'Of course it is, you silly man,' Bellis added. 'Its structure is made from tektites, a mineral originating from another world – ha, we always say that, don't we? – since it's found mostly in meteorites, but whatever the stuff contains, it has tested superbly in sucking up dozens of our little arachnid friends. We've augmented – you know the word? – augmented the frequencies of the inner circuitry and so, according to the theory, we should have this giant arachnid of yours bagged in no time.'
'And when it gets here?' Jeryd enquired.
'Ah yes, the boys have been working on that. Ramon?'
The sinister-looking bald man leaned down to pick up a small bag. From it he retrieved a small brass tripod, which he then lowered to the rooftop, several feet away.
'Best move back,' Abaris warned, arms wide, steering them back another several feet at least. He pulled an ordinary stick from his pocket, and threw it in the direction of the tripod.
The relic remained inert, not reacting.
'It wasn't actually meant to do anything because it was too small,' Bellis whispered to Jeryd. 'Now, watch this.'
Ramon moved towards the relic, hands held behind his back. As soon as he was within two feet, light stuttered into being, aggregating into the glowing bars of a cage. Light continued to spit and stutter, and Ramon was totally imprisoned within it. Grinning, he made a flamboyant bow so that the light reflected off his bald head.
'So you see,' Bellis explained, 'when your spider arrives, it will be catered for very well indeed.'
'You lot really are a bunch of wise old geniuses, you realize,' Jeryd said.
'It takes one individual of wisdom to notice another,' Bellis declared.
'Nah, I've done nothing yet,' Jeryd protested. 'I won't consider myself as having achieved a single thing until that monster is locked away.' He waited as the cage was deactivated, the light collapsing into blackness, and there was a noticeable absence, some void left by the relic's trickery, even the faint smell of burning. Jeryd was mightily impressed.
'Let's give it a go then,' Bellis said, and the others set up the two devices next to each other on the rooftop. And they waited, shivering, in the cold winds.
Jeryd regarded the cityscape in anticipation, wondering how his own deepest fears would manifest after his experiences with Bellis's orb.
*
Nanzi felt something deep within, a summoning in her very core. She shuddered, leapt up from her bed, glanced furtively around the room. The black cat peeked up in surprise from the foot of the bed.
'Is everything all right, my love?' Voland asked, glancing up from his book as he lay beside her.
'I don't feel all that well. I might make a drink and take some fresh air outside.'
'Would you like me to get it for you?'
'No, I'll go.' She pushed aside the sheets and clambered off the bed. Her spider appendages rooted out her skirt and boots, and within the minute she was heading downstairs. At the front door, she rested her hand on the frame, staring across the street, hoping to find something. The darkened buildings were defined by starlight, while a couple of tramps huddled by a small pit fire.
What was this strange sensation that had seduced her out here? It was like a thirst. All her emotions had condensed. A need for some long-lost lover. A lament for a dead friend. But this was rare – this was calling for her… other state. She felt intoxicated by her urges and, within the minute, she began to collapse inwards, then fold out again into her spider form.
With one limb she pulled the door shut, then crawled up along the surface of the wall to the roof of the abattoir. There, she could read the world in a different manner, decipher these gentle vibrations of activity. The city always appeared thronging to her in this form, but some way in the distance she could sense something so alluring, so delicious, so essential that she could not prevent herself from scuttling as quickly as she could across the deserted nightscape.
*
Jeryd watched in slack-jawed awe as hundreds of tiny spiders bled from the city's architecture.
Out of habit he felt the need to jump on something to avoid them, but there was no way of escape up here. And this time… he felt no fear.
Black streams of arachnids centred on the Grey Hairs' relic, countless trickles and trails of tiny legs and bulbous torsos. As he gazed across the nearby rooftops he could see their massed progress gliding across the slick slate-crowned buildings, and they were coming from all directions. By now Jeryd had retreated well out of the way for fear of being smothered by them, but he did not feel anything like as petrified as he used to be.
Jeryd's nerves jittered from simply being present in this intensely surreal scene, from being surrounded by what seemed like all of the spiders in the Boreal Archipelago. Creatures that normally inhabited the dead regions of the city were gathering in one place – but he did not tremble, and felt only a fraction of that familiar tightness in his heart. All the time, though, he kept a lookout for the one monster, stealing glances between the buildings and wherever the moonlight failed to penetrate.
He untucked a blade from his boot and clutched it uncertainly; of what possible use could it be against this immense arachnid abomination? The Grey Hairs, by contrast, seemed thoroughly relaxed, as they slouched about in casual postures. Bellis turned to focus on him now and then with her hands resting on her hips. Jeryd simply nodded the answer for her unspoken question, Are you all right?
Ramon was sitting at the edge of the roof, while Abaris seemed preoccupied with the workings of some other relic. It was as if they found themselves in crazy situations like this every day of their lives.
Bellis suddenly called out, 'Good heavens, I think it's coming!'
Jeryd clambered to her side, his vision following the direction she was pointing in. About forty feet away, to the east, a large shape could be seen lumbering closer, moving with a fluid gait across and down in between the architecture, now and then spitting out a slick gossamer rope of silk to aid its progress.
'Bloody hell,' Jeryd breathed. This was all right in theory, but now the thing was actually on its way, he had no idea how to cope with it.
'Aye, I'll second that,' Abaris murmured, now beside them.
They watched it come closer, accruing in size all the time. People peering out of windows began to scream, and in the streets below others avoided its path. It almost seemed drunk, staggering in and out of vision with ragged movements. The creature was mammoth, each leg probably longer than Jeryd himself, yet it hauled its bulk onto the stone parapet of their rooftop with a series of precise clicks, as thousands of its miniature kin swarmed around and underneath.
With its myriad eyes, the monster observed the glow of the relic tentatively, but it simply could not resist its allure; a distilled, love-hate tension generated between them. It could not counter this enchantment. Very slowly, it edged closer, lowering its bulbous black head, and levering its thorax and abdomen forward. Then it stretched out its two front legs like a dog, tilting back up on the four hind ones.
There, it quivered ecstatically.
Light suddenly snapped itself free from the relic, lashing up to form a huge cage and trapped the spider within. The creature threw itself at the bars of light only to be stung savagely into retreat. It lunged repeatedly at its light-restraints, all the while emitting high-pitched screeches. Back and forth, the stinging inflicted by the bars was clearly audible, and after several attempts, the spider cowered into submission, its body rising and falling in spasms.
'Splendid!' Bellis declared, clapping her hands. 'It was that simple, eh, Jeryd?' The glow of the lure relic ceased, the torrent of smaller spiders hesitated, then began to move of their own volition, suddenly a million individuals once again. For a moment they milled about uncertainly, and it seemed an age until they had located tiny exits in the surrounding buildings.
Approaching the cage, Jeryd stood and gawked at the beast contained within. He'd expected to be far more frightened than he now felt. Was this the thing that was snatching people off the streets? What the hell kind of case was he dealing with here? He was long used to dealing with monsters of the human or rumel kind, but this… this was something else completely.
The three Grey Hair cultists approached from behind and studied the monstrosity alongside him. Bellis had even begun making sketches in a notebook, while the others inspected it from all angles, Abaris muttering
