“Hold on, what if we want him to? If we need this thing, he’s going to have to defend himself, at least, if we get attacked. We’ll get ourselves killed just as easily if we’re nursemaiding him. And besides, like I say, you weren’t there. Yes, it was bloody scary seeing him in action, but he tore a Doomsayer apart. That’s the sort of party trick we could use some time.”

Dion ground her teeth. She wanted to deny it, to enforce her original will, but Lief was too good at making sense. The thought of actually needing the monstrous creature to fight was abhorrent, but perhaps no more abhorrent than the thought of anything else about it. And there would be a great many enemies between them and Darvezian. Having lost the original struggle with her conscience over using the thing at all, this new battle seemed doomed to failure.

“Well, then, it can’t harm any of us. Give it that law to live by. Or anyone of the Light.”

Penthos grimaced. “I don’t really think it has the capability to look into the hearts of men, alas. I can have it not harm us, and… not anyone without our express instruction, or unless it’s attacked itself?”

Dion nodded grudgingly. “And it needs to do what it’s told, by any one of us.”

Penthos nodded equably. “It shall be done. So, and to summarize, it mustn’t harm us. It mustn’t harm anything else unless defending itself, or unless we tell it to. And it must do what it’s told. By these laws it shall live.”

“It will have to do,” Dion agreed unhappily, aware that any human system of laws would have loopholes to exploit. “So let us hope we do not need it for long. Which brings us to the subject of the spider’s path. Creature, attend me.”

She had the full blessing of that dark gaze.

“You are here at our service because of knowledge that the chief of your brood gave you. We need to reach Darvezian by some means that avoids his armies, his demons, and his traps. Your progenitor knew how, for she is ancient and knows many evil secrets and Dark ways. You must tell us, now, where this path is—where we must go to walk it.”

Nth stared at the female Man, feeling the new restrictions on his behavior close about his mind like hot wires. He would never know his limits, now, until he brushed against the razor bars of his cage and was forced to flinch back.