Queen of the Demonweb Pits

that plan.'

Escalla leaped and jumped, rapidly losing her temper. 'Fly! Come on, damn it! Fly!'

'Escalla?' Jus finally solved the problem by grabbing the angry faerie by the scruff of her clothes. 'Escalla! Stop. This is Lolth's plane. Laws are different here.'

'Laws!' Escalla kicked and struggled. 'I hate laws! Law represses freedom, and loss of freedom is tyranny!'

'Physical laws, Escalla. Like gravity.'

'You mean we have to walk while we're in here?' Escalla allowed herself to be put on Jus's shoulder. 'That is so un-hoopy! People will think I'm a brownie or something.'

'Not with a backside like that. Perfect lift and pinch.' The Justicar studied the mists that surrounded the path. 'On top of the spider palace, none of you could fly. The same laws must have applied.'

Enid blinked. 'Oh, meaning we're supposed to walk along these paths?'

'Meaning the paths are a guardian maze.' Shrugging, the Justicar looked around. 'This is the way Lolth guards her door.'

The Justicar and Cinders took point, with Escalla sitting on Jus's shoulder, her frost wand cradled on her knees. Enid, Polk, and Henry came behind. They moved silently, while all around them, lost souls screamed inside a universe of fog.

Footfalls had an unnatural silence. There were no walls to throw back echoes, no stones to shift and rattle. Enid's big soft paws, the Justicar's careful tread, Henry's boots, and Escalla's feet-none made more than the slightest sound upon the horrible pavement. The floor with its images of screaming faces and clawing hands throbbed as warm as flesh.

The path turned at sharp ninety-degree angles-turning, then turning again. Escalla edged as close as she dared to the brink of the path and looked down. Below her through the mist, she could dimly see another path identical to the one she trod.

'Hey! Look!'

They all looked down and traced the shape of another path that ran at right angles to them forty feet below. It was almost invisible in the horrible, haunted mist. Escalla looked carefully about, her sharp eyes spying other shapes in the mist up above. There was a maze of paths above and below, locked together like pieces of a puzzle.

'The palace was headed for the top of the web. Should we try and climb up?'

'Don't put temptation in front of the boy.' Polk sat on his haunches like a mouse, unable to see more than a few feet into the mist. 'We have to do the maze. Defeat the guardians! We can't complete the adventure without killin' all the guardians.'

'Polk, shut up.' The Justicar looked up through the mists, judging their jerk and flow. 'How do we get up there?'

Escalla rubbed her hands together in glee. 'We have the tangle rope! The one Jus got from the erinyes!'

'Too short.' Cinders had burned through that rope in a fight long, long ago. It was now only twelve feet long and hung from the Justicar's sword belt. 'And there are ghosts in the mist.'

They turned and surveyed the horrible shapes in the mist. By unanimous consent they all moved on, looking for the stairs and ladders they all felt sure must be there.

The long, quiet walk went on-turn after turn, yard after yard. Walking softly at their head, the Justicar suddenly sank to his knees in silence, and the entire group froze in response.

'Henry.'

Around the next corner, dimly seen through the mist, four horrible shapes pattered along the path. They were whip scorpions the size of wolfhounds. Henry looked, knelt, and fired in one smooth action. His crossbow shuddered and threw out a stream of bolts from its magazine. Two scorpions staggered sideways, already curling as the poisoned darts struck home. The remaining two lifted their claws high like dogs locking the scent, and they raced straight at the party. Enid and Jus surged forward, but a swarm of golden darts shaped like bees streaked through the air, smashing chitin and blowing holes through the scorpions. The creatures staggered and died as a second strike blasted them off their feet.

Escalla stood, her spell finger trailing a wisp of magic. The girl blew it away and gave a little shrug.

'Henry and I will clean up the little stuff on the way.' The faerie used Cinders's tail as a handhold as she scaled the Justicar. 'Jus's stoneskin will only block a few hits. We want to save it for when he fights Lolth.'

The scorpions all wore silver bands about their tails. They had moved in unison, like a purposeful patrol. The party gave their bodies a wide berth, mistrusting the way the monsters twitched and oozed.

The pathway led on. There were more turns, more twists, until finally the way fed into a junction. A door gleamed in the mist-a door that seemed to lead to nowhere. Jus pointed, and the party fanned out. Enid and Henry watched the other pathways while Jus, Cinders, and Escalla moved carefully to the door.

The door simply hung in space, its bottom joined to the pathway, and its rear opening onto empty fog. Escalla peered behind it, shrugged, then cracked her knuckles. A careful search for traps, the approval of Cinders, and Escalla listened at the door with one pointy ear. She crept back to the others, her voice a sly little whisper.

'There's a room behind the door. I hear big things moving and arguing.'

The Justicar nodded. 'Cinders?'

The hell hound's nose wrinkled as Cinders was allowed to sniff at the crack beneath the door. Big fangs gleamed, and the dog wagged his tail.

Stinky trolls!

Escalla happily wagged her wings. 'Oh! Hoopy!

'Guards!' Polk was overjoyed. He opened a tiny notebook stuck through his belt and began jotting notes into his endless chronicles. 'We're in luck, son! Killing guards is heroic! Blade to blade! Man to man! Pure heroism against the cunning of evil!'

The rest of the party ignored him. Escalla leaned against the doorjamb, molded magic between her hands, and nodded. Jus kicked open the door, and Escalla gleefully launched a fireball into the space beyond. Everyone dived aside, leaving Polk blinking until Jus grabbed him by the fur and yanked him to safety.

The fireball exploded, billowing flame across the path. Chunks of debris hurtled out the door, across the path, and were snatched by the fog. The Justicar jumped up. Henry stood in front of the door and drew his sword. As a burned, raging troll came lunging through the portal, the Justicar's white sword sheared its head from its trunk. Benelux whipped blindingly fast into the stomach of a second troll. The big man kicked his victims back into the room and followed, his blade severing an arm from another troll, all in a single blur.

Damaged trolls and severed troll parts began to grow and regenerate. The Justicar swept his gaze across the room, then parried a troll claw with his forearm before burying his sword in a monsters skull.

'Cinders!'

The flame crashed like a wave across the trolls. The monsters screamed, reared, and writhed as they died. The hell hound gave a feral growl of pleasure as the trolls burned to a crisp. Jus flicked Benelux clean and sheathed her all in one silky, fluid move, rising from fighting stance to turn his back upon the room.

Escalla was holding the slowglass gem up to her eye, recording the moment.

'Got it!' The girl popped the gem back into her cleavage and then looked at the burning, ruined room with a sigh. 'Gods I love it when you go all homicidal!'

Escalla looked back along the path outside while Jus tore the burned hide from the corpses of trolls. Enid carefully smudged her feet in soot and walked out into the passage with Henry at her side.

Escalla went suddenly stiff, and her antennae lifted high, quivering with alarm. She froze, as if listening, then said, 'Jus, he's back there. Recca. Coming fast.'

'He heard the fight with the scorpions.' Jus shook out scorched pieces of troll hide. 'Stun scroll?'

'Oh, I don't think it works on undead.' Enid frowned. 'Sorry.'

'No matter. Get moving. Polk, go with them.' Moving through the smoke, the Justicar trailed scraps of troll hide in his hand. The room was filled with vile smoke. 'Get to your places. Move!'

The door hung open, burn marks fanning out across the path. A charred troll's head lay upside down and