01. Spirits of Flux and Anchor (23 page)

"Lani? No, that's gone."

"It's Cass, isn't it?" Nadya guessed.

He chuckled- "No, not that, either. You remem- ber what I said about magic? Well, I got rewarded with this body for doing the right thing, but I also got punished for doing the wrong ones. Go ahead, reach in and grab what you can Find."

Curious and a little fearful, Suzl did, and when she hit the area she felt around, disbelieving. "Oh, by the Heavens!" she breathed, and Nadya looked puzzled. Now it was Nadya's turn. She gasped and exclaimed, "He's a girl!"

"That part of me is, yeah. The rest is what you see." In a way he was glad it was out in the open, particularly with them. He knew he'd faced this for a long, long time-

Suzl thought a moment and chuckled. "Dar --  were you a virgin? I mean, did you ever get the chance...?"

He grinned. "No, I wasn't a virgin. I had a cou- ple of times early with some older women, and Lani and me, we figured it wouldn't matter. In

182 Jack L. Chalker

fact, them older women taught me a whole lot of stuff I'd never have thought of otherwise."

"Show me," Suzl said.

"Huh?"

"Show me."

"But I can't -- "

Both girls laughed. "You'd be surprised. We never did it with a guy, because we just knew we'd wind up pregnant, but we still had the urges. So after we'd see a couple of boys we really wanted, and couldn't have, we'd sneak off and sort of, well, pretend on each other."

And, while volcanos belched in the distance as a land was being torn asunder, they showed him, and he showed them, and what he did to them they did to him. And it felt real good and lasted quite a while.

They were still at it -- it seemed impossible to stop -- when, during a silent period, Dar's hearing picked up a distant sound coming closer. He froze, then rolled over and hurriedly got dressed again. "Wagon coming!" he warned them. "We better move it!"

"Let 'em come," Suzl said dreamily. "It can only get worse than this, it can't get any better."

Dar, however, had experienced far too much to take such an attitude. In fact, his interlude with the two girls had the curious effect of energizing him, and his mind was clearer and more at peace with itself than he could ever remember. Still, Suzl was right about one thing -- any wagon close enough to be heard couldn't be outrun at this stage. He went to the wagon and got the rifle, which had a clip in it. He still couldn't hit the broad side of a barn, but with its spray control, he was assured, if he just aimed in the general direc- tion and pulled the trigger anything within range would get struck by at least one of the sixty small

SOUL RIDER: SPIRITS OF FLUX AND ANCHOR 183

but powerful bullets it would spew in less than a second and a half.

The wagon approached, behind a sweaty team of horses being driven hard. It was of the canvas covered type, similar to the one they were using, and looked fairly empty from the way it rocked. The lone driver looked over, spotted them, and with some difficulty slowed his four horse team and pulled off to the side of the road, a weapon in one hand and the reins in the other.

"What the hell are you all doing here7" Matson wanted to know. Then he spotted the water casks and understood. "All right -- you get all my prop- erty back right now. Let's move! That mess back there is expanding and I've barely been able to keep ahead of it."

There was a cry of joy from the duggers at Matson's arrival, and several fired shots of celebra- tion in the air. Cass was overjoyed as well. not only by Matson's sudden arrival but also by the return of Dar and the two girls- Matson, however, was having none of it, and quickly snapped orders to get the train in line and prepare to move out. To Cass's attempt to welcome him he Just snapped, "Why are you just standing around? You're work- ing for me, now! And where the hell are my cigars?"

It wasn't until the train was formed and well on its way, with Kolada given the string lead and dispatched ahead, that Matson relaxed at all and became approachable. Cass dropped back from her point opposite Jomo at the head of the mule train until she, on her black purchased horse, rode paral- lel with Matson. He acknowledged her with a nod and said, "Jomo tells me you did the whole defen- sive setup and even thought about the water. That right?"

She nodded. "I didn't know if you were coming back or not, but I had to act like you weren't."

184 Jack L. Chalker

"It was good thinking. I got out of there barely one step ahead of the new matrix and had to out- run it for four solid hours. If I'd stayed overnight like I originally intended I wouldn't be here now. Something just told me that Haldayne couldn't resist a stab at you, and that would flush him out, force him into a revolt."

"I hear from Dar that he won."

"Pretty sure he did, anyway. Bubbling, boiling, smoking -- that place is turning into a real old-time view of Hell. Too bad, although it's got to be live- lier than it was under the old bag."

She really couldn't argue with the sentiment, although, unlike him, she also couldn't forget jthe poor people whose lives, if not snuffed out, would be radically and permanently changed -- and cer- tainly not for the better.

"I brought some trade goods with me," she told him. "Four more girls and four good horses." At his raised eyebrows she told him the story of the encounter the night before that had saved her but precipitated the destruction of Persellus as .they had known it.

"Fair enough," he responded. "They'll help make up for some of the ones Arden lost in the attack."

"Not so fast' They're not gifts, you know."

He assumed his stoic pose, trying hard to sup- press a smile and not quite succeeding. "All right. What do you think they're worth?"

"Come on!" she chided. "You know that I'm ignorant enough of the way the system works out here that you'll skin me in the deal no matter what. I deserve at least a little consideration."

"Why? We're even as far as I'm concerned. More than even, in fact, considering that you've gone from slave to woman of property in record time."

"That may be, but the fact is that we -- Dar and I -- aren't free just because of. your kind generosity. Even if you hadn't freed me before, you wouldn't

SOUL RIDER: SPIRITS OF FLUX AND ANCHOR 185

want anybody with a Soul Rider in your stock. I'd be a time bomb waiting to go off with any customer, and in the end you'd regret it- And, as I under- stand it, most of these people are not going to stay the way they are when they get delivered. They'll be subject to the magic of the land or wizard that gets them. That makes Dar a lousy property, since he's locked in that way until a stronger wizard than the goddess comes along, untangles her spells, and writes new ones. That reduces his value a lot, I'd say, so it was no big thing to free him, either, particularly since you get nineteen more than you bargained for. And, as you pointed out not long ago, we're working -- for free -- for our ride and us- ing our own supplies. So what do we owe you?"

The smile could no longer be suppressed. "All right. Granting that, this is still business, but don't give me any more of that poor little innocent shit. I have this feeling that even without your damned Soul Rider you'd wind up running this train any- way if I looked away for a moment or didn't read every little contract clause. Now, understanding that, you tell me what you want and I'll tell you what your four slaves and four horses will buy of it."

She thought a moment. What did she want, exactly? She had "the feeling she should consult with Dar, but she decided against it. Matson would just use him to rob them both blind.

"I want freedom for as many of my friends as I can buy," she told him. "I also want some kind of stake and passage to a place where I -- we -- can enjoy and earn our own livings."

He laughed. "You want a lot for four horses and four slaves! Now, the stake needed would depend on the place, wouldn't it? And I don't think you really have a particular place now, so long as you have that Soul Rider inside, anyway, and that could be for life."

186 Jack L. Chalker

"I think I wouldn't mind being a stringer," she told him seriously.

"I doubt it. For one thing, you're too soft-hearted. You start thinking of that cargo as people back there instead of just more trade goods, like horses and mules and hard goods, and you start bleeding for them. You couldn't help it, even though none of 'em can ever go back to Anchor and they'd all go nuts or die quickly in the Flux without a wizard looking over 'em. Anyway, it's a closed guUd. If you aren't bom a stringer, you can't be one. And if you tried to set up in competition, other stringers would get together and do you in. Part of the code, and good business. And we don't have partners, just employees. Still, I agree that you're doomed to wander. Want a job with a stringer train, then?"

She grinned. "That might be the next best thing. But I wouldn't want a job where I had to stay out of the Fluxlands and Anchors with the mules and wagons, or where I just stayed a few hours."

"That's not a problem," he responded, understand- ing that they were in fact negotiating. "Most duggers don't go into Fluxlands because they don't want to or they're afraid they might get kidnapped or used by the powers that be. Some of 'em are just sensitive about their looks and don't feel com- fortable outside the void. As for Anchors, I've had a problem the last couple of years because I didn't have any total humans to help me with the packs going in. Had to depend on the locals, and they charge. The average layover is three days, and would have been back there if things didn't feel funny and if I didn't have this big human cargo to de- liver down the line, eating me broke the longer I have that many on my hands."

She nodded. "Fine. So the Anchors allow only people they consider as human as they are inside, and you need humans. I'm human. I don't know whether Dar would pass their inspection, though."

SOUL RIDER: SPIRITS OF FLUX AND ANCHOR 187

"Probably. They're not as fussy so long as you look normal. They have the mental image of duggers as you know them. He, or she, or whatever it is, would have to be careful that nobody found out that secret, though. Anchorfolk are so damned scared of anything different that a mob would tear him to bits and get a medal for it. You should know that."

She nodded. "I think he'd take that risk. I as- sume we work for expenses in the various places."

"Expenses, hell! You get a salary on account. Anything you spend anyplace you get deducted. Anything left over at the end of each circuit, which is most of a year, you get credited to a stringer account. If you live long enough, don't get fired, and keep your costs down you can retire to the Fluxland of your choice someday. Or sucker some friendly wizard into making the pocket of your dreams, which is what most of 'em do."

"So there are some friendly wizards- I'd begun to wonder. Seriously, though -- how many duggers that you know of ever lived long enough to retire?"

He shrugged. "Well, none personally ..."

"Uh huh. It's a deal."

He laughed- "Impulsive, aren't you? You decided on this first thing, didn't you?"

"Well, I admit I had it in mind. I wasn't sure whether you wanted to travel with a Soul Rider, though."

"That's more serious than you think. But there are pluses with the minuses on that. Potentially you're stronger than any wizard, although it's use- ful only in defense, I hear. That's fine. What pro- tects you protects the train. Of course, you're a magnet for trouble, but out here I'm not sure I could tell the difference anyway. At least your Rider's concern is also mine now, so maybe we'll work together to get rid of that and it'll be done with you."

188 Jack L. Chalker

She looked at him with interest. "Then you're going to report this?"

"Honey, I'm going to do at least that. Haldayne's bad for business right where he is, at the intersec- tion of three good routes. He ordered an attack on, and was responsible for, a massacre of a stringer train, so nobody's safe until he's eliminated. As soon as we unload as much as we can in Globbus, not to mention alerting them there s6 the route from this side can be closed, we're heading for Pericles. Not the whole train -- I'll just have to eat expenses on what I can't unload, although I'm going to take some merchandise with me to Pericles because I think there might be a market for if."

"What's this Pericles?"

"The home of one of the oldest, battiest, most degenerate and powerful wizards on all of World --  and, incidentally, the dean of the current Nine Who Guard."

She gasped. "So there is a Nine! But -- what do you mean by 'current'?"

"Nobody lives forever, even out here. I think the old boy told me once that his grandmother was one of the originals. He's barely, he says, six hun- dred years old."

"Six hun -- oh, my! Do you think he's really that old?"

"Could be. But he's the strongest of the Nine, and therefore the only one publicly known. If he's been around that long, and known for at least a hundred years, then he must be one hell of a wiz- ard because that makes him automatically one hell of a target." He sighed. "Well, I guess that concludes our business. See if your friend wants to go along or what, but the job's open either way."

"We haven't settled anything," she responded. "I just got hired, that's all. I still want some of my friends free."