CHAPTER FOURTEEN
A silken noose circled his neck, jerked him erect, and brought him down hard to the ground. Lan Martak couldn' t even let out a strangled gasp of horror.
" Really, friend Lan Martak, you are being too good to those merespiders," said Krek with some exasperation. He trotted back and severed the silk band with a single slice from his mandibles. " You are only encouraging them to continue their ways. No human will be safe if they feel you are a weakling."
Lan gasped in the thin air of Mount Tartanius. Never had oxygenpoor air tasted so good to him.
" They come after us," observed Ehznoll.
" Faster. Let' s get out of here a lot faster," panted Lan. Krek and Ehznoll followed. Eventually they outdistanced the smaller spiders, who gave up the chase and returned to their webs for repair and to await another likely candidate for cocooning.
They rejoined Abasi- Abi and Morto on the ledge. The sorcerer' s disposition hadn' t improved, nor had their situation, which AbasiAbi was quick to point out.
" We are still too far from the summit. Claybore will arrive before us."
" I don' t know how he can," said Lan. " We' re making good time. It' s cost us enough lives," he added gloomily.
" Claybore is not encumbered as we are with bodies that tire. Claybore is not encumbered with fools who control their magics too poorly." Abasi- Abi looked directly at Lan when saying that.
" Look, Abasi- Abi, I' m no mage. I knew a few small spells, nothing more."
" Humph."
Lan didn' t feel like arguing. What had seemed like an easy path to follow even higher up the side of Mount Tartanius had turned out to be disastrous. Getting through the valley of the spiders proved too dangerous in their condition; Krek' s path up the sheer side of Mount Tartanius turned out to be better- after a while. Lan only hoped the spider meant it when he said the going got easier, for humans, after the initial precipitous climb.
Abasi- Abi and Morto said nothing as they gathered their sparse belongings and prepared for the assault up the mountain. The four humans depended heavily on Krek and his web- spinning abilities in the next few hours; then came an area Lan hardly believed possible.
" It' s incredible!" he exclaimed, looking out over the small valley. " There' re green growing plants, small animals. This might be two miles below us and not on a mountaintop!"
" The geological and geographical details of Mount Tartanius are peculiar," said Krek. " Never have I seen a mountain so tall also fraught with tiny valleys. Perpendicular rock is more usual."
" This is the home of sorcerers," said Abasi- Abi.
" The good earth provides for us on our holy pilgrimage," Ehznoll furnished.
" I believe Abasi- Abi," said Lan. " This is almost bucolic." A tiny catch came to his throat. This small valley reminded him of one he' d found in the el- Liot Mountains back on the planet of his birth. He' d planned on settling there eventually, claiming the entire valley for himself and Zarella.
The grey- clad soldiers, Surepta- Claybore! — had shattered that dream permanently.
" The entire mountain is of sorcerous conjuring," said Morto, speaking for the first time Lan remembered. " Claybore had nothing to do with it. One greater than he forged this rocky spire and put atop it the-"
" Silence, Morto," snapped Abasi- Abi.
" Let him talk. I' m curious about how all this came about."
" Figure it out for yourself," said the sorcerer with illconcealed disgust. " You' re the one with the power."
Abasi- Abi motioned for Morto to follow. The pair went off to fix a small camp some distance away. Krek began spinning a small web for himself, leaving Lan alone with Ehznoll. The pilgrim dropped down on a partially frozen patch of dirt and began to pray.
" So that' s how it is?" Lan said to himself. " Within sight of the summit and we all go our separate directions." He turned his gaze upward toward the crest of Mount Tartanius. Drifting white, puffy clouds obscured the uppermost portion of the mountain, but vagrant breaks in the cover showed a flatness that startled him. He' d expected a needle- sharp prow instead of what actually existed. But if the entire mountain had been fashioned by a master sorcerer, it explained much- and promised more surprises to come.
The weather had been perfect for their ascent. Over two miles above the surface of the land- three above sea level- the oxygen content was nil. Lan and Ehznoll once again relied on the magical breathing mask found in the shed at the base of the mountain. AbasiAbi and Morto existed on the mage' s spells, and Krek relished the thinness of the atmosphere. But most of all Lan noted the terrain. All of the mountain continually surprised him. Valleys that shouldn' t have existed did. The climb up such a towering peak required considerable preparation and skill; it had been relatively easy for them. The dangers had been present, but those were minor compared to some climbs he' d been on.
He feared the worst danger of all lay ahead, atop the mountain, up on the level area.
He hunched over, head on raised knees, tired to the core of his being. Lan Martak slept.
He wandered through darkness. He snapped his fingers and uttered the pyromancy spell. Flames danced from his fingertips and brought light to the universe. He walked aimlessly at first, then some intuition took his steps in a particular direction.
" Inyx?" he whispered. The single name boomed forth, too loud, too startlingly.
" Help me, Lan. I: I can' t get out. The whiteness is everywhere. Help me!"
He walked faster. The light from his fingertips glowed constantly now, a source of illumination for hundreds of yards. Ahead, he saw movement.
" Inyx!"
He ran forward, then stopped abruptly.
" Am I your Inyx?" came Claybore' s mocking voice. " I think not."
The sorcerer' s skull floated at waist level. The eye sockets remained dark, sunken.
" Why aren' t you trying to kill with your eyes?" he asked.
" Like so?"
Twin beacons of ruby death lanced forth. Again, as they had done before, the columns of light bent slightly, going around Lan Martak' s body. He knew that to reach out and thrust his hand into one of those now- curving beams meant instant death.
" I don' t know what spell you use to counter my death beams. One day I shall have to find out from you."
" Abasi- Abi supplies it," Lan said, hardly wanting to believe Claybore.
" Abasi- Abi, that fool? Hardly. No, Lan Martak, you are doing it. How, I don' t know. And it matters little now. I have made it to the summit of Mount Tartanius. You haven' t. You have failed."
" You lie!"
Laughter rang out, vanishing into the boundless dark beyond the limits of Lan' s light.
" You have proved yourself a surprisingly worthy opponent. I misjudged you. At first I thought you no more than a simple- minded bumpkin from an underdeveloped world, now I wonder. You possess deceptive magical abilities. When I least expect it, you counter my most potent spells. Who are you, Lan Martak?"
" I' m the one who wants Inyx released from the nothingness between the worlds. I' m the one who wants the Kinetic Sphere. I' m the one who wants to stop you!"
Again the laughter, this time shriller, more hysterical.
" So noble. Tell me, if I release this Inyx from her limbo, will you turn around and be content to live out your life on this fair, lush world?"
" Give up the Kinetic Sphere?"
" Yes."
" That tells me much, Claybore. You haven' t won, not at all. You aren' t the kind to bargain unless you stand to gain. The Sphere gives you too much power; that means you' re still looking for it."
" I know where it is."
" I do, too, but I don' t have it, either."
" Fool!"