by Неизвестный
Which was a good thing. A waddling blue glob engaged Krek, and three wraiths silently glided up to attack Lan' s left flank. He struck out with his fist and sent one wraith fluttering back. He lunged with his knife and skewered the second. Red blood cascaded down a purple front. The third wraith threw him entirely off balance; Lan kicked at it, and his foot sailed through its insubstantial formillusion.
The blue monster rolled over in the corridor and waddled off in the opposite direction, Krek chasing. Lan tried to stop his friend. Splitting forces wasn' t smart. But he had his hands full with the three wraiths, two real, one illusion. What made his effort even harder was the way the illusory creature kept changing color. Purple and purple attacked. He stabbed and a new fountain of blood squirted forth. The other wasn' t there, except in his mind.
The battle shifted in his favor. One wraith finally lay dead, the other severely wounded. The illusion hovered nearby, then winked out of existence.
" Lan Martak, come quickly!" rang out Krek' s agitated request. " We are needed!"
The man followed Krek' s pathway through the maze easily. The spider had severely wounded the blue glob. Droplets of thick, ichorous blood marked the corridors taken. He exploded into a hall where three humans and a part- human and part- mech hybrid fought against one of the blue monsters. Even as he watched, one of the men slipped; the powerful jaws opened and closed on an arm.
" Aieee!" screeched Krek, leaping over the battling humans. Lan followed, keeping the humans from attacking Krek.
" He fights like a thousand men," marvelled one.
" That he does," said Lan. " Follow him. We can finish off the blue thing and let him rest."
" Who are you?" demanded one of the women. Her eyes narrowed in suspicion. " You are not of the nest."
" No, I guess not. My friend and I have just been cast into the maze."
" The Lord exiles more and more," said another woman sadly. " I wish I could leave."
" We know where the entry point to the Twistings is," said Lan. " When we rest up a bit, we can all go and tackle it. We can get out of this damnable maze and stop the Lord."
" You are freshly arrived," said the hybrid. A mechanical arm scratched a battered, scraggly- bearded human face. " Doesn' t he sound a lot like her?"
" He does, at that," answered one of the women.
" Her? Who do you mean?"
" Our leader. She has come info the Twistings, found our nest, and even battled Knoton to a truce. For the first time in any of our memories, we fight only the maze creatures instead of each other."
" Yes," piped up another. " With the mechanicals on our side- or not opposing us- we hope to live much longer."
" Some leader," Lan said admiringly.
" That she is. Inyx is quite a woman."
" Inyx!" he cried. " Inyx is your leader? Take me to her at once. Now!"
" Well:"
" At once! Krek, we' ve found Inyx."
The spider sauntered up, blood dripping from his furry legs.
" Good. I tire of this slaughter. Those blue balls begin to annoy me, and intelligent conversation with Inyx again would do much to lift my sagging spirits."
The small band of humans, hybrid, and spider hastened off in search of the nest- and Inyx.
At last, Lan Martak had found her.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
" Inyx!" he exclaimed. " We' ve found you at last."
Inyx looked up, perplexed. The voice sounded familiar, but who could it be down here in the Twistings?
She looked up, blinked as if her eyes deceived her, then said, " Lan? It' s really you! Oh, Lan!"
They rushed forward and flung eager arms around one another. They clung to each other for long minutes; then both began to babble at the same time.
" How' d you get-"
" Why didn' t you-"
" Are you really the leader-"
" Silence!" bellowed Krek. The echoes deafened all in the nest. Absolute quiet fell as Krek carefully folded his legs and sat down in the center of the room. All eyes followed his every movement. When he had reached a comfortable position, he said, " Now you may continue. But please do not carry on like that. Speak in complete sentences. I try to tell my hatchlings communication is important. Granted, the hatchlings are more intelligent than humans, but-"
" Krek!" Inyx threw her arms around his nearest leg and squeezed, pressing her face against the coppery fur.
" You are getting my leg wet," he said, but the complaint carried no sting. In a lower voice, he added, " I am glad to see you also, Inyx. You have no idea how dull it has been travelling with him."
Lan shook his head in wonderment. Dull? Of all the words to describe their travels, dull was far down on his list.
" Tell us how you came to be the leader of this: army." Lan looked around at the dozens of dirty faces, the demented smiles, the vacant stares.
Inyx took a deep breath and began her story, finishing with ": and Knoton and I fought it out to a tie. We' ve got an uneasy alliance now. He doesn' t trust humans, and I don' t trust him. But for the first time in anyone' s memory the mechanicals aren' t systematically killing the humans and hybrids."
" That' s progress," said Lan. " Maybe we can muster enough support to attack in force through the entry point. Krek remembers the way back. The disorientation we felt on entering the Twistings didn' t affect him. I don' t think the Lord was expecting such a different set of senses."
" We can' t leave, not yet," she said. " Did you notice any spell holding you within the maze?"
" I felt weaker at the vault door," he admitted.
" A part of Claybore' s body is within the maze."
" We know. We overheard Claybore and Alberto Silvain talking about it."
" Silvain," she hissed. With effort, Inyx pushed him from her mind and continued. " My scouts have found a guarded room. That is very unusual in this place."
" The entire Twistings is a prison," mused Lan. " So, with Knoton' s help, we get into this guarded room, destroy whatever part of Claybore we find, then leave."
" Can you destroy anything of Claybore' s?" she asked. " I had the impression he was invulnerable."
He quickly explained all he and Krek had learned about how a far greater mage named Terrill had dismembered the sorcerer and spread his parts along the Cenotaph Road.
" Claybore can' t be destroyed, but his powers are vastly weaker than when his body is reassembled."
" Weaker," she muttered in disbelief. " Can you destroy whatever it is of Claybore' s?" she repeated. " You don' t have the magical skills of this Terrill."
" He is growing more and more adept," spoke up Krek. " Lan Martak is not master mage, but his abilities far exceed those of when you were last in our company."
" With a few of the spells in this," Lan said, pulling out and tapping his leather- bound grimoire, " I can destroy- I think. If not, then neutralizing might be the next best thing. It' s not going to be easy, and I need to rest up." He winced as Inyx' s hand rested on his injured shoulder. " But we can come through it."
Their eyes locked and unspoken communication flowed.
They' d triumph because they were together. At last.
" I drove them out," said Inyx, " when I found out they actually were cannibals. I wasn' t going to let them live off the others. They really worried me the way they skulked around."
" You couldn' t sleep too soundly yourself," said Lan. " If I' d known that they were stalking around in the maze, I' m not sure I could have slept at all."
" You' ve not been sleeping too well, anyway," the woman pointed out. " Are your nightmares getting worse? Last night you screamed aloud, and never woke up."
Lan tried to calm his heart as it raced away. Last night' s dreams had been the worst yet. He didn' t know if the Lord triggered the dreams or if it indicated some change within himself. He' d started receiving them when he and Claybore had faced one another on the way to the summit of Mount Tartanius. The sorcerer had sent the frighte
ning, evil visions in hopes of scaring Lan away. If anything, however, the dreams then helped strengthen his growing powers.
Now he felt only debilitated by the dreams. He couldn' t fight. His dream- self tried forming spells, fighting back, evading. Nothing worked. The maze worked its insidious power on him and left him as weak as a newborn kitten.
" Fredek once said that only those used to magic were affected inside the Twistings. Maybe he was right."
" Fredek?"
" He' s dead. Knoton killed him." From the tone of her voice Lan knew that this Fredek had meant something to her. Irrational jealousy flared, then went away, dying down into something more manageable.
" I' ve thought of you often," he said softly.
" And I of you, Lan. In the whiteness between worlds I had little else to do but think. One place was the same as another. And in here:" She held out her hands palms up and looked around. There wasn' t all that much to do or see.
He started to ask about Fredek, then stopped. It wasn' t any of his business. Krek lumbered into the nest and relieved him of the burden of finding some other, safer topic.
" Friend Inyx, Lan Martak, good news. I have worked my way through to the guarded room. It is not difficult to reach, but it is protected in ways that perplex me."
" Simple frontal assault won' t work, is that what you' re saying, old spider?"
" Just that. In addition to the more obvious ploys, like falling weights, razor- edged flooring panels, and the maze creatures, the Lord of the Twistings has added many traps similar to those we crossed on our way into his palace."
" What kind of traps?" asked Inyx.
" I don' t know how he rigs them," admitted Lan. " Most magic spells require considerable energy to form and maintain. Over a span of hours or weeks, perhaps even years, the binding spells fade and become inoperative. The Lord has contrived spells that are mechanically activated. I assume they' d last as long as the mechanical triggering device did."
" They produce partial paralysis or intense pain," said Inyx, remembering her bout in one of the Lord' s other mazes.
" How' d you know?" asked Lan.
" I owe the Lord much. When we get out of the Twistings, he shall be repaid in full for all he' s done to me- and the others."
Lan looked at her and tried to penetrate the depths of her anger. He felt cold inside when he realized exactly how intense her feelings were concerning the Lord. Here was something else he didn' t care to explore any further.
" I think the Lord watches me more carefully than you," said Lan, " because I know some magic. What this Fredek said holds true, at least in my case. Why don' t you and Krek go ahead and scout around this room while I bring up the rear?"
" Good," said Inyx. She and Krek left, Lan following at a respectable distance. He felt the flow of magic whirling about him. Whether or not the Lord actually watched- and Lan thought he did- the magics at work meant he' d have to be constantly alert. His few spells seemed pitiful in comparison to those a full- fledged mage commanded, but they were all he had. They' d have to serve him well.
An hour hiking through the maze got Lan totally turned around and lost. He felt the subtle tuggings of spells at every junction. Once, he attempted to alter the magic and found he didn' t have nearly enough power. A basic part of the Twistings was contained in those mysterious guard- spells, he thought. Pass through an intersection, be just a bit more turned around by the spell. They operated directly on the brain and caused disorientation.
Krek didn' t appear to be the least affected. His nervous system, his brain, body, everything, worked differently from a human' s. Lan found himself wondering how these spells affected the mechanicals. They, too, experienced the twisting effect coming into the maze. He' d spoken with several of the hybrids while he convalesced, and they' d told similar stories.
" Here, friend Inyx," came the spider' s voice. Lan stopped fifty feet away to avoid attracting magics until Inyx had personally examined the room containing a body part of Claybore' s.
" Lan, come ahead. We need something more than eyes now," echoed her voice. He hastened to join them.
The room lacked a door, but Lan " felt" the intense magics sparking to and fro in place of a solid barrier. Strewn out at random along the corridor in either direction he " saw" the dull glowing pates where the Lord' s traps waited for the unwary.
" I wonder how many times one of those traps can be triggered," he thought aloud.
" Shall I test it and see?" asked Krek.
" No, let' s wait a few minutes. I doubt we' re going to be allowed to examine the room without picking up some company." The words were hardly out of his mouth when one of the globular blue maze creatures waddled into view, mouth opening and closing with loud clacking sounds. It walked over several of the traps without ill effect.
" I shall dispatch it," offered Krek. Lan waved the spider ahead, wanting to get on with a closer examination of the room. While the spider chased off the blue monster, Lan ran hands along the wall. He didn' t know what he sought, but when his hands vanished to the wrists through an illusory wall panel, he knew he' d found it.
" Let' s go in and see what we can find," he told Inyx. The pair walked through the wall into darkness.
" Lan," she said, reaching out and touching his shoulder. He winced slightly. In the week or so since he' d received the injury from the mechanical' s dart, it had mostly healed but remained tender. " Sorry," she said. " I get spooked in places like this."
" You should," he said in a low voice. He " saw" things she never could. Looking out of the walls were glowing eyes, opening mouths filled with dagger- sharp teeth, groping hands. He avoided them; they seemed frozen into their positions inside the walls. A clever choosing of a path meant safety. Lan led the woman through to a small anteroom free of striving creatures and obvious traps.
" I don' t want to leave," said Inyx. " I: I want to stay here forever."
" I feel it, too. Strong. So very strong." Lan closed his eyes and concentrated. Filling his mind like warm, sudsy water came the spell. It frothed and boiled about his thoughts, soothing and changing them. Why leave the Twistings? This place was so nice. Don' t leave, never leave, came the repeated, insistent command.
" Lan, let' s get out of here. Now. I don' t want to, but I know we shouldn' t stay any longer."
Lan fought the tide welling up, managed to push it away. He chanted a control spell that held away and momentarily contained the urgings coming from the room.
" We' re so close," he said. " Just a bit further down this corridor. We can see what' s in the room. I can hold it back. I know it."
" Lan, please."
He saw the strained look on her face. He nodded, took her hand, and led her back through the groping hands and staring eyes of the creatures imprisoned in the wall. Once, in his haste to depart, he came too close to one of the beasts. It almost cost him his life.
Tiny hands with improbable strength grabbed his arm and pulled him powerfully into the wall. He slammed hard, the impact jolting him. Teeth slashed at his shoulder. Intense pain flared as the wall creature bit and gnawed at his flesh. As long as the tiny hands held him, he wasn' t going to escape.
" Lan, what' s wrong?" demanded Inyx.
" Go find Krek," he told her. " Hurry!" She moved past and exited the illusory wall panel. Never had Lan felt more alone, abandoned. But he had to hang on, fight, strive.
He pulled forth his dagger and awkwardly stabbed at the wall. His blade turned aside and left a deep scratch. The creature was so intent on devouring him it didn' t even feel the mark. He tried to cut the hands off at the wrists; no luck.
Teeth dug even deeper into his upper arm and shoulder.
To panic now meant death. He tried to reach around for the death tube, but it had been pinned between his body and the wall; he had no way of freeing it. There had to be another way to escape. There had to be!
He used the pain as a focal point for his power. The number of spells he had even halfwa
y mastered was small, but Lan knew how to select with care. The fire spell was the most familiar to him. In spite of brutally sharp teeth ripping his flesh, he summoned up the energy he needed, moulded it, held it in place with the magical chants, then shoved his free palm against the wall.
A cascade of fire fell from his fingertips. A lightning bolt lashed out of his palm. The wall creature slackened its attack. Again Lan Martak sent forth his flaming punishment. And again and again.
He weakened from the effort of casting the spell. Like water flowing out a hole in the bottom of a jug, his strength ran away. When he was sure that the hands gripping him would hold him till he died, he heard Krek' s bellow just a few feet away.
" Lan Martak, do not play these hide- and- seek games. Come here immediately. The maze creatures congregate too quickly for us to fight them off."
One last surge of energy from deep inside sent sputtering blue sparks dancing along his fingers. Somehow, this was enough. The creature trapped inside the wall released him. Lan stumbled forward, through the wall, and onto his face in front of Krek.
" You need not abase yourself when I call," said the spider in a testy voice. " Departure is more important than obeisance."
" My arm, shoulder," he said weakly. But on examination he found no wounds, not even a bloody scratch. Lan sat and stupidly checked himself again. " All illusion," he finally said. " All that inside was pure illusion. Remarkable."
" I am not as prone to believing unreality as you, friend Lan Martak. I do, however, see a good bit of reality which I cannot fight."
Lan rose to his feet and felt some of his strength returning. The cappers and blue eating monsters had been joined by other, stranger beasts. Lan had to agree with the spider. This wasn' t the healthiest place in the world to be right now.
The trio left, the waddling blue appetites following along behind them.
" Let' s take another couple days before we go in," said Lan. " I' ll be back to normal by then."