'I know.'

They walked silently for a while. Then he sighed, and said, 'We'll get bitten.That is certain. Only ... all the spiders that will bite us - I hope so, anyway- won't be real spiders. They'll be products of the mage's magic. Apparitions.But apparitions that can kill you just as quickly or as slowly and usually aspainfully as the real spiders.'

He paused, then said, 'Benna probably died from their bites.'

Masha felt as if she were turning white under her dark skin. She put her handson his arm.

'But ... but...!'

'Yes, I know. If the spiders were not real, then why should they harm him? Thatis because he thought they were real. His mind did the rest to him.'

She didn't like that she couldn't keep her voice from shaking, but she couldn'thelp it.

'How can you tell which is real and which magical?'

'In the daylight the unreal spiders look a little transparent. By that I meanthat if they stand still, you can see dimly through them. But then they don'tstand still much. And we'll be in the dark of night. So...

'Look here, Masha. You have to be strong stuff to go there. You have to overcomeyour fear. A person who lets fear conquer him or her is going to die even if heknows that the spider is unreal. He'll make the sting of the bite himself andthe effects of the venom. And he'll kill himself. I've seen it happen in mynative land.'

' But you say that we might get bitten by a real spider. How can I tell which iswhich in the dark?'

'It's a problem.'

He added after a few seconds, 'The ointment should repulse most of the realspiders. Maybe, if we're lucky. You see, we have an advantage that Benna didn'thave. I know what faces us because I come from the mage's land. His true name isKemren, and he brought with him the real spiders and some other equallydangerous creatures. They would have been in some of the boxes. I am prepared