It was well into night when they passed through the small farming village, and they were grateful for the paved road as the stars gave very little light. They stopped to rest the horses, though, in a grass field near a small creek, and while just sitting there, silently, they heard sounds from the direction they’d just come, the sounds of several horses riding steadily towards them.
Cass frowned. “This is too dead a place to have that kind of traffic.”
Dar nodded. “Maybe it’s Matson with some others.”
“I doubt it. He said he had just a little business and he said nothing about horses or passengers.”
She thought a minute. “Get the horses and let’s Jack L. Chalker
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beep very quiet and still off the road here. We can’t outrun them, but they don’t have to see us, either.”
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He nodded and did as instructed. There was nothing particular to hide behind, but it was a very dark night and they couldn’t make out the road from where they were, which was down in a slight indentation made by the creek. A small wooden bridge over the creek was not far.
The riders reached the area but did not hesitate, and they could hear the hollow sounds of hooves hitting the wood, echoing hollowly across the landscape, and then they were gone.
Dar breathed. “Could you make out anything about them?”
“Not a thing. Just a blur. There were at least four of them, though.” She sighed. “I wish we knew more about weapons and had some around.”
“If they reach the train and we’re not there, they’ll be back,” Dar pointed out.
“Maybe. But they’ll have to have some excuse when they get to the train, and that should bog them down. No, I think they’ll get close to the train, then lay ambush for us just up from it. It would make sense, and if any of them’s a wizard they won’t attract the duggers, either.”
“We could stay here until daylight. That might make it a little easier. There may be people around, and Matson’ll be on his way back.”
She considered it. “I don’t think it’ll work. For one thing, down this far there weren’t many people.
I don’t remember any, do you? And they’re not going to stay all night. When we don’t show after a while they’re going to come back slow and sneaky.”
“Well, what then? If we get off the road we’re lost good and proper and you know it.”
“It’s mostly unfenced this far along, and I guess it’s not more than another seven or eight kilometers to the border and the train. The river’s over SOUL RIDER: SPIRITS OF FLUX AND ANCHOR 169
there, maybe a few hundred meters. Let’s follow it down. It’s going pretty much the same place but it’s less likely to be covered, particularly by only four people.”
Having no other suggestion, Dar agreed-They followed the creek down to the river, then nervously waded the small creek just up from its joining with the larger body of water. It was fairly deep, but not deep enough to be a problem to two riders used to horses.
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certainly too deep to cross. Fortunately, this far down there were few tributaries to worry about, and each one seemed to be shallower than the one before, telling them they were getting close to the border. They thought they were going to make it easily when the river suddenly curved away into the dark hills after making a bend bringing them close enough to actually make out the road.
They stopped to consider what to do next, and there was an ominous rumbling from off to their right. Dar looked over in that direction and saw the hills suddenly light up as clouds rolled in impossibly fast. “Thunderstorm,” he remarked.
“Looks pretty odd for a real one,” Cass responded uneasily. “A good wizard could whip one up, though, and light up the whole landscape and us with it. I’d say we’d better make for the road and just make a run for it as fast as we can.”
“I’m with you,” Dar told her, and they kicked their horses into action. Suddenly a great roaring wall of fire rose up in front of them, spooking the horses and causing them to stop and rear. Less experienced riders would have been thrown, but both Dar and Cass managed to stay in the saddle, if barely. The wall of fire spread, until it encircled them on three sides. With the horses already near 170 Jack L. Chatker
panic, they had no choice but to take the one exit, even though they knew they were being forced into a trap.
They cleared the fire, then halted as they saw four riders on horseback ahead, spread out to receive them, guns in the hands of all four. The wall of fire vanished abruptly, and Cass cursed herself for not betting that it was an illusion and urging her horse to jump through it, but the four riders were still somehow illuminated, as were Cass and Dar.
“Just stay where you are and make no sudden moves,” one of them, a man, said. “The fire may have been a trick but the bullets are real. You two, get down slowly and walk towards us, real slow now.”
They did as instructed, until they were right in front of the four riders, all men of middle age, all bearded and wearing farm work clothes. Cass couldn’t help but remember that the goat-man, according to Montagne, had had his “minions” move the dark priest from his old pocket to the new one.
These, then, must be minions of the mad priest’s boss.
“What do we do now?” Cass asked them.
The leader chuckled. “Now, ain’t that something!
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Look at em, Eck! Two pieces of ass pretending they’s men. Neither of ‘em look like they’d be any fun a’tall. I sure don’t want ‘em. Any of you?”
There were a few sniggers from the other three, but no takers.
“Then I guess the answer to your question about what to do next is to pray,” the leader said coldly, steadying his rifle.
Yeah, surepray. Cass thought sourly, then hope soared for a moment. Yeah! Sure! Pray! She only hoped that Dar had enough sense to roll when she did, for there was no way to tip him off. And pray she did.
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“Oh, great and divine goddess, deliver us from evil!” she practically shouted, then dropped and rolled at the same time. The leader, caught off guard, fired, but neither target was there any more.
Cass had just made for the grass, but Dar had other plans. While Cass just kept praying in a low tone, he leaped up from the side and pulled one of the men off his horse. The man fell, dropping his rifle, and Dar picked it up as the others were turning to meet the threat, then dropped and rolled once more, coming up in front of them, rifle pointed at them. The fact that he had only a vague idea of how it worked or how to hit anything with it was something he knew, but they did not.
“Drop your weapons!” he commanded sharply.
The leader turned and grinned at him. “Why?”
Suddenly the whole area was brightly lit as if from a suspended floodlight, although no source was visible. Dar looked down and was startled to see that he was now pointing a stick at the men.
While a second helped the fallen comrade to his feet, a third dismounted and walked over to where Cass was still lying, now fully exposed, and gestured with his rifle. She got up, but did not stop praying until ordered to shut up.
“Who sent you?” she demanded to know.
“What’s it to you?” the leader asked. He thought a moment. “You know, boys, we could use a simple spell on ‘em to make ‘em easier to take, if you know what I mean.”
“Now you’re talking, Crow,” the one called Eck responded. “I always did hanker to screw that little milkmaid up at Corner’s. You know who I mean.”
Crow made a pass at each of them with his hand. Cass looked over and was startled to see not Dar but the vision of a very pretty and much Page 118
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smaller dark-haired girl. She knew it was just Dar, 172 Jack L. ChaVcer
and that it was all illusion, but it was still startling.
She wondered what she looked like to them.
“Get them clothes off now, and don’t be too gentle about ‘em. You won’t be needing them afterwards,” Crow said ominously.
Suddenly there was a great flash of lightning, striking very near them and spooking the gunmen’s horses a bit. Crow looked puzzled- “Now what the hell is that? I didn’t do nothin’!”
“Sinners! Blasphemers! Agents of Hell! You dare this in our domain!” came a familiar woman’s voice, angry as they had not heard it before. “For this you shall pay beyond your imaginings!”
“It’s the goddess!” one of them cried, and Crow said, “But Haldayne promised she wouldn’t”
“Haldayne!” thundered the goddess, and there was lightning all over the place. “So it is true!
Well, first we will deal with you, and then we will deal with First Minister Haldayne, formerly of Persellus, soon of Hell.” A lightning bolt came out of the sky, then split into four finger-like segments much like a ghostly hand, then struck all four riders simultaneously. All four, including the one newly remounted, toppled out of their saddles to the ground, screaming in agony as they continued to be enveloped by the electrical field. There was another flash at each of the four points, then silence.
“You were right to call upon us,” the goddess’s disembodied voice told them. “We heard you accuse Haldayne in the witness room but could not believe it. We elected to go along with you and discover the truth and now we have.”
“Those four menwhat happened to them?” Dar asked her-
”Transformed. Take them along as presents for your stringer. Use them to pay for what you need.
I must now attend to their master. Do not fear the four, for they are imprisoned in their own minds, unable to act or do anything at all. They are SOUL RIDER: SPIRITS OF FLUX AND ANCHOR 173
property, and they are yours, and they will now see what the other side is like.” And, with that, they sensed that the presence was gone.
Cass and Dar approached the four figures nervously, and were struck by what they found. Both she and he looked themselves again now, and there was very little light but enough to see close up.
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comes to punishing men,” Dar remarked.
All four men were now vacant-eyed and not very attractive but quite nude women with shaved heads and tattooed behinds. They seemed to be waiting for Cass to do something, so she finally said, “All right, you fourmount those horses and follow us.” All four got up and obeyed their instructions exactly.
“I think we’d better get moving,” she told Dar.
“There’s going to be all Hell breaking loose, literally, around this land soon and I want to be in the void when it does.”
Dar nodded, and said, bitterly, “You know, this is the first time I really regret not being a man down below.”
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“I’d love to show them exactly how it feels to be on the other end of things.”
Cass had to laugh. “Welcome to the world / live in all the time!” she said. ť
12
MATURITY
Even on the periphery of Persellus they could feel the giant struggle going on inside. In one sense, Cass, Dar, and the duggers had to fight back urges to return, at least for a small distance, to the reality of the land proper to see it for themselves, but they did not. They had their responsibilities to themselves and to the train, for one thing, and, for another, they did not want to be caught up in such a fight between two supremely powerful wizards.
When the land changed just because of a lapse in the goddess’s memory, what might be the changes when she was directing all her energies to fighting a powerful foe with neither combatant having either much thought or much regard for the people caught in the middle?
Still, there was the sound of thunder and the ground beneath them shook like all of World, had suddenly come alive and revolted. The animals grew panicky and hard to control, and Jomo and his two new assistants struggled to keep them calm.
“Maybe we’d better move completely into the void,” Cass shouted over the roar.
“Too late,” Jomo yelled back. “We not be able to get them formed. Best just hold on!”
And hold on they did, sometimes with the help of the Anchor Logh exiles, for what seemed like an 174
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eternity. Suddenly, though, very suddenly, it all stopped dead, and everyting became quiet and still, After so long fighting scared animals and being in the midst of what felt like a great storm, it seemed almost unnatural to go back to the normal lifelessness they had so taken for granted.
After sorting the mess out and settling down, Dar wiped his brow, sat down on a pack, and said, “Well, I guess somebody won. Wonder who?”
That suddenly was uppermost on all their minds.
For Cass, it was particularly unnerving, since if Haldayne was the victor he would waste no time coming after her, and perhaps the whole train, to keep the news secret as long as possible, and they were up against a wall. Without Matson, none of them could navigate the void, and even Kolada, the train’s “point” or scout, could only take them back as far as the massacre or, perhaps, to Anchor Logh. That route would be pretty easy for Haldayne’s people to trace.
The duggers were particularly distressed that Matson had been in the midst of all the pyrotechnics.
Some doubted that he was still alive at all, but others, particularly Jomo, held that he would come. Clearly, if anyone could have gotten through that stuff, Matson was the one.
No matter how any of them thought, the decision to wait was easy. There simply wasn’t anything else to do. Cass talked Jomo into finally reorganizing the train enough to move it completely into the void and beyond the reach of any ruler of Persellus. It was a difficult and time consuming procedure even though the total move was only a little more than a kilometer, but they agreed and, at least, it took their minds off anything else for a few hours.
It struck not only Dar but their erstwhile comrades how very easily Cass was taking over, giving more orders than suggestions nowand being 176 Jack L. Chalker
obeyed by the duggers. She set up the new camp in a defensive position, then posted riflemen both front and rear. This done, she ordered a general inventory of supplies and ammunition be taken, for they didn’t know how long they would be stuck there.
Jomo paid her a high compliment, “Too bad you not know how to string. You seem sometime to be ghost of Missy Arden.”
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supplies dropped by Matson before coming in, they had sufficient food for people and animals for a long stay, perhaps two to three weeks if they conserved carefully. Water, however, was in shorter supply and could pose a problem. Because it was so heavy, stringers rarely took along more water than they had to, depending on their knowledge of small stringer-created water pockets to replenish their casks. There was probably one or more of these on the Anchor Logh route, but as the trip had been short enough Matsoirhadn’t bothered to stop and so they did not know where any might be.
Still, if they didn’t stay too long, it was possible that they had enough water to return to the Anchor.
“What’s the use, though?” Cass asked Dar and Jomo. “We’d get back, maybe, but only as far as the clear spotthe Anchor apron. That’s assuming we all didn’t go nuts in the void without Matson’s powers to protect us.”
Dar thought it over. “Well, the goddess was nice enough to take our damned tattoos off, so we wouldn’t be marked. The duggers would have the train to deal with in signing on with the next stringer who came along. I think you and me could talk our way back in. I don’t look much like I did, and I bet they “don’t remember what Arden looked SOUL RIDER: SPIRITS OF FLUX AND ANCHOR 177
like all that much-You could say it was Matson who was ambushed and you, that is Arden, survived.
Or you could stay with the duggers and make your own deal with another stringer.”
She looked at him quizzically. “You want back in Anchor Logh? What on World for? What is there for you back there now?”
He grinned. “I could always join the priesthood-That would drive ‘em nuts, wouldn’t it? At least I’d have a shot at those bastards in that bar back there, and maybe at the Sister General.”
She shook her head. “No. As much as I’d love to see her get what’s coming to her, and as much as I’d realty love to see what they’d do if you did apply for the priesthood, I don’t think it’ll go.
Somehow we’ve got to warn somebody of Haldayne and the threat to the gate.”
“Yeah? Who, for instance? And where? And how?
And are we so sure that the bad guys won?”
“You want to go back there and find out? As to the who, well, if the gates to Hell are real. and Haldayne really is one of the Seven, then it follows that the Nine Who Watch must exist someplace, too.”
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he’s living in a different world. Haldayne? It’s a good gag to get those that believe in the stuff but don’t like it to come over to his side, but that’s all, You don’t need demons from Hell to be bad, but maybe the bad need the demons as much as the church does.”
That was a pretty good point, but she just wasn’t ready to change her entire life view that easily, not yet. Roaring Mountain had been sought out and transported a tremendous distance to do his dirty work here-Men with power such as Haldayne’s didn’t grow overnight, eitherclearly he had a 178 Jack L. Chalker
long history and knew much of World, and such a one, whether one of the Seven or not, would have a host of enemies, probably other powerful wizards, and few friends or allies.
“Jomo?”
“Yes, Missy?”
“How long might it be before another stringer train came this way? Best case and worst case?”
Jomo was not dumb, but his mind worked in a very literal fashion. “Bestnow. Worstnever “
She sighed- “No, I mean, what would be your best guess?”
“Mr. Matson not go back to Anchor Logh for long time. Has lot of orders for Anchor Logh. That mean train must be coming soon, yes?” He hesitated a moment. “Unless Missy Arden plan to go back.”
And that was part of the problem. With Arden gone and her plans unknown, it might have been she who would carry the wanted materials back to the Anchor. Or it might be another stringer on his or her way here nowbut how far off? Just when on his long route did Matson expect to meet this possibly imaginary train going the other way?
She sighed. “We’ll give him one day. Three meals.
Then I think we have no choice but to go back to Anchor Logh and wait for another stringer, trading what we have for what we need until then. It’s either that or sneak back into Persellus and get water from the river. Any volunteers?”