THE SPIDER'S THREAD: A TALE OF JUPITI

Chapter 3: The Trap with Many Teeth

I didn’t sleep that night.

At dawn, shouts echoed from the main road.

“Block the North Alley! Check the wells! The Lion’s orders!”

The Rabbit family had called in their favor. Sela had made the deal.

I kept low, moving across rooftops. From up here, Jupiti looked like a beast with a thousand eyes. Every corner had a guard now. Lion sigil on their chests, rabbit pins on their shoulders.

I climbed down near the grain market. There. A Lion captain, shouting at Vorr.

“You said he was cornered!” the Lion snapped.

“We had him!” Vorr hissed back. “Then he vanished. Like smoke!”

I let the totem slide out, just an inch. Just enough to catch the light.

Kaia saw it first. Her eyes widened.

“There!” she pointed. “He’s there!”

The crowd surged. I let myself get swept backward, shouting like everyone else.

“Thief! Spider! Kill him!”

The Lion captain pushed forward. Kaia darted after him, faster, trying to get the kill first.

That’s when I moved. I cut the rope holding a stack of grain sacks.

The sacks fell with a heavy thud, right between the Lion and the Rabbits. Flour and wheat burst into the air.

In the confusion, I slipped my stolen bread into the Lion captain’s pouch. Then I shouted, “He’s got it! The Rabbit took it!”

The captain spun and grabbed Vorr by the collar.

“You lie!”

“You set me up!” Vorr snarled.

While they fought, I was already gone. Down an alley, over a wall, into the deeper slums where even Sela hesitated to go.

I stopped in a dead-end corner, breathing hard.

I pulled out the totem. It was hot now, almost burning.

A whisper echoed in my head.

Run, spider. Run faster.

From the street, I heard boots. More of them. Sela’s voice cut through: “Regroup! He can’t have gotten far!”

I slipped into the deeper slums. The air grew colder. The walls were marked with old symbols eight legged shapes scratched into the stone.

At the end of the alley, a doorway stood half-collapsed. The totem pulled me forward.

Inside, a mask sat in a circle of stones. Wooden, carved like a spider’s face, with eight eyes staring back at me.

The moment I saw it, the totem went ice cold.

And from the walls, a whisper:

You’re late, child of Anansi.

I took a step back. The doorway behind me was gone.

Only stone remained.