Dark Sun: Prism Pentad 1 - The Verdent Passage (29 page)

A great cloud covered the base of the mountains like an immense blanket of cotton, glowing
rosy pink with the light of the setting sun. This cloud sent tendrils of thick mist
creeping into every one of deep valleys lying between the ridges ahead.

Rikus barely noticed when Agis stepped up behind him. “Sorry for the rough landing.”

The mul paid no attention to the apology. “It's a good thing Anezka came with us,” he
said, pointing at the vast forest below. “Without her, we'd never be able to find Nok in
all those trees.”

Singer

Agis woke to a peculiar serenade of dulcet chirping, underscored by the gentle patter of a
soft rain. Without opening his eyes, the noble rolled over on his bed of groundcloudÑthe
name they had given to the forest's undergrowth of puffy fungusÑand yawned. Languidly he
reached out to embrace Sadira. Instead of her soft skin he touched something plump and
warm, covered with coarse bristles. The chirping grew softer and more melodious.

“Who's there?” Agis asked. As his grogginess cleared he remembered that in order to reduce
the jealous tension in the group, they had all agreed to sleep alone.

The noble opened his eyes and, in the pale dawn light found himself staring at a row of
six sapphire eyes. Below the gemlike orbs, a pair of flexible fangs grasped a wad of
groundcloud and stuffed it into a hairy mouth. As the creature ate, it rubbed two pairs of
shiny forelegs together, producing the serenade that had awakened the noble Four more legs
supported the drum-shaped body upon which his hand rested, and a great lemon-colored
abdomen hung suspended from its rear quarters.

Gasping in alarm, Agis jerked his hand away and reached for his sword. The huge spider
reacted by scurrying up a silk cord running from its abdomen to a white web overhead.
There it remained, dangling upside down and rubbing its forelegs together to produce
gentle, soothing tones.

The noble sat up, carefully watching the singing spider. He was astonished to see that, as
he had slept, the creature had woven a solid, tentlike web high overhead, anchoring it to
the jointed trunks of four dancing conifers. Although the web rolled and undulated as the
wind twisted the trees into different shapes, Agis could not complain about the shelter
offered by the spider's handiwork. Outside his tent fell a steady drizzle, but he remained
as dry as if he'd been sleeping beneath the roof of his own mansion.

There were a dozen similar canopies in the area. Below each, a chirping spider fed on the
groundcloud. Sadira, Neeva, and Rikus were each covered by web. Only Anezka lay exposed to
the rain, curled into a wet ball and shivering in the cold. Apparently the halfling had
fallen asleep during her watch, for she rested on the ground some distance from her bed.

The spider above Agis chirped tentatively, then reached for the ground with two legs.
Chuckling at his instinctive revulsion to the creature, the noble put his sword away. To
his surprise, the spider descended on a thick strand of silk and landed at his side. It
resumed feeding, chirping in a contented tone that made Agis appreciate just how peaceful
the forest morning was. In contrast to the ruddy sunrises of the Tyr Valley, the dawn
light here was soft and lush and green, the cruel sun hidden behind a thick morning fog.

Growing reflective, the noble looked at his dozing companions. Their bodies were tense and
restless, as if even in their sleep they were cringing against the lashÑor, more likely,
dreaming of the day they would kill those who held them in bondage.

“What am I doing here, Singer?” Agis asked, assigning a name to the arachnid. He suddenly
felt acutely aware of the vast differences that separated him from his fellows. “My
ancestors would think me crazy to risk the Asticles estate and name for the sake of
slaves.”

The spider chirped a few playful notes, then moved closer to Agis and rubbed its bristled
body against his leg. The noble guessed that the thing wanted him to rub its back, but he
could not bring himself to touch it again. He fell slightly chagrined for letting the
spider's appearance put him off, but no matter how friendly the beast was, it remained
repugnant.

Instead he said, “Still, we know what's right, don't we? If my ancestors had acted on
principle instead of fear, perhaps we wouldn't need to worry about what Kalak is planning
for his games.”

As Agis spoke, a curtain of moss parted on the other side of camp. A pair of halflings
slipped into view and silently crept toward a nearby spider tent, their footsteps muffled
by the patter of morning rain. They resembled Anezka in size and appearance, save that
they were both male and clothed only in shaggy breechcloths. The rain washed the filth
from their bodies in long streaks of black mud. In their hands they gripped flint-tipped
spears, and on their belts hung short daggers of sharpened bone.

The noble was about to wake his friends when the two halflings gently laid their spears
aside and rushed the spider they had been sneaking toward. They did not snap a branch or
create any sound that Agis could hear, and even their target seemed unaware of their
presence.

Grabbing his sword, the noble crawled toward the exit of his tent. Singer scuttled around
to face the direction he was going. It chirped what seemed an inquisitive tone and
followed, but neither it nor any of its kin paid any attention to the halflings' presence.
Agis paused, wondering why the spider at his side did not seem alarmed. Either it could
not see that far, or its kind was some sort of halfling pet or herd animal.

An instant later, he had his answer. The halflings' target whirled around to meet its
attackers. The spider's chirping changed to a single screech of alarm, then it fell silent
and frantically tried to climb into its web. Simultaneously, Singer and all the other
spiders scrambled into their webs, continuing to chirp in agitation.

The halflings' prey was not fast enough to reach its web before the two hunters tackled
it. As the little men wrestled their prey to the ground, Agis stepped into the cold rain
and called, “What are you doing?”

The halflings, who had both drawn their bone daggers, looked toward Agis. The noble
motioned toward his shoulder satchel. “If you're hungry, we have food enough
to
share.”

Though Agis spoke in a congenial tone, the halflings obviously took the stranger's words
as a threat and rushed out the back side of their quarry's tent. They disappeared into the
forest as silently and as quickly as they had come, leaving their spears behind.

Behind Agis, Rikus cursed, then Neeva cried, “Get away, you hairy brute!”

Sadira was apparently the last to awaken and see the spiders. She screeched once, then
called, “Where'd these come from?”

Agis did not answer, for he was still trying to catch a glimpse of the halflings.
Unfortunately, it appeared that would be difficult. He did not see so much as a branch
waving in their wake The only sign that they had even been near the group's camp was the
spider they had attacked, which had climbed into its web and was chirping angrily. The
other spiders relaxed and began to rub their legs together in lively, spirited songs.

Rikus was the first to reach the noble's side. “What's all the noise about, Agis?” the mul
demanded, his bone twin-axe in one hand and his satchel in the other. “You're not scared
of a little spider, are you?” He gestured at a nearby tent, where the spider
had already dropped back to the ground on its silk cord.

“The spiders and I get along well enough, especially since I like to sleep dry,” Agis
answered, holding one hand palm-up in the icy rain now soaking him. “I scared away a pair
of halflings.”

“Halflings?” Neeva asked, stepping to then sides.

Before Agis could answer, Sadira joined them, her satchel already slung on her back and
Ktandeo's cane in one hand. She was using her free hand to brush a, her shoulders and hair.

“You can stop preening,” Neeva said. “After a few minutes in this drizzle, you're going to
look as bad as the rest of us.”

Sadira regarded the others with an air of distaste.. “I can live with that, I suppose. You
don't see any webs on me, do you?” she asked. “I can't stand webs.”

Neeva rolled her eyes, but turned the half-elf so she could inspect the sorceress's
shoulders. “No webs.”

“Good,” Sadira answered, breathing a sigh of relief. “Now, what's this about halflings?”

They were over here,“ Agis said. ”I scared them off, but maybe we can coax them back out."

“Halflings are too skittish for that,” Rikus grunted “Anezka would have a betterÑ”

The mul was interrupted by another spider's screech this time from where Agis had been
sleeping. He turned and saw Anezka beneath his silken canopy, wrestling with Singer.

“Anezka, no!” Agis shouted, rushing toward the small woman.

He was too late. She lifted the steel dagger he had given her, then plunged it into the
spider's abdomen. Singer stopped struggling, but continued to rub its legs together in
plaintive, agonized tones.

As Agis approached, he saw that the spider lay on its back. Anezka sat astride its thorax,
having opened a long gash in its abdomen. Pushing at the halfling with the four legs
closest to her, Singer weakly struggled with its attacker and chirped out its agony.

Anezka plunged her arm into the slash she had opened in the spider's abdomen. She felt
around for a moment, then gave a quick jerk and pulled out a handful of froth-covered
eggs. Singer's legs moved more frantically, filling the air with a loud howl. The other
spiders responded with sad melodies.

Agis grabbed the halfling by the shoulders. “What are you doing?”

Anezka's arms were covered with green slime from the spider's abdomen. She scowled at him
and, by way of explanation, began to eat the eggs.

This was more than the noble could stand. He grabbed the halfling and threw her to the
ground as far away as his strength allowed, paying no attention to where she landed. Next,
he turned to the spider, which was now chirping a pained lyric. Intending to put Singer
out of its misery, he unsheathed his swordÑbut found he had no idea how to kill the spider
quickly and painlessly.

“Agis, your back!” cried Rikus.

The noble spun around and saw Anezka raising her dagger to throw at him. Rikus leaped to
the halfling's ad slapped her arm as she released the weapon. The knife plunged into the
ground at Agis's feet.

The noble looked from the dagger to Rikus. “Thank you.”

“I'm only paying you back for what you did at the cliffs. Now we're even,” the mul
answered gruffly. At the same time, he grabbed the halfling to prevent her from making
another attack. She growled incoherently and struggled against Rikus's grip.

“It's not very smart to throw our guide around like that,” Neeva said, fixing her green
eyes on Agis's face. “What are you so upset about, anyway? It was just a spider.”

“Spiders or not, these are friendly creatures,” Agis said, gesturing at the canopies over
their heads. “It would have been just as easy for them to string their webs someplace
else, and then we would have had a wet, cold night.”

“I suppose so,” Sadira said, joining them. “But we don't need any more hard feelings in
the group right now. If Anezka wants to eat a spider, let her. After all, it's her forest.”

Once again, Agis was reminded of the differences between himself and his four companions.
The gladiators had spent their lives fighting for the amusement of others, so to them the
spider's agony must have seemed a small matter. No doubt, even Sadira had seenÑor even
sufferedÑmuch worse on Tithian's estate. It was no wonder that they regarded the beast's
pain with indifference, whereas the noble, who had purposely shielded himself from such
unpleasantness, regarded it with horror and revulsion.

Even considering the differences in their backgrounds, Agis was outraged at the halfling's
cruelty. Having someone in his company behave so callously made him feel as he thought
Tithian must, simply doing what was necessary to survive. If he was going to risk life,
property, and name, the noble was determined to do so in the cause of principle, not
practicality.

“I don't care if Anezka
is
our guide,” he said. “I won't stand for needless torture, by her or anyone else.”

“If it will make you happy, ask her to kill her breakfast before she eats it, but don't
start a fight over it,” Neeva said. She pointed at the center of Singer's body. “Now, if
you want to put this spider out of its pain, strike thereÑ deeply.”

Agis did as she suggested. As his sword plunged through the spider's body, its legs
stopped writhing and it died quickly. “Thanks,” he said, cleaning his blade on the
groundcloud. “How did you know where I should strike?”

“We've often fought giant spiders of one son or another in the arena,” she explained,
turning toward where she had left her satchel. “Let's get on with our journey.”

Agis picked up the dagger Anezka had thrown at him, then went to where Rikus held the
hauling. “In my company, I'd appreciate it if you'd be more selective about what you eat
and how,” he said to the small woman.

Rikus shook his head in derision. “Only a noble would be soft enough to worry about eating
a spider.”

“Perhaps,” Agis replied, not taking his eyes from Anezka. “But I'm serious about what I
say.”

The noble put the halfling's dagger in his satchel. He had intended to return it to Anezka
as a sign of good faith. From the way she had stared at him, however, he knew the halfling
would only have used it to attack him the first time his back was turned.

After Agis slipped his satchel onto his shoulder, Rikus released the halfling. Anezka
angrily gathered her tilings, then led the party down the crest of the ridge, moving
through the forest as effortlessly and as silently as though she were walking on barren,
level ground. Behind her, Rikus and Neeva crashed through the trees with all the grace of
a matched pair of boulders tumbling down the hillside. Sadira followed the gladiators,
carrying Ktandeo's cane in one hand and grasping at tree fronds with the other as she
fought to keep her footing. Agis came last, carefully weighing each step, yet cursing
under his breath as he slipped with every fifth or sixth footfall.