Any Mazonite worth her citizenship would laugh at this stuff; it was worse than bad, and the only thing
it had to recommend it was the fact that she knew that, like silk, it was an insulator and probably proof
against most contact poisons. Wrap a man in enough of this, and it would be as good as the lemurs' thick
fur.
Crude it might be. But she could spin it out of the air in quantity, and spin she did. It was almost
therapeutic, reverting to this primitive conjuration. Soon there was enough to muffle every man to the
eyebrows in a thick cocoon of fabric, and all the animals as well.
The animals had worried her, until Ware came up with a solution. As the stories she had heard had
hinted, the demons did have a kind of mesmerizing power. Ware used that one of his abilities on the
animals, sending them into a trance in which they were three-quarters asleep and completely without
fear.
One of the dogs was their test subject; they wrapped it in its swaddling-cloths of conjured fabric, laid it
in one of the wagons, and backed the wagon carefully into the midst of one of the biggest tentacle-
beasts.
The tentacles groped softly over the wagon, feeling each cranny and crevice blindly. As Xylina held her
breath and the men watched with mingled fear and hope, the tentacles moved over the bundled body of
the dog.
The dog slept on, oblivious. The tentacles completed their exploration of this new thing that had
invaded, then the beast went back to waving them aimlessly in the air. The beast accepted the dog and
wagon as it would a rock-or a lemur.
Hazard shouted with tired joy, and the rest joined him in a weak cheer.
"All right," Faro said, as if this were routine. "Let's get the wagons and the animals into the protection of
these bigger beasts. Then get yourselves under cover-no more than three to a beast. We can't be sure
how effective they are going to be. Hurry it up, now, the sun is setting! Those spiders are likely to be
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here any moment. If any of you are afraid, let Ware put you in a trance as well; that way you will not
tear loose your protection, or be tempted to flee where the spiders may find you."
The men didn't need much urging. Ware put the rest of the dogs and the mules and his horse under his
trances. The dogs he placed in the wagon beside the first. The mules and horse he led in himself, and got
them to lie down. Then he layered yet more fabric over them as the tentacles groped him and animal
with complete impartiality. He left them sleeping and looking like bundles of discarded laundry.
Then it was the turn of the rest. Walking stiffly in their swathings, each of them picked a tentacle beast
and moved carefully into its groping embrace. The only exceptions were the three or four men who
confessed to being too terrified of the tentacle beasts to remain awake. Those, Ware led in as he had the
horse. He got them sitting and then entranced. He left them lying on their sides and snoring happily,
oblivious to the tentacles waving over their heads. Xylina was sweating, and not from the heat of her
wrappings, as she inched her way toward her chosen beast. She was afraid, too-but she felt that she
could not confess it and retain the respect of the men. This was, perhaps, the hardest thing she had ever
done. Not even facing Faro in the arena had taken this much nerve.
She paused, just inside the reach of the beast, and waited for it to kill her. But the tentacles passed over
her, touching her with surprising gentleness, and finally leaving her alone. She remained where she was
for a moment, gathering her nerve, but every heartbeat that passed with the beast leaving her in peace
gave her a little more of her courage back. At length she made her way as far in as she could, finally
finding a place where the tentacles seemed to meet. She lowered herself stiffly down on the ground
beside the base of the beast, with her legs stuck out in front of her, like a doll. She was weary beyond
words, and she knew that the men must be just as exhausted. Now they must wait and see if their guess
was correct-that the spiders would avoid these beasts, and so leave the party unmolested.
She found that she could see through thin sections of the fabric. She maneuvered to get the best view.
The sunset was glorious, a kaleidoscope of reds and oranges, with swaths of purple near the zenith. The
light, fresh breeze that sprang up as it vanished cooled her under all her coverings. She wondered when
the first of the spiders would appear. Perversely, she did not want to wait. She would rather know if they
were going to be safe, and know it immediately.
Movement at her side made her turn, expecting an attack of some other animal. But it was nothing of the
kind.
One of the little golden-furred lemurs approached her cautiously, pushing aside the tentacles with its
furred palms. She sensed that if she made any kind of sudden movement, she would frighten it, so she
remained completely quiet. It seemed fascinated by her; its huge green eyes were fixed on hers, and the
careful grace with which it moved rather surprised her. She had not expected the creatures to be so lithe.
It sidled up to her, and reached out to touch her wrappings, then snatched its hand back quickly, all the
while watching her face. When she did not move, and only reacted by making soothing and encouraging
nonsense sounds, it ventured another touch. Finally it came to squat beside her, examining her
wrappings minutely, but taking extraordinary care not to dislodge them. She was impressed by its [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]