Sanjaya climbed down the wall and surveyed the battlefield. Two of their men were dead and another three, including the captain, were wounded. Five out of fifteen. On the opposite side, one spider and two ettercaps were dead and some wounded spiders had retreated. In various places throughout the temple, he knew that there were spiders who hadn't even left their webs. The battle had been close. They had not won by superior forces, weapons, numbers or skill. They had won because they used the nature of their opponent against them. Even now, Sanjaya knew that there were enough spiders to easily overwhelm the townsfolk, but they were kept in check by their reluctance to leave their webs and Karya's presence.
Walking past Prād, who was carefully tending to a paralysed man, Sanjaya sat down next to the captain who was massaging his limp arm. "Your thoughts?"
"We lost two good men, one of mine and one from the caravan. Karya's gone to speak to the spiders in the temple. I don't think we could have done it without her. Or at least we'd have needed to treat it as a siege. I'd wanted Stuart to keep an eye on her, but the spiders would tear him apart if she wiggled her fingers funny. We'll rest up for a bit then explore the place when she comes back. I hope she keeps her end of the bargain."
Sanjaya stroked his short, brown beard. "She takes a long term view. There's no reason for her not to give us what we want. In a few generations, humans could easily destroy this forest, chopping it down piece by piece over the years as we have done in so many other places. But if she works with us, both sides can benefit."
"And what about you?" the captain gave Sanjaya an appraising look. "How do you benefit? Everybody wants something."
Sanjaya laughed. "I want many things. As I said before, I am a scholar. I am interested in this temple and any secrets that it may contain. We didn't even know that it existed, let alone who built it. But more importantly," he pointed at the sky, "the eclipse is in six days. I want to be alive next week."
Jack Slate was not entirely sure how to react. The man beside him was clearly not simple, he was intelligent and well educated and yet he had come to this small mining town. Perhaps he was hiding something. Maybe he had committed some crime or offended the wrong people. It was hard to take his words at face value. "Lets say this eclipse happens. Then what? What makes you think that you're safer here than in the capitol, protected by the king's men?"
Sanjaya steadily met the captains gaze. "You should know that there are many factions in the capitol. The balance of power could shift at any moment and the rulers behind the rulers could change the rules. I'll not go into the darkness that dwells there. Three hundred and fifteen years ago, the most populated places were the worst places to be. But," Sanjaya smiled, "maybe nothing will happen and this is just a nice holiday where I get to explore an ancient temple, converse with a dryad and fight spiders the size of horses. Either way, I lose nothing."
As the morning sun rose the chill gradually left the air. Sanjaya was studying some of the carvings at the base of a column, there appeared to be a fair amount of repetition among the images - similar figures depicted doing different things. While he was examining something that looked like a chariot being dragged by slaves or maybe worshippers, Karya finally emerged and addressed the townsfolk.
"I have calmed the spiders and asked them to retreat for now. They will sleep here for the winter, but come spring, they will find territories in the forest like they did in the past. I don't know what the ettercaps' intentions were, gathering them here. It may just have been a temporary measure to deal with me, or maybe it has something to do with the absence of the spider queen."
Murmurs of 'spider queen' ran through the group.
"I will guide you around the temple, but for your own safety, I don't think that more than three or four people should come with me, spiders do not take kindly to intruders. We will be interacting with their webs and we don't want to agitate the spiders further. The fewer the better."
The captain stood up, letting out a sigh. "Sanjaya, any volunteers?" A few of the men and one woman raised their hands. Jack surveyed the options. He needed to make sure that he chose one of the townsfolk who was not part of his operation to make sure that there were no accusations later.
"You're Neil's girl right?"
"Yes sir. Amelia Hunt sir." The young woman's face was plain, but not unattractive with a few acne scars on her cheeks, complimented by an athletic body and sharp brown eyes. Her clothes were all made from cured deer hide, stitched with coarse thread, her long brown hair was tied up in a tight ponytail. She carried a bow over her shoulder and her belt held two hunting knives of differing shapes.
The captain gestured for her to join them. Life was slowly returning to his arm, he could now move it but it was still mostly numb and his grip was weak. Although he doubted that he would need to use his sword, he didn't like the idea of getting close to dangerous creatures in his current condition.
Prād sat with crossed legs on a smooth piece of stone, eyes closed, absorbing the late morning sun. Exploring the temple didn't interest him, after all, there was nothing here that he wanted. In his mind's eye, he replayed the battle, looking for flaws in his art and ways to improve. Real combat is always the best teacher where years of training culminate into a single moment. Remembering the flow of energy. He had failed to properly channel ki into his staff and now his weapon was cracked. Could he have prevented the last ettercap from escaping? Maybe if he had flanked it before it ran and stopped it from getting away while the soldiers took it down, or maybe it would have torn him apart on the way out. He replayed the scenarios again and again in his mind. Learning, improving. What area of his training was lacking? Breathe in....
Meanwhile, four figures walked cautiously between the huge columns supporting the thick stone roof of the temple. Sanjaya marveled again at the architecture. The roof was made of massive stone slabs and each column seem to be carved from a single piece of stone engraved from bottom to top, sculpted with relief artwork which was mostly obscured by webs. How had they built this place? Thick strands of webbing crossed between the columns and despite being careful, they could not help but touch them as they made their way toward the main altar. Each time they disturbed the webs one of the giant spiders would twitch, but they did not attack.
To access the altar, they went down a few steps and had to duck beneath a low archway, engraved with unintelligible writing. Sanjaya stopped outside to read, but while he recognised the form of the script, he was not proficient in the language. There were no webs within the small, dome-shaped room, yet entire place was surrounded with webs like a cocoon, but for some reason, not even baby spiders had entered here. Karya remained outside while Sanjaya stepped into the sacred chamber, the low archway forcing him to bow as his eyes caught a glimpse of the foot of the deity within.
Sitting atop a dais in the centre of the small room was a strange statue. It had a humanoid body with four arms ending in sharp claws, one of the hands stretched outwards, perhaps signaling them to stop, the other hands appeared to be holding a flower and some sort and a weapon. The head was that of a beast with protruding fangs, possibly a lion and yet it had a somehow gentle expression. The statue was covered by the disintegrating remains of what was once fine fabric, adorned with small red jewels. Beneath the mane of the bestial head hung a gold chain necklace and the head itself was crowned with a tarnished silver helm.
Very strange, thought Sanjaya. What had happened in this temple that the previous occupants had left such riches behind, and how had it remained unknown and undisturbed? Leaving the chamber to the other two, Sanjaya stepped out and spoke to Karya: "Do you know what happened here?"
The dryad's eyes became distant, remembering a time long past. "This temple has been here since I awakened in my tree three hundred years ago. There used to be wild humans back then, living like animals, but they didn't survive for long. Since then many humans have come and gone, but I didn't allow them to enter too deep into the forest. I don't think any of them knew about the temple."
Within a few minutes Jack and Amelia emerged having bagged everything of value - the latter had an especially large grin on her face. The chamber housing the second deity was similar to the first only smaller and the statue appeared to be a woman meditating with crossed legs. Her clothing was part of the carving, but she was wearing gold earrings housing blue stones and a necklace of interwoven gold and tarnished silver. She was quickly stripped of her possessions.
Outside of the main temple area there were a few rooms to the right of the entrance. One contained various worship paraphernalia like tarnished brass lamps and water sprinklers, barely accessible through the layers of webs, but nothing that seemed valuable and the two resident spiders, one of which was still feasting on the corpse of a hunting spider, did not take kindly to the intrusion.
The room next to it, its floor thick with dust and strewn with the remnants of collapsed furniture, contained a small wooden book shelf, blackened with age. Sanjaya entered eagerly, his eyes fixed on the rows of books. This was what he was looking for. No spiders had taken up residence here, so he waved the others on and picked a book off the shelf at random, a musty smell filling the air. The pages were yellowed and fragile, but upon opening the book, he found the writing to be easily legible though in a language that he did not understand. No matter, he could study it later.
Looking around the dusty clutter in the room, he found another book lying open, face down. He carefully picked it up and as he did so, noticed a line roughly etched into the floor beneath it. He followed the line, clearing the dust and clutter to reveal a crude pentacle that covered a significant portion of the floor. A pentacle is a useful piece of sacred geometry, used to separate the elements - fire, water, earth, air and ether (or spirit) with the outer circle acting to contain the energy, but it looked out of place. Surely in a temple like this, if a pentacle were to be used, it would be carefully drawn or carved. Sanjaya carefully put the book in his pack and headed out to the rest of the group. There were easily enough hands to transport the remaining books.
Outside in the courtyard, everyone had gathered around where Jack was showing what they had looted. "Are those rubies? Gawd." "My wife would love those earrings." "I wonder what that helmet weighs. That's a lot of silver." "No coin? There must be coin somewhere. Maybe you missed it."
While the townsfolk were discussing, Karya stepped forward. "I have kept my side of the bargain and the day has become warm. The spiders are beginning to move and grow agitated. Please take what you want and leave."
"Lady Karya," called Prād, his eyes lowered. "Can I come to your tree tomorrow to start a medicine garden?"
"Come the day after tomorrow," she replied with a faint smile. "I need to deal with the spiders."
After thanking the dryad, the townsfolk were quickly organised and the corpses placed on makeshift stretchers while Amelia and another man harvested the venom sacs from the slain ettercaps and spider. The march home carried an elated mood with people bragging about their achievements and discussing what they would do with their share of the treasure, tempered though, by the presence of death.
The tap room would be full that night and Sanjaya wanted no part of it - he had books to study and secrets to unravel. The idea of superficial conversation with inebriated people did not appeal in the least.