Spider Wars: Book Three of the Black Bead Chronicles (36 page)

“
I?” Cheobawn shook her
head. “I need only be present and things happen. I have done
nothing but listen. Now things have been done in my name. The cooling
pond is full of eggs near to hatching. You cannot kill them nor allow
them to die without Spider hearing, as Amabel has told you. Spider
will not be pleased if you do nothing. No mother would be, hearing
her children die.”

“
Days?” asked Amabel,
bridling under the onus of this new burden.

“
Do not worry,” Cheobawn
said. “I believe I have a solution, if you will but listen.”

Mora, her eyes glittering
behind her serene mask, looked knowingly up at Ramhorn Pack. “You
play a dangerous game with Sigrid. What will you do if he challenges
Tam for the rights to your heart?”

Cheobawn blinked in
surprise. What was the purpose of this new attack? “I … why would
he do that?”

Amabel laughed, genuinely
amused. The other Mothers smiled at Amabel’s mirth.

“
Oh, dear goddess in all
the heavens,” Amabel said to Mora, “There is going to be hell to
pay when she reaches puberty. All that innocence and unconscious
grace added to adolescent hormones. This place is going to go up like
hydrogen gas over an open flame. Are you ready for that?”

Cheobawn looked around,
confused. “I do not know what you are going on about.”

“
No, which makes your
power all the more seductive,” Menolly said, her voice gentle and
patient. “What Amabel is saying is that you seduce people with your
very nature, making them do what common sense and logic ordains to be
unwise. Surely you are aware of this?”

“
You all seem to be
impervious to these charms,” Cheobawn snorted, unable to keep the
acid from her tone. She immediately regretted it. Penitents did not
start arguments with their judges.

Brigit laughed. “Do not
think it. We have had many a discussion on that very matter. You are
so very like Mora when she was your age which is why she …”

“
Enough, Brigit!” Mora’s
voice snapped sharply, cutting off the laughter. She scowled at her
wives until they fell silent. Then she continued. “Back to the
matter at hand.”

“
Yes,” Cheobawn said.
She studied the women arrayed in front of her, a little annoyed that
they found her a source of amusement once again. “Spider says that
your interest and theirs are the same. He knows what you value above
all else. Spider would like to offer you what you cannot obtain by
yourself.”

“
What might that be?”
Mora asked, obviously tiring of this game. “Spider’s desires are
in no way like ours.”

“
Spider says it is time to
right the wrongs done to him. In return he will be the Darkness to
your Light, the Chaos to your Order, the Destruction to your
Creation. Balance will be restored to this place as the first Mothers
hoped it would be when they set out to build the first dome. Spider
offers you that – the dreams of your ancestors brought to fruition.
The Oneverse will right itself and spin on. All who move against you
will be caught up in your storm and consumed.

“
And what are you, in this
drama?” Mora asked. Cheobawn stared at her Truemother. It was a
trap, this question. Cheobawn thought long and hard before she
answered

“
I am nothing. I am the
supplicant standing naked here, in your presence. That is how it is
out there, in the vortex at the center of the Universe. I stand in
the heart of the nothingness that holds everything in place. Because
I want none of its power, I wield all that I wish to wield. Paradox.
Spider loves paradox. He has named me. He calls me Innocence. What
say you?”

The Mothers looked at each
other.

Sybille broke the silence
first. “You knew she would start gathering her armies about her.
Why are you surprised that you have sent her out and Spider came home
with her following her like a lost kitten?”

“
But Spider!” protested
Amabel.

“
Ever have we
underestimated the nature of the puzzle we have set for her to solve.
Who are we to question the magic of her Making?”

Cheobawn stared at Sybille.
Until this moment, she had not thought Sybille believed in magic.

“
Enough,” Mora said.
“Remember what we discussed.” She turned her eyes on her
Truedaughter.

Cheobawn met those icy blue
eyes.

“
You want Spider? Then he
is yours. Do with him as you see fit. I will inform the Fathers.”

Connor
held Cheobawn’s hand tightly as they waited, their eyes on the
front doors of the Temple. Today was the day. Blackwind Pack was to
become whole once more. They were not alone. A large crowd had
gathered, waiting to greet the new initiates.

“
Do you think they will
have changed very much?” Cheobawn asked.

“
Naw,” said Connor with
utter confidence. “It will take more than a few months of being
locked in a dark box to change Tam. He will be just as bossy as
before, trust me.”

“
They say girls change the
most. After learning the mysteries … along with all the other
stuff.”

Connor thought for a moment.
“I am pretty sure Megan knew most of that before. Some things don’t
need teaching.”

Cheobawn puzzled over that.
Was becoming a woman as easy as that? Like listening to the ambient
and hearing just a little bit more every day until one day you woke
up and the warp and the weft of it settled around your shoulders like
a comfortable old coat? Were you surprised only if you ignored it,
like ignoring Tam’s table?

She had gone back to her old
habit of checking the lands of Bear Under the Mountain every day. The
great void feeling over the Waste was gone; the Spacers’
hunter-ships gone back to their mothership after making sure the
northern forests were clear of eggs. The smoke leopard had
disappeared during the last grimstorm, gone home to the Waste, she
suspected, though she did not go looking beyond the range of her
dome’s high pastures, content just to know he was gone. Vinara had
released all the fenelk into the bogs below North Fork Trail, letting
them fend for themselves in the swampy lowlands. The heat of the
decomposing peat kept the land clear of snow there while the deep
snow that surrounded it would keep the animals effectively penned.
They could forage for themselves which freed up a massive amount of
fodder for the remaining animals, the hope being that no predator
would stalk them in the wetlands while less formidable prey still
haunted the southern forests. With the Spider’s doorway closed, the
icy blasts of winter had eased and the bennelk no longer complained
about ice demons. The days grew noticeably longer and warmer. The
forest shook the burden of snow out of its branches and the drifts of
snow looked tired and deflated. Spring was near.

The temple doors swung
slowly open. Cheobawn squealed in delight. Megan, taller than most
girls her own age with her cap of lustrous blond curls, stood out
from the crowd of young people exiting the Temple in their silk pants
and tunics. Bracketed by Tam’s ebony hair and Alain’s shock of
coppery bristles, Blackwind’s Alpha Ear was hard to miss. Grabbing
Connor, she pulled him into motion. Tam, his eyes scanning the crowd,
spotted them first. A delighted grin filled his face as he watched
his littlest packmates run across the plaza.

Tam bent down and caught
Cheobawn up as she launched herself at him, grunting under the
assault. He crushed her to his chest in a fierce hug. “Oof, wee
bit. Have you been growing?” he asked, setting her down again.
Cheobawn punched him in the hip and turned to hug Alain and Megan.

“
You are taller than I
remember,” Megan said. “And thinner. Have you been eating?
Connor, you were supposed to be watching out for her.”

“
I did!” Connor said.
“She does the dumbest things sometimes. I am so glad you are back.
Now it’s your turn to chase after her and clean up her messes.”

“
Gah!” Alain said in
mock horror, a smile playing on his lips. “I am already missing
Temple and I have only been outside for less than a minute. What have
you two been up to?”

Cheobawn grinned and took
her heartsister’s hand. Together they walked arm in arm back to
Pack Hall, Connor and Cheobawn talking non-stop all the way there,
interrupted only occasionally by a question from the older members to
clarify points in their tale. Tam was still trying to wrap his head
around the fate of the spider eggs when they entered their dorm room.
The object suspended in its cradle above the map table brought him up
short.

“
What …” he asked
faintly, dismay written in every line of his body as he stared at the
golden sphere. “Tell me you did not steal a com-ball from Mora’s
office.”

“
Mora gave it to us,”
Cheobawn said, barely glancing up at it. “She said I am the only
one that can hear what it has to say so I might as well keep it
close. Put your bags down and come see the eggs.”

“
Wait. Why would Mora give
you a com-ball?” Megan asked, a pained look on her face, having
obviously lost the thread of logic that had been intermittently
running like a tangled string through the younger member’s rambling
story.

“
Because Ch’che asked
for it,” Connor said. He shook his head as all three of the
returning Pack members stared at him. “I don’t understand it
either. The Coven has gone all soft in the head since the tribunal.”

“
Tribunal?” Tam said,
horror replacing dismay. “What did you do that warranted a
tribunal?”

“
Were you not listening?”
Cheobawn asked. “We had to get permission to save the eggs. Let’s
go.”

“
What is the rush?”
Alain asked throwing open the doors to his sleep chamber and tossing
his ditty bag onto his bed. “We have been eating nothing but boiled
grains and yogurt for a hundred days. I want steak pie and berry
cobbler and …”

“
The eggs are hatching
now
,” Cheobawn said in exasperation as she tugged Tam
towards clothes press. “Get out of those stupid pajamas and let’s
go.”

Gudu was standing guard at
the West Gate. He grinned at Cheobawn and reached out to tousle her
golden curls.

“
You’re late, pip
squeak,” he said. “Zeff and Amabel have been out there for most
of the last hour. Tam, Alain, good to see you out of lock down.
Things went to pieces while you were gone. Good thing you have Connor
so well trained. I would not have been so fortunate.”

Tam nodded stiffly and
thanked the young Father when he handed him a tag for his Pack.
Herding everyone out the gate, he punched Connor in the shoulder.
Connor yelped and then grinned happily. Pinning Cheobawn with a stern
look he asked the next question. “Why is Gudu so familiar with
you?”

“
He was very generous when
we were in trouble and needed help,” Cheobawn said innocently.

“
Get used to it,” Connor
said. “She got half the dome involved in this last escapade.
Blackwind owes everyone favors. We owe Ramhorn double for everything
they did. Tomorrow Sigrid is taking the babies down the Escarpment
for us.”

“
Why? Why not the older,
more experienced Fathers or the First Prime?” Alain asked, puzzled.

“
Because,” Cheobawn said
patiently, as if she had explained this a thousand times before,
“Samwell Wheelwright knows and recognizes Sigrid and Sigrid has
sworn on the heart of his Nestmother that he will not kill Sam no
matter how impertinent and offensive his words might be. I cannot
trust the other Fathers to do the same.”

Tam stopped as a thought
occurred to him. “Wait one second. The first Meetpoint foray isn’t
for another month. There will be no river runners waiting at the base
of the cliffs.”

“
That’s why I have the
com-ball,” Cheobawn said, pushing him back into motion. “I called
Sam and told him to meet us. Once he figured out I was not a ghost he
was very agreeable.”

“
I thank the goddess
everyday that she is not crawling around inside my head,” Connor
said softly to Alain. “That Sam guy is made of rock, that he does
not go into a screaming fit every time she does it.”

“
I heard you,” Cheobawn
said loudly, casting a smile over her shoulder at her Packmates.

“
Didn’t say anything
that I wasn’t ashamed of,” Connor called back, an impish smile on
his face.

“
It has all been precisely
timed,” Cheobawn said. “We buried the eggs nearly thirty days
ago. The temperature of the sand controls the hatching time. Once we
set a day and time with Sam, we adjusted the heat so they would hatch
today. Finn was brilliant. He’s run an air hose from the foundry
into a bed we created out of sand borrowed from the glass-works. I
have been checking on them every day. The babies say today is the
day.”