Lord of the Spiders by Michael Moorcock

Author:Michael Moorcock [Moorcock, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction
ISBN: 9781601250827
Publisher: Planet Stories
Published: 1965-09-14T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

Sentenced to Die!

Thankfully we crossed the ocean without mishap and arrived, at length, at the borders of Mendishar.

We landed in the hills and hid our craft.

Twice, as we scoured the hills in the hope of discovering some information, we came upon totally destroyed villages.

Once we were lucky. We met an old crone who had, by luck, escaped the destruction. She told us that whole families of hill-people had been arrested; many, many villages razed and hundreds, possibly thousands, slain.

She told us that the leaders of the revolution who had been captured were due to die in a great ritual personally inaugurated by the upstart Bradhinak Jewar Baru. She did not know when, only that it had not yet taken place.

We decided we would have to visit the capital—Mendisharling—ourselves in order to see just what the true situation was, judge the mood of the populace and, if possible, rescue those under sentence of death.

With robes salvaged from one of the ruined villages, Hool Haji disguised himself, as an itinerant trader and myself as—a bundle!

I, of course, would draw too much attention in whatever disguise I attempted, so I had to become the “trader’s” goods!

It was in this manner, slung over Hool Haji’s shoulder, that I entered, for the first time, the capital city of Mendishar. It was a place of little spirit. Peeping through a small rent in the cloth in which I was swathed I could see that, apart from the swaggering, boorish Priosa, there was not a back that was not bent, not a face that was not lined with misery, not a child that was not emaciated.

We passed through the market and there was little of anything nourishing on sale.

The whole city had an air of desolation about it which contrasted sharply with the bright uniforms of the “chosen” Priosa.

It was a scene familiar to me from my reading, but I had never seen anything like it in real life. It was a place ruled by a tyrant who so feared for his own security that he did not dare relax his iron rule for a single moment.

Whatever happened now, I reflected as I was humped along by my friend—who was not, I felt, going out of his way to make my ride comfortable—the tyrant must fall eventually, for people can be ground down only for so long. At some time the tyrant—or his descendant—relaxes, and it is at that moment his subjects choose to act!

Hool Haji took a room at a tavern near the square and went to it at once. Then he placed me on the hard bed and sat down mopping his brow as I disentangled myself from the cloth.

I grimaced as I sat up.

“I feel as if every bone in my body is dislocated,” I said.

“I apologise.” Hool Haji smiled. “But it would look suspicious if an impoverished trader like myself should treat his goods as if they were precious things instead of the few skins and rolls of fabric he told the gate guards he had.

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