Yet in spite of the anger and misery, a part of him remained calm; this was the lesson he had learned in the past few weeks. As he stared into the web, he imagined that he still had the thought mirror suspended round his neck; then he imagined that he had reached inside his shirt and turned it. The anger galvanised his will; once again, he experienced the sudden sensation of concentration and power. The feeling of helpless misery evaporated, and was replaced by a savage determination. It was like waking up from a deep sleep. He realised with a shock how close he had been to surrendering his will, and knew that this would have been the supreme stupidity. His will was the only thing about him that could not be broken or controlled.
His body remained in the power of the Death Lord; his eyes stared straight past his mother, into the darkness of the web. He could sense that the Death Lord was enjoying this moment, savouring his sense of total power. This gave Niall time to consider his position. The Spider Lord intended to force him to pronounce the death sentence on his family — perhaps even to execute them. He believed that this would destroy Niall’s will and remove the last vestige of his freedom. Therefore it was imperative that Niall should refuse to allow this to happen. His only way of defying the Spider Lord was to refuse to surrender his will. This thought gave him a certain grim satisfaction.
It was then that he suddenly understood the final message of the empress plant. He had asked: Is there nothing you can do to help? The response had been a revelation of power. It was as if the plant had said: You don’t need my help; you can do it yourself.
The answer lay in this refusal to surrender. While the will remained unbroken, the mind remained unconquerable. Hope lay in this strange power of the mind over the external world: a power that the mind itself failed to understand.
Yet how could this power help him in the present circumstances? As he peered into the darkness, he summoned his double vision, and tried to penetrate the shadows that concealed the Spider Lord. It was impossible: some force had been interposed between them like a curtain.
The Spider Lord said: “Speak to your family.”
Niall’s face turned towards Veig, and saw there was no one there. His family had disappeared. The spot where they had been standing a moment ago was empty. The rigidity of his nervous system prevented him from feeling surprise; the power of the Spider Lord controlled even the beating of his heart. Suddenly he understood what had happened. He was continuing to look through his second pair of eyes, and they showed him that his family were empty shadows, delusions conjured up by the Spider Lord. As soon as he allowed his double vision to fade, his family reappeared. They stood facing him, their eyes staring from behind the eye-slits in the hoods. He marvelled at the completeness of the illusion. His mother was dressed in the same shabby animal skin that she had worn last time he saw her; the children still wore their blue nursery uniforms, now crumpled and grubby. The Spider Lord was reaching into his brain and making him dream.
He heard his voice say: “I am ordered to tell you that you have been sentenced to death, in order to expiate my crime against the people of this city. You are all to die immediately. Which of you wants to be the first?”
Mara tried to run towards him, then tripped and fell as she reached the limit of the rope. Involuntarily, Niall tried to reach out to save her, but found himself unable to move. Her fall made Siris stagger slightly, and she half-turned and bent down, trying to help Mara with her tied hands. Now Niall understood why they were wearing the fur hoods; a single glimpse of their faces would have made him aware that they were phantoms of his imagination. The Spider Lord lacked the subtlety to make a human face reflect a human soul. So he had covered their faces, and gagged their mouths so they could not speak. But now he knew they were illusions, Niall could see that even this touch was unconvincing. Even a gagged person can make some kind of noise; these phantoms were silent.
The Spider Lord said: “If no one is willing to volunteer, you will have to make the choice yourself. Which one is to die first?”
Niall felt his hand rise up and point to Veig. The Spider Lord said: “Very well. Since you have chosen.”
A blow made Veig stagger forward, so he half-fell to his knees. Then his body was lifted clear of the floor. His limbs writhed in agony as an invisible iron fist closed around them. A muffled scream came from behind the gag. Then there was a sound of cracking bones. A moment later, his ribs caved in, and his body began to distort. The muffled screams suddenly ceased. Blood began to drip from the broken limbs. It was as if a sponge was being squeezed until it contained no more moisture. Blood splashed on the floor; then the crushed body was allowed to fall. It lay like a trampled doll, the head twisted backwards on the broken neck, the eyes still staring through the eye-slits of the mask.
The voice of the Spider Lord said mockingly: “Now, who shall be next?”
Niall was horrified and enraged; even though he knew it was a delusion, the violence still shocked him. If he had possessed the power, his fury and hatred would have destroyed every spider in the city. As it was, the anger reinforced his determination that nothing would break his will. Vulnerability came from within; while his will was unbroken, he was indestructible, and the Spider Lord could be defied for ever. His vital powers clenched inside him like a fist, and the result was a kind of inner explosion of rage and contempt.
All at once it was as if he had contracted beyond some inner limitation. The fury freed his nervous system from the iron grip of the Spider Lord, and his heart was suddenly like a dynamo driving the blood through his veins. What happened next was already familiar to him. There was a flash of perception, a recognition of the nature of freedom — that it meant that he was free here and now — followed by a surge of pure delight. Then, once again, another force seemed to rise up from his inner depths, sweeping aside the normal boundaries of personality and bringing again the absurd recognition that he was not himself. This force dissolved the paralysis in his limbs, so that he could move again. He felt the will of the Spider Lord flinch, as if trying to avoid a blow. His lips remained tightly closed, yet it was as if his whole being had uttered a shout of triumph, which seemed to illuminate the room like a flash of light. Then, for the first time, his gaze was able to penetrate the tangled forest of the web.
What he saw made him breathless with astonishment and incredulity: not the mighty shape of the Death Lord with a hundred eyes, but a host of smaller spiders whose black bodies covered the web like entangled flies. Some of these were already moving nervously towards the corner of the web, causing it to tremble and vibrate. For a moment, he suspected that this was some further illusion of the Spider Lord. But as he stared, unable to believe his eyes, the light slowly increased, so that he could see the innermost depths of the web, and the spiders, as if recognising that further concealment was impossible, halted and stared at him with their beady black eyes. As he sensed their fear and bewilderment, it was no longer possible to doubt their reality.
He took a step towards the web, and the captain of the guard made a sudden movement. But as Niall turned and prepared to defend himself, the spider cringed away. He seemed to be illuminated by a pale blue light, which made the fine hairs on his body look as if they were covered with a chalky dust. Niall took another two steps, until he was standing on the spot where, a few moments before, the body of his brother had been lying. From there he could see into the web, whose crossed strands seemed to have become transparent. Facing him, in the heart of the web, was a small, shrivelled spider, whose body was grey with age, and whose size revealed her as a female. Unlike the others, she was standing her ground, staring back at him with a certain nervous defiance. She was obviously far older than any of the other spiders in the web — who, on closer inspection, Niall could see were also females.