Gill hung on to the portcullis, screaming for help. But no help came. Only more spiders.
CHAPTER EIGHT
With the help of the two Spiritshadows, Milla managed to beat back the spiders' assault and drag Tal to the portcullis, to gain some slight shelter at their backs. But as the water spiders withdrew, it was clear it was only a temporary respite. They were climbing up the wall, spinning sticky threads of web behind them.
"They're getting ready to drop down on us," said Milla, watching the spiders climb. "They'll attack from above as well as in front. Gill! How do you open this portcullis?"
"From outside," sobbed the girl. "Crow will come and get us."
Milla scowled and looked back at the massed ranks of spiders. All those glistening eyes, reflecting in the light of her Sunstone. If only she knew how to create the Red Ray of Destruction, or some of the other light magic Tal had told her about. Even better would be her Merwin-horn sword or an Icecarl battle-ax. Then the water spiders would keep their distance.
But she had only her fists and feet. Even her knife was lost.
A sudden thought came to her. The other Freefolk had knives. Perhaps Gill did, too.
"Gill, give me your knife," she ordered. The Freefolk girl was still screaming through the bars of the portcullis, so Milla had to shout at her twice. Numbly, the girl pulled a long, thin knife from the side of her boot and handed it to Milla.
Milla smiled as she brandished it. The knife was metal and sharp, and it glistened in the light more brightly than the spiders' eyes.
She would make the spiders pay dearly for her life. She hadn't managed to kill any spiders with her blows, but she would now.
"Ten," she whispered. That seemed a reasonable number of spiders to take as a death-due for her own life. "And five for Tal."
The water spiders were almost directly above Milla. A thin wisp of spider-silk fell down across her shoulders. The front rank of spiders began to click and rustle as they moved forward in a single line. Their horrible hairy legs rose and fell in near-perfect synchronization as they edged forward, their fangs twitching and dripping with venom.
Their eyes, thought Milla. She would have to stab them in the eyes.
"Adras, Odris. I want you to hold each one in front of me, so I can stick them. Then throw it back and grab the next one."
"I feel sleepy," said Adras, yawning. "Very sleepy."
"Not now!" exclaimed Milla. But even as she spoke, the huge Spiritshadow slipped down the wall and spread out on the ground, across the still form of Tal.
"Adras!" exclaimed Odris and she slid down, too, to see what was wrong with him.
The spiders chose that moment to attack. Dozens of them rushed forward, running on one another's backs and getting tangled in their eagerness to get at their prey. Others dropped straight down, or swung in on webs.
Milla shouted her war cry, Gill screamed something--and suddenly the water spiders stopped and reeled back. Milla stared at them as they fell over each other trying to get away.
Surely her war cry wasn't that effective?
A moment later a great cloud of foul-smelling mist rolled past her. It was a foul smell she recognized, though she had last experienced it as a yellow ointment.
Ebbitt's water spider repellent.
She turned around. The portcullis was up, and there was Ebbitt and his maned Spiritshadow. The old man had a small barrel under his arm and a pumping device. He was working vigorously to spray repellent everywhere.
Gill was dragging Tal through the gate, and Odris was dragging Adras.
"Hurry up, hurry up, don't be late for the gate," said Ebbitt. Milla hurried through. Ebbitt backed after her, still spraying. When he was through, the portcullis rumbled down.
"A spider bit Tal," said Milla. "I couldn't stop it."
"Well, now, I don't suppose you could." Ebbitt didn't appear to be terribly concerned. "They're awful biters when the mood strikes them. Which is most of the time. You and young Gillimof will have to carry him."
"I told you not to call me that," Gill protested.
Milla was about to ask Ebbitt how he knew where they were. Then she saw Crow and the other Freefolk standing by a large wheel that obviously raised and lowered the portcullis. Instantly she pushed past Ebbitt, knife held low for a savage cut.
"Traitor!"
Before she could reach him, Ebbitt's Spiritshadow reared up between them and a sparkling loop of Indigo light wrapped around Milla's torso and pulled her back.
"Let me go!" roared Milla. "He promised to bring us to you and then dropped us in with the water spiders!"
"That's what we're supposed to do for suspicious visitors," said Crow easily. "And all
Chosen. So we can leave them in with the water spiders if we need to."
"That's true," said Ebbitt. "A precaution insisted upon by the leader of the Freefolk. Only the blue-tufted flowershrike here was a little slow letting me know."
"Crow!" corrected Crow, touching the black feathers in his hat. "You know I'm called Crow!"
"What about Tal?" asked Milla. "I told you a spider bit him."
"And something's happened to Adras as well!" added Odris. "I can't wake him up!"
Ebbitt peered at Odris, who had her fellow
Spiritshadow draped over her shoulders. He looked at them through both eyes, then only through his left eye, shutting the right. He tried looking with his left eye shut and right eye open, then with both shut.
Finally he opened both eyes again and said, "Storm Shepherds, I believe? And in free association, not bound?"
"Yes," said Odris.
"Well, won't lots of Chosen be running around gibbering when they hear about you!" Ebbitt exclaimed. "Now, don't worry about Tal and… um. Pladros. The spider venom is only a soporific in small doses, and the Fleefolk have an antidote."
"That's Freefolk, not Fleefolk!" corrected Crow.
"What is a soporific?" asked Milla. The word was unfamiliar to her, though much of the Chosen and Icecarl language was the same.
"Something that puts you to sleep," explained Ebbitt. "It can be a drug or something else, as in the sentence `Blueshrike's tales of his bravery were extremely soporific.'"
Gill and Clovil laughed, but choked it back as Crow glared at them.
"Come on, then," said Ebbitt, clapping his hands. "Milla and Gill, you can carry Tal. We must be off to the Leefolk's lair. I mean the Weefolk's weir. That is, the Freefolk's fortress. Where is the Codex, by the way? Under your coat, perhaps? We'll need it for the meeting."
"It's up in the Mausoleum," replied Milla. "We had to hide it there. It
was too big to carry."
Ebbitt stopped and a look of genuine consternation spread across his face.
"You mean you left it behind? It's the one thing we really need! You should have left yourselves behind!"
"We brought it back from Aenir, and that wasn't easy," retorted Milla. "But we hid it. It will still be in the Mausoleum."
"No, no, no it won't!" Ebbitt howled. He started jumping up and down on the spot. "It can move of its own accord in the Castle, at least, if not farther afield. It will wander off! It could be anywhere!"
"It was too big to carry," said Milla angrily. "We were lucky to get away ourselves. Besides, it is nothing to me. I am returning to my people."
"It shrinks," said Ebbitt mournfully. "You could have carried it. Or asked it to follow you."
"I don't care," said Milla. "I will help carry Tal to your Freefolk Fortress and then I am leaving. I am going back to the Ice."
CHAPTER NINE
The Freefolk Fortress, as Ebbitt called it, lay on the far side of a deep chasm that went all the way down to the lava pools that the Chosen had tapped long ago for their complex heating systems of steam and hot water. As they approached the lip of the chasm, Milla could feel the heat rising up from the depths and could see the red glow.
The only way across was a narrow, makeshift bridge that precariously spanned the fifty-stretch gap. The basic structure of the bridge was two very narrow rails of the same golden metal as the Ruin Ship. But all the planking and the handrailings were made of crystal, metal, and scavenged material of all kinds that could easily be dismantled so that the bridge would be almost impossible to cross.
Fortunately it seemed solid enough as they crossed it, though Milla was careful to watch where she stepped and not put any undue reliance on the handrails. She and Gill were carrying Tal between them, so it was a slow progress. Odris was carrying Adras and complaining about it every ten or twelve steps.
Ebbitt led the way in his own peculiar fashion, stopping every now and then to spin around, or suddenly crouch down, or just stop and stare into space. His maned Spiritshadow watched him indulgently, itself always regal and controlled.