rain began to fall in earnest. The sun, the walls of the valley,
even the dark pinnacle of Hearthstone had disappeared. Par felt
his breathing quicken. Their pursuers were all around them now,
shadows that had taken on vaguely human form as they flitted
through the trees.
They’re closing in on us. Par thought frantically. How much
farther was the cottage?
Coil cried out suddenly as they pushed through a stand of red
maple into a small, empty clearing. “Par, run for it! They’re
too close . . . !”
He grunted sharply and pitched forward. Par wheeled instinc-
tively and caught him. There was blood on Coil’s forehead, and
he was unconscious.
Par never had time to figure out what had happened. He
looked up, and the shadows were on top of him. They broke
from the concealment of the trees all around him, bounding into
view in a flurry of motion. Par caught a brief glimpse of bent,
crooked forms covered with coarse, black hair and of glinting,
ferret eyes, and then they were all over him. He flung them away
as he struggled to escape, feeling tough, wiry limbs grapple at
him. For a moment, he kept his feet. He cried out frantically,
summoning the magic of the wishsong, sending forth a scatter-
ing of frightful images in an effort to protect himself. There
were howls of fear, and his attackers shrank from him.
This time, he got a good look at them. He saw the strange,
insectlike forms with their vaguely human faces, all twisted and
hairy.
Spider Gnomes, he thought in disbelief!
Then they were on him once more, bearing him down by the
sheer weight of their numbers. He was enveloped in a mass of
sinew and hair and thrown to the ground. He could no longer
summon the magic. His arms were being forced back, and he
was being choked. He struggled desperately, but there were too
many.
He had only a moment more to try to call out for help, and
then everything went dark.
XI
When he came awake again. Par Ohmsford found
himself in the middle of a nightmare. He was
bound hand and foot and hanging from a pole. He
was being carried through a forest thick with mist and shadows,
the dark crease of a deep ravine visible to his left, the jagged
edge ofaridgeline sharp against the night sky to his right. Scrub
and the dense tangle of grasses and weeds slapped at his back
and head as he swung helplessly from the pole, and the air was
thick, humid, and still.
There were Spider Gnomes all around him, creeping sound-
lessly through the half-light on crooked legs.
Par closed his eyes momentarily to shut out the images, then
opened them again. The skies were dark and overcast, but a
scattering of stars shone through creases in the clouds and there
was a faint hint of brightness beyond the drop of the ravine.
Night had come and gone, he realized. It was almost morning.
He remembered then what had happened to him, how the
Spider Gnomes had chased him, seized him, and taken him
away. Coil! What had happened to Coil? He craned his neck in
an effort to see if his brother had been brought as well, but there
was no sign of him. He clenched his jaw in rage, remembering
Coil falling, then sprawled on the ground with blood on his
face . . .
He wiped the image quickly from his mind. It was useless to
dwell on it. He must find a way to get free and return for his
brother. He worked momentarily against the ropes that bound
him, testing their strength, but there was no give. Hanging as
he was, he could not find the leverage necessary to loosen them.
He would have to wait. He wondered men where he was being
taken-why he had been taken in the first place, for that matter.
What did the Spider Gnomes want of him?
Insects buzzed in his face, flying at his eyes and mouth. He
buried his face into his arms and left it there.
When he brought it out again, he tried to determine where he