Paul Kidd - Queen of the Demonweb Pits

The secretary thrashed her coils. Proud and angry, Morag jammed her notebooks beneath her arms. As she moved away, Lolth's mocking voice called after her. "Morag? Where did our cadaverous friend trot off to?"

"He left, Magnificence." Morag dropped her voice to a mutter. "About the time you plumped your mammalian arse on that chair."

Cocking a sharp eye at Morag, Lolth reached for another drink. "Excellent. Another little plan coming to glorious fruition!" The demon queen raised her skull-cup to her secretary. "Off you go! If you need me, my mammalian arse and I shall be right here."

Seething, Morag slid off through the bodies, blood, and rubble.

The Justicar had fought against supernatural enemies for his entire adult life. Blocking a scrying spell was far beyond him, but he could make Tielle's crystal ball almost useless to her. He kept himself in shrubs and trees, choosing nondescript terrain. He gave her no streams, no roads, no hillcrests as markers. Jus moved at a dogged run-loping relentlessly at a speed that would have soon left even cavalry behind him. These were the old skills learned in the wars against Iuz. Skills as natural to Jus as breathing air and walking earth.

He needed to find a stream, a place without rock outcrops and jagged bends-nothing a faerie might pick out from the air. The Justicar paused in the bushes above the banks, looking out over a clear rivulet with a bright stony bottom. Coming to a halt at last, the big man squatted like a troll and scanned the wilderness for dangers.

Nothing.

"Cinders?"

Birds gone. No tasty animal.

Jus nodded. Lolth's presence spread a pall of evil all over the wilderness. The sun seemed dim-colors were changing, like an old tapestry leeched and warped by time. He slithered down to the water, flipped open the portable hole, and kept his eyes on the skies as he heaved his friends out into the open air.

"Get in the stream and wash. There's soap in the equipment boxes. Use grit to scour your skins clean."

He propped Cinders over a bush, where the hell hound's senses could act as guard. Moving swiftly, Jus let Henry pass Polk up from the hole. Escalla the snake was passed gently into Jus's hands, then Enid came, out, yard after yard, loop after loop. Henry scrabbled out, still armor clad and with his empty crossbow set aside in favor of his sword. The boy looked quickly about the stream, then squatted at the Justicar's side.

"Sir?"

"We wash here. Wash all your gear. Get rid of the filth before we catch a disease. We need to kill the scent in case Tielle has hounds. Wash out the portable hole and scour it clean."

Aware that magical eyes might be watching and magical ears listening, Henry asked no questions. He threw his crossbow aside and began struggling with his damp leather belts.

"I'll wash Enid," he said.

"I'll do Escalla, then Polk."

"Sir, the women are in shock." Henry winced. "We need a fire."

"No fire." Jus carefully laid Escalla's whimpering little length out along a warm, flat rock. "We'll deal with it when we're clean. Do your own gear first. The snakes go last."

The Justicar moved fast, stripping away his dragon-scale armor, his boots, his socks, even the bone ring that shielded him against charm spells. He took them all off and plunged naked into the stream. Jus sank, perfectly at home in the water, and brutally scoured himself with gravel, silt, then soap. He quickly did the same to his sword, scabbard, armor, boots, and clothes. Benelux squawked loudly as she plunged into the stream.

Sir! Sir Justicar! The proper technique is to use an oiled silk - awwwk!

The Justicar had been caring for swords for twenty years. He scrubbed blood away with grass, then silt, then grass again. Benelux's alien metal-hard matter from the plane of positive energy-never needed sharpening. Jus briskly wiped her with an oiled cloth, dried the wolf-skull pommel that now adorned the sword, and left her standing ready to hand on the shore. The sword cursed and sputtered all the more when her hilt was used to hold Jus's underwear out to dry.

Scraped bright red and raw, Jus tenderly lifted Escalla from her bed. He took her into the cold water and washed her as gently as his big hands could. The wound was bad-big, deep, and already inflamed. Jus's spells could deal with injuries, even disease, but his small reserve of magic had been exhausted for now. For the moment, they had to rely on simpler resources. The Justicar thought on the problem as he lifted Escalla from the stream.

"Cinders? The big rock there-the red one."

With his flames run down to a low ebb, Cinders could only manage the merest lick of fire. Jus laid the hell hound beside a large red rock, and Cinders heated it slowly. Escalla's snake body was laid out on a bed of dry grass beside the rock. Down in the stream, Henry carefully finished washing Enid. Jus helped him wrestle the huge snake out of the water and laid her gently down beside the stone.

Jus's bare ribs were livid black and purple-and two of them were clearly broken. He moved carefully, the pain clawing at him. He sat beside Escalla, glad of the slowly warming rock as he cradled her head in his hand.

"Escalla?"

She had no eyelids to open or close, and her snake eyes glittered. Was she awake or unconscious? Jus slowly stroked her satin scales, trying to be tender and insistent.

"Escalla, change back. We need you back to faerie form."

The little snake shuddered and groaned. An icy bath had done nothing to cure her shock. Finally a forked tongue quivered. In a tiny voice, Escalla breathed a few painful words out into the air.

"Enid?"

"She's with us. She's still a snake."

"I have to… to ch-change." Escalla tried to lift her head but couldn't. She flopped back down, then stared at the injuries all over Jus's side. She lay there, panting and stiff with shock. The Justicar kissed her softly just behind the jaw.

Intelligence came back, quick and clear, into Escalla's eye. She looked at Jus's broken ribs.

"Jus?"

"I'm with you."

"Jus, where are we?"

She was hoarse. Jus's helmet served as a cup. He helped the snake to drink as he spoke.

"About twelve miles from the town."

"Is… is it the same day?"

"You've been unconscious for two hours."

With one hand, Jus threw his tunic onto the hot rock, where it sizzled and steamed. Cinders's flames had finally given out, and the hound lay exhausted, panting.

Escalla quietly regarded the Justicar. "You… you ran for two hours with… broken ribs?"

"You needed me to."

Escalla collapsed, weak with pain. She looked at Jus as she lay in his hands. "You have got to be the dumbest, most heroic bastard on the Flanaess."

The snake closed its mouth and went still-tensed-then shimmered in a magic field. An instant later its shape writhed, and Escalla turned back to her own form. The little woman lay gasping and absolutely shocked with pain. Her injuries took on a savage new life.

She had been burned by acid all over one leg, her hip, and back. Her wings hung limp and half melted. Giving her no hint of her desperate state, the Justicar carefully patted the burns dry. His healing spells had closed the deepest parts of the wounds, but the rest of the burns were livid and raw.

The burns were already badly infected. Escalla shivered, a fever starting to take her.

"Is it bad?"

Jus adoringly caressed her wet hair back from her face. "It'll do."

"Warriors for justice can't lie for crap."

Escalla reached out to Enid. Anxiously cradling the big snake, Henry moved Enid closer. Escalla shook with effort, framed a spell, and canceled the magic she had cast over Enid's body. The huge snake shimmered, then bunched and expanded to become a full grown gynosphinx.