The Ways of Khrem

by D. Nathan Hilliard

  As it closed the last three feet between us, I stepped off into blackness and fell into the cellar. There wasn’t even any time to think about it. Fortunately, I had been holding the ring to the trapdoor and it pulled shut behind me.

  I landed on Drayton, and once again, we struggled and cursed on the floor. Yanking open the sack in my hand, I pulled out the bottle of Alchemist’s Fire and pulled the cork with my teeth. Fumbling in the dark, I accidentally poured more than the correct four drops in the bottle, causing it to flare brightly.

  A harsh green light filled the basement.

  It would only last about fifteen or twenty minutes instead of three hours, but this was going to be resolved one way or another in that amount of time anyway. Sealing the bottle, I hung it around my neck by the looped cord in its lid as I staggered toward the back corner of the basement. The floorboards over our heads groaned and dust fell all around us from between the cracks.

  Behind me, I glimpsed Drayton pulling his sword.

  “Are you crazy?” I yelled over the crashing and splintering sounds from above. “Get over here and help me with this!”

  I grabbed a metal pole and started prying up one of the flagstones from the cellar floor. Drayton hesitated only a second, and then ran over and grabbed the flagstone I had started to lift and hauled it out of the floor with his hands. Empty darkness lay below the foot-wide space.

  Behind us, the trapdoor suddenly slammed downwards against the cellar floor. Once again, four hairy black legs drove their way through.

  For a hopeful split second I thought the trapdoor opening would be too small to allow the spider through. I was wrong. The giant horror stretched the hole wider, the wooden floorboards splintering and tearing, while it squeezed inside and twisted itself toward us.

  Ripping the second, larger flagstone up, Drayton shoved me head first through the hole into the abyss below.

  I fell about six feet, twisting to land on my side.

  I scrambled toward the tunnel that led back into the hill my house sat upon as I heard the thud of Drayton’s boots behind me. He slammed into my back, making us both pitch further forward into the tunnel. Wriggling like mad, I turned over in the tight stone tunnel to see Drayton on his back with his shoulders practically in my lap. He kicked wildly at a black leg that had braced itself against the ceiling of the tunnel right above him.

  The thing’s jaws must have been at his very feet.

  Grabbing him under the arms, I pulled him farther into the tunnel with me. The thing hissed and clawed, but the tunnel was solid stone and four feet by four feet wide. It was too small for the massive spider to squeeze through.

  I continued to drag Drayton backwards into the hill. It was a good thing I didn’t have to pull myself and the much larger man too great of a distance. Even with my adrenaline pumping, my strength soon ran out. Another ten feet and we tumbled into the small abandoned crypt that served as my hidey hole in case of dire emergencies.

  We were safe…at least for the moment.

  Returning to the tunnel entrance, I looked down it to see a crowded forest of black legs as the thing futilely tried to reach us. A couple of its shiny black eyes gleamed behind that thicket of legs, staring at me in frustrated hunger.

  Only it wasn’t just hunger.

  It was rage.

  Wrath I could actually feel.

  I stood still, dizzy with feelings and thoughts flooding through me, drowning my senses. This thing didn’t just want to eat me, it wanted to slam its fangs into me and feel my life drain into it. It wanted to end me, not just eat me. It wanted that because I deserved it, and it wanted that because it needed to happen for the world to make sense.

  And as I came to understand that, I could feel the rightness of its desire.

  Some things needed to happen because there were supposed to be rules. And as long as I existed, those rules stood in jeopardy. That shouldn’t be allowed. My life counted as a small price to pay to keep the universe from sliding off into chaos. It was now up to me to make the universe a better place.

  “What are you doing?!” Drayton yelled as he pulled me back out of the tunnel.

  For a second, I shook my head, trying to clear my mind. What had I been doing? I had been about to crawl back down that tunnel and into the waiting fangs of the spider!

  There was something really odd going on here...other than the fact that my house was being destroyed by a tarantula the size of a large coach.

  “Did you feel that?” I gasped.

  “Feel what?”

  That was all I needed to hear.

  “Captain, help me with this!” I grunted as I wrestled with the stone lid of one of the two sarcophagi on the floor of the crypt. “And don’t worry, there’s nothing in this thing that I didn’t put in there.”

  Dragging the lid off the sarcophagus, we wrestled it over to the tunnel entrance and leaned it against the opening. The captain looked at me with obvious concern. “Is this to stop the spider or you?”

  “Me, Captain. Whatever that thing is out there, it’s not just a big spider. It can get into your head. I don’t know how to explain it better. All I can tell you is that I now know how it got into Half Pint Carew’s room. He opened the door for it.”

  Drayton stared at me in disbelief, but I noticed he sat down and put his back against the sarcophagus lid. I wouldn’t be leaving again until he decided it would be okay. I went back to the now open coffin and pulled out a small chest. Removing another bottle of Alchemists Fire, I mixed this one correctly and sat it in a small recess in the wall.

  This was getting expensive.

  “How in all the gods’ names could it convince you to just crawl back to it like that? What were you thinking?”

  I sat down on the other sarcophagus, and tried to recall.

  “It was like going to the gallows,” I recalled, “but it felt okay because I deserved it. I was making things right in the world by going back to it...like...like some higher order of justice was being satisfied. I know it’s crazy, but I was doing it because...it’s what I had coming to me.”

  The captain looked at me incredulously.

  “Forgive me, Mr. Cargill, but I have never exactly taken you for the law and order type.”

  That hurt my feelings.

  “I am an honest businessman, Captain. I pay my taxes and I never, ever cheat a client. And while I played by a very different set of rules in my former life, I did play by rules. I never cheated any of my clients then either. I understand the concept of justice, even if I have a different understanding of it than you do.”

  The captain stared at me with an open mouth. I’m not sure what I could have said that was so unbelievable, but I had the definite feeling he wasn’t listening to me anymore.

  “Justice!” he breathed. “No, it couldn’t be!”

  “It couldn’t be what?”

  He didn’t answer, but instead turned around and started leaning the lid back.

  “Captain!”

  “It is okay, Mr. Cargill. The spider is not controlling me.”

  “So what is? Lunacy?”

  He leaned over the lid and yelled down the tunnel.

  “This is Captain Wilhelm Drayton Peliantus of the City Watch! The man in here with me is in my lawful custody!”

  I gaped at him as he eased the lid back over the tunnel. Things had just gone from the insane to the truly incredible. This situation was far deeper than I first thought.

  “Don’t look at me like that,” he said. “I was just yelling at it. You were the one who was going to crawl down there and feed yourself to it.”

  That wasn’t why I was looking at him like that.

  “Peliantus?” I pressed, “As in...”

  The expression on Drayton’s face said it all. He hadn’t intended for that to slip out. He probably never intended for me to know. The Captain met my gaze for a long moment and then gave a rueful sigh.

  “As in the eleventh of the twelve sons of Prince Astamir Peliantus, current
occupant of the Ruby Throne of Khrem,” he finished with a resigned grimace.

  Chapter Five

  “The Jeweled Thrones of Khrem are a reference to the five noble families that govern the city. The head of the august Peliantus family is said to sit upon the Ruby Throne, while the Emerald Throne is the seat of the ruthless Estradians. The Tourmaline Throne has been fought over for generations by different factions of the Calvurans, unlike the fearful internal discipline of the Vestrulians and their orderly successions of the Sapphire Throne. And it is amber that encrusts the high seat of the reclusive Morvani, whose number are few and falling. It is by consensus of the Jeweled Thrones that the Lord Magistrate is chosen to administer those functions of the city that the Noble Houses have not reserved for themselves.” —School book for eight year olds in the Haribbean orphanage.

  Captain Drayton leaned back against the sarcophagus lid while I struggled to come to grips with what I had just learned about the man in front of me. He hardly looked like an heir to one of the five jeweled thrones of Khrem. Of course, covered with at least a pound of dust and crouching in a poorly lit crypt, who would?

  "Do I call you 'Your Highness' or 'Your Lordship?'"

  "You can call me 'Captain.'" He coughed out a bit of the aforementioned dust, and then continued, "My three eldest brothers are being groomed for succession, and the next six were all accepted to be trained as priests by temples who wished to curry favor with my family. That left me and my other two brothers to be shipped out to live with noble families in other countries, and serve as officers in their armies. Foreign relations, as they call it—a polite fiction that often conveniently manages to decrease the number of sons available to be a problem for the elder heirs."

  "Fascinating." I didn't know which made me more nervous, the massive man-eating tarantula at the other end of the tunnel or the sudden revelation of royalty sitting right next to me. "So where did they send you?"

  “I served with the nephew of the Grand Kataan of Bharstune, patrolling the edge of the Fyrehaunt Desert."

  "But you came back."

  "I only returned to Khrem two years ago," he continued, "after the death of the Grand Kataan resulted in a prince who was hostile to foreigners coming into power. Since I didn't feel like being shipped out to somewhere else, I used what influence I had to get the Lord Magistrate to appoint me to my current position on the Watch."

  "But why the Watch?"

  "It allows me to pursue a project of mine, and it keeps a minor son out from under my family's feet. Everybody is happy. Barring a catastrophe of epic proportions, I am not a candidate for future ascension. And this profession hardly serves to further any ambitions others might attribute to me. In fact, it could be pointed out that this only makes me less suitable for high office."

  "Should I bow anyway?"

  He fixed a level glare on me.

  "If you do, Mr. Cargill, I will kick you in the head. I am first and foremost an Officer of the Watch, and I have withheld my true identity from common knowledge so it doesn't interfere with my job. I would appreciate you returning the same discretion I have extended to you."

  I grinned at him from my seat on the stone coffin.

  "I'm hardly in a position to go running around spreading the news," I replied, gesturing at the crypt around us.

  "Yes…about that," he mused. "I wonder how long we can stay in here before the air goes foul? If that thing doesn't leave soon, our choices are going to be suffocation or death by spider."

  "We're fine, Captain." I pointed at four two-inch wide holes above the entrance. "I had those bored to provide air in case I ever needed to use this place. There is enough food and water in these coffins to last one man for over a week—two weeks, if he uses the sleeping draughts I have stored here. We can wait out the spider."

  He gave me an evaluating, if somewhat appreciative, look.

  "For an 'honest businessman,' you certainly have an interesting choice in basement design. Getting to know you has been a very educational experience."

  "Old habits die hard. And who knows what enemies I have out there that might one day discover me, like you did. While we're speaking of interesting choices, your choice of vocations is rather unusual. Do the other noble houses of Khrem have members in the Watch, or just those in line for the Ruby Throne?"

  "Not hardly. They have the same narrow view of the Watch the rest of Khrem holds. Basically, a bunch of guys whose job is to walk around and break up fights, chase thieves pointed out to them, scare the muggers off the main thoroughfares, and nab the readily apparent criminal. Oh, the Watch will drag off whoever the most obvious culprit of a crime may be, but just as often, when they fish a body out of the river they will toss it on the cart to the burial pits outside of town and leave it at that."

  "And, of course, you find all that unsatisfactory," I observed.

  "The Watch needs to do more than just keep the peace," he gritted, "it needs to be a tool for justice! And that reminds me..."

  He stood and turned to the sarcophagus lid. Motioning me to bring the bottle of Alchemist’s Fire, he braced himself and tilted the stone lid away from the tunnel. Leaning the lid against his leg, he took the bottle and used it to peer down the tunnel.

  "It appears your guest has left."

  "He probably went up to the kitchen to get the garlic sauce. I'm not going out there."

  "Neither am I, Mr. Cargill. At least not until morning. There is the matter of your returning manservant, though."

  "Grabel? He's down keeping Nabul the Tax Assessor's wife company while the man is out on one of his village jaunts. Barring an unexpected return on Nabul's part, he won't be back until late tomorrow morning. The spider will be long gone by then. It isn't going to stay where there is this much damage to attract attention."

  I leaned back against the wall and stared at the ceiling.

  "And that's where I confess I'm stumped, Captain. I was expecting it to have a companion, or even a rider, but I was wrong. You saw that thing. It's acting alone, and it's acting intelligently… beyond intelligent, when you consider its ability to find me half a mile away in a crowded city. It seems to have a real grudge against me at the moment."

  "It does appear that way, doesn't it?" the Captain muttered, peering down the tunnel. "But is it really the spider that is intelligent?"

  "Captain?"

  Once again, it seemed his mind had drifted elsewhere. He frowned and seemed to struggle with some idea. For a moment, he did nothing, and then he abruptly stood and grabbed the end of the sarcophagus lid again.

  "Give me a hand with this, Mr. Cargill. I have changed my mind. I need to know if that spider is still out there."

  "Have you gone mad? Or has the creature seized your mind now?"

  "Neither, Mr. Cargill. I don't think the beast can seize minds, I think it is merely the agent or conduit for something else that can. But I need to find out."

  "And becoming a giant spider's midnight snack is going to prove your theory?"

  "No. If I'm right, that spider left right after I identified myself and stated I had you in my custody. You would have become secondary in its mind, and it really needs to be somewhere else before morning."

  "And if you're wrong, and it's really just a big, smart, mean spider, then it's sitting up there in the basement waiting to see who is going to be stupid enough to poke his head out. Guess who that isn’t going to be,” I said, remaining seated. “Not until you at least explain what you are talking about.”

  He turned back to me in exasperation. Apparently, he was really in a hurry to get out there.

  “Do you know of Talanturos?”

  The word was faintly familiar to me, but other than recognizing it as a name, it conjured no images. I chose to save time and simply shake my head in the negative.

  “The Spider God of Justice Denied?”

  I had a vague recollection.

  Khrem has a multitude of religions, cults, schools of thoughts and disciplines from all over the known
world. The city is home to a vast number of cathedrals, temples, shrines, obelisks, retreats, sacred gardens, sacred pools, sacred paths, sacred grottoes, sacred fountains, and even an allegedly holy river some maniacs feel compelled to jump in when the smell isn’t too bad. Several giant statues of dead kings are paid homage by different small sects, and a gigantic statue in our harbor is occasionally adorned with garlands from sailors who don’t even know who the colossus originally represented.

  I paid them little attention, as most had no appeal for me. Besides, whatever wealth their temples contained wasn’t worth making an enemy even more dangerous than the Watch.

  Then a memory niggled.

  “Wait a minute,” I recalled. “Isn’t that the one where people pay the temple to have a little wooden statue made of somebody they want revenge against, and then wrap it up in silk and burn it?”

  “A bit of an oversimplification, but that’s the one. Actually, those wrapped statues are burned as prayers for justice called down on someone whom the supplicant thinks has wronged them. Talanturos is the god who goes after those who have ‘gotten away with it.’”

  I stared at him while desperately trying to come to grips with the import of his words.

  “Are you telling me that I just had a divine manifestation try to eat me in my basement?”

  This couldn’t be happening.

  “Maybe,” he grunted as he slid the stone lid aside. “I don’t think it’s in there now, though. You know, it occurs to me that the Temple of Talanturos happens to be in Three Gallows Square. Doesn’t that straight line on your map go through there, not long after crossing the South Caravan Road?”

  With a sick sense of impending doom, I realized it did.

  This was real.

  I had actually managed to get crossways with some obscure god who dealt in vengeance, and who also just happened to currently have a giant, man-eating tarantula stomping around town and settling scores.

  I also remembered there was a Bardockian trader ship leaving port tomorrow evening for Saalbach. I made a mental note to be on it. Tarantulas didn’t like the cold, which made me suddenly enamored of it. Nothing would be more beautiful to my eyes right now than a nice snowy ice field. Meanwhile, I would just keep putting on a good face for the indomitable captain.