Soul Rider #01: Spirits of Flux and Anchor

by Jack L. Chalker

  Jomo paid her a high compliment, "Too bad you not know how to string. You seem sometime to be ghost of Missy Arden."

  Finally, though, all that could be done had been done. The supplies were quite promising—with the recovered material from the Arden train taken from the pocket and the subsequent recovery of the 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 Matsoir hadn'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 spot—the 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 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."

  Dar chuckled dryly. "Gates, Hell, the Seven and the Nine. Just stories. Who do we have to say they aren't? Roaring Mountain? Even his friends agree 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, either—clearly he had a 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. "Best—now. Worst—never "

  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 now—but 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?"

  Jomo was unprepared to give up Matson so easily. "I go in. Take two, maybe three slaves."

  Dar sighed and stood up. "Oh, all right, I'll go. No, not you, Cass—if Haldayne's in charge you won't last ten minutes. Me he couldn't care less about. At the most it'll take a couple of hours."

  She started to protest, and realized that part of her protest was based on her still uncertain feelings about Dar deep down. He had gone over once to Haldayne's side—would he take the chance to join up again? He had quite a present to deliver Haldayne if he did—not only her, but the whole train and detailed knowledge of its defenselessness and predicament. Finally she relented, though. If he were bad, he would eventually find a way to betray them anyway. Best to find out now. "Who will you take?"

  He walked over and examined the hay wagon and its casks. "Two should be enough, I think. It's a simple crank siphon system." He walked back and sought out Suzl and Nadya, who had not up to this point recognized him. He brought them forward and Cass greeted them warmly. "Look," she told them, "we'll try and buy your way out of this if we can, I promise. And I won't order you to do this. It might be very dangerous in there right now."

  "We'll go," Nadya told her. "It is far better than sitting here." Suzl nodded agreement, and looked up at Dar. "Might even be fun."

  They pulled out towards the edge of Persellus, Dar with the reins holding the four mules, the girls sitting on either side of him.

  "It's hard to believe that you're Dar," Suzl remarked, "although once you told us you can see it. Wow! If you'd looked this good back in Anchor Logh you'd have had every girl begging for you, even the priestesses!"

  He laughed. "It's the magic out here. Wish I had some to use! I'd give both of you long, brown hair and get nd of those purple numbers."

  The edge region of Persellus looked the same, but as they proceeded into the land proper there was a devastating alteration. While the area nearest the border was untouched, the distant skyline showed a terrible change in the now early morning light.

  Across green fields to the horizon, the land turned suddenly dark and brown, and in the distance there seemed to be dark new mountains growing up and split near their summits with cracks belching fire and smoke. Everything up ahead seemed bathed in that smoke and flame.

  Dar sighed. "Well, I guess we know who won. One thing's for sure—ain't nobody coming through that back this way any time soon."

  "It's pretty nice down in here, though. I guess I can sort of feel what it was like before," Suzl commented. "So this is a Fluxland. Even with that stuff over there, it's not as bad as I thought."

  Nadya looked up at him. "You're the boss now. At least, some of the boss."

  They turned off the road as soon as the river was visible to them. It looked reasonably clean and unsullied at this point, since it flowed towards the capital and not away from it. They had no trouble backing the wagon down near the bank, uncoiling the siphons, and quickly filling all the casks. After, Suzl and Nadya just wanted to lie in the grass for a bit, luxuriating in the feel and smell of something real for a change. Dar came and relaxed beside them.

  As he stretched out, relaxing for a moment for the first time in quite a while, the two girls snuggled up close to him. Their intent, and movements, were pretty obvious, and he felt for them. For the first time, and for this little time, they were free, unwatched, unchained or roped, in a setting that was peaceful and nearly idyllic after all that they'd experienced. He liked the situation, and he liked and sympathized with them which made it all the better. He thought briefly of Lani, and found it not painful but really more
, well, nostalgic. He'd seen that group of Lani look-alikes back at the train and found that they no longer affected him much at all. That was the past, and all the terrors that had happened to him were because he had refused to let go of the past but chased it instead. No more. The future was unknown and probably bad, but living in the present was more than acceptable.

  He felt himself getting turned on, and it was an odd sensation, both physically and emotionally. He very much wanted to get inside these two, but, almost at the same time, he wanted them in him. He understood what it was, and sighed. His head wanted what it always had, while his working part was sending the opposite messages. The two didn't cancel out, they coexisted, making the tension inside almost unbearable. When Suzl's hand headed for the obvious place, he suddenly forced himself. "No!"

  They both stopped. "Why not?" Suzl asked. "Who will ever know? Or are you still hung up with—"

  "Lani? No, that's gone."

  "It's Cass, isn't it?" Nadya guessed.

  He chuckled— "No, not that, either. You remember what I said about magic? Well, I got rewarded with this body for doing the right thing, but I also got punished for doing the wrong ones. Go ahead, reach in and grab what you can Find."

  Curious and a little fearful, Suzl did, and when she hit the area she felt around, disbelieving. "Oh, by the Heavens!" she breathed, and Nadya looked puzzled. Now it was Nadya's turn. She gasped and exclaimed, "He's a girl!"

  "That part of me is, yeah. The rest is what you see." In a way he was glad it was out in the open, particularly with them. He knew he'd faced this for a long, long time-

  Suzl thought a moment and chuckled. "Dar— were you a virgin? I mean, did you ever get the chance…?"

  He grinned. "No, I wasn't a virgin. I had a couple of times early with some older women, and Lani and me, we figured it wouldn't matter. In fact, them older women taught me a whole lot of stuff I'd never have thought of otherwise."

  "Show me," Suzl said.

  "Huh?"

  "Show me."

  "But I can't—"

  Both girls laughed. "You'd be surprised. We never did it with a guy, because we just knew we'd wind up pregnant, but we still had the urges. So after we'd see a couple of boys we really wanted, and couldn't have, we'd sneak off and sort of, well, pretend on each other."

  And, while volcanos belched in the distance as a land was being torn asunder, they showed him, and he showed them, and what he did to them they did to him. And it felt real good and lasted quite a while.

  They were still at it—it seemed impossible to stop—when, during a silent period, Dar's hearing picked up a distant sound coming closer. He froze, then rolled over and hurriedly got dressed again. "Wagon coming!" he warned them. "We better move it!"

  "Let 'em come," Suzl said dreamily. "It can only get worse than this, it can't get any better."

  Dar, however, had experienced far too much to take such an attitude. In fact, his interlude with the two girls had the curious effect of energizing him, and his mind was clearer and more at peace with itself than he could ever remember. Still, Suzl was right about one thing—any wagon close enough to be heard couldn't be outrun at this stage. He went to the wagon and got the rifle, which had a clip in it. He still couldn't hit the broad side of a barn, but with its spray control, he was assured, if he just aimed in the general direction and pulled the trigger anything within range would get struck by at least one of the sixty small but powerful bullets it would spew in less than a second and a half.

  The wagon approached, behind a sweaty team of horses being driven hard. It was of the canvas covered type, similar to the one they were using, and looked fairly empty from the way it rocked. The lone driver looked over, spotted them, and with some difficulty slowed his four horse team and pulled off to the side of the road, a weapon in one hand and the reins in the other.

  "What the hell are you all doing here?" Matson wanted to know. Then he spotted the water casks and understood. "All right—you get all my property back right now. Let's move! That mess back there is expanding and I've barely been able to keep ahead of it."

  There was a cry of joy from the duggers at Matson's arrival, and several fired shots of celebration in the air. Cass was overjoyed as well. not only by Matson's sudden arrival but also by the return of Dar and the two girls— Matson, however, was having none of it, and quickly snapped orders to get the train in line and prepare to move out. To Cass's attempt to welcome him he Just snapped, "Why are you just standing around? You're working for me, now! And where the hell are my cigars?"

  It wasn't until the train was formed and well on its way, with Kolada given the string lead and dispatched ahead, that Matson relaxed at all and became approachable. Cass dropped back from her point opposite Jomo at the head of the mule train until she, on her black purchased horse, rode parallel with Matson. He acknowledged her with a nod and said, "Jomo tells me you did the whole defensive setup and even thought about the water. That right?"

  She nodded. "I didn't know if you were coming back or not, but I had to act like you weren't."

  "It was good thinking. I got out of there barely one step ahead of the new matrix and had to outrun it for four solid hours. If I'd stayed overnight like I originally intended I wouldn't be here now. Something just told me that Haldayne couldn't resist a stab at you, and that would flush him out, force him into a revolt."

  "I hear from Dar that he won."

  "Pretty sure he did, anyway. Bubbling, boiling, smoking—that place is turning into a real old-time view of Hell. Too bad, although it's got to be livelier than it was under the old bag."

  She really couldn't argue with the sentiment, although, unlike him, she also couldn't forget the poor people whose lives, if not snuffed out, would be radically and permanently changed—and certainly not for the better.

  "I brought some trade goods with me," she told him. "Four more girls and four good horses." At his raised eyebrows she told him the story of the encounter the night before that had saved her but precipitated the destruction of Persellus as they had known it.

  "Fair enough," he responded. "They'll help make up for some of the ones Arden lost in the attack."

  "Not so fast' They're not gifts, you know."

  He assumed his stoic pose, trying hard to suppress a smile and not quite succeeding. "All right. What do you think they're worth?"

  "Come on!" she chided. "You know that I'm ignorant enough of the way the system works out here that you'll skin me in the deal no matter what. I deserve at least a little consideration."

  "Why? We're even as far as I'm concerned. More than even, in fact, considering that you've gone from slave to woman of property in record time."

  "That may be, but the fact is that we—Dar and I—aren't free just because of. your kind generosity. Even if you hadn't freed me before, you wouldn't want anybody with a Soul Rider in your stock. I'd be a time bomb waiting to go off with any customer, and in the end you'd regret it— And, as I understand it, most of these people are not going to stay the way they are when they get delivered. They'll be subject to the magic of the land or wizard that gets them. That makes Dar a lousy property, since he's locked in that way until a stronger wizard than the goddess comes along, untangles her spells, and writes new ones. That reduces his value a lot, I'd say, so it was no big thing to free him, either, particularly since you get nineteen more than you bargained for. And, as you pointed out not long ago, we're working—for free—for our ride and using our own supplies. So what do we owe you?"

  The smile could no longer be suppressed. "All right. Granting that, this is still business, but don't give me any more of that poor little innocent shit. I have this feeling that even without your damned Soul Rider you'd wind up running this train anyway if I looked away for a moment or didn't read every little contract clause. Now, understanding that, you tell me what you want and I'll tell you what your four slaves and four horses will buy of it."

  She thought a moment. What did she want, exactly? She had "the feelin
g she should consult with Dar, but she decided against it. Matson would just use him to rob them both blind.

  "I want freedom for as many of my friends as I can buy," she told him. "I also want some kind of stake and passage to a place where I—we—can enjoy and earn our own livings."

  He laughed. "You want a lot for four horses and four slaves! Now, the stake needed would depend on the place, wouldn't it? And I don't think you really have a particular place now, so long as you have that Soul Rider inside, anyway, and that could be for life."

  "I think I wouldn't mind being a stringer," she told him seriously.

  "I doubt it. For one thing, you're too soft-hearted. You start thinking of that cargo as people back there instead of just more trade goods, like horses and mules and hard goods, and you start bleeding for them. You couldn't help it, even though none of 'em can ever go back to Anchor and they'd all go nuts or die quickly in the Flux without a wizard looking over 'em. Anyway, it's a closed guild. If you aren't born a stringer, you can't be one. And if you tried to set up in competition, other stringers would get together and do you in. Part of the code, and good business. And we don't have partners, just employees. Still, I agree that you're doomed to wander. Want a job with a stringer train, then?"

  She grinned. "That might be the next best thing. But I wouldn't want a job where I had to stay out of the Fluxlands and Anchors with the mules and wagons, or where I just stayed a few hours."

  "That's not a problem," he responded, understanding that they were in fact negotiating. "Most duggers don't go into Fluxlands because they don't want to or they're afraid they might get kidnapped or used by the powers that be. Some of 'em are just sensitive about their looks and don't feel comfortable outside the void. As for Anchors, I've had a problem the last couple of years because I didn't have any total humans to help me with the packs going in. Had to depend on the locals, and they charge. The average layover is three days, and would have been back there if things didn't feel funny and if I didn't have this big human cargo to deliver down the line, eating me broke the longer I have that many on my hands."