Fire and Fog

" We?" asked the spider, standing fully upright and peering down at Lan and Kiska.

Lan swung about and stared up at Krek.

" Aren' t you with me?"

" Why will you not rescue Inyx?"

" You' ve got a single- minded determination of how to succeed, Krek, that is faulty. Attack Claybore; then all else falls into place. We can win. We can. I know it."

" I will stand beside you," Krek said. The spider' s mind turned over all that had happened and he finally decided he owed Lan Martak this one last loyalty. If Lan Martak had been a spider, Krek' s decision would have been far easier- he would have eaten him. But being a human complicated matters. Humans tended to do things in definitely barbaric ways. Perhaps this was another such case, though how Krek couldn' t say.

He may have been single- minded as Lan Martak accused, but Krek knew that Inyx and her friend Ducasien would perish all too soon unless something was done about the magical barrier imprisoning them.

" Krek," said Lan in a low voice as Kiska went on a few paces ahead of them, " I want to apologize."

" It is friend Inyx who requires the apology," said Krek.

" No, not this. I' m right about this. Before. When Claybore and Lirory Tefize and I were trying to reduce one another to rubble."

" The pit where Claybore' s arms were?"

" Yes, then," said Lan. " I think I may have cast a spell on you when I didn' t mean to. I used the Voice to tell you to leave me alone. I: I didn' t even realize I was doing it. See, I was occupied with them and you kept bothering me and making you go away was the easiest thing for me. So, I just told you to leave me alone."

Krek sniffed loudly but said nothing. He had felt the spell forcing him away from Lan. But Lan Martak had cast it of his own free will. He had wanted to be alone in his fight with the other mages. The spider could do little about that, even if he did want to aid his friend- his former friend.

" I was distracted," Lan went on, his eyes moving from Krek to the slender form of Kiska k' Adesina ahead. " Claybore kept me occupied with new and diabolically different spells. I had to prevent him from regaining his arms."

" You failed," the spider pointed out. " You told me to go away and let you be and you failed."

" I said I was sorry, dammit," Lan snapped irritably. " I' ve got powers that sometimes slip away from me. I' m not used to using them. Not yet. You were bothering me so I told you to go away- but with too much force."

" Too much magical force," corrected Krek.

" Too much magic," said Lan, his fists clenched tightly now. The arachnid saw the growing tension in the man and fell silent. He had so much he wanted to say to Lan Martak, but not now, not within hearing of their mortal enemy. Kiska continued striding along as if she didn' t have a care in the world.

Krek considered eating her, then put the thought from his mind. Lan Martak would be angry over that- and the spider didn' t know the reason. On other worlds Lan had often mentioned how ruthlessly Kiska k' Adesina pursued and how equal ruthlessness would have to be used to triumph over her. Why allow her to accompany them, especially now when they went to fight her master? Krek started to ask this when Lan held up a restraining hand.

The spider stopped and stood.

" Ahead. I sense him," said Lan.

The arachnid also felt the tinglings of magic- from the Kinetic Sphere buried within Claybore' s breast. The world- shifting device touched on the magics Krek was most sensitive to.

" Claybore is off some distance in that direction," said Krek, lifting a long front leg and pointing away to the right.

" Not Claybore. I want to eliminate Lirory Tefize first. The pair of them together was almost more than I could handle. Get rid of Lirory, then Claybore. I don' t think Claybore can stand alone against me, even with his arms."

" You take on more than you should," observed the spider. " Forget this nonsense for the moment. Free friend Inyx and then the three of us can properly enter battle.”

" Where' s the spiderish bloodthirstiness I' m always hearing about? You wanting out of this?" asked Lan.

" Battle does not thrill me, not the way you humans wage it. You refuse to eat the vanquished. Why bother, except that they would kill you first?"

" Lirory Tefize regains his power too rapidly. He has some magical device to aid him," said Lan, lost in the upcoming battle. He walked as if in a trance and stopped beside Kiska k' Adesina. The woman took his arm and held it, more like a lover than an avowed enemy.

The arachnid only watched in concern. He had never fully understood human mating rituals. To his mind, they had been observed and consummated between Lan Martak and Inyx. But now Lan Martak acted as if Kiska were of great importance to him as a friend and lover. Krek wobbled about and finally gave up trying to get to the root of Lan Martak' s motivations.

" He' s resting in his chamber," said Lan in a low voice. " I must attack now."

" You' ll attract Claybore' s attention," warned Kiska k' Adesina.

" Stay here with Krek. You' ll be all right."

" Why do you care about her at all, Lan Martak?" asked the spider. " She wishes you only harm."

Lan didn' t answer. He faced a blank wall and began muttering his chants of power. The rock began flowing, first in tiny rivulets, then in wrist- thick rivers. The hole grew larger and larger until finally even Krek could walk through it into Lirory Tefize' s chambers.

The gnome let out a shriek of pure anguish and almost dived across the room, twisting in midair to seat himself on a large slag rock throne. Only when he had both hands on the armrests did the gnome allow himself to smile.

" You still live, Martak. Your resourcefulness astounds me. Few of us even here in Yerrary can survive the fog."

Krek said, " He had considerable help." Lirory ignored the spider, his attention fully on Lan.

" Since you did not graciously die outside my mountain, you must stain its floors by dying within."

Lan laughed harshly, the sound totally unlike anything Krek had heard from the sorcerer' s lips before. Mixed together with the Voice powered by the metal tongue resting within his mouth came contempt, derision, even hatred not borne of Lan' s own soul.

Lirory scowled, then began a chant pitched too low for Krek to hear. The air within the high- roofed, pyramid- shaped chamber took on an electric tension as the magics sizzled.

Lan stepped forward, but Lirory held him at bay. The very rock throne on which the gnome sat began to glow bright green. The gnome mage' s entire body tensed as he absorbed the aura and focused it toward Lan, who turned it aside with magical shields of his own. Only when he was sure his own strength was sufficient did Lan initiate his attack. And a prodigious one it was.

Krek flinched away as the air writhed with half- born elementals, creatures ripped from other worlds, shadowy beings lunging and slashing at Lirory Tefize. The gnome' s face clouded with fear at the sight; Lan had instinctively known what produced the most panic in his opponent. They traded spells, but the outcome quickly became obvious to the spider: deadlock.

As swiftly as the spider realized it, so did Lirory. The gnome shifted weight slightly in his throne and directed a paralyzing blast straight for Krek. The lumbering creature had no time at all to avoid the spell, even if he could have. Speed meant little against the magics used within this chamber.

" Lan Martak," Krek moaned out. " My legs are again frozen. He reduces me to a pathetic heap of fur!"

Lan glanced over his shoulder, then looked back at Lirory. Kiska came and stood by the man' s side, as if the pair of them fought Lirory. Krek thought the battle lost now. Kiska would distract Lan and Lirory would magically annihilate him- this was, after all, what Kiska k' Adesina had strived for across so many worlds.