The soldier jumped when Krek clacked his mandibles together and said, " Lovely Klawn has escaped! How wonderous!"
Waldron straightened his courtly robes and held out his gloved hand. A caw and a flutter of wings, then a large raven perched impudently on his wrist. He stroked the greasy feathers and talked quietly to the large bird.
" You wouldn' t allow such a tasty, oversized morsel to do me harm, would you?" The answering caw sounded more like laughter from a demented fiend than the normal screech of a bird.
" My human guards are fallible, but my winged ones aren' t. They protect me with their very lives- and have done so. But this audience draws overlong. I see that it isn' t possible to imprison the likes of you," he said, peering at Krek past the black bird flapping for balance on his wrist, " so that eliminates several possibilities."
" You said you' d let us walk the Road you opened in the chamber. It was a mistake that we didn' t. Allow us another chance," said Lan, fearing all was lost. The answer sealed their fate.
" No." Harsh, flat, final. " The decision has been made. A moment' s leniency weakened me. For a time I thought your bravery should be rewarded. Or perhaps that I could use you. Since you killed KynalLyk- Surepta, I require a native of your world to act as liaison in my continued dealings there."
" Betray my world to you?" raged Lan.
" Yes, that' s the reaction I predicted. Hence, death for all four of you." Waldron moved the raven to a padded shoulder perch and shifted the wood box again.
" Lord, no!" pleaded Velika, throwing herself at the man' s feet. She reached out and touched the soles of his boots imploringly. " Anything but that, master. Anything!"
" Anything?" he echoed, then laughed. " You offer yourself in exchange for these others?" Waldron waved aside Lan' s protest before it even came to his lips.
" No, master, I offer myself wholeheartedly and ask for nothing in return." Tears ran in ever- increasing rivers down her cheeks. Waldron brushed one away, then stiffened slightly, his face turning into a mask with unreadable emotions. He shook slightly as he again touched the tear- stained cheek, then straightened.
" Direct, to the heart of the matter, yes," he mused, rubbing his chin with one hand while bouncing the flapping raven with the other. " Very well, blond seductress. I am sure that Kyn- alLyk- Surepta enjoyed many pleasures with you before he died."
" And I can show you ever so many more, master, if you' ll allow it." Velika' s eyes shone with fear as she mouthed the words. Lan wanted to silence her, prevent her from degrading herself further, but the guards and the chains effectively stopped him.
" Chamberlain," Waldron called out. " A point of protocol. Since Diamerra died of the cold last winter, I have been without wife. Should I happen to take this woman, who is not of our world, must it be as legal wife?"
An old man dressed in flowing grey robes shuffled up and turned tired eyes to Waldron.
" Saviour, this need not be so. This world and two others under your aegis allow concubines."
" Concubines," said Waldron, rolling the word over his tongue as if it were new to him. " Yes, that might be the answer to this vexing dilemma. On this world I will take a concubine." To Velika, he asked, more gently, " What is your name, flaxen- haired one?"
" Velika L' spurota, master."
" The proper form of address is ' Saviour,' " said the dour chamberlain. " He has delivered all our people from great sadness and, for this service to our bleak world, will live forever on our hearth and in our heart." It sounded like a litany the man had learned and was now tired of repeating.
" Saviour! Yes, you are my saviour!" babbled Velika. " Anything you desire of me will be yours."
" I am pleased," said Waldron dryly, " especially since I can take it whether you desire it or not. Never mind that. The other three. Take them to the north tower and execute them at first light. That much I will grant since I have no quarrel with any of them."
" No quarrel and you would still murder us?" bellowed Lan. " What manner of beast are you?"
" Silence, fool," hissed the chamberlain. " He could have you executed now while it is still dark and allow the demons to devour your souls. The Saviour does you great favor by allowing the sunlight to drive off the demons before removing your spiteful heads."
The last thing Lan Martak heard as they dragged him from the audience chamber was Velika' s soft purring, " Anything at all for my wondrous saviour!"
He wondered what evil magic Waldron had used on the woman he loved to turn her so much against her will.
" You deceive yourself if you really think that, Lan," declared Inyx, trying to keep her voice gentle, and failing. The harshness crept in and made her words sting more than she intended.
" You' re wrong, I tell you, wrong! Velika did it to save us. There' s no other reason she' d go to Waldron' s bed so swiftly. She is plotting our escape even now. How could she do it if she were thrown in here with us?"
" She might be a simple whore," observed Krek.
The spider bobbed out of the way as Lan took a vicious swing at him. " Are you upset over this possibility, friend Lan Martak? I merely stated what seems a fact. You humans have the oddest sensibilities to offend. The very concept of whoredom amuses me, and I have oft thought on it during the long nights I spent alone along the Road. While I personally cannot conceive of Klawn being a whore, it would please me to find one like her who could give me the same amount of sheer bliss and then not demand to devour me afterward. Yes, that would be quite nice."
Lan rattled his chains savagely as he paced the confines of the narrow tower cell. The three slits in the stone walls looked out over the castle, but, under the cloak of darkness, there was little of interest to see. Lan still pressed his face close and peered down in the vain hope of seeing Velika sneaking across the courtyard, keys to their chains dangling from her slender fingers.
" She will come. She has to. I know she will," Lan repeated to himself.
" While he' s mooning over a traitorous bitch, let' s figure out our own escape, Krek," said Inyx, seating herself next to one of the spider' s furred legs. She rested against the post- thick leg and rubbed her back until her muscle strain eased. " These offensive chains are the key to our escape, as I see it. We can do nothing as long as we wear the shackles of a tyrant."
" Oh?" Krek said mildly. " Is that all we have to do to escape this drafty, damp place?"
" Well, not all, but: aieee!" Inyx looked stupidly at her severed chains. Krek' s mandibles had made one swift snap and left only shining metal where one link had been. She lifted the bracelet on her left wrist so that Krek could snap the metal without injuring her. In a double flash of chitinous material, her wrists were free. She sprang to her feet and whooped loudly.
" Friend Krek, you are a marvel!" she crowed. " That is the slickest cut of hardened steel I have ever witnessed. You should rent yourself as a blacksmith' s assistant. For a modicum of work, you could earn a young fortune!"
Lan turned dull eyes to them and said, " He could' ve done that a long time ago. He' s versatile," then went back to his lonely vigil at the window.
" Let him cut your chains, Lan; then we' ll figure how to get out of here!"
" I tell you Velika has a plan to free us. If we just wait, she' ll free us and we can all four be gone from this pest- ridden castle and that bird- loving Waldron."
" Unless my eyes deceive me, friend Lan Martak, it lacks but a few minutes of dawn. Waldron seems nothing if not totally efficient in his slaughter. Linger much longer and we all die. And I am too insignificant a spider to come to such a fate. Please, Lan Martak, save me. Inyx? Lan?"
The tone made Lan turn and see a huge, salty tear forming at the corner of a limpid eye. He sighed in defeat and dejectedly held out his wrists.
" Snip ' em off, and hurry. You' re right about the time. I just don' t know what delayed Velika."
" She' s probably having too much fun in Waldron' s bed," Inyx muttered under her breath. The words were d
rowned out by the metallic snicks as Krek severed the last of Lan' s shackles. Louder, so both Lan and Krek heard, she said, " Do we overpower the guards when they come for us? These lengths of chain hardly seem adequate weapons, although the metallic skeleton used them dexterously enough back in Waldron' s maze. Or do we attempt to escape in some other way?"
Lan pointed to the window through which he' d kept his futile watch for Velika.
" Down the wall to the courtyard. It' s still empty. We might be able to win free through the main gate from there."
" Down that wall? You' re insane. It' s too sheer. Why, the surface is slick glass. Not even fully outfitted for mountain scaling could I get down that way!"
" We don' t have to scale it, just get down it. Krek? Honor us with a bit of web spinning." Lan watched as the spider emitted a coughing noise and began generating yard after yard of strong silken cable. In a few minutes, the pile on the floor reached up to Inyx' s knees.
" Is this sturdy enough?" she asked dubiously.
" My dear lady!" said Krek, puffing himself up and banging the ceiling of the small chamber. " I am Webmaster of the Egrii Mountains, and this is the finest silk you shall ever see. Humph!"
" Sorry," apologized Inyx. " This does seem strong. Shall I go first?"
" Go on," said Lan, realizing this was Inyx' s way of gaining forgiveness from the spider. " Krek will come down last."
He helped Inyx into the narrow window slit, his hands almost encircling her trim waist. For the first time he marvelled at her litheness, her strength, even her muliebrity. Then she dropped over the edge and adeptly swung lower and lower on the silken cable. When she touched the ground, Lan followed. Her hands were most welcome to guide him into the dense shadows at the base of the tower. Krek came hurtling down, descending the sheer wall ten times faster than either of them had dared.
Legs spread widely around his thick body, Krek sighed. " One day, I shall have the opportunity to rest. Just me, swinging to and fro in a simple yet elegant web, the soft, warm wind caressing me, making me feel less old, less tired, more like my original youthful self."
" Sure, Krek, sure you will, but let' s talk about it later. After we' re out of here." Lan glanced around nervously, wanting to see Velika' s trim form, fearing to find a guard patrol instead.
" One moment," Krek said. He whistled and spat out a long streamer of gooey material that clung to the silk cable. In a few seconds, the silken strands were totally eaten away and all trace of their escape route erased. " Now, do we tread wearily on the Road once again? I sense that Waldron has reopened the route."
Lan pressed a hand to his head, knowing that Krek was right. The dull, throbbing ache between his ears seemed a sure indication of the artificial Road' s coming back into existence. Still he balked at travelling it again.
" We' ve got to rescue Velika. It won' t take long. She' ll be in Waldron' s private chambers. We:"
" We' ll be shorter by a head if we stay," hissed Inyx. " Look and tell me how to fend off so many- and us without weapons?"
The troops marching in perfect syncopation stopped in front of the locked door leading up into the prison tower. The commander fumbled out a key, then ordered his men inside. The door locked again to thwart any escape of his supposed prisoners, the officer led his men up the spiralling staircase.
" Seconds, friend Lan Martak, before they discover our apparent dematerialization," said Krek. " I would like to stay and see you through your pointless excursion to rescue the lumpy human female, but my weakness and quivering fear overwhelm me. Please forgive me."
" And I am with him, Lan," declared Inyx firmly. " I refuse to watch Waldron' s talons close around us still another time, and all for that worthless whore of yours."
" She' s no whore!" blurted Lan. Then he calmed. He took a deep breath and slowly released it. He had to admit they had a point. Waldron was not stupid; he would not allow them to escape still another time if he caught them now. While Lan didn' t agree with Krek and Inyx about Velika' s merits or lack of them, he saw it was unfair and dangerous to insist they stand beside him while he attempted a rescue.
" The Road opens again," Krek told them. " A huge flow of power surges between worlds. It makes the fur on my legs bristle, so great is the force."
Lan nodded, his head pulsing strongly and making it difficult for him to think clearly. Why did the gate open now, just when he needed the clarity of his senses to rescue Velika? He hardly noticed Inyx pulling him along through the deserted courtyard until they were outside a blackened door, the product of some raging fire long forgotten save by the tortured grain of wood.
" Inside is the Kinetic Sphere," said Krek. " My abilities to find other Roads are blurred by its stark power."
" I' ll be leaving you here, Krek. Good Luck, old spider." Lan stroked fondly over the fur of the leg nearest him, then turned to Inyx. " And I' m sorry to be leaving you, too. I can' t help but feel things might have been different in a less strained circumstance." Lan bathed in the radiance of her smile and realized for the first time how lovely Inyx truly was. Shakily, he held out his hand and was surprised to find her pull him close for a proper kiss.
" I shall miss your bullheaded ways, you stupid fool," she said softly, but without sting of sarcasm. Lan wanted to say just the right words, but none came.
" Lan Martak, we are trapped!" came Krek' s warning. Lan shot a glance over his shoulder in time to see the commander of Waldron' s guard run from the prison tower, scan the courtyard, and spy them. A shout caused a drowsy sentry to ring the warning bell and rapidly fill the castle grounds with sleep- dazed, half- armed men. When the greyclad soldiers came fully awake, the trio would find themselves prisoners once again- unless the gateway produced by the Kinetic Sphere still quivered open between worlds.
" That' s the door. Hurry!" Lan cried, pushing the others in front of him. It proved difficult herding Krek, but necessity lent strength to his efforts. Slamming the door behind, he searched frantically for a locking bolt. There was none.
" The Road is still open," said Inyx. " Quickly, Lan, let' s all tread that path again."
" Get going," he ordered. " I' ll hold them as long as I can. And don' t stand around arguing."
" He is lamentably correct, friend Inyx. Go and forge ahead for us. We shall come shortly."
Inyx nodded, then ran for the shimmering curtain drawn between them and the ball. It seemed a perfect stereographic projection, each point on the surface of the sphere corresponding to a point on the planar sheet of dancing, scintillant energy. Inyx plunged through, vanishing from the sight of the two remaining behind.
" Go on, Krek, before Waldron shuts the damned thing down and strands you here, too."
" I go. Hold tightly," he said cryptically. Krek trotted to the edge of the gateway, then shot out a sticky strand of the web stuff that curled around Lan' s middle. He continued holding the door shut against the increasing efforts of the soldiers outside. Lan then felt himself jerked into the air and sliding along the smooth floor toward the interworld portal. Krek bounded through, and Lan followed, a human balloon on a string.
The entire world turned black, then shattered around him. He thought his head had exploded, then worried that it hadn' t and he' d gone insane. The pain finally drove away consciousness, and soothing dark velvet wrapped soft arms around him in silent greeting.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
A herd of multilegged beasts cavorted joyfully on his head. Lan Martak put his arms over his head to protect himself from their manic depredations, but this did no good. If anything, it increased the roar and pain inside his skull. Opening his eyes didn' t prove as traumatic for him as he' d feared from the interior throbbings. The dismal greyness surrounding him was almost soothing. Then came the grating harshness of human voices.
" He' ll be fine in a while. Took a nasty blow to the head as you dragged him through."
" I suspect my feeble efforts are not so much to blame as the closing of the gateway just fractions
of a second after he came through to this side."
" That might be true. Even I felt the vortex of energy seething around the path, and in the past I' ve never been particularly sensitive to such things."
Lan rolled over and peered at the two. Inyx sat, her feet neatly tucked under her, facing Krek. Beyond was a world lacking contrasts. The sky stretched a leaden grey as if rains were imminent, the grass shone with an odd mottled greyish- green, the trees sported redolent, brittle swordlike leaves hardly differing in hue from the grass, and the very air hung with scummy grey particulate matter, the residue from too many coal and wood fires. The only thing colorful in the entire world was the red pain searing through his head like a heated battle ax.
" I assume we made it," he said slowly, the words thick and muddled. " Unless this is our reward for a lifetime of sin and evildoing. It looks too much like the bog world for it to be anything else."
" A reward it might be, but we still live," pointed out Inyx. " Waldron failed to cut off the Road soon enough to prevent our passage. I cannot be sure, but I think a heavy wagon passed along just before us, one laden with all types of foodstuffs."
" The mention of food reminds me how feeble I have become. It seems years since a good meal of grubs and bugs rested lightly in my digestive tract. Let us find sustenance, then discuss more worldly matters," urged Krek.
" I think the spider has a good idea. Can you move yet, Lan?"
" Whether I can or not, we' d better make tracks away from here. If Waldron sends a patrol after us through the gateway, they are sure to find us if we simply lie around." He peered around, wondering why Waldron had chosen this particular area for establishing a roadway through his Kinetic Sphere into Krek' s web world. There seemed little to recommend the location other than the brownish ribbon of dirt road slithering off toward the gently hillocked horizon. A heavy greygreen pall swirled in eddies no matter which direction Lan peered.
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