Part 8 (1/2)

Dana reached for the key. Her fingers closed on it. She lifted it from the hook. She brought it down to the lock.

”Wait,” I said. ”Let me make sure that really is the key.” I held out my hand.

Dana gave it to me. I brought it to the lock, inserted it, and turned it. It resisted, seeming to want to come back out of the lock without completing its action, as if there were a spring behind it. I pushed it in farther, and maintained pressure, so as to complete the turn.

The door moved without moving. That is, it fogged out, and I stumbled through, because I had been pus.h.i.+ng against the key. In a moment I was through, yet the door remained in place.

I caught my balance and turned back. There was the door. I put my hand against it, and found it solid. The key was gone from my hand.

But there it was, hung up on the hook on this side of the door. It had magically returned after being used.

But if it was now on this side, then what was on the other side? Could only one person be on this side at a time?

I reached for the key-and had to jump back, because Dana Demoness suddenly popped through, colliding with me. It was a painless collision, because she was marvelously well padded in front.

”Oops,” she said, and turned to smoke. I smelled her pleasant essence as it brushed by my nose. Then she reformed a bit away. ”It changed so fast!”

I knew the feeling. But I had another question. ”The key-how could you use it, when it was on this side?”

”It was back on its hook on the other side,” she said. ”There must be two keys.”

”MareAnn's alone with Demetria,” I said, starting to be alarmed.

”Metria doesn't hurt folk physically. She does it all verbally or with illusion. She's probably tired of this game now.” Dana looked around. ”Odd that we can't get through that thicket wall. Normally, solid things are no barrier to demons. There must be special magic here, making it a demon-proof glade.”

Then MareAnn stumbled through. I caught her before she fell. ”It was so-” she started.

”I know,” I finished.

Then the three of us turned to look at where we were. The thicket arched up high overhead, forming a dome that blocked the direct rays of the sun without cutting off the light; brilliance wafted down to touch the ground. On the ground orangeberry bushes grew, covered with fat berries.

”What a lovely place!” MareAnn exclaimed. ”Let's eat some berries before we depart.”

We walked to the bushes and started picking and eating. Dana did too. ”I never realized what fun eating could be,” she said. ”Of course the food does me no good, so I shouldn't waste it.”

”What happens to what you eat?” I asked, my curiosity manifesting again.

”I just hold it inside me as long as I'm solid. When I turn vaporous-” She fogged. ”It drops out.” Sure enough, a pile of chewed berries plopped to the ground.

We picked and ate with a will. The berries were delicious. Then MareAnn screamed.

”What?” I asked, hurrying over to join her.

She pointed. There, lying half hidden under the bushes, was a collection of bones.

Dana came across. ”Oops,” she said. ”Those are human bones. Now we know what happened to those last three villagers: they died here.”

”Are the berries poisonous?” I asked, abruptly horrified for more than one reason.

”Not that I know of,” Dana said. ”We demons are pretty good with poisons, and I didn't taste any.”

”Then what made them die?” MareAnn asked, shuddering.

”Maybe there's an ogre in here,” I said, looking around much more nervously than before.

”Let's get out of here,” MareAnn said.

We started back toward the door. But there, between it and ourselves, was a pack of ferocious animals. They had the heads of wolves and the bodies of spiders, and were about half man height.

”Wolf spiders!” Dana exclaimed. ”They can't hurt me, but they are surely dangerous to you.”

”Now we know how the villagers died,” I said grimly, feeling for my knife. But it seemed quite inadequate to the defense.

Five spiders advanced in the line. One remained behind to guard the stone door. Evidently they were experienced in trapping prey. Their technique and the bones indicated that.

MareAnn clung to me. ”Oh, Humfrey, what can we do? I can't summon the horses here; they can't get in!”

I drew my knife. It seemed even less adequate than before. For one thing, I was no fighter, and for another, the blade was only as long as one of the enemy fangs. Even if I got in a lethal strike, that would stop only one spider.

Could we flee? No, the glade was entirely enclosed. This was an ideal hunting ground for the wolf spiders.

We would just have to fight and die, as the villagers had before us. ”Stay behind me,” I said. ”Maybe I'll be able to occupy them long enough for you to sneak to the door.” It was an almost futile hope, but the best that offered.

”Oh, Humfrey, I love you,” she said.

”You two are acting as if I'm not here,” Dana said. ”Both of you get behind me.”

Numbly, we did so. She a.s.sumed the form of a fierce fire-breathing dragon. She swung her head toward the nearest spider and fired out a jet of flame.

But the spider merely leaped aside, and the flame missed. Meanwhile the others closed in from the sides. It was obvious that not even a dragon could stop them all. A dragon could not guard all sides at once.

”A basilisk!” I whispered. ”Can you do that?”

”s.h.i.+eld your eyes,” the dragon whispered back. Then it became a tiny lizard with wings.

Mare Ann and I clapped our hands to our eyes. It was death to meet the gaze of a bask!

But could the demoness actually kill with her glance? Fire was essentially nonmagical, and she could generate that by forming the innards of a dragon, but the death glance was magical, and demons didn't possess that type of magic. If the spiders caught on- The basilisk hissed and swung its little head toward the spiders. The spiders did several double takes, then scrambled out of the way. The bluff was working!

Then one spider, perhaps a smidgen smarter than the rest, balked. He had seen the demoness, and then the dragon, and then the bask. He was catching on that it might be illusion. If he called the bluff, we would be in trouble again.

Dana-bask glared at him. He met her gaze. He did not die. He opened his wolf mouth to sound the charge.

I took the gamble of my life. I hurled my knife at the creature. I had never been good at throwing, either, but what else was there?

The knife whistled straight and true. It plunged right into the opened wolf mouth and stuck in the throat beyond. I was amazed. How could I have performed such a feat? I was neither a knife fighter nor a thrower. I had made my effort from unwitting desperation. Then I remembered my dunking in the healing spring. I was super healthy now; my body worked perfectly, as it never had before. It did exactly what I wanted it to-and I had wanted it to throw that knife hard and fast into the wolf mouth, striking with the point. I had underestimated my physical capacity.

The spider gave a whine of agony and collapsed.

The others turned to look. They saw their packmate dropping dead.