Shadowland. Spider World 06 by Colin Wilson

“One day, he and his brother saw some shepherds below in the valley. They crept down unseen, and from the shelter of a rock, they paralyzed two of the shepherds so they were unable to move or speak. They intended them no harm — they only wanted to know whether they could immobilize a human being. Cheb thought that humans were far stronger than they are, but on that day he discovered that they can be conquered by will-force.

“For many more years the spiders prepared their assault, determined to win a final victory and give the humans no chance to recover. They knew that if only a few men escaped, they would have to fight the whole battle over again. And at last, led by the grandson of Cheb the Hunter, who was also called Cheb, they surrounded the city of Korsh and locked their wills together like an unbreakable net. And every human being in the city was paralyzed, and Korsh became the capital of the Spider Lord Cheb.”

The troll was addressing these words to the captain, sensing that all this was new to him. The spider was still standing, although he had moved from the hearth, which obviously was too hot for him. Like birds, spiders were capable of standing for hours, or even days.

Now the captain asked: “Do you understand why human beings are so warlike?”

The troll turned to Niall. “Perhaps you should answer that question.”

It was a matter on which Niall had reflected a great deal, particularly since he had listened to Cheb’s account of the war that had led to the enslavement of the human race.

“I think that humans produce far more energy than they can use. Before the great comet, it had made them lords of the Earth. But even then they were becoming aware of the problem it created. Most animals spend their lives trying to get enough to eat. Man solved that problem and became the lord of the Earth. Yet even before the coming of the great comet, he was bored and dissatisfied because he had too much energy, and felt suffocated by leisure and security.” Niall was drawing heavily upon what he had learned in the white tower. “Then fate brought them their greatest challenge so far, and they had to seek new worlds. But those who were left behind soon became as violent and warlike as their ancestors of a thousand years earlier. Even though I am a human being, I cannot help feeling that they deserved to become the slaves of the spiders.”

As he spoke, he became aware that the trolls were listening to him with astonishment and a certain awe. They had taken it for granted that he was little more than a boy, and now he was speaking with the authority of one who knew the history of the human race. The old man said: “Where did you learn all this?”

The captain saved him the trouble of answering by explaining: “He is the chosen of the goddess.”

This caused a silence while they took it in. Then the trollwife said: “And why is the chosen of the goddess traveling without retainers?”

“I am trying to save the life of my brother.”

The old man asked: “Is your brother then a prisoner?”

At that moment Niall wished that he possessed the ability of the Mighty Cheb to transmit an enormous amount of information in one short telepathic burst, for he foresaw endless explanations. He said: “No. He has been poisoned.” He turned to the trollwife. “He may have only three weeks to live.”

The younger troll said: “Then perhaps we can help. My father knows all there is to know about poisons.”

Niall felt a sudden gleam of hope. The old man said: “Describe to me the symptoms.”

Niall explained how his brother had been feeling the edge of an ax that belonged to the assassins of Skorbo, and how he had cut the ball of his thumb on the blade. As he described the aftermath — the increasing fever, the occasional bouts of delirium — the old man shook his head.

“That is not an ordinary poison. It sounds like uusli, from the roots of the trekuta tree, which contains tiny living organisms that the karvasid can control, even from Shadowland.”

Niall said: “Is there no way of killing these organisms?”

“If the karvasid prepared the poison, almost certainly not. But there is a tree that can interfere with his mental vibrations — we call it the nirita tree.”

Niall recognized the mental image. “The abolia? We have already placed him in a chamber with two of these trees.”

“Then you have done all you can.”

The woman asked: “Can you not ask the goddess for guidance?”

Niall shook his head. “She would tell me that this is a problem I must solve myself.”

Her husband asked: “What are you hoping to do?”

“I want to speak to the karvasid face-to-face, and see if we can bargain for my brother’s life.”

“And that is why you are traveling to the northern mountains?”

“Yes.”

There was a silence as the husband and wife looked at one another with doubtful expressions, then at the old man. He stared thoughtfully into the bowl of his pipe.

“It might work. But you might find yourself paying a higher price than you expect.”

“In what way?”

“He hates the spiders more than anything in the world. If you placed yourself at his mercy, he would ask himself how he could use you against them.”

Niall asked: “Why does he hate the spiders so much?”

“Because he was in the city of Korsh when it fell to the army of Cheb. The spiders were allowed to gorge themselves on human flesh, and his wife and children were eaten.”

“What was his name?”

“In those days he was known as Sathanas. He was in charge of the guards who patrolled the city walls, and had a reputation as a strict disciplinarian. Soon after the fall of the city, he escaped to the Gray Mountains.”

“Have you ever met him?”

“No, but I have seen him. On his journey north, Sathanas camped with a few of his soldiers less than a league from here, and I made myself invisible and watched him. I have never seen anyone so consumed with hatred. And I guessed even then that he had learned the secret of the spiders.”

Niall looked at the captain, who was listening intently. It was for his benefit that he asked: “What is the secret of the spiders?”

“Why, the knowledge of the power of the mind. The spiders had seen their own people massacred, first by Ivar the Brutal, then by Skapta the Subtle, who burned the city of Cibilla, and after that by Vaken the Terrible, who drove the spiders to the cold lands of the north, where many froze and starved to death. That was when the spiders learned the power of hatred, and that in turn led them to the secret of the will.”

Niall said: “I have never understood how men dared to go on fighting the spiders after the death of Ivar the Brutal. Even then, the spiders had developed the ability to paralyze men with willpower.”

“That made men more determined than ever to destroy them. And they learned that if they could ambush the spiders before they were prepared, they had no time to unite their minds into a web of force. Vaken destroyed so many in ambush that he became known as the Spider Killer. He was lucky that he died peacefully before the spiders conquered the city of Korsh; otherwise he would have perished as horribly as Ivar the Brutal.”

Niall said: “Why was Sathanas allowed to live when Cheb invaded Korsh?”

“He was not. The spiders were hunting for him when he went into hiding in the caves beneath the city. He and a dozen men escaped in boats that were stored there.”

Niall remembered the ruined boats he had seen on the banks of the underground river, and suddenly guessed that they had been destroyed by Sathanas and his followers to prevent pursuit.

The old man said: “When I saw them, they were tired and dispirited — all except Sathanas, who held them together with the force of his will. I could see then that he would survive. But I could also see that he was driven by a hatred that might easily destroy him.”

Niall asked: “Did the spiders pursue him?”

“I don’t know, but I doubt it. They probably felt that he could do them no harm. That was a mistake, for Sathanas and his warriors discovered the entrance to Shadowland, and there he began to plan his revenge.”

Niall asked: “Where is the entrance to Shadowland?”

He felt like holding his breath as he waited for the answer.

“It is seven leagues to the north, on the side of the mountain called Skollen.”