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Chapter Three
Part Six

“Controlled?” the Chief Spider said after Andrew explained what had happened earlier. They were standing in nest chamber looking at the sole surviving alf. “I’ve been considering it, and those circlets have all but convinced me.”

“I’ve certainly never seen alfer wearing anything like that before,” Korrig agreed.

“We tried to remove one when it first occured to us, and it shattered the alf in question’s heart stone.” She gave a brief shudder. “No one would willingly wear something that did that. It’s why we haven’t eaten this last one, but we don’t know what to do with him. We can’t release him if someone’s controlling him.”

Lydia walked up to the alf and laid a hand on his arm. As when she’d touched Korrig she felt herself sucked into his mindscape – except it was empty. His mind was vacant and all she could feel was a terrible weight bearing down on him. That must be why there was no thought.

“We have to get that thing off him.” Lydia turned to Korrig. “I take it your heart stone is the thing in your forehead? And that breaking it is bad?”

“It’s fatal,” he said. “And not quickly.”

“Well then, we want to avoid that. Can you look and see if you can see a way to remove it without breaking it?”

“Can we get him down, please?” he asked. “I can try, but not if I can’t reach.”

“Of course.” The spider cut the alf down and he collapsed to the floor.

Lydia and Andrew quickly laid him out on the floor so Korrig could examine the circlet. The dwarf bent over the alf and frowned.

“When you tried to remove one, did you just pull it off?” he asked.

“Indeed. We’re not really made for fine maniplation,” the spider replied.

“I see, well let me get my tools from the cart. It’ll be a delicate job. It’s been deliberately designed to shatter the stone if removed. I’ll have to cut it away, but I think I can do it. It’s really our only chance to get it off.”

He headed out of the cave and returned a few moments later with a canvas wrap full of jeweller’s tools. “Let’s see. Lydia, can you hold the part over his heart stone in place while I remove the rest the circlet?”

Lydia did as he asked as Korrig set about carefully cutting through the circlet metal in several places, removing the segments. “So far so good,” he said. “But now the difficult bit. I need you to keep holding the section in place while I’m cutting it. I’ll be careful but if my hand slips…”

“I get the picture. “ Lydia adjusted her grip so he could get at it. She could feel how it was attached liked a vice to the stone beneath it.

“Good.” Korrig began to slowly slice through the metal. He removed it in half-centimeter long chunks, gently pulling it away and cutting through the fine gold wires which attached it to the stone. It seemed to take a painfully long time, but eventually only a single piece, held in place by Lydia’s finger, remained. She let go and Korrig removed that bit as well.

“So that’s done,” Lydia said.

Korrig shook his head and pulled a pair of tweezers from his kit. “I still need to remove the wires,” he said and began gently teasing them out one by one.

Now that her hands were free, Lydia found herself chewing her nails and jerked her hands away from her mouth. She hadn’t done that for years, but this was nerve-racking.

A loud cracking sound and a scream from the alf made her jump. Her mouth went dry and she looked at Korrig frantically.

“Oh God! Did you break it?” she asked.

“I did, but it’s only cracked. He’ll recover from that,” Korrig reassured her. “And that’s the last wire. Let’s get him outside, warm him up and see what he can tell us about this.”

***

“Come on, drink this. It’ll help warm you up.” She held the steaming mug to the Alf’s mouth.

He was rambling incoherently and didn’t seem to understand her. They’d wrapped him in blankets and Bennu was helping warm him, but he wouldn’t stop shivering.

“Well he was in there longer than me,” Karen said. “And I think he probably had more venom in him than I did.”

“And he’s been hurt.” Lydia nodded.

“Does he look different?” Andrew asked.

Lydia blinked and looked at the Alf again, he seemed smaller and there was a small patch of discoloured skin where his heartstone would be. “Huh? He does.”

“It’s his resting form,” Bennu said. “Like my falcon or Kimi’s leopard form. He can’t hold his full form with his heart stone cracked.”

“That’s interesting,” Lydia said and went back to coaxing the alf to drink the soup.

Eventually his eyes cleared a little and he took a sip, then choked and muttered something about a bad taste. He did drink the rest however, though not without more complaints.

“At least he seems to know what’s going on now,” Andrew said as Lydia started feeding the alf chocolate.

“You’re humans aren’t you?” The alf said suddenly.

“Er, yes,” Lydia said. “Are you one of the Speakers who has a problem with that?”

“No, and if I was it would be churlish of me to mention it when you saved me.” He inclined his head to them. “I am named Eyvindr of the Ljos-alfar.”

Lydia made the round of introduction and then said, “Strictly speaking, it was Korrig who saved you. We couldn’t have got that thing off you without him. Who was controlling you?”

“I don’t know, there was a dragon. I remember that, but… something is not right with this. It was controlled as well.”

Korrig gave a sharp gasp. “The Dragon Lord! You’re from Elapyron City, aren’t you?”

“I am,” Eyvindr said.

“Who? Where?” Lydia asked, but before anyone could answer all four Speakers looked sharply in the same direction.

“Someone’s coming!”

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