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Dave woke up as he felt Arlana move. He was wearing nothing but his shorts, which had also served as a bathing suit, but he was still hot and sweaty. “Now I know why they call this place Sheol,” he muttered to himself. “It has only two thermostat settings: hot and muggy, or really hot and muggy.”
Arlana sat up. How beautiful she looked in her brief top and shorts. She looked at him and seemed to read his mind. “Don’t even think about it husband. The weather is clearing.”
“What do you mean?” he asked, feeling himself reddening. “How did you know what I was thinking?”
“You seem to forget, husband, that you’re not the only one with an acute sense of smell. Among Ancients, we derive much more information about what others are thinking by our sense of smell than Lesser Men do. So, yes, I can usually tell what you’re thinking and feeling. A more mature Ancient, with training, would be able to disguise the signs. However, you aren’t able to disguise them very well yet.”
“So, you’ve always known,” he gulped, “—what I’ve been thinking and feeling?”
“Pretty much, although early on I did not know how reliable my sense of smell was when it came to Lesser Men. But when you became one of us Ancients, I knew I was reading you correctly. But enough talk, husband, we have to prepare ourselves and the dragons for flight as quickly as possible.” She smiled as Dave felt his embarrassment growing.
The wind was abating and the rain had diminished to a drizzle by the time the dragons were ready. When Hiszt indicated that the weather was barely acceptable for flying, one after another the dragons lumbered into the wind and flew off in a westerly direction. The Infernal Sea had monstrous waves but the dragons gained enough height to miss the tops of the worst of them. They occasionally saw an island far below. Some of the small islands had ruins on them, but no one wanted to stop. Then the flight settled down to one long monotonous endurance trial. Dave fell asleep.
When he woke, the wind had died down and Hiszt had climbed high enough that the huge waves looked like small whitecaps. They were just below the cloud layer. Hiszt flew into the clouds and began emitting his periodic chirps. Dave could hear the nearby dragons chirping as well.
Soon they were through the clouds and could see the terraces rising as steps before them. Hiszt seemed to be at the end of his strength. He headed toward the terrace ahead, found a meadow, and landed. He was breathing hard.
“I cannot go higher, little one,” he said. “I think we are at the eighth terrace from the top. The trees should protect you from the other dragons, but beware, red dragons can reach this height. Without you on our backs we will fly as high as we can and find a place to rest. We’ll come back and protect you as well as we can on your climb, after we have rested and have our strength back.”
“Do you want me to take your saddle off, Hiszt?”
“No, little one. It’s not very heavy. We may need them again, and you can’t carry them up in your climb. We will leave them on, trusting that you will join us on the fifth terrace to take them off.”
After those words, Hiszt and the other dragons took flight, resuming their climb to the higher terraces. Linder led the band into the woods. The gloom increased since the trees were tall and hardly any light reached the forest floor. Dave let Horatio out of his pack. He had only travelled a short distance, Horatio sniffing at his side, when he noticed high up on a tree, a two-meter-diameter web, coated with water drops and glistening in a beam of sunlight like diamonds. Even at this distance the strands were the thickness of string, not at all the gossamer threads of spider webs that Dave was used to seeing.
The webs appeared with greater frequency but remained high in the trees. Finally, the band came to an area dense with webs. They could see the occasional arachnid, with a body about thirty centimeters in diameter waiting by the webs, some of which were three meters across. Ahead Dave saw an enormous cocoon or hive about thirty meters high. A steady stream of arachnids was going in and out of holes in the globular structure.
“I don’t like the look of this,” said Linder. “Let’s try to go around by heading left. It looks like the webs are strung a little less densely there.”
With Dave leading, they headed a substantial distance to the left. The frequency of the webs did decrease, but after a while they increased again, and off in the distance Dave saw another one of the large cocoons.
“These arachnid colonies seem to go on for ever,” said Dave. “Maybe we should just cut our way through the webs at the edge of the colony. We must be less than two miles from the next escarpment.”
There was general assent, so Dave took out Gram and sliced through the web impeding their way. A spider with a dinner-plate-sized body rushed along the strands toward them.
“Let’s move people,” said Linder. “Dave, you lead and clear the way. Chartrand you’re with me.”
Dave was running through the trees, cutting any webs that impeded their progress. Behind them he could hear a buzz and a click like chitin scraping against chitin. The frequency of the webs decreased remarkably and they were now confined to the tops of the trees.
Dave slowed to a brisk walk to let everyone catch their breath and to let Linder and Chartrand catch up. The spiders came running through the trees. “There’s something big coming. Let’s go at our best pace.” Without waiting for an answer, Linder sped past them. The others followed. Dave waited, looking back. He could see nothing, but Horatio growled and then darted after the others.
Dave took up the rear-guard position following the others. After about fifteen minutes the trees thinned out and the escarpment to the next terrace loomed before them. Linder was already picking his way across the broken rocks that littered the base of the cliff.
Following, Dave could still hear the buzz and click, although a little more faintly. When he reached the escarpment, the others were already climbing up the cliff. Dave lifted Horatio into his pack and began to climb also. As he looked back he saw a torrent of arachnids pour out of the woods and begin to crawl over the rock field. Dave shouted to the others and began to climb as fast as he could.
The arachnids had no trouble with the cliff and were able to walk up without apparent difficulty, like spiders climbing a house wall. Dave reached a ledge. “I think we need to make a stand here,” said Linder. “I don’t want them attacking us while we’re climbing.”
Picking up what loose rocks they could, they threw them at the arachnids as they methodically climbed toward them. When a rock hit one of the monstrosities, there was a satisfying plunk and the writhing spider plunged onto the rocks below.
“Look!” shouted Dave, pointing down to the rock field. In the middle of the rock field, a sedan-sized arachnid with a swollen abdomen over one-half its length climbed onto a large rock and watched the attack with its multifaceted eyes.
“Makalo, Chartrand. Get your rifles and take that queen out. Maybe that will stop the attacks.”
They needed no further urging, and within seconds they were targeting the grotesque head. The arthropod reeled when bullet after bullet ripped into its head and thorax. It slipped off the rock leaving a smear of green blood.
The attacks stopped. All of the arachnids that had been approaching them stopped. Then slowly, one-by-one they turned around and headed back down the cliff.
Everyone sat down from their exertions to catch a quick rest. Dave anxiously watched the edge of the forest to see if the arachnids would return.
Finally, Linder said, “We may as well get going. None of us want to stay this close to those things in case they come back.