Dworn hesitated briefly. There was no doubt she had helped him--if only
out of jealousy of the others. But at the same time she was a spider, a
natural enemy. And time was desperately vital. In a flash of
inspiration, he saw that there was one way to make sure of his escape.
"If you're quiet," he promised, "I won't hurt you. Not much, anyway."
Then his arm was about her, pinioning her, while his free hand snaked to
her waist and plucked the hypodermic from its case. For a moment she
struggled and even tried to bite him, as she saw what he was about to
do. Then, clumsily but effectively, he had stabbed the needle into her
upper arm and pressed the plunger home.
He felt her stiffen and then relax, shivering, as the drug coursed
through her blood. He released her and stepped back, watching her
warily.
"How do you like your own medicine, spider?" he demanded harshly.
The girl stood motionless. Her black eyes, fixed on him, seemed to dull
as if with sleep.
"Do you hear me?"
"Yes," she said tonelessly.
"Do you obey me if I give you orders?"
"Yes."
Dworn grinned exultantly. It had worked--But there was no time to lose.
The Spider Mother might return any moment.
"Where is my machine?"
She answered without expression, "I left it where it was. I didn't want
it, I was only seeking a mate."
Dworn sighed with heartfelt relief. He looked upward, toward the
spider-machine overhead: "All right. I command you to take me back to
the place where you left my beetle."
Qanya turned silently toward a slender steel ladder that rose to the
belly of the crouching metal monster. Dworn followed her, his nerves
still strung close to the snapping point, but with hope leaping in
him.... On the floor, the trussed-up Purri stared up with round eyes and
made smothered noises.
* * * * *
They clambered into the spider through a port in its underside, past the
engines and the great drums of steel cable which served to snare the
spider's prey. The space within was cramped, barely big enough to hold
two, and its instruments and controls were bewilderingly strange to
Dworn. The tangle of switches and levers that must govern the mechanical
legs made no sense at all to him, and he felt a moment of near-panic:
if the hypnotic injection's magic should fail, he would be quite
helpless here.