She was clad in a coverall suit of much the same design as the green garment Dworn wore according to beetle custom. But her garb was shiny black, and in front, between the swelling mounds of her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, was an emblem he did not understand; the shape of an hourgla.s.s, in vermilion red.
She stood gazing at him, smiling a little with a curve of scarlet lips that revealed white, sharp-looking teeth. Dworn groped for his voice; but she spoke first.
"Patience, beetle," she said. "I"ll attend to you in a moment."
The words had the accent of a strange speech, but they were intelligible. Dworn stared uncomprehendingly at her, mumbled, "Who--_what_ are you?"
She moved nearer and stood smiling down at him. "Why, beetle, don"t you know?... I"m the spider who caught you."
"_Spi-der?_" Dworn fumbled with the unfamiliar word. "I don"t--"
Her eyes too were black, very black and intense. She said slowly, "You don"t know about spiders, beetle? Strange. It must be that till now there were none of our kind on this side of the Rim."
Dworn"s aching head was not serving him well, but a part of his intelligence functioned to grapple with the implication of her words.
"The Rim"--that must mean the Barrier, as seen from its eastern side.
Then she, and others like her, must have come from beyond the Barrier. A walking machine could descend by the broken path of the landslide.
But "spider"--the word rang some bell deep in his mind, some recollection of childhood"s fairytale bogeys perhaps, but he still hadn"t succeeded in grasping the memory.
He growled, "I don"t know--but if you"d untie my hands, I"d show you what a beetle is."
She eyed him thoughtfully. Then she smiled, showing the sharp little white teeth again. "Presently I"ll free you. When it"s quite safe. As soon as--" Her hand dipped to a small black case secured to her belt, and came up with a diminutive gleaming object--a slender needle thrusting from a liquid-filled plastic cylinder fitted with a plunger.
"Do you know what _this_ is, beetle?"
Dworn glowered silently.
"When I"ve injected this fluid into your veins, you will have no will of your own left. You"ll do what I say, and only what I say--for the rest of your life, beetle!"
Dworn"s eyes clung in unwilling fascination to the glittering needle. He said through stiff lips, "Now I remember. Your kind is a legend among my people. The evil women who have no men ... who kill their male children at birth, and trap their mates from among the other races, and kill them, too, when they no longer want them.... _Spider!_"
His gaze collided squarely with hers, and she needed no skill to read the loathing in it, rendered more violent by her beauty that he could not help but see.
Her eyes dropped first. She clutched the needle and muttered fiercely to herself, "But when you"ve had the injection, it won"t matter. I"ll say, "Love me!" and you"ll love me, and "Die!" and you"ll die...."
Dworn stared burningly at the slim figure in black with the scarlet hourgla.s.s on her bosom. He was alert again, and his mind was racing. To all appearances he was lost--but something in the spider girl"s manner gave him an unreasonable hope.
He said abruptly, "So. Why didn"t you use your poison while I was stunned? That would have been easy."
She looked away. "You ask foolish questions, beetle. Naturally, I had to prepare myself according to our customs. I had to paint my face and make myself beautiful...."
He said inspiredly, "You _are_ beautiful."
Her reaction was surprising. She stood gazing raptly at him, lips slightly parted the hypodermic forgotten in her hand. Dworn sensed that had he been unbound, he would have had no trouble overpowering her.
She whispered, "_It"s true, then!_"
And he realized forcibly how young she was--the painted lips made her look much older, and the shadows--which he now saw were also painted on--beneath her eyes. Only a girl, and if she had been one of his own people he would have looked at her twice and more than twice....
But above their heads the great spider-machine"s underparts gleamed dully, straddling the sunken den. And the spell lasted only a moment.
The girl straightened her shoulders and took a deep breath. "Why am I talking to a beetle? It"s time--"
There was a clang of metal from somewhere in the room beyond. The girl"s face reflected sudden fright, beneath its painted mask. She spun round and took two steps toward the inner door, but even as she did so, the door swung wide, and dark figures crowded through it.
The girl cried, with terror and anger in her voice, "What do you mean, coming into my Nest like this? You have no right--"
The interlopers were three in number, and all of them were women, wearing black garments like the girl"s, with the red spider symbol on the breast. The one in the lead was elderly, her hair wisped with gray, and her face was lined by years and pa.s.sions; her eyes were flinty, her mouth thin and cruel. The other two were younger; one was a strapping blonde wench taller than Dworn, who moved with a powerful and formidable grace; the other was short, soft-looking, with a child"s pouting mouth and a queer, mad glint in her dark eyes.
The older woman said, "No right? You"ve had your own Nest for all of three months now, dear Qanya, and already you tell your Mother that she has no right to enter?"
The girl quailed. She retreated step by step until her back was against the wall beside Dworn, and met the old woman"s eyes with a look half fright, half defiance.
"But, of course, you have your reasons," the Spider Mother went on bitingly. Her hard eyes stabbed at the bound and helpless Dworn.
"Somewhere you managed to catch this, and bring him in without letting anyone know, and paint your face and prepare the needle.... You chose to forget that in times like these there are others of the Family whose claim to a mate has priority over yours!"
"_That"s_ true, Mother!" said the tall blonde energetically. The plump girl licked her full lips and said nothing.
"Quiet, Purri!" snapped the Spider Mother. Her eyes raked the girl Qanya again. "Well, and what do you have to say for yourself?"
Qanya"s black eyes flashed. "I caught him myself," she blazed. "You"ve no right--"
"No right, no right," mocked the old woman. "Why, I believe that, if you"d dared, you"d have blocked up the connecting tunnel so we couldn"t walk in on you. Who has rights is for _me_ to decide--and for me to decide whether you"re whipped and sent back to the young girls"
dormitory. Until I"ve made up my mind--" She turned and frowned thoughtfully at her two companions, jabbed a finger at the tall one.
"You, Purri, stay here and see that nothing happens to the catch, and make sure our little Qanya doesn"t misbehave. I"m going to my Nest and check over the Family ledger, to settle the question of who"s first in line for a mate. We"ve got to be strict, now that the cursed night-fliers are everywhere and it"s been so long since we trapped a presentable male." She eyed Dworn once more, and smiled thinly. "He"s a fine youth. Who knows? I might even take him for myself."
Dworn had no stomach for the compliment. Secretly, he was twisting his bound hands behind him, trying to loosen the knots. Those knots had been none too skillfully tied, and given time.... But he had to desist as the tall Purri strode near and stood over him. She cast a glance after the retreating backs of the Spider Mother and her other proteges, then devoted all her attention to Dworn, surveying him in critical silence and with a business-like eye for detail.
Qanya huddled against the wall; her dark eyes were enormous, and tears had streaked the make-up on her cheeks.
Purri nodded satisfiedly. "He"ll do," she said matter-of-factly to Qanya. "The Mother should give him to me. It"s a choice between me and Marza, really--" She jerked her head toward the door through which the dark, pouting girl had gone--"But Marza doesn"t really appreciate a mate. All she cares about is seeing how long she can take to make them die."
Qanya stared hotly at her. She said in a stifled voice, "You"re a beast, and Marza is a beast, and--"
"Careful!" said Purri lazily. "If you say anything against the Mother, I"ll have to report you." Arms akimbo, she looked scornfully down at the younger girl"s tearful face.
Dworn had been right about the knots Qanya had tied. They were slipping.
He wrestled in silence, hoping for a little more time.... Then he was sickeningly aware that Qanya was looking toward him, had seen what he was doing. For an instant he froze.
Qanya said hurriedly, "Anyway, _you"re_ a beast, Purri. A greedy one.
You"ve had two mates already--why didn"t you make them last? And I"ve not even had one."
"When you"re older," said Purri loftily, her back still turned to the struggling beetle, "you"ll understand more. But you ought to know from your schooling that there are some races that mate for life--and among them, the males dominate the female. We spiders are above such degrading practices."