Beowulf's Children

"Are they all right?"

"I have detected no cause for alarm," the computer said primly.

Jessica lunged backward, trying to rip herself free of the entangling web.

The forest was all deep shadow, vines and webbing strung among horsemane trees. In the shadow above him Justin caught a face like a snarling monkey, then the compact torso and long, long limbs that went with it. The beast wasn't moving. It was singing.

And Justin had dropped his pack, and with it his tracer, his knife, and all weapons. It would take a minute to run back to get them, and in a minute the creatures would be on her.

Jessica's face was turned away from the web, she had managed to get enough leverage to turn her head. "Justin! I can see four of them. They're just big Joeys... " Her voice died.

Little snarling faces. They sang with their mouths open... sang way back in their throats. Big Chaka had examined several spider devil bodies. Their song would have been perfect for slow dancing. Justin could make out hideous shadows moving into place around Jessica. One tapped along the web, crawling down toward Jessica.

Justin scooped up two rocks. His first missed entirely. His second struck one of the creatures, and it scuttled back up into the trees. But two others were crawling cautiously down, testing their footing every step of the way.

Damn, damn, damn. He and Jessica must be larger than anything the Joey-things ordinarily hunted, but would size alone keep them away?

Jessica screamed at them. They retreated for a moment, then started down the vine again. "Justin," she said, her voice deadly calm. "They're not scared of us. They're coming back down. Not a whole lot of doubt about that."

Justin pried at a nearby branch. Dammit, it was more vine than branch, and entirely too pliable. He tugged at it, and it just bent. It could have held his weight.

He was desperate. The loam underfoot was thick and soft; years of fallen leaves had decomposed to make the rich compost. No weapons there. He was naked, dammit.

Freezing hell! The first time in his life that he let lust overwhelm him and this happens?

He went to Jessica, who had managed to pry her face an inch or two away from the web. "I think," she said. "I think that maybe I can get out of this."

Justin tugged a rock out of the ground, and touched it to the web. He pulled. The mucilage was horribly strong. The spider devils were centimeters closer, and the lullaby was calming him against his will. If he had the radio, just the radio, he'd turn it on high and play them some old Riot Rap—

"Listen to me!" she said harshly, almost a whiplash. "You have to go back for the grendel guns. I can keep them away that long."

He had a sudden, horrific vision of the piglet, and the spidery things which injected it with venom, and then tore it to pieces.

"The hell I will."

"Justin!"

"The instant I go, they'll be all over you," he said. "We can barely keep them away with the two of us." And the wordless music was pulling him down to fatalistic despair.

Her breath was heavier now. "Well—it's the only chance we have. I can't break the glue."

"Sing!" Justin commanded.

"Sing? Sing what?"

"Anything! ‘For the beauty of our land, for the beauty of the skies.'

"

It was a children's song they'd learned in school. Jessica joined him.

" ‘For the love which from our birth. Over and around us lies—‘ "

The lullaby wavered, warbled out of tune and faltered. Encroaching spider devils backed away. This was something new. "It works! I can keep them off," Jessica said. "Get the guns!"

"It won't hold them. ‘Source of all, to thee we raise, this our hymn of grateful praise—‘ " Justin's mind ran feverishly. "Wait a minute," he said. "Let's just wait a minute. Look at this stuff. Remember what Chaka said? This isn't made from their own bodies. It's a patchwork, and the foundation is leaves. Chewed leaves. They spread this mucilage on top of it. And everything that they catch in here must struggle, so they have to keep patching it."

"So what?"

"So Chaka said they're at the mercy of their building materials. The web is no stronger than the plant material underneath it."

"How does that help... never mind," she said. "If you've got an idea, you'd better use it fast. ‘For the beauty of each hour, of the day and of the night. Hill and vale and tree and flower, Sun and moon and stars of light—‘ "

The spider devils crawled toward them. Their humming changed. "They're keeping harmony with us!" Jessica shouted.

"Change the tune! ‘The knight came home from the quest! Muddied and sore he came. Battered of shield and crest, ba

"That's a cheerful one!"

"Sing, damn it! ‘Here is my lance to mend. Here is my horse to be shot! Aye they were strong, the battle was long but I paid as good as I got!' " Justin tugged at the vine.

"I don't remember the words!"

" ‘My wounds are noised abroad. Theirs my foemen cloak. You see my broken sword, but never the blades that she broke!' "

Justin returned to the vine he had been unable to break, and examined it soberly. "I hope to God that you're as strong as you look," he said. It was five times thicker than any of the vines used in the web itself. How old were the web's supporting fibers? How long had they been in place? What was the average size and weight of the animals these creatures fed upon?

He wrapped both arms around the vine, and set his weight, pulling it toward the web.

The spider devils changed their tune again.

"Hurry!" she screamed. She tossed her whole body violently, and for an instant the spider devil scampered back up into the shadows. " ‘Here is my lance to mend! Here is my horse to be shot! Aye, they were strong, the battle was long, but I paid as good as I got!' "

With an effort that racked her spine, she turned to see Justin pulling the branch after him, forcing it to bend a few inches at a time. The soil provided little traction, taxing Justin's knotted, wiry body to the breaking point. He grunted and pulled, lost ground, pulled again, and couldn't quite make it reach.

Jessica sobbed. "No use! Get the—"

And then insanity. Justin braced himself on one foot, and took his left foot and reached up, jammed it between the strands of the web.

"Are you crazy??!"

"Fuck, yes," he gasped. Using the left foot, the stuck foot, for a brace, he jumped up with the right and jammed it through likewise. He was now suspended almost parallel to the ground, holding on to the vines with his arms, his feet entwined in the web. "Think about it!" he gasped. "We've probably got five times more stress on this web than it was ever meant to hold. Fight, damn it! We can tear this thing apart!"

Jessica was certain he had lost his mind. There was nothing to do but match his insanity. " ‘Oh, I am a cook and a captain bold, and the mate of the Nancy brig—‘ "

" ‘And a bo'sun tight, and a midshipmite, and the crew of the captain's gig!' " Justin continued.

Her leg. One leg was almost free of the web—it had never collided. She pulled herself back, and the whole jury-rigged mass shifted. She ignored the chittering sound from the trees. Something scampered down, darted at her with open jaws. She lurched violently and shivered the web.

The spider devil retreated a foot. " ‘0 elderly man, it's little I know of the duties of men of the sea, and I'll eat my hand if I understand how you can possibly be—‘ "

She stretched out desperately with her leg, but couldn't reach Justin's vine. Too late, she saw the second spider devil. It crawled down from Justin's side, and bit his thigh.

He screamed, cursed, convulsed so violently that for a moment she thought he would rip himself free. No such luck, but the monster scuttled back up to safety.