World of Mazes

Krek launched himself in a shallow attack, mandibles aiming for the legs. The Lord leaped, dodged, and retreated.

" Very good. But you can do better."

Lan pulled out the death tube and fired past Krek' s bulk. The lightning blast singed the spider' s legs- but the effect on the Lord was startling. Rage contorted his face. He clenched his hands into tight fists and screamed.

" A barrier," said Krek. " He has constructed one of the magical barriers between us."

Lan felt the barrier being erected but had been powerless to stop it. The Lord had somehow sensed the impending danger- or had the spell ready in case Krek got too close. However it had happened, the transparent wall had saved the Lord from fiery death.

The Lord of the Twistings vanished from sight, as if he had been an illusion. With him went the barrier.

" The walls are not as substantial as they seem," commented Krek. " We are not too near our entry point into the Twistings. Perhaps there are more ways in and out of the maze."

" Let' s get to the room as fast as we can. I feel like I' m going to pass out."

" That explains your cavalier use of that fire- thrower. You almost set my legs on fire." The spider shuddered. " I urge you to be more careful in the future."

" I will. Now, hurry."

Krek lumbered along in the opposite direction, taking turns and finding corridors where Lan didn' t think any were possible. When he had decided to tell Krek they walked in circles, they entered the small room that had been their first sight in the Twistings.

" Peculiar," observed Krek. " Note the way these pots burn for no reason." Black kettles filled with flowers of sulfur dangled over small fires. The released odor gave the room a hint of hell.

" He' s a showman. He knows how to stage and upstage. The sulfur keeps everyone off their guard until his spells turn them around. By the time the magic wears off, the people have wandered blindly into the maze and are irretrievably lost."

" I found my way back easily enough."

" Maybe he' s never tackled anyone of your: size," Lan finished lamely.

" True. I am somewhat larger than most on this world. You humans are not very big. Which can be a good thing. There are so many of you, as is. The crowding conditions would be brutal if all of you were my size." The spider shuddered, adding, " What an ugly thought."

Lan stopped listening to his friend and went to examine the inner workings of the vault door. His fingers pressed into the cold silver metal. Due to his weakness, Lan had difficulty turning his magics inward, to the mechanism operating the toggles. His magical senses reached out, lightly touched, failed to find.

He sank to his knees, head resting against the door.

" Can' t do it," he said, almost crying. " There' s something inside. A spell, a magic. But I can' t get a feel for it. If only I could manipulate it, the door would open."

" It is not purely mechanical?" asked Krek. The spider walked forward and spread four powerful legs out, engulfing the door. Talons dug into the rim of the door. He pushed. Lan watched as tendons stood out when the spider' s muscles contracted with gargantuan effort. A faint metal tearing noise came, but no movement of the vault door. Krek worked harder, then relaxed.

" It is beyond me, totally beyond the limits of my feeble strength. Oh, I' ve grown too weak being away from my dear Egrii Mountains. Why did I ever leave, why do I torture myself by roaming? Dear little Klawn, my hatchlings, I left them all, and for what? This!"

" There, there, Krek. We both tried and couldn' t move this metallic mountain."

" Try your flame spell. Melt it down!"

" Wouldn' t work. I can barely walk. That requires intense concentration. I need to rest, to regain my strength. Maybe then we can get out. But I wonder:"

Lan Martak had felt enervated during the confrontation with the Lord of the Twistings in the corridor, but the nearer they came to the vault room, the weaker he seemed. It was as if some power drained him mentally and physically. He struggled to sit up and work his powers to detect any use of magic. That had been his first and most potent ability: sensing magic. Nothing impinged on his mind.

That didn' t mean spells weren' t in use around him, though. He had found subtle magics, clever spells, ones so sublime his untrained skills failed to detect them. Such might be the case now.

" Lan Martak, sounds of battle come from down the corridor."

He strained and heard human voices.

" We can' t get out this way, not right now. Don' t let the Twistings confuse you, Krek. Remember how to get back here, and let' s go see if we can help."

" Help?" the spider said, gusting a baleful sigh. " A shopworn human and a lonely spider far from mountainous home and loving family? How can we help anyone when we fail so completely to help ourselves? Oh, very well. Let us be off."

Lan managed to walk unassisted. He noted that strength returned as he put more and more distance between himself and the vault room. The man filed this information away for future investigation. He' d missed the use of a spell against him, of that he was sure. By the time they reached a juncture in the interminable corridors, he felt strong enough to use the knife.

Which was a good thing. A waddling blue glob engaged Krek, and three wraiths silently glided up to attack Lan' s left flank. He struck out with his fist and sent one wraith fluttering back. He lunged with his knife and skewered the second. Red blood cascaded down a purple front. The third wraith threw him entirely off balance; Lan kicked at it, and his foot sailed through its insubstantial formillusion.

The blue monster rolled over in the corridor and waddled off in the opposite direction, Krek chasing. Lan tried to stop his friend. Splitting forces wasn' t smart. But he had his hands full with the three wraiths, two real, one illusion. What made his effort even harder was the way the illusory creature kept changing color. Purple and purple attacked. He stabbed and a new fountain of blood squirted forth. The other wasn' t there, except in his mind.

The battle shifted in his favor. One wraith finally lay dead, the other severely wounded. The illusion hovered nearby, then winked out of existence.

" Lan Martak, come quickly!" rang out Krek' s agitated request. " We are needed!"

The man followed Krek' s pathway through the maze easily. The spider had severely wounded the blue glob. Droplets of thick, ichorous blood marked the corridors taken. He exploded into a hall where three humans and a part- human and part- mech hybrid fought against one of the blue monsters. Even as he watched, one of the men slipped; the powerful jaws opened and closed on an arm.

" Aieee!" screeched Krek, leaping over the battling humans. Lan followed, keeping the humans from attacking Krek.

" He fights like a thousand men," marvelled one.

" That he does," said Lan. " Follow him. We can finish off the blue thing and let him rest."

" Who are you?" demanded one of the women. Her eyes narrowed in suspicion. " You are not of the nest."

" No, I guess not. My friend and I have just been cast into the maze."

" The Lord exiles more and more," said another woman sadly. " I wish I could leave."

" We know where the entry point to the Twistings is," said Lan. " When we rest up a bit, we can all go and tackle it. We can get out of this damnable maze and stop the Lord."

" You are freshly arrived," said the hybrid. A mechanical arm scratched a battered, scraggly- bearded human face. " Doesn' t he sound a lot like her?"

" He does, at that," answered one of the women.

" Her? Who do you mean?"

" Our leader. She has come info the Twistings, found our nest, and even battled Knoton to a truce. For the first time in any of our memories, we fight only the maze creatures instead of each other."