Artemis Hexley and the Return to the Riddles

Chapter 18: Prophecy Girl

The Acromantula's cold laugh echoed through the clearing, and Artemis felt her blood turn to ice in her veins. As the undergrowth rustled and the shadow of the spider emerged from the trees, she pushed against the overturned tree behind her, trying to force herself out of the web that bound her and pinned her to it. Beside her, Charlie and Barnaby were trying to do the same, while Talbott appeared to have frozen on the spot, and Chiara was helplessly trying to whisper words of reassurance to a crying Liz.

"I told you I would find you," said the spider, clicking its pincers at them as it crawled into the clearing, advancing on them achingly slowly. "All of you. Now, which of you to eat first? I think maybe... ARGH!"

The spider screamed in pain as something flew threw the air and embedded itself in its back. Artemis frowned. What was it? A second item flew at the spider, and a third, and another, two more, and... Her eyes widened as she realised what they were.

Arrows.

A storm of arrows were raining down on the Acromantula thick and fast from all directions, and from all around the clearing there came an increasingly loud roll of thunder. Except it wasn't thunder, it was the sound of hundreds of feet - no, hooves - pounding on the ground, which had started to shake beneath Artemis' feet.

From out of the trees, over two dozen centaurs cantered into the clearing, spears and knives and bows and arrows all raised and aiming for the Acromantula. They charged at the spider with weapons in their arms, bucking and rearing and kicking with their legs.

The spider was attempting to fight back, but the centaurs were too numerous, too powerful, too vicious. Eventually, it fell to the ground, and was trampled beneath their hooves until it lay completely motionless, with three eyes and two legs missing. Victorious, the centaurs backed away, turning their mistrustful and still flaming eyes upon the group of curse-breakers.

"Firenze, free these humans," said one of the centaurs, one with dark hair and a chestnut coat, and a second, this one almost white-blond from his head to his palomino tail, used a blade to cut Artemis and her friends out of the spider's web.

"Thank you," said Charlie, as his feet hit the ground. He bowed his head low, and did not raise it fully. His whole body bristled with nervous tension. "We can't say that we deserve your intervention, but we are grateful for it."

"We saw the red lights, and we decided to investigate," said the first centaur. "This is fortunate for you. However, our intervention would not have been necessary had you not ventured into the forest."

"Understood. We are sorry that it was necessary."

The centaur narrowed his eyes at Charlie and swished his tail. Charlie lowered his gaze and stepped backwards, and the centaur did too. For a moment, it looked as if he meant to let them go, but behind him, a third centaur made a pained noise, and moved his hand away from his withers to reveal a large wound. Artemis heard Charlie swear under his breath, and first centaur stomped his hind foot.

"One of my herd is injured," he said, his glare becoming fiercer and harder again. "You come here, you trespass, you lure the Acromantula from the cave, and now one of us is injured. This is your folly. This is your fault." His hands gripped his spear, and his front hoof scraped the ground. "We should have left you to your fate. It would have been better to have left you to your fate."

"I am sure they meant no harm, Magorian," said the second centaur, the one who had freed them from the web. "After all, they are foals."

"They look grown to me."

"Barely grown, and not all of them. We do not harm foals."

"One of us has been harmed by their actions, why should they not be harmed by ours?" the first centaur, Magorian, snapped. "If they are still foals, they will not be for long."