" Waldron raids the space between worlds for his soldiers now," she panted, maintaining a purely defensive fight. She slashed viciously across the insubstantial neck and almost lost her balance. The blade of the mist- creature sought out her flesh and left an ugly, deep cut that bled profusely.
He saw that simple sword play wouldn' t destroy this being. Summoning his magical powers, Lan fed the full force of his being into the flame spell. Lances of fire blasted from his fingers and engulfed the vaporous spirit. It screamed wordlessly and popped! back into whatever world it had originated on.
Lan abandoned his flame- spell in favor of a healing chant directed at Inyx' s wound. He closed to attack from the side when a shuffling noise alerted him of more immediate personal danger. He sidestepped the cyclopean giant confronting him, swung his blade, and employed a twist of the wrist to send the sword threatening Inyx' s life cartwheeling through the air. He returned to his own defense in time to catch the point of the Cyclops' s pike on the edge of his own blade. As he dropped to his knee to combat the overwhelming power, he heard Inyx' s blade whir and bite deeply into an unprotected side. The one- eyed giant bellowed and turned to face its new attacker. Lan' s admiration for the monster' s intelligence evaporated as he spitted it through the groin.
Both Lan and Inyx joined Krek in combatting a multiarmed beast. The creature lacked mobility, but it needed none. Apparently able to use nine swords effectively, it seemed able to fight to the last arm without moving. Lan changed his tactics and closed to sword and dagger distance. A quick bind carried two swords from his path, while his dagger pinned another. Inyx shot through the gap he' d formed and drove her blade into juicy, pulpy flesh. The nine- armed beast emitted a curious sigh and evaporated like fog in the morning sun, leaving only nine swords behind on the floor as mute reminder of its existence.
" We do well as a team, Lan," Inyx told him, clapping him heartily on the shoulder. He grunted wryly at the compliment, turning his attention to the wound- healing chant to close the gash on her arm. She glanced down at it as soon as she felt the magical fingers gently closing off tiny veins and arteries; then her eyes rose and locked with his for a moment. Again they recognized more than simple teamwork existing between them.
Uncomfortably, Inyx shifted about, no words coming to her lips. Lan finished his healing spell and felt the same strange need to speak and the inability to put his feelings to voice. Krek relieved both of their fumbling needs.
" We had best remove ourselves from this worldless place. We spiders usually love out- of- the- way interstices, but I fear my overwhelming weakness and outright cowardice will betray us all."
" Right, Krek. I:" and Lan felt the floor vanish from under him. As had happened before when they' d entered Waldron' s dimensionless maze, he hung suspended light years above the slowly spinning galaxies as he began his plunge to infinity. But this time the vertigo didn' t totally seize control of his senses and cause wild panic. Inyx' s arm brushed his and gave a reference point to the real world.
Or was it the real world? Nothing seemed to belong to the reality with which he was accustomed. The very fighters sent against them by Waldron were phantasms, ghosts, creatures of dubious existence. Reality flowed like a clear stream in the springtime, sometimes overrunning its banks, while at other times drying up almost entirely. Could he be so sure he wasn' t falling through space and time on an endless journey to death?
And if he fell long enough, mightn' t he find that timeless place where the dead resided?
To find Zarella!
His heart raced at the thought of the lovely woman. The heart' s beating stilled to nothingness. She was only a wisp of memory to him now. Gone, long gone on a world also vanished from his reality. Tears welled in his eyes at the thought of never returning, yet he' d had his revenge on Kyn- alLyk- Surepta. And it had been as ashes in his mouth.
The Resident of the Pit had been correct, all too correct. Surepta had found justice at his hand, but Lan felt no sense of revenge, of fulfillment at the other' s death. And still he spun through the galaxies yawning under his feet, seeing the slow march of stars and worlds without number.
" I witnessed a duel of wizards on a world similar to this one," came Inyx' s disembodied voice. " They turned the entire glade dark and sent us whirling through space at a furious rate. I closed my eyes and concentrated on what I knew had to be my proper surroundings."
Proper surroundings? Lan was uncertain what that was now. He belonged to the universe. He roved among the stars at will. He was lost in eternity.
But the woman' s words kept repeating over and over in his mind. Lan screwed his eyes tightly shut and pictured the Kinetic Sphere pulsating with its almost obscene pseudolife, the ebon darkness of the surrounding room, the high- gloss floor, the fire- blackened door leading into the courtyard, other doors leading off into unknown directions. The dizziness passed, and he fought to maintain his mental picture against the new assaults on his senses. The interworld creatures couldn' t harm him now; he had substance and they did not.
A sharp pain lanced through his leg. He stumbled and fell. He hazarded a quick look and saw a quarrel piercing his calf. Breaking off the squared head, he withdrew the shaft and tossed it away. Wherever it had come from, it wasn' t from the nothingness of the wraith- dimension he fought his mental battles in.
" Why am I afflicted with this insane urge to leave my web?" moaned Krek. " I was happy. No spider could have been happier. I was content swinging across the Egrii Mountains. But no, fool that I am, I took to wandering. Oh, why, why!"
Inyx vanished from sight. Lan swallowed hard and fought down the pain rising in his leg like the ocean' s surf. The illusions diminished in intensity, and Lan thought it might be due to the pain from his injury. Pain drove out all mirages of the mind. A scuffling noise drew his attention and the point of his sword. A muted cry, then a body fell lifeless to the floor.
" Thanks for your quick sword, Lan," the black- haired woman said. " I thought you were still whirling in your orbit around all space."
" To tell the truth, I was until that crossbowman pulled me back to the here and now." He grimaced and sat down on the floor to begin the healing chants.
Inyx crouched beside him, then looked up at Krek and said, " Guard us for a few minutes. His magics take too long to work." She ripped away his pants leg and used the material to expertly bind the wound. Although the quarrel had missed all important bones and tendons, the wound still burned as if infested by a hill of acid ants. " There," she said finally, " that' ll take care of you for a short while. Later, when we have the time, you can chant away the cut with your spells."
" You' re expert at this. It seems you spend as much time repairing me as you do fighting."
" I' m an old hand at both. Until my brothers were killed, I spent my spare time sewing them back together. And Reinhardt:" Her voice trailed off, and Lan saw the twinkling speck of an unshed tear forming in the corner of her eye.
" Reinhardt? One of your brothers?"
" My husband, now dead a full year and more." She stood and said sternly, " On your feet. We must still fight free of the castle."
She helped Lan to his feet, and he found he could walk- after a fashion. He wondered how much more fighting would be necessary for escape.
And to rescue Velika.
CHAPTER TWELVE
" I can' t believe we were allowed out of the chamber so easily," worried Inyx. " That is unlike Waldron."