" In Velika?" asked Lan, startled. " Hardly. She' s quite the opposite, in fact. She can hardly protect herself in the world Waldron' s created. And you are a fine one to talk of bloodthirstiness. I' ve seen you swinging a sword and slaughtering soldiers left and right."
" At least my ruthlessness is open, not under the covers like Velika' s."
" You misjudge her." Lan lapsed into silence, worried at the way both Krek and Inyx felt about Velika. While he had hardly been charmed by her disavowal of them in front of Waldron, he was positive that had been part of an abortive plan on Velika' s part to rescue them all. Something had gone wrong; that was why she had failed to free them from the prison tower before their execution time. Lan felt his innards twisting about in confusion. A burning sensation, more from memory than physical reality, stung his lips, his fingertips. His head ached horribly and threatened to explode like a bomb with his internal emotional conflicts- and he didn' t even know what the opposing sides were, much less what they fought over. He hadn' t the objectivity to study it, nor the time. He had to decide this matter once and for all time.
Velika wasn' t the vicious schemer Inyx pictured her as. Velika' s failure to free them in time proved that. Otherwise she' d have succeeded easily in getting them out of their chains and Waldron' s castle.
" Where' s the cenotaph leading off this world, Krek?" repeated Inyx. " I tire of this dreary world- and the company we' re keeping."
" Everyone tires of my company because I am such a pitiable creature. And I am sure you will heap further indignities on my head when I tell you that there is no cenotaph on this world that opens the Road. Only Waldron' s artificial gateway impinges on my muzzy mind."
" That figures." Inyx sighed. " No one of sufficient bravery has ever existed on this world to create the confined energies needed to open the Road. They' re probably all too busy scuttling out a living from the thin soil to go adventuring."
" That means we' ve got to go back through Waldron' s gate or we' ll be marooned here. That' s why Waldron hasn' t sent his soldiers. He knows we' re trapped on his home world." Lan reached for his sword and found only emptiness. Fighting back to the other world- and Velikaseemed more difficult with each passing second.
" Still another wagon of food and clothing," said Inyx, squinting slightly into the afternoon glare. The grey clouds had lifted a little but not enough to bolster their flagging spirits. The armed guards standing on either side of the shimmering curtain of pure energy effectively barred their return. They might kill one or two of the grey- clad soldiers, but to eliminate all five in such a way that an alarm wasn' t raised appeared impossible. Waldron' s skill as a general showed even in small details such as sentry duty.
Inyx had scouted the countryside while Lan had rested, finding the reason for the gateway' s existence here. The town of Ligginton lay only a few miles down the road. Through the gate passed food to supply the city, such as it was. Inyx reported that the town consisted of little more than hovels pushed together to share common walls.
The idea that this polluted, overcrowded, dirty, ill- supplied city was superior to a farm had revolted her. Yet that seemed to be the case.
" I shall sacrifice myself," announced Krek. " I am too cowardly to kill myself. This will redeem me in your eyes for all my past cowardices. Oh, why am I such a disgrace to all spiderdom?" He wailed like wind curling through an aeolian harp. Lan felt the dejection, too, but didn' t show it. He didn' t want to further depress the spider.
" A possibility exists," said Inyx, after considering the situation for a few more minutes. " Can the guards see through the hindside of the path opened by Waldron?"
" We can see into the other world. I don' t understand why theyof course! If all we can see from this side is the world to which the Road opens, then they can' t see us sneaking up on them, using the gateway as a shield!" Lan felt more enthusiastic about their chances of returning than ever before. " They might not think to post men there, and if they did, we can remove them without the others seeing."
Walking up the hill using the Road as concealment proved easier than Lan had thought. He simply had to remember he could see the guards perfectly while they were unable to see him at all. Three guards fell before the other two noticed. And one jump from Krek, a lightning slash of mandibles, and the fight ended.
" A sword!" yelled Lan, holding it over his head and waving it in circles. " I feel dressed again." He stripped a pair of daggers off the bodies and said, " Through the Roadway before Waldron senses something amiss."
The passage back proved far easier than the prior one. A moment' s vertigo and he stood in the black chamber containing the pinkly glowing Kinetic Sphere. Assaulting the limits of his vision wavered the actual projection of the gateway. He hefted his sword, then held aloft his left hand. A small chant produced flames licking from his fingers. A frightened yelp from Krek went unnoticed as he studied the now dimly lit chamber.
Lan had thought Krek' s cry resulted from the sudden magical fire leaping from fingertip to fingertip. Now he saw real danger lurking just beyond sword' s reach.
" Fardorus take me!" exclaimed Inyx, her blade dancing out in a complex maneuver to meet the attack of the ghostly creature. The substance of the wraith' s body might have been in question, but the evil glint of the steel sword it brandished brooked no doubt about its death- dealing capabilities. Inyx parried, cut over, and parried again. A quick disengage carried her point through the misty body with no visible effect.
" Waldron raids the space between worlds for his soldiers now," she panted, maintaining a purely defensive fight. She slashed viciously across the insubstantial neck and almost lost her balance. The blade of the mist- creature sought out her flesh and left an ugly, deep cut that bled profusely.
He saw that simple sword play wouldn' t destroy this being. Summoning his magical powers, Lan fed the full force of his being into the flame spell. Lances of fire blasted from his fingers and engulfed the vaporous spirit. It screamed wordlessly and popped! back into whatever world it had originated on.
Lan abandoned his flame- spell in favor of a healing chant directed at Inyx' s wound. He closed to attack from the side when a shuffling noise alerted him of more immediate personal danger. He sidestepped the cyclopean giant confronting him, swung his blade, and employed a twist of the wrist to send the sword threatening Inyx' s life cartwheeling through the air. He returned to his own defense in time to catch the point of the Cyclops' s pike on the edge of his own blade. As he dropped to his knee to combat the overwhelming power, he heard Inyx' s blade whir and bite deeply into an unprotected side. The one- eyed giant bellowed and turned to face its new attacker. Lan' s admiration for the monster' s intelligence evaporated as he spitted it through the groin.
Both Lan and Inyx joined Krek in combatting a multiarmed beast. The creature lacked mobility, but it needed none. Apparently able to use nine swords effectively, it seemed able to fight to the last arm without moving. Lan changed his tactics and closed to sword and dagger distance. A quick bind carried two swords from his path, while his dagger pinned another. Inyx shot through the gap he' d formed and drove her blade into juicy, pulpy flesh. The nine- armed beast emitted a curious sigh and evaporated like fog in the morning sun, leaving only nine swords behind on the floor as mute reminder of its existence.
" We do well as a team, Lan," Inyx told him, clapping him heartily on the shoulder. He grunted wryly at the compliment, turning his attention to the wound- healing chant to close the gash on her arm. She glanced down at it as soon as she felt the magical fingers gently closing off tiny veins and arteries; then her eyes rose and locked with his for a moment. Again they recognized more than simple teamwork existing between them.