Shadowland. Spider World 06 by Colin Wilson

The pale skin of the dead man suggests that he originated in some place where he has been deprived of light. With the aid of a “mind machine” in the white tower, Niall learns that Skorbo’s killers came from some region beneath the Earth, and that its ruler, whom Niall calls “the Magician,” is driven by a deep hatred of the spiders.

The third assassin also is tracked down, but proves to be already dead — an animated corpse.

After witnessing the execution of five of Skorbo’s accomplices, and the banishment of one of them who refuses to submit, Niall discovers the whereabouts of Skorbo’s “larder,” where his paralyzed victims are hung like carcasses in a butcher’s shop, awaiting their turn to be eaten. One of these is a girl, Charis, whose pale skin indicates that she is also from the underground realm of the Magician. Recognizing that Charis is his last clue to the whereabouts of the Magician, Niall decides to keep her in his palace until she can be restored to consciousness.

In the house that had been occupied by Skorbo’s killers, Niall finds froglike talismans carved from green stone, and realizes that they emanate a malevolent force. A mat of some kind of seaweed proves to be the means by which the assassins were able to draw vital energy from the girl who accompanied them.

Niall learns that Skorbo had once been lost in the mountains to the north of the Great Wall, after a crash landing in his spider balloon. Niall begins to entertain the suspicion that there may have been some connection between Skorbo and the Magician, and that Skorbo’s death may have been in revenge for some kind of treachery.

Niall’s attempt to learn more about the Great Wall, and the Gray Mountains, is frustrated by the fact that the spiders are almost totally ignorant of their own history. Then he learns that the greatest of all spider warriors, Cheb the Mighty, is kept in a state of suspended animation by the vital energy of young spiders, and that Niall, as the ruler of the spider city, will be allowed to question Cheb.

A journey beneath the city leads him to the sacred cave; there young acolytes bring back the great spider warrior from the land of the dead. Cheb describes how the spiders first learned to make use of human servants, who regarded themselves as spiders rather than human beings, and how these psychological hybrids helped Cheb to enslave all the remaining humans. Niall then speaks with the spirit of Cheb’s famous adviser, Qisib the Wise, and learns of the events that led to the building of the Great Wall.

Qisib tells of how Cheb’s successor sent his human servant Madig to select a site for a new city in the Gray Mountains of the north. Madig, alone of all his party, returned with a message for the Spider Lord that the Gray Mountains were the territory of the Magician, who would destroy any invaders.

The Spider Lord was incensed — particularly when Madig died, apparently of a slow poison that had been administered by the Magician. An immense army of spiders and human foot soldiers marched north, but were destroyed by a gale and a flood in the deep valley known as the Valley of the Great Lake. The Spider Lord and his councilor Qisib alone survived. After this catastrophe Qisib supervised the building of a Great Wall in what is now known as the Valley of the Dead.

Niall has no doubt that the storm was caused by the powers of the Magician.

Qisib recounts Madig’s own story of how his party was overwhelmed in the dark, blindfolded, and taken to some strange city, where the streets are silent and nobody speaks above a whisper. There, still blindfolded, Madig was ordered to carry a message to the Spider Lord, threatening him with destruction if he ventured into the Gray Mountains. Madig was told that if he did not return within thirty days, he would die and the other prisoners would suffer horrible deaths. Madig, of course, did not return, and died — as the Magician foretold — after thirty days.

When Niall returns from the sacred cave to his palace, he learns that his brother Veig, who has cut himself on the ax used to kill Skorbo, is dangerously ill. Grel, a young spider, detects the presence of some evil force in the palace. Niall tracks it down to his bedroom, where he has left one of the toadlike figurines that he found in the house of the assassins.

Niall destroys the force by cutting the figurine in two with an ax. But when the physician Simeon unites the two halves for a moment, the unknown force is able to destroy Charis, who was still lying unconscious in the next room.

After the destruction of the figurine, Veig seems to be recovering. But Grel points out that, like Madig, Veig has been touched by the evil power of the Magician, and will almost certainly die within thirty days.

Niall realizes that there is only one chance of saving his brother’s life: he himself must make the dangerous journey to the underground city of the Magician.

Part One

Niall stood on the balcony that overlooked the main square, and stared out over the darkened city. The stars in the black sky looked very cold and bright. At this hour, everyone, including the spider population, was asleep. Following the habit of a lifetime, most of his fellow citizens fell asleep soon after dark, and the same force of habit made those who wandered abroad at night glance nervously over their shoulders, as if afraid of being caught and punished. It would take at least another generation for human beings to behave as if they were free and could go where they liked.

He also, he realized, had become a creature of habit. Although he had been in this city for less than six months, he already regarded it as his home, and the thought of having to set out on a long journey made his heart contract with anxiety.

There was a tap at the door, so light that he wondered if he had imagined it. Simeon peeped into the room.

“I wondered if you were asleep.”

“No. I don’t feel tired.”

“Your mother doesn’t want you to go alone.”

“I know. I have told her it would be too dangerous to have companions.”

“Even me?”

“Even you. I feel I have just about enough luck to last me for the journey. It might not be enough for two.”

Simeon nodded. “I understand. Then why don’t you allow a spider balloon to carry you to the Gray Mountains?”

“Again, it would be too dangerous. There are eyes watching this city, and a spider balloon would be too obvious.”

Simeon said: “Then how do you propose to leave the city without being noticed?”

“By traveling underground.”

“Underground?” Simeon looked at him as if he doubted his sanity.

“There are underground tunnels beneath this city. They may have been made by men in the days before they were conquered by the spiders — perhaps as an escape route in case they were invaded.”

“You learned this in the white tower?”

“No. From the spiders themselves.”

But as he was about to tell Simeon about his journey beneath the city, he experienced a sudden sense of caution. It would involve telling Simeon about the sacred cave, and he knew intuitively that this was the most precious secret of the spiders, and should not be discussed with another human being — even as intimate a friend as Simeon.

Instead, he said: “I learned something else. Did you know that there is a river beneath this city?”

Simeon shook his head in bewilderment.

“Are you sure?”

“I have seen it.”

“Where does it come out?”

“I don’t know. Probably somewhere to the east.”

Simeon digested this in silence, then said: “And do you know where to find the kingdom of the Magician?”

“I know only one thing — that it is to the north of the Great Wall, in the Gray Mountains.”

“It could be a thousand miles to the north.”

“No. Have you heard of Madig, the servant of Kasib the Warrior?”

Simeon shook his head.

“Madig led an expedition to the Gray Mountains, and was captured by servants of the Magician. He was taken to some underground city where people spoke in whispers. . .”

Simeon said: “It is called Shadowland.”

Niall said eagerly: “You know about it?”

“It is a legend among the beetles.”

“What do they say?”

“Only that it is an underground kingdom in the north. They believe it is far away — hundreds of miles.”

Niall shook his head. “No, that cannot be so. For when the Magician released Madig, he told him to return in a month, or his companions would forfeit their lives. If Madig could make the journey there and back in a month, Shadowland cannot be a thousand miles away. A man on foot can only travel twenty or thirty miles a day — not much more than three hundred miles in two weeks. You agree?”