Free Hand of Fire (The Master of the Tane) by Thomas Rath

She was almost there. A tiny smile creased her sweat-covered face but was quickly erased when a horrible cry froze her cold in mid-stride. Her eyes caught the movement of something large just ahead as it bounced up and down on top of another unrecognizable form. A second scream escaped from the grounded creature, a last cry of anguish, and then all went silent. Rani shook uncontrollably and cursed herself for not bringing her blowgun. She knew she was close now but felt a gnawing sense that she would find death just at that door to her freedom.
    Inching slowly forward, she could just make out what it was that blocked her passage. The bulbous body and spindly legs of a giant spider had fallen upon some unwary creature and was now proceeding to wrap it into a cocoon of webbing for later digestion. Rani’s eyes darted to the tree tops above wondering if more weren’t hiding in the dense foliage just waiting for the next victim to happen along. She had always hated spiders, and the ones in the Teague did grow rather large and there venom was lethal in the smallest amounts, but never had she ever imagined the nightmare that was so close to her now.
                  A soft rustle in the undergrowth behind her broke through her terror stricken mind crying out in warning that she was not alone in her observance of the spider and its prey. Night had fallen. A low growl hissed through the air placing her unknown companion only feet behind her and to the right. She didn’t move. Maybe it hadn’t seen her. Maybe it had! Was it another spider come along to find the warm, satisfying blood she offered so easily? She remained frozen in place, not daring to move, her ability to escape hindered on either side by the thickness of the forest that had quickly become a death trap. Forward or back were her only options and neither offered anything other than certain death.
                  The stalker suddenly screeched mingling its voice with Rani’s cry of dread as she shot forward towards the spider and its prey. She could hear the hunter falling in behind her as it broke from the bush in quick pursuit closing the gap with incredible speed. The spider rose onto its back legs in readiness as she sprinted towards its eager embrace, its mandibles moving with anticipation. She was trapped! She would die and none would appease the ancestors for the death of her husband.
                  A shadow suddenly passed over Rani’s head causing her to dive instinctively to the forest floor of decaying foliage. She looked up in time to see a shadow collide with the massive spider knocking it to the ground and locking it into a desperate battle for life. Not wasting a precious moment to gawk, she rose to her feet and bolted past praying their struggles would not declare a victor until she reached her canoe and escaped into the river.
                  Once past the melee it was only a small distance that lay between her and safety. Forgetting caution, she raced headlong for the shoreline and her beached canoe that had suddenly become visible in the darkening night. The shrieks and screams of the bloody fight abruptly ended with a last hopeless cry just as she reached the river’s edge. Chancing a quick glance back, a shiver shot through her as she could just make out the form of the stalking shadow bent over the spider’s curled and bloody corpse. She could hear it rip into its prey’s swollen flesh as it hungrily devoured its victim’s innards. She barely stifled a scream of terror and disgust with the sudden realization that that very well could have been her being eaten in the spider’s place.
                  The shadowy figure suddenly looked up and glared at her, its glowing yellow eyes holding her in place for a mere instant before she turned away and threw herself and her canoe into the safety of the river. A mocking howl ripped past her, chilling her deeper than the cold water that now