For I am just an innocent spider, helpless against the might of a King.

🕷🕷🕷

"Then how is it you come to speak? What can a spider offer a man?"

"Have you had many conversations with a spider O' Great King? I can see that my words have startled thee, should my offer of help not be a logical conclusion?"

Robert held out his hand, plucking the spider from its thread, "and what should I call the King of the Arachnids?"

"Others call me Damhan. But I am no King. However, I can ensure that you remain the ruler of this great nation and grant freedom to the people of Scotland."

Scoffing, Robert dropped the insignificant spider on his open palm; nothing more than a black callous on his hardened hand. "Then tell me, mysterious one, how do you propose I raise an army twenty-thousand strong to thwart my rival, and drive back the English that occupy our castles?"

"With my help," the spider hissed. "First, you must answer my question. What would you do to see Edward defeated, and Comyn's claim to the throne relinquished?

"Anything. Everything. I love my country, I love my people. I would die a contented man knowing that Scotland is free from Longshanks's strangling grip."

You love power...

The spider raised its front legs in the air. "Then let me taste a single drop of your Royal blood, let me see the future that awaits Robert the Bruce."

Robert picked Damhan back up by the slender thread that was attached to its spinneret. His brow furrowed as he eyed the spider that slowly spun on the suspended web. "A spider who talks like a man, must also share his capacity for desire. What is it that you hope to gain from such an arrangement?"

"A spider desires a full stomach, a web full of food and an abdomen full of children. We do not seek the wants of men, we have no use for coin or castles."

Silence. Robert pondered the words he had heard. It knows too much. The spider talks in riddles, like a silver-tongued demon. Surely it cannot be trusted. But what would it see? What lies ahead...

"I see that my answer has not satisfied you King Bruce. I have spent many years in this cave, and watched many men enter and leave. I cannot deny that I grow curious of what lies ahead. The fate that awaits a great man. A King. Should you live, should you die, Damhan does not care, but I wish to see the glorious journey that awaits."

"And should I agree?"

"Then you take back control of your destiny. Accept it. Mould it. Shape it in your image."

"Do it."

And so begins your doom...

The spider screeched as it exposed its fangs, biting down deep into the King's wrist. As it tore through weathered flesh, it injected the poisonous venom that swelled from within it, and withdrew the drop of blood it was granted; savouring the metallic crimson that fired in the farthest reaches of its body.

Finally. I am free. The body of the arachnid dissolved into an ashen dust, mixing with the trickle of blood flowing down the King's hand.

Robert howled in pain, falling to his knees as he grasped at the welt that grew around the puncture mark. Intense thumps drummed from the site of the wound, working up his arm and into his head: consuming his every thought. And then they stopped. Silence filled the cave once more.

The sound of scurrying legs echoed around the jagged walls. Robert looked at the ground through hazy eyes. The dark floor became consumed with crawling black. It was already too late. Thousands descended upon him, climbing up his legs; thousands more fell from the ceiling. He tried to stand, but his legs would not work. He tried to scream, but the spiders swarmed down his throat. The whites of his eyes were all that were left of the blackened shadow of the King; till even they were devoured by the horrifying hoard.

He collapsed to the floor.

*****
I am really having fun writing this, I hope you can all tell! It is nice to take a little break from my main novel Prophecy of Kings and step into the minds of some new characters. As always, what do you think? An unexpected twist on a classic tale?