Shadowland. Spider World 06 by Colin Wilson

“And do you have to do it very often?” The question was accompanied by a twinge of jealousy.

“Not often, but sometimes.” She must have noted the jealousy, for she added: “I had to do it last night, or the man would have died.”

Niall did not have to ask the identity of the man; he could read in her mind that it was Drusco, the overseer who had been flogged for failing to meet his production target.

She smiled at him and went out; the bolt slid into place.

Niall felt curiously disturbed, half-troubled by some thought that refused to emerge into the light of full consciousness.

Now that he was feeling better, the cell seemed intolerable — cold, damp, and drafty. Was this why the Magician had allowed Umaya to restore his energies — to make the place twice as unbearable? But at least his mind was now feeling alert again, and could return to the question of how he could escape.

The first possibility was Umaya. Yet although their close physical contact had made him aware that she found him attractive, she was undoubtedly too afraid of the Magician to help him.

It was as he was thinking about her that he realized that their minds were still in contact. He was aware that she had now climbed two flights of stairs and was about to enter the guardroom, behind which lay the two small rooms that she shared with her father. With a little effort, Niall was able to watch her close the door behind her, then place the box with the lake weed in a drawer and lock it, hanging the key on a board next to the door. He was also able to see the clock on the guardroom wall, which showed half past five.

This reminded him that it would be dusk in the spider city, and that his mother would now be thinking about contacting him. He therefore turned on his back, closed his eyes, and immediately became aware of her presence. He was not surprised by the coincidence, having become accustomed to such things when his mind was alert.

Because she was inside his mind, she could sense his condition.

“Good. You feel better.”

“Yes, the jailer’s daughter gave me energy.”

“I can feel her presence.” Her voice suddenly became urgent. “Please be very careful.”

“Careful?” But as he spoke, she disappeared.

He was completely bewildered. This had never happened before. Sometimes his mother had lost contact because the energy of communication faded. But that could not have happened, for her voice had been strong and clear.

His first impulse was to try to reestablish contact. But some instinct told him not to do this.

What had she meant by: “Be very careful”? Did she mean Umaya? Why should he be careful of Umaya?

The more he thought of it, the more certain he became that his mother had broken off the communication. But why should she?

He reconstructed what had happened in his mind. He had told her that Umaya had given him energy, and she had replied that she could feel her presence. She had warned him to be careful and broken off communication. Suddenly he understood.

If she could sense Umaya’s presence inside him, then she must have realized that Umaya could read his thoughts.

And if Umaya could read his thoughts, then so could the Magician.

For, like the Spider Lord, he could read the minds of any of his subjects.

This, he now realized, was why the Magician allowed her to give energy transfusions to prisoners like Niall and Drusco. It meant he had access to what they were thinking.

Completely unaware that she was doing so, Umaya was serving as a telepathic link with everyone in the prison.

Niall felt stunned at his own stupidity, and at the same time, relieved that the consequences had not been more serious. If his mother had not grasped the danger, the Magician would have learned about the crystal globe. For only moments before he had spoken to her, Niall had been about to turn his thoughts to the problem of escape. And the trolls and the crystal globe would inevitably have played a major part in those reflections.

And that would have been a disaster. When Niall had asked the trolls whether he should take the crystal globe to Shadowland, the grandfather had replied: “No, for that would make him invincible.”

Nevertheless, there was still one possibility that troubled him. It was now obvious why his mother had broken off communication — because she was afraid that the Magician might have direct access to Niall’s mind. In which case he might, at that very moment, be listening to their conversation. She was afraid what Niall might reveal.

Fortunately, Niall knew her fear was unfounded. The Magician had no direct access to Niall’s thoughts. After six months among spiders, Niall became instantly aware if someone tried to probe his mind.

But was it possible that the Magician had already learned about the existence of the crystal globe through Umaya? That thought turned his heart to lead. For as they had been engaged in a mutual exchange of energies, their minds had been completely open to one another, as if they had exchanged identities.

But a moment’s thought reassured him. Niall knew enough about telepathy to be aware of its limitations. Unless a thought was very close to the surface of the mind, like a fish swimming on the surface of the sea, then it was unlikely to be noticed. After all, the depths of the sea contained millions of fishes. While they had been exchanging energy, Niall had been given full access to Umaya’s past life. He understood a great deal about her history, and what kind of a person she was. Yet he did not even know the answer to such obvious questions as whether she had ever been in love, or whether her mother was alive. And his own thoughts had been far from the trolls and the crystal globe. It had been wholly focused on the relief of absorbing energy. So it was virtually impossible that she knew anything about the globe.

Even so, the realization of how close he had come to betraying his secret made Niall shudder. It was obviously pure luck that had saved him.

This thought engendered a strange glow of optimism, accompanied by a flash of insight. The optimism sprang from the sudden realization that he had always been lucky. Even as a child he had never been afraid of the dangers that surrounded their desert habitat — giant scorpions and tiger beetles and saga insects — because he had an odd sense of invulnerability. He had, it is true, experienced despair when his father had been killed and his family abducted by spiders, yet when he found himself treated as a privileged hostage in the palace of King Kazak, and held Merlew in his arms, he realized that his luck had never deserted him.

And now he knew how close he had been to betraying the trolls and the whereabouts of the crystal globe, he once again had the feeling that some providence was looking after him.

The conclusion was equally clear. All Niall had learned about human history in the white tower had convinced him that the Magician could not win. Such people always brought about their own downfall.

The question that now interested him was how that that downfall would come about, and whether he was destined to play any part in it.

Niall was dozing when Umaya brought his supper. This consisted of a cup of water and a slice of bread — although he was pleased to see that the bread was buttered. As she turned to leave, she reached into the pocket of her smock and placed something wrapped in cloth on his plate. It proved to be a small but plump fish, still slightly warm. It was oily and salty, like the fish at Typhon’s house, but Niall was so hungry that it tasted better than any fish he had ever eaten. He had deliberately not spoken to Umaya; he was afraid that she might divine that he was shielding his thoughts from her. It was unlikely, but since he now felt so close to her, it was a risk he dared not take.

After eating, he lay down, still hungry, and set out to induce a state of calm. What he wanted to achieve was the point of deep relaxation that he had experienced in the cave of the chameleon men. He began by conjuring up the taste of the earthy water and the sense of peace that followed, then emptied his mind, and focused on achieving a deeper and deeper state of tranquillity. After a few minutes, all tensions dissolved away, and he entered the timeless state of total relaxation. His mind was now attuned to the processes of nature: to the slow drift of clouds, to rain falling on leaves, to roots that absorbed the energies of the Earth. His heart was beating so quietly that it seemed to have stopped, and he had a strange sense that his body did not belong to him.