Chapter 19- Legs Aren’t Everything
Edwin sank to the ground, exhausted. He had never walked so far in his life. It felt like days since they had left the spider’s nest. Their journey had taken them through a succession of narrow tunnels, and he had found the going hard; spiders could climb up walls and through tiny cracks, but even with his enhanced mouse senses, Edwin didn’t possess the spiders’ gravity defying abilities. His legs had turned to lead, and he was beginning to wish he had more of them.
“You are slow and cumbersome.” Wincella appeared above Edwin, her eight eyes filled with disdain. “I wonder how your species has survived with so few legs.”
“Legs aren’t everything,” said Edwin, tapping his head. “It’s what’s in here that made man the dominant species.”
“Then I am even more surprised,” reflected the spider. “In any case, you are far from the dominant species. My kind number many more than your human race.”
From what Edwin knew about spiders, he guessed Wincella was right. In any case, he wasn’t going to argue with her, not when he was surrounded by so many of her sisters. It was impossible to count all the eight legged bodies, but Edwin guessed there must have been more than two hundred spiders crammed into the tunnel. And that probably represented no more than a third of the Sisterhood. The remainder had stayed in the nest, guarding Bill who was kept there as a hostage. Edwin could see why the rats feared the Sisterhood so much; the spiders might not have been as large as the rats, but their poisonous bite and sheer numbers made them a formidable foe.
“Could I have another crumb?” asked Edwin, thinking some sustenance might help get his strength back.
“You have eaten all your supplies,” said Wincella. “You must do without food until we reach the Pit.”
“I can’t go on,” groaned Edwin, shaking his head.
“What is the delay?” The Widow Splicefinger came lurching back down the tunnel. “We cannot tarry, in case the Ratello Mob find the Key before us.”
“The little grub is tired,” explained Wincella.
“Is that so?” There was more than a hint of doubt in the Widow’s ancient, husky voice. “I am beginning to suspect this might be a trap, that this grub is in the employ of the accursed Ratello Mob, and has lured us from the nest so the rats can ambush us.”
The other spiders hissed in agreement, the spine tingling sound prompting Edwin back on his feet. “I’m fine,” he assured the Widow Splicefiner. “And it’s not a trap. You have my word as Principle Guardian.”
He was about to set off again when he heard a low rumble. Then the ground began to shake, and small chunks of stone fell from the roof of the tunnel.
“The old foundations are crumbling,” explained Wincella, noting Edwin’s worried expression. “They are unstable, and these passages are prone to collapse.”
The rumbling and shaking ceased after a few seconds. Edwin breathed a sigh of relief, and turned to the Widow Splicefinger. “How much further is it?”
“Not far,” replied the ancient spider. “There are only a couple more tunnels remaining.”
“Great. Then what are we waiting for?” Edwin turned and marched off down the tunnel, buoyed by the prospect of victory.
“But wait,” called Wincella, scuttling after him. “We must take care from here on, and not just because of the tremors. We are nearing the Pit. If the Ratello Mob are looking for the Key, they will probably be close.”
“Then that’s even more of a reason to get a move on,” said Edwin, quickening his stride. “We can’t let them get to the Pit before…”
His voice faded, and he came to a standstill as he saw something ahead in the tunnel. The spiders saw it too, and froze as one.
It was a figure. Two-legged, human, and vaguely familiar. Its long black hair was damp and matted. Its bare arms and legs were covered in cuts and bruises. Its face was pale and gaunt, its cracked lips quivering as it stared at Edwin with a pair of wide, red-rimmed eyes.
Yes, it looked vaguely familiar; but it was only when the figure spoke that Edwin realised who it was.
“Edwin?”
And the realisation made Edwin’s blood run cold. “Bryony!”
Bryony gawped at her stepbrother. “Edwin, it is you!” Then she came rushing up the passage towards him. “Edwin, you’re alive!”
“Stay back!” warned Wincella, scuttling to Edwin’s side and raising a threatening foreleg.
“What’s that?” squealed Bryony, halting at the sight of the spider.
“A new friend of mine,” said Edwin, smiling.
Wincella eyed Bryony warily. “This is the other guardian? Your disciple, Browny?”
“It’s Bryony,” snapped Bryony. “And I am not his disciple.”
“Is that so?” asked Wincella, her eight eyes flickering to Edwin.
“I am the Principle Guardian,” maintained Edwin, before catching sight of movement behind Bryony. “Look out! A rat!”
“How dare you?” Stubby shot Edwin an indignant stare. “Calling me a rat is like me comparing you to a chimpanzee. Which I would never do, unless I bore a particularly nasty grudge against a chimpanzee.”
Edwin’s relief at seeing Stubby again was clouded by confusion. “What are you doing with Bryony?” he asked. “And what happened to Moll?”
“I fear Moll is lost,” said Stubby. “I tried looking for you, but stumbled into Bryony instead.”
“Liar,” spat Edwin, after working out what really must have happened. “You changed sides. You’re a traitor, just like Bryony.”
“Don’t talk rubbish,” muttered Bryony, shaking her head at Edwin. “This isn’t time for…” Her voice faded to a murmur as a second spider crept into view behind Edwin. This was much larger than the first, with a look of evil in its eight eyes that sent a shiver down Bryony’s spine.
“This is the Great Mother of the Sisterhood,” explained Edwin, relishing the look of fear on Bryony’s face. “Also known as the Widow Splicefinger. I’ve made a deal with her. The Sisterhood are going to help me find the Key.”
“And in return,” said the Widow Splicefinger, “the Principle Guardian Edwin will help us defeat the rats, escape from this prison, and conquer the world!”
An outraged Bryony glared Edwin. “You made a deal with the Sisterhood? How could you? They’re evil.”
Edwin shrugged. “You made a deal with the Ratello Mob. They’re not exactly a bundle of fluffy cuddliness.”
“They’re fluffier than spiders,” countered Bryony.
“Anyway,” continued Edwin, “I didn’t exactly have a choice. The spiders have got your father. The Widow Splicefinger was going to marry him.”
“Marry Dad?” Bryony switched her disapproving glare to the giant spider. “How could you do that?”
“I can marry whoever I wish,” said the Widow Splicefinger.
“That’s not what I meant,” said Bryony. “Do you know he cuts his toenails in bed? And leaves his dirty socks all over the house? And when it comes to flushing the loo…”
“They’re not getting married,” Edwin assured her. “As long as I can find the Key and let them use its power.”
“You can’t do that,” said Stubby. “The Sisterhood will use the power for evil.”
“So would the Ratello Mob,” said Edwin.
“OK.” Bryony realised she wasn’t in a position to point accusing fingers. “But now I realise that was a mistake, and that we should work together to find the Key.”
Edwin snorted. “Yeah, and when we found it, you’d keep it for yourself again.”
“Perhaps it would be advantageous if she joined us,” suggested Wincella. “It might be better to have two Guardians on our side than just the one?”
“We can’t trust her,” blurted Edwin, horrified at the suggestion. “For all we know this might be a trap. The whole of the Ratello Mob could be waiting to pounce on us in the next tunnel.”
“That isn’t true,” swore Bryony. “The rats fell into a ravine way back. We??
?ll never see them again.”
“That’s what you think.”
The voice from behind made Bryony turn round, and there she saw a rat: a large rat with one front tooth missing.
“Dagger Tooth!”
“Thought you’d seen the last of us, eh?” A squeaky voice heralded the emergence of Pipsqueak from behind his second in command. “But you can’t get rid of the Ratello Mob that easily!”
A troop of mean looking rats emerged from a hole in the ground; the same hole Bryony had used to escape the river. And now she realised what those creatures in the lake had been. Just like her flip-flop, the rats had been washed into the underground lake.
“Told you,” said Edwin to the Widow Splicefinger. “We can’t trust Bryony. It was a trap all along.”
“But who sprung the trap?” Pipsqueak’s suspicious glare shifted from Edwin to the Widow Splicefinger, and then to Bryony. “Seems you Guardians were working for the Sisterhood all along.”
“That isn’t true,” said Bryony. “I didn’t know Edwin had escaped and struck a deal with the Sisterhood.”
“The Key will be ours,” rasped the Widow Splicefinger. “And there is nothing you can do about it.”
“We’ll see about that,” squealed Pipsqueak. “The Ratello Mob eat spiders for breakfast.”
“Then I hope you have an appetite,” said the Widow Splicefinger, as a horde of spiders scuttled down the passage to cluster around her. “Welcome to an all you can eat buffet.”
Pipsqueak tensed, but stood his ground. “Then let’s settle this now,” he squealed. “A fight to the death. Rats versus spiders. Winner gets the Guardians, and the Key.”
Bryony noted that Dagger Tooth appeared uncertain, but all the other rats looked up for a fight. The spiders seemed similarly keen to taste blood, bobbing and whispering excitedly at the prospect of battle.
Bryony looked at Edwin. “We’ve got to stop this. They’ll rip each other to pieces, and it will be all our fault.”
“Your fault,” Edwin corrected her. “You’re the one who took the Key for yourself. You’re the one who misused its power.”
Realising Edwin wouldn’t listen, Bryony turned to Dagger Tooth instead. “You can’t go through with this. You don’t want to fight, I can tell.”
“Is this so?” Pipsqueak glowered at Dagger Tooth. “Don’t you have the stomach for war?”
“We are heavily outnumbered,” Dagger Tooth advised his leader. “The spiders are more nimble than us, and would have an advantage in such a narrow tunnel. But perhaps this matter could be decided in single combat. One rat versus one spider. Our champion against their champion.”
“That sounds a fair suggestion,” said the Widow Splicefinger. “Naturally I will fight on behalf of the Sisterhood. Name your champion, and let battle commence.”
“I’ll do it,” said Dagger Tooth.
“No,” squealed Pipsqueak. “I will be our champion.”
Dagger Tooth shook his head. “You wouldn’t stand a chance.”
“But I’m the Boss!” Pipsqueak screamed like a kettle on the point of exploding. “The meanest, mightiest rat in the gang.”
“No you’re not,” said Dagger Tooth. “You’re the smallest and weakest in the lair. Why do you think your father named you Pipsqueak?”
“It’s an ironic pseudonym,” squealed Pipsqueak.
“No it ain’t.” Dagger Tooth grabbed Pipsqueak’s shoulder. “He called you Pipsqueak because of your size and your squeaky voice. You have to earn your ironic nickname.”
“Then let me earn it,” pleaded Pipsqueak, trying to dislodge Dagger Tooth’s paw from his shoulder. “I’ll fight the spider, and you’ll see I’m anything but a pipsqueak.”
“I am waiting,” croaked the Widow Splicefinger, tapping the ground with a hairy foreleg.
Dagger Tooth let go of Pipsqueak, and bowed his head respectfully. “As you wish, Boss.”
The rats and spiders backed away from their respective leaders, clearing an arena in the middle of the tunnel. The scene was set for the decisive battle.
Stubby ushered Bryony to one side of the tunnel. Edwin made his way to the opposite wall, keeping a careful eye on Bryony. Everyone, including his stepsister, seemed distracted by the impending fight. Now was his chance.
The Widow Splicefinger had told him they were close to the Pit. If he could get to the Key first, before Bryony, the rats or spiders, he would be able to use its magic and save the day. He would prove that he really was the Principle Guardian.
Keeping his back to the wall, Edwin edged slowly down the tunnel.
As Bryony waited for battle to commence, she felt her stomach knotting. She knew Edwin was right. This was all her fault. She never should have taken the Key and used the power for herself. And now there was going to be a fight to the death because of it. They might be criminals, but Bryony didn’t want their blood on her hands.
The two rival gang leaders circled each other. The Widow Splicefinger glared at her enemy with eight hate-filled eyes. Pipsqueak stood his ground with his back arched, jaw open in readiness to lunge. Each waited for the other to make the first move. The Widow Splicefinger twitched a foreleg. Pipsqueak flicked his tail.
“I wish they’d get on with it,” whispered Stubby.
Bryony shot the mouse a withering look, and then glimpsed something moving in the corner of her eye. It was a ginger head receding down the passage. It was Edwin, and he was sneaking off!
Bryony cried out, but the sound of her voice was drowned by a louder noise.
A rumble. A deep, booming rumble.
Then Bryony felt the ground shaking.
“A tremor!” screamed Wincella, as the shaking became more violent. The rats and spiders panicked, pressing themselves against the tunnel walls. Bryony saw Edwin’s head disappear into the gloom. She tried to follow, but was hemmed in by a swarm of rats and spiders.
Despite the tremor, the Widow Splicefinger and Pipsqueak still faced each other in the middle of the tunnel.
“Take cover,” yelled Dagger Tooth at Pipsqueak. “The tunnel is about to collapse!”
Wincella exhorted her mother in a similar fashion, but neither opponent was willing to be the first to retreat.
The tremor intensified, and a huge crack split the floor of the tunnel between Pipsqueak and the Widow Splicefinger. Bryony saw Dagger Tooth grab Pipsqueak’s tail and drag him away, but the Widow Splicefinger was too slow to react, and went toppling into the crack with her eight legs flailing.
Then Bryony heard a deafening crash, and she was engulfed in a cloud of swirling dust…