3 Weaver of Shadow by William King Read Free Book Online Page B

he realised.
    “You can speak of your own free will or I can feed you the milk of the Mother once more. It might drive you mad but then you may wish that before the end. It may be a mercy for your sanity to be shattered.”
    “Why?”
    “Again the questions. Answer my question and I will answer yours.”
    Kormak considered this. Weaver seemed very reasonable, almost pleasant. “No. Not all of my brethren, only the Guardians.”
    Kormak was shocked to find he had spoken. The elf nodded in a kindly fashion. “And they will come against us.”
    “Yes, once word of the Shadowblight spreads, the Order will call a Burning. All of the nobles will be roused against you. Armies will come to burn the forest.”
    “Plenty of prey,” said one of the elves holding Kormak upright. Weaver pursed her lips thoughtfully.
    “Plenty of new worshippers,” said Weaver.
    Kormak stared at her. He thought about the cocooned bodies he had seen hanging outside, hanging in the midst of a Shadowblight, exposed to its warping energies. He suddenly felt as if he understood what was going on here.
    A sardonic smile played across Weaver’s lips. A vision flashed across his mind as if it had leapt from her to him. He saw the slow corruption of the woods and their occupants and the Shadow becoming so powerful that eventually it would spread to the neighbouring lands and devour them as well. He saw armies of tainted humans and elves gather, to swarm outwards carrying their taint with them into new lands. Such things had happened in the past.
    “Yes,” she said. “Uran Ultar welcomes all who would follow him, human or elf. All who bring him prey are welcome. All who feed him souls may join the pack. In his web of shadow, elves turn their back on the Green, humans close their eyes to what you call the Light.
    “You see we are not as cruel as you thought. Some of those we have taken, the weaker ones provide food for our young, but those of you who are strong are welcome here. You yourself will be a great champion of the cause once your eyes are opened to the truth. Who knows, perhaps I will even send you out into the world to find more such as yourself. You have the look of the hunter. You will enjoy serving the Spider God.”
    “The Holy Sun will destroy you,” said Kormak. Even to himself he did not sound very convincing.
    “He has not done so yet,” said Weaver. “Take him to the crypts! We’ll speak again. A few days in the embrace of Shadow will give him something to think about.”
    The elves took him deeper into the darkness.
     
    Kormak hung there in his cocoon, in the middle of a huge web, watching a large spider crawl towards him. He had to remind himself that this was not a nightmare, not a fever dream. The venom was taking its toll on his mind and body. Hallucinations came and went. Even as that thought occurred to him, sick dizziness swept through him and the world rippled and changed.
    He hung in the sky, dangling from thin threads of silk. Far below him, he saw a great forest, like and unlike the one he had passed through earlier. It was green and bright and the sun shone down on it. In its midst were titanic trees, scores of leagues apart. They resembled the dead tree in size but in almost all other respects were different; some resembled oaks, some pines, some dragon-trees. All of them were taller than many keeps and so broad that the population of entire towns could dwell amid their boles and branches. He knew that in its own way, each of these trees was sentient in a vast slow way and communicated with its brethren by a tangle of magical flows that ran from root to root through the seemingly endless forests. The air was bright and clean, the mountains seemed taller, the Holy Sun brighter.
    In the morning of the world, the elves came and they worshipped and served the great trees, sharing their magic, acting as their agents in the world. They were long-lived and peaceful and their intelligence worked at a different speed from