Cenotaph Road

CHAPTER NINE

" Are you so greedy that you' d risk our lives in this way?" demanded Inyx. " Never have I heard of such stupidity."

" Dammit," exclaimed Lan. " I' m not going to argue with you. That cask of jewels belonged to me by right, and it was stolen. I' m going to get it back."

" It strikes me, friend Lan Martak, that this sudden desire for wealth instead of life did not take possession of your brain until it was placed there by her." Krek bounced up and down on springy legs and balefully looked at Velika. The blond temptress said nothing, but the way she clutched even harder at Lan' s upper arm supplied all the impetus for his reply.

" We search out the jewels. If you and Inyx wish to try and win through to the Road opened by Waldron, do it!"

" You know we can' t do such a thing, you fool. You saw the guards around that chamber," said Inyx angrily. " This entire place is a maze of twisting corridors. If we don' t all work together to escape this accursed castle, we shall all die within its walls. Treasure hunting will buy us unmarked graves. Is that what you want?"

" We can get the gems back and escape," Lan doggedly told her. " I haven' t come this far to turn back. Look at it my way. You' ve already been liberated from Waldron' s clutches. That' s fine for you, but I want all that' s due me. Waldron' s men stole the jewels, and I demand the right to fight and regain them."

" Isn' t killing Kyn- alLyk- Surepta enough?" the spider asked. " Your mind is fogged by her presence. She bewitches you in some fashion a poor weakling spider such as myself cannot discern. Oh, how I wish I were back in the blessed Egrii Mountains, swinging idly on my noble web, feeling the wind sensuously singing through the fur on my legs. And Klawn, lovely Klawn!"

" May your ' lovely Klawn' burn, damn you," snarled Lan. " And I' m sick of you moaning all the time. Velika hasn' t ensorcelled me. I come from a world where magic is commonplace and can defend myself against all but the most arcane."

Inyx snorted. " There' s none quite so blind as a lovesick jackass. And I wonder about that. She holds a strange power over you that seems more than simple idiotic infatuation. But," she said, holding up her hands in acquiescence, " we cannot escape if we are divided. I shall help you in this idiocy, though it means our death. I will go out fighting, not snivelling." She cast a venomous glare in Velika' s direction.

" I, too, shall add whatever pitiful efforts I can to the quest," said Krek, slumped to the floor in a giant, furry mass. " How I can aid you against that abominable firemonger, I am at a loss to say, but the attempt is the important thing. But a Webmaster deserves a better fate than being roasted."

" I agree," Inyx said, sullen and withdrawn.

" Then if you both agree, let' s be off. Which way did you say the vaults were, Velika?"

" Might have known she' d seek out the riches first," muttered Inyx. Lan ignored her. He thought she was only jealous of Velika' s glossy hair and womanly figure.

" This way, my lord."

" My lord," echoed Inyx sarcastically, then fell silent. She hefted a dagger taken from the dead general' s belt, then tested Surepta' s blade with a few quick lunges. Lan had to admit secretly that she looked as competent a swordsman as he' d ever seen. The test would come later, though, when she faced trained soldiers. Anyone can appear expert waving a blade around in thin air.

" Lead on, Velika, and we' ll follow." Lan cast a silencing glance at his two companions to stifle any retort. For his own, he couldn' t have been happier following Velika. The blond woman' s every move showed liquid grace, almost snakelike in its bonelessness, and the tatters of her gown revealed intriguing patches of gloriously bare skin. Lan began idly daydreaming, and only Inyx' s strong hand on his shoulder pulled him out of his reverie.

" Guards. Ahead. Use Velika to decoy them or we' ll never get past."

" Go ahead, Velika. Don' t be afraid. We' ll protect you. Just distract them long enough for us to attack."

The frightened look on her face called for action on Lan' s part. He placed his forefinger under her chin and raised her lips to his own in a soft kiss.

" There, a token of my esteem for your bravery." Her smile was reward enough for any man.

" The female makes an adequate decoy," observed Krek. " I do not understand it, but you humans have such a complex set of behavioral traits. Could you explain this to me, friend Inyx?"

" I won' t lower myself. Besides, I' m not sure I understand, either. Ah, now. Now!"

With a surge of speed, Inyx burst onto the guards, with quick flashes of her sword to the left, right, then a long lunge directly ahead. Three guardsmen died before the first hit the ground. Lan followed suit, slaying two more. The five cooling bodies presented mute evidence of their teamwork.

" Well done, Velika," said Inyx. " We at last find your usefulness lies in deception."

A cold laugh echoed down the length of the corridor.

" It seems you are the deceived one, lady of the sword. Take them alive or take them dead, it matters little to our liege."

Krek backed up and sank to his knees, sobbing loudly.

" Trapped like an insect in my own web. A common bug and no more. Oh, have my brains turned to mush? Why should I be forced to show my stupidity to the world?"

The soldiers advanced in a line, more of them than Lan could count. He motioned to Inyx to cover his left flank and called to Krek, " Guard the back way. It might be our only way out."

Velika gasped when Krek mournfully said, " Trapped, I said, friend Lan Martak, and trapped I meant. A phalanx of brutes approaches from behind. I am powerless to hold back so many well- armed humans."

" Do not surrender to these scum- eaters," cried Inyx. " Sell your life for a hundred of theirs. Krek, do it! You are powerful! We need your strength, not your weakness."

" Oh, very well, but it is simply useless. No power on this world can turn the tide of such malevolence."

" I agree with the spider," said Velika hurriedly. " Please, Lan darling, surrender and throw ourselves on their mercy. They won' t slay us if we surrender." Tears rolled down the woman' s cheeks like waves against an ocean strand. Lan' s fingers dampened with the tears. His entire body stiffened as if monumental conflict took place within.

" They' d cut their own grandmothers' throats if it amused them. Are you so eager to be raped by an entire army, girl? I for one will fight. Are you with us, Krek?"

" I suppose it is my woeful lot, Inyx. Yes, I will fight at your back for as long as strength flows through my now- rubbery limbs."

" Lan?"

His mind raced. Kyn- alLyk- Surepta. Waldron. Zarella' s death. The grey- clad soldiers on the bog world. But then there was Velika. She wished him to surrender. His hand burned as if he' d thrust it into a fire. Lan fought off the waves of emotion wracking him and making him giddy, confusing his senses. There could be only one path to follow. His decision was made.

" We fight," Lan said, his voice choked. The conflict within died down and his resolve firmed. He did the proper thing. " I' m not going to allow Velika to fall into their hands again. Fight, Krek, fight as you did on the bog world."

Lan lunged en quarte and skewered the soldier in front of him. He pulled back, his blade dripping gore, and the body fell heavily, forming the foundation of a barricade in the hallway. Inyx added another before the wave of soldiers broke on them full force. Lan' s mind went blank. All he knew was lunge, parry, riposte. He accumulated minor cuts and one of a dangerous potential on his leg. But the snicksnick of his blade against those of the grey- clad soldiers demanded his full attention. Like Inyx, he' d go down fighting.

After all, his own greed had caused them to fall into this trap. His own greed- spurred on by Velika.

Velika!

Lan cast a swift glance over his shoulder and saw her cowering against the wall, crying openly. As he turned his attentions back to the fight, he witnessed Inyx in action and thought his eyes deceived him. She weaved a curtain of steely death in front of them, every third cut drawing blood, or so it seemed. The death count for her more than doubled Lan' s. He fought harder to match her; she shouldn' t have to bear the brunt of fighting because of him.

Behind her, Lan heard the clacking of Krek' s awesome mandibles. Once, a shower of blood rained down on him, forcing him to disengage and take a second to wipe sticky gore from his eyes. Krek had overenthusiastically severed a soldier' s head from his torso.

Lan Martak knew that no three had ever fought more valiantly against the soldiers, but with that same certainty came the ugly knowledge that they were tiring rapidly. Soon, the grey tide would wash over their dead bodies and leave Velika to their crude amusements. This gave added strength to Lan' s arm, more cunning to his blade, faster movements to his feet. But still the soldiers fought on, one immediately taking the place of a fallen comrade.

Krek screeched, " She comes! How did she find me? Oh, woebegotten spider, your end is near!"

" What' re you talking about, Krek?" gasped Lan, parrying a strong thrust barely in time to keep his arm and wrist connected. " Who' s coming?"

" Klawn has discovered where I am, and she comes to devour me! Why should she desire to consume a wasted spider such as myself? I am lost, lost, I say!"

The roar of the guards echoed throughout the castle. As an earthquake sunders the ground, so did Klawn split the ranks of the grey- clad soldiers in her headlong rush to finalize her nuptial arrangements with Krek. The huge female spider leaped along the ranks of the struggling, now- frightened soldiers, using her mandibles more as a slashing knife than as snipping scissors. A full two dozen fell before her savage, mindless attack.

Lan panted and yelled, " Stop the big spider before it' s too late!"

Whether it was the air of command in his voice, the confusion, or the red blood altering the remnants of the soldier' s uniform to give him the desired rank, he didn' t know, but the soldiers closed on Klawn, blades singing their death songs to little avail. The spider proved too powerful for even their combined might.

" Here, Lan, Krek, here' s our escape," cried Inyx, shouldering open a heavy door a short distance down the hallway. " Though we don' t find treasure, at least we keep our lives."

Lan pulled Velika through the door an instant before Inyx slammed and bolted it against outside intrusion. The scowl on her face told Lan that, to her way of thinking, she had failed by allowing Velika entry. But Inyx said nothing as she wiped the worst of the blood and gore from her tunic.

" Ah, my beauty, they have escaped. Amazing. I hadn' t thought the barbarians of this world showed so much determination. But are they really of this world? Or another? Can you tell?" Waldron held his gloved hand up level with the balcony railing so the huge raven perched on his wrist could peer down into the immense courtyard. A raucous caw was all the answer the conqueror received.

" Yes, I believe you are right. The spider is of this world. The flaxen- haired woman, possibly, also, but the dark- haired woman and the man who wields the sword so well cannot be."

Waldron leaned against the railing as he studied their movements so far below him in the convoluted maze of corridors he had ordered constructed. He peered into the darkness and sighted Klawn struggling against the door that Inyx had so securely latched. He reached down and scribbled a note on a piece of vellum, then tied it to the raven' s leg. With a casting motion, he sent the bird fluttering into the air. The black bird fell a few yards, then powerfully stroked against the humid air, cawed and soared like a shadowy bullet for the other side of the castle. Klawn would soon be neutralized by closing siege doors on each side of her, but the others presented a unique problem for Waldron.

A unique problem and a unique amusement.

Holding his wrist out and emitting a screech similar to that of the bird just flown, Waldron captured another airborne raven, wincing slightly as the bird' s metal- sheathed claws cut into his padded gauntlet.

" My beauty has been hunting again, eh? Would you like to become a herder of sheep? Or perhaps I should say people who can become sheeplike? You would? Excellent, my winged ally. Seek out those below and force them along the Chaos Path."

Waldron chuckled as he watched Lan, Inyx, Krek, and Velika dodge the plummeting death messenger. The raven' s talons slashed more savagely than any falcon' s. Soon, little knowing where they were being herded, the foursome fought and struck out against the raven, but inexorably they moved into the diabolical maze toward their deaths.

" Accursed black fiend!" screamed Velika. " Stay out of my hair!" The raven took a special delight in only plucking the strands of her golden hair away from her scalp. The others were decorated with red striations left by the raven' s steel talons.

" A door, Lan, quickly," called Inyx, holding the heavy wooden portal open for them. Velika raced for the safety offered by the door, and Lan followed in a rearguard position, still swinging his sword futilely at the darting raven. Only Krek hesitated on entering.

" Hurry, Krek, or we' ll be ripped to bloody shreds by that filthy creature."

" Friend Lan Martak, I feel an ominous presence lurking within. Are you sure we can cope with it better than the winged death? I am so weak from the fight and the encounter with lovely Klawn that I would be of little use to you."

" We' ll get by. Now, dammit, get in here!" Lan took one last stab at the raven as Krek lumbered into the darkness and Inyx swung the door shut. A resounding click told them all the door was selflocking. And, in the dark, none could find the freeing latch.

" What do we do now?" sobbed Velika. " It' s so dark."

Lan circled his arms around her and felt hot tears and breath against his skin. The curious effect of acid burning seized him once again, but he barely noticed. No matter what they' d been through, it was worth it for the moment. Velika needed him; that was something no one else could claim. Zarella had laughed at him, being too intent on her own pleasures to dare care for one such as he.

" Don' t worry, Velika. We' ll get through this."

" A fire! Let' s light a fire!" the woman cried out. Lan' s fingers hardened around her wrist to keep her from running blindly into the darkness. He pulled her closer to keep Krek from disemboweling her at the very idea of a fire so close.

" We don' t have fuel for a fire, Krek," he said hastily to reassure the spider. " We' ll find our way out of here without one."

" Out of here?" the spider asked, his voice curiously mild. " I rather like this place now that I have come to study it. There is a peculiar play between worlds, almost an eddy current, that amuses me. And Waldron' s gateway is ahead. I feel as if I can reach out to it, in spite of the thickness of the surging color."

" Color?" asked Inyx. " What color? All I see is blackness."

" Perhaps I tolerate this blackness, as you call it, better than a human. To me, this is a fine night, all the discarded objects glowing with an inner light."

" Objects?" demanded Lan. " Such as?"

" This." A clicking noise sounded. From the echoes, Lan guessed the area around them to be huge, walls and ceiling so distant he couldn' t touch them. Yet, curiously, he felt as confined as if the walls crushed him. His magic- sensing ability had left him like one blinded, and the only senses he had to work with were those of hearing and smell. And Krek' s hearing was far more acute than his.

A beam of light stabbed out abruptly, penetrating the veiling curtain of black. Krek valiantly struggled with a small lantern, his claws and mandibles doing a poor job of controlling the device. Inyx gingerly reached up and took it from the spider.

" This is sufficient light to guide us. But where do we go?" She cast the light in a circle, and Lan felt sudden chills. No sign of the door through which they' d come was visible. Indeed, they might have been standing in the center of a deserted field. The lantern beam, strong and thick, played around, only to be gobbled by immense distance.

When Inyx shone the light onto what Lan thought to be the floor, he experienced a surge of vertigo. No floor existed under him. He hung suspended high above a galaxy of stars, gently spinning through eternity, and he was falling into the flaming core. He shrieked and grabbed out, clutching wildly at Velika, but she squirmed away from him and left him to soar and dive and plummet on his own.

A hairy leg pulled him close. Hardened hands gripped his. A resounding, stinging slap made his head ring like a summons bell. His attention was forcibly pulled away from the limitlessness under him and back to his companions. Heart beating fiercely, sweat running in broad rivers down his body, he turned wild- eyed to Inyx and Krek.

The woman' s jet- black hair floated in wild disarray as if she had been running frenzied fingers through it or a typhoon had ripped apart the gentle braids holding it intact. Krek' s up- and- down motion reminded Lan so much of a furry rubber ball that he had to laugh. He laughed harder and harder, soon succumbing to hysteria. Another slap from Inyx' s punishing hand calmed him.

" I: I don' t know what happened," he confessed. " The sight of nothing under me did something to my head."

" Do not worry, friend Lan Martak," said Krek. " Many hatchlings experience such fears. Even we spiders are not immune to attacks of vertigo."

" Yes," hastily added Inyx, " it takes much exposure before you get used to the sensation. I experienced it many times on many worlds along the Cenotaph Road."

" Then we' re on Waldron' s Road?" he asked weakly. He wished his magic- sense weren' t so confused.

" I fear not, for the energies surrounding us are of a different nature. Rather, it seems to me that we are on a path leading to the Road. And what lies along this path, I am terrified to even guess."

" Thanks, both of you." Lan wiped sweat off his forehead and allowed the smell of fear to vanish from his nostrils before attempting to stand. Shaking, he got to his feet, only to find the floor underneath solid and opaque. The illusion had been good, too good for his liking, and he wondered if more of the same had to be endured before they reached Waldron' s artificial cenotaph.

" Velika!" he called out, suddenly worried for her safety. " Where are you?"

" Here, Lan darling," she said, sidling up to him, her arm snaking around his waist. " I was so frightened when you went stumbling away like that."

" If you' d held on to him, he wouldn' t have experienced the full effect of vertigo," accused Inyx. " Afraid you' d tumble after him?"

" I was afraid," she said. " I don' t want to die."

" That' s all right, Velika," said Lan, holding her close and feeling the heart beat strongly in her breast. " This is strange and frightening- to all of us."

Krek whined a little, and Inyx simply turned her back on Lan. He wondered what it was they both held against Velika, then forgot the little tiff as Inyx said, " This direction appears a likely one." She pointed into the darkness, no discernible reason for it. Lan started to protest, then bit back his argument. He' d follow her for the moment. One direction was as good as another in his present condition.

" Do we have to go with her, Lan? I don' t like her," Velika said softly. " I think she hates me."

" You' re imagining things. Inyx has different customs than those you' re used to, but she doesn' t bear you any malice. And yes, it' s best we stay together. For a while."

" As long as I' m with you, Lan, I know everything will be fine."

Lan puffed with pride at the confidence she showed in him. Taking her hand, he walked off after Krek and Inyx, making certain to keep his eyes fixed straight ahead. He wanted no more vertiginous tumbles into infinity. They were too undignified.

The four trod silently on the substance of the floor for some time without seeming to make progress. Lan lost all track of direction in this nonspace, but trusted Krek' s senses to be sharper than his. But he began to worry when a pungent odor assailed his nostrils. He took a deep breath and almost gagged on it. Sickly sweet, it reminded him of something long dead and now rotting.

" Inyx, hold a minute." The woman turned and cast the beam of light over him. Lan squinted and moved to one side to avoid being blinded. " Do you smell anything unusual?"

" No, nothing. Do you, Krek?"

" You humans are simply inventing this spurious smell- sense you boast about endlessly. I cannot imagine what it would be. If I cannot see or feel it, if I fail to hear it or ' vibe' it, surely it does not exist."

The spider seemed satisfied that nothing alien and evil approached. Even Inyx with her survival- trained senses failed to detect the vile odor. For a moment, Lan wondered if he were imagining this. Then he knew he wasn' t. The lizard- thing slithered up, gobbets of rotting flesh falling from its ponderous bulk. As it surged from the veil of darkness into the tiny circle of light cast by their lantern, Lan pulled his blade from its sheath and drove mercilessly into a blind, atrophied eye, hoping to penetrate all the way into the creature' s brain.

A geyser of pink ichor blasted down the length of his blade and onto his hand as he twisted the sword and lunged again. The sticky, warm blood fountaining from the wound spattered upward into Lan' s face, momentarily blinding him. But still he slashed and lunged, flailing wildly, his gorge rising along with his panic.

The monstrous creature rolled over and twitched feebly. Lan stood, staring at it as a numbness claimed his soul. It had come so close to killing them all, and only he had the nerve to fight it. Even Inyx had denied its existence.

" Are you all right, Lan?" came Inyx' s concerned voice. " What' s wrong?"

" That thing," he said with loathing tingeing his words. " It' s dead now, no thanks to all of you."

" What thing?" asked Krek mildly. " I am feeling poorly and cannot fend off any sustained assault. Oh, why did I ever leave my web, even for this transient thrill of exploring between worlds? Stupid, I am stupid beyond belief!"

Lan' s jaw dropped in amazement as he went to wipe the gore from his blade. The carbon steel blade gleamed in the lantern light, as clean as the day it came from the forge. And nowhere did he find the carcass of the blind lizard- thing. Not a trace existed on the floor or on his tunic. Even the malodorous taint to the air had mysteriously purified. Whereas the others had shared the vertigo at the beginning of their trek through the velvet black wasteland, none of them had even seen this creature.

" You' re not going mad, are you?" demanded Velika, shrinking from him. " Did you see something or not?"

" Don' t badger him, Velika. I want to hear him out. It might cast some light on the nature of our surroundings." Inyx sat the lantern down and stood, hand on sword, waiting for an explanation. He gave it to her as succinctly as possible.

As he finished, Krek wailed, " Woe! A lizard grown too large for Krek to eat! The world shifts on its axis around me. I am powerless to do a thing. Pull me free of my noble web and I am nothing. Klawn, lovely spinner of delicate webs, why did I ever think to leave you and our bliss?"

" Hallucinations," said Inyx forcefully. " That is the answer. And for some reason, you are the most susceptible to them. Or perhaps Waldron has singled you out for this unique attack."

Lan shuddered, thinking of bearing constant assault by these alltoo- substantial wraiths. While he had been fighting, it had been real. Nothing had seemed more real to him in his life, and this datum set his mind racing for the answer.

" Can these images be dredged from the pits of our own minds? Could Waldron be tapping our inner fears?" he asked.

" Doubtful. Otherwise, we would have seen Krek dancing amid a fire, and I would be drowning in an ocean without shores. I detest water in bodies larger than those conveniently stepped across," confided Inyx.

" You, too?" said Krek, almost cheerful now that he had found a companion to share another of his private fears. " Water makes the fur of my legs twitch dreadfully. Nothing in the world do I hate moresave fire."

" And I do not care for the feeling of insecurity," chimed in Velika. Lan pressed close to reassure her with his nearness.

" These creatures and happenings might leak through from other worlds," said Inyx. " Perhaps, since we are all creatures of different origins, our senses are subtly tuned to one world line but not another. Lan might be sensitive to creatures from certain worlds and we from others."

" Aieee!" screeched Krek, his mandibles slashing at thin air. The giant spider hopped backward and slashed again with his man- killing pincers. Lan freed his sword from its sheath but feared to attack something he couldn' t see. Foretelling where Krek might dodge or leap proved impossible as he bounced and ducked his invisible foe.

" Finally, my weakness proved an asset," said Krek. He shook himself and fluffed his fur, then sank down to rock size beside them. " A vicious swarm of gnats the size of your fist. Dangerous to one in my pitiable condition, but tasty when taken singly."

" We' d better hurry. If these things are finding us with greater regularity, we might be attracting them simply by our presence in this nothing- world," said Lan. " Inyx, you seemed to know where we' re headed. Start out. I have no idea at all where the Road lies from here." Even closing his eyes and attempting to regain the throbbing headache he now associated with the presence of the interworld gates, Lan couldn' t find the proper direction in the darkness. The gate seemed to be everywhere and nowhere.

" Do you know where it is, Krek?" she asked. " I was simply following your lead."

" I did, but my powers wane rapidly in this nonworld. But if memory serves, and at any moment I might fade into senility from all the shocks to my system, this is where our destinies lie."

He rose and trotted in the direction he' d pointed. For long hours they trooped beside him, Inyx' s head swivelling from side to side like a mechanical toy and Lan holding Velika' s hand in a death- grip, sure that any moment might be their last. Lan was the first to notice a gradual lightening. Soon, the others commented on it. When the level of light reached that of false dawn, they turned off the lantern.

" It looks like a junkyard," said Velika. Scattered around them were bits and pieces of machinery long rusted, huge beetle- shaped metal shells with wheels large enough to use as battle shields, and myriad smaller metallic implements. Lan stooped to examine some. Their feel assured him of their reality.

" It might be a razor blade," he said. " But who has ever seen one so small and difficult to hold?" Casting it aside, he picked up a smooth yellow cylinder. On impulse, he pressed his forefinger against the sharpened end. A long blue streak appeared on his skin. " A scriber! Imagine. And those things over there are paper fasteners such as clerks use."

" Someone' s discard pile. But why here, between worlds?"

" Ever lose anything?" Velika asked. " Maybe this is where it goes."

The other three scoffed at the idea, but Lan wondered if she might not have an inkling of some cosmic truth. His intellectualizing was cut off abruptly by the eerie sensation of being watched. He carefully turned and surveyed the littered nonworld. Rising silently from the rusty remains of metal came a skeletal being, ligaments of wire and bones of steel and eyes of glaring red glass. It would have been an amusing parody of a human had it not carried a long length of chain in each pseudohand. Rippling motions like a muleskinner' s sent the chains outward in perfect sine waves.

" I don' t know what it is- or if you can even see it- but it looks nasty." Lan heard Velika' s horrified gasp and knew she saw it, too. Inyx drew her sword and crowded close to his side. Krek bobbed up and down on the other.

" Separate a bit, and keep a lookout behind us, Krek," commanded Lan. " I don' t want this thing' s friends to sneak up on us." His mouth filled with cotton as he watched the graceful motions of the metallic being as it neared. The chains sang death songs now, snapping as if they were made from leather.

" How do we kill such a construction?" asked Inyx. " In all my travels, never have I seen its like."

" We take it from two sides at the same time. Maybe lopping its head off will do something. The way those eyes flash on and off makes me think it might have a brain of some sort, even if we can' t see anything in its head but a small black box."

Then the time for talking passed. The skeletal being lashed out with the left chain. Lan danced aside and slashed viciously at a steel wrist with his blade. Sparks danced as contact was made, but the sword refused to penetrate and slithered down the creature' s arm, leaving only a shining nick as evidence of the blow. Lan' s entire arm had been numbed by the force of the stroke. He barely recovered in time to avoid the chain swinging in a short arc for his legs.

Inyx used a massive two- handed overhead blow to embed her sword in the right- arm socket of the robotic thing. Placing her foot against the skeletal leg, she twisted. Her blade snapped clean and left the attacking scrap pile with only impaired dexterity in its right arm.

" What are we going to do? Krek? Can you:" Lan ventured a hasty glimpse over his shoulder. Krek silently defended them from one of the huge metal bug shells rolling on four soft wheels. It pulled back and shot forward, trying to crush Krek under its weight. At least, that seemed its only form of attack. Lan wished the same could be said for his opponent.

A whistling arc of chain swept his feet from under him. The pain lancing into his body almost robbed him of consciousness, but Lan continued to fight. He lunged awkwardly for the creature' s face. As his blade slid into where the mouth might have been on a living being, an electric shock jolted the blade from his hand. At the same instant, the creature jerked violently backward.

Inyx saw the reaction and pounced, her dagger out and aimed for one of the glass eyes. A tinkling noise sounded as the knife broke a crystalline eyeball. The robotic thing went berserk, thrashing around, using the chains as much against itself as to attack Inyx. Lan painfully pulled himself erect, drew his dagger, and took careful aim. The blade tumbled twice in midair and impacted firmly in the creature' s other glass eye. As if poleaxed, it sank to the ground.

Lan stumbled, then steadied himself. Inyx rubbed her arm where a wicked welt colored as the result of too- close contact with the chain. She tossed Lan his dagger, then pulled her own free from the shattered socket.

Lan considered giving her his sword to replace her shattered one, then knew with innate certainty that the proud woman would refuse it. Their eyes met and locked for an instant, and a silent communication flowed between them, the reassuring message of one ally to another. He sheathed his sword as she averted her eyes.

" I' m glad this is over," she said. Then, eyes widening, she turned and yelled: " Krek!"

Lan had forgotten about their furry friend. He twisted and looked at the spider in time to see it catch the front of the attacking metal bug and flip it over. Twin snips from huge mandibles cut cables underneath to ensure immobility.

Lan glanced back at the fallen metal skeleton as if afraid it might spring back to life, then went to Krek and lightly asked, " Do you spiders keep a trophy of your kill? If so, I' d like to present you with a wheel." He hefted one of the beetle- thing' s soft wheels and tossed it to the spider.

Krek caught it easily between his mandibles. He squeezed the rubbery ring, then cast it aside.

" No good. Too chewy."

Lan laughed, and Velika came up beside him and joined in. For a brief instant, anger surged in him. Why should she enjoy the camaraderie they shared along with the danger? She had hidden and had not helped in the common defense. Then he forgot his irritation. Her kiss was wet and passionate against his lips, promising much more when the situation was right.

" My hero!" she whispered hotly in his ear. Embarrassed by Krek' s and Inyx' s glares, he pushed her away and said, " Later. We' ve got to find the Road. Then " Yes, then!" she smiled, looking at him with adoration shining brighter than the lantern in the darkness.

" I feel its pull. It is close," Krek said. " Yes, even in my debilitated condition, I sense its nearness. It is as if it opens and closes like a door."

Lan felt the throbbing headache pummel his head. It had come as if a switch had been thrown. Even he sensed the immense power released nearby.

They turned and walked toward the nexus of power.