by Andre Norton
If the weavers did not speak to her save through mind speech—and that rarely—they were not devoid of voices, for those at the looms hummed. Though the weird melody they so evoked bore little resemblance to human song, it became a part of one. Even Dairine’s hand moved to its measure and by it her thoughts were lulled. In all the world, there were only the looms, the thread to be sought for them—only this was of any importance.
There came a day when they gave her an empty loom and left her to thread it. Even in the days of her life in the village, this had been a matter which required her greatest dexterity and concentration. Now, as she worked with unfamiliar bars, it was even worse. She threaded until her fingertips were sore, her head aching from such single-minded using of perception, while all about her the humming of the weavers urged her on and on.
When fatigue closed in upon her, she slept. And she paused to eat only because she knew that her body must have fuel. At last she knew that she had finished, for good or ill.
Now her fingers, as she rubbed her aching head, were stiff. It was difficult to flex them. Still, the hum set her body swaying in answer to its odd rhythm.
To Dairine’s surprise, no weaver came to inspect her work, to say whether it was adequately or poorly done. When she had rested so that she could once more control her fingers, she began to weave. As she did so, she discovered that she too hummed, echoing the soft sound about her.
As she worked, there was a renewal of energy within her. Maybe her hands did not move as swiftly as the blur of elongated fingers she had seen in her mind, but they followed the rhythm of the hum and they seemed sure and knowing, not as if her own will but some other force controlled them. She was weaving—well or ill she did not know or care. It was enough that she kept to the beat of the quiet song.
Only when she reached the end of her thread supply, and sat with an empty shuttle in her hand, did Dairine rouse, as one from a dream. Her whole body ached, her hand fell limply on her knee. In her was the sharpness of hunger. There was no longer to be heard the hum of the others.
The girl arose stiffly, stumbled to her sleeping place. There was food which she mouthed before she lay down on the cloth, her face turned up to whatever roof was between her and the sky, feeling drained, exhausted—all energy gone from her body, as was logical thought from her mind.
4
DAIRINE awoke into fear, her hands were clenched, long shivers shook her body. The dream which had driven her into consciousness abruptly faded, leaving only a sense of terror behind. However, it had broken the spell of the weavers, her memory was once more sharp and clear.
How long had she been here? What had happened when she had not returned to the shore? Had the ship under Vidruth’s control left, thinking her lost? And Rothar? the Captain?
Slowly she turned her head from side to side, aware of something else. Though she could not see them, she knew that the looms ringing her in were vacant, the weavers were gone!
Now Dairine believed she must have been caught in some invisible web, and had only this moment broken free. Why had she chosen to come here? Why had she remained? The riband of stuff was gone from her wrist—had that set some ensorcelment upon her?
Fool! She could not see as the rest of the world saw. Now it appeared that even her carefully fostered sense of perception had, in some manner, deceived her. As Dairine arose, her hand brushed the loom where she had labored for so long. Curiosity made her stoop to finger the width her efforts had created. Not quite as smooth as the riband, but far, far better than her first attempt.
Only—where were the weavers? The shadow of terror lingering from her dream sent her moving purposefully about the clearing. Each loom was empty, the woven cloth gone. She kicked against something—groped to find it. A collecting rod for thread.
“Where—where are you?” she dared to call aloud. The quiet seemed so menacing she longed to set her back to some tree, to raise a defense. Against whom—or what?
Dairine did not believe that Vidruth and his men would dare to penetrate the wood. But did the weavers have other enemies, and had fled those, not taking the trouble to warn her?
Breathing faster, she set hand on the hilt of the knife at her girdle. Where were they? Her call had echoed so oddly that she dared not try again. Only her fear grew as she tried to listen.
There was the rustle of tree leaves. Nothing else. Nor could she pick up by mind touch any suggestion of another life form nearby. Should she believe that the cloth missing from each loom meant her co-workers had left for an ordered purpose, not in flight? Would she be able to track them?
Never before had she put to such a use that sense Ingvarna had trained in her. Also, that the weavers had their own guards, Dairine was well aware. She was not sure that she herself mattered enough in their eyes for them to set any defense against her seeking their company. Suppose, with a collecting rod in her hand, she was to leave the loom place as if on the regular mission of hunting thread?
First she must have food. That she located, by scent, in two bins. The fruit was too soft, overripe, and there was none of the dried sticks left. But she ate all she could.
Then, rod conspicuously in hand, the girl ventured into the woods. All the nearby threads must have been harvested, her questing fingers could find none as she played out her game for any who might watch.
And there were watchers! Not the weavers, for the impression these gave her was totally different—more feeble sparks as compared to a well-set fire. As she moved, so did they, hovering near, yet making no attempt to come in contact with her.
She discovered a thread on a tree. Skillfully, she wound it on her rod, took so a second and third. However, at the next, she flinched away. Any thread anchored here must have been disturbed, for she smelled the acrid odor of the sticky coating.
The next two trees supported similarly gummed threads. Did that mean these had been prepared to keep her prisoner? Dairine turned a little. Already, she was out of familiar territory. Thus she expected to meet at any moment opposition, either from the threads or those watchers.
Next was a tree free of thread. Trusting to her sense of smell, she sought another opening, hoping that the unthreaded trees would mark a trail. Though she moved a little faster, she kept to her pretense of seeking threads from each tree she encountered. The watchers had not left her, though she picked up no betraying sound, only knew they were there.
Another free tree—this path was a zigzag puzzle. And she had to go so slowly. One more free tree, and then, from her left, a sound at last—a faint moaning.
It was human, that sound, enough to feed her fear. This—somehow this all seemed a shadow out of her now-forgotten dream. In her dream she had known the sufferer—
Dairine halted. The watchers were drawing in. She could tell they had amassed between her and the direction from which the moan came. Thus she had a choice—to ignore the sound or to try to circle around.
No sign, make no sign that she heard. Keep on hunting for threads—strive to deceive the watchers. All her nature rebelled against abandoning one who might be in trouble, even if he were one of Vidruth’s men.
She put out her hand as if searching for thread, more than half expecting to touch a sticky web. From those watchers she believed she picked up an answering sensation of uncertainty. This might be her only chance.
Her fingers closed about a thick band of woven stuff. That led in turn downward to a bag, the flap of the top turned over and stuck to the fabric so tightly she could not open it. The bag was very large, pulling down the branch from which it was suspended. And within it—something had been imprisoned!
Dairine jerked back. She did not know if she had cried out. What was sealed within that bag, her perception told her, had been alive, was now only newly dead. She forced herself to run fingers once more along the surface of the dangling thing. Too small—surely too small to be a man!
Now that the girl knew no human was so encased, she wanted no greater knowledge of the contents. As s
he stepped away, her shoulder grazed a second bag. She realized that she moved among a collection of them, and all they held was death.
Only, she could still hear that moaning. And it was human. Also, at last the watchers had dropped behind. As if this place were one they dared not enter.
Those bags—Dairine hated to brush against them. Some seemed far lighter than others and twirled about dizzily as she inadvertently touched them. Others dipped heavily with their burdens.
The moans—
The girl made herself seek what hung before her now. Her collecting rod was in her girdle. In its place, she held the knife. When she touched this last bag, feeble movement answered. There was a muffled cry which Dairine was sure was one for help.
She ripped at the silk with knife point. The tightly woven fabric gave reluctantly, this was no easily torn material. She hacked and pulled until she heard a half-stifled cry!
“For Sul’s sake—”
Dairine dragged away the slashed silk. There was indeed a man ensnared. However, about him now was sticky web, for its acrid scent was heavy on the air. Against that, her knife was of no avail. To touch such would only make her prisoner, too.
She gathered up the folds of the torn bag and, using pieces to shield her fingers, tore and worried at the web. To her relief, she was succeeding. She could feel that his own struggles to throw off his bonds were more successful.
Also, she knew whom she fought to free—Rothar! It was as if he had been a part of that dream she could not remember.
Dairine spoke his name, asking him if he were near free.
“Yes. Though I still hang. But that now is a small matter—”
Dairine heard a threshing movement, then the sound of his weight touching the ground. His breath hissed heavily in and out.
“Lady, in nowise could you have come at a better time.” His hand closed about her arm. She felt him sway and then recover balance.
“You are hurt?”
“Not so. Hungry and needful of a drink. I do not know how long I have hung in that larder. The Captain—he will think us both dead.”
“Larder!” That one grim word struck her like a blow.
“Did you not know? Yes, this is the spider females’ larder, where they preserve their males—”
Dairine fought rising nausea. Those bags of silk, the beautifully woven silk! And to be used so.
“There is someone—something—out there,” he said.
The watchers, her protective sense, alerted her. They were now moving in again.
“Can you see them?” Dairine asked.
“Not clearly.” Then he changed that to “Yes!”
“They have throwing cords of web, such as they used on me before. No blade can cut those—”
“The bag!”
“What do you mean?”
Covered with the bag’s rent material, she had been able to pull loose his bindings. Those sticky cords could not find purchase against the woven silk. As she explained that, her knife was wrenched from her hold and she heard sounds of ripping.
The watchers—as Rothar worked to empty other bags, Dairine strove to perceive them by mind. They had neared, but once more had halted, as if this were a place which they feared to enter even if ordered to do so to hold the humans captive.
“They spin their lines now,” Rothar told her. “They plan to wall us in.”
“Let them believe us helpless,” she commanded.
“But you think we are not?”
“With the bags, perhaps not.”
If she could only see! Dairine could have cried aloud in her frustration. Who were the watchers? She was sure they were not the weavers themselves. Perhaps these were the ones who supplied the thread she had harvested so carefully in the past.
Rothar once more was back at her side, a bundle of silk from plundered bags. The girl dared not let herself remember what had been in those bags.
“Tell me,” she said, “what is the nature of those spinning out there?”
She could sense his deep aversion, revulsion. “Spiders. Giant spiders. They are furred and the size of hounds.”
“What are they doing?”
“They are enwebbing an opening. Beyond that on either side are already nets. Now they are disappearing. Only one is left, hanging in the center of the fresh web.”
Through her grasp on his wrist, Dairine could read his thoughts, his mind picture, even more clearly, to add to the scene his words had built for her.
“Those others may have gone to summon the weavers"—she made an alarming guess. “So for the present, we have only that one guard to deal with.”
“And the web—”
She loosed her hold upon him, clutched a length of the raggedly cut silk. “This we must bind about our bodies. Do not touch the web save with this between your flesh and it.”
“I understand.”
Dairine moved forward. “I must loose the web,” she told him. “The guard will be your matter. Lead me to a tree where the web is anchored.”
His hand was on her shoulders. Under his gentle urging, she was guided to the left, was moved forward step by cautious step.
“The tree is directly before you now, lady. Have no fear of the guard.” His promise was grim.
“Remember, let nothing of the web touch your flesh.”
“Be sure I am well shielded,” he assured her.
She fingered rough bark, around her hand and arm the silk was well and tightly anchored. There—she had discovered the end of an anchoring thread. But this was far stronger and thicker than any she had harvested before.
“Ha!” Rothar gave a cry—was no longer beside her.
Dairine found a second thread, felt vibrations along it. The guard must be making ready to defend its web. However, she must concentrate on the finding of each thread, of breaking such loose from the tree.
There was no way for her to know how many threads she must snap so. From her right came the sound of scuffling, heavy breathing.
“Ah!” Rothar’s voice fiercely triumphant. “The thing is safely dead, lady. You are right, the cords it threw at me were well warded by the cloth.”
“Keep watch. Those which were with it may still return,” she warned.
“That I know!” he agreed.
The girl moved as swiftly as she could, discovering thread ends, snapping them. Not only might the spiders return, but the weavers. And them she feared even more.
“The web is down,” he told her.
However, she felt little relief at what might be a small victory.
“Lady, now it would be well to wrap our feet and legs with this silk, they could well lay ground webs for our undoing.”
“Yes!” She had not thought of that, only of the threading cords from tree to tree.
“Let me get more silk.”
Dairine stood waiting, her whole body tense as she strained to use ears and inner senses to assess what might lie in wait beyond. Then he was back and, with no by-your-leave, busied himself wrapping her feet and legs with lengths of silk, tying the strips tightly in places.
While she, who had once so loved the riband Captain Ortis had shown her, wanted to shrink from any touch of that stuff. Save now it might be their salvation.
“That is the best I can do.” He released her foot after tying a last knot about her ankle. “Do you hear aught, lady?”
“Not yet. But they will come.”
“Who—what are the weavers?” he asked.
“I know not. But they do not hold our kind high in esteem.”
He laughed shortly. “How well do I know that! Yet they did you no harm.”
“Because, I think, I am without sight, and also a female who knows a little of their own trade. They are proud of their skill and wished to impress me.”
“Shall we go then?”
“We must watch for trees bare of threads.”
“Those I can see, lady. Perhaps trusting in my kind of sight, we can go the quicker. There has been much ha
ppened. The Captain, though he is still weak, again commands his ship. Vidruth is—dead. But the Captain could not get that scum which his mate has signed to come ashore. And only he can hold them in control.”
“Thus you alone are here?”
He did not answer her directly. “Set your hand to my belt. And I shall take heed in my going, I promise,” was all he said.
Such a journey was humiliating for Dairine. So long had it been since she must turn to one of her kind as a guide. But she knew that he was right.
So Captain Ortis, released from the evil spell, had taken command. She wondered briefly how Vidruth had died, there had been a queer little hesitancy in Rothar’s telling of that. For now she must put her mind on what lay immediately before them. That the weavers would allow them to escape easily she did not believe.
A moment later she knew she was right. They were once more under observation, she sensed. This new, stronger contact was not that of the watchers.
“They come!” she warned.
“We must reach the shore! It is among the trees that they set their traps. And I have a signal fire built there, ready to be lighted, which will bring in the Sea Raven.”
“Can you see any such traps?”
She could feel his impatience and doubt in the slight contact of her fingers against his body where they were hooked about his belt.
“No. But there are no straight trails among the trees. Webs hang here and there; one can only dodge back and forth between those.”
Dairine was given no warning, had no time to loose her hold. Rothar suddenly fell forward and down, bearing her with him. Her side scraped painfully against a broken end of branch. It was as if the very earth under them had opened.
5
THE smell of freshly turned soil was thick in her nostrils. She lay against Rothar and he was moving. In spite of her bruises, the jarring shock of that fall, Dairine sat up. Where they had landed she did not know, but she guessed they were now under the surface of the ground.
“Are you hurt?” asked her companion.
“No. And you?”