Cassie nodded, and the two walked back over to the big house. Although only a fraction taller than Cassie, Suzl towered over her old friend now because she wore sandals with platform soles and high heels. Although Cassie almost always wore shoes with very high heels, today she’d decided to go barefoot. Neither wore more than the minimum amount of jewelry and brief panties, Suzl’s a reddish fur and Cassie’s a silvery material.
The bicycle had been around World as long as anyone could remember, but supplies of them in Anchor Logh had been quite limited, because they did not manufacture them there and had to trade for them. Still, there had been a few on the farm when they had been growing up, and Cassie had been delighted to find that she could still ride one, even after all these years, and even more delighted to find that her position allowed her access to them. She often did her shopping this way, and found it a lot of fun. They were quite common now, even among children, since Anchor Bakha had not only made them but had had a very large supply warehoused when it was conquered. A good thing, too, for she found she now could manage only a basic child’s bike.
“Where’ll we go?” Suzl asked Cassie.
“I—I been thinking of going home just once. Just to see.”
Suzl looked a little nervous at a journey, even a short one, but she finally decided. “Oh, why not. Nobody’d ever give me p’mission t’go so far alone, but nobody’ll screw ’round with the Chief’s wife.”
“Adam knows. I been nagging him for weeks and he finally gave in.”
They pedaled slowly, keeping close to the curb. Suzl was right—as they cleared the center of the city they began being challenged, but none of the authorities were willing to take the risk of running in the Chief Judge’s wife on suspicion that she didn’t have permission to go wherever she was going. The two were shy, humble, deferential and all the rest, but as soon as Cassie was recognized it was almost the other way around. It wasn’t hard to verify who she was. Most girls only had their first names tattooed, but the nearly nude Cassie’s I.D. clearly read “Tilghman.”
They cleared the city and went out on the main road, now smoothly paved, and found little traffic. The wind on their bodies felt good, and they were giggling and laughing like children all the way. Suzl wore her hair short, but Cassie’s did present something of a nuisance, one that she was happy to accept. It felt good to be out. like this, with Suzl once more. It had only been in the last few weeks that Cassie realized just how much she had missed Suzl. She had changed a lot, and not only physically, but deep down the old Suzl was still there and kept coming through.
The farm was not far from town, and the landscape approaching it hadn’t changed much. The first entrance road had also been paved, and was now lined, as had been the main road, with poles and electrical wires, but it still looked like an old friend. It still ran through the pasture, and it was still, as always, littered with horse manure and the droppings of other animals.
Cassie had found herself depending more and more on Suzl’s company to alleviate the loneliness. The two had much in common, and always had, even now to being equally pregnant, but Suzl had all those duties and a number of children still at home and had little time. Cassie had, however, found herself at times fantasizing about the “new” Suzl, and it bothered her a little. It didn’t seem natural to get turned on by thoughts of those oversized breasts and that cute, shapely form.
The road curved as it came to a wooded area that had always been there, before going into the small mini-village on this side of the huge communal farm. They drifted to a stop at the curve. “Just beyond was my father’s blacksmith shop. I found out he’s now buried here, and I’d like to visit him, at least this once.”
Suzl made no objection, and they pedaled on. Where the old blacksmith’s shop had stood there was now only an overgrown clearing. The wooden building, it seemed, had burned down long ago. They found a farm supervisor, and when he learned who she was he took them to the graveyard that had been carved out of the pastureland. There were no stones, but small plates had been placed in the ground with the names. The man patiently checked until he found it, and Suzl took him off and flirted with him, allowing Cassie a little time alone.
Cassie had picked a few flowers growing wild by the side of the road, and now she placed them on the plate, then knelt on one knee and bowed her head. Tears welled up inside of her, and she started to sob. Finally, through it all. she whispered, “I’m so sorry, Daddy, In the end I just couldn’t be the son you wanted. I tried so hard.”
A tiny gust of wind came up, and seemed to whisper back to her, That’s all right. At least you tried, and that’s more than most can say.
But it was probably just imagination, or the wind.
She rejoined Suzl, and they managed to get rid of the man by thanking him profusely and apologizing that they had been allowed little time to come and go. Then both got back on their bikes and headed up the road, but Suzl again stopped near the clearing for the smithy, and Cassie looked at her, puzzled.
Suzl looked around, and saw no one nearby except a few cows. “Come on into the woods a little,” she said. “It’s time we talked.”
Wondering what was going on, she followed, walking her bike into the woods and out of sight of anyone around. There was a small clearing in the middle, and there they stopped, resting their bikes against the trees, and spread a blanket from the basket on the ground.
Suzl reclined lazily on the blanket, and Cassie just stared at her. A very subtle change seemed to come over her old friend, something not physical but something sensed. Finally Suzl closed her eyes, then opened them again. “It’s pretty hard to break out of it once you’ve done it for so long,” Suzl said. She still had the lisp and the soft, sexy voice, but there was, somehow, a slightly harder edge to it. “Don’t looked so shocked. They didn’t destroy my mind, just kinda rearranged it a little. The ‘portant parts took, but some of the old girl’s still there. I just don’t like to bring her out much is all. Went to a lotta trouble to keep her and then I find it’s better not thinkin’. Saved it ’cause I figured I’d want out, but I never did and it ain’t no good for girls t’think ’round here ’cause it’s easier not to. Better and happier, too. I figure you got the same problem.”
Cassie sighed, smiled, and sat down. “Yes, Suzl. you’re right. You come in feeling you can leave when you want, and then you kind of fall into it. It’s so seductive. No responsibilities, no cares, no worries. Like a little child again, only with all the sex. I’m also really in love. Suzl. but the difference between what Adam dreams of and what’s really here just gets to me sometimes. But—you had Coydt’s spell. How’d you manage to save anything of your old self?”
“I knew what Coydt had in mind, sort of. I couldn’t change it, I had no choice in it. But I could add on to the spell, and I did. One of the things I added was, well, a power. Turns out it don’t work with men—I’m jelly in the hands of a man—but it works on me. Suzl can’t change the way she is, the way she’ll be for the rest of her life. but she can bury the ghosts, bury the dreams. Wipe ’em out. It makes things so—easy. You don’t think, you just experience, sort of. I left things that’d bring me out, but it takes a big shock and you were it, honey.”
“I—I’m not sure I’d like that. Oh. Suzl. I’m not sure of anything anymore! All I ever wanted to do was be a vet, grow up here, and maybe get married and have kids. Daddy saw me as the son he never had, though, and I was a plain, flat-chested girl with a real deep voice and the looks of a boy anyway. So I sort of grew up a boy with a boy’s work and not a boy’s fun. I—I even ogled the girls. I—I loved to look at girls’ bodies. They were pretty. Boys, well—they were like me.”
Suzl nodded, but did not interrupt.
“So then came the Paring Rite,” Cassie continued, “and there I was sold into slavery in Flux, just like you. And it all seemed to change, somehow. Matson had strength, the kind I’d never have. And I had the Flux power, ‘though I didn’t really know it, to make him make love to me. But he never loved me, Suzl. He liked me, that’s all. I kidded myself that it was otherwise, but I really knew it wasn’t, and when I thought he was dead it all just—left. I punished myself into bein’ a saint for all those years, but I wasn’t really the head of anything. The Nine ran the Empire, and they told me where to go and what to do, and I was happy with that, but everybody from Daddy to you seemed proud of me, and it seemed like I was doing the right thing. All I wound up doing was destroying everybody close to me. Spirit, you, Anchor Logh itself, even my own Daddy, suffered or died because of me. And for nothing. The Empire was built on them buildin’ up a saint who’d stay a saint, and suddenly I wasn’t. Then I thought at least I could raise my grandson, but I really didn’t know how. I was useless, worn out, tired, and I didn’t have the guts to kill myself.”
Suzl sighed. “And that’s why you took the binding spell? To punish yourself? Get rid of the guilt?”
“I don’t know. All I knew was that I didn’t have to make any decisions, and for the first time in my entire life people were relating to me not as an ‘it’ or a ‘he’ but as a girl. I’d never really had that before in a way I couldn’t fight it, and it felt, well, good. When I stood there in Flux and looked out at the void, that’s all I could see—void.
There was nothing for me out there. Nothing. Something just sort of snapped. For the first time I had a big decision to make about myself, entirely by myself. I wanted to be somebody else, and there it was.”
“Poor Cassie,” Suzl sighed. “The first real ‘portant d’cision she ever really had to make all on her own in her whole life, and it was to never hav’ta make another one ‘cept what she’ll wear today and what she’ll cook for dinner. And it’s forever, ’cause the spell they use is Coydt’s old spell and he’s long gone, gone, gone.”
“I know, but this is where I belong, Suzl.”
“Nope. Old Merv and his ghost buddies just got it wrong, is all. Old Suzl, now, she should’a been the boss, and you should’a married her when she was a he. Some folks, guys or girls, are cut out to run things, and most are not. It’s no shame in that. Suzl unnerstands. She didn’t wanna be you, but she got turned into what you always thought you wanted to be. So now you’re it. and you’re still not sure.”
“Oh, Suzl—you’re so wise and sweet! I’ve missed you so much!”
“You know you’re stuck. Oh, I know you can shift into wife mode, but you can’t stop thinkin’ and wonderin’. Lemme tell ya what Suzl is, ’cause that’s what Cassie is—for a long, long time. We’re Fluxgirls, you’n me. We never get old and we never get sick. I once tried to work a slicer machine and cut my thumb almost off. It healed before I could ‘member it was hurt. Couple days, tops. Look—all them kids and no stretch marks!”
It was true, Cassie realized. She just hadn’t noticed it before.
“Now I’ll tell you what Suzl is. She can’t ‘member, can’t even ‘magine, havin’ a prick, or wantin’ it anyplace except inside her as much and as long as possible. I’m just smart ’nuff now to know that I’m a lot dumber than I used to be. I can’t keep two things in my head at the same time and I forget a lot. My ‘motions are stronger than my head.
I’m so passive I get chills just looking at a butter knife. Once I saw two guys fightin’ in the street and it made me sick. In a ‘mergency, I panic, scream, and freeze. The idea we’re out here alone kinda scares me silly. I can’t do nothin’ without beggin’ p’mission. I can cook, sew some, and scrub and clean a place like crazy. They keep tryin’ to show me how to change a light bulb and I can’t do it. Animals bigger’n a pussycat scare me. I don’t even unnerstand what readin’ and writin’s ’bout, and I don’t really wanna. I like bein’ pregnant and tendin’ babies. I need men to have sex with me and tell me what to do, but I still think girls are the most perfect things nature ever invented. My body’s all I got, and I love it; I want to feel good. I’m selfish. I got no interest in whatever men do when they’re not home. It jus’ goes in one ear and out the other and I smile and say, ‘Yes, dear.’ I’m more a pet than a person, but I can’t handle it any other way. And I’m gonna be that way. prob’ly, long after the Brotherhood is gone. And you ‘n me are two of a kind. What you see on the outside is just ‘zackly what we are. Ain’t nothin’ more inside. You jus’ ain’t lived it long ’nuff yet to know. You’re a perfect body and nothin’ more, and you can’t never be nothin’ more.”
Cassie sighed. “I guess you’re right.” She was seeing herself after twenty years of this, and it unnerved her a bit. “When you said you had ten kids I had to count on my fingers to see how many that was. And I had to take that guy’s word for it that it was my Daddy’s grave. I believed him, too, ‘tho it don’t make much difference, I guess.”
“On the outside we’re sweet sixteens, but on the inside we’re five years old. It’s hard for me to keep this talk goin’ now. The longer you are this way the more you wanna be this way. This ain’t no spell anymore, it’s me—an’ I like it.”
“Suzl—why are you telling me this?”
” ‘Cause Suzl’s got the power, like I told you. Not just over herself. It’s hard to ‘member, but I think it was to give me some power over men. Didn’t work. Don’t work on men. Don’t work good on nobody, less’n they want it. But you got hang-ups. All that guilt. Don’t even know why you don’t wear heels ’round Suzl.”
She did know, but she couldn’t act on it. “It’s because I love you, Suzl. I always loved and depended on you. I missed you so much! Not the kind of love I have for Adam, more personal. Different—but real.”
Suzl sat up and lifted up her huge breasts. “You want these? Take ’em. Want the longest, sexiest, strongest tongue ever inside you? I wanna do it, but I can’t ‘less you tell me. Take any or all of me. I can’t resist and don’t wanna.”
Cassie didn’t know how to respond.
“Look, Cassie, you got to accept what you are and be what you are. Maybe you ain’t what y’thought y’were gonna be, but it’s what y’are that matters. I’m slippin’ back now; I really can’t hold on no longer. So come to Suzl. Suzl’s got the power to make it easy.”
Cassie moved over next to Suzl, and Suzl moved around and started massaging her back. It felt wonderful.
“Let go, Cassie. Trust Suzl to make it all right,” Suzl whispered in her ear.
And she was right, Cassie realized. There was no going back; there was only being the best at what she now was. “I trust you, Suzl,” she responded sincerely.
Suzl’s eyes closed, and she continued the massage, but now something, some energy, seemed to flow from her hands and into Cassie’s body. It was electric; it aroused every area of her body. She lost herself in the glow of the feeling, and that feeling replaced all else. There was no thought, just sensuality, yet she was awake, and her defenses did not activate.
“There’s only now, there’s no then,” Suzl crooned as she rubbed. “Look at yourself. See yourself.”
Suddenly she did see herself, in her mind’s eye, or in Suzl’s.
“See Cassie. That’s Cassie, that’s all Cassie is, or ever was, or ever will be. Outside is inside, inside is outside. Cassie was always this way, Cassie will always be this way, and Cassie likes it. Thinkin’ is for others, not for Cassie. Cassie’s built to please, to give pleasure, and for nothin’ else. It’s ’nuff, it’s all she wants, all she ever was or ever will be. No holdin’ back. Cassie’s not brains, Cassie’s feelin’. Feelin’ good’s the only thing in her life. That what makes her feel good is good, that which don’t is bad. You was born the day you was claimed, there was nothin’ before. Lookin’ good is feelin’ good. Nothin’ on the inside that ain’t on the outside. No worries, no problems, no past, only now. Dreams of pleasure, life of pleasure, no worries, no thinking, jus’ let it flow and be what you feel.”
She kept crooning and rubbing and it all flowed in. A tremendous peace filled her, and she felt wonderful and content. Pleasure and service were all there was, and it was enough. The massage ended now, and she lay back on the blanket and let Suzl do wonderful things to her charged body. It went on and on and there was no passage of time.
Finally they lay there, side by side, exhausted, holding hands. The orgasms faded, but their glow remained. She opened her eyes and turned to stare at Suzl, beautiful Suzl, wonderful Suzl, her oldest and dearest friend and lover. Suzl looked at her and smiled, and then up at the sky through the trees. The sky was darkening rapidly. Suzl jumped up.
“Hey! We gotta go! It’ll be dark soon! I got kids to fetch!”
Cassie was jolted into action. They quickly packed up, munched some of the uneaten food, and got on their bikes. They went back out to the farm road and sped up to the main highway, then right towards the city, their only thought to get back as quickly as possible. They had duties and responsibilities, and that was the only thing in their minds.
* * *
Suzl hurried into her house. She could hear some of the kids playing, but she knew the girls who were on babysitting today wouldn’t leave them until she returned.
Her husband was home, and she hugged and kissed him and apologized for looking so bad.
“Oh, that’s all right,” he soothed, and petted her hair. “How did it go?”
“Oh, Cassie was so unhappy, my darling. Suzl made her happy. Suzl gave her peace.”
“And the rest?”
“Cassie loves me, and I always loved Cassie. She’d do most anything for me.”
“That’s good. That’s really good.” It had taken him years to discover some of Suzl’s peculiar talents, but he’d made good use of them. It was about time his wife got out of all that miserable work for others, and it was about time he achieved a social rank to equal his military one.
7
AN INFORMAL DINNER
The single chime awoke Cassie from an erotic dream. She almost always had erotic dreams, usually involving her stretched out and helpless on a bed while hordes of godlike men and girls with enormous sexual equipment ravished her constantly.
She sat up, yawned, and stretched, then looked over on the other side and was surprised to see that Adam wasn’t there. It puzzled her for a moment, and then she remembered he’d told her he had some early meetings and that she didn’t have to awaken for him. She liked to wake up and wait on him, get him and his things ready, but he knew best.
She did know she had a lot of work to do today, because tonight Adam was having an informal working dinner, whatever that was. It meant that the house had to be absolutely spotless and the dinner perfectly prepared, and that meant a lot of work.
She went down the hall, went to the bathroom—she was doing that a lot lately—then showered. She dried herself off and, as always, looked at herself in the full-length mirror.
Unlike a lot of the girls, her body had adjusted as the baby had grown inside her. She ate a lot more, including some funny things that tasted good now but didn’t sound right together, but she still felt well. Although only into her eighth month, her tummy bulged, because she was so tiny and the baby was so big, she guessed. Still, she seemed to find a lot of extra energy when most girls said they were tired, and she still looked real sexy, and her balance was fine. She liked the fact that her breasts had swelled, and the nipples were so sensitive that almost anything brushing against them gave her a chill. That was why, even though some fashions were now permitted top to bottom, she was going to stick to the old wardrobe.
She felt normal, right, and happy. She was vaguely aware that once she had been miserable and unhappy, although she couldn’t remember why and didn’t want to. but that only made things all the more perfect now. She wouldn’t change a thing.
She went through her early morning routine pretty much without thinking, usually just humming or whistling some little tune she’d heard someplace and doing what had to be done. Girls didn’t have to think. That’s one reason she was glad she was a girl and not a man. Girls got to dress up and look pretty and sexy and make out and make babies and all the good stuff. She sometimes felt sorry for the men. They had to work all day and worry about all sorts of things and have no fun at all. The only fun they got was out of one part of their body and if they jerked off they made a mess.
Suzl arrived in time for breakfast in the kitchen, taking off a full-length fur coat and revealing that she was wearing nothing under it but fur-lined soft boots. Cassie had on some cute little slippers to warm her cold feet, but otherwise was similarly undressed. It was chilly outside, but there wasn’t much in the wardrobe for anybody with their tummies. Later on, before the company came, they’d have to dress, but it hardly seemed worth it now. They tried to hug and bumped their swollen bellies and laughed and giggled and went in to breakfast.
“Ready for t’night?” Suzl asked her.
“Is the girl kiddin’? The whole place needs a clean and scrub, and the dinner must be cooked.” It was the sole and only important thing in her life or mind, then or that day.
They did the dishes, and shortly were at work. The rest of the staff arrived one by one from various routine duties and pitched in, and later on two of Suzl’s daughters arrived: Tandy, who was seven or eight—Suzl couldn’t remember— and Christy, who was ten or so and was approaching the age of maturity. Already she had incipient breasts and was wearing heels and jewelry and makeup, and the younger one, imitating big sister and Mommie, had at least given it an honest try.
The girls all joyfully scrubbed and cleaned and polished and giggled and played silly games as they worked, Cassie and Suzl right along with the rest of them, and when they were through the place was absolutely spotless, and they surveyed and inspected their work with pride.
As was tradition, another small group composed of the wives of the evening’s guests cooked and prepared the food, and set the tables. Many by now were accomplished chefs, although they couldn’t read a recipe.
Satisfied, and with the hour growing late, the staff took over the final preparation as the wives all scurried back home to shower and make up and dress. Cassie went upstairs and pulled out the silver mesh garment she’d been married in. After showering and making up all over again, she put it on, covered herself in her most lavish jewelry— even adding a tiara that Adam had given her not long before—and found some silvery sandals with eight centimeter heels, some nice perfume, and, as an afterthought, some extra-long lashes. She studied herself in the mirror, and decided that she was stunningly gorgeous. She even liked the way her usually firm breasts rocked as she walked and sagged just a bit. It was sexy.
Adam came home to clean up and change, and when he saw her he couldn’t help but smile and whistle. “Darling, you are the most stunning creature on God’s World.”
A shiver of joy went through her and she almost squealed in delight. He hugged and kissed her, then told her to go down and check that the dinner was coming along and to stand by to greet the guests.
They began arriving before Adam was down, and she received them and directed the men to the smoking lounge and the girls to the sitting room. Adam didn’t smoke and drank only a little wine and then only on occasions like this, but he allowed smoking in the lounge for those who had to. Girls, of course, did not smoke, although Cassie and Suzl found they both fantasized occasionally about smoking gigantic cigars.
Cassie’s head girl, Mina, who was sixteen and waiting for her father’s permission to marry, came to them separately and announced that dinner was served. Mina was wearing the newest allowed style, having proven quite a seamstress, and looked radiantly beautiful. Cassie would be sorry to lose her, but she knew that the girl had to follow the destiny of all girls. Apparently the only problem was that the big shot who wanted her had three other wives, and that bothered Mina’s monogamous father a little.
The dinner went quite well, served by the staff. All eight of the other Judges were there, with their wives—or, in a few cases, head wife—and also present were eight others, of whom Cassie knew only three, and one only because he was something of a household name. She knew Suzl’s Colonel Weiz, of course, looking very handsome in his full-dress uniform, and she knew Onregon Sligh, the chief of Research and Development, the man who made the electric hair dryer possible. He was a fat, gruff, middle-aged, swarthy man with a thick head of wooly snow-white hair and a deep, gravelly voice. And it was impossible to avoid looking at General Gunderson Champion, New Eden’s Chief of Staff. Pure blond and with deep blue eyes, the exceedingly handsome general looked and sounded the image of a god come to life and was the subject of many wives’ fantasies. They all kept looking dreamily at him and sighing. The general, of course, hardly noticed; he was used to it.
Conversation, of course, was limited to compliments and general niceties and banalities, but Cassie could see how proud Suzl was that her husband was here in such company. There were a few toasts, mostly to the girls, and then Adam Tilghman rose and all the others did likewise.
“Ladies, you will excuse us,” he said in a businesslike tone. “Colonel Weiz, I’d like to talk to you privately before we convene the meeting. The rest of you gentlemen can take your after-dinner drinks in the lounge, and I’ll be with you very shortly.”
Weiz looked surprised and Suzl shrugged when he looked questioningly at her, but he left and followed the Chief Judge into the study. The wives, of course, assisted in the clean-up. Although most of the men at the table had let themselves age into a look of mature authority, all were high-ranked enough to either have Flux wives or wives made young again in Flux. Not a single one looked or acted much older than sixteen-year-old Mina.
Suzl, however, was plainly a little nervous. “Do you know what this is all ’bout?” she asked Cassie anxiously.
Cassie shrugged. “Nope. That’s men-talk. I don’t ask or even want to know his business, and you know I wouldn’t understand it if he did tell me.”
In the study, Weiz was equally nervous. An audience with the Chief Judge was quite rare, and usually unpleasant, and Tilghman, up close, was as tough and hard-looking as from a distance.
“Have a seat. Colonel. I’ve been meaning to talk to you for some time, but I’ve been quite busy with this thing, you know.”
Weiz tried to hide his nervousness. A mere colonel in the company of the entire Directorate, the Chiefs of Staff, and Sligh was already enough to swell him, and he could only fear that a blow was inevitable.
“Do you know why you’re here?” Tilghman asked him.
“No, sir.”
“I owe you something of a debt regarding my wife.”
He felt suddenly chilled. “Your wife, sir?”
“Yes. Oh, don’t bother to hide it. I know you’ve got a wife with many talents and an absolute passion for furthering her husband’s career.”
He felt like crawling in a hole but said nothing.
“This may sound crazy. Colonel, but I’m in love with my wife. She had, as you know, the kind of past that would destroy anybody, man or woman, and most of it was unhappy. I could see that we could never get it all out, that it would keep coming back, and I had a constant fear of it. I am, after all, responsible in a way for the death of her father. Once your wife worked her little trick, all that conflict inside her just seemed to die out. Somehow you hit the right balance point, and she’s happy and at peace. Not as bright as I might like, but I realized that any more mental ability than what she has would bring back the pain and guilt and memories. We all have to make compromises in this life, I guess. Still, I would have liked to have been informed before anything was done rather than find out about it afterward.”
Weiz didn’t know whether to be pleased or scared, and was a little of both. “They were friends—before, long ago,” he explained, although he knew Tilghman knew that. “It won’t work unless somebody wants it, and then only to the degree that they want it, so we weren’t pulling anything, sir.”
“My ass you weren’t! Can it be broken?”
He shrugged. “If she wants it broken, she can. My wife, who knows her better than anyone else, says she wants it just the way it is. If she clings to it. nothing can break it.”
“That’s all I wanted to know. Colonel, you’ve never gotten any further because you’ve never had a combat command. You were one of the originals, and your conditioning techniques are sheer genius, but if you’re to go any further you know you’ll need a command. Do you want one? Do you honestly think you’re up to it?”
The fact was, Weiz had avoided such a command most of his life, and was frightened of combat and its risks, but he was in no position to turn it down. “I’ll gladly take one, sir, and serve in any capacity you direct. I assume such a command is imminent?”
“What in Heaven do you think this meeting’s about? We’re going after Nantzee, Colonel. We must have it. We need the people, too, particularly those with industrial skills and experience, so it can’t be like the Bakha slaughter. It’s going to be tricky. Are you willing to have ago?”
“Yes, sir.” The idea petrified him, but to have said “no” would have meant the end of him and he knew it. Retirement—and that meant just plain growing old—with no more Flux rejuvenations. Well, the back door approach to advancement hadn’t fooled the old man, but if he could survive this and do a decent job, he knew, he might well be sitting on the Directorate one day, living the high life and embarrassing juniors.
“Very well.” Tilghman got up. “You and your lovely wife may leave now, and if you’ll be so kind as to stop by the lounge and ask Dr. Sligh to come in, with my apologies to the others? Don’t worry, Colonel. Your orders will come in a matter of days.”
He was startled. “That soon, sir?”
“I’d start packing tonight. Light.”
And, with that, he was dismissed.
* * *
Jeff returned to Pericles from the north feeling less depressed than he thought he would. Although he didn’t like the fact that she was exposed to danger, he found his mother more cheerful and alive and full of life than he’d ever seen her before. He was somewhat angry at Sondra— initially for not immediately sending Spirit home when they found each other, then for taking so long to get word back. But the two strange half-sisters seemed to belong together, and there was something in his mother’s eyes that he’d never seen before. He couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but where there had always been a childlike, innocent quality there now seemed a thoughtfulness and deliberateness that was difficult to understand and a little bit frightening. What could one such as she be plotting and planning?
Mervyn listened with interest to his account. “This is something very new,” he told the young man. “Something different is happening once more. I’m very afraid, son, that your family seems destined to fall into things that others do not. Beware your own self. I’ve seen this sort of phenomenon run in families before, when a Soul Rider was involved, although not nearly as dramatically as your line.”
That interested him. “You mean—there are others like us?”
“No, not like you. As I said, your family seems to be unique in the extent of its doings and its tremendous reach, not to mention how complex the spells. But, yes—there are many other families in which a Soul Rider is involved, all of whom have great power. Some don’t know it, because they never leave Anchor. Some wind up heads of Fluxlands. But they are all there. Rather dull, though, when compared with our lot.”
“Thanks a lot. I think we could all stand a little more dullness.”
“But it is not to be. I thought you were going to stay with the train up there for a while and see some of the adventurous north.”
“Too chilly. Besides, it was different with just me and Sondra. Now I find out she’s my aunt, for heaven’s sake, and she’s taken my mother in tow; I’d just get in the way.”
“Uh huh. Poor boy crushed by romantic fantasy. I thought so. So now what will you do?”