Queen of the Demonweb Pits

'You're hot.' The Justicar looked at the open folder. It showed a maze of interlocking lines that seemed to be the pathways in the fog. Someone had even thoughtfully penciled in neat marks to show their initial point of entry, a dot to mark the trolls' room, and a big red X at a far point of the maze. Other places were marked with discrete red numbers-two 'ones,' two 'twos,' and two 'threes.' Each one was marked with a 'travel' rune. Traps? Ladders? Stairs?

The map was a godsend. Too much of a godsend. It had appeared as if by magic. It all smacked of an elaborate trap. The Justicar weighed the implications in his mind then cast a careful search over the room.

The ash had been disturbed. Marks lay in long strokes-diagonally parallel. The Justicar rubbed ash between his finger and thumb.

Henry squatted at his side. 'Drag marks, sir?'

'Snake. A big snake.' Jus showed his student how to tell the marks by shape and distance. The ash had been compacted quite hard, which meant the snake weighed at least as much as a man. 'Lolth's handmaiden.'

Demons could teleport. That would explain how she entered the room even while the party fought outside its door. A layer of airborne ash had not yet settled on the folder's cover. She must have left the folder only seconds before Henry peered into the room.

Henry scratched the thin stubble of his newly sprouting beard and asked, 'Why would Lolth's handmaiden give us a map?'

'If Lolth knew we were here, I would expect cruder traps than these.' The Justicar breathed slow and hard. He took a piece of charred troll and passed it up to Cinders, who ate it with noisy glee. 'We'll use the map, but we'll be careful.' The big man put a finger on Henry's shoulder. 'Very, very careful.'

'Morag! We have rats! Nasty, furry little rats!'

Recharging her magic, Lolth lolled with her feet in a bath filled with the blood of a few hapless sacrifices. She had been idly planning her conquests, making slaves plant pins on her maps of the Flanaess when Morag arrived in the throne room.

Her long lashes tilting in elegant surprise, Morag poised in the door. 'Magnificence?'

'Intruders, Morag. In the Demonweb. I sense something different in my home.'

Morag bowed gravely. 'Escapees from the prison levels, Magnificence?'

'Perhaps.' Lolth carefully watched her secretary. 'Morag. I do hope we have had no little break-ins from outside.'

Morag spoke carefully, knowing that she played for very, very high stakes. One slip, and Lolth would command her to pull her own intestines out-slowly-yard by yard.

'Magnificence, the guards at the gates have reported no trouble.'

'Have they not?'

Lolth's voice, sly and acidic, dripped with irony. She shot a sidewise glance at Morag.

'Morag, how long have you been with me?'

'One hundred and one years, three months, three days, six hours, and twenty-seven minutes, Magnificence.'

'Ah. Leaving eight hundred and ninety-eight years, nine months, twenty-seven-odd days, seventeen hours and thirty-three minutes until our little arrangement comes into review.' Lolth paddled her feet, lounging back in her throne. 'I do so hope it is a good review, Morag.'

Morag rippled her long tail. 'I'm sure everything will be properly dealt with, Magnificence.' Her swords clattered as she shifted her weight. 'Our reentry to the pits has been normal. All guard posts were changed immediately after we docked. I have unleashed a hundred extra spiders into the Demonweb.' Morag flourished an order for Lolth to sign. 'Here are the hatchery reports from the spider pits. Here is the oath of allegiance from the Ixitxachltl of the Flanaess's inland sea. And here is an execution order for that priestess you thought had bigger breasts than you.'

'Oh, just polymorph her into something nasty for an afternoon.' Lolth signed, already bored with the procedures.

'Yes, Magnificence.'

'I shall be refreshed in about ten hours, Morag, so have the stokers raise a head of steam, and get my dinner. Oh, and nothing living, this time! Not if it can speak. I don't want my appetite spoiled by another idiot trying to give me three wishes if I let him go free.'

Morag bowed, her six arms spreading in obeisance, then she slithered back out of the room. Lolth sniffed a vague scent of soot upon the air, scowled, and then went back to her plans for conquest and slaughter.

18

The adventurers squatted at a bend in the path as Jus, Polk, and Henry puzzled over the new map. Letting the boys pretend to navigate, Escalla amused herself with a spider leg, tossing it off the path.

'Hey, Cinders! Fetch!'

The leg bounced. Cinders lay beside her, thump-thump-thumping his tail. Escalla gave an unhappy sigh and collected the spider leg for later.

'Are you really trying, or what?'

Cinders trying. Stick moves too fast.

'Oh, all right! I'll try to roll it slower or something. Maybe we should make it smell of coal?' Escalla looked over at her friends. 'Have you guys figured out what that map means yet?'

'I think these paths are all different levels. The levels never seem to link. No one level is entirely below or above any other-all except for this top level here, where the red X is marked.' The Justicar looked down a pathway and scowled. 'So there's no way to communicate between levels, unless that's what's been marked here in pencil. The paired numbers on the map might be link points.'

Henry scratched underneath his helmet. 'Can we be sure?'

'They're the only things marked on the map at all.' The Justicar looked down at the tortured tangle of lines marked on the map. 'The first number marked is over that way. Past another door and to the left.'

Enid came and settled on her haunches beside Escalla. The big sphinx folded up her paws and lowered her voice so that only the faerie could hear her. 'That undead ranger is unpleasant. I hope the Justicar can find him soon.'

'Yeah. Well, we'll get him. Jus just has a little problem with him.'

'You mean he's holding back?'

'No. But he's pretty miffed.'

'Oh.' Enid thoughtfully kneaded the path with her big claws. 'I wonder where your sister is? She's been remarkably quiet.'

'Oh, she's a lady. She won't work unless she has to.' Escalla snorted and threw Cinders's spider leg once more. 'If I know her, she'll sit there glued to her crystal ball, waiting for my scrying shield to fade.'

'She won't come hunting for us here?'

'You don't get as plush as that girl by walking the wilderness and camping under trees. Nah. She'll use magic to look for us. She's probably still back in her cave.'

Cinders was wagging his tail more happily. Jus returned and picked the hell hound up, smiling fondly as he dusted the dog's pelt clean of ash and troll. He swept Cinders back into place across his back, then lifted Escalla onto Enid's back, where the faerie could ride comfortably upon her friend.

A distant glimpse of a path far below showed a horrible pack of giant spiders skittering along the roadway. The adventurers kept back from the edges and speeded their pace, passing by doors and side paths as they followed the map for turn after turn, path after path. Finally the Justicar held up his hand as the road led up to another floating door.