1899- Journey to Mars

Ekka nodded. The small cave above them was ten feet off the ground and was far too small for the Argent. “It may not be the cave,” Ekka said, “but it’s the one we’re going in. If I’m going to pilfer someone’s house, I make it a point not to use the front door.”

“You be makin’ sense.” Bixie nodded.

They gained entrance to the cave by moving their horses beneath the opening in turns, standing up on the strange, flat Martian saddles and grasping at the lip of the entrance. After that it was by main strength that Ekka climbed inside. Then she stooped to grasp Bixie’s arms and pulled her up and in.

“I wish that I had thought to bring one of the electric torches from the Argent,” Ekka said. “This place is going to be dark.”

“What you talkin’ ‘bout? Ah knows what to bring along.” Bixie produced one of the small torches from her medicine purse and handed it to Ekka.

“Bixie, you’re a lifesaver.”

The two women moved into the cave, picking their way along. There were a number of turns and only a few narrow cracks leading off from the main way. The light of day from the opening behind them receded quickly and disappeared altogether. They would be relying solely on the light of the torch.

After what felt like a quarter of a mile, the cave narrowed and climbed and the going was slower, but after one hard scramble upward, it abruptly opened up onto the floor of the vast cavern where the Argent had been captured by the strange spiders.

The ground was ochre-black and spongy. The bones of animals and humans lay scattered about, as dry as kindling. The two women chose their steps carefully so as not to make too much noise, but still even the slightest noise seemed to carry across the cavern and echo back to them.

“What we lookin’ for?” Bixie whispered.

“We’ll know it when we see it. I promise you that.”

Before long they came upon what at first appeared to be a white patch of flooring, but a close examination revealed it to be a flat carpet of fine webbing.

“It’ll be sticky,” Ekka said. “But we have to cross it.”

“Hold a minute,” Bixie said, and reached into her purse and brought out a small vial. “Put a few drops of this on the bottom of your boots and rub it around good. Nothin’ will be stickin’ ta ‘em.”

After a moment both women had the soles of their boots treated. Ekka took a step out onto the web and her foot nearly went out from under her, but Bixie caught her.

“You’re right. The stuff is awfully slick. I’m afraid to ask what it is.’

“Bes’ you not be knowin’,” Bixie said, and chuckled.

As they made their way to the middle of the white patch of webbing, Ekka’s flashlight reflected back a bright shine underneath the webs. She shined the light ahead and began counting patches of the bright white.

“I think this is it,” she said. She paused and retrieved her kinzhal, and cut away at the bedding of webs to reveal a cache of eggs. There were dozens of them, each the size of a grapefruit. They were a brilliant, waxy white.

“Let’s load up,” she said and began handing eggs to Bixie two at a time.

“Now it be’s time for me ta be ‘fraid,” Bixie said.

When the small cache of eggs was empty, Ekka shined the light on Bixie. She had shouldered her large medicine purse, now full of eggs, but now she held something else in her hands.

“Oh my Lord,” Ekka said. “Are those what I think they are?”

“They be. Dis one here be’s da hand of one dem morts. Dis one be’s da ear of one dem orange-headed corts.”

Ekka watched as Bixie put both grim objects in one hand and pulled out a spider egg. She cracked it on her knee and let the grisly contents spill over the webbing around them. She took the shell and rubbed the exposed wrist of the mort on one half of the eggshell and dropped it. She rubbed the ear of the cort on the other half and dropped it near the first. The she knelt and deposited both hand and ear in the former egg cache hole.

“I think I see what you’re doing,” Ekka said. “Now we’d better get to the edge of this web. I want to be ready to run, and we won’t be able to run on this stuff.”

“What you gonna do?” Bixie asked, but Ekka was already at work. After a moment she had a stick of dynamite and box of matches in her hands.

Bixie’s eyes widened, then she began laughing.

[ 89]

The wind whistled in Billy’s ear and his stomach threatened to discharge its meager contents.