Shang-Li felt a moment of relief at the promise of help, but his hopes quickly fled. The golem-spider would destroy the owl if it landed a blow. Desperately, feeling the muscles in his arm quivering under the strain of holding his body despite his training, Shang-Li turned his attention to his survival.
The widow’s walk quivered as the ponderous weight of the golem-spider trod upon it. The creature’s legs curled over the railing and felt for prey.
Shang-Li reached into his bag and took out the padded grappling hook. He didn’t trust his ability to make the cast back to the building he’d come from. Instead, he shook out the line and aimed for the gargoyle almost ten feet away.
The cast flew true and Shang-Li hauled the line to take up slack.
One of the spider’s legs brushed against the back of Shang-Li’s hand as he drew the rope tight. Immediately, the widow’s walk shivered as the golem-spider eagerly changed positions. It leaned over the railing to peer down at him.
The golem-spider’s fangs flashed as they worked in anticipation. It leaned over the railing and lunged for him.
Shang-Li released the railing and took up slack on the rope. For a moment, he dropped, then he reached the end of the line and swung like a pendulum under the gargoyle. The stone statue shifted a little with a low grinding sound.
He smashed against the rough surface of the tower wall. Warm blood spilled down his cheek and the burning pain proved too sharp to completely ignore.
The gargoyle shifted again, and this time rock fragments pelted Shang-Li as he swung under it. He searched for another safe haven and spotted a second gargoyle farther down, sticking out over the meandering river.
Back at the widow’s walk, the golem-spider rose on four legs and propelled itself toward him.
Shang-Li knew there was no chance the gargoyle would withstand the golem-spider’s additional weight. As lithely as the thing moved, the wizard’s guardian was still massive. When Shang-Li swung back under the gargoyle, he arched his body high and threw himself forward.
The golem-spider landed on top of the gargoyle and the structure tore free of the tower. Shang-Li landed atop the next gargoyle and struggled for his balance.
Skittering noises behind him drew his attention. The hairs on the back of his neck rose as he glanced down.
The golem-spider crept along the surface of the tower as easily as a true arachnid would, moving swiftly toward Shang-Li.
The distance to the alley floor was somewhere near thirty feet. A fair chance he’d turn an ankle in the fall. With the spider hot on his heels, that wasn’t a plan for a hopeful future.
Desperate, Shang-Li ran his fingers along the stone. He found enough crevices to grab a tenacious hold. His hands sent bright, blazing messages of agony to his brain as his fingertips took his weight. As quickly as he could, he clambered down the side of the tower.
The golem-spider closed on Shang-Li rapidly. He gazed up into the golem-spider’s multitude of eyes and reached into his blouse for more throwing stars. A deft flip of his wrist sent the sharp blades spinning into the creature’s face. All of them bounced from the golem-spider’s hide without doing any damage. It relentlessly continued to gain on him.
“Shang-Li.”
He recognized his father’s voice at once and snapped his head around. His father stood in the middle of a small transport boat along the river’s edge. He held a pole in his hands.
“Shang-Li. Here” His father waved him toward the boat.
Shang-Li reached inside his blouse and took out the journal. “Meet me at the ship.”
A grimace of displeasure tightened his father’s face, but worry showed there as well.
Quickly, Shang-Li looked up at the widow’s walk. There was no sign of the wizard, but light neared the edge. He held the journal up briefly so his father could see it, then he tossed it down and across the thirty feet of intervening distance. The cords around the journal kept it closed as it sailed. His father plucked the journal from the air.
Light dawned over the edge of the widow’s walk. The wizard peered down as the golem-spider closed on Shang-Li.
“Go!” Shang-Li implored. “I’ll meet you at the ship!” He ducked beneath the golem-spider’s leg and felt vibrations course through the tower. Mortar trembled from the cracks.
Kwan Yung shoved the journal into his robes and grasped the pole in both hands. He pushed hard against the river bottom and swung his craft into the slow current.
“Hurry,” his father admonished.
Even if he’d thought of one, Shang-Li had no time to utter a response. Moonwhisper brought him a moment’s respite when he flew in front of the golem-spider’s face. The creature struck at the owl but missed by several feet. The owl spun gracefully in the air despite the large wingspan and came back for another pass.
“Ignore the bird!” Kouldar leaned over the window’s walk. “Kill the thief.”
Across the alley, Shang-Li noticed a small balcony. From his precarious position, he couldn’t tell exactly how far the distance was. But he was all out of choices. He pulled his knees to his chest, planted his feet against the wall, and pushed off with all his strength.
He was awkward and ungainly as he sailed across the alley, but his aim was true. He flew toward the balcony
His fingers grazed the balcony’s railing. It slipped through his grasp, but he managed to catch the bottom of the balcony and hang on. He dangled for a moment, not believing his good fortune.
Then, along the wall, the golem-spider crouched to pounce. In frozen disbelief, Shang-Li watched the long legs flex, and it leaped for the balcony as well.
Shang-Li swung forward and let go of the balcony. He crashed through a window and rolled across a hardwood floor just as the shriek of cracking timbers filled his ears. As he pushed himself up from the glass-strewn floor, the golem-spider and the balcony tore loose from the building and tumbled down.
Before Shang-Li could celebrate his good luck, a grotesque leg curled over the window’s edge. The golem- spider hauled itself up to the window.
“Goddess,” Shang-Li whispered miserably, “my father is with me on this quest. Haven’t you tested me enough for one night?”
Motion behind the golem-spider attracted Shang-Li’s attention and saved his life. He threw himself backward in the hallway as the wizard unleashed another fiery bolt from the widow’s walk. Heat roiled over Shang-Li as he rolled backward in a desperate attempt to increase the distance between himself and his attacker. Flames licked the hallway and swarmed outward.
A nearby door opened and an older man stood there with naked steel in his fist. “What’s going on? By the gods, you’re making enough racket out here to wake Kelemvor’s guests.”
Shang-Li silently agreed. Kelemvor, the Lord of the Dead, would doubtless arrange passage for several people in the building if they didn’t get out before the fire spread.
“Wizard.” Halting to face the man with the sword, Shang-Li pointed back toward the window.
The golem-spider pulled through the window and scuttled through the flames, pausing as if to get its bearings.
The man with the sword eyed Shang-Li with open hostility and disbelief. “You riled Kouldar?”
“Wake everyone,” Shang-Li entreated. “The building is on fire.” The golem-spider focused on Shang-Li again, then sprang.
The man with the sword dodged back into his room and slammed the door. Shang-Li fled down the hallway only a heartbeat ahead of the spider. Other doors opened but closed even more quickly.
Through the window at the other end of the hall, the peaked roof of another building, this one no more than a couple stories tall, stood out against the darkness. Without pausing, Shang-Li crossed his hands in front of his face and dived through the window. Mielikki willing, the distance wouldn’t be too great between the buildings.
Glass crashed all around him, spinning away and glinting in the moonlight. He landed on the other roof off- balance and tucked himself into a roll automatically. The night kaleidoscoped around him in a whirling mixture of night and stars.
