“That’s enough of this bundling! If you’re not careful, you’ll both lose your ears.”
Niall put her down guiltily, and Dona turned away, abashed. Then, to Niall’s surprise, Odina said:
“You’re quite right, commander. But these people are savages who haven’t seen one another for a long time. I’ll make sure they behave themselves.” She gave her a winning smile. The guard shrugged ill-humouredly and turned away.
“I’ll bundle you later when there’s no one around,” Niall whispered to Dona.
She blushed rosily, and Niall’s heart turned a somersault. In the semi-darkness of Kazak’s underground city, he had never noticed how pretty she was. In the months since he had last seen her, the thin child’s body had filled out, and the shapely arms and shoulders were tanned.
Runa and Mara also looked sunburned and healthy; and both were distinctly plumper. When Runa asked “Where’s daddy?” Niall realised that she was unaware of her father’s death. Fortunately, Mara changed the subject by asking Veig to tell her a story. Niall and Dona sat at the end of the bench and looked at each other. He felt grateful to Odina when she wandered across the lawn to talk to the guard.
“Why are you wearing that blue dress?” he asked.
“I’m one of the nursemaids. I help take care of the children. I’ve been given Runa and Mara to look after.”
“Do you like it here?”
“Oh yes, I love the children. But it’s a bit lonely without mummy.”
“I’m going to see Kazak tonight. Would you like me to ask him if you could go and work for him? He lives in a beautiful palace.”
Her eyes lit up for a moment. “Will you be there?”
“No. I have to start to work tomorrow.”
Her face became sad. They looked at each other and realised that it might be a long time before they met again. Suddenly, he wanted more than anything in the world to hug and kiss her. Looking into her eyes, he was aware that she shared his desire. But in the presence of the guard — who kept glancing suspiciously towards them — it was impossible. Instead, they cautiously allowed their hands to touch.
Niall was interested to observe how far their minds seemed to be in tune. He was not making any conscious effort to read her thoughts, yet was as aware of them as if they were inside his own head. It was as if, in the excitement of rediscovering one another, their mental lives were interpenetrating.
The guard changed her position so she could observe them over Odina’s shoulder. Curious to know the cause of her hostility, Niall tried tuning in to her mind. It was unexpectedly difficult, and for a moment Niall suspected that she was aware of his efforts, and was deliberately blocking them. Yet her face, as she listened to Odina, seemed to betray no such awareness. He tried again, and was suddenly struck by a strange suspicion: that the woman’s mind was inaccessible because it was not functioning on the normal human level. A moment later, his efforts succeeded, and he realised with a shock that he had been correct. This was not the blankness he had observed so often in the inhabitants of the spider city, which was almost a form of absent-mindedness. This was the strange, watchful passivity of a spider waiting for its prey to fly into the web. Incredible as it seemed, he was looking at a human being whose mind functioned like that of a spider.
Dona, he noticed, was looking at him curiously, aware that something unusual was taking place. Yet because their minds were in harmony, she made no attempt to gain his attention; she was curious to know what was fascinating him so much.
Now, suddenly, Niall could see exactly why the guard was watching them with so much hostility. She detested savages, regarding them with contemptuous superiority. The sight of Niall and Veig filled her with antagonism. But Odina was her superior in rank; so unless Niall or Veig broke the rules, she had no right to object. The force of her dislike was so strong that Niall felt himself colouring with anger.
She seemed totally unaware that Niall was observing her mind. Something about her attitude reminded him of the tent spider, although the force of her vitality was far stronger. Impelled partly by malice, partly by curiosity, Niall tried the experiment of implanting an idea in her mind; he tried to make her feel that someone was staring at her out of a window of the nursery building. For a few seconds, nothing happened; the woman continued to listen to Odina, nodding her head and keeping Niall and Dona under observation. Then, as if she could stand it no longer, she turned abruptly and stared towards the nursery. Niall was astonished by the success of his experiment. He tried willing her to raise her hand and scratch her nose. This time she obeyed without hesitation. Niall found it almost unbelievable. She was obeying his will without even being aware of it. He made her shift from one foot to the other, fiddle with the axe at her belt, reach round to scratch the small of her back. Finally, he made her look intently towards the nursery building, trying to identify the source of her vague discomfort. While she did this, he took the opportunity to lean forward and snatch a kiss from Dona. When the guard looked back again, they had just separated.
A few minutes later, Odina turned and made a signal to Dona. It had evidently been prearranged.
“I have to go now,” Dona whispered. “I’ve got to distract your sisters so they won’t cry when you go.” She glanced round to make sure the guard was looking the other way, then reached up and briefly caressed Niall’s cheek. Then she stood up and took Mara by the hand. “How about a game of hide and seek? Come on — you and Runa run and hide, and I’ll come and find you.”
A moment later, Runa and Mara were almost out of sight among the bushes and Odina signalled that it was time to leave. Niall tried to catch Dona’s eye for the last time, but she was already hurrying away across the lawn.
As he climbed back into the boat, Niall’s mind was a seething ferment of questions and insights. Unaccustomed to sustained rational thinking, he felt as if his head was going to burst.
One thing seemed very clear. The nursery guard was not a spider; she was a human being. So if her mind resembled that of a spider, it must be because it had been shaped and moulded by the spiders — moulded from such an early age that it had taken the imprint of the spider mentality. After all, Veig had “moulded” the pepsis wasp and the ants until they were, in some respects, almost human. . .
This seemed to explain how the spiders controlled their servants. Unlike the bombardier beetles, they seemed to have no obvious form of communication. That was because it was unnecessary; they merely had to implant an idea, a suggestion. Every one of the servants of the Death Lord contained a second self; and that second self was a spider. . .
So long as the spiders controlled this second self, they were the undisputed masters of their human slaves. But what they had not anticipated was that another human mind might take advantage of their training and achieve direct control of their slaves.
And now, for the first time, Niall was suddenly aware of why the Death Lord was so anxious to uncover his secret. If human beings could master the techniques of mind control, then the days of spider supremacy were numbered. Like a tame insect, the slave-mind was a lock that could be opened by more than one key.
As these thoughts struggled to find expression in words, Niall was studying Odina. Compared to the nursery guard, she was indisputably a true human being. Yet even in her, Niall could detect that curious blankness, as if a part of her mind had been put to sleep. That blankness, he now recognised, was a sign that her mind had been violated by the spiders. Her mental privacy had been stolen, and she was not even aware of it.
At the moment, for example, she was wondering what to do with the “savages”. Her present situation made her vaguely unhappy. She was accustomed to living her days according to a strict routine. Although the routine varied, its rules were inflexible; for every problem, the rules had an answer. But now she was not sure which of the rules applied. She had offered to take charge of the savages because it was obviously incorrect for them to be wandering around alone. Now she had done her duty, she was not sure what to do next. At the moment, she intended to take Siris back to the women’s quarters. But that would still leave the problem of what to do with Veig and Niall. . .