Mercedes Lackey: When Darkness Falls

When they reached the caverns, Kellen dismounted and chose six of his troop to accompany them into the cavern. Such caution was automatic by now — even though the caverns had been thoroughly cleared of Tainted creatures, there was always the possibility that something might have crept back in.

Supplying themselves with lanterns — Kellen didn't want to count on his ability to cast Coldfire just yet — they entered the caverns.

It was a long walk, and one that brought back unpleasant memories for all of them.

"Not much farther now," Kellen said, when they'd passed through the cavern where the Shadowed Elf village had once stood. Little remained to show what it had once been; the Elves had scoured the place thoroughly in the aftermath of the battle, and even taken down most of the crude stone huts that the Shadowed Elves had constructed.

Kellen reached the place where he'd last encountered the Crystal Spiders. The cave was so vast that their lanterns gave very little light, and even with their superior night-sight, Kellen doubted that the Elves could see much more than he could.

"I'm sure they know we're here," he told Vestakia. "But it may take them a little while to show up. We should move away from the others a bit — I think they're sort of shy."

Vestakia made a stifled sound that might have been a giggle. "I suppose they have every right to be — with odd-looking strangers barging into their home at all hours! Come on, then."

The two of them walked a few yards away from the others and stood, waiting. Kellen set his lantern down on the cave floor and rested his hand on the pommel of his sword.

He didn't feel nervous, precisely. He felt some of the same keyed-up energy that he did when he was about to go into battle, but it was an energy without an outlet. There was no battle to fight — not an immediate one, at any rate. And there were far too many problems that had to be solved.

He'd learned enough since the day he'd ridden out from Sentarshadeen to join the army at Ondoladeshiron to know what most of them were, unfortunately for his peace of mind.

They had to keep their Allies in the field and with the army. The Herdsfolk and the Mountainfolk were their Wildmages and their mountaineers and light infantry; the Centaurkin were their heavy infantry. Right now humans and Centaurs made up about a third of the army; in the spring, when the full levies arrived, they would make up two-thirds of it. According to the Teaching Songs he'd learned at the House of Sword and Shield, maintaining the Alliance had always been the main difficulty for the Allies, and one the Demons always exploited. If they left to protect their own lands, the Demons could destroy all of them piecemeal.

If they stayed, it would be to watch their loved ones die while they did nothing, for even if he wanted to, there was no way Andoreniel could protect all the Wild Lands, the High Reaches, and the Elvenlands at once.

Even though everyone knew the stakes if the Demons should win, it was a hard thing to ask someone to let his family, his village, everyone he knew fall prey to Demons and their creations — especially when it was clear that the Elves were not suffering the same losses.

It hasn't started yet, Kellen told himself. I know it will — if I can think of it, They certainly can. But we still have time to come up with a countermove. I'll ask Jermayan's advice. He's older than I am — a lot older. And he's trained for this all his life, even if he never expected it to happen …

Just then he became aware of a faint scuffling sound.

"They're here," he said quietly.

A vast living carpet of spiders was moving across the floor of the cave toward Kellen and Vestakia. Each of them was the size of a large cat, and their bodies were covered with thick transparent bristles, giving them something of the look of puffballs. Both Kellen and Vestakia could see them clearly, because the Crystal Spiders radiated their own light in a rainbow of pastel colors: green, pink, violet, yellow, blue…

"They're beautiful," Vestakia said in surprise.

"I guess they are — for spiders," Kellen said, trying not to grin. He knelt down and pulled off one of his armored gauntlets. Contact with bare skin made it much easier to communicate telepathically with the creatures.

The Spiders clambered up over his body. Their legs made a faint scritching sound as they passed over his armor. One of them settled into his hand, and its bristles tickled his skin. As always when he was in contact with them, a sense of peace and warmth filled him like phantom sunlight.

:Welcome,: the Spiders sent. :You have brought the one who will help to fight the Black Minds?:

"Yes," Kellen answered. He spoke aloud — it was easier that way to focus his thoughts for the Crystal Spiders to hear. "This is Vestakia. She helps us fight the Black Minds."

Vestakia had already knelt down and removed both her gauntlets. More Spiders appeared out of the darkness, and clambered up her body.

"Hello," Vestakia said, more calmly than Kellen would have under the circumstances.

Something happened then that he hadn't expected — though he should have expected it. He knew the Crystal Spiders were telepathic, and seemed to function as a group mind. The whole basis of his and Vestakia's plan relied on the hope that the Crystal Spiders here were in touch with their brethren elsewhere — in all the caves everywhere across the Elven Lands — and would be able to tell Vestakia the location of other Enclaves of the Shadowed Elves.

It simply hadn't occurred to Kellen that the Crystal Spiders would put them in touch with each other.

For a moment the cold dampness of the cave fell away. Instinctively Kellen reached out toward the warmth — human warmth — and love embedded in the web of the Crystal Spiders' linked minds —

No!

He lunged to his feet, hastily dislodging several Crystal Spiders. They scuttled backward, and Kellen strode quickly away into the darkness, gripping the haft of his sword until his fingers ached.

Gods of the Wild Magic, what had he almost done? He had a Price to pay! Break his vow, and Shalkan would have no choice but to exact the penalty.

"Kellen?" Vestakia said uncertainly.

Kellen's face burned hot with shame. She'd been able to sense, to feel, the same things he had —

He cut off the direction of those thoughts with painfully-acquired discipline.

"Just ask them what you need to know," he said harshly, willing himself to pretend that the last few minutes hadn't happened. "They know what Black Minds are, and they know we need to find the others."

After a moment, he heard Vestakia speaking in a low voice to the Spiders, but the eternal background noise of the deep caves blurred her words, and he couldn't make them out. He didn't try very hard, either. For the first time, Kellen blessed the fact that his hearing wasn't as sharp as the Elves'. He didn't want to know what she might be saying right now.

Her voice stopped, and when the silence stretched, Kellen risked a glance over his shoulder.

She was covered in the Spiders, the outlines of her slender body completely obscured beneath the round furry forms. In the faint luminescence from their bodies, he could see that her head was thrown back and her eyes were closed, as if she basked in sunlight.

At least, Kellen thought ruefully, he didn't seem to have offended the Crystal Spiders too badly.

Making a careful detour around the Spiders and Vestakia — though he doubted that just now she'd have noticed him if he'd jumped up and down and shouted — he walked back to where Isinwen and the others stood, waiting patiently.

"It would be good to know how long the Lady Vestakia will remain," Isinwen said when Kellen had joined him.