Shadowland. Spider World 06 by Colin Wilson

Further experiments were cut short as the door opened and the Magician came in. Niall braced himself, expecting to be discovered immediately, but as the Magician glanced at the boca, then around the room, he evidently noticed nothing unusual. He turned to the bench, where there was a polished wooden box, and opened the lid. He took something from it, then sat down at the bench and became absorbed in an object that was concealed by his body.

The boca, meanwhile, had withdrawn to the farthest corner of the room, where it sat crouched beside a black wooden armchair; with its hands between its raised knees, it looked like some giant stick insect. Since the Magician had come in, its air of menace had disappeared, although it continued to eye Niall warily. Niall, who had been terrified that its fixed gaze would warn the Magician of his presence, permitted himself to relax. Even so, he continued to feel an irrational fear that the loud beating of his heart would give him away.

At any minute, he calculated, the commander of the guard should be arriving. The half-mile walk uphill should take about ten minutes. After five of these had passed, he began to look around the room, looking for ways of escape in the event of getting out of the tube. Meanwhile, in total silence, the blue energy bubbled and surged like boiling water, making his skin tingle and producing a burning sensation. Its smell reminded Niall of sea air on a stormy day. He had no doubt of its nature, for he had detected its presence in Quinella, Selena, and every other woman with whom he had recently been in contact. It was pure erotic energy, and in this undiluted form it produced in him a feeling of elation mixed with mild nausea.

This explained why women pressed themselves against the kalinda tree; it alleviated the discomfort. And that, he suddenly realized, must be the reason the Magician refused to allow marriage among his subjects. Frustration increased the feverish sexual energy that pervaded the air of the city like a fine moisture. In effect, the kalinda tree acted as a demoisturizer that absorbed it and transferred it to the laboratory.

Niall was startled by a tap on the door. The Magician grunted with irritation and went to answer it. As he did so, Niall’s attention was caught by something on the bench that reflected the light. It was a crystal sphere, about the same size as the one he had found in the cave of the cliff dwellers. This was the object that had absorbed the Magician’s attention.

Niall heard the guard at the doorway say: “Commander Jelko to see you, sir. He says it’s urgent.”

The Magician snapped: “What do you want?”

Jelko, his voice trembling with nervousness, said: “Excellency, the Citizens’ Committee is asking to see you.”

“What!” The voice was a shriek of incredulity. “How dare they? Tell them I don’t see anyone!”

“There’s a great crowd behind them, sir. They’re blocking the whole bridge.”

With two strides the Magician crossed to the window. When he spoke again his voice was ominous. “What do they want?”

“To see you. . .”

“I know that, idiot. What about?”

“I think it’s the peace treaty, sir. . .”

There was a silence, then the reply came in a cold, hard voice. “Tell your men to open fire on them.”

“Kill them all?” Jelko sounded stunned. He was so shocked that he forget to say “sir.”

“I don’t care how many you kill. The fools have got to be taught a lesson.”

Niall was still sufficiently in tune with Jelko to know what he was thinking: that Selena would be the first to die. He also knew exactly how Jelko would react: in his present state of mind, he would prefer to kill the karvasid.

Jelko’s voice sounded oddly calm as he said: “Wouldn’t it be better if I ordered them to disperse?”

It was then that Niall knew that Jelko was preparing to fire. This questioning of his master’s orders was calculated to draw an angry refusal.

But the Magician must have sensed this too. He turned to the boca and said something in a language Niall did not understand. With a speed that made Niall wince, it sprang across the room like some monstrous grasshopper and gripped Jelko’s throat. There was a snapping noise as it broke his spine. Finally, it twisted Jelko’s head around so it faced the other way. Then it dropped the body on the floor and turned toward its master.

The room exploded with a radiance that made Niall shut his eyes. When he opened them again, the Magician was holding out the globe, and the boca was backing away, its huge hands over its eyes; it returned to crouch in the corner, looking oddly like a beaten dog.

Niall had no time to wonder what had happened, for the Magician was staring at him, and he was suddenly aware that the blinding glare had made him visible. His body was shining as if it had become luminous.

The Magician came slowly across the room, holding out the radiant globe. Niall tried to move, but found he was paralyzed.

“You again.” He nodded his head slowly. “I might have known you’d be behind this.”

Niall felt like a fly trapped in a bottle, and braced himself for whatever might happen next.

What happened was that the Magician held out the globe, whose glare was painful to the eyes. Since Niall was paralyzed, he could not close his eyelids. The globe seemed to be changing, as if it had turned into a spinning planet. Then it seemed to be turning itself inside out at a bewildering speed. Finally, it expanded until it filled the room.

At that point it ceased to be a globe, and became the face of the Magician, which also seemed to fill the room. It was immense, like the face of some giant statue, and the huge eyes were staring into Niall’s, so that tiny red veins were clearly visible.

Niall realized he was inside the globe, looking out at the Magician, who was holding it between the palms of his hands. The gigantic face was smiling at him.

“It was kind of you to come to see me. It saved me the trouble of coming to see you.”

He placed the globe on the bench, then bent over it, so his face once again filled the room.

“Don’t look so anxious. We are going to be friends and allies. Aren’t we?”

Niall nodded. It happened without his volition. And he knew suddenly that he was trapped: not merely his body, but his brain and his whole being.

Oddly enough, he no longer felt afraid of the Magician. The giant face seemed to exude trustworthiness and kindness. A small part of Niall’s brain was astonished at this transformation. But the rest of him — including his consciousness — felt fixed and rigid, as if transformed into stone. This part of him had become the Magician’s puppet, with no willpower of its own. To be so completely controlled would have been a terrifying sensation, if there had been enough of him left to feel terror.

The Magician said: “Who taught you to make the spirit walk?”

“Simeon.”

“Who is Simeon?”

“A doctor from the city of the bombardier beetles.”

The Magician was now probing his mind.

“Who taught you how to find your way to Shadowland?”

“The trolls.”

For a moment, the tiny free portion of Niall’s consciousness was afraid he was going to be forced to betray the trolls. But since he was so rigidly confined in the grip of the Magician’s will, he was unable to feel the fear that might have betrayed him.

While their minds were in contact, Niall was also conscious of the Magician’s thoughts and feelings, the most dominant of them being satisfaction: a sense of good fortune that Niall had fallen into his hands so easily, and that his mind was so pliable. Like the easygoing Typhon, Niall would make a good servant.

Niall himself felt no alarm at the prospect. He felt he was completely under the domination of a being whose intentions toward him were benevolent, and who would probably become a friend. Resistance would have seemed folly.

The Magician said: “Another question. Are you really the chosen of the goddess?”

“Yes.” The word was unnecessary, since the purpose of the question was to get Niall to bring the answer to consciousness, where the Magician could inspect it. He nodded slowly.

“Amazing!”

What he saw clearly interested him deeply, and he would have liked to pursue it further. But at the moment he had other things to attend to. The chief of these was the revolt of his subjects. And since he was now in a good humor, he would deal with it strictly but justly. He was, after all, the benevolent father of his people. Nevertheless, they had no right to question his judgment, and must be made to understand that.