“Don’t look at me,” she said. “I’m here to collect information, because it’s warm, and we needed another place to go while March is hunting us. You have some of my mercenaries. You can ask me one favor. I may refuse it. But I’m not getting involved personally. I need to conserve strength.”

“You can be—” Foil started. Parian pulled her back down to her seat.

“I can be such a bitch sometimes?” Tattletale asked. “At least I’m upfront about it.”

“I think we should split up,” Imp said. “Coordinate.”

I had my reservations. Still, sometimes with groups, a mediocre plan that everyone was on board with was much better than a fantastic plan with disgruntled people and people who had no idea what they were doing or why.

I nodded.

“Let’s get organized to hit them all at once, then,” I said. “Three groups, three raids on March and the two members of the cluster.”

Blinding 11.5

The ‘joints’ of the spider’s limbs were higher off the ground than I was, the body headless and featureless, an uneven, almost potato-like form in the center. It was all black, and it moved with a fluidness that stood in stark contrast to the jerky, twitchy way that spiders normally moved.

It flowed more than it walked as it moved to the base of a building, found purchase on windowsills and gutter. As it carried itself off the ground, Foil skipped up, stepping onto one of the eight limbs, walking up to the next. She had no handholds, not even the ones another person might have if they were there, because both of her hands were full carrying her crossbow—an entirely different make and model than the one I’d known her to use, once upon a time. Bigger, heavier, and it would have to be mounted on a surface to be set up and then fired.

Spider legs appeared and disappeared beneath her feet, in what should have been something a third of the way to being stairs and a third of the way to being a ladder, not all of the way to being anything. The distance between Foil and the ground grew.

“You’re hesitating,” Foil called out. “If you pause I’m going to miss a step and fall!”

“You’re making me nervous!” Parian called back. “Talking about you falling makes it worse, not better!”

“Trust me!” Foil replied.

“I trust you! I don’t trust powers! Not mine, not yours,” Parian answered, but the third utterance wasn’t at a volume meant to reach Foil.