.
    “Chelda, get the Glaive of Gladiolus to Zeezle, now!” Vanx ordered.
    She didn’t even hesitate. Chelda ran, clipping the hammer to her belt and drawing the ancient elven blade of healing without missing a stride. It never ceased to amaze Vanx that the Glaive looked like a table knife in her gargan hand.
    Zeezle met her, this time angling the spear away from them when the next spider came leaping from the rocks. Chelda stabbed him in the thigh with the blade. Its discharge of healing magic made the look of anger that came across Zeezle’s face all the more inexplicable.
    “You ruined my pants!” he snapped, as he threw a magical pulse of energy at another approaching arachnoid.
    “Bah!” She stabbed him again, in the other leg, and ran back over to Vanx.
    Another pair of spiders