“Through its mouth.”
“Impossible.” Niall pointed. In fact, the spider’s jaws were locked in the agony of death.
Doggins grinned. “Maybe the other end.”
Niall suddenly experienced a prickling sensation in his scalp; the idea that flashed into his mind seemed so absurd that he felt reluctant to put it into words. He said finally:
“I wonder if it’s possible. . . that the spiders are turning into squid funguses?”
“Doesn’t sound likely to me.”
Making a conscious effort to suppress his disgust, Niall peered into the open belly. Now he could see that the impression of seething movement was due to thousands of tiny creatures like maggots; but when he looked more closely, he could see that each one was a tiny squid fungus. Some of these — the larger ones — were attacking the others, and apparently eating them. And the attackers were growing so fast that they were expanding in size as he looked at them.
The largest of the funguses was roaming over the backs of its fellows like some brooding monster, and as it moved on, it left an empty space on the grey intestines, which was quickly covered again with smaller squids. In less than five minutes, the fungus had increased in size until it was as large as the palm of his hand. Niall pointed.
“Look. It’s absorbing them like one raindrop absorbing another. ”
Doggins gave him an odd look, and shrugged. “What difference does it make?”
“It means they must be made of the same substance.”
The cannibal fungus had started to heave its way out of the belly; both watched with a mixture of disgust and fascination. It made straight for Doggins, and tried to crawl on to his sandalled foot. He kicked it away violently, but his foot sank into it, and it clung to his toes. He brushed it off with his other foot. Again it tried to return. Niall said, laughing:
“You don’t have to kick it. Order it to go away. Use the thought mirror.”
“How?”
“Look, turn this side inward. Concentrate your mind. Then use the other side to direct your energy outward. That’s what it’s for.”
Doggins held the mirror in his hand, and turned it over.
“Concentrate — as you did on the glue flies.”
Doggins stared at the fungus, and a furrow appeared between his eyebrows. He shook his head.
“It doesn’t seem to work.”
“That’s because you’re not doing it properly. Gather your energies inside you. Then project them outward.”
Again, Doggins frowned with a kind of concentrated fury. Niall could see that he was failing to grasp the potentialities of the thought mirror. Instead of using the subtle energies of the heart and solar plexus, he was trying to use the crude force of his brain, exactly as if he was holding a Reaper. He reminded Niall of a man shouting at the top of his voice.
The fungus was still crawling towards his foot, and he was forced to step backwards. Then, suddenly, the fungus halted. It tried to move forward, reaching out with its pseudopodia; again Doggins frowned, and it halted. A look of delight appeared on Doggins’ face. “It worked.”
He scowled at the fungus and after a moment it began to move away. Doggins made a visible effort of concentration, and it halted, then moved towards him. Doggins shook his head.
“That’s unbelievable!”
He bent until his face was within two feet of the fungus, evidently under the impression that this would somehow increase the power he was exerting. At first nothing happened; then the squid began to push itself up on two pseudopods, as if trying to stand upright. Doggins grinned.
“I’m trying to make it turn over. Oh no you don’t!”
He frowned at the squid in time to stop it from moving away. He touched the thought mirror with his fingertips:
“You know, with enough of these things, we wouldn’t need the Reapers. We could beat the spiders at their own game.” Niall could sense his excitement.
The squid was now moving away fast. Doggins followed it, frowning. It halted. Then, once again, it began to move away, this time with unusual speed.
Doggins looked puzzled. “What the hell happened there?”
“Why?”
“It didn’t work.” He frowned again, standing over the fungus; again it halted, then moved on again. “I can make it stop, then it seems to change its mind. . . I must be getting tired.” He looked suspiciously at Niall. “Are you doing it?”
Niall shook his head. “It’s not me. It’s the force.”
“What force?”
“I don’t know what it is. But it’s some underground force that seems to control the squid funguses.” Doggins looked at him blankly. “Can’t you feel it? That’s what’s making it resist you.”
“I can feel something. . .” He took several strides until he was ahead of the fungus, then went down on his hands and knees. He scowled at it with the look of a demented gargoyle. The fungus started to move away, then halted. Then again, it began to slither away. Doggins screwed up his face until the veins stood out on his forehead and his eyes were almost closed. Suddenly, the fungus began to move back towards him. His face relaxed into a smile.
“That’s better!” He turned to Niall. “Now it’s stopped resisting.”
“Yes. The force seems to give up after a while.”
“How did you find out about the force?”
“I felt it the other night when that fungus was eating poor Cyprian.”
Doggins made the fungus turn over on to its back, where it lay helplessly, its pseudopodia writhing. With an effort, it finally succeeded in turning itself over again. Doggins made it turn back again. It was obvious that he was delighted with his new-found power. He said thoughtfully:
“I’d like to know more about this force.”
Niall shrugged. “It seems to spread out like ripples on a pond. Haven’t you ever heard of it before?”
“No.” As the squid struggled upright again, he made it turn over. “Although Simeon’s wife used to talk about something of the sort.”
Niall asked eagerly: “What did she say?”
“I don’t know. I never paid much attention.”
“Can we go and ask her?”
“Unfortunately no. She’s dead.” His eyes widened. “Hello, what’s happening now?”
Like an army of ants, squid funguses were suddenly converging on them from all directions. There was nothing menacing about their movement, they seemed to be impelled by curiosity. But it was clear to Niall that, if they stayed where they were, they would both be overwhelmed by sheer numbers. He said: “Let’s go.”
But as soon as they began to stride towards the hillock from which they had started, the funguses moved faster. Their speed was astonishing; they seemed to move over the ground like a grey tide. Soon they were surrounded by funguses on three sides. As they started to run, the grey tide flowed in towards their feet. A moment later they felt the soft bodies squelching under their sandals. Doggins slipped and fell forward on his hands; within moments squid funguses had covered both hands, and were moving swiftly up his arms. He shouted with anger and disgust, and began brushing them off; they left small red marks behind. Niall halted for a moment, and in this time the funguses began crawling up his legs; they felt cold and soft, like a slimy caress.
Both of them began to run towards the line of scorched grass that marked the limit of the devastation. Ahead of them lay the almost vertical bank that had been carved out of the earth by Doggins’ Reaper; they tried to scramble up, but slipped back. Doggins began plucking frantically at the squids that now covered his arms and shoulders. Fifty yards to their right, the bank was less steep. They ran towards it, slipping on the soft bodies. A few more strides carried them beyond the tide of squids; Niall gained the top of the bank with a headlong rush, then turned and helped Doggins. He saw, to his relief, that the squids had halted at the foot of the slope, and were making no effort to climb it.
Doggins had succeeded in pulling off most of the funguses, and trampled them violently underfoot. Niall preferred to use the power of his mind; one intense burst of concentration caused the grey bodies to retreat down his legs, leaving shining trails behind them.
Doggins began to scrub off the slimy deposit with handfuls of withered grass; he was cursing with disgust.
“Filthy creatures. I wish I’d brought the Reaper.”
“You’ve got the thought mirror.”
“True.” He suddenly became cheerful again. “But it’s not as fast.” He looked down at the army of funguses; they were beginning to drift back towards the dead spiders. “I wonder what made them attack us?”
“The force. It doesn’t like being overruled.”
“But what is it?”
“Your guess is as good as mine.”