" Get me some rope, dammit!" flared Lan, struggling to maintain his grip. " I' m going to tie her up!"
" Oh, Klawn, my precious darling, please believe I was not in my right mind. I do not know what possessed me to rush from your fond embrace. I-"
" Krek! Get me a rope!"
This shook Krek from his fright long enough to see what his human friend attempted. With ponderous movement, he plucked a lariat from the pile of discarded possessions taken from the merchant and his soldier guard. As if the rope might burn him, Krek gingerly tossed it to Lan. The human continued cursing under his breath, inventing new tortures and destinations as well as finding increasingly improbable conjugal possibilities, while he looped the rope around Klawn' s four back legs. Then he went to work grabbing and securing the front legs. It took him the better part of fifteen minutes, but he finally hogtied Krek' s bride in such a way that she couldn' t easily get those razoredged mandibles back to snip through the rope- or him.
" Let' s race the wind, Krek, before she gets loose."
" Yes, let us make haste," the spider agreed. " And thank you, Lan Martak, for not injuring her." He vented a gusty sigh as he added, " Is she not the most lovely creature in all the world? Such fine legs, such lovely fur adorning them."
" She' s certainly got enough legs," Lan said, remembering the chitinous claws tipping each one.
" That she has," said Krek with a sigh, longingly peering backward at the still- struggling Klawn.
Lan spurred the stolen horse to a full gallop and let Krek try to match the pace as well he could. He had little time for the lovesick spider or the oversized Klawn. All that mattered to him centered on recapturing Velika- and proving to her that he wasn' t the wastrel and fool she had seen in the village and after.
His hand brushed over his lips. The sting of her tears remained.
" I don' t believe it," he said, awestruck. The huge castle battlements reared up two hundred yards before ripping the sky apart with crenelations of obsidian. He dug his heels into his horse' s flanks until he braced himself enough to reach out and touch the wall. Slagged glass slid under his fingers. Using the point of his dagger, he thrust directly against the translucent material. Blue sparks danced away, leaving the stone with only a tiny cicatrice.
" A house adequate for a king," observed Krek, crouching down while Lan continued his explorations at the base of the wall.
" Adequate isn' t the word. This place could withstand a generation- long attack and still remain unscathed. But there has to be a way in. No matter how well contrived a structure, there is always some unforeseen way in."
" Human philosophy?" asked Krek. " I can conceive of structures with but one means of ingress. Why, in the Egrii Mountains, I once spun this fabulously intricate web- trap capable of holding a snow bear. It held so well I failed repeatedly to get the carcass out. The bear finally rotted away in the silken prison."
" How interesting," Lan said dryly. " What' s that have to do with getting inside the castle and rescuing Velika?"
" Nothing," answered the spider.
Irritated, Lan guided the horse around the tower of glass until he found an observation point where he could spy on the people coming and going from the castle. The huge drawbridge lowered to cross a chasm fully fifteen yards wide. The cunning series of switchbacks immediately after crossing the bridge cancelled any plan he might have of charging the gate while it was down and storming the castle before the grey- clad soldiers responded. By the time he' d clear the second inner wall, even their dead could have been summoned to pick him off with their firearms, all of which looked as if they' d been imported from his home world. And none of the soldiers appeared lackluster in performing his duty. They paced their posts with an intentness that made Lan wonder at the punishment for falling asleep on patrol. But there had to be some way of sneaking in, if only he could find it. No amount of wishful thinking discounted the brilliantly colored hot- air balloon tethered just outside the drawbridge, either. An army could be seen, as well as a lone individual, from its dangling basket. Lan cursed the military mind that had invented the aerial spy.
Krek lumbered up beside him and studied the terrain. Finally the giant spider declared, " You might steal the balloon and float into the castle."
Lan' s hope surged anew. Single- handedly attack the balloon and kick open its burners to lift over the walls of the castle? This appeared the only path open to him, dangerous as it was. All other surreptitious or overt routes had been guarded against with the thoughtful cunning of a paranoid mind.
" Do you really think I can sneak under the balloon, crawl up the anchor line, kill the guards, and then float upward and over the wall?" he asked.
" No," was all the answer he got.
He turned bitter.
" Then why did you even mention it?"
" I simply wanted to present yet another method of gaining entry."
" Another method?" Lan cursed the spider' s nonlinear, nonlogical mind.
" Yes. I can spin a silk strand long enough and strong enough to easily scale the walls."
Lan put his head in his cupped hands. He didn' t know whether to cry from relief or frustration.
CHAPTER EIGHT
The glittering strand of web material shot upward faster than Lan could follow. The bulb at the very tip touched the glassy wall some fifty yards over their heads, but the spider didn' t seem concerned about the possibility of its coming loose. Blithely, as if he took an afternoon stroll in the warm sun, Krek walked up the wall until he reached the spot where the web stuck. Lan strained to see what he did then, but failed. Another loop of web rocketed upward from the spider' s spinneret. Krek followed this strand as he' d done the first. The process repeated until Krek' s now distance- diminished form perched high atop the obsidian battlements of Waldron Ravensroost' s supposedly well- guarded, impervious castle.
" What now?" Lan called up.
Seeing the boulder hurtling down from above, he dived too late and found himself crushed under a ponderous, enveloping weight. Struggling only entangled him more in the sticky material. When he realized this, he relaxed and allowed Krek to reel him in like a fish on a line. All the way up, he cursed under his breath. Krek should have told him what to expect; the spider undoubtedly assumed this to be lodged already in Lan' s memory and yet another indication of arachnid superiority over frail humanity.
" Get this gunk off me," raged Lan after his feet felt hard stone battlement under them. " It' s getting into my nostrils and suffocating me." He kept his arm over his nose to protect against such an unhealthy occurrence.
" One moment, foolish human."
Lan cringed as a shower of astringent fluid bathed his entire body, but he shook his head once and the sticky strands began to melt away. In less than a minute, he stood free of the web material, most of his silk clothing also eaten through by the acid.
" My skin! What' ll this do to me?"
" Nothing," Krek said, unconcerned. " It eats only my web and, apparently, those inferior garments. I told you they were of mediocre construction. Now perhaps you will believe me in the future."
Lan pictured the spider sitting down, crossing his legs and folding his arms in a smug manner. The spider, of course, did no such thing. He simply stood watching Lan, waiting for the next move. Lan brushed his curly hair back from his eyes and pulled a tattered strand of clothing from his arm. He shook all over like a dog thrown into a lake and material flew like water droplets. Only the broad leather belt remained unscathed from Krek' s dissolving acid.