Dar was finally calm enough to be freed of restraint, but he turned his back on the now milling, chattering throng of Lanis and refused to look at them any more.
Matson came over to them, dismounted, and said, “Well, Cass. You heard me there, although I’ll never live the story down. Don’t disappoint me,now.”
“I just wish I could buy my friends out,” she told him honestly. “In a way I feel kind of guilty about this.”
“Well, you’re free, but you’re broke, so forget it.
However, I want to warn both of you about Persellus.
You’ve never been in a Fluxland before.”
Even Dar suddenly grew interested. “What are they like?”
“Well, each one is so different there’s no telling, but this one happens to be a pretty nice place filled with pretty nice folks, overall. The first thing you have to remember,” he said, his voice dropping to a whisper, “is that every Fluxland is the creation of a very powerful wizard, one so powerful that they’re like gods-Well, this one’s wizard thinks she is a goddess. Lives up in a high tower, but really does the part. She can hear and see everything and everyone if she wants to, and she loves to. If you pray to her, your prayers might be answered if she’s in the mood. If you say anything she doesn’t like, or question her godhood, you’ll wish you didn’t. The best way to act is to steer Page 99
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clear of even any questions about her and for your own sakes make no even slightly nasty comments.
The only way people there can get along is if they believe in her godhood, so they do. Even these troops and the colonel. Never mind what you know is true. Act in every way like she’s a real deity, because, in real life, she is one. And do not ever 146 Jack L. Chalker
accept an offer to see her, because you’ll come out of it a raving religious fanatic about her. Okay?”
They both nodded, although neither was quite sure just what it all meant.
Matson left shortly afterwards to return to his train, taking a half a dozen troopers with him and his newly acquired mules, packs, and people-That last made things a little more tolerable for Dar, anyway.
The colonel proved to be a man of many abilities.
When they came up with two basic trooper uniforms, one far too small for Dar and the smallest far too large for Cass, he made a small gesture and both fit as if they were tailored for the two. A second pass turned the water and the waterfall from clear water to a brown, foul-smelling substance that bubbled and hissed. Nobody was going to use this pocket for a refuge again, that was for sure. He did not otherwise destroy it, though, since line fully intended to send back a team of experts on |
void magic to study it for clues as to its origin ^
and originator. ^
Finally, they were ready. The clothes felt odd f after so long without any, but they had no trouble ^
riding as they had before. A third commandeered mule held the now comatose Rory Montagne, rendered so by a spell from the colonel that made it highly unlikely that the evil one would awaken before they were ready for him.
Finally everything was packed, inventoried, and they were off into the void once more, but with a difference. Cass was now a free woman, but in a
hostile and unknown place and without resources.
Dar, because of his earlier actions in the train and against Cass, was technically under arrest.
The colonel was advanced enough in the magic of Flux to find his own way in the void, although he did have to return via Matson’s train route SOUL RIDER: SPIRITS OF FLUX AND ANCHOR 147
before he could tie in to the main trail that only a few could see or sense.
It was a slow, relaxed, deliberately paced ride, but it was still far faster than any stringer train could go, even in the speedup configuration Matson had used.
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“What will you do now, Cass?” Dar wanted to know.
She shrugged. “I’m not sure. Take each thing one at a time, I guess. Maybe I’ll like this place up ahead and just settle down there. Probably not, though. If I could just find some way to earn a stake, I might like to see a little more of World now that I’m out here.”
“What we’ve seen so far isn’t very encouraging,”
Dar noted. “It’s all been pretty ugly.”
“But there must be nice places, maybe even wonderful places, too,” she replied. “I mean, these wizards have the powers of gods. They can’t all be corrupted by it, not completely. Look at the colonel and these troops here. They’re pretty nice, and as human as anybody in Anchor Logh. We’ve seen the worst the Flux has, now it’s time to see the best.”
They reached the borders of Persellus after a lengthy ride. It was not an abrupt transition, like the pocket, but a very gradual one, as the void slowly gave way to actual forms. First there was the feeling of solid ground beneath them, and the clattering of hooves on rock that seemed so odd here that it startled them. Then there were misty, indistinct shapes here and there, like landforms of one kind or another, and here and there a trace of grass or bushes. The sky lightened, until it turned increasingly transparent, although it was now an odd and unfamiliar pale blue above the fleecy white clouds, with no sign of the ever-present Mother of Universes in sight. The clear blue sky unnerved 148 Jack L. Chalker
both Dar and Cass, but they soon got used to it, particularly when they didn’t look up.
And, suddenly, they were completely in the land of Persellus. It was, even the gloomy Dar had’ to admit, a very pretty place indeed.
In effect it was a huge, wide valley with a small meandering river cutting through it. The valley itself was, perhaps, twenty or twenty-five kilometers across, and flanked by low mountains with gentle green slopes that were forested all the way to their tops.
At first there seemed little sign of people or indeed any signs of life, but after traveling a while, the road, now paved and well-maintained, took them through farms quite different from those of Anchor Logh, with broad fields of grazing cows or horses and large houses and barns of an unfamiliar design sitting back from the main road. Clearly such farms were independently managed, probably by single families. They were smaller than Anchor communes, and the buildings could not Page 101
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possibly handle a collective. Just the idea of independently owned and operated farms was as hard for them to grasp as was the blue sky and wizards who did magic,
“Actually,” a friendly trooper told them, “Persellus is slightly smaller than Anchor Logh and yet it produces a good deal more. We’re totally selfsufficient in food here.”
They marveled at this, but could not figure it out. It seemed soinefficient somehow.
They went through one small town, strictly two streets wide and a block long, that seemed to cater to the farming community, and nowhere did they see anything or anyone who looked odd, abnormal, or out of the ordinary. About the only complaint they both had was that the light was so bright and constant here that their eyes hurt.
Still, Cass liked what she saw. “It’s peaceful and SOUL RIDER: SPIRITS OF FLUX AND ANCHOR 149
pretty here,” she remarked to Dar. “And they’re farmers, too, which is what I know best. Maybe I can get me a farm job.”
/ Finally they reached the outskirts of the city
the one and only city in the Fluxland. It spread out on both sides of the river valley and up onto the hillsides themselves. Here was the governmental and transportation center of the land, along with the places where light manufacturing went on, from harnesses to farm machinery to lumber and building supplies. It was far smaller than the capital of Anchor Logh, but it was the right size to serve the place-It even had its own version of the Temple, although not right in town.
Ahead, beyond the town, they could see ita great white tower stretching up into the sky, its top hidden in clouds, its base not seeming to touch the ground. The home of the goddess of Persellus.
The houses, with their red roofs and stucco walls, seemed quite different from Anchor Logh, yet hauntingly reassuring. This place may have problems, as Matson indicated, but it was certainly no chamber of horrors.
Government House was a flat, two-story building made out of the same weathered white building material as most of the structures in the land, 6ut it was a good block long and certainly just as deep. They said their farewells to the troopers with thanks, and followed the colonel into the building to report.
The place looked like any administrative seat, except that there seemed to be equal numbers of men and women working there and that was something of a shock as well to two coming from a Page 102
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culture where only men were in government and administration. The Hearing Room, however, to which they were directed, was not what they expected at all.
It was a large room, somewhat resembling a 150 Jack L. Chalker
courtroom, but the entire far wall was taken up with a breathtaking and somehow three dimensional floor-to-ceiling portrait of a stunningly beautiful woman wearing white flowing robes, a small gold crown, and with an unnerving solid-looking halo over her head and an equally unnatural aura surrounding her body. Her face was looking down and smiling, her hands outstretched, and the more you looked at the thing the more you swore that the entire figure was somehow alive.
The colonel regarded it as such, entering, hat removed, then kneeling and bowing to the figure and remaining that way. Cass and Dar had already decided to follow the lead of the natives, so they did the same, wondering what happened next.
“Arise, my colonel,” said a deep, musical woman’s voice that seemed somehow distant and echo-like, and which filled the chamber. “All of you may stand.”
They did so, and faced the huge portrait. “Holy Divine One, to whom we owe everything, this humble servant begs you to hear his report,” said the colonel reverently, all trace of the pragmatic, tough soldier-wizard gone. Clearly this man was in the presence of his god.
“Proceed, my faithful servant.” Both of the newcomers kept looking around to find the source of the voice that seemed all around them, but it was impossible to discoverif, indeed, it was there.
Cass remembered Matson’s description of Fluxlands.
If this woman was indeed a wizard of enormous power, then she was in fact a goddessas far as her mind could control and stabilize an area of the Flux in the image she desired. And she could make all the rules, and change or disobey them, on a mere whim.
The colonel immediately launched into his report, suddenly becoming the crisp military man once more. He obviously had enjoyed the action, and its SOUL RIDER: SPIRITS OF FLUX AND ANCHOR 151
result, and couldn’t resist reliving it with relish.
Cass noticed, though, that while he told about the goatheaded giant who claimed to be one of the Seven, he did not pass on Matson’s suspicion that he was a resident of Persellus. Apparently the colonel had simply rejected it as too fantastic, for it was clear he would neither lie nor hold back from his goddess deliberately. The goddess let him talk, Page 103
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and waited until the account was complete. Then, she thanked, blessed, and dismissed the colonel, but ordered Cass and Dar to remain. The colonel kneeled again, then backed out of the room and closed the doors behind him. The two of them waited.
Finally she said, “The evil wizard must be tried and punished according to our holy laws, and the two of you will be required as witnesses. However, in light of the colonel’s account, we are inclined to dismiss the charges against you, Dar. The madness and evil you both willingly joined and aided is counterbalanced, it seems, by your later actions in unmasking and undoing that evil. However, the fact remains that you did take a life, and changed or jeopardized others, and that cannot be totally wiped clean. Therefore, we give you a choice, for some judgment must be rendered against you. First, are the facts that the colonel stated true and complete?”
Dar seemed nervous and a bit startled to be directly addressed by a disembodied voice and a painting, but he nodded. “Yes, Ma’am.”
“Is there anything you wish to add to that account before our choice of judgments is offered you?”
He thought a moment. “No, Ma’am.”
“If you please, merciful goddess,” Cass put in, trying not to stub her tongue. She was learning fast about the Flux. “May I intercede?”
“Continue.”
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“I have known him all my life. He was one of my few good friends, and I can assure you that he is a good man deep down. Any mere human could be driven mad after the sights we’d seen and the things we had done to us, and, being both fallible and human, he finally cracked under this pressure.
Even then, what he did he did out of ignorance, not an intent to aid evil, and when he was given the chance to lead evil he refused and acted for the good. He will live with the terrible torture this evil priest put him through, and its consequences, all his life. Please be merciful with him.”
“We are not unmindful of this,” the goddess responded. “Nevertheless, wrongs were done and judgment must be made. You must understand that unless these factors were present he would stand trial with the evil priest and share his fate.
Still, the fact remains that you, for instance, and the rest of your party, did not fall victim to madness. A judgment must be made that will serve to remind this poor one of his own inner failings so that, if ever he reaches that point again, he will know and do the right thing.
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“Dar, these are your choices. You may request a trial, which in your case would be presided over by the stringer Matson and would include random citizens, both military and civilian. We must warn you that such trials, when they occur, are held under rigid rules of law, and that the best you might expect is to be remanded to a permanent slave status with the appropriate alteration in your outlook to make you a perfect one. You do understand that, don’t you?”
He thought a minute, and thought of the goatwomen and savages of the pocket. “Yes, Ma’am.”
“Your other choice is to throw yourself right now on my mercy, and accept as final our decision, no matter what that might be.”
He thought a moment. “Your worship,” he said, SOUL RIDER: SPIRITS OF FLUX AND ANCHOR 153
using the form of address used for high Temple priestesses in Anchor Logh, “I’d just like to get it over with. I feel guilty as hellbeg pardon, your worshipand I’ll be mad at myself forever for being so dumb. I’ll take what you dish out here and now.”
The goddess seemed pleased. “Very well, then.
What you did, you did for love of a woman. It is a very old story among humans, and the history of the human race is full of things, both wonderful and terrible, done for that reason, and for the opposite. For the love of that woman you defected to the enemy, knowing she was there. After suffering the most terrible of torments for a man, you then killed that woman, not out of anger or selfpity or revenge, but out of mercy for her own tragic state. The fact remains, though, that had you not run from the train under fire she might not have died. You will have to live with that.”
She paused for a moment, and Dar stood motionless, frozen, staring at the eerie picture. Cass felt sorry for him, but was helpless.
“It seems to us,” the goddess continued, “that through a very strange chance, the evil one has rendered an appropriate judgment on you. We therefore, by divine spell of a sort that has never been broken by any of the gods and goddesses of World, perfect and make irrevocable your present state, as constant reminder of your own deeds and as a warning if needed to you and to others. Beyond this, no other thing will be done to you for any deeds in the past, and we declare you free and independent. We further stipulate that each of you will receive our total hospitality while you are in Persellus, for so long as you both choose to be here. Dar, you may go now and wait outside, while we talk with Cass.” It was not a request.
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He bowed his head slightly. “Ma’am, it’s only justice, I guess.” He did not feel happy, but he had 154 Jack L. Chalker
enough sense to remember and back out of the room. Cass was now alone with the goddess.
“You are troubled by our judgment?”
“It’s pretty hard on him, I think,” she admitted.
“He’s neither one thing nor the other, and he can’t be happy either way.”
“That was the idea. However, we decided to explain to you our reasoning, for h^ will need you at least for a while. Inside him bums tremendous guilt, and with it a self-hatred. We would willingly have restored him for all the reasons you gave, but to do so without also totally remaking his mind and memories would have increased that guilt and self-hatred quickly to the point where he would kill himself. The reasons for everything he did are juried deep in his mind and his experiences, much from long before he was cast out of Anchor Logh, so to remake his mind would have been to, essentially, kill him anyway. We do not do such work for people. By making of him a hermaphrodite, oddly enough, Montagne saved his life, for then he felt punished for his own failings. He, not we, consider this appropriate punishment, and so he remains, perhaps to be useful and productive in some way. He is not without courage, only selfconfidence.”
She considered it. “I don’t know much about psychology, divine one, and it seems a little mixed up to me, but I’ll take your word for it. You’re saying that only because he’s not whole can he be sane.”
“That is about it,” the goddess admitted- “Unless there is something else, you may go now.”
She thought a moment. “Except that both of us need jobs, there’s nothing, your worship.”
“You will find what you need, for you have within you a Soul Rider who guards.”
That startled her. “A what?”
“A Soul Rider. Do not fear it, for there is pre-SOUL RIDER: SPIRITS OF FLUX AND ANCHOR 155
cious little power it cannot command if need be, and it fights the forces of darkness on World. You must only be warned that it uses you in its fight, and so you can expect more danger and adventure.
Making a living will be no problem. This is enough for now. You may go.”
She wanted to ask a lot more questions, particu-Page 106
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larly about this Soul Rider, but there was no way she was going to press somebody like this, particularly not now. She gave the bow and backed out the door, closing it behind her.
11
HALDAYNE
An officious-looking woman was waiting with Dar when Cass emerged from the room. Dar looked at her and said, “Well?”