Quickly Cass stepped in, telling the story as completely as she could, while trying to spare Dar some of the most painful memories. Matson just nodded and waited for her to run out of words-Finally he said, “All right. So you say he’s changed about twenty of the girls into his playthings, and he’s got ten of the others. That’s pretty fair, considering that the new ones won’t know how to fight. I don’t like this goatheaded fellow, though. Handling him will be rough.”
Page 92
Jack L. Chalker – Spirits of Flux and AnchorUC – SR#1
“Oh, it’s been hours,” she assured him. “He was going quickly, or so he said. I’m sure he’s gone now.”
“We’ll have to take the chance,” the stringer decided. “All rightyou two stay here for now.
We’re still going to keep you covered, so don’t move until we tell you. Okay?”
136 Jack L. Chalker
“We won’t,” Cass assured them. “I just wish you’d brought a drink of water with you.”
“All in good time,” he assured her, and was off-They pretty much were able to confirm the pocket’s layout and general dimensions that Cass gave them from cautious observation, and a trooper was sent back to bring up the rest. Matson returned to the pair and lit a cigar. “Okay. You sure that cave’s got no outlet?”
“I’m sure,” Dar told him. “It doesn’t even go back very deep, but it’s kind of squared off, arranged like a one-bedroom cubicle.”
He nodded, and the rest of the troops came up.
Matson and the troopers quickly sketched in the layout and the stringer and the colonel mapped out a plan of attack. They had four submachine guns with them, and those were placed at the most likely points of breakout. Matson eyed the guns greedily, thinking of what he could have done to the cult if he’d had even one with enough ammunition. Twenty-five of the other troopers were stationed in between, so there was almost a continuous zone of fire. The others would ride right in, guns blazing, and secure positions inside as quickly as possible, with the hope of driving those inside out to the waiting firepower. If they could not within ten minutes, then the outer circle would move in with two of the machine guns taking the heights above the slabs,
Both Dar and Cass, after getting some water and a food bar each from the troopers, volunteered to go in with the party. Both Matson and the colonel were dubious. “We can’t totally trust you yet, but I would like somebody there who knows the layout, just in case,” the stringer said. “How about they come in with us in the middle of the party, undressed and unarmed as they are?”
The colonel nodded- “If they’re crazy enough to do it, why not? Take the two gunners’ horses there.”
SOUL RIDER: SPIRITS OF FLUX AND ANCHOR 137
Both Cass and Dar mounted expertly and brought their horses into the formation. Dar gave a dry chuckle.
Page 93
Jack L. Chalker – Spirits of Flux and AnchorUC – SR#1
“What’s so funny?” Cass wanted to know.
“I just realized how much easier and more comfortable it is to ride a saddle naked if you’re a girl, that’s all.”
“Maybe you’ll get to like it,” she returned, feeling better than she had since entering the Temple, despite the imminent battle. “Hell, with those mus^
cles you got bigger tits than I do by far.” And, with that, they were off.
10
PERSELLUS
The attack was simple, direct, and quite effective because it was a total surprise. Half the riders came in from one side of the pool, the other half, almost perfectly synchronized, rode in from the other way. The inhabitants of the pocket, as hoped, were first totally frozen in confusion at the noise of the attack, then pulled in several directions, not certain what to do or who to fight first.
Several of the savages, undone by this, simply stood there uncomprehending and allowed themselves to be shot down. One, up in a tree, took the first target of opportunity and pounced down on a trooper, dismounting him. Seeing it, Dar leaped from his horse as the savage raised a bone club to deliver the fatal blow and knocked the wild animallike woman away. Another trooper then shot her down.
It was over almost before it started, in a carefully planned hail of bullets. Part of the reason was that the newly transformed captives did nothing to fight back the attack. Some died simply because it was not immediately obvious that they were no threat, but the bulk of them simply huddled back in a large mass against the rocks and cowered in terror.
As soon as Cass hit the small grove of trees she 138
SOUL RIDER: SPIRITS OF FLUX AND ANCHOR 139
bounded off her horse and looked for signs of Roaring Mountain and his savage creatures, but aside from the pitiful ones huddling in the rocks there were none. The riders made two passes before they seemed to realize this as well, and they met in the center of the amphitheater and stopped, several dismounting and taking up guard positions.
A rider left to gather in the encircling troops, and soon the machine gunners had set up a defensive post on the rocky flat above the slabs from which they could hit almost anything in the pocket.
Matson, still atop his horse, reclipped his shot-Page 94
Jack L. Chalker – Spirits of Flux and AnchorUC – SR#1
gun and looked around. “Where the hell is Montagne?”
The colonel frowned. “It was too quick for him to duck out through some escape hatch. He’s got to be in the cave.” The mounted troops split up into two detachments and rode to the paths on either side of the waterfall. The captain, who was the other wizard in the troop, now satisfied that his people were in control, took the right path, while the colonel, with Matson, covered the left.
“Rory Montagne!” the stringer shouted, his deep voice struggling to be heard over the waterfall.
“It’s all over. Come on out now. In ten seconds we’re going to start pouring lead into that cave of yours, and if a shot doesn’t get you one of the ricochets will. Live or die, it makes no difference to us. Your choice.”
Suddenly great fire-breathing dragon lizards, each ten meters tall, roared out of the cave and startled the horses. As this diversion was taking place, and drawing shots, a dark figure leaped through-the waterfall and into the pool and began swimming straight for the other side. The great dragons were hard for the troopers to ignore, but the colonel wheeled around on his horse and made for the far end of the pool, Matson following.
Roaring Mountain, looking quite soaked, reached 140 Jack L. Chalker
the edge of the pool, pulled himself up quickly, then stopped, seeing the two figures in front of him. He shrugged and smiled at them. Wearing nothing but his medallion, he looked more foolish than dangerous. The dragons vanished.
“You didn’t answer Mr. Matson,” the colonel remarked calmly. “Or were those hissing illusions your answer? Would you like to take me on now?”
The priest of Hell’s smile faded and he studied the colonel intently. “Answer me this first, sir, if you will,” he said smoothly. “If I were to not take you on, what will happen to me?”
“You will be rendered unconscious, then taken to Persellus to stand trial,” the colonel told him.
“Beyond it being a fair trial by magicians of your rank I can promise nothing further.” It was clear by his tone, though, that he really hoped that the evil one would choose to fight him here and now.
The colonel’s confident manner rattled Montagne.
He was not, after all, a very powerful wizard, and quite limited in real, rather than illusory, magic.
Nor, for all his insanity, was he stupid. One did not take on a wizard who knew your own powers and limitations while you knew none of his. “To Persellus, you say? I understand it is a delightlul place, Colonel-I shall be delighted to accompany Page 95
Jack L. Chalker – Spirits of Flux and AnchorUC – SR#1
you.”
“First things first,” Matson put in. “Montagne, we go back a ways as you might remember, and I know you’re not the big man in all this. Now who the hell is the joker hiding behind the goat’s mask?”
“JokI don’t know what you mean, dear boy.
The authorities made it a bit hot, shall we say, back home when my dear little pocket was stumbled upon by a military patrol while I was away. I have scouted these obscure pockets for years, so I moved.
That’s all.”
Matson reached down on his saddle and undipped his bullwhip. The dark man saw it, frowned, SOUL RIDER: SPIRITS OF FLUX AND ANCHOR 141
then looked over at the colonel. “My dear sir, I have surrendered to you! I am under your protection and the merciful laws of Persellus.”
“We’re not in Persellus now,” Matson said coldly.
“You killed a very good friend of mine. Worse, you stole stringer property. In the void a stringer is the law in matters concerning his train. You can answer to me, and answer straight, or take on the colonel. Your choice, I don’t care which.” The bullwhip was unfurled to its full length.
“Colonel!” Montagne implored, but the colonel filled his pipe, started humming an old tune, and looked around at the scenery.
Rory Montagne sighed. “Oh, very well. Yes, I was contacted back home one day by the one you refer to, but aside from the fact that he is one of the Seven I have no more idea than you as to who or what he is. I have seen and heard him only as you describe, in deep disguise. He made this pocket, and he sent some of his minions to bring me here with all that I had. I was to build up weapons and personnel until we were strong enough to attack and secure one of the seven gates to Hell which is ‘not that far from here, that time to be in the rather distant future, I believe.”
Matson looked over at the colonel. “That true?
One of those things is around here?”
“So I’ve heard, but I’ve heard that since I was a kid and I never knew anybody who really knew if it was, or where it was. I been thirty years in and out of the void in these parts and I never ran into it, but I could have been right next to it a hundred times and never known it. You know how the void is.”
The stringer nodded. “Well, it’s no concern of mine if it’s true or not, but I do want the bastard behind all this-Montagne, you seem mighty casual about going to Persellus. Any special reason?”
Page 96
Jack L. Chalker – Spirits of Flux and AnchorUC – SR#1
142 Jack L. Chalker
The madman shrugged. “Why not? As I said, it’s supposed to be a delightful place.”
“And the place where your mystery man is?”
The colonel seemed shocked by Matson’s suggestion.
“In Persellns’? One of the Nine? Without the Goddess knowing? Impossible!”
“It would be the ideal place for such a one to hide,” Matson pointed out, “and for the very reason you just showed. All I can do is state the obvious-Whether or not you follow it up is up to you. I’m not going to be around these parts very long.”
The colonel seemed deeply disturbed by the idea, but simply said, “It will be looked into, I promise you. At least I will bring it up in my report, and higher authority can do what it wishes.”
“Fair enough,” the stranger agreed. “Now, then, Montagne, one more piece of unfinished business and I’ll let the colonel have you. You stole a lot of merchandise from a stringer. As the recovering stringer, I am entitled to it, but I don’t like damaged goods.”
Rory Montagne frowned. “The mules are in excellent shape, and what packs we rummaged through can, I’m sure, be restored in short order.”
“Them,” Matson said, pointing to the cowering goatwomen. “Put them back the way they were.”
The whip hand twitched slightly.
“Now how in hell am I supposed to remember what they looked like?” the captive retorted in a helpless tone. “They’re women!”
“Can you bring back their senses? Memory?
Personality?”
“Oh, sure. It was a quick mass job. All I did was push them back from the control centers of the brain. What’s the point unless they know exactly what’s going on but are helpless to do anything about it?”
Matson and the colonel exchanged sharp glances SOUL RIDER: SPIRITS OF FLUX AND ANCHOR 143
at that. Finally the stringer said, “Okay. It doesn’t matter to me what they used to look like anyway, so long as they’re people again. Just pick somebody in your head at random and make them all look like that, and bring back their minds. If they don’t think and talk they’re no good to me,”
Although some of the troopers were busy surveying the pocket and also repacking and readying Page 97
Jack L. Chalker – Spirits of Flux and AnchorUC – SR#1
the mules for transport, most of the others, including Cass and Dar, stood back watching the show.
The latter two were enjoying every bit of it.
Montagne sighed. “I do wish you would send someone to fetch my robe. A prisoner should be allowed some dignity.”
The colonel shrugged and gestured to a trooper, who went up, into the cave, and returned with it.
It was then carefully searched but there were no pockets or concealed compartments within it and so they gave it to him and he put it on, looking quite pleased, then looked up at the colonel. “With your permission, sir?”
They cleared a path for him and he walked towards the goatwomen, who seemed to relax and greet his coming with joy.
“He won’t try any tricks, will he?” Matson asked worriedly.
“It would take months to find out his particular frequencies and patterns by deduction, but once he starts I’ll know if he’s doing it right. You can’t alter a spell, only impose a different one. If he undoes it, it has to be all the way, or the math just won’t add up.”
The stringer nodded, understanding at least the basics as a false wizard.
Montagne was still a ham, and he still put on a nice show of mumbo-jumbo, chanting, and gestures, but finally he made a few basic gestures and the figures of the hapless women shimmered and changed.
144 Jack L. Chalker
“Bastard! I’ll kill him!” Dar screamed, and two troopers had to restrain him.
All nineteen of the surviving members of Arden’s train now looked exactly like Lani. The black magician turned, grinned, then shrugged. “Well, after all, you did leave her dead in my bed. Who else did you think I’d have in mind?” He turned to the colonel. “I’m ready to go now, sir. Take me away!”
Cass shouted at Matson, “You can’t make him go back with the train! You just can’t! It’d be like you traveling with nineteen women who looked just like Arden!”
That stung the stringer, and he softened slightly.
“All right. Colonel, can we find or make some clothes for those two and let them go in with you?
All in all, they’ve done us a pretty good service, and these will more than make up for my loss on them.”
The colonel was surprised. “You mean you’re Page 98
Jack L. Chalker – Spirits of Flux and AnchorUC – SR#1
giving them their freedom? A stringer gives something for nothing? Now I know the gates will be opened and the end of World is nigh!”
“Cut the sarcasm. The big one will have to face a hearing when you get home to judge his actions, both good and bad. I’ll leave that judgment up to your court-Cass I’m not so sure about, but she’s done me enough service to buy her way out. That’s as far as I’ll go.”
“Fair enough,” the colonel agreed. “Let’s see what we can do about some clothing for the two of them, then we’ll commandeer two of the mules there to let them ride. You’ll get them back when you reach Persellus.”
“Agreed. I need a couple of troopers to help me go back and get some packs I ditched back on the route, then we’ll be headed in. I have some business in Persellus.”
“We’ll see you there, then!” And, with that, the SOUL RIDER: SPIRITS OF FLUX AND ANCHOR 145
colonel went off to reorganize his troops, Montagne walking before him.