FIRST PLACE SHORT
STORY
Spider God
By Jack Creek
West Hill, Ontario
The outlander was angry. I could
tell by the way his face reddened and the cords
stood out on his neck as he glared at my master,
slapping the side of his knee-high leather
boots with his riding crop.
"What do you mean, you'll go
no further?" he demanded. "I suppose you're
holding out for more money. Five dollars an
hour was the price stipulated in our agreement
and five dollars an hour is all I'm paying."
"I agreed to guide you to the
hidden valley," Bano, my master, replied, standing
straight and looking the foreigner directly
in the eyes to show that, although a porter,
he considered himself quite the other's equal.
"And that I have done. There it lies." He stretched
out a hand. "And more I cannot do. For this
valley is the domain of the spider god, whose
given name no man might utter and into whose
domain no mortal man may intrude with impunity.
For aqll who do so will become subject to that
being, to be eaten, or enslaved to do its bidding
forever and ever, as the god wills it."
"You're a bunch of superstitious
fools!" the stranger exploded, looking back
at the row of porters who had set down their
burdens and stood awaiting the outcome of the
altercation between Bano and the man with the
pink complexion and the wheat-yellow hair,
as if he had to be taken off the fire before
he was done. "I suppose you want more money,
is that it?" Receiving no reply, he went on:
"I never saw a native who didn't want twice
as much as he was worth. All right, then, as
I have no choice, I'll double the wages of
every man of you for the remainder of the journey.
That ought to satisfy you."
But my master stood resolute.
"There is no amount of money that would persuade
me to lead my men to their doom," he declared.
"For of what is gold to one who does not live
to spend it?"
The outlander cursed them, turning
the air blue with his profanity. For a moment
I thought he might strike my master, so great
was his rage. "Well, what the **##* am I supposed
to do?" he demanded. "Carry a ton or two of
supplies by myself?"
"If the stranger chooses to continue
into the sacred valley he must progress alone,"
returned Bano. "Anyway, what you wish to do
is sacrilege. To remove any object from the
valley that is under his jurisdiction
would be to violate a sacred trust. Even if
you remained unscathed for merely venturing
into grounds where no man is permitted to tread,
your attempt to remove the stones that shine
would result in your immediate destruction."
"No wonder you people are so
backward, to believe such garbage," the traveler
snarled. "We're living in the twenty-first
century, not the Middle Ages. Very well, then,
remember that I have not yet paid you for the
second lap of the journey. Unless you accompany
me, as agreed, you will never get it."
My master's only answer was to
turn away and make his way back over the rocky
trail we had just traversed. The other porters
followed him, leaving the supplies upon the
ground. And, as I followed my companions, I
glanced backa nd saw the outlander shoulder
one of the packs, pick up his rifle, and turn,
heading into the valley, which was still shrouded
by mist, even though it was high noon.
"Is it true," I asked Bano, trying
to match my step with his long strides, "that
the outlander will come to grief even as you
said?"
"It is written in our oldest
chronicles, going back to the very beginning
of our race," my master made answer, "that
spider and his allies once roamed at will all
over the land presently occupied by our people.
Then they made a truce, that all those lands
shall be ours in which to fish and hunt and
grow our crops, as long as the sun shines and
the rivers flow – except the single valley
that the king of all spiders chose for his
own. And if any man should violate that agreement
– whether he be of a race that was aprty to
it or an alien who knows naught of our traditions
– he shall meet an untimely end. And, if the
great spider is sufficiently provoked, he may
deem that sufficient reason not to limit his
jurisdiction to that single valley, but to
spread out and reclaim all the lands over which
he once held sway."
I knew what a spider was, of
course. I had seen spiders about our dwellings,
small ones, the largest little bigger than
a man's thumb, and in the jungle, larger onces
that could inflict a fatal bite if disturbed,
but Bano informed me that those were common
spiders and not to be confused with the Great
God or members of his kinds, who had the power
to turn a man into a statue if they so wished,
or enslave him to toil in their underground
caverns until the meat dropped from his bones.
Now, I had never seen any of
these things, and being young and skeptical,
I thouht privately – for I would not dare voice
such thoughts aloud – that the ones who believed
such things were living in the past. For, althought
I did not doubt that many wonderful and inexplicable
things had happened during the early history
of our people, it was stretching credulity
too far to believe that a spider, no matter
how powerful, could possess the power of life
and death of the human race.
Even so, I had not the courage
to violate the taboo by venturing into the
sacred valley, even in broad daylight when
the sun was high in the sky. If I had seen
a grown man and answerable to no authority,
I do not know what I would have done. Old customs
die hard and I dared not test the possibility
that the warning Bano have was entirely without
substance. Certainly I had no wish to be bitten
by a posonous spider, even a small one. However,
I was curious, and I decided to scout along
the rim of the valley and see if I could trace
the progress of the outlander from above. It
was easy to slip away unnoticed, for the men,
having shed their burdens, were intent only
on returning to their homes and their fields.
It was hot where I was, with
the sun beating down upon the unprotected rock.
I knew that it must be even hotter on the floor
of the valley where the heat was unrelieved
by even the suggestion of a breeze. Presently,
I caught sight of the outlander, toiling beneath
the sun, and I could guess that his pack weighed
heavily upon him and he wished that he could
shed his jacket that had not seemed too warm
in that morning's chill. And, still, the whole
valley was permeated with a mist so that you
could never view anything except through that
haze. And besides the mist, there were also
the cobwebs, like gossamer threads, floating
through the air with no visible anchorage.
I knew that the stranger had
come after the stones that shone, though I
could not imagine how these could be of any
more worth than the pebbles upon the beach.
I knew that the fair-haired one considered
them to be of great price and the spider god,
if such existed, would not suffer him to remove
them without making an effort to prevent it.
The outlander had reached a neck
of the valley now, where the two sides almost
came together, and, for a few minutes, I lost
sight of him. Then, as the valley widened,
I saw him proceeding, much more slowly now,
for the course lay over loose rocks that littered
the ground. He glanced constantly from side
to side, his rifle ready, as if he expected
some wild beast to leap out at him. But, as
far as I could see, nothing moved in the noonday
sun.
I skirted a copse of trees that
stood in my path. It was a few seconds before
I sighted him again. He had come to a full
halt and he was facing a cave, a small opening
at the foot of the cliff which I could just
discern, for it was shrouded by the underbrush
which grew there.
Then, even as I watched, a spider,
a giant ebony black spider, the drops of moisture
on its body hairs shining like jewels reflected
by the sun, scuttled forth from the opening.
It was the biggest spider I had ever seen,
far bigger than I had ever thought possible
for a spider to be, more like a large dog than
one of earth's lowliest creatures.
The outlander gave an involuntary
start, raised his rifle, and started firing:
once, twice, thrice, four shots got off before
it reached him. Although I imagined the creature
must be mortally wounded, for the gun was designed
for use against much larger animals, it did
not slow its pace one bit. By the time of his
fifth shot, the creature was too close to aim,
and when he pulled the trigger for the sixth
time, it was upon him, wrapping its gossamer
threads around his gun arm, so that he lost
hold of his weapon.
Even though the distance was
great, I could hear his cries, first of rage
and frustration, then of terror, as he struggled
futilely against the all-encompassing threads.
He turned to run, but the strands, winding
even tighter, hold him so he fell to the ground
and lay there. The monster completed the process
of entwining its victim until, finally, all
that could be seen of the man was a silk-enshrouded
object upon the ground that had all but ceased
to struggle. Then the monster wrapped its many
arms about its victim and, retreating backward,
carried him back to the black hole in the cliff
as easily as if he had been a child instead
of a grown man.
No more I saw, for then I fled
that sacred valley and its environs lest the
creature sense my presence and ascend the valley
wall after me.
And I told no man (or woman)
that which my eyes had seen. For if there were
not in truth a god of all the spiders, there
was surely a devil that dwelt in that cave
at the foot of the cliff. And how far did I
know that its powers might extend, perhaps
even so far as to punish those who even gazed
upon its form, even as it destroyed those who
trespassed upon its domain. No, from that day
until this my lips have been sealed and only
now, in extreme old age, do I break silence
only so that those who come after me shall
know that the tales told by our forefathers
have basis in fact and are not just fables
uttered by old men who have nothing better
to do.
I never returned to that valley
– not even to watch from above – for my eyes
have seen enough – for my eyes have seen enough.
Although it is not to be believed that the
lifetime of a spider can equal that of a man,
if he whom I saw is indeed a god, perchance
he does still dwell in that cave in the valley,
ready to defend his domain against all who
dare contaminate it with their presence.
Copyright
(c) 2004 for the author, all rights
reserved.
