Spider's Game ((Book One) #Wattys2016 Winner!)

Chapter 12- Endings and Beginnings

The day was golden. The Cortanis' pool glittered, reflecting hundreds of tiny blue skies and brilliant suns in its ripples. Sparks of light bounced around the grassy area and made a playground of the sandy space skirting the pool. The chill of early fall hung in the air and the water, though inviting, swirled in the wind, creating menacing patterns in the ripples.

Having strolled through the gardens, Marim knelt at the edge, trying to see the lapping water as innocuous but shadows lurked everywhere now. At the corner of her eye a devilish form with eight long spindly legs form and scurried toward her, only to dissipate as she turned. Tiny flashes of light reflected from the water dashed across her skin, the joyous dancing light only brought out the dark circles beneath her nervous eyes.

Time at the Cortanis' had previously been a vacation. She escaped the tedium of doing her needlework and practicing music. And hid from the dark corners that ruled her home. Now, the dark corners had followed her and no matter where she went, the sunshine had edges. And off of those edges lurked a terror waiting to claim her.

"Daddy, come home," she whispered. Perhaps he could chase the shadows away during the day as Darith helped to do in the night.

'He won't. The spiders are gorging on his entrails now,' a shadow between the roses whispered.

Marim glanced up, only to find the leafy outline of the rose bush outlined on the ground.

I can't do this. Oh gods, how long until they get me?

Further down the rose path the Countess walked, her arm linked with a well-dressed man. A detective who worked for Marim's father. Marim frowned, chewing at her lip. Why couldn't the countess stop this nonsense about locating an heir? Couldn't she see it was destroying Darith? Didn't she care?

I can't stay here.

'The countess is the least of your worries, little girl. The count's flushed with scotch and his eyes follow you. Don't you feel it? I think you like it, like the attention...You're nothing but a dirty whore.'

"Shut up!" Marim slammed her hand into the surface of the pool creating and arc of water that caught the light, momentarily erasing the shadows from her sight.

'Darith can't protect you any more. He can't sleep outside your room when his father drinks. What happens when they force you back to your own room? You can't just keep laying on top of the cripple.'

Marim turned her eyes to the blue sky. Anything to hide from the dark web clinging to her mind. The monsters that had stalked her for so long finally had their hold.

Her body reflected the pain and anguish around her and wound itself into knots. Even her monthly woman's cycle was thrown off. The monsters whispered horrible meanings for her father's absence and the weight of the Cortanis' cares weighed her down, threatening to drown her in darkness.

She cast a stone into the glimmering waters and listened contented to its splash. The water rippled out in a pretty pattern, and Marim smiled, only sunlight danced in the water and the troublesome voice seemed to have silenced. As the disturbance died out on the water's surface, she felt another current cut through the air. Magic. She recognized the pull though she'd never been sensitive enough to feel it before.

Without a thought to its meaning, Marim jumped to her feet. The writhing force in the air tugged at her.

Come, it said in a voice that wasn't a voice, follow.

She ran back to the house, her skirts above her knees, and her skinny legs revealed past the point of decorum. Magic means that the town's witch is visiting. When Marim came to the courtyard. The witch's old nag was absent from the hitching post out front, but Marim didn't stop to wonder. The tug led her, and she dashed through the house. When the trail brought her to Darith's door, she braced her body against the pull. Could they have called in the old witch for him? There was nothing her power could do for their heir, and her coming would only infuriate Darith.