Which meant the bandits were on borrowed time. Which meant they were pretty edgy about getting as much out of the colony as they could grab. We just had to stay clear of them until the ship showed—because the bandits would be gone the minute it entered the system.

  The only problem was that the colony would probably be gone, too. Slaves didn’t have to be explained if they reached the sales rooms without being intercepted. At least, that’s what my mum and dad had said when they were getting us ready to leave. The villagers had agreed, but they’d also agreed that my family should be the first to go. Law enforcement types were going to end up on the bandit’s hit list sooner rather than later, and dad was the only sheriff in town.

  The plan had gone okay, for a while. Colonists had slipped away, until the bandits had noticed their bill of living goods dwindling, and then the village had been sealed up tight. No one had said anything about the gap in the hedge. I think we’d all been waiting for a chance to use it, but the bandits were keeping a closer eye on all of us than they had before, so no-one had had a chance. After me, I was willing to bet no-one else was going to get the chance, either.

  I reached the hedge, found the gap, and prayed the hedge would let me pass. Mama had always sworn the plants knew, that they had some sort of protocol about keeping things in, which had been programmed into them at a nanite level. I edged into the small space between branches and prayed. Whatever mama had said, I was about to find out for sure.

  It was still a shock when the leaves closed around me, and the branches blocked my path. I only just managed to get my hand in my pocket before the whole thing stuck me in place.

  “Let me pass,” I said, my breath coming in gasps. “Please let me pass. I need to join my family.”

  Whether it was what I said, or the fact I’d activated the small box in my pocket, I still don’t know, but the hedge parted to let me through, and I was able to stumble free, and begin moving toward the forest. Still, the enforced stop had let the exhaustion catch up, and the adrenalin rush of needing to escape almost wasn’t enough to get me going faster than a shambling jog.

  Behind me, the shouting had turned into frightened screams, and the mariners had set up an angry lowing. It was no surprise to hear the sound of wood cracking and hooves stampeding away.

  I really didn’t need to jog, now, but who knew if there were other bandits who’d take up the chase—or when? I kept running. I didn’t stop until I’d made it into the shelter of the trees.

  And that was when it hit me—I’d stepped into Blacklegs, and by more than a few steps. It was enough to make me stop running, which was a bit of a mistake, because that was when I realized just how completely out of breath I was. I resisted the urge to drop to the ground until my breathing slowed, but that didn’t stop me from doubling over, hands on my knees, and it didn’t stop my vision from blurring, or the tremors that started when I remembered just how close the bandits had come.

  Thoughts of the chopping block brought a slow, sick churning to my gut, so I pushed them away. I really hoped that supply ship came soon. Glancing over my shoulder, I wondered what would happen, now I’d gotten away.

  Would there still be a spectacle? Someone else… I couldn’t help it. I dropped to my knees and threw up.

  What had I done?

  As soon as I could, I pushed myself back to my feet, and looked around. Blacklegs’ Forest, hey? I’d never been in here, before—had been forbidden from going anywhere near it, since the first outsized arachnid had been sighted.

  It had been beautiful, and elusive. The first researcher out of the forest had sworn it was a giant spider. The second had argued it wasn’t a spider, but that it was some sort of ‘strange bug’…as big as a horse, with ‘the most stunning coloration’ he’d ever seen—and the biggest mandibles, too. The thing both of them had noticed was that, no matter what color its body was, the creature had had black legs. Not a spot of color on them, anywhere.

  I didn’t see how that could be true, but I really didn’t want to meet one and find out. I did, however, want to find my family—or at least work out which way they’d gone.

  If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  With my breathing back under control, I took a careful look around. The trees really did have deep blue trunks, and leaves that ran the gamut of blue through aqua to green. I knew that meant something about the soil, but we hadn’t had time to find out what.

  “Fine,” I murmured, noting the direction back to the field, and the village beyond.

  Why I bothered, I don’t know; it wasn’t like I was going to be able to go back.

  “Not yet,” I reminded myself, repeating the phrase for comfort. “Not yet.”

  And with that, I turned my back on the colony, and the bandits, and the only home I’d known since the colony had made landfall. I needed to find my parents, and I’d need shelter by sunset.

  There were other things in this forest, and some of them had been caught on the security scans in the open ground beyond its edge. I did not want to meet one.

  Maybe this had been a mistake.

  I figured my parents would have kept moving in a straight line. They would have wanted to put as much distance between the village and themselves as they could—just in case my ruse hadn’t worked, just in case the bandits had chosen to take a closer look at the hedge. The stars forbid the bandits had helped me look for the missing puppy, and discovered it was just made up.

  As I walked, my mind skittered from one uncomfortable thought to the next: the bandits, the mariners, the baker, the chopping block—because that thing was literal, not figurative—the ‘big bugs’ that had given the forest its name…were they really spiders? I scanned the trees and the sparse undergrowth as I walked, but nothing appeared to show me if I’d guessed right. Nothing appeared to show me that my parents had even stayed in the area.

  And what about the starman? my mind wanted to know.

  He’d teleported in and promptly been shot. Had he simply teleported out again? Was his ship monitoring what was happening on the planet’s surface, or had it simply boosted back out? Where had he gone?

  And what was that?

  I followed that thought, my eyes chasing the elusive movement that had drawn them.

  As big as a horse, right?

  Riiiight.

  And not a spider, but some sort of strange bug, right?

  Uh huh. Sure it was.

  I stopped and stared.

  It really was kind of beautiful.

  But it really was a spider.

  A pretty spider to be sure, with legs as black as midnight, and a carapace that was lovelier than any flower I’d ever seen, but…it was a spider. I watched as it lowered itself all the way down to the ground, extending first one leg, and then another, touching its foremost feet to the floor, and those behind them to the tall, straight trunks on either side, descending on a thread.

  This one was striped with the same yellows, oranges and reds that veined the leaves of the blue-trunked trees, blotched in every shade of blue through aqua to green, and patterned in black to the top segment of its very, very black legs.

  I backed up a step, wondering if the creature knew what stockings were, and fighting back curiosity as to whether it knew how much its head looked like the front-end of a tractor. It came down the trees a bit more, setting four legs on the ground. I backed up another step, watching the way two small appendages curled under its jaw, noting the bright orange markings that ran like tears from its lower set of eyes to descend down the front of its fur-covered fangs. Outlined by red, and framing a yellow centre, they were beautiful, making the surrounding darkness of its face more a midnight blue.

  It swiveled its head toward me, and I backed up another step, pressing a fist to my mouth to keep back a scream. It took another step toward me, and I forgot about not panicking, about bandits and chopping blocks, and stampeding mariners. I whirled about and ran.

  At least, that’s what I meant to do.

  Behind me, there was another one. There was one to either side, too. I jolted to a stop. There was nowhere to run. I turned about, again, wondering how far my parents had gotten, how far my brother had…

  Tears started in my eyes. My gaze shifted from one of the creatures, to the next, and the next, and the next, until I was spinning on the spot like a top. They settled themselves onto the ground, and waited, and when I stopped, the one I was facing, lowered the small limb under its jaw, and reached beneath itself to retrieve something from its carapace.

  The movement pulled a small gasp from my throat, and it tilted its head, studying me briefly before flicking its ‘hand’ toward me. I’d shifted back two paces before I could stop myself. Chittering from the direction I’d moved toward made me freeze. I looked over my shoulder, and the thing the first spider had thrown landed at my feet.

  Again, the chittering, but this time it came from in front of me. I looked, and the creature gestured toward the item at my feet. With nothing else to do, I picked it up. My hand touched something that could have been metal, or timber, or stone, but what it was made of became irrelevant when I turned it over.

  A small screen faced me, below which ran a grid cut into the object’s surface. I looked from the item to the creature it had come from. The sight of it still made my heart cold with fear, but it hadn’t eaten me yet. I looked down again at the device in my hand.

  Surely there had to be a button?

  When I didn’t see one, I ran my hand across the surface. There! Pushing aside all thought of things that went boom, I pushed the button.