"I'll divulge my intentions in time. First, you need a modicum of history." Silvia turned her back to them. "You see, Mr. Trehar and I established a variety of acquaintance a year ago."

Succubus has no problem calling Henri by a formal name. How firmly do they own him?

"I didn't know then that he had friends of your caliber, Berrick. My brother ferreted that out. My brother is a font of wisdom and a memory that knows no equal. Mr. Trehar and I got along straight off, and when I broached the subject of a meeting with his brother, he accommodated my desires."

"Answer my question. Why am I here," Berrick asked.

Silvia turned to him and smiled a quick cruel smile. "Such impatience. Has no one ever told you the voyage is worth more than the destination? I thought we might be friends."

"This is not a voyage. This is a trap. One more time—what's all this about?"

"My brother and I work together." Silvia tapped her finger on the ruby hanging against her collar bone. "And have been contained here for many years. The confinement grows tiresome. We'd like to leave Yahal. The lure of other planets grows too strong to ignore. You see, we came from one of the unclaimed worlds and were brought here as children. I crave new sights and different sorts of people. Halis' research implies that now is the perfect time to leave. So we found someone who could help us get off of Yahal. We found you Berrick."

Berrick stared at her perfect mouth as it shut. Her eyebrows lifted, waiting for his response.

"I'm no pilot."

Silvia laid her hand on Henri's shoulder. Henri flinched and then his head tilted toward her hand, like a beaten dog craving the caress of his mistress.

"There are pilots in plenty, Berrick. Space-trains leave hourly. However, first we must obtain the papers necessary for such a journey. You can find us names, valid ids, and anything else we need to get off Yahal. And you have the power to strike the whole trip from records, so we cannot be tracked. We must be untraceable."

"Find someone else," Berrick said.

"No. We won't do that." Silvia smiled again, and her teeth were sharp. Henri stared up at her face a goofy smile on his own. "It'd take little effort for you to do as instructed. Pull a few strings, and talk to a few people. I was told you were intelligent. Don't be blind to the benefits of aiding us."

Or the veiled threats of what happens if I don't.

"No," Berrick said.

"Now, Berrick," Henri said. "Be reasonable, hear the lady out. She has a proposition."

Propositions, trades, and bargains were part of Henri's makeup. He thought in neat columns. This had been true since their boyhood, but it had never made Henri seem so soulless to Berrick as it did in that instant.

"I do indeed." Silvia stared at both of them with her dark eyes. "We need your services, Berrick, and we're capable of paying exorbitantly for them. Perhaps even enough to fund you leaving this backwards little world for your own fresh start. I'm willing to pay off your honor though there is little that's dishonorable about helping two people who are down on their luck."

"If you're not allowed off the planet, there is good reason," Berrick said.

"Ah, one would think so. In a perfect world that would be the case, but this is not a perfect world, as I'm sure you've noted. After the tragedy your family has undergone, I thought you might understand that sometimes the law stands in the way of what is right. In the way of happiness and contentment. We are simply another family in dire need of aid."

"Really, Berrick, what could it hurt to help them?" Henri added.

"And the papers you have now?" Berrick said.

"We have no papers. According to the law, my brother and I do not exist."

Berrick stared into her face, into her dark empty eyes and grew cold. His mind was made. Whatever line she was feeding him, what she asked for was wrong. He was only getting part of the story and whatever she was withholding was what made him feel cold at her gaze. This was not a woman he wished to aid.

"I'll not help you."

"Poor deluded man. You've no other option."

She sounded sad, and Berrick shivered.

"I'm done with this. I won't help you. Look elsewhere." Berrick stood.

"I haven't the time for your temper tantrum," Silvia said.

Berrick turned his back to her and began to walk away.

"You'll reconsider for Mr. Trehar's sake and for your daughter Marim."

Berrick stopped walking. If they'd done enough research to know his family tragedy, they would know about his surviving daughter. Whatever doubts he had about Silvia's general wickedness were dispelled in the breath she uttered Marim's name.

He turned back to her.

"Ah, now I have your attention. Next, shall we discuss desecrating your dead wife's bones? And your friends, I can have their heads torn from their bodies. Maybe the count and his wife, maybe their handsome son. Though I might have to sample him first. I could have them all. I've no desire for any of that death of pain, but I'll use any means to my end. Nothing will keep me from freedom."

Many people bluffed threats in the cold metal of his interrogation room or when cuffs first touched their wrists. He believed her, trusted the intensity in her sparkling eyes. Henri just sat there mesmerized beneath her hand while she threatened his life. So he trusted she both could and would follow through.

Her smile faded, and she stroked Henri's head. "So why don't the two of you talk the matter over. Mr. Trehar can answer any questions you have."

She left the room as silently as she had entered. Her hair drifted behind her unbound and her skirts rippled across the floor. Her image seemed infused into the walls. She burned her way into Berrick's brain.

"What have you done?" Berrick asked.

"All they need is papers. It wouldn't be hard for you. No inconvenience at all."

"And your cut is worth risking our lives?"

"I'm not risking my life." Henri looked at him with a cold lucidity.

"You're a fool."

"Beautiful women make men weak. Theirs is a power that few of us can battle. Not even you could've resisted her."

Was Henri philosophizing? Berrick placed his badge in his pocket. Despite what Silvia said, even after his wife's death, he still believed in the law. Had to. That was the life he chose and Polly was already gone. Letting go of the law would leave him with nothing, no reason however tenuous to rationalize her absence and that of his son.

"They'll kill you right along with the rest of us," Berrick said.

"I have a feeling, I'll be dead before any of you." Henri smiled.

For a moment, Berrick remembered how it had been when they were kids, back when Henri and he would play in the back yard. Henri would sit under the big elm in the backyard and read his books while Berrick climbed in the branches. He remembered how much he loved his brother.

***

The light flared on with a sharp word, and the illuminating by glow of rows upon rows of candles flared up granting the room a soft glow. In the center of the bedchamber reclined a giant spider, limbs thrown out across a huge bed. The spider lifted its empty shining eyes to the door. Silvia entered her hair dancing in the candles' shadows. Then the spider skittered off the bed to her side, its hard black body absorbing the light.

Silvia knelt and pressed her head into the spider's underbelly. One long hairy leg wrapped around her. Face pressed against his spiny hide, she pulled on the web the traveled out from them gathering energy. Once her hands filled with blackness, Silvia twisted the energy into a new form.

As the darkness danced from Silvia's hands, a picture appeared before the two of them. In the wavering magic image reclined a pretty girl of about fourteen with red curls. The girl was having her hair done, and she pouted her mouth and batted her eyelashes into a silver rimmed mirror.

"Marim," Silvia said in her voice of velvet.

The girl in the picture looked up startled. The servant let go of her hair and then picked it up again. Marim's face froze. Wide eyes searched for the voice that said her name from the ether. Her face was pale and ashen.

"Yes? Did someone call me?" the picture said in a young voice. She sunk into her chair trembling. This was a child already terrified of dark places- ripe for their message.

The spider and Silvia watched with identical gleaming eyes. Silvia closed her fist, letting the energy strands unwind, and the picture dissipated.

Once more, Silvia gathered the webs strands close to her, forming them like a new gown. Her dress split in two and fell to the ground at her feet. She stepped away from it and coaxed by the black strands of web the pale lines of her body faded into eight long white legs and a striped spider's body.

'She has no part in this. I hate to tangle her in our machinations.' Silvia's voice trickled through the web.

'For you, My Queen, perhaps I shall leave her alive.'

'Berrick had his chance to protect her. Yet her innocence stings me. Does it you?'

'No. Her blood will be sweet.'

'Was I ever that? Innocent, pure... helpless.'

'You were always a thorn ready to cut.'

The two spiders intertwined and rested on the floor by the bed. One long hairy leg caressed another but otherwise they were still.

*Please vote/comment if you are enjoying. I love to hear from you and to know that people are out there enjoying my little world :) Please take the time to let me know!

** Revised 3/28/2016