Spider Desert

by Ernst Vlcek

  Ice Claw removed his hard, cold hand from my mouth and turned off the flashlight that I was still hanging onto. I was incapacitated from my surprise.

  “Whwhere…” I started to say, but Fratulon shushed me to silence.

  It was only then that I had a chance to look about in my new surroundings. I found myself in a giant cavern. Behind me was a wall that appeared to swallow up all light that impinged upon it. Over me arched a great vaulted ceiling that I seemed to sense rather than see, because it, too, appeared to be composed of the same sort of absolutely dark material. In spite of this there was a pleasant and shadowless illumination here which seemed to come from no particular source yet appeared to emerge from everywhere.

  The large chamber had the appearance of an auditorium or an arena, tapering downward toward the centre in a basinlike formation. Instead of rows of seats in the circle, however, there were a number of convex elevations and humpshaped rises on which there were various protuberances. Hunching and crouching on these were the tall, lean figures of reptile creatures wearing broad cloaklike garments.

  Zagors!

  There must have been about 20 of them sitting on the humps near the central floor of the chamber. They uttered inarticulate sounds in some kind of chant while beating time with their throwing and cutting weapons. Their great unblinking eyes glowed with a ghostly greenish light as they gazed intently at the girl who lay in the arena’s centre.

  The agonized cry I had heard must have come from her.

  She lay stretched out on the ground, breathing laboriously. Her clothes hung in shreds from her body. Close to her head, a spear was stuck in the ground. As I looked at her, she grasped the shaft with her hands, supporting herself by it as she slowly got up. Meanwhile her eyes fearfully swept over the row of lizard like creatures who watched her with a predatory intentness.

  Suddenly she sprang to her feet and attempted to escape from the central area. She clambered onto the first rise, eluded a Zagor who sought to block her, pressed through a gap between several of them, and scaled the next tier beyond.

  One of the Zagors had followed her and when he came within range he thrust a barbed spear at her. The barb caught in her tattered cloak, jerking her back. The material tore loose, but the girl slipped backwards over the raised tier and into the arena again.

  As she did so she screamed in mortal terror.

  The Zagors loomed over her from right and left, striking out at her clothing with daggers, swords and lances. They were very adept at this and did not pierce the girl’s skin with a single thrust. In spite of this her arms and legs and face were already badly bruised and scratched.

  When she lay still on the ground once more, the Zagors, withdrew from her.

  “We can’t just stand here doing nothing while those monsters torture the girl?” I said, preparing to take action.

  Ice Claw grasped my arm and detained me. “Fratulon is always saying that you are calm and collected in every situation?” whispered the chretkor. “But it seems to me that only applies when a girl isn’t involved.”

  I shook him off. “I’d help any human in a case like this?” I declared.

  “Undoubtedly?” Fratulon answered, “but don’t you think, Atlan, that we should wait for a more favourable moment?”

  I had finally collected myself and realized that of course they were both right. It wouldn’t help the girl to just make a blind charge against the Zagors. We had to proceed with more intelligent tactics. Zagors weren’t as easily intimidated as the Ooths. They neither shied away from light nor feared any kind of energy weapon.

  “What do you suggest, Fratulon?” I asked.

  He looked at me in some astonishment and said, “What do you suggest?”

  For a moment I was surprised he had left the decision to me, yet I didn’t dwell on my reaction too long. Instead, I considered what we might do to help the girl.

  She was an Arkonide woman, that I had easily determined—and she must have been beautiful before the Zagors had mistreated her so.

  I recalled to mind what I knew concerning the Zagors. They were fairly primitive and only had crude weapons such as swords and spears. Initially they had lived in the jungle regions of Gortavor, but they had moved into the Spider Desert along with the treasure hunters and busied themselves here with robbery and plundering. Their total source of livelihood was the booty they won from their pillaging forays. No caravan or expedition was safe from them.

  If they took prisoners it was only to sacrifice them to the silver strands of the web, in which they seemed to perceive their deity. The ritual involved was crude and horrifying. First they pursued the victim until its resistance was broken, after which they exposed it to the deadly forces of the net.

  I shuddered to think that we had barely escaped this fate, ourselves. It had been none other than the Zagors who had planted damaging scrap in the sand dune in an attempt to disable the rover. If they had succeeded in stopping us, by now we would have been bleached mummies.

  It was such a fate that now threatened the girl if we didn’t manage to set her free.

  “How long will it be before they sacrifice her?” I asked.

  “The girl is at the end of her strength?” said Fratulon. “Under normal circumstances they’d have taken her to the surface long before this, but I presume they are waiting for the storm to die down.”

  I nodded in agreement, having had the same idea. “Then that may give us enough time to work out my plan.”

  “What do you have in mind?” inquired Fratulon.

  I did not give him an answer. It was gratifying for a change to turn the tables on him and leave him in the dark as to my intentions. Instead, I asked: “That secret door you pulled me through—does it also work in the other direction? Do you think Ice Claw could go back into the passage I came through?”

  “I don’t see why not?” answered Fratulon as he furrowed his brow thoughtfully. “He had to reach through it to get you. But it isn’t a secret door exactly, it’s more like a matter projection, acting like a curtain that holds back both light and sound.”

  “That’s good enough for me?” I interrupted, and turned to the chretkor. “I want you to go back into that passage and drive as many Ooths into it as you can find. Take both flashlights with you. With those you can drive them before you like cattle. Do you think you can do it?”

  “There’s a pleasant climate in Zagooth?” replied Ice Claw. “Down here I feel at my best.” So saying, he disappeared through the apparently impenetrable wall.

  * * * *

  The Zagors drummed a wild cadence with their weapons, obviously attempting to startle their victim into renewed effort. But the girl lay panting on the ground and did not move. When she raised her head once, the reptiles uttered a shout of triumph. But immediately thereafter they grumbled in disappointment when they saw that the girl was apparently too weak to get up again.

  I turned to my friend and mentor, Sawbones. “Fratulon, do you know how many exits there are?”

  He shrugged. “I’ve discovered two of them, on the other side between the rows of humps. The Zagors have guards over there—but there are probably other outlets.”

  “That’s not so important. The main thing is to know which way we are to go, once we’ve freed the girl. In any case we have to go to the opposite side of this chamber.” As I started away with him, I asked: “How did you two ever get into this place?”

  “When you went back to the rover, the Zagors showed up?” he told me. “Not wishing to get into a fight with them, we withdrew into the outer tunnel, merely intending to remain concealed. But then we saw that they had a prisoner with them, so we followed them. Then suddenly our retreat was cut off because a second group of Zagors came behind us. We were suddenly at the end of the winding passage, but since the Zagors who had preceded us couldn’t have evaporated into thin air I searched until I found the ‘secret door,’ as you call it.”

  Under cover of the humpshaped elevations we had almost reached th
e opposite side of the cavern when we heard the girl let out another scream. When I glanced down into the arena I was in time to see a Zagor jump in front of the girl and sweep his cloak aside to take out his sword. I knew he wasn’t intending to kill her but I was sure he meant to add to her pain by goading her with the sword point.

  This I simply couldn’t permit. Before Fratulon could prevent it, I jerked out my raygun and quickly fired. A narrow beam of energy flashed out and struck the reptile’s skull. The Zagor dropped as though hit by lightning. The others became still for a moment as though struck dumb, but soon a bedlam of shouting arose. They lifted their weapons as if to defend themselves against an invisible enemy, and some of them timorously examined their dead companion.

  “That was illconsidered?” said Fratulon reprovingly.

  “Not at all?” I retorted, grinning at him. “You know you’re the one who taught me that trick—how to fire off a needle beam so nobody but the victim notices it.”

  Fratulon had another objection on the tip of his tongue, but he refrained from expressing it.

  We finally reached the other side. The Zagors had settled down again, having adjusted themselves primitively to the death of their companion. But none of them came near the girl any more.

  I could see by her terrified expression that she would have liked nothing better than to run away from this place, but she was by now too weak to attempt it.

  “I hope Ice Claw didn’t get lost in the labyrinth?” I remarked.

  Fratulon merely shook his head.

  The Zagors started in again to make the drumming sound with their weapons. The girl buried her head in her hands and closed her ears, which caused the reptile creatures to redouble their noisemaking. Their inarticulate cries became louder and wilder.

  Two of them suddenly sprang from their seats down into the arena. As the girl saw the flash of their weapons, she gathered herself together and prepared to flee—which was exactly the Zagors' purpose. I clenched my fists, fearing that there would be a repetition of the hideous game I had interrupted before. But this time they didn’t get that far.

  On the other side of the cavern, precisely where Ice Claw had gone through the curtain of projected matter, there was a commotion. A figure appeared, then another, and another, followed by still others. Soon there were 10 Ooths pressing forward between the tiers of protruding structures at the top of the amphitheatre.

  When they saw themselves suddenly surrounded by the shadowless light, they sought to draw back, but others of their kind came through and blocked their retreat, pressing them further forward. Then Ice Claw appeared with his two brilliant hand lights, making it impossible for them to return whence they had come. The Ooths had no alternative but to climb down the tiers in search of another exit.

  “Now’s the time,?” I said. “Get ready, Sawbones!”

  Meanwhile, the Zagors had discovered the mutants. They ignored the girl and charged toward their assumed attackers. However, rather than brace themselves for a fight they staked their chances on flight alone. The light streaming at them from everywhere weakened their senses and added physical pain to their suffering. The only thing they could think of was to flee from the flood of light and return to the security of darkness. In their desperate confusion they kept running against the walls of blackness which absorbed all light.

  “Now!” I shouted.

  I leapt from my concealment onto one of the elevated tiers. Jumping from one rounded hump to another, I reached the floor of the arena, where the girl crouched in a halfraised position, looking on in bewilderment at the strange battle between the Zagors and the Ooths.

  “Don’t be afraid!” I called to her. “We’ll get you out of this!”

  When she whirled around toward me and screamed, I was puzzled by her reaction, wondering why she should fear me. But then I realized she was staring beyond me, and when I turned I saw a Zagor swinging at me with his sword. Just as the blade reached the highest point of its arc, the reptile fell back, struck down by a shot from Fratulon.

  “Keep covering me, Sawbones!” I shouted to him, then turned once more to the girl. Helping her to her feet, I asked her: “Can you walk by yourself?”

  She took one step and fell into my arms, whereupon I simply lifted her up and draped her over my shoulder.

  Fratulon had come to my side. He had holstered his energy weapon in favour of one he trusted more. In his hand was Skarg. In his eyes blazed a martial challenge. But there was no time for words as he turned to ward off an attack by two of the Zagors. One of them fell under a swift side thrust, and the other went down beneath a direct blow through the shoulder.

  “Let’s get out of here, Ice Claw!” I yelled at the top of my lungs. I hadn’t seen the chretkor since his return but hoped he’d be able to fend for himself in the fray.

  Fratulon arrived at a mansized opening between two pillarlike structures. The first thing the Zagor sentinel there accomplished was to run straight into his sword. Old Sawbones beckoned to me and then disappeared through the opening.

  I had just reached this exit when I heard a beastly cry behind me, and suddenly something grasped my leg. I lost my balance but managed to turn as I fell. The Zagor who clutched me had his spear raised in a position to run me through, but he was suddenly deterred. A small, slender shape fell upon his back as two crystalline arms encircled his neck. A visible shudder ran through the Zagor, after which he dropped to the ground and remained still. The chretkor had killed the reptile by merely touching it.

  “Thanks, Ice Claw!” I said.

  I got up with my burden and hurried through the exitway. Ice Claw kept behind me to cover our rear flank, but the Zagors did not pursue us. Apparently they were too occupied with the Ooths.

  The girl on my shoulder did not stir, since she had lost consciousness.

  Before us stretched a very long hall that glowed in the shadowless light. The ground seemed to exhibit a rippled or wavy configuration in an inconsistent pattern of large and small humps which extended over the walls and ceiling, as well. Between these at haphazard distances from each other were a number of oddshaped openings.

  The weird aspect of this chamber, suggesting a sort of organic growth, had the effect of making me dizzy. Suddenly I lost all sense of up or down. The elevations and declivities of the floor and the walls, the eerie light—all these impressions confused my senses to such a degree that I became disoriented and lost my balance.

  “Over here!” I heard Fratulon cry out.

  But I couldn’t see him. The contours of my surroundings swam before my eyes. I shook my head to clear my vision, and finally the stocky figure of Sawbones became discernible. He was standing in one of the unlighted openings, stretching out his powerful hand to me. I grasped it and was reassured by his strength as he drew me toward him.

  “What’s happening?” I gasped as he relieved me of the girl’s burden.

  “You were the victim of a hallucination?” he explained. “I went through the same thing only worse. It almost had me convinced I had found an exit when I was actually about to step into a hole in the ground. But this form of architecture only seems to have fatal consequences when seen through human eyes. At any rate, Ice Claw came right through, as surefooted as a sleepwalker.”

  “But it was a little too hot for me?” remarked the chretkor.

  “I’ve broken into a pretty good sweat, myself?” I confessed. I was thankful that Fratulon had taken the girl from me because I was also weighted down with the back pack full of our supplies.

  “We’ll try this route?” said Fratulon, leading the way into a winding, tubular tunnel. A few paces inside we were surrounded by absolute darkness. “Since it isn’t lighted it’s probably never used by the Zagors. And it’s unlikely we’ll run into any Ooths in this part of the labyrinth. Do you agree, Atlan?”

  “Only in principle.”

  “And what disturbs you about my suggestion?”

  “The fact that it’s a suggestion—not a decision?” I
answered.

  It had become apparent to me in recent days that he often just turned over the responsibility for things to me. This was an honour, in fact, because it was a sign of his recognition of me as a man. But then on the other hand I had to ask myself what hidden purpose lay behind it all.

  5/ THE MARAUTHANIAN RUINS

  Gradually, Fratulon was being relieved of an old burden of danger.

  Atlan had grown up in Tarkihl. Tarkihl was the palace of the Tatto, Armanck Declanter, and was also the single bastion of Arkonide civilization on this lawless world—even though the mighty structure had not been created by Arkonides. The original inhabitants had built it.

  There Atlan had the advantage of contact with people of high influence as well as the highest officials of the government itself, and he learned how to get around in the society of noblemen. Initially, Fratulon had feared such exposure for his protege because on the one hand it was hard to foretell how Atlan might be received by the aristocratic Arkonides, whereas on the other hand one couldn’t ignore the question of what Atlan’s attitude would be toward them.

  It was a highstaked gamble, and the outcome had often balanced on a razor’s edge.

  There was no way that Atlan could betray himself—or at least Fratulon believed this, because the youth knew nothing of his origin. But Orbanoshol III, had his secret agents everywhere, including Tarkihl, and it was always to be feared that they might become suspicious.

  But now the most dangerous period had passed. Atlan was no longer dependent on anyone’s protection, since he could stand on his own. He would be able to guard himself against the murderers who were searching the entire galaxy for him…

  * * * *

  We had covered a considerable distance in the labyrinths of Zagooth, and according to our compass we had moved in the general direction of the ruined city, but this place concealed so many secrets and mysterious places and effects that I couldn’t fully trust the instrument. Fratulon seemed to share my feelings because he made no objection when I suggested that we should return to the surface at our first opportunity.