Cenotaph Road

" Krek?" he called. " Is that you? Really you?"

" Oh, silly human, who else in all the world is as miserable as I? This rain! My fur is wet, and I wish to die. Never has one so noble born been subjected to such base treatment."

Lan went and hunkered down beside Krek. The giant spider was completely drenched, sitting under a natural rainspout formed by leaves. The man dragged the arachnid a few yards deeper into the forest, where the boughs formed a more perfect rain shelter.

" Now, you sodden spider, what are you doing here? I thought you' d be swinging high up in your web, mating with Klawn."

" Oh, you saw the mating!" cried the spider, showing signs of excitement for the first time. " Was it not the most glorious mating of two noble spiders you have ever witnessed? Such bliss! We lived for that wonderous ecstasy."

Lan moved closer. The spider might have been damp, but he also radiated warmth necessary to keep Lan from shivering. The coarse fur on the legs had softened in the rain and now caressed his naked flesh like a velvet comforter. He burrowed deeper and was rewarded by Krek' s shifting position. He found a berth between two of the large legs and settled down to listen.

" I don' t understand. I didn' t stay for the nuptials. All I saw was the web swinging back and forth when you greeted Klawn."

" Ah," signed Krek in remembrance, " the sweet epithalamion of our bliss! Such poignancy, such dexterity of spi

" You mean you' ve already mated? You did it while I was there, watching?"

" Certainly," Krek said snappishly. " You silly humans prolong the moment of bliss to ridiculous lengths. We spiders concentrate our joy into one intense movement. I shall remember it forever," he sighed, sounding more like a maiden in love than ever before.

" If you' re so damned happy, what are you doing out here in the forest getting soaked through and through?"

Krek rose up and peered at Lan. The limpid eyes were as expressionless as ever.

" I simply will never understand you humans and your peculiar ways. Klawn must try to devour me as the ultimate act of our coupling." He didn' t have to add, " You stupid human." It carried in his tone.

" So you decided to explore again?"

" Of course. The Cenotaph Road provides a modicum of excitement for me. If I must leave my lovely bride, at least I can experience all the many worlds have to offer, in way of small recompense."

" Seems fair," muttered Lan. He again began weaving together more strands for a covering, then stopped. The universe' s finest silk was at his beck and call. All he had to do was ask. So he did.

" A cape?" murmured Krek. " I assume you mean one of those square things you toss around your frail bodies. Hmmm, yes, quite easily done, for one of my skill." In less than an hour, Lan securely wrapped a strong, warm silk cape around his chilled body.

Lan contemplated starting a fire with one of his simple spells, but he decided against it because of Krek' s aversion to flame.

Instead, Lan asked, " Have you been near the city recently?"

" I skirted it. My kind has little intercourse with those from that village. They most unkindly scream and flee from us as if we were some sort of monsters. On occasion, they have been known to use fire." The giant spider' s body shuddered until Lan thought it would fall apart under the vibration. Krek finally controlled himself and continued, " I have seen the patrols of the grey- clad soldiers, however, and decided that it was pointless to antagonize them further."

" Did you happen to see a small patrol with a woman prisoner?" Lan rapidly described Velika, hoping that the spider' s oddly different sensory apparatus had picked up a clue as to her whereabouts.

Lan felt his pulse rate increasing as he described the woman. His forehead dotted with sweat and an uncomfortable feeling mounted in his loins. He turned to keep the spider from seeing his arousal. Worse than the embarrassment was the confusion that accompanied the physical response. Just thinking about Velika excited him, yet he had seen her only briefly. She was lovely, yes, definitely! But a single kiss shouldn' t create such mental turmoil.

He remembered vividly the tears rolling down her face, and the acid burn as he touched them. The kiss. The tears on his lips. The surge of stark animal desire throughout his body. The confusion. He shook away the rest of the memory. Reliving his stupidity over and over accomplished nothing.

" I saw a mounted guard with two females. One as you describe and the other with black fur on her cranium. She fought well, but the chains binding her wrists prevented much damage. A shame she did not possess proper snippers." Krek grated his mandibles together in an awful sound that made Lan cringe. " That would have been a fight truly worth witnessing."

" Where were they taking her- them?"

Krek shivered in way of a shrug. " It is difficult to say since I have the feeling that the soldiers are not native to my world."

" Then they' re from still another world," mused Lan.

" I mean what I mean," snapped Krek. " They do not belong on this web world. All these grey ones come from some other world lying along the Road."

Lan thought this over, slowly nodding. It explained the encounters on the boggy world. The grey- clad soldiers expanded across world after world in an attempt to establish a real empire. He sighed. This was conquest on a cosmic scale. On his own world, many had established vast empires ranging over entire continents. N- Yalch of the Timbers had welded together a confederation spa

But the idea of conquering entire worlds, treading along the Cenotaph Road, took Lan by storm. The audacity of it! No simple barbarian warlord could attempt such a feat. The logistics, the movement of men and supplies alone, boggled the mind. Lan considered other aspects, then realized why Surepta had been recruited. Scouting ahead onto new worlds slated for conquest required knowledge. Locals enticed to accept high commissions as Surepta had done would prove invaluable when the main body of troops moved in to conquer.

Lan raged again against the turncoat and his back- stabbing ways. Yet he recognized a still greater danger. The old sheriff had considered the grey- clads a local phenomenon, nothing more. He and all the deputies in the world couldn' t resist the onslaught of a well- trained, disciplined army marching along the Cenotaph Road. With whole worlds to supply and support, no individual world could stand for long.

Yet the very act of invasion posed a major problem.

" Who can move so many men through one tiny cenotaph?" he asked Krek. " It seems a life' s work trying to get enough soldiers into just one world, much less several. Remember the numbers of soldiers we found? They seemed endless."

" I remember, oh, how this woe- filled one remembers!" Krek returned to pitying himself. " My fur has never been matted from more foul mud and water. And they humiliated me mercilessly. Me, Webmaster of the Egrii Mountains. Never again will I bear up under such scorn. My bravery then amazes me."

" You can be brave like that again, Krek. Now tell me, how is this being done, this invasion? Surely, a single man armed with a crossbow would be able to kill the soldiers one by one as they emerged from the cenotaph." And, he mentally added, the crossbowman wouldn' t even have to stand a long duty watch- merely a short span around midnight when the cenotaph activated.

" The obvious solution is that Waldron Ravensroost has discovered a way of generating his own Road." Krek sounded disgusted with Lan for missing such an obvious idea.