Rise of the Spider Goddess (15 page)

Soon, they were within fifty feet of the temple. The guards had still not noticed. Nakor stopped and turned to Galadrion.

“How do you want to do this?” he asked, keeping his voice low. “If they have the chance to shout, it's over.”

Galadrion glanced over at the guards. “What about that sleep spell you did with Whoo?”

Nakor shook his head. “I'd have to be touching them. And even if I could get that close, the spell still takes a few seconds to work. It would give them all the time they needed to sound the alarm.”

“I think we're going to have to kill them,” Galadrion said.

Nakor nodded. “I don't like it, but I don't see any other way to get in unseen.”

“You realize that they'll come after us once they find the bodies?” Jenn asked.

Nakor's reply was drowned out by a loud scream. He tensed, momentarily fearing that their presence had been discovered. Any trace of weariness vanished from his features.

Suddenly, a convenient distraction arrived!

The sleeping guard leapt to his feet, wiping drool from the corner of his mouth with one hand. He swung his arms back and forth once, loosening the muscles.

Someone's screaming! Time to leap into action…just as soon as I do some warm-up exercises and stretches.

“That came from inside the temple!” Galadrion hissed.

“I know,” Nakor answered.

Up ahead, a woman ran out of the temple entrance. One of the guards stepped forward and caught her by the arm, pivoting on one foot to swing her to the ground. She started to get up, only to find the other man holding a dagger to her throat. She collapsed into a heap, sobbing.

“Wouldn't it be easier to just tie them up to begin with?” asked the guard who still gripped to the girl's arm tightly in his hand.

“Yeah,” commented the other, sheathing his dagger. “But Olara likes it when they try to escape. She likes to play games with them, getting their hopes up and all that.”

Because she's EVIL!

“Come on, get up,” said the first, nudging the crying woman with his foot. She looked about sixteen years old, with matted brown hair that came down to the middle of her back. She was dressed in a dirty white dress that did little to conceal her thinness.

“That girl looks like she hasn't eaten in a week,” Pynne whispered, outraged.

The two men dragged the weeping girl to her feet and began walking toward the center of the camp, leaving the temple unguarded.

“Let's go,” Nakor said quietly.

Thank you for your help, random sixteen-year-old girl! We'd try to save you, but we have Important Quest Stuff to do. Plus we already have one teenage girl in the party, so our quota's full! Sorry.

Moving swiftly, they made their way to the temple entrance. It consisted of a dark crack in the cliffside, barely big enough for a grown man to fit through. A faint light could be seen from within.

“Go,” Nakor said, waving the others on. A slight fluttering of wings told him Whoo and Pynne had landed and were walking inside. Jenn followed behind.

Galadrion was ducking down to enter when they heard the scream. She looked back.

From the temple, there was a clear view to the center of the city. They could see the back of the girl, arms stretched out and tied between two trees. She was struggling madly to escape, nearly dislocating her shoulders in her efforts to yank her wrists free.

“Nakor,” Galadrion began.

“I see it,” he answered. In front of the girl, Olara stood dressed in a shimmering black robe. All around her, priests watched silently as she slowly drew her dagger. The girl stopped struggling and moaned in terror.

“What's going on?” came Jenn's voice from within the temple.

Nakor looked at Galadrion. His face was a stone mask, hiding whatever he was feeling.

“Inside.”

Galadrion looked over at the girl, who stared in horror at the advancing goddess. “Don't be afraid,” Olara said with a smile, “it will all be over soon.”

“Now!” Nakor hissed. Galadrion stared at him. The mask was gone, replaced by an expression of helpless fury.

Yes, a nameless teenager is being killed, but the REAL focus is Nakor's angsty elf-pain!

I wanna be the angstiest,
Like no one ever was!
So much elf-pain, throughout the quest,
To wallow is my cause!

Um…yeah, that probably only made sense to those of you familiar with the Pokemon theme.

The priests started to chant rhythmically in the distance. Galadrion nodded slowly and ducked inside. Nakor followed, closing his eyes as he heard the screaming begin again.

* * *

They were in a small tunnel, barely tall enough for Nakor or Galadrion to stand in. Nobody said anything about the muffled screams from outside.

“This should open up into a large room up ahead,” Nakor whispered. “That's where the light is coming from.”

The tunnel twisted and turned, causing Pynne and Whoo to bump their wings more than once. Flame cooed softly from Nakor's shoulder, disliking the cramped tunnel.

Then they came around another bend in the tunnel and saw a room before them. It was large and roughly octagonal, with doors in each of the eight walls. A black obsidian altar stood in the middle of the room. To either side of the altar was a small white pillar, supporting a crystalline statue of a spider. Torches were mounted on the walls between each of the doors.

Jenn looked up. High above them, enormous stalactites loomed like knives, ready to pierce any who entered. She swallowed hard.

“Most of the doors lead to the lower levels of the temple,” Nakor said. “That's where we had to go to find the gems, two years ago. It was down there that I fell through the trap door.”

“Do you remember which door?” Jenn asked.

Nakor grinned sheepishly. “Most of the tunnels below are interconnected. But I don't remember which doors lead to the tunnels.”

“Then we do this the hard way,” Whoo commented.

Nakor felt the pixie move past him in the darkness, walking into the room. Taking a deep breath, he followed.

Once they were all inside, they stopped.

“Any guesses?” Pynne asked.

Jenn started to say something, then paused to look curiously at the two pixies. “Why aren't you invisible?” she asked.

Pynne blinked. She looked over at Whoo, who stared back in amazement. “Uh oh,” he said.

“You said magic doesn't work in the temple?” Pynne asked.

Nakor nodded.

Whoo muttered something incomprehensible under his breath.

They all stopped as one of the doors opened. A large man walked into the room, whistling softly to himself. He was dressed in black trousers and a leather weapons harness across his burly chest. At his belt hung a ring of keys. He stopped abruptly and stared at the intruders.

Nobody moved. Then Nakor smiled hesitantly. “Hi,” he said.

The man reached over his shoulder and drew out an enormous broadsword. Then, before anyone could react, he stepped forward and plunged the blade down into the altar. Nakor blinked in confusion.

“Don't mind me. I'm just here for the nightly altar-stabbing.”

Whoo and Pynne looked at each other. Then, with a shrug, Whoo pulled his bow off his shoulder and fired in one smooth motion.

Oh, sure. Let that girl die, but you'll fight to protect the altar?

The arrow pierced the center of the leather harness, sending the man stumbling back into the door.

“Show off,” Pynne commented. Then Galadrion vaulted over the altar and used a dagger to finish the man off.

Whoo flew over to join her, studying the man. Bending down, he retrieved the keys from the man's belt.

“Why do we always have to keep killing everyone?” Nakor asked sadly.

I literally started giggling when I read this line. Oh, Nakor. You poor, magnificently murderous angst-machine.

Whoo looked at him curiously. “I didn't see much of a choice.”

“Didn't you see the way he attacked that innocent, helpless altar?”

“I know,” Nakor answered. “I just wish there were a way to avoid it.”

“He would have tried to kill us if he had been a little more quick-witted,” Galadrion commented. “Maybe he would have tried to stab us instead of that altar.”

She looked closely at the surface of the altar, from which the hilt of a broadsword still protruded. “It looks like there was already a crack here for him to stick the sword into,” she observed.

Jenn ran over to study the altar. “I wonder what it does,” she murmured to herself.

Then Flame let out a loud shriek, flapping his wings while clutching to Nakor's shoulder. He looked down in confusion, trying to figure out what had frightened the bird. He cleared his throat, and the others looked at him expectantly.

“Those pillars didn't used to be empty,” he said.

Where two crystal spiders had been, the tops of the pillars were now bare. They followed Nakor's gaze to where the two spiders sat staring at them from the far side of the room.

The spiders are very sportsmanlike, and would never attack an opponent who wasn't ready.

As they watched, one spider moved with surprising speed at Nakor. Whipping out his rapier, he leapt to one side and lashed out. There was a metallic clash, and the spider turned to stare menacingly at him. It made a quiet tinkling noise as it began to circle around him.

Combat tip: always tinkle BEFORE the fight starts.

“Watch out!” shouted Whoo.

Jenn leapt up onto the altar as the second spider came racing toward her. Whoo fired an arrow at it, but the spider didn't notice.

Pynne flew into the air and began to gesture with her hands. Then she stopped, remembering the uselessness of magic inside the temple. She hovered, feeling helpless, as Whoo fired another futile shot at the spider.

That's right, magic doesn't work in here. Which means these are perfectly mundane giant crystal spiders, just like the ones you'd find in your back yard.

The spider at the altar stared for a moment. Then it cautiously began to scale the side, climbing after Jenn.

Jenn backed away, then made a running leap off the top of the altar, nimbly avoiding the protruding sword.

The spider dropped down and began to go after Jenn.

Struck by an idea, Pynne flew over and wrenched the sword from its resting place. There was a slight click as it came free, and she looked hopefully over to the spiders. There was no change. Frustrated, she dropped the sword with a clatter.

Nakor lashed out with his rapier again, driving the spider back with the force of his swing. It glared, its clear eyes reflecting Nakor's image back at him. Then, its pincers spread open and a small stream of clear liquid shot out at Nakor's legs.

I wrote about a battle with crystal spiders in a short story called “Mightier than the Sword.” In the story, the spiders had escaped from a book described as “typical fantasy crap, with goblins and dragons and elves and magic,” written by a “third-rate hack.” I swear to LeGuin, I wasn't thinking of this book when I wrote that story. At least not consciously.

He looked down in shock as the liquid hardened, encasing his lower legs in the same clear crystal that the spider seemed to be made of. Unable to walk, he swung his sword back and forth, trying to keep the spider at bay.

The spider circled around behind him, evading Nakor's swings. Then it approached, pincers chiming as they opened and closed.

Nakor turned as much as he could, unable to reach the spider with his sword. He watched as it came closer. Then a large object came crashing down, and the spider shattered into pieces.

He looked over at Galadrion, then down at the spider. He grinned. Galadrion had taken one of the heavy pillars and smashed it into the spider. Then Nakor raised an eyebrow. Galadrion was dressed in her customary white shirt and brown trousers. Where was her cloak?

Galadrion SMASH! Also, this is raised eyebrow count: 14

The second spider thrashed angrily, confused by the black cloth that blinded it.

Quickly, Jenn grabbed at the corners of Galadrion's cloak, pulling them together into a crude sack.

Galadrion walked over and took the trapped spider from Jenn. She whirled it over her head a few times, then sent both the cloak and spider hurling into a wall. There was a crashing sound, and splinters of crystal fell from within the cloak.

Nakor winced as he hammered at his glasslike prison with the hilt of his dagger. Shards of crystal were falling away, and one had sliced a finger. Wrapping his hand with the edge of his robe, he continued to smash his way free.

“We don't seem to be very good at remaining subtle,” Whoo observed.

With a strong jerk, Nakor wrenched one of his legs free. He grinned. “I guess we know what the sword did now, don't we?” Reaching down, he freed his other leg. “So, do you think they know we're here?” he asked.

“We weren't exactly quiet,” Pynne observed wearily.

There was a shout from the tunnel behind them.

“How dare you intrude upon this sacred site?” demanded a priest of Olara, stepping into the light. He raised a hand. “The price for such insolence is death.”

“Wait,” cried Nakor. “We have a coupon for half-price insolence!”

Then he shouted as Flame dove out of the air, clawing at his eyes. He ducked aside and the bird raked one of his cheeks with his talons.

Furious, the priest sent a bolt of green energy crackling at Flame, who dodged nimbly out of the way.

“I thought magic didn't work in here,” Jenn shouted.

Nakor concentrated and tried to cast a spell.

“It doesn't,” he said, wincing as the pain coursed through his veins. “I guess Olara's priests aren't playing by the rules.”

“Oh well,” Whoo commented, “I guess it's good that we have non-magical means at our disposal.” Then he sent an arrow toward the priest.

Presumably by shooting it from his bow, but you never know with this crew.