Storm Glass (Glass series Book 1) by Maria V. Snyder

Author:Maria V. Snyder [Snyder, Maria V.]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2013-07-31T16:00:00+00:00

18

Leif bolted to the factory. Ulrick, my father and I scrambled to our feet. Mara had been bitten and had mere minutes to live. In my rush to leave, I knocked the glass spiders to the floor, and crushed one under my boot.

By the time I arrived, Mara was in Leif’s arms. Sweat dripped from her forehead and her body shook. A decapitated fer de lance snake and a bloody machete lay next to her.

My father cursed. He knelt beside her leg. The bleeding punctures were above her ankle. The venom coursed through her leg. Shock froze all other emotions as I watched my sister die.

“Ahir ran for the healer. I tied a tourniquet under her knee. But that won’t save her,” Leif cried.

Suck the venom out, I thought and moved toward her. Father yelped. A large brown spider scrambled onto Mara’s foot and bent over her wound. He drew his arm back to swat it away.

“No,” I yelled instinctively. “Let it alone.”

The spider stabbed its mouth into the bite. Its body grew like a water skin being filled. When it finished sucking, the spider vanished. Blood splashed on the floor.

“The poison’s gone,” I said.

“How do you know?” Leif asked with a voice laced with pain.

Everyone stared at me. “The spider told me.”

Without hesitation, without question, Leif untied the leather strap on Mara’s leg; my father covered the bite and rubbed her calf to improve the flow of clean blood back to her foot. Leif cradled her in his arms, and she was enduring Mother’s worried attentions in the kitchen in no time. I loved my family. Only they would take the magical spider’s appearance and rescue in stride. Questions would arise later, but, for now, they were focused on the happy result.

Ulrick remained in the factory, disposing of the dead snake and hunting for more.

“Mara, you should know better,” Father admonished. “Cold night and hot kilns draw the snakes into the factory. What were you doing?”

She glanced at Leif, who had his arm around her shoulders. “I was...preoccupied.”

“Doing what?” he demanded.

Kissing Leif, I guessed. As her cheeks turned pink, Mara silently appealed to Mother.

“Jaymes,” Mother said, “you left the lanterns burning in your lab. Are you planning to do more work tonight?”

Deftly distracted, my father returned to his lab. I followed. About halfway to the building, I stopped. My emotions melted and drenched me. Relief—Mara didn’t die. Surprise—she was saved by a spider. Shock—a spider who magically disappeared. Fear—it resembled one of Tricky’s spiders.

By the time I joined my father, he had his magnifying glass in hand, inspecting one of my glass spiders. “Just what I thought. It’s the same spider only smaller. Care to tell me what’s going on?”

“I would if I could.” I grabbed a dustpan and brush, sweeping up the crushed glass from the floor. “I stepped on one. Maybe I released the illusion?”

“That spider was no illusion. Are you sure you weren’t attacked by real spiders?”

I thought back. The beetles Tricky had used first were illusions.

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