Shadowland. Spider World 06 by Colin Wilson

Typhon asked him, with affectionate solicitude: “Hungry?”

“Ravenous.”

“Then we may as well eat.” He sent out a signal, and the girl came in. “Bring in the dinner, Katia.”

Niall thought they had already eaten, and was glad to hear that the fish had been merely hors d’oeuvres.

Gerek asked Niall: “How did you get here?”

“On foot.”

“How long did it take?”

Niall did a quick calculation. “Seven days.”

“You did well. But why didn’t you use one of those balloons?”

Niall said: “I was afraid I might crash, like Skorbo.” He wanted to see how they reacted to Skorbo’s name.

But Gerek took it quite casually. As he helped himself to more wine, he said: “He didn’t crash.”

“No?”

“No, we brought him down. At least, the karvasid did. He won’t allow anyone to fly over us.”

Niall got the feeling that Typhon was not entirely happy with this conversation. But before he could ask further questions, Katia came in, pushing a trolley with wheels — Niall had seen only one before, in Doggins’ home. She began laying dishes on the table, much of the food being the same as the food Niall would have expected in his own palace: dishes of nuts, meat, fruit, stuffed small birds, and fishes cooked in a crisp batter. There were also some of the plump fishes with large eyes, such as he had seen in the lake, and little squidlike creatures no longer than a finger, also cooked in the batter. The drink was a flask of golden mead. Watching Gerek eying all this with undisguised greed, Niall was reminded again of his brother. The resemblance became even stronger when, as Katia withdrew, Gerek’s eyes followed her with a predatory gleam.

Niall took a plate and helped himself. As before, they ate with their fingers.

In this relaxed atmosphere he felt he could ask a question that had been troubling him.

“Why does Katia have no tongue?”

It was Typhon who replied.

“Here most women have it removed in childhood. The karvasid wanted to force them to learn to speak with their minds.”

Niall said: “But doesn’t it hurt to cut out the tongue?”

“No. They are in a drugged sleep when they have the operation.”

Gerek said: “I still think it’s cruel.”

Niall was relieved to hear him say this; the thought of women having their tongues removed outraged him.

Typhon said to Niall, in a tone of apology: “You see, the karvasid is oversensitive to noise.”

Gerek shook his head. “But why not make a law that forbids women to make a noise around the palace? It would be just as effective.”

Typhon nodded. “I agree. But you know the karvasid. He likes to do things his own way.” He addressed himself to Niall. “When he was building this city, the karvasid was convinced that our land would be invaded by spiders, and this made his temper explosive. No one should condemn him who does not know how it felt to have his city invaded and many of its people killed and eaten.” He turned to the captain. “I hope you will forgive me for speaking frankly.”

The captain replied: “I understand.”

Typhon turned to Gerek.

“But now there will be a peace treaty between our cities, and the days of mistrust will be over.”

“Wonderful!” Gerek smiled at Niall. “But are you certain the spiders will agree?”

It was the captain who interrupted. “He is the master of our city.”

Typhon added: “He was appointed by the goddess.”

Gerek looked astonished; he stared at Niall, but said nothing, evidently tongue-tied.

Niall felt the need to add some comment. “It is a long story, and I will tell it to you some other time.”

Typhon smiled at Gerek. “So now let our guest eat and drink. Perhaps you could take charge of him tomorrow, and show him the three levels? I have to spend the day with the karvasid.”

Niall said quickly: “And you will ask him about my brother?”

“I promise.” He signaled to Katia: “Bring us more wine — this time something less sweet.”

As they ate, Typhon told them the story of the discovery of Shadowland. This was obviously to relieve Niall from the necessity of talking; in fact, he was so fascinated that he almost forgot to eat. So was the captain, who had by now learned enough of the human communication wavelength to follow the story, and who listened with close attention. Even Gerek, who must have been familiar with it, listened closely — although it soon became obvious that the food and drink were making him drowsy.

Typhon described how Captain Sathanas, commander of the guard, had escaped with twelve companions from the downfall of the city of Korsh. They had tried to take with them the ruler of the city, Vaken the Fair, but he had been among the first to die when the spiders swarmed over the walls. The Faithful Band, as Sathanas and his companions called themselves, escaped through underground tunnels below the city, and sailed down a river that came out to the east. One of the band was drowned in the torrent — their first loss. (Niall found it all too easy to imagine how this happened, and shuddered.)

Through harsh winter weather they made their way north to the Gray Mountains. Two more of their number died in a landslide, and another was swept to his death over the great waterfall when he was trying to catch fish in the river. And finally, a snowstorm drove them to take shelter in a cave on the Mountain of the Skull. They remained there for two days without food, knowing that if they ventured out, they would freeze to death.

Noticing that some birds flew out of the depths of the cave, they went to investigate, and found a chimney that descended into the heart of the mountain. But they had no means of climbing down, and — of course — no wish to, since they had no idea what lay at the bottom.

Finally, when the storm abated, one of their number, a soldier called Vosyl, went out hunting, hoping to catch a snow-hare. He followed tracks into a thicket at the bottom of the mountain, and there found a cave, where he killed the hare. The sound of the gunshot startled the birds, and some of them flew inward, deeper into the cave. When Vosyl returned with the hare, he described what he had seen. The next day, they all went into the cave with torches and, more than a mile down a steep tunnel, discovered the lower entrance to Shadowland. And ever since that time men have used the phrase, “as lucky as Vosyl.”

Later that same day, the Faithful Band found their way into Shadowland. Some of them were afraid to go on, because they saw the ghosts, but Sathanas told them that if they went back, they would face certain death. And Shadowland was warmer than the world outside. So they went on, and when they found the great lake, they knew they were saved. That night they dined on fish until they could eat no more, and then slept the sleep of the weary.

The Faithful Band made their first permanent encampment by the side of the lake, and for six months they lived on nothing but fish and blue moss. They discovered that the moss on the higher slopes could be eaten, and that when dried out, it could be ground into a kind of gray flour from which they could make batter.

Niall recalled the spongy blue moss; it had not occurred to him that it might be edible. He also realized that the crisp batter he was now eating must be made from its flour.

Each day, Typhon continued, they explored Shadowland. They discovered the western cliff, where the birds nested, and the small northern lake, with its edible weed. And one day, they traced the river to its source, and discovered the northern entrance to Shadowland in the Black Gorge — a route that became impassable when the river was in flood in midwinter. They called the valley beyond it the Vale of Thanksgiving, because it was there that they first saw the sun after more than six months.

The Faithful had now been reduced to seven, since one of them had been struck by lightning. Five of the remainder wanted to move out into the sunlight again. But Sathanas advised against it. He knew that if the spiders learned of their existence, they would not rest until they had killed them all, or taken them back into captivity.

The captain interrupted to ask: “But why? You were no danger to them.”

Typhon nodded. “That is true. But the karvasid was sure they regarded us as a threat.”

Niall could understand the captain’s question. With a newly conquered city to organize, Cheb would have had better things to do than search for a few men who had escaped. Besides, spiders, being lazy, are naturally peaceable.