The City of Dreaming Books (29 page)

Five different tunnels led out of the Hall of Clay Warriors. I simply opted for the nearest one, only to realise an instant later that this was a terrible mistake. Although I had never seen a Spinxxxx before, I knew from Regenschein’s accurate description that I was immediately beneath one. It lowered three, four, five, six or more long grey insectile legs and hemmed me in on all sides. I was captured, dear readers - imprisoned in a living cage!

T
he best way to visualise a Spinxxxx
⁷
is to think of it as a twofold spider: a spider with only one body but sixteen legs and sixteen long antennae instead of eyes. A creature that can walk not only on the ground but also on the ceiling and walls - at one and the same time.

Regenschein knew from personal observation that Spinxxxxes are deaf and blind and have no sense of smell. Like many subterranean creatures they rely exclusively on their sense of touch. Above and below mean nothing to a Spinxxxx, nor do ahead and behind. All they know is an endless ‘round about’ which they ceaselessly explore with the aim of finding food - and food to them is anything that moves. They systematically run their antennae over tunnel walls and eat whatever they catch, whether bookworm, beetle, snake, bat, rat or Bookhunter. The Spinxxxx is immune to the poisons secreted by many life forms in the catacombs. It is also invulnerable. Its small cutaneous scales are composed of granite, and even the sharpest weapons bounce off them. Regenschein surmised that concealed beneath them are muscles of root wood, bones of bronze, intestines of carbon fibre and a diamond heart that pumps resin instead of blood - that the Spinxxxx is, in fact, a genuine creature of the earth’s interior, a hybrid mixture of animal, vegetable and mineral. Its feeding equipment, too, is unsurpassed: a mouth filled with stone teeth for chewing, bronze claws for tearing prey apart and a long trunk for sucking it dry. Regenschein considered the Spinxxxxes to be useful creatures because they keep the catacombs free from vermin, but he advised his readers to give them a wide berth.

I had neglected the latter point, unfortunately. But the situation wasn’t completely hopeless, dear readers! The first good thing was that the monster hadn’t noticed me yet. If Regenschein’s observations were correct and the Spinxxxx really was blind, deaf and devoid of a sense of smell, it couldn’t possibly have registered my presence because it hadn’t touched me so far, either with its antennae or with its legs. It might have lowered its legs by chance, just as I was walking past, and taken me prisoner without knowing it.

The second good thing: the Spinxxxx’s attention was distracted. Having detected a phosphorescent jellyfish on the roof of the tunnel, it was busy sucking the creature dry. It had inserted its elephantine trunk in the luckless jellyfish, whose luminosity steadily diminished as the Spinxxxx drained its vital fluids with a repulsive slurping sound.

The third good thing: the gaps between the monster’s legs were wide enough to enable me to slip through, given a little care on my part. The wriggling antennae represented the greatest danger, but they were busy palpating the jellyfish. I also had to watch out for the almost invisible cobwebs suspended between the Spinxxxx’s legs, which were used to capture aerial prey such as moths and bats, and rendered it an almost perfect hunting machine.

I gathered my cloak round me, drew a deep breath and tucked in my head and stomach to make myself thin and short enough to squeeze through one of the gaps sideways on. The Spinxxxx above me seemed to notice none of this. The greedy slurping sounds were now overlaid by a contented purr that suggested the meal was claiming its full attention.

Off I went, inching sideways with bated breath. I could make out every last granite scale on the Spinxxxx’s legs by the pulsating pale pink light of the dying jellyfish. No Lindworm had ever been so close to one of these beasts before. Another few inches and I would be clear of it. Just . . . one . . . more . . . step . . . and . . . I was free! But only for a moment, alas, because the Spinxxxx now changed its stance. Withdrawing its trunk from the jellyfish, it thrust it into the quivering mass at another spot. In so doing it moved a dozen of its sixteen legs, which stabbed and slashed the air above my head before hemming me in once more. It also lowered several antennae, which hit the ground with a smack like sodden ropes. Although it had failed to touch me even now, my prison was more cramped than before.

My heart was pounding, but I strove to remain calm. The gap between two of the legs was wide enough to admit me, but the finely woven spider’s web suspended between them came down so low that I would have to crawl beneath it. I tried to banish the thought that the Spinxxxx might have noticed me after all and was only playing a cruel game with me.

Warily, I sank to my knees. Some tiny moths and tunnel flies were caught in the web, already sucked dry. These, coupled with the greedy slurping sounds overhead, confirmed Regenschein’s assertion that Spinxxxxes spurned no live food of any kind, however minute.

I crawled between the creature’s legs, wrapping my cloak around me as tightly as possible and moving as slowly and deliberately as my nerves would permit. Two antennae came snaking across the floor of the tunnel in front of me. Jellyfish fluid was dripping on the back of my neck, but I resisted the temptation to make any precipitate movements. I glanced up once more to satisfy myself that the Spinxxxx was still preoccupied with its prey. Yes, it was sucking away at the jellyfish and purring contentedly. I peered into the darkness of the tunnel ahead, my escape route. And then I saw it.

The white, one-eyed bat
!

As if it had pursued me through my nightmares, all the way from that horrific room at the Golden Quill, Bookholm’s hotel from hell, it came fluttering out of the black void of the tunnel, its powerful, purposeful wing-beats carrying it straight towards me and the Spinxxxx.

It wasn’t the dead creature from my room, of course, but I’m convinced it was at least a close relation, a brother or sister whom it had commanded from the hereafter to land me in an even worse predicament. Why? Because the stupid creature clearly intended to fly between the Spinxxxx’s legs. It had failed to see the gossamer mesh suspended between them.

Get to my feet and run for it - that was all I could do now. But the bat was too quick for me. One more wing-beat and it whooshed into the invisible trap, became hopelessly entangled in the sticky threads, squeaked and struggled - and alerted the Spinxxxx before I’d even half risen from the tunnel floor.

The monster stamped its feet and its antennae thrashed the air like severed cables. I received a blow to the chest, staggered backwards, tripped over an insectile leg and fell to the ground. The Spinxxxx removed its trunk from the jellyfish, exuding long threads of glowing mucus, and brought its grey body down on top of me. Its numerous antennae roamed all over my body and face and palpated the struggling bat at the same time.

This was bound to be a great day in the Spinxxxx’s culinary life - one it would doubtless remember fondly. First an hors d’oeuvre of plump jellyfish; next a delicious entrée of furry white bat; and finally, for the main course, this hitherto unknown delicacy with the leathery hide and appetising body odour. I could hear the gastric juices seething in its intestines. Its mandibles clattered together excitedly.

The Spinxxxx’s massive body swayed to and fro on eight of its legs while the other eight performed a kind of dance on the roof of the tunnel. It seemed to be debating which of its prey to devour next. The big one or the little one? The little one or the big one? Unable to decide, it continued to clatter its mandibles until a book was thrust between them.

Had sheer terror caused me to hallucinate? Where had this book come from? Craning my neck, I saw a figure in full armour looming over me. A Bookhunter! His suit of mail, which was made up of many different metal components, left no part of his body unprotected. His head and face were obscured by a helmet and an iron mask. He had thrust the book in his gauntleted hand between the Spinxxxx’s mandibles. Yes, a book.

‘Eat that!’ he said in a deep voice.

Instinctively, the Spinxxxx’s jaws began to close. I just had time to see this before the mail-clad figure hurled itself on top of me and everything went black. I heard a crackling, crunching sound - the Spinxxxx was chewing up the book - followed by a deafening explosion. The Bookhunter’s armour jingled and vibrated, and a blast of scorching air surged over me. Then silence fell. Nothing more happened until the Bookhunter rose with a grunt, enabling me to see again. I sat up. My ears were ringing.

The Spinxxxx’s body had distributed itself all over the tunnel. Its legs were sticking into the walls like javelins and its stone scales lay strewn across the floor. Resinous fluid was dripping from the roof.

‘I’d never have believed it,’ the Bookhunter said as he helped me to my feet. ‘An Analphabetic Terrortome came in handy for once. They’re the confounded things that compel us to go around in all this cumbersome armour.’

‘Many thanks,’ I said. ‘You saved my life.’

‘I got rid of a Hazardous Book, that’s all,’ said the Bookhunter, wiping some Spinxxxx slime from his armour. He walked a few steps down the passage and extracted something from a mound of splintered granite and coal. It was a sparkling diamond the size of his fist.

‘Well I’ll be damned,’ he muttered, ‘Spinxxxxes really do have diamond hearts.’ He turned to face me again. ‘May I introduce myself? My name is Colophonius Regenschein. Will you permit me, after that close shave, to invite you to a modest snack in my humble abode?’

W
as this the end of my misfortunes, the light at the end of the tunnel? My life had been saved by Colophonius Regenschein himself, dear readers, and he was now conducting me to his subterranean abode to entertain me there. In the circumstances, could anything better have happened to me? If there was one person who could help me to get out of this place alive, it was the greatest Bookhunter of all.