Lan blinked rapidly at the idea that this spider' s web actually caught and held not only a human but his horse. He felt the developing silence to be ominous. He wanted to babble to fill, the quiet. Instead, he stilled his impulses, swallowed, and considered what he would tell this bizarre arachnid.
" I' m an unwilling traveller," Lan confessed. " There was a slight misunderstanding, a lady dead- not by my hand!- and I fled to avoid the unpleasantness of being reduced."
Krek wasn' t listening. A thin sigh wheezed from him as he settled down to the ground. With his legs pulled in, the spider appeared no more than a shadowy boulder in the clearing.
" No, this is not the terrain of my personal choosing. So true," the spider mused, " so true. How I wish I had not been struck with the obscene desire to explore other worlds. Not a one of my ancient and noble race has left the web of our ancestors. None, save me." Its entire body shivered as if infected with the shaking palsy. " I, Krek of the Pinnacles, the one who yearns for other worlds, ventured out. Look at my sorry straits now. I, who once bragged of warrior prowess, rescued by the likes of you. A mere human!"
Lan let out a short, harsh laugh, more from nervous release than any other reason.
He said, " You don' t look like a warrior at all."
Again came the crashing of powerful mandibles. Lan felt the blood rush from his face. His hand gripped the handle of his knife with feverish intensity, ready for a fight, even though he knew he could never overpower such a large creature.
" If I' ve offended you, many pardons," Lan said hastily. " I only meant:"
" I know what you meant, and it is regretfully true. My vitality has been sapped. The farther afield I travel from my superb, mountainspanning web, the weaker I become. Once, I was a noble among nobles. I traversed the highest reaches, and none matched my fighting abilities. When the accursed yearning to explore erased my good sense, my powers slipped away like water through the fingers of that ridiculous hand of yours. It has been too long since I returned to the web of my hatching, far too long. I am torn by my inner need to return to mate and my physical weakness from being too long gone from my clan' s territory."
Lan nodded, understanding. It was never good to be away from a personal place of power. Krek' s problem was compounded by being a traveller on the Cenotaph Road. Lan knew of no way to return to the world of one' s origin, though. The Resident of the Pit had warned him that he could never return home. Krek carried the same burden.
" I would give my entire web treasure if only I could return to Klawn- rik' wiktorn- kyt."
" What?"
" Not what, who. My betrothed. Such a fine mating web she spins. Such delicacy and intricacy of pattern. It is a joy to race along the strands, feeling the vibrancy of the web under your legs. Ah, it makes the very fur on my legs tingle thinking of her. All lost to me, all lost!"
Lan watched the spider shrink to rock size. If he hadn' t known the large dark lump in the center of the clearing was Krek, he might have blundered along and mistaken it for an inanimate resting spot off the mucky ground.
" I wish I could help you, Krek, but that first step along the Road is a permanent one. There' s no going back. You and I are cut off forever from our home worlds."
Krek uttered a sound that seemed a cross between a snort and a cough. Lan wondered if the spider had fallen ill. When Krek spoke, he knew differently.
" Foolish human! Of course you can walk backwards on the Road. Whatever gave you the idea you could not?"
" But I was told:"
" Told wrong. All one has to do to find the appropriate spot is to close your eyes and drift. The cenotaphs glow inside the mind, and if you concentrate on any individual one, images dance about it. So simple. I know precisely the way back to my web."
Lan thought over the spider' s words. To go home! He could persuade Krek to show him the way!
Then the desire faded like a night- blooming flower facing the dawn. Nothing pulled him home. Zarella was dead. Her murderer would come to grief, so said the Resident. But the Resident had been wrong once. Could it have erred on this? Somehow, Lan thought not. Discounting this, what did his home world have that couldn' t be found elsewhere?
The negative points outweighed the positive ones. Why not let Krek guide him along the Road?
" Krek," he said with more spirit then he' d felt in days. " What exactly comprises this web treasure of yours? You said you' d give it all simply to return to Klawn- whatever- you- said." The spider didn' t seem a bad sort, and if a little gold could be made escorting him back into those Egrii Mountains he mentioned, so much the better. But Lan didn' t want to end up with a few cocooned bugs. Treasure to a spider might differ vastly from the treasure of a foot- loose adventurer.
" Web treasure?" Krek asked dully. " I seldom think of it anymore. It was once a noble stash. Rubies as large as roc- eggs. Silver chains a mile long. There is even the Eye of the Rainbow."
" What' s that?"
" According to human tales, all rainbows leap from the center of this gem. While it does possess a certain brilliance, I have seen other stones with better clarity and color. And this is so small, too. Hardly as large as your fist."
" How did you get this Eye of the Rainbow?" Lan doubted this jewel would prove too valuable, but the silver chains and the rubies sounded enticing.
" A careless human caravan. Refusing the tribute due me called for their deaths. The Eye was in a large box filled with the softest silks I have ever seen spun by mere- spiders. It will be an inspiration to my hatchlings."
" The Eye of the Rainbow?"
" No, no, no! The silk. Such a fine draw. The expertise shown in spinning those uniform threads, the unique composition, those are the things our younglings can learn."
" Would you give me the pick of your web treasures if I escorted you safely back to your web and, uh, your mate?"
For the first time, Krek rose and bounced as if his legs were made of spring steel.
" Yes! Oh, yes, yes! To return to lovely Klawn- rik' wiktorn- kyt! For that, anything!"
Lan Martak wondered what sort of task he' d just volunteered to perform. Still, he had nothing to lose and everything to gain. And if by some chance he learned Krek' s trick of locating the cenotaphs- and was able to glimpse the world beyond- that would be worth more than any jewel or trinket.
" Good," he said. " We' ll leave in the morning."
Krek stirred slightly, then said, " It is morning. Cannot you tell the difference between day and night?"
Lan looked above to the heavy, black rain clouds drifting just above the treetops. The glare seemed less intense in the woods, but he definitely had much to learn.
" We' ll leave after I' ve rested. Does that suit you, Krek?" he said testily.
" Why not?" blandly replied the spider.
Lan found no answer for that. Curling into a tight ball, he slept.
CHAPTER FIVE
A bug burrowed its way into his nose, making him snort and sneeze in protest. This was the rude awakening Lan Martak had the next " morning." As soon as he pulled the offending insect from his nostril, he looked up to the leaden rain clouds swirling above the trees. There seemed no difference at all in the light intensity, yet Lan felt this should be morning. He had slept long enough to take the edge off his nervous exhaustion from fighting the wolf pack and meeting his strange companion in arms, Krek- if a spider might be considered a companion in arms.