What she said was true, as far as it went, but it wasn't because of the Ornak demon's curse. Someone had undone all that and rewoven an elegant new spell, one so fine and so carefully tuned that it was beyond even the best of Second Rank sorcerers. Without harming the child in any way, or affecting her, Charley had been carefully redesigned, reengineered from the inside. Nothing showed, but her bone structure, muscle tone. everything, had been finely tuned so that her current weight and stature was her normal condition. When not pregnant she would be exceptionally strong, unnaturally healthy, free of all the diseases and maladies that plagued all but the best magicians, able to climb, lift, run, and lots of other things without feeling any more winded than someone in peak condition. But she was also exceptionally fertile, able to bear many children, if she chose to do so, without stressing the body the way it did many women. She was under no spells or charms; a skillful weaver of the winds had changed her as surely as the inhabitants of Masalur hub had been changed, yet she was still Akhbreed. Someone, who thought Charley had learned every lesson except the most important one, had wanted her to look that way.
And that was why, in spite of the fact that a skilled sorcerer like Etanalon could in fact have granted Charley's wish, she neither did so nor suggested the possibility. There was something potentially great in Charley that everyone seemed to sense when she was being herself; Charley alone could not see it because she was too busy looking in the mirror to look within herself. Sam had been helped by mirrors; to Charley they were her curse. Why begin questioning the Judgment of the First Rank now?
"Is it realty so terrible being fat?" Etanalon asked her. "Why do you want to be thin? Not for health, surely. That is a good reason for some but not for you. Do you feet so terrible this way?"
"Yes. No. Well…. It's the way other people see you, react to you. Other women, guys. I mean, what kind of man would be interested in me looking like this? And I think other women might be worse yet. I know how I used to feel when I looked at some fat girl. Sure. I love not constantly dieting and not worrying if I want some bonbons, but it's just not me."
"And you really believe that Dorion is in love with an idealized vision of your outside, that he is not in love more with your inside? With what he sees inside you?"
"Now, maybe, he thinks so, 'cause he's been so cloistered and shy and all, but I saw the way he looked at that Kira."
"Happily married men have been looking like that at bodies like Kira's since there were women and men to look at each other," the sorceress responded. "And women like you look at bodies like Crim's in that manner as well. Or bodies like that Halagar's, never considering what's inside. But they rarely want to settle down with one like that. They just look, like one appreciates fine works of art or the beauties of nature."
"You realty think I should give it a try with him, then?"
"It's your decision, and you've known him longer and more intimately than I. It you are that unsure, get Boday to mix you up a love potion, but I don't think you'd want to do that to anyone else, and I don't think you'd be happy that way. But, if I were you, I might give it a shot. You could do worse, with a nearly instant newborn around, you are very quickly going to find his measure and his commitment.
"II'll have to think about it, that's all."
"That's all one can ask another to do in these matters, dear," Etanalon replied with a smile.
"I can't believe it! They're all over the place!" Dorion was both excited and stunned beyond belief at the discovery. "I mean, I never saw 'em before, but you just kick a rock and there's a diamond the size of a child's rubber ball, or a ruby fit for an idol's navel, or an emerald the size of a small melon! The island's crawling with big gem-quality stones!"
Charley nodded and smiled. "Well, at least now I know what she was talking about when she said we would have all the wealth we needed." Gold and silver were common in Akahlar; any competent alchemist could make them from common lead, but gem-quality stones, flawless, with perfect luster, almost ready for the cutter, were very rare indeed.
This had followed on the heels of Yobi and Etanalon's visit to Masalur hub to check things out, their sorcery protection against anything they might be likely to find. What they had found, though, was far different than what they had left. The slavery spells on the Akhbreed survivors, who numbered more than three hundred thousand people, were all broken and ineffective. They had then risen up collectively against the remaining skeletal force of Hedum and the other nutbreed conquerors, joined unexpectedly by forces from the transformed millions of the inner hub who had once been their brethren, and overcome them, only to be joined by forces from no less than eleven colonial worlds, accompanied by Akhbreed who lived there—the very worlds where Boolean's experiment in self-government had been permitted and encouraged. More races were coming out now and, after testing the political and social winds, were blowing the way of the colonies, and tremendous pressure was being extended even now on the nine unconnected Masalurian rebel worlds.
They had not waited for peace. A compact had been drawn up by the pragmatists and those horrified by what had occurred. Masalur was being reconstituted as a republic, a form of government known in some remote areas of the colonial worlds but never among the Akhbreed, with each race of Masalur who signed brought on as an equal partner with equal voice and representation in a kind of parliamentary assembly still mostly on paper. The entrepreneurs, the Navigator's Guild people in the region, and others were already starting to redevelop commercial ventures, often in partnership now with locally owned, and in a few cases hastily formed, native corporations. A combined army, for defense of the republic rather than for subjugating it internally, was being assembled under former officers, and was having to be talked out of carrying their "revolution" to other kingdoms while their own was still being born.
Revolution by example was being preached instead. Without shields and Chief Sorcerers, and with the Akhbreed's vulnerability exposed by the wars and revolutions, such an arrangement could be offered as the only viable alternative to civil war and the breakdown of services and authority. The rebels, in the main, didn't want to revert to primitive ways and tribalism; they wanted what the Akhbreed had, and the smartest among them understood that the Akhbreed alone knew how to harness the power of water for electricity and engineer sewage systems, running water, and the rest. Much blood would be spilled, and centuries of hatred and oppression could not be overcome in a night by high-sounding principles and promises, but it was a start.
It wasn't perfect, and not everybody went along right now, or was everybody satisfied, but it seemed a damn sight better to those on the island who heard about it than anything else in all Akahlar. Those without sorcery had a meeting to discuss just what they wanted to do in this new world.
Boday pointed to Charley. "Boday still remembers the brillant undergarment you and Susama created which more than financed our journey. Surely there are other such ideas that can be found, developed, licensed. Whole new vistas are Opening up! Imagine, if you will, if we could just convince the four-breasted Masalurians that these 'bras' were good! And think not only of the Akhbreed and Masalurians but of all the races that products can now be developed for!"
The project interested everyone. Crim, for example, was a member of the Navigator's Guild, and could arrange for coordinated transport. Kira could wine and dine and charm the pants off the most hard-hearted businessmen and politicians. Dorion had no powers, not that he'd lost that much to begin with, but he had his Guild membership and lots of contacts there.
"But you're going at it all wrong," Charley told them. "Sure, we might actually manage it, but then we'd become Akahlar's greatest corporation, with an economic hold on it— Our company would become a pseudo-empire, stronger and possibly with less heart in the end than the old ones and more powerful. No, what we want to do is to start with some ideas that show the way, and provide a center, perhaps in Masalur hub itself, in the remaining outer circle, where everyone with creativity could come,
both to share ideas, learn, and to test and market their own new products and ideas. Making money gets boring after a while. Becoming the intellectual and artistic center of the whole world, though—that's exciting!"
Kira, Dorion, Boday, even the two Masalurians, were fascinated by the concept but still not clear about the details other vision.
"Isn't that what the great University hub is for?" Boday asked her.
"No, no! I'm no talking about education and I'm not talking about theory, both of which that probably does fine. I'm talking about a forum and an outlet for the ones who graduated from there, and those who never got the chance to go but still have great ideas."
'Can you picture it for us?" Kira asked her. "Show us, somehow, what you mean?"
Charley smiled. "I'm not the artist you are, Boday, but gimme that pad and I'll show you what I have in mind. And it's only the start of it. Surely, sometime, hopefully soon, somebody in Akahlar will invent air conditioning…."
* * *
The Mother of Invention was pregnant again, but she didn't mind even if some other people thought she was overdoing it. Misa, now eleven and in the process of turning from adorable to sexy and dangerous, had been partly responsible for it, teaching and giving to her mother as much or more than her mother was giving her, and being an unexpected joy. That had been compounded by the arrival of Jonkuk, now nine and the spitting image of his father at that age although with a highly extroverted personality, but, damn it, who would have suspected that Dorion would be so phenomenal in bed?
Not that he really believed it yet; after all, if your wife's had a little prior experience with, maybe, two or three hundred other guys, you would tend to think you were being flattered, but there was something to be said for the fact that she had been absolutely faithful now for eleven years, and why she had Joni, age six now, and Petor, age three, afterwards, and they probably wouldn't stop with the one on the way, either. They both loved kids, particularly theirs, and, hell, they could afford them.
Not that it had slowed Charley down. The concept of day-care and an equal spot for women in the policy-making body that controlled the entity known throughout Akahlar simply as The Mall had been laid down from the start. After all, three of its seven-member board were females, and two more were sort of all of the above.
Stepping into the Grand Promenade, with its large grass and tree-lined park going down the middle between the two long rows of multilevel shops, galleries, and boutiques, she stopped to look into the windows of some of the fashion galleries. They were catching on quickly to the potential business here; the traditional chadoor-like garb of even the most conservative kingdoms was giving way to modernity with the collapse of the Chief Sorcerer's authority and the failure of the old religions to keep pace with the revolutionary new conditions present on Akahlar.
It had started with just this section, but even now it seemed to go on and on in all directions, less a collection of shops and stores than a small city in its own right, with its own electric power and its own population just to staff the place and keep it clean and perfect. Fashion and cosmetics tailored to a thousand races, but even if you fore-swore clothes altogether where you were from, there was something here for you. Inventors here had created a kind of escalator system previously unheard of; others were trying different methods of cooling and compression, even electricity from solar energy. There were toys galore, and shops selling everything from sports stuff to commercial fishing gear. They liked to brag that there was nothing you could not buy at The Mall, and two-thirds of it could be bought nowhere else, although the best and cleverest products were now being copied and imitated.
There were playgrounds for the kids as well, and separate day-care for the employees and those guests who had them. All the staff was multiracial, and it was surprising how easy it was for even the most hidebound old Akhbreeds to accept that when they were here shopping for a new creation or a stunning coat or the latest in jewelry creations. And going up now were the resort hotels that would make this a true destination community, and they were listening right now to proposals for creating a water park and to another fellow who appeared to have independently reinvented the amusement park.
She walked by two young Akhbreed women, skinny and slinky in obviously newly bought tropical fashions including sandals and the latest inventive rage, sunglasses, and they gave her a look that could only mean. "Hey, you fat, barefoot slob of a baby factory, how dare you be in a place like this?" It no longer particularly bothered her. In fact, her one fond wish was that someday one of them would actually make a comment like that and she could reply, "Hey, skin and bones! While you're still trying to score in bars, I got a great marriage, great kids, and, on top of that, I own this fucking place!" Nobody ever had, but there was always hope.
The fact was, she was comfortable with herself. True, she'd still like to be 36-24-36 and not worry about it, but not if she had to trade what she had to get it. Not if she had to trade any of it.
Kira shouted her name and waved, then came and joined her. She was still what Charley would want to look like, what any woman with any taste would want to look like, although she was starting to show just a little wear and tear. Kids, even with housekeepers and day-care, will still do that to you, although Kira hadn't been quite as gung-ho as Charley on that score, having been a bit gun-shy having her first baby just a few days past nine months after seeing her first sunshine in years.
Kira, in fact, was just back after a couple of months on the road with Crim and the kids setting up some new delivery contracts, and she was just seeing some of the new projects after being away.
"Am I going crazy, or is that building-sized mural of Boday's on the North Wall being redone again?" she asked, shaking her head.
Charley chuckled. "Yeah, our big attraction. War of the Maelstrom. I don't think she'll ever actually finish it, but it keeps getting more grandiose and, I suspect, less realistic as she goes along."
"Well, I remember the initial one had her as just a tiny figure down in the corner, and now it seems like Boday is the star of the entire painting. Before we're through we'll have an entire building side that's nothing but Boday in a reclining position, whip in hand."
Charley laughed. "Well, the rest of the Board will have something to say about that. Still, her gallery's going great guns, even if I can't figure out a damned thing in it—I mistook a fire box for one of their creations the other day. And I'm somewhat afraid that her body painting studio is going to catch on and become the next real fad."
"Well, not for me it isn't. How's Dorion and the kids?"
"Except in one department, I think Dory was born the wrong sex. He absolutely adores the kids, loves cooking and keeping house, and seems perfectly content to let me run the business end while he stays home. Of course, he keeps writing those epic first-person accounts of him and the great sorcerers that nobody will publish, but it keeps him occupied. It's the only blessing to my failure to ever learn to read Akhbreed, although he's pestered me to teach him how to read and write English. And, of course, he's created a whole range of ingenious children's toys and games for our kids that have wound up being successfully marketed. I think that's his true secret he's never wanted to grow up, and now he doesn't have to."
"Not Crim. He's getting sick of being on the road half the year, coming home and having his own children ask for his identification. That's why we all went along on this last one, and I think it will be the last one. Lately he's been talking about building a new chain of world-specific malls in the provincial capitals and other hubs. We have to go that route soon, I think, or the Masalurians will run out of places to live."
Charley leaned back in the chair and sighed, looking around at it all. "You know, sometimes I really can't believe that such a nightmare as I was cast into turned out like this. God! You know, this place, this life—me, my family, all of itis more than I ever dreamed of achieving when I was a kid. I keep living in fear that one day I'm gonna wake up or be awakened and find t
his was all a dream or some hypnotic trickery- So far, though, it and you have all still been here. And it just keeps getting better."
"Well, at least nobody's come up with television yet. I have hopes that it won't happen in our lifetime but you never know."
"Oh, I dunno. The idea of a Hedum variety show fascinates me. Still, I look around and I wonder what Sam is doing now. If she's finally happy, or if she still exists as we understand it, and if at least she knows what we've done here. I think she'd love this place."
"You know there's actually a large cult movement growing around her, complete with prophets and visions and holy books?"
"No! In the other lands?"
"Uh-huh. And creeping this way. I'm afraid. Masalur's holy ground to them."
"Jeez! Well, I hope they don't expect me to be their high priestess and interpreter, or decide that all this is profaning holy ground or something. You know, that vision I had, all those years ago—it was kind'a like she was gonna become a goddess, more or less against her will. There was some sadness in her, like she always just slightly missed the boat her whole life. Be kind'a weird if she was, huh? If that cult really was worshiping a live one? A god created from a teenage girl who never wanted anything but a normal life in absolute obscurity and a half-baked old physics professor? Hell, you always think of being a goddess as having no troubles at all, no pain, no worries, and anything you want. I'd like to do it, just for a little bit. Point my astral finger and say, 'From this point on, the more chocolate you eat the more weight you will lose.' "
Kira laughed, and then remarked, "You know, it is something to think about. Between the two of you, you might have had fun as a goddess, while the one who might well have gotten it, would carry it as a burden." She sighed, "I don't know, though. Maybe, if you must have a god, that's the kind of attitude you want your Supreme Being to have."
Changewinds 03 - War of the Maelstrom Page 41