For an instant, it looked as though it was retreating, scuttling away from her across its web. Then it stopped and the clicking began again, even faster now. There was no expression in its eyes, but Twelve got the distinct impression she’d made it angry. The feeling was mutual.

She adjusted her grip on the axe and watched carefully as the spider positioned itself directly above her. Twelve leaned back as far as she could to face it, hoping the stickiness at her elbow would hold her.

This time when it flew at her, she managed to twist to one side at the last minute, using her trapped arm as a pivot to swing up and slice between the armor plates on the creature’s front leg. She felt the axe connect with something soft, but instead of pulling back, the spider spun to face her again immediately. Its fangs were far too close to Twelve’s face for her liking. She picked another of the thing’s eyes and raised her axe to strike. There was a flash of blinding light, a pop like a soap bubble bursting, and suddenly the deathspinner was no more. Not dead, simply vanished. Twelve twisted on the web, peering in every direction, but the spider was gone.

Six was halfway up the rope to help her and Widge had reached the bottom of the web. Dog was still on the ground. All were staring around, slack-jawed, looking every bit as bemused as she felt.

“Uh . . . what happened?” she called down uncertainly. “Where’d it go?”

Foxpaw cleared his throat from the branch he was clinging to. “Sorry! That was me!”

He shrugged shyly at their collective amazement. “It was the least I could do after you risked yourself for me. Can you see it though? It should still be up there somewhere.”

Twelve swallowed a yelp as she stared around wildly.

“Oh, it shouldn’t be able to hurt you,” Foxpaw added. “I think I shrank it. If you see it, can you bring it down? The others at home aren’t going to believe me otherwise.”

“You think you shrank it?” Six repeated.

Foxpaw shrugged, looking embarrassed, then indicated how one of his front paws was holding on to the tree. “My magic is unpredictable at the best of times, and I need two hands free really. There are a lot of gestures involved.”

Twelve stared at him. A “weak latent magical ability” A Magical Bestiary had said of moxies. They needed to update their information.