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."