by Tracey Alley
war Tares and it’s not going to be fought in an ordinary way. You encountered those… things The Dark One had in the prison but fortunately for you, you didn’t actually have to actually fight them. The rest of us did and I’ll tell you freely right now, as Bhaal is my witness, we never would have survived that encounter without Trunk, and how he managed to resist them I’ll never know.”
“Belenus would have aided him,” Tares said.
“You know what,” Nikolai answered with a small, hollow laugh, “you’re probably right. I just hope he continues to aid him because if we’re going to succeed then we’re going to need every bit of aid we can get, no matter where it comes from.”
The big minotaur chose not to respond to the blatant blasphemy against the Crying God. Nikolai’s allegiance to Bhaal was a sufficient blasphemy in itself and despite that Lord Michael had entrusted the necromancer with the ring of Belenus.
“I still do not understand,” Tares said waving the parchment slightly as if to draw Nikolai’s attention back to the incomprehensible document.
“Take another good look at that thing and remember there is a war coming.”
Obediently Tares bent his heavy bovine head to the parchment still not seeing whatever it was about this document that was so interesting to Nikolai.
“Look,” Nikolai took the parchment from Tares’ unresisting hands and pointed to the first of the three columns, “notice how these numbers are all over the place, no sequence, nothing. Now if you look at this column,” he said pointing now to the third column. “These are all place names right? So, we know, and believe me,” Nikolai held up one hand to stop Tares from interrupting, “we do know that war is coming. So what if these names and numbers represent places the other side is planning to attack. The numbers would then represent numbers of troops, or possibly regiments or something like that. I mean obviously I can’t be absolutely sure obviously but it does make sense. Given that we do know for certain The Dark One is somehow involved, so what if those shapes in the centre column represent not only those weird octopus things but maybe other, even worse types of troops or monsters or who knows what?”
Nikolai stopped because Tares was shaking his large bovine head in a definite denial of the mage’s conclusions. “I do not disbelieve your assertion of a coming war,” Tares said quickly in response to Nikolai’s unspoken question, “however, this document cannot function in the manner you described. If you look closely at the place names you will notice that not only do they cover a vast area of The Kingdoms but more importantly they are widely scattered. Most of the places named are located in Agios or Laxdale, but lying between those two kingdoms is the Padyian Empire. No military commander would open two such large fronts with a possibly hostile force lying between. Unless you have other information?”
“No, not really,” Nikolai answered quietly, obviously thinking, “I believe that Padyian may be involved but I have no proof. That’s one of the reasons why we went back to the Badlands. I don’t really understand matters of war but I feel in my bones this parchment somehow relates to the war.”
“I cannot see how it can be. Not only are the named places separated by Padyian but they are …”
“Wait,” Nikolai cut Tares off, “did you hear that?”
Tares inclined his head trying to discern what had captured Nikolai’s attention, unfortunately however his race was better known for their sense of smell than their hearing. Watching the necromancer, Tares tried to gain some indication of where the noise was coming from by the mage’s posture but Nikolai was as still as stone, listening intently. Suddenly Tares heard the noise that had caught the mage’s attention. It was a very low pitched chittering sound, seemingly coming from the very walls themselves, a sound Tares easily recognized.
“It’s just tunnel spiders, these walls are only hard-packed earth here not stone,” Tares began, trailing off when he saw Nikolai’s face turn a ghastly pale.
“That’s what I thought. Can you tell which way are they coming?” Nikolai stood abruptly staring back down the tunnel in the direction of the large clearing, his entire demeanor indicating total panic.
“It appears to be coming towards us but do not be concerned. These are very shy creatures, they are not likely to cause anyone any harm,” again Tares trailed off as Nikolai began to run back towards the clearing.
“Nikolai, they are not dangerous,” Tares yelled after the running necromancer.
“It’s not that, he’s scared of them,” Nikolai yelled back, still running.
“Who is?” Tares questioned, finally running after the necromancer.
“Trunk.”
“Of tunnel spiders?” Tares asked.
“Of all spiders!”
Tunnel Spiders
Tares was so shocked by Nikolai’s revelation he stopped dead in his tracks. Spiders, Belenus knew, were hardly the most pleasant of the various creatures in The Kingdoms but they were rarely dangerous.
Even among the giant varieties, which included tunnel spiders, only a handful of them were poisonous specimens. Most spiders were not only harmless but like all woodland creatures were basically shy, steering clear of the humanoid races. Particularly so were the large and totally blind tunnel spiders, which possessed an uncanny ability to travel hundreds of miles underground tunneling from one place to another. The big minotaur knew that bards and minstrels had long used giant spiders in their stories as monstrous atrocities waiting to prey on the unsuspecting and unwary but the reality was far removed from their lurid tales.
Tunnel spiders did not deliberately seek out living flesh and devour it with foot long fangs dripping poison, holding their prey with hairy multiply-jointed legs that gripped like the hardest steel. To Tares it was simply incomprehensible that a Knight, a true servant of Belenus and second in command to Lord Michael Strong could possibly be afraid of spiders. Yet the big minotaur could no more deny that the necromancer’s fear, no, his panic, were very real. These thoughts flashed through Tares’ mind in less than a second before he once again began running after Nikolai.
Nikolai continued to accelerate, running so fast in fact, that when he brushed past Darzan he knocked the beautiful pirate completely off her feet. Tares stopped briefly, bending down to assist the dark-skinned woman to her feet, dropping the mysterious parchment as he did so, before he continued down the tunnel after the necromancer. Tares could hear the chittering of the tunnel spiders growing louder, obviously coming closer. Nikolai with Tares just behind him, had just reached the mouth of the clearing when the first tunnel spider broke through the hard packed earthen wall. To Tares those first few seconds seemed to stretch out interminably, each image planted indelibly in his mind.
Wulfstan and Slade were both still sleeping against the near wall. Slade was curled on his side, almost in a fetal position and beside him Wulfstan was lying on his back, one hand loosely gripping the hilt of his long sword. Beyond them, almost at the far mouth of the clearing, Lara was sitting cross-legged in front of Trunk who was leaning back against the far wall. Roulibard was seated beside the ogre-troll, directly across from the opening created by the first of the tunnel spiders. It looked as though they were playing some kind of dice game, hardly surprising Tares thought distractedly, as Lara was inordinately fond of games. Behind him Tares could hear Darzan’s footsteps coming closer. In front of him he could hear Nikolai’s harsh panting as the necromancer realized he had been unable to prevent the inevitable.
Just above Wulfstan’s sleeping form the first tunnel spider broke through. A huge hole, easily fifteen feet in diameter, opened up as if the tunnel wall had been little more than an illusion. Dirt and particles of rock sprayed all over the two sleeping figures. Even more dirt and rock was flung far into the clearing, propelled by the weight of the three feet high, five feet long tunnel spiders pushing towards the opening. The first tunnel spider with its curiously attenuated, hard-shelled, shiny body, stepped out through the newly opened hole, five f
eet above the ground. Tares knew that all tunnel spiders were blind; the creatures tunneled endlessly through the ground searching for food. This tunnel spider was unable to see that its tunneling had ended in midair. Slowly the first of the spiders fell and it seemed to the minotaur’s frenzied imagination that everything happened at once.
The heavy spider landed upside down with a hard thud on Wulfstan’s sleeping body, bringing the soldier instantly awake. As Wulfstan struggled to his feet, sword in hand, Trunk looked up from the opposite wall and uttered a high-pitched, undulating scream. Trunk’s scream, so loud and obviously fear-filled, shocked almost everyone as they turned to stare at the enormous creature. Trunk was so unbelievably powerful and strong, carrying both troll and ogre characteristics, and yet he was screaming in utter terror at the sight of the tunnel spiders that were continuing to pour through the freshly dug hole.
Nikolai raced towards Trunk, side-stepping a tunnel spider whose foot-long antennae were flailing around in reaction to the extremely high pitch of Trunk’s scream. As the mage tried to close the distance between himself and Trunk a second tunnel spider, moving with remarkable speed for such a large creature, began running towards the sound of the screams. Most likely, Tares