towers to land on the twitching, heavy mass.
Lost beneath the sandkings, the spider somehow lurched down into the darkness and vanished.
Rakkis let out a long breath. He looked pale. "Wonderful," someone else said. Malada Blane chuckled deep in her throat.
"Look," said Idi Noreddian, tugging Kress by the arm.
They had been so intent on the struggle in the corner that none of them had noticed the activity elsewhere in the tank. But now the castle was still, and the sands were empty save for dead red mobiles, and now they saw.
Three armies were drawn up before the red castle. They stood quite still, in perfect array, rank after rank of sandkings, orange and white and black-waiting to see what emerged from the depths.
Kress smiled. "A cordon sanitaire, " he said. "And glance at the other castles, if you will, Jad."
Rakkis did, and he swore. Teams of mobiles were sealing up the gates with sand and stone. If the spider somehow survived this encounter, it would find no easy entrance at the other castles. "I should have brought four spiders," Rakkis said. "Still I've won. My spider is down there right now, eating your damned maw."
Kress did not reply. He waited. There was motion in the shadows.
All at once red mobiles began pouring out of the gate. They took their positions on the castle and began repairing the damage that the spider
had wrought. The other armies dissolved and began to retreat to their respective corners. a
"Jad," Kress said, "I think you are a bit g confused about who is eating whom."
Y
The following week Rakkis brought four slim silver snakes. The sandkings dispatched them without much trouble.