Eye of Darkness (Part Twenty-Four)

     The passageways on this level were twisted, with many crossroads, and they more and more had to heed Leren’s silent instructions. There were no more torches, but watery stone basins filled with the glowing fungus stood at every confluence, some brighter, some dimmer. Before they left this area, they passed one of the spider pits.

     It was not much different from the hatcheries in construction, and at first that’s what they thought it was, except that the floor seemed to be a gray, smooth, rolling surface. The Morgs could hear the cheeping of bats overhead. Perhaps their unseen presence disturbed the creatures; perhaps there was some quarrel over mates or food, but the sound briefly intensified until two bats came tumbling from the roof to land flapping to the gray floor of the pit below.

A tide of spiders came bursting out of every corner from under the undulating surface, which springing under their heavy bodies was revealed to be a layer of webbing stretched from wall to wall. Their legs made a quick, dry, rustling scuttle that filled the room as they converged on the fallen animals, there was a squeak cut short, and then the great spiders began slowly creeping back to their holes. Their bleached hairy bulks looked like severed hands crawling away in search of a grave.

Through this Thron stood frozen. Out of the many things he had seen since they entered the caves, this one seemed to have paralyzed his will, reached down into his core beyond even his anger into dread horror. Ogres he could fight, even against hopeless numbers, but this was a fear he was not quite prepared for, that had reached beyond his imagination. Belmok’s pinching grip pulled him in vain, and it was only the approach of an Ogre thrall that broke Thron’s paralysis and allowed him to hurry out the other way.