“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 men—what 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 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.
“Well, she certainly has a single mind when it 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 four—mount 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 I live in all the time!” she said.
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 eternity. Suddenly, though, very suddenly, it all stopped dead, and everything 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 now—and being 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.”
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 Matson 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 really 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 rid 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 c
huckled. “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.
Spirits of Flux and Anchor Page 16