A surge of anticipation seized the woman. She had been raised for combat. Her hand tightened on the hilt of her sword, then she took a deep breath. Inyx let out a bloodcurdling yowl of attack, then rushed forward.
Her frontal attack momentarily scattered the Tefize and gave Broit a chance to regroup his beleaguered grave- diggers. Inyx swung her sword in a smooth, economical arc, cutting at wrists and necks, lunging for exposed throats and groins, and even occasionally lancing through to an eyeball. In minutes her blade dripped gore.
Ducasien came to stand beside her, guarding her left, giving her encouragement.
" You fight like a legion. There is no way they can defeat us if you keep up this pace!"
Inyx flashed him a smile, then said, " Shut up and fight, dammit. They' ll swarm over us like locusts if we don' t account for more of them soon." Inyx disengaged her blade from a probing broom handle, cut over, and lunged. The Tefize gnome let out a gusty sigh as he diedbut another rushed forward to take his place. And another and another.
Even with Ducasien helping, Inyx found herself being beaten back. The crush of numbers overwhelmed them and their position.
Inyx shouted out to Broit Heresler, " We need to retreat. Lead the way to a safer spot where we can make a stand."
" There is no safer spot," the gravedigger moaned out, clutching his injured right arm. " This is the heart of Heresler territory."
Inyx took the opportunity to glance about her. If this was the Heresler stronghold, they were indeed in serious trouble. Everywhere she looked lay dead gnomes- all diggers- and the phosphorescent moss growing on ceilings and walls had been ripped off in many spots, giving an eerie cast to all that happened within the chamber.
Death moved in green- glowing shadows.
The Tefize launched a redoubled attack that bowled Inyx over. She lost her sword and pulled forth her dagger to hamstring and jab at muscular bodies washing over her- but the woman knew it was all in vain. They had her and would quickly destroy her.
" Aieeee!" came the shrill cry. Inyx' s head almost split from the reverberation in the closed chamber, but her heart beat so hard it almost exploded in her chest.
" Krek!" she called. " Here!"
The mountain arachnid lumbered forward, mandibles clacking like a scythe against grain. Gnome after gnome perished. Krek cared little whether they were Tefize or Heresler; if they stood in his way, they died, but for the most part they were Tefize.
" I' ve never seen a fighting machine like that," muttered Ducasien, stopping to stare as Krek slashed his bloody way into the center of the room. Even though the spider stood hunched over, he managed to reach out with his legs and rake talons over exposed bodies. Gnomes by the score died before they could flee.
Within the span of another frenzied heartbeat, the Tefize clan fell into disordered retreat, shrieking and pointing, dropping their crude weapons, and disappearing into minor corridors too small for Krek to follow.
Looking aloof, the spider simply stood in the center of the chamber as if nothing had happened and shook off the sanguinary gore.
" You are the mightiest warrior I have ever seen," complimented Ducasien. " May I shake your hand?"
Krek canted his head to one side and studied the man with a saucer- sized eye.
" You are another of those silly humans unable to perceive I have no hands. But if you want to take my right front leg, you may do so. I feel it is a strange custom, but one with which I am not unacquainted, after enduring it on other worlds."
Krek lifted the indicated leg and held it out for Ducasien. The man took hold and shook solemnly.
" It is my privilege to name you my friend," the man said.
" You defended friend Inyx quite well, from all appearances," Krek said, looking over Ducasien' s shoulder at the pile of dead. " If for nothing else, that elevates you to the exalted position of my friend." The spider bobbed up and down, then said, " Friend Ducasien, is she well? She still lies on the floor in a most unflattering pose."
" Inyx!" the man cried.
" I' m all right," Inyx said, struggling to sit up. Bodies piled across her held her until she managed to wiggle free. " I' m a little bruised, nothing more."
" Are you sure?"
For an instant their eyes locked. Inyx uncomfortably broke off the gaze. It spoke too much of things she did not wish to pursue.
" Of course I' m sure. Help me to my feet." Inyx staggered slightly, then saw the cut along her upper thigh. " I need some help binding that, but otherwise I' m still in fighting trim."
" I' ll tend the wound," said Ducasien, but before the man took a single step forward Krek pushed between the pair.
" One moment. A bandage is required. I am most expert at such matters."
" I' lclass="underline" " started Ducasien, then fell silent. In fascination he watched as Krek reached out with surprisingly gentle strokes and cut away the cloth around Inyx' s wound. Inyx cleansed her own wound and then Krek spat forth sticky webstuff that pulled the jagged edges of the gaping cut together. The flesh held in place, the spider spun forth a cocoon of the finest silk. Inyx' s leg was neatly bandaged in less than a minute.
" The silk will decay soon and fall off within a week. By then you should be well healed."
" That' s amazing," said Ducasien. " How do you do it?"
" I' m a spider," Krek said indignantly. " The silk is meant to fall apart within a week so my hatchlings can get at the cocooned food, not that I consider friend Inyx in such a light, mind you. This is merely an application that occurred to me some time ago when I noted how often you humans damaged yourselves."
" Lan doesn' t need such bandagings," spoke up Inyx. " He can heal himself- and us, too- magically." Even as she said the words, the woman knew she' d made a grave error reminding Krek of how little Lan needed him, even for menial tasks like this. She reached out and laid a gentle hand on the spider' s nearest leg and said, " Krek, I need you. And I' m sure Lan does, also."
The spider turned away. Every footstep left a bloodied mark to show his passage down a side corridor.
" Where' s he going?" piped up Broit Heresler. " We want to have a celebration. For all of you. You' ve saved our homeland. And look at the work you give us," the gnome declared, looking at the bodies stacked about the chamber. " No shirking our jobs now!"
" The victory won' t last for long," said Ducasien, " unless we can build some barricades to hold them back. With your depleted numbers another attack might be the last."
" We' re getting even with them," the gnome said defiantly. " We' re not going to bury any of their bodies. See how that sits with Lirory Tefize! This' ll be ample warning to the other clans, too, that we Heresler don' t fool around. We mean business."
" What Ducasien means is that you' re the ones going to be buried if the Tefize attack again. There' re only a few of you left."
" Us buried? Don' t be ridiculous. If all the Heresler are dead, there won' t be any more gravediggers." As if this thought hadn' t occurred to the gnome before, he turned pale at the idea. " Great Yerrary, that' d mean chaos. Disaster. Dead bodies everywhere."
" Someone else would take over the job," said Ducasien.
" They can' t. Each chore is specialized, hereditary. Only Heresler bury. This might be the demise of Yerrary if they kill us all off. Oh, no!"
Broit gathered the pitiful few survivors around him and they spoke hurriedly, gesticulating wildly. Fear began to show on their wrinkled faces as the full impact of what defeat meant penetrated.
Ducasien and Inyx walked around the chamber and saw sleeping pallets placed in shallow depressions in the rock walls, a few possessions, odds and ends indicating living quarters rather than simply another corridor. They exchanged sad glances and walked on. This was no fit way to live, hidden under tons of rock and never seeing the sky. On their home world it had been different. The seasons were kind, game was plentiful, and all were able to live as they chose, free and in the soft lemon sunlight.