The country through which Red Sonja walked was barren and dreary, made even drearier by the torrential rain that fell heavy and roaring from the cloud-packed sky and soaked the hooded cloak she covered herself with. Lightning burst, thunder rumbled like the angry muttering of Crom, heartless god of the grim Cimmerians, and the warrior woman of Hyrkania cursed as her booted foot slipped into a deep puddle and sank into the muck at the bottom. The gods have it easy, she thought to herself, that they do not have to put up with this! A few yards on, and again she slipped in the mud, this time falling up to her thighs in a pool of freezing rainwater. "Mitra and Asura, damn you!" she screamed, but her frustrated rage was swallowed by the greater rage of the deluge.

Then, the rain cascading around her, Sonja noticed something as she peered aheadthrough the walls of water that gave her faint hope: The black mouth of a cave in a hillside, only a short distance ahead. And then movement: A human figure, wrapped head to foot in a thick cloak and hood much like her own, which swiftly approached the yawning gap in the stone and then vanished within. Thoughts churned in Sonja's brain. Would the stranger, whomever they might be, be willing to share shelter with a roofless wanderer? She gripped with her leather-gloved hand the hilt of her sword; if worse came to worse, she could defend herself. Her course determined, the she-devil of Hyrkania clambered out of the frigid pool and trudged onward.

In just a few minutes she passed over the threshold of the cave which, but scant moments agone, the unknown figure had traversed. With a roof over her head, she sighed gratefully as she removed her hood and freed her fiery locks. But casting her eyes around, it did not take her long to realise she was alone in the immediate vicinity. Where was the one she had followed? A burst of lightning revealed a turn in the tunnel of the cave, and seized by curiosity, Sonja followed it. Turning the corner, she saw, some way ahead, a beacon of light, growing dimmer as though whatever - or whomever - produced it moved further away into the dark. That was when, standing there, the odour reached her nostrils, one difficult to describe, but which she had smelled before; one time years ago when passing through the Zamorian city of Yezud, and again slightly more recently in the Nemedian forest called Darkwood. Almost unconsciously, Sonja started drawing her sword from its scabbard...but overwrought from her journey in the storm and distracted by the smell, the movement caused her to loose balance, and she roared with pain as she landed on her backside.

Stupid, stupid girl! she scolded herself. Gods damn you for being so clumsy! Gazing ahead down the tunnel, she saw that the bearer of the torch had heard the commotion and was rapidly approaching. Getting to her feet, her swordhilt still in her grasp, Sonja swiftly found herself inches away from a man, his eyes alert. "What do you here, woman?" he loudly demanded. "Speak!" The hand that held the torch shook with agitation.

"I intend you no ill," Sonja answered. "I seek shelter from the storm."

"No shelter for you here!" the man barked. "I'm sorry, but you must go, now!"

Sonja's eyes narrowed. "Sir, I do not wish conflict with you, but shelter I need, and shelter I shall have. This cave is more than big enough for the two of us."

The man's whole body was shaking violently now as he shouted "No, no, leave now, you hear me, woman!" Before Sonja could reply, he thrust his free hand inside his cloak and withdrew a dagger. "For the last time," he spat, "leave this cave! Do not force me to injure you!"

Raising her blade in both hands, Sonja snarled "Injure me at your peril, man! By Erlik, Red Sonja does not suffer threats lightly, especially when all she desires is a roof over her head!"

"Tolrus?" The new voice was that of a woman. The man, whom Sonja now supposed was the aforementioned Tolrus, spun round with a cry of alarm...and Sonja's eyes widened in terror as, illuminated by the fire, she saw ahead of them both, having come from the deeper recesses of the cave, the form of a woman; of long and black hair tumbling over her brilliantly white shoulders and breasts, her face and body what most men would consider alluringly lovely...but at the hips that body merged into the black-furred, eight-legged bulk of a monstrously gigantic spider.

"Ishtar and Ashtoreth!" Sonja swore. "Man, run, so I can kill this monstrosity before it kills us!"

Not looking at Sonja, but at the human-arachnid hybrid, Tolrus cried "Kordelia!", then faced the Hyrkanian and exclaimed "Hold! Lift not your blade against the one I love!"

Sonja wondered if her brain was befuddled on hearing those words. "Your...love...?"

Her eight legs twitching and drumming on the stony floor, the spider woman said "Aye, red-hair, his love!"

"Believe me," Tolrus said to Sonja, "when I say that my heart truly belongs to her! I am not bewitched! Kordelia was once a woman like yourself, until she spurned the advances of a vile wizard, who transformed her into...this...as punishment. Hated and shunned, she was forced to live alone in these shadows and feed on wild beasts..."

Now Kordelia spoke: "Until Tolrus accidentally stumbled on me while exploring these caverns. He feared me, too, at first...but when I did not harm him, and told him of myself, he soon became my friend...and then my lover. My only companion."

"You see why I demanded you leave?" Tolsa asked Sonja. "I cannot trust anyone else to look beyond what was cruelly done to her, see her with anything but fear and loathing? People will always call her a monster and try to slay her."

Then, slowly, Sonja slid her sword back into its scabbard. "Not I. I understand now, and I swear by the red goddess that I will harm neither of you. And to prove I am sincere, I shall leave you now."

Tolrus' gaze was steely and he did not withdraw his knife. "I cannot allow you to leave now you have seen Kordelia; you may tell others."

"Wait, Tolrus," Kordelia said soothingly. "I feel we can trust her. She has an aura of honor about her...the same honor I feel in you, my love. Let her stay in peace just this one night, and go peacefully in the morning. Please?" Tolrus did not take his eyes off of Sonja, and she did not take hers off of his, her gauntleted hand ready to again whip out her blade if she had to. But then Tolrus put away his knife, and the tension left his body.

"Thank you, Tolrus," said Sonja. "And thank you too, Kordelia." Soon she slept silently near the mouth of the cave, wrapped in her cloak, as the rain continued to fall outside. With dawn's coming and the cessation of the downpour, she stepped outside into the morning air and commenced walking away. A moment later she halted and turned around, seeing Tolrus standing just outside the cave and raising his hand in farewell. Behind him, half-concealed in the shadows, was the spidery form of Kordelia. Sonja gave them both a brief wave, then continued on her way through the wild lands.