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.
They staggered along for some time until Krek accumulated enough small insects to form a brief repast. Inyx ordered Lan to rest while she hunted food for them. The throbbing in his head had cleared, but he was grateful for her offer. He even slept, only to awaken with the smell of roast rabbit in his nostrils.
" This seems an unappetizing world, save for the rabbit," he said. " Never have I seen such featureless terrain, lacking in color, texture, and character. Even the bog world I met Krek on held some little variation."
" And the air is thick with ugly odors, too," Inyx added. " Friend Krek is luckier than we on that score."
" Lucky, you call it? When such small bugs are all I can find to eat? Why, I shall surely starve to death in a fortnight without proper food. I am already weakened to the point of starvation, and the distance from my web further saps my strength. Oh, how do I find myself in these impossible situations?"
" You cast your lot with us," said Lan dryly. " But what world is this? Can it truly be Waldron' s home? I thought a conqueror' s world offered something more than this spent countryside."
He attacked the burnt rabbit with the ferocity of a man too long gone past his mealtime. The grease only added flavor; it seemed at odds with the blandness of the world. After he and Inyx had shared the meager portion of the brains for dessert, Lan leaned back against the smooth trunk of a tree and picked his teeth with a small bone taken from the rabbit' s leg. In spite of the fact that Waldron probably had droves of grey- clad soldiers on their trail, he felt complacent and even content with his lot in life.
" No reason why not. In point of fact, friend Lan Martak, we might query those starvelings about it."
The roadway rumbled with the sound of a lopsided dogcart with wear- flattened wheels being pulled by two people. Their heads held low, they saw nothing but the dirt in the road bed. Lan called out to them, then waved, saying under his breath, " Vanish for a short while, Krek. We don' t want to scare them too badly."
The spider gusted a sigh. " Even my friends are ashamed of me. Pity that I am such a poor creature, unable to fight the good fight, to maintain myself in the manner to which I would like to become accustomed." Then, after he seemed no more than an inert rock in the grey countryside, he added, " Ask for any insects they might have on them."
Lan shuddered when the pair drew closer. The only bugs likely to come from these two would be body lice.
" Welcome, fellow travellers," Lan called out in what he hoped was a cheerful tone. The suspicion with which the two viewed him made him think a picture warrant for his arrest had preceded him. Yet the reactions of the two seemed more of inbred rampant paranoia than specific fear.
" Are you from the other side?" asked the woman, taking the initiative while her man stood watch over the pitiful belongings stacked helter- skelter on the dogcart.
" Yes, we both walked the Road," said Inyx, motioning Lan to silence. He propped himself against the tree, hoping to appear at ease and not a threat to these people. Without sword or dagger, his head still ringing like a ceremonial bell, either of these two emaciated grey- worlders might have bested him.
" You look well fed. I suspected that you did," the woman said. Lan tried to figure out if she were old or merely appeared old. It made little difference; life was obviously harsh on this world.
" We have been most recently in King Waldron' s castle on the next world," Inyx said boldly, hoping this would add stature to their position with the couple.
" Aye, and that' s a good thing. The Saviour needs to keep his finger on the world pulse. Are you to report back to him? You have the look of couriers, though you don' t wear the uniform of the Service."
" We are supposed to go among the people and listen to their pleas. Could you tell us yours?"
" That I will," spoke up the man for the first time. " Hail the Saviour! Praise the great Waldron! We are currently making way to the new settlement outside Ligginton. The wealth of other worlds flows into this one, at long last! Bless the day of our Saviour' s birth!"
" And bless the day when we, too, can take part in the Great Migration and leave this miserable world for other, lusher ones," the old woman added.
" You were more poorly off before?" asked Inyx, surprised anyone' s condition could be more miserable than these two now appeared.
" Aye, that we were. Seven sons and a daughter died of starvation, and my very own mother failed of the consumption, spitting out blackened lungs for a solid month before the demons took her. Breathing the foul air did it to her, it did."
" Foul air from what?" broke in Lan, curious.