Little Orphan Anvil: The Complete Trilogy by Joseph Beekman (good beach reads .txt) 📗

abyss!She thought she could see some sort of river flowing farbelow.

While she anxiously wondered what she was evergoing to do, and what had happened to the others, a fewmuffled voices suddenly rang out in the cold air.

Jonathon and Haley! she thought with hope.

She quickly turned back over and pushed at thesticky surface, lifting her body up as far as she could.Looking to her far right, she saw the two boys layingonly inches apart from each other—they were bothflailing about like two fish that had been flung out ofwater.

And then it struck her like a bolt of lightning:they were all caught in some gigantic web! They hadfallen through one of those cave holes in the canyonwalls and landed in some sort of horrible trap!“Hey!” she yelled over to the boys, raising hervoice as high as she could, her voice drumming loudlywithin the iron headgear that was still clamped upon herhead. “Jonathon—Haley! I’m over here!”

The boys stopped moving when they heardTabitha’s voice echoing off the walls. Jonathon wasable to raise himself up, though only partially—his legsremained stuck to the web. He looked over to Tabithaand waved.

“I see you!” he echoed back to her.

“Be careful!” Tabitha responded. “We’ve falleninto some kind of huge web, and there is a very deepdrop below us!”

“I know!” Jonathon replied. “I saw all of it whenI flew out of that wall! I think this is some kind of nestfor a bunch of spiders!”

He looked over to the skeletal remains of a fewbarrel-sized spiders that lay nearby where he and Haleywere. “In fact—by the looks of it—I think it belongs toan ancient colony of spiders! I can see the remains of afew spider-like creatures—they’re tangled into the web,and they appear to be petrified!” He shuddered, dartinghis eyes about.

Tabitha shook her head, not really wanting tothink about the spiders, but only about getting free ofthe web.

“Jonathon—see if you and Haley can search foranything in your belongings to free us! And be quickabout it!”

“I will! You try and do the same!” Jonathon saidas he started searching through his knapsack. Helooked over to Haley. “I think Haley has passed out!He isn’t moving anymore!”

“Well, just hold on—we have to remain hopeful!”

While she searched her knapsack, she startedthinking about her sorcery exercises that she’d beentaught; ones that a few of the practicing sorceress’sback home had instructed her with. Thinking aboutsomething like that was something that she knew wouldkeep her calm and her wits more focused.

“Tabitha!” Jonathon echoed over to her. “I thinkthe only way out of here is going to be dropping downinto that abyss that’s below us!”

Tabitha sighed. “Don’t think about that! Juststay focused, Jonathon…and keep looking!”

As they were both rummaging about in theirknapsacks, Haley suddenly awoke with a start, lettingout a loud huff. “What—what happened?”

Jonathon turned to him, a look of disbelief in hiseyes. “Dang, Haley—you really had me scared halfwayto the other side of the realm!”

Haley rustled about, trying to pry himself free ofthe webbing.

“Haley, don’t move about so much—we’re stuckto a big ol’ spider web!”

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” Haley said with afit. “What are we going to do? Where’s Tabitha?”

“Haley, listen to me.” Jonathon looked squareinto Haley’s eyes; Haley stopped moving and returnedhis stare. “I am going to get us free, but be patient for aminute. Tabitha is a little ways over there, and she’s inthe same situation, and doing the same thing. Now youhave to remain calm—you hear me?”

Haley nodded. “I—I’ll try…”

“Good. Now hand me that knapsack of yours; Ineed to find something that’ll pry us free of this web!”

As Haley was handing the knapsack over to him,a small, metallic object fell out of it and landed intoJonathon’s outreached hands.

Jonathon’s eyes brightened. “Yes—a weldingtorch!” he shouted joyfully as he looked it over. “Youbrought one of these with you; Haley, you’re a genius!”

Just as Tabitha overheard the boys mentioningthe welding torch, a strange sensation suddenly overcame her; she felt an eerie chill tingle her nerves andshe quickly darted her eyes over to the wall of thecanyon that faced her. Her heart stopped. Staring fromthe darkness of the spider holes were countless redeyes.

Spiders! she thought fearfully.

“Jonathon!” Tabitha hissed loudly, keeping hergaze focused on the spooky eyes.“Hurry up and burnthe web—there are hundreds of spiders watching us!”

Jonathon and Haley froze. Slowly looking up,they saw the eyes of the spiders peering down uponthem from their nesting holes in the canyon wall.

With sinister fangs and dark, red eyes thatdrooped down their skeletal, bone-white faces, thespiders began to crawl forth. On tinsel-colored, spinylegs, they moved rather sluggishly down the walltowards the huge web; their water balloon-like bodiesflopped about like sloshing sacks of oil.

Breaking their gaze away from the spiders, theboys scrambled feverishly to get the torch lit. Jonathonwas finally able to get it quickly started; he beganburning through the web strands they were stuck to. Athick, dark smoke began to stream up into the air as thewebbing began melting from the burning torch.

Meanwhile, Tabitha was using one of the ironlanterns from her own knapsack and pouring its oil overthe webbing that was keeping her held down. It startedto loosen, and in a matter of seconds she was able tomove more freely. Then, searching deep within herself,she decided to summon some of the magic that she hadbeen taught by a few of the elder sorceresses backhome.

As the spiders crept ever closer to their owngiant strands of the web, Tabitha closed her eyes andbecame as calm as a floating butterfly. She called uponher own spirit’s energy to send out waves of fear intothe spiders own souls. She was hoping to keep thespiders both startled and confused—fearful of the threehelpless figures trapped in the web. If she could keepthe spiders distracted for a brief spell, then she and theboys would have a greater chance to free themselves ofthe web and drop to the river below.

Lumbering forward on the web strands, thespiders were suddenly stunned,