They paddled silently as possible, the current helping their rate of speed, andpresently the isle loomed darkly to their right. They landed halfway down theeastern shore and dragged the dugout slowly to the nearest tree.
They put their cloaks in the boat, and Masha placed a coil of rope over hershoulder and neck.
The isle was quiet. Not a sound. Then came a strange grunting cry followed by ahalf-moaning, half-squalling sound. Her neck iced.
'Whatever that is,' Smhee said, 'it's no spider.'
He chuckled as if he were making a joke.
They'd decided - what else could they do? - that the camel's eye would be tooheavily guarded after Benna's entrance through it. But there had to be moreaccessible places to get in. These would be guarded, too, especially since theymust have been made more security-conscious by the young thief.
'What I'd like to find is a secret exit,' Smhee said. 'Kemren must have one,perhaps more. He knows that there might come a time when he'll be sorely in needof it. He's a crafty bastard.'
Before they'd taken the boat, Smhee had revealed that Kemren had fled Sharranpipwith many of the temple's treasures. He had also taken along spiders' eggs andsome of the temple's animal guardians.
'If he was a high priest,' Masha had said, 'why would he do that? Didn't he havepower and wealth enough?'
'You don't understand our religion,' the fat thief had said. 'The priests aresurrounded by treasures that would pop your eyes out of their sockets if you sawthem. But the priests themselves are bound by vows to extreme poverty, tochastity, to a harsh bare life. Their reward is the satisfaction of serving WedaKrizhtawn and her people. It wasn't enough for Kemren. He must have become evilwhile performing some magic that went wrong. He is the first priest ever to