GODS OF RIVERWORLD by Philip Jose Farmer

“It certainly does,” Gull said. “This Loga you speak of, he … he must be a fallen angel.”

“You’re crazy, man,” Burton said, and he walked away.

“That man,” Star Spoon said, “will resurrect others of his faith, and we won’t be able to go into the halls without bumping into them. His kind won’t leave you alone.”

“We’ll be in Theleme. They won’t get in there.”

“No person or place is inviolable.”

Star Spoon fitted into Burton’s way of life as a well-made shoe shaped itself around a foot. The analogy was not just literary. When he took his shoes off, he did not have to pay any attention to them until he was ready to wear them again. The woman seemed content to be ignored when he was busy studying or working the Computer. She often operated it when he was doing the same. She was an excellent companion, a ready and sometimes amusing talker, and she di 1 not insist on interrupting him. She was intelligent, knew Chinese poetry, could paint well, and played the Chinese lute beautifully. She was passionate, thoroughly versed in every aspect of sex, uninhibited, and yet, when Burton did not make love to her for a week because he was engrossed in his studies, she did not seem to mind.

The only thing that Star Spoon complained about was that she could not bring her parents to this place. She had located her mother, but she was alive in The Valley. Her father could not be found.

“You would not mind if I could bring them here?” she said. “Perhaps, some day, I will be able to get them here. They could have their own apartment, and they would not bother you. I would see them only when you consented.”

“Not at all,” Burton said. “Bring your sisters and brothers, too. Your aunts and uncles and your cousins.”

He could not have stopped her if he had wanted to, but he was not going to tell her that. Why. spoil her desire to please him? She was a perfect mate for him.

When he spoke of this to Frigate, the American said, “I’m surprised that she didn’t learn to be more independent while she was in The Valley. She was raised in the Chinese culture of the eighth century, but she must have lived in many others in The Valley. Usually, The Valley frees women.”

“Not always by any means,” Burton said. “She’s had a rough life, to put it mildly. You know the sad story of her Terrestrial life. She didn’t fare any better on The River. She was raped several scores of times in The Valley, but she doesn’t seem to have suffered any deep trauma because of that.”

“She doesn’t seem to, but she’s very self-controlled.”

“Ah, yes, the inscrutable Oriental.”

“She’s very beautiful.”

“Exquisite. And I must confess that I’m flattered that she wanted me so fiercely. However … I still prefer a blonde, not-too-bright Caucasian who’s devoted to me.”

“If you find one and resurrect her, watch out for Star Spoon. There’s more fire in her than she lets on to.”

Several days after the party, Burton and Star Spoon set out to visit Frigate’s world in specially built chairs designed by Burton. These were larger than the others and were completely enclosed in a three-inch-thick irradiated plastic hemisphere. Beamers projecting from the shell could be fired fore and aft, above and below.

Star Spoon, seeing them the first time, had murmured, “Whom are you afraid of?”

“I fear nobody,” he said, “but I trust very few. There are too many strangers, unknown quantities, prowling the corridors. Also, we still don’t have any assurance that an Ethical isn’t hidden here.”

They rose in their chairs above the minarets and domes made of gold alloy and glittering with gigantic jewels, and they sped over the river and the jungle to the exit. Burton pressed a Console button, which transmitted the coded open-sesame via radio. Star Spoon’s vehicle lacked this because he had refused to give her access to the codeword. She had hesitatingly asked him why, and he had told her that he did not want to take the chance that she might be seized and the codeword forced from her.