Read 3 Weaver of Shadow for Free Online

that?” Jaethro asked.
    “We were talking to the ghost,” said Grogan.
    “She tell you anything interesting?”
    “To turn back.”
    “An elf would tell you that.”
    “Jaethro!”
    “Yes, Grogan.”
    “If you see the ghost again, don’t kill her. Tell the others. She’s not our enemy.”
    “You sure of that?”
    “Sure as I am of you.”
    Jaethro shrugged. “Will do. I can’t say what the others will do though.”
    “Just spread the word,” Grogan said. “And what did you want?”
    “Found some more bodies up ahead. They are not pretty. You’ll want to take a look at them though.”
    Once Jaethro had moved ahead Grogan spoke.
    “What did you think of the elf?” Grogan asked.
    “She was convincing,” said Kormak.
    “Yes,” said Grogan, “and if she was with the spiderfolk, she would just have put an arrow in us instead of telling us to run, so I am inclined to believe her.”
    “You think we should retreat?”
    “Do you?”
    Kormak shook his head. “Not while there’s a chance that some of the captives are still alive.”
    Grogan nodded grimly. “That’s what I thought you would say.”
     
    The bodies belonged to a woman and a teenage boy. They had been staked out and Kormak had guessed the spiders had been set on them. There were lumps in the flesh.
    “Why the hell did they do this?” Jaethro asked. “Why drag someone all this way and kill them here.”
    “Maybe as a warning to the others,” said Grogan. “Or maybe they just wanted some fun. Who can tell what the elves will do? They don’t think like us.”
    Kormak bent down and sliced the flesh on one of the lumps open with his knife. He pulled out a small, hard leathery object form beneath the skin. It was faintly translucent and in it something squirmed.
    “An egg,” he said. The hardened woodsmen standing close turned pale.
    “They killed Marla and Toni and let their pets lay eggs in them?”
    “Gives them something to eat when they hatch,” said Kormak. “I’ve seen other things do this.”
    “Means they must be expecting those things to hatch pretty soon,” said Grogan.
    Kormak crushed the egg beneath his heel. It took some effort. “This one won’t.”
    “We can’t dig out all the eggs,” said Grogan. “It would take too long. And if we burn the corpses it will give away our position.”
    “We can’t just leave them here,” said Jaethro. Kormak took the corpses’ heads off with his blade, then chopped them in two. The woodsmen looked at him appalled.
    “We’re in a Shadowblight here,” said Kormak. “We don’t want them rising.”
    “Shallow grave, pile some stones on them, and then we move on,” said Grogan. “We need to worry more about the living.”
    Jaethro summoned a couple of the other woodsmen to give him a hand, the rest of them moved off.
    “This is just getting worse, and worse,” Grogan said. “You think that’s why they’ve been kidnapping people, as food for the pet spider’s babies? I tell you if I get my hands on this Weaver I am going to carve her up with my knife. An arrow is too good for her.”
    Kormak could tell that Grogan was shaken. Maybe he was getting old, after all. “If we meet her, kill her any way you can, if you get the chance.”
    “I’ll settle for just getting our people out,” said Grogan. Kormak was starting to think that they might have to settle for just getting themselves out but he kept that to himself. The sense of watchfulness all around them intensified. He took a deep breath and extended his senses as far as he could, the way he had been taught by his masters in the Fortress Monastery on Mount Aethelas. He sensed nothing, but that did not make him feel any easier.
    “Let’s go,” said Grogan. Warily Kormak followed him.
     
     
    “What is it?” Grogan asked. Kormak put his hand on his breast. The Elder Sign beneath his tunic was getting warmer. It only did that in the presence of magic. He studied their surroundings closely. The trees were even