Never

Chapter 43: Loyalty and Love

"But understand at once that I have nothing to do with stolen children!" Cried Cris in exasperation

"Shut up mantis!" One of the arachnids guarding his cell kicked the bars. "Do you really expect us to believe you with all the evidence against you? You were wearing the same clothes as the kidnapper and you had in your claws one of the precious clothes that the queen herself wove for her offspring. How do you explain that?"

"I already told you! A bug dressed me like him and handed me that rag."

"How dare you call Queen Hornet's clothes rag! Miserable! Never in your life will you be able to have such quality silk between your claws. Now stop lying and confess what you did with the children!"

"I don't lie! Let me out!"

"It is true that I always despised mantises, but I had the belief that at least they were beings of honor who would not commit such cowardly acts."

These words offended Cris who threw himself against the bars and pulled his claws through it trying to teach that insolent spider a lesson, but his objective jumped back avoiding the damage.

"Ha, do you want to kill me? Sure, that's the only way you uncivilized beasts know how to fix things."

"Come here and fight. I'll scramble your brain until you understand I didn't do anything!"

"I want to see you try."

"CALM BOTH!" An authoritative voice yelled.

The spider queen had arrived on the scene.

Hornet entered with a firm step, settling a solemn silence in those present. Her gaze was cold and terrible, you could guess the fury hidden behind. Cris shuddered in his place, he remembered the spider queen of his confrontation against the Lords and in that moment he wondered how anyone could change so much.

When he saw her at the meeting, she seemed to him a female too small and not particularly lethal, someone who was not necessary to worry about. But now she looked like a monster, a horrible and ferocious being capable of ripping her head off with his bare hands. Was this the fury of a mother who had lost her young?

The crossbreed walked to the prisoner's gate and watched him in silence for an eternity.

"Tell me where my children are. Now!"

"I don't know, I didn't steal your children," he replied with a trembling voice.

Suddenly a needle pierced the cage and was a few inches from Cris's head.

"I am willing to be benevolent and spare your life if you hand over my children to me now."

"But I really don't know..."

A blow to the gate forced the mantis back.

"Look damn it, if you don't return my children to me, your entire tribe will suffer the consequences. Among the kidnapped children is the heir to Deep Nest, the spider destined to rule all this territory in the future. An attack against her is an attack against the village of the weavers, and if a mantis hurts that girl, the whole tribe will pay the price! Do you understand what I'm saying?"

"Yes, I understand but... I didn't kidnap those children... It was another bug."

"Enough, you can't be talked to."

Hornet whirled around, her cloak flapping behind her giving the scene a more dramatic air. The guards of the place bowed to her in farewell and Cris threw himself against the fence begging for mercy.

"A mantis begging for mercy? But what bad joke is this? Since when does a mantis beg?" Hornet scoffed.

That was true, in common circumstances Cris would not have been worried about a war against spiders, he would have fully trusted in the tribe's ability to repel an attack, after all for years they kept the vermins of that territory at bay, but now with a civil war raging and with a good part of the population dead or badly wounded, they were at a clear disadvantage, they would not survive.