And Inyx. Inyx remained lost between worlds. She hadn' t escaped into this world when he' d batted the Kinetic Sphere from Claybore' s grip. Only the sorcerer, he, and Krek had left the white limbo.
" Krek, we' ve got to get the Kinetic Sphere. Inyx is still trapped between worlds."
" How do you know?"
" My: my magic sensing." He almost stuttered, so great were the emotions wracking him. Lan knew things that he couldn' t explain. The excursion through the ghostly whiteness had given birth to twitching, crawling things inside his head. " Inyx can' t survive much longer."
" But Claybore has the Sphere."
" No," said Lan slowly. " I don' t think he does. We truly are in a race to reach the summit. The Kinetic Sphere is up there." He pointed upward to the top of Mount Tartanius. " It landed there when it left the whiteness."
" How does Claybore travel? He lacks a body."
" But he' s a powerful mage. Remember how he used Waldron? He must be using others. Or maybe:"
" Yes?"
" Maybe his powers are materially weakened by the shift between worlds. Maybe he needs the Kinetic Sphere for more than interworld travel. If he sucks power from it, being distant from the globe might sap his strength."
" Possible," conceded Krek, " though it is more likely he sits aloft and waits, like a proper spider in the center of a web."
" How apt your comparisons are today, friend spider," said Lan. " I think he races us for the summit. Whoever reaches the top of Mount Tartanius first wins the prize of the Kinetic Sphere."
" I prefer the thought of succulent grasshoppers."
" We could rescue Inyx."
" Hmmm," mused the spider. " I rather did like her. We share certain traits."
" Only a few, I trust," said Lan, remembering Krek' s bride and her appetites.
" The best ones," Krek assured him.
Lan Martak looked from the dirt- rolling Ehznoll and his disciples up the craggy slopes of the Sulliman Range to the immense Mount Tartanius. Atop that peak lay more than his destiny. The destiny of worlds hung in the balance.
He' d reach the Kinetic Sphere first. He had to.
CHAPTER EIGHT
" It' s closing in on me, Krek," Lan Martak cried in panic. He' d been dozing while riding and had another dream. Walls circled around, then began to crush him into pulp. Intense claustrophobia seized him; the times in his life when he' d been the most powerless were those times he' d been closed in. Trapped in the cellar while he listened to his half- sister being raped and murdered; accidentally locked in a trunk when a small child; stranded for fourteen days in a mine shaft he explored in the el- Liot Mountains; those were the horrific times of his life. Lan belonged in the open spaces, not simply because he loved it- he needed it. Being locked in not- so- slowly drove him insane.
" What? What closes in? The world is wide and beautiful, even if it is filled with debris like Ehznoll and his band."
Lan shivered. The dream had seemed closer to reality than the world did now. He glanced upward, toward the crest of Mount Tartanius. His magic sense tightened until he felt a knot in the pit of his stomach. As the days progressed, so did his feeling that some power grew within him. His magic sensing ability had become as sharp as a razor, as taut as a pulled wire. He felt ready to lash out, to explode under the tension.
" Up there. I feel it. I feel the power radiating from the top of the mountain."
" It is strong," said the spider. " I do believe it is the Kinetic Sphere. No mere cenotaph ' looks' quite like it. It is little wonder even you can sense it. What is peculiar is an inability to do so."
" They don' t sense it at all," said Lan. Ehznoll and his band frolicked in the dirt, flinging bits of dried mud at one another. They were anything but dour this day. Ehznoll had said something about its being a holiday for them, a day to rejoice and revel in their nearness to the earth. To Lan, they didn' t seem to be doing any more than they had done on prior days.
" Little wonder," sniffed Krek. " It would take a major hosing down to even reach their skin. Their four physical senses are totally numbed by the layers of filth they wear like a cloak."
" Five senses."
" There you go again, prattling on about this elusive sense of smell. If it is anything like you describe it- and I believe it all a product of your twisted human mind- it gives you no advantage dealing with them."
" They can' t sneak up on me."
" Nor can they on me." Krek flexed his long legs, tightening his grip on the rock until the tips of his talons penetrated the stone. He detected the most sensitive of vibrations in this fashion.
" Lan Martak!" called Ehznoll. " We stop for the remainder of the day. Join us in our frolics."
Lan dismounted and went to the pilgrim. He tried holding his breath against the odors emanating from the unkept man' s robe. He fought a losing battle.
" I: I feel called. Krek and I should scout ahead."
" The good earth will not deceive us," spoke up a woman nearby. " Trust in the planet. The dirt will never leave us. We are the children of the earth."
" Never left the womb, either," muttered Krek from behind. Lan motioned for the spider to be silent.
" Just the same, we' ll check out the route."
" Stay, stay and rejoice with us," the woman said, coming closer. Grimy fingers reached out to stroke Lan' s cheek. He flinched. She didn' t notice. Moving closer, she whispered in a husky voice, " We rejoice in many ways."
" Uh, isn' t that against your tenets?"
" What? Making love?" she asked, surprised. As her eyebrows shot up, a tiny particle of dirt dislodged. Lan saw she had blonde hair rather than the dull brown caused by the dust and dirt. " Hardly. If anything, it is part of our most basic sacrament. If we aren' t fruitful, how can we possibly ensure that the praise of our earth is carried on to future generations?"
" Don' t most religions call for celibacy?" asked Lan. He backed up slightly and ran into Krek. The giant spider didn' t move. He peered over the man' s shoulder with intense interest.
" Is this part of the human mating ritual, also? You have such varied techniques, friend Lan Martak, that I am amazed. We mountain arachnids engage in much simpler courtship rites."
" And then your damn bride devours you!" blurted Lan.
Krek only shrugged, shivering all over.
" Take part in the rejoicing, stranger," the woman urged again. " I am one of the holiest."
" The dirtiest, you mean?"
" It' s the same thing," cut in Ehznoll. " She is giving you singular honor. Melira is a standout, even in this devout band."
The woman had allowed her cowl to fall back. Hair hung in greasy strings on either side of her smudged face. Lips chapped, front tooth broken, dirt everywhere, she only repelled Lan instead of attracting him. When she shifted the coarse brown robe back and off her shoulders, holding the filthy garment in the crooks of her elbows and revealing her upper chest, he almost turned and ran. Only Krek' s bulk prevented him from getting on his mare and riding until either he or the horse collapsed from exhaustion.
Her breasts swayed like pendulums, each with a slightly different frequency of oscillation. Dirt encrusted the upper slopes, and pink nipples poked through the grime. Lan' s mind instantly flashed to what the rest of Melira' s body would be like.
" I' ve taken a vow of celibacy," he said quickly.
" Indeed, friend Lan Martak, when was this?"
" Shut up, Krek. I, uh, took the vow because of the friend we' re trying to find and rescue. Yes, that' s it. I promised Inyx not to be with another woman."