ABUTCHER-BIRD CRIED AS THE SCORPIONS marched through the swamp toward the spiders' mountain.
"The spiders tore the Veil once," Lord Marmoo muttered. "They can do it again."
Pigo didn't respond. He just stayed in position, his tail held high, as night creatures hooted in the gloom and tree branches cast shadows like skeleton arms.
"The spiders tore the Veil once," Lord Marmoo murmured an hour later as he stepped from the swamp. "They can do it again."
Pigo still didn't respond. He simply led the squad of red-banded soldiers uphill, keeping them in a disciplined row. Lord Marmoo had repeated the same phrase all day and Pigo had stopped replying an hour ago, telling himself that his lord was merely determined, not losing his mind.
When they reached the mines, a squad of spider archers swung down from the trees. "L-L-Lord Marmoo?" the one in front asked.
"The spiders tore the Veil once," Marmoo told the spider, his main eyes dark with purpose. "They can do it again."
The spider bowed nervously. "Are … are you here to see the new queen being crowned, my lord?"
Lord Marmoo stung the spider, and flung the body aside. "The spiders tore the Veil once," he announced. "You will do it again."
The other spiders didn't raise their bows or uncoil their silk. They simply stared at Lord Marmoo in frozen terror as he marched past.
On the mountaintop, the spider queen's castle rose like an immense pile of boulders. Black webs draped the rocky spires, to honor Queen Jarrah's death, and dark cobwebs shrouded the front doors. Pigo cleared a path across the silken moat for his lordship, then skittered into the great hall—and scowled.
A mesh of cobwebs filled the huge chamber, like the thick foliage of the Amphibilands or a supernaturally dense fog.
"Spiders," Pigo groused, as he hacked a path through the cobwebs.
He headed for the stairway that rose to the rooftop throne room, swiping and snipping with his pincers. Lord Marmoo trailed behind Pigo, making no sound except for the clicking of his feet on the floor. The silence worried Pigo, but he focused on his task, clearing a trail until he reached the rooftop.
Then he glanced at his lordship—and swallowed a cry of shock.
Lord Marmoo was covered with elaborate swirls and dotted lines, eerie patterns etched into his carapace where the feathery cobwebs had touched him.
Pigo felt his mid-legs buckle slightly. "My lord? The webs … Should I brush them away?"
"Leave them," Lord Marmoo told him. "They'll show these crawlers what I really am."
What are you? Pigo wondered.
"Born with a scorpion's strength," Marmoo continued, "and reborn through a spider's magic."
They strode past parapets and terraces as they approached the throne. Pigo tensed at the sight of spiders massed around a high polished platform. Moments ago, they must have been watching the throne on top of the platform, but now all the spider warriors were staring at Lord Marmoo.
Lord Marmoo didn't seem to notice. He kept walking, and the spiders parted for him.
Seated on the throne was a spider Pigo recognized. She'd been one of Queen Jarrah's ladies-in-waiting, and he'd spoken to her while they had waited for Jarrah to return from the Snowy Mountains. She'd been a good source of information at the time, but she looked more aloof now, as her own lady-in-waiting stood beside her, holding a silver crown.
"Welcome, Lord Marmoo," she said in a chilly voice. "I am Lady Fahlga, soon to be Queen Fahlga."
The patterns along Marmoo's carapace gleamed. "The spider queen tore the Veil once. You will do it again."
A hint of uncertainty crossed Fahlga's face. "I am not—yet—as powerful as Jarrah was."
"The spiders tore the Veil once," Lord Marmoo repeated. "You will do it again."
"I'm not sure if I can."
"Then you're not fit to rule," Lord Marmoo said, batting away spiders as he strode toward the throne.
"Stop him!" Fahlga cried. "Stop him!"
Webbing flashed at Marmoo—but when it touched his web-etched carapace, it dissolved into dust. The spiders hissed and scuttled in dismay, and Lord Marmoo leaped atop the high polished platform and snatched the crown from the lady-in-waiting.
"The day of the spider is done!" he declared. "You are now part of the scorpion kingdom!"
"Not so long as I am queen," Fahlga snarled.
"You aren't." Lord Marmoo raised the crown above his own head. "And never will be."
A shock ran through the spider ranks—and through Pigo's heart as well—when Marmoo lowered the crown onto his own head. "M-m-my lord," he stuttered. "Is it right for one species to rule another?"
Lord Marmoo tilted his head as he examined Pigo. "Beware, little brother, that you don't grow soft and weak."
Fear tightened Pigo's stomach. "Yes, my lord."
"Well, my lady?" Lord Marmoo asked Fahlga. "Will you bow to your new king?"
She stood from her throne, quietly defiant, though Pigo thought he saw fear in her eyes.
"Commander Pigo," Marmoo said, "sting her."
Pigo whipped his tail toward the spider lady's thorax—then stopped, an inch away.
"Are you disobeying me?" Lord Marmoo snarled to Pigo. "Explain yourself!"
"M-m-my lord," Pigo said. "Lady Fahlga helped us when you were at the mercy of the queen's magic."
"But now the queen is dead. Sting her!"
"As you command, my lord," Pigo said, drawing back his tail for the killing blow.
"I have information!" Fahlga blurted. "Information you need."
"Tell me," Lord Marmoo demanded.
"The frogs trekked high into the Snowy Mountains—"
Lord Marmoo scoffed. "That's old news."
"But this isn't," Fahlga said, straightening slightly. "They met the Rainbow Serpent on the mountaintop. And I know what the Serpent told the wood frog named Darel."
There was a sudden chill in the air, and Pigo cringed. Lord Marmoo hated the Rainbow Serpent and the young frog with a blind rage, and sometimes he rampaged at the mere mention of their names. But this time, Marmoo simply hunched inside his carapace and glowered.
"The Serpent wants the frogs to lower the Veil," the spider lady said.
Suspicion flickered in Marmoo's ruined face. "No. You lie."
"I vow that this is true."
"Is that so?" Marmoo snorted. "Did the frogs tell you?"
"I'm not Queen Jarrah," the lady told him. "I don't rule as she did. I keep in touch with the spider tribes scattered across the outback. A tiny spider in a hidden web can overhear a great many things—and, eventually, the news comes to me."
"And from this point forth," Marmoo said, "everything you learn, you will share with me."
"I will," she said, bowing her head. "My king."
"They are going to lower the Veil themselves?" Marmoo's side eyes narrowed. "Even frogs are not that stupid."
"They are. You have my word as a nightcaster … and a loyal subject."
Lord Marmoo stared at her for a few seconds. Then his triumphant laugh echoed across the rooftop, and he lowered Pigo's tail with one of his pincers.
"They're serving themselves to me on a platter!" he crowed. "Without the Veil, they're not an army of frogs—they're a meal."