But there were too many; now the spider had nowhere to go. One Mundane had the wit to chop at the dragline with a sword, severing the invisible silk. Jumper dropped to the ground. Instantly the men pounced on him, grabbing him one man to a leg, much as the goblins had, so that he was helpless.
Men and goblins: was there really much difference between them? The Mundanes were bigger, but
Dor was about to turn back, to aid his friend, but one of Jumper's eight eyes spied him. 'Don't waste my effort!' he chittered, knowing that no one besides Dor could understand him. 'Return to the Zombie Master; it is the only place you can keep the girl safe.'
Dor hadn't thought of that. The Zombie Master might not be friendly, but at least he was not too hostile. It was the best place to be until the Mundane horde passed.
He climbed up into the protective splay of leaves, urging Millie on. His last sight of Jumper was of the men bearing him to the ground, striking his soft body brutally with their fists. They weren't trying to kill, they were trying to hurt, to make their enemy suffer as long as possible before the end. Because Jumper had balked them from capturing the girl-and because Jumper was different. Dor winced, feeling the pain of the blows in his own gut. What would they do to his friend?
Jumper had left a network of silken lines strung through the upper foliage, guiding Dor and Millie and providing rapid transit from one great tree to another. It was amazing how much he had accomplished in the brief time he had been aloft, and with what foresight. Dor had never thought his friend was deserting him-but neither had he anticipated the sacrifice Jumper would make. He felt the unmanly tears stinging his eyes, was afraid Millie would notice them, then decided he didn't care. Jumper-to have Jumper trapped like this, perhaps badly hurt, because of Dor's own carelessness-
Suddenly there was a piercing terrible, great chittering from below. It translated into a sheer scream of agony, chilling in its implication.
'They are pulling off his legs!' Millie whispered in horror. 'That's what Mundanes do to spiders. The wings off butterflies-'
Dor saw that her beautiful face was streaked with helpless tears. She was not ashamed to cry!
Then something congealed in Dor. 'Come on!' he snapped, and swung forward at a faster pace.
'Don't you care, that-?' she demanded plaintively.
'Hurry!'
Reproachfully, she hurried. Dor felt like a heel from a No. 1 shoe-tree, knowing she thought concern for his own safety motivated him, but he wasted no effort trying to explain. Jumper had eight legs; it would take the Mundanes time to get them all, and he had to use that time well.
In moments they ran out of Jumper's lines and dropped to the ground. They were now at the base of the hill on which the Zombie Master's castle sat. A zombie rose up to challenge them, but Dor shoved it aside so roughly that it collapsed in a jumble of shredded meat and chipped bone. He dragged Millie on.
They never paused at the chopped-open castle door. Dor charged right in. The zombie ogre rose up; Dor parried it with his blade, ducked under its arm, and plunged on through the gloomy hall. At last he burst into the Zombie Master's chamber, where the zombie ant lion was now taking its first steps.
'Magician!' Dor cried. 'You must save my friend the spider! The Mundanes are pulling out his legs!'
The Zombie Master shook his cadaverous head and waved with an emaciated hand. 'I have no interest in-'
Dor menaced him with his sword. 'If you do not help this instant, I will surely slay you!' Such was his hurt and desperation, he was not bluffing, though he feared the Magician could turn him into a zombie.
Now the Zombie Master showed some spirit. 'So you, a mortal, dare to threaten a Magician?'
'I am a Magician too!' Dor cried. 'But even if I weren't, I would do anything to save my friend, who sacrificed himself for me and Millie!'
Millie put a restraining hand on Dor's arm. 'Please,' she said. 'You can not threaten a Magician. Let me handle it, Dor. I am not a Magician like you, but I do have my talent.'
Dor paused, and Millie stepped close to the Zombie Master, smiling with difficulty. 'Sir, I am not a forward maid, and no Sorceress, but I too would do anything to help the bold friend who preserved us. If you but knew Jumper the spider-please, now, if you have any compassion at all-'
The Magician looked at her closely for the first time. Dor remembered what her talent was, and knew how it softened men. He was just beginning to appreciate its impact on himself. The Zombie Master was after all a man, and he too had to feel the impact.
'You?will tarry with me?' he asked incredulously.
Dor did not like the sound of that word, tarry.
Millie spread her arms toward the Zombie Master. 'Save my friend. What becomes of me is not important.'
A kind of shudder ran through the Magician. 'This becomes you not, maid,' he said. 'Yet-' He turned to his ogre. 'Gather my forces, Egor; go with this man and do as he desires. Save the spider.'
Dor took off, running through the gloomy halls and from the castle. The true horror was what lay ahead of him. The zombie ogre followed, crying out to the things of the castle: 'Ccome ccome!'
Zombies erupted from the adjacent rooms, in their haste dripping stray clods, bones, and teeth. They closed in behind the ogre: men, wolves, bats, and other creatures too far gone to identify. In grisly procession they followed Dor down the hill.
His concern for his friend lent him swiftness, and somehow the zombies kept up. Yet even as he ran, Dor wondered whether he had not left Millie to as bad a fate as the one he strove to rescue Jumper from. The spider had sacrificed himself to save the two of them; Millie had sacrificed herself to save the spider. The full
