2 - Blades of Mars (9 page)

 
          
 
We landed quite neatly for such unskilled
aeronauts. We moored the ship and inspected it for damage. The Yaksha building
materials had stood up to a wind that would have shaken almost anything else to
pieces. There was comparatively little damage, considering the buffeting we had
taken.

 
          
 
All we had to do now was spend an hour or so
fixing the driving bands and finding something that would serve as ballast.
Then we'd top up the helium - and be heading for Mendishar in no time.

 
          
 
We soon had the engines working well and the
propellers spinning.

 
          
 
While we worked, however, we began to get a
definite sense of being watched. We saw nothing save the dark jungle, its trees
rising several hundred feet into the air and all tangled together to form a
lattice of twisting boles going up and up on all sides, covered in a tangle of
other vegetation - warm and damp-smelling.

 
          
 
How the glade could ever have been formed I do
not know. It was a freak of nature. Its floor consisted of nothing but smooth,
hard mud almost the consistency of rock. At its edge grew the dark, shiny
leaves of the lower, shrubs, a tangle of vines that, from the comer of one's
eye, tended to look like fat snakes, unhealthy looking bushes and creepers
gathered around the spreading roots of the trees.

 
          
 
I had never seen anything so big in a forest.
There seemed to be a variety of levels stretching up and up so that from the
outside the forest looked like a gigantic cli3 in which were dark openings of
caves.

 
          
 
It was easy for one to imagine being watched.
I suspected that it was only my imagination at work, for the surroundings were
such that they set the subconscious going nineteen to the dozen!

 
          
 
Now all we had to do was find ballast. Jil
Deera suggested that logs cut from the branches of trees might do as well as
anything. It would be
a crude
ballast but would
probably serve us adequately.

 
          
 
While Jil Dera and Vas Oola aided me in
putting the finishing touches to the motor, Hool Haji said he would go and get
some logs.

 
          
 
Off he went. We finished our work and waited
for him to return. We were impatient to get out of this mysterious jungle and
return to Mendishar as soon as possible.

 
          
 
By late afternoon we had shouted ourselves
hoarse but Hool Haji had not replied to us.

 
          
 
There was nothing for it but to enter the
forest and see if he was hurt - possibly knocked unconscious in some minor
accident.

 
          
 
Vas Oola and Jil Deera said they would search
with me, but I told them our balloon was all-important - they must stay with it
and guard it. I managed to convince them of this.

 
          
 
I found the spot where Hool Haji had entered
the forest and began to follow his trail.

 
          
 
It was not difficult. Being a large man, he
had left many signs of his passing. In some places he had hacked away some of
the undergrowth.

 
          
 
The forest was dark and dank. My feet trod on
yielding, rotting plants and sometimes sank to the mire beneath. I continued
calling my friend's name, but he still did not reply.

 
          
 
And then I came upon traces of a fight and
knew that I had not imagined we were being watched after all!

 
          
 
Here I found Hool Haji's sword. He would never
have discarded that unless captured - or killed!

 
          
 
I scouted around for signs of captors but
could find none!

 
          
 
This was very perplexing, for I rather prided
myself on my tracking ability. AU I could notice were signs of some sticky
substance, like strands of fine silk, adhering to the surrounding foliage.

 
          
 
Later on I discovered some more of this stuff
and decided that, since it was my only clue. I would look for more in the hope
that Hool Haji's captors - or murderers - had left it behind them, though why
they should and what it was I had no idea.

 
          
 
I hardly realised, as night was falling, that
I had come to a city.

 
          
 
The city seemed to be one large building
sprawling through the jungle. It appeared to grow out of the jungle, merge with
it,
be
part of it. It was of dark, ancient obsidian
and, in crevices, earth and seeds had fallen so that small trees and shrubs
grew out of the city. There were zigguarats and domes all appearing to flow
together in the half light. It was easy to believe that this was some strange
freak of
nature, that
rock has simply flowed and solidified
into the appearance of a city!

 
          
 
Yet here and there were windows, entrances all
obscured by plants.

 
          
 
As night fell the city glowed very, very
dimly, catching the few faint moonbeams that were able to penetrate the forest
roof so far above.

 
          
 
This must be where my friend's enemies had
brought him. It was a daunting place.

 
          
 
Wearily I entered the city, climbing over the
heaped, glassy rock, searching for some sign of the inhabitants, some
indication as to where my friend was hidden.

 
          
 
I clambered up the sloping sides of buildings,
over roofs, down walls, searching, searching. Everywhere were deep shadows and
the feel of smooth, lumpy rock beneath my hands and feet.

 
          
 
There were no streets in this city, simply
depressions in the roof which covered it. I entered one of these gullies - a
deep one - and began to inch along it, feeling desperate.

 
          
 
Something scuttled up the wall to my left and
I felt sick as I saw what it was - the largest spider I had ever seen in my
life.

 
          
 
Now I saw others. I took a firm grip on Hool
Haji's sword and prepared to draw my own as well. The spiders were as big as
footballs!

 
          
 
I was just preparing to leave the gully and
ascend another sloping wall of green rock when suddenly I felt something drop
over my head and shoulders. I tried to strike it away with the sword but it
clung to me. The more I moved the more entangled I became.

 
          
 
Now r understood why there had been no corpses
at the scene of Hool Haji's capture!

 
          
 
The thing that had fallen on me was a net of
the same fine, sticky silk I had seen in the forest. It was strong and clung to
everything it touched.

 
          
 
Now I had fallen face downwards and was still
trying to disentangle myself.

 
          
 
I felt bony hands pick me up.

 
          
 
I looked at those who had trapped me. I could
not believe my eyes. To the waist they were men, though considerably shorter
than me, with wiry bodies bulging with lumpy muscles. They had large eyes and
slit mouths, but were still recognisable as human beings - until you looked
beyond their waists and at the eight furry legs that radiated from them. The
bodies of men and the legs of spiders!

 
          
 
I now made jabbing movements at the leader -
my arms were so restricted it was all I could manage.

 
          
 
The leader was expressionless as he pointed a
long pole at me. The end of this pole seemed to be fitted with a needle-like
tip some six inches long. He stuck this into me - but only a short way. I tried
to fight back and then, almost at once, felt my whole body go rigid.

 
          
 
I could not move a muscle. I could not even
blink. I had been injected with a poison, that was plain - a poison that could
paralyse completely!

The Great Mishassa

 
          
 
Lifted on the backs of the strange, repellent
spider-men, I was borne deep into the
interior
of the
weird city.

 
          
 
Lighted by faintly luminous rocks, it was a
labyrinth that seemed to have no plan or purpose to it.

 
          
 
We passed through corridors and chambers that
sometimes seemed little more than conduits and on other occasions opened out
into great, balconied halls.

 
          
 
I became convinced that this was not the work
of the spider-men - not the work of men at all, but of some alien intelligence
created, perhaps, by the affect of atomic radiation. That intelligence - half
mad ever to have conceived this city - had probably perished long since, unless
these spider-men were their servants.

 
          
 
Somehow I thought not, because the corridors
and halls were full of dirt, cobwebs and the decay of centuries. I paused to
wonder just how these spider-men had come into being - whether they were
cousins of the huge spiders I had seen outside. If they were related, what unholy
union in the distant past had produced such fruit as these?

 
          
 
They scuttled along, bearing me in their
strong arms. I did not dare speculate what fate had in store for me. I was
convinced they intended to torture me, perhaps eat me in some ghastly rite -
that
I was, in fact, to be the fly in their parlour!

 
          
 
My guess was closer than I at first realised
..

 
          
 
At length we entered an enormous hall, far
bigger than anything else. It was all dark and illuminated only by the 196 dim
radiance of the rock itself.

 
          
 
But now I could feel the drug beginning to
wear off and I flexed my muscles experimentally - as much as was possible since
the sticky web - drawn, I now guessed, from the actual bodies of die spider-men
- still restricted my movement.

 
          
 
And then I saw it!

 
          
 
It was a vast web stretching across the hall.
It shimmered in the faint light and I could just make out a figure
spread-eagled in it. I was certain then that it was Hool Haji.

 
          
 
The spider-men themselves were evidently
unaffected by their own sticky webs, for several of them began to haul me up
strands of this web towards the other victim who was, I saw, indeed Hool Haji.

 
          
 
And there, hanging in space, they left us,
scuttling away into the gloom on their furry legs. They had made not a sound
since I had first encountered them.

 
          
 
My mouth was still stiff from the drug but I
managed to say a few words. I had been placed below and to one side of Hool
Haji and so could see little of him save his left foot and part of his calf.

 
          
 
'Hool Haji - can you speak?'

 
          
 
‘Yes. Have you any indication what they intend
to do with us, my friend?’

 
          
 
'No.'

 
          
 
‘I am sorry I led you into this, Michael
Kane.’

 
          
 
'It was not your fault.'

 
          
 
'I should have been more cautious: It I had
been we should all have been away by now. Is the aircraft safe?'

 
          
 
'As far as I know.'

 
          
 
I began to test the web. The actual net in
which I had been caught was becoming brittle and broken until I was at last
able to fling out my hand. But my hand was immediately trapped immovably on the
main web.

 
          
 
'I tried the same thing,' Hool Haji said from
above. 'I can think of no possible means of escape.'

 
          
 
I had to admit he was probably right, but I
racked my brains nonetheless. I had begun to get a feeling that something
horrible was in store for us unless I could devise a means of escape.

 
          
 
I began to try to work my other arm loose.

 
          
 
Then we heard the noise - a loud, scraping
noise like the sound of the spider-men moving, but magnified greatly.

 
          
 
Looking down, we suddenly saw two huge eyes,
at least four feet in diameter, looking unblinkingly up at us.

 
          
 
They were the eyes of a spider. My heart
lurched.

 
          
 
Then a voice sounded - a soft, rustling,
ironic voice which could only have issued from the owner of the eyes.

 
          
 
'Sso, an appetissing morssel for today'ss
feasst . . .’

 
          
 
I was even more stunned to hear a voice coming
from the creature.

 
          
 
‘Who are you?’ I demanded in
a none
too firm voice.

 
          
 
‘I am Mishassa - the Great Mishassa, lasst of
the folk of Shaassazheen.'

 
          
 
‘And those creatures - your
minions?'

 
          
 
There came a sound that might have been an
unhuman chuckle.

 
          
 
‘My sspawn.
Produced
by experimentss in the laboratoriess of Shaassazheen - the culmination of . . .
But you would know your fate, would you not?'

 
          
 
I shuddered. I fancied that I guessed it
already. I did not reply.

 
          
 
'Quake, little one, for you are to be my
ssupper ssoon...’

 
          
 
Now I could see the creature more clearly. It
was a giant spider - plainly one of many produced by the atomic radiation that
had affected this part of the country all those thousands of years before.

 
          
 
Mishassa was slowly beginning to climb the
web. I felt the thing sag as his weight went on to it

 
          
 
I continued my effort to release my other arm
and at last managed to free it of the net without trapping it on the web. I
remembered the little skinning knife in my harness and decided I must try to
reach that if I could.

 
          
 
Inch by inch I moved my hand towards the
knife... Inch by inch...

 
          
 
At last my fingers gripped the haft and I
eased the knife from its sheath.

 
          
 
The spider-beast was coming closer. I began to
hack first at that part of the web holding my other arm.

 
          
 
I worked desperately but the web was tough.
Then at last it parted and I was able, moving cautiously, to reach my sword.

 
          
 
I stretched my arm upwards and sliced away as
much of the web around Hool Haji as I could reach, then turned again to face
the giant spider.

 
          
 
Its voice whispered at me:

 
          
 
‘You cannot esscape. Even if you were
abssolutely free you would not esscape me - I am sstronger than you, sswifter
than you...'

 
          
 
What he said was true - but it did not stop me
trying!

 
          
 
Soon its horrible legs were only a few inches
from me and I prepared to defend myself against it as best I could. Then I
heard a yell from Hool Haji and saw his body fly past me and land squarely on
the back of the spider-beast

 
          
 
He clung to its hair shouting for me to try to
do the same.

 
          
 
I v/as only dimly aware of what he intended to
do, but I leapt, too, breaking free of the last of the strands and dropping
towards the spider-beast's back to land there and hang tightly with one hand to
the weird fur. In my other hand I held my sword.

 
          
 
Hool Haji said, ‘Give me your sword - I am
stronger than you.'

 
          
 
I passed it to him and drew my knife.

 
          
 
The beast yelled in fury and shouted
incomprehensible words at us as we began to hack at its back with our weapons.

 
          
 
It had probably been used to more passive
offerings in the shape of its own minions - but we were two fighting men of
Vashu and were prepared to sell our lives dearly before allowing ourselves to
become a banquet for a big, talkative spider!

 
          
 
It hissed and cursed. It darted about in fury,
dropping from web to ground. But still we clung on, still driving our weapons
into it, seeking a vital spot.

 
          
 
It reared up and nearly toppled over so that
we should have been crushed beneath its great bulk. But perhaps it had the
instincts of the originals of the species - many of which, once on their backs,
cannot get to their feet again. It recovered its balance just in time and began
to scuttle backwards and forwards at random.

 
          
 
Sticky, black blood was spurting from a dozen
wounds but none had, it appeared, been effective in slowing it down. Suddenly
it began to run in a straight line, a thin, high wailing sound coming from it.

 
          
 
We lay flat as its speed increased, looking
our puzzlement at one another.

 
          
 
It must have been moving at a good sixty miles
an hour - probably more - as it darted along the tunnels, carrying us deeper
and deeper into the city.

 
          
 
Now the wailing increased in volume. The
spider-creature had gone berserk. Whether it was exhibiting
a
madness
, a heritage of its mad ancestors that it had only now failed to
control, or whether our wounds were driving it berserk with pain we were never
to know.

 
          
 
Suddenly I saw movement ahead.

 
          
 
It was a pack of the spider-men - whether they
were the same who had taken us to the hall of the web I could not guess -
looking plainly panic-stricken as we rushed at them.

 
          
 
When the huge, intelligent spider paused in
its mad rush and began to fall on them, biting them to death, taking a head in
its jaws and snapping it off at the neck, or biting a torso in two. It was a
grisly sight

 
          
 
We continued to cling as best we could to the
furry back of the incensed beast. Occasionally it would shout a recognisable
word or phrase but they made no sense to us.

 
          
 
Soon every single spider-man had been
destroyed and nothing was left but a heap of dismembered corpses.