Weavespinner f-5

by James Galloway

  They walked through the cold, starlit night resolutely, without conversation. It would all be over today. Months of worry and planning were focused down to this one day, a day that the gods themselves would be here to witness. It was the day that Tarrin finally confronted Val and recovered his daughter. It was a day fraught with peril, possibly the day that marked the beginning of the end of the world, but it was a day that totally and completely belonged to Tarrin. He knew the dreadful importance of what was happening. He understood the risk involved in bringing the Firestaff to Val, but to him, they were acceptable risks. Nearly any risk was acceptable if it helped him recover Jasana unharmed.

  The appearance of Domammon, the White Moon, on the southeastern horizon was like a cold rock sitting in his belly. It had begun. Vala would rise but moments after Domammon, and the Twin Moons, Duva and Kava, would rise exactly nine minutes after Vala. Domammon in the southeast, Vala in the northeast, and the Twin Moons dead east. They would rise and approach one another, and then they would join to form the conjunction in exactly four hours and six minutes. Tarrin took out the pocketwatch and studied it for a long moment, seeing that he was right on time so far.

  They moved on, step after step on top of the snow, the padded feet making no sound. There was only the sound of the gentle wind and the sound of their own breathng, and the pounding of Tarrin's heart.

  Two hours passed like that, with Tarrin's every thought locked onto the perils the day would present, until the sky began to lighten as the sun approached the horizon, and the edges of Val's countless army became visible in the brightening light. The edge of Val's void, which was also the boundary of the warmth that kept the arctic chill at bay, rose up before them, and the movements of the army seemed a shimmering of the darkness at the edge of his vision, as thousands of Goblinoids, humans, and other fell creatures moved around. As they got closer and closer, he saw that they were not camped. They were formed up in lines, formation after formation after formation, readied for any attack in a ring that had formations stationed at regular intervals around the perimiter, with the bulk of the force kept well back and in reserve. Tarrin understood the strategy of it. Those fringe units would serve to slow down the attack of the suddenly appearing enemy, giving the reserve forces time to rush to the site of assault and repel the invasion. Tarrin wondered grimly if the beings in those edge units understood that their lives were being thrown away. If they were the ones who were attacked, they would not make it long enough for the reserves to reach them. They were there to die, and in that dying slow down the press of the attackers to give the reserves enough time to reach them, reserves set at a distance that would allow them to respond to nearly any place in their circle of protection. It was a smart strategy, if one was willing to throw away a few thousand men, and Tarrin could appreciate the mind that had devised it. Faced with a circle that ringed the pyramid some twenty longspans away from it, unable to defend it all, the commander of the enemy was willing to give a little ground in exchange for being able to defend the internal territory from nearly any direction.

  "What do we do?" Jesmind asked as she began to scan the enemy forces ahead.

  "Walk right through them," he answered distantly. "If I'm right, they won't even try to stop us."

  "And what if you're wrong?"

  "Then we walk right through them anyway," he said grimly as he cancelled the Illusion concealing him. He wouldn't need it anymore.

  Jesmind gave him a long, hard stare, then she too dropped the Illusion and stalked forward with a deadly expression on her face, the expression of a woman prepared to kill a million men if they decided to stand in her way.

  Tarrin gauged distances, and realized he was right where he wanted to be. They'd reach the edge by sunrise, and then they would run to the pyramid. He had no intention of walking while surrounded by enemy forces. There was too much chance for mischief. So he would minimize his exposure to them.

  As if moving by the clock he carried inside his vest, they reached the border of snow and grass just as the upper rim of the sun appeared in the southeastern horizon. They found themselves facing a large formation of humans, mercenaries, dressed in mismatched armor and carrying assorted weapons, being commanded by a black-armored Cambisi , one of the male half-breeds, which Phandebrass sometimes referred to as Cambions. Tarrin and Jesmind stopped right at the edge of the snow, as many of the humans looked down and realized that their feet did not sink down into it, both Were-cats looking grimly at the host arrayed before them, looks totally devoid of fear. That put the humans back slightly, but the Cambisi only sneered at them in an evil way and then barked a single command to his troops. They separated their formation, splitting in two and forming a wide alley down their center, clearing the way for them.

  Without a word, Tarrin stepped into the area of Val's protection, and felt both the heat and the animosity in it. He felt the Weave pull away from him as he moved into the void, felt the strange restriction placed over him, a restriction he knew he could circumvent whenever it was necessary. He levelled a flat look at the half-breed Demon, a look that made the red-eyed, blue-skinned creature flinch and reach reflexively for his sword. The amulet around his neck grew heavy for a moment, and then it seemed to get hot, as Tarrin realized that Val had reached into his own void and adjusted it so Tarrin's amulet would function within the bounds of his anti-magical field. He felt Val's fingers reach out towards him, touch the amulet, and in that touch he knew what the amulet was carrying within its elsewhere. Val knew that Tarrin had brought the Firestaff.

  That was all the proof he needed. Val was inviting him in.

  He was making the biggest mistake of his life.

  Nudging Jesmind, Tarrin moved forward, ears back, eyes flat, keeping an eye on the men surrounding them, men who looked at them with honest fear. Jesmind did the same, and they slowly crossed the ground within the formation's area, eyes shifting to keep an eye on all the men and their Demonic commander. Once they were through, they broke into a run, moving towards the distant massed armies, set up to respond to any attack.

  Quickly yet carefully, they travelled the twenty longspans. They ran up to each mass of troops, layer after layer after layer of them, then paused as a Demon more hideous and power than the last, commanding each layer of defense, caused his armies to part and allowed the pair to pass without hindrance. The stops served to slow them down, and Tarrin watched the sun in the sky carefully to gauge their time. They were on pace to reach the pyramid more or less when he wanted to do so, so he was content to continue on as they were. The idea of being surrounded by enemies did not sit well with him, though, and stirrings of unease and worry finally managed to seep in through the grim determination he had in place, deadening his emotions. Jesmind too seemed upset by the continuous moves through soldiers whose avenues they allowed through their ranks seemed to be getting narrower and narrower. The Goblinoids they passed growled and howled and banged their shields as they passed, taunting them, but those brave taunts stopped and the Goblinoids jumped back in fear when Tarrin or Jesmind hissed threateningly at them, laying back their ears and challenging them. Goblinoids feared Were-kin, feared them more than any other creature, and even the threat that these two highly volatile, very dangerous Were-kin may strike at them was all the motivation they needed to give them a very wide berth.

  With a little creative pacing by Tarrin, slowing them down or speeding them up between encounters with enemy troops, he managed to get them close when they needed to be there. After an hour and a half, the black stone of the ancient pyramid of Gora Umadar appeared on the northeast horizon. It was a huge, titanic monstrosity, as big as a mountain itself, built of ominous black stone that even from that distance seemed foreboding and evil. The sight of it filled Tarrin with momentary dread, but that was consumed by his driving need to rescue his daughter. A god was in that pyramid, a god that wanted to kill him, but that didn't matter. Nothing mattered other than his need to get Jasana back. He would face all the gods, all at on
ce, if that was what it took for him to rescue his cherished daughter.

  The sight of the black pyramid made Jesmind stop, putting a paw to her heart and with a stricken look on her face. The pressure of what they were doing was getting to his mate. He reached out and put a paw on her shoulder, his look both neutral and reassuring at the same time, conveying to her his absolute determination. That bolstered her, and she nodded to him, her nervous expression melting away into a mask of stone much like the one that always rested on the face of their mother.

  Gora Umadar loomed larger and larger before them as they moved towards it, still unescorted, but with thousands of eyes locked on their every move, both within the pyramid and without. Tarrin slowed to a stately walk, nearly a swagger that announced to everyone that he was there on his own terms, a pride that his position would not take away. He was coming to bargain for his daughter, but his attitude clearly showed that he felt he would be bargaining from the higher chair. Jesmind matched his pace if not his confidence, her slashing tail betraying her anxiety and worry over what was going on. But Tarrin was calm, almost serene now. He knew what had to be done, and there was no reason to even think about it. Everything was going to work out alright. He believed it in his heart, he was absolutely sure of it, and that belief gave him confidence.

  As they approached, Tarrin saw that there was a debris field on the west side of the pyramid. There was a huge, gaping hole near the top of the ancient construction, the black rubble the stone that had been torn free from the inside. Tarrin looked in that direction, and he realized that the hole was facing the position where the conjunction would occur. Val had blown out a window of sorts to let him see the daytime sky, to let him see it when the four moons aligned.

  That would serve both of them.

  They reached the base of the pyramid, towering over them, right on time, barely more than twenty minutes before the fateful moment of the conjunction. The channel through the army of Goblinoids ended in a wide passage into the bowels of the black stone building, a wide passageway with heavy arch at its entrance, with ancient runes and glyphs carved into the stone face. In that arch, her coils shifting restlessly, was none other than the very six-armed Demoness that had cut Eron's throat, the Demoness who had been responsible for Jasana's abduction. The expression on her face was eager, and the look in her eyes said that she felt that they had already won. Four of her arms were crossed before her bare breasts, and the third set of arms were resting on hips that slid down into the scales of her snake body Jegojah's deadly sword rested in a scabbard slung jauntily off one of those scaly hips by a narrow sword belt, her only garment, within easy reach of her hand. She wore rings on her fingers and a medallion of a very large oval ruby in a gold vine and ivy setting around her neck, a pair of simple diamond stone earrings dnagling from gold studs in her ears, and she also wore a slender silver tiara crusted with small diamonds on her head that held her black hair back from her face, all jewelry of great value and riches, a king's ransom.

  My Master awaits you, her voice touched inside his mind. He knows of your intent, Were-cat, she taunted him. He knows of all your elaborate plans, but you know as well as I that they mean nothing. As you saw, we are ready for your army, and your careful preparations were nothing but chaff drifting in the wind. My Master is all-powerful, Were-cat. That is why I serve him faithfully.

  "There's no accounting for taste," Tarrin growled.

  The Demoness' eyes flashed slightly in anger, but she continued. Your daughter for the Firestaff. That was the offered deal, and it will be honored. My Master agreed to those terms in good faith, and he will fulfill his side of the bargain. The look she gave him was absolutely predatory. He had no illusions that that agreement would be terminated the instant Val felt he had the upper hand.

  "I'll make sure I kill you first," Tarrin hissed at her, images of her cutting his son's throat burning in his mind.

  I'm sure you will, she agreed mildly, though she had an evil smile on her face. And I'm sure you'll let me tell you that my Master has generously given you to me. Your soul will be mine, Were-cat, as it was always meant to be. Now that we've gotten the reciprocating ugly threats out of the way, you will follow me.

  "What did she say?" Jesmind whispered, forgetting that she could communicate with him in an utterly silent manner. But the Demoness was just that, a Demoness, and he knew that she understood all languages. Even unspoken ones. It was an aspect of her telepathic abilities. Shiika had told him about that, so in a way, Jesmind hadn't really blundered. Nothing she would say could be withheld from the Demoness.

  "She taunted me, I taunted her, then we threatened each other. Now she's taking us to Val."

  "Oh," she said, her eyes baffled, but she let it pass.

  Tarrin reigned in his anger as he followed the scaly Demoness, who slithered along ahead of them, totally unafraid of exposing her bare back to them. Tarrin looked at the passage carefully, and to his relief, he saw that Jesmind was studying it with absolute intensity. It was nearly twenty spans wide, and the sides of the grand gallery were lined with thick, smooth, black stone pillars, ten spans thick each, that soared a hundred spans over their head to join to the ceiling. The air was cool and dank, and there were smells of ancient decay drifting in that air that did little to mask the unnatural stench of the Demon's scent as they followed her. Many Demons had travelled that passageway, as well as many humans, Goblinoids, and other foul-smelling things the likes of which Tarrin could not even imagine. The light in the passage seemed to come out of the ceiling, but there was no visible sign of it. The only reason he believed so was because the area behind the pillars was cast into dark shadow, and from that shadow he could sense lurking creatures that defied his imagination, things never before seen in his world. Things he did not want to see, things even more horrific than the Demons. The place exuded an ancient evil, but the sense of Val and the evil of the creatures that served him made it even worse, gave the place a heavily oppressive feel, a feel that they were nothing but prey to those who lurked and looked onto them.

  "This place is creepy," Jesmind whispered to him, her tail shivering.

  "It fits with what I expected from Val," he told her in a grim voice, a voice empty of emotion.

  The Demoness looked at them over her shoulder, her knowing smile annoying the Were-cat to no end.

  Tarrin amused himself with fantasies of how he was going to get that Demoness as they moved on, a pleasant distraction that also kept him from thinking about what he intended to do. That had to be a surprise, or Jesmind wasn't going to get away with Jasana.

  The passageway penetrated into the deepest heart of the black stone pyramid, and every step they took was another second ticking off the clock that ruled them all. The conjunction was very close now, very very close now, so close that the luring song of the Firestaff was actually starting to reach into the real world, teasing him and tempting him with its promise of eternal life and absolute power. The power of the artifact was growing with each second, keyed to the alignment of the moons on this most important of all days, and as those moons moved closer and closer to that moment, the power of the Firestaff had begun to swell in preparation for its opportunity to find release. Tarrin ignored its temptations and its promises, for there was something before him even more important to him than the allure of power. The passage seemed endless, eternal, and its singular sameness caused Tarrin to lose track of time, to forget where he was in his count. That only worried him a moment, because he knew that Val had that opening to look upon the moons, and that would be all the clock he'd need. He was intimately familiar with how the moons moved and how fast each one went, so a single glance would tell him everything he needed to know. Val knew his plan, but he could not escape the ultimate finality of the conjunction, which was the deadline by which everyone based their plans. Tarrin, Val, the gods, Jenna, everyone. That end of all ends played into Tarrin's hands much more than Val's.

  After an interminable amount of time, Tarrin saw that th
e passage finally opened ahead of them. The Demon slithered forward just a little faster when the end of the passage came into view, and after a moment they reached it. It opened into a chamber so vast that all of Aldreth could have fit inside it. The mountain-sized pyramid was hollow at its core, only with a shell of intimidating thickness enclosing this cavernous opening within, so large that Sapphire and her entire brood could easily fit within it. The journey from the edge of that chamber to the middle would still take several moments, so far away it was. Tarrin could see the huge hole in the western wall of the chamber, high above, and it shone light down on a large dais, a pedestal nearly a hundred spans off the floor in the very center of the chamber, but from the distance he was at he could easily see everything atop it except those things on the far edge. Upon that raised dais in the center of this vast chamber rested a strange statue of ink-black stone, as well as several figures that he could see near the edge. One of them was considerably shorter than the others, flanked by a pair of unnaturally tall, misshapen forms that had to be Demons.

  Jasana.

  Come. The moment draws nigh, the voice of the Demoness touched him. It is time to face your Master.

  Eyes narrowing, fists clenching, Tarrin drew in all his strength, drew in all his resolve. This was it. Now he would see how well he could play the game against a god.

  It was the longest and shortest walk of his life. Tarrin felt every footstep creep by, but they were to the dais before he realized what had happened. He could feel Val's presence, an overwhelming, suffocating weight that bore down on him, the might of a god, an aura that was absolutely unmistakable. It had the same sense of power that the Goddess' presence did, and where the presence of the Goddess uplifted him, the presence of Val sought to oppress him. The Goddess accepted him with love, but Val endured his presence with abject hatred, and he could sense it all around him. But he was not afraid. Val could not touch him, could not harm his daughter or mate, so long as he played the game correctly. The Demoness started slithering up the stairs leading to the top of the dais, and Tarrin mounted the stairs with Jesmind following him closely behind, almost brushing against his back, feeling what he felt but unable to shrug it off as he could. Tarrin's eyes fixed on the rattle-tipped tail of the Demoness' snaky lower body, giving him a visible reference point to organize himself, to push the fear away, to ready himself for what was coming. He took in a deep, cleansing breath, and exhaled out all his doubt and fear, leaving behind nothing but a knowledge that when the time came, he would know what to do without even having to think about it. And that was his greatest advantage. Val could put his hand all the way in Tarrin's mind, and find nothing. He would find nothing in Jesmind's mind either, only reinforcement that the plan that had been made was the plan. When in fact, it was nothing but a diversion around which Val could prepare.