When they were back on the trail, though, they couldn't stop discussing it. "Suppose Horny did figure a way," Charley theorized. "And suppose Boolean caught on? Remember, even Zenchur kind'a said that was up."
"Yeah, and the demon said the armies were gathering and the enemy gamin' strength," Sam responded. "I wish it would say more but it can't or won't about that. I don't think it really cares 'cept it wants to deliver me before all hell breaks loose. It's just trapped and wants out."
Charley nodded. "So in the tunnel this horned guy is blocked for the first time by somebody. Boolean had to come out of hiding to save us from him. Remember how surprised the Horned One was? So now Boolean's an enemy to the horned guy, right? He's too strong to take on, but I bet you Boolean's run into the same kind'a guff that plantation guy and Boday are giving. It ain't possible. It don't make no sense. Go away and stop with your conspiracies. Only Boolean's got something up to either prove it or give Horny fits. You. Only Horny knows it and he wants you out of the way. He now knows Boolean's his enemy so he has him covered. If Boolean reveals where you are, Horny pulls out all the stops. Maybe he can't zap Boolean, but he sure as hell could zap you. So you got to sneak in to him. It all makes sense. Zenchur's supposed to be the old dependable native to get us through with me as decoy, but Zenchur catches on and plays us dirty 'cause he hates his own kind. So the backup, the demon, comes in. It ain't human and it don't really give a damn about us, so it gives you Boday as a Zenchur replacement and makes you too fat to be recognized. Yeah, it really hangs together, except . . ."
"Yeah, 'cept why the hell would a girl from another world who don't know much 'bout nothin' and sure as hell don't know sorcery or Akahlar or nothin' be the key to stoppin' all this? Why me? What in hell could I do against a sorcerer like that?" she sighed. "And the worst part is, from what I seen so far, I ain't even sure I like the game. It's the same feelin' I had when Zenchur first explained it all. I kept thinkin' that I went along more with the guy who was try in' to kill me than the one tryin' to save me."
"I noticed you didn't get real fond around these natives," Charley noted.
"Well, yeah, but this is their place. I don't think I could ever kiss one of 'em but that don't mean they aren't people. I saw that bit with the melon, too, I don't like it, Charley. I don't like it at all. It seems like if we make it, somehow, and I do whatever it is Boolean wants, I'll keep thousands, maybe millions of people enslaved forever even if I get a gold star and fame and beauty and money and whatever. It'd be blood money. But it seems that if I don't, I die, and I don't wanna die right now. I ain't the hero type but I'm not smart enough to figure out a way out of this."
"I don't know who is," Charley sighed. "We don't know enough. Like, why do these sorcerers speak English with American accents yet? Your demon, too."
"Actually the demon sounds kind'a English. I don't know. But I sure don't like bein' pushed and that's all I've been since I got here. So pushed around that I almost gave up everything. It's nuts. I'm goin' where I don't wanna go-to do, if I get there, something that'll keep all these people from freein' themselves from their masters and lock in the Akhbreed for another ten thousand years or whatever, which I hate. That or die."
Charley sighed. "Well, we just play it by ear and try and figure it out. It's a long trip yet. Maybe we'll learn enough to figure it all out before we hav'ta make a decision. Or maybe we'll find some people who are smart enough to figure it out." She shook her head. "I dunno. Maybe we should spring for that university place. They got to know, and somebody there has got to be smart enough to figure it all out."
"Well, I can't do nothin' but play it by ear," Sam noted sourly. "But I don't think that university would help us figure out a way to beat the system. I mean, it's Akhbreed run, right? They invented the system. They might know what it's all about, but they sure wouldn't be no help to me."
Boday's sketches were getting very good and very elaborate as they went along, although she was running out of paper fast. She hoped that Jahoort would have some, or that there would be some available at one of the stops.
The days and nights went by with little change in the routine and little worry. The scenery changed a bit, but only occasionally, and they would pass from one valley up and through a pass and into another that might be growing some different things but was still pretty much the same plantation system. At least they could get fresh fruit and fresh fruit juices as they went along.
There were surprisingly few Akhbreed, all in plantations, and no non-native towns in evidence. The plantations were supplied by and supported by the trains that came through and dependent upon them not only to get the luxury goods and materials in, even importing skilled workmen when needed, but also to get their products out. Special trains just for this were employed using junior navigators; the long-haul trains generally dealt only with inter-kingdom commerce.
Sam eventually broke down and bargained for a pair of binoculars just for them, since most of what was worth seeing was well away from the roads and the "host" plantations were all ready for them.
One thing was obvious, particularly through the binoculars. The farther away they got from the hub, the looser the Akhbreed living in Bi'ihqua were as well. On their farms and generally secure, there was little sign of robes or saris on the plantation women around the places they were not set to stop at. Practical work clothes, even pants, were the rule and not the exception, and Boday once caught an excited look at a couple of women reclining by a pool about a half mile back who seemed to be wearing nothing at all, and twice Sam thought she saw a couple of women wearing work pants but topless. The men, too, seemed more casual but they had less distance to go to be that way.
The natives began to fascinate them as well. It was the first time either Charley or Sam had ever seen or heard of a race more advanced than spiders where the women were bigger and stronger than the men, on the whole-and clearly the bosses in their society. Both decided that they liked the idea. Boday couldn't care less. At six two and with her personality the concept was irrelevant.
The seventh day was notable because it rained torrentially and was one of the most miserable experiences any of them could remember. The wagon was in fact waterproof, but when you had to sit in the seat and drive it wasn't much help, and with poor visibility and several wagons getting stuck and having to be pushed out, including theirs, it was a really rotten time. It was not, however, a thunderstorm, and for that much Sam was thankful. The last thing she needed that day was more visions and nightmares.
Still, it took Boday to put it into perspective. "Look at it this way, darlings. Suppose you were one of those on horseback?"
On the eighth day in, they saw a strange and scary sight that brought the reason for the repeated changewind drills home to them no matter how they griped about them. They sat atop another mountain pass looking down on yet another valley, but it was not the same as before. Well, it was for part of the way, but right through the middle, visible from the heights, was a vast and strange scar that seemed several miles long and a mile wide. It was gray and yellow and when they reached it there were in it the remains of what had once apparently been a dense forest. The change was so sudden and dramatic and the result so creepy they had to ask about it. Charley thought it was volcanoes; her folks had taken her to Volcanoes National Park in Hawaii when she was thirteen and she'd never forgotten the sight.
"Volcanoes, yeah," they were told, "but not directly. Oh, them things do pop their corks now and again and it can look real ugly for a while and cover the place in ash a krill deep"-a krill was roughly five or six feet-"but that's just how the land stays so rich. Nothin's growin' again here 'cause the soil's all wrong. Poison for these plants. This was a changewind come in maybe twenty years ago. You can see where there were eruptions around that time and it's already grown back. Not here. The land's wrong. It was some kind of nasty forest that didn't belong here, but the effect also opened up a hot crack and set the whole tiling on fire. Nothin's grown here since o
r will, and the tree remains just stay there, mostly petrified."
The Pilot, who was old enough to remember, agreed. "Used to be a native village over there," he told them. "Just like all the rest. Only when the wind was done they was stone huts and the natives were foul-lookin' red buggers with lots of teeth and tails like reptiles who just started off tryin' to eat anything and anybody they could. Took months to root 'em all out and kill the last of them. They was just startin' to breed." He shuddered.
At that Sam's mind went back to that horrible vision of the boy turned monstrous by the changewind. He'd looked horrible, but he'd been the same scared little boy inside. That was why it was so awful, them killing him. But turning these pleasant little natives into demonic killers-maybe there was a reason why they killed them. Maybe it could change you inside sometimes, too. Or maybe the natives just found themselves . about to be hunted anyway but now with a form able to do some damage, so they did. Hard to tell.
Still and all, the Akhbreed killed all changewind victims they could catch as policy because they no longer fit. Everything and everybody had its place here, and those changewind victims had the least power of all.
They all felt better when they were through the desolation.
Late on the afternoon of the ninth day in Bi'ihqua, they met the soldiers. They were a tough-looking bunch of men who'd obviously been out in the field a long time. They weren't all sharp and spiffy and totally clean-shaven like the ones back in Tubikosa, but they looked like the kind of men you'd want on your side in a fight. It was only a patrol, a dozen or so men under a junior officer and an old sergeant, but they were doing their business and it was something everybody learned soon enough.
"There's been some banditry off and on for months along the border," the officer told them. "They're a special kind of bandit and we've been hunting them for half a year to no avail, although we don't know how they could hide in this land for that long. They're ruthless when they have to be but they're only after one thing, or so it seems. They take the Mandan gold and leave most of the rest. Oh, they'll take something if it strikes their fancy, but that's their target. Been a rash of these things at or near the borders. We're escorting all trains through to the Null from here, though."
"Hard to believe that few enough bandits to be able to hide in this country could take a train," Jahoort noted. "Ain't like the old days, I'll tell you."
"Yeah, we've had the natives out looking into every nook and cranny and we can't come up with 'em. Can't figure out why they're so hot just for the Mandan, too. It's valuable enough, sure, and rare enough, but it's not characteristic of bandits."
". . . We've had the natives out looking . . ." Sam couldn't help but wonder if maybe the natives were deliberately not looking in the right places. These people were so used to running the show and also so used to thinking of the natives as primitive children it just might not ever occur to them that the natives could be in cahoots with the robbers. They'd dismiss it. What's the motive? The natives would be wiped out if it were discovered, but couldn't profit without being obvious, right? Maybe it was just the satisfaction of doing something, however small, against their arrogant bastard masters.
"Where'd they come from?" Jahoort asked.
"Probably when the Kudaan Wastes synchronized with here. The timing's about right. But we figure it wasn't any impulse thing. They had their hiding places prepared in advance for sure. They don't hit every train, just a few, but it's best not to take chances. Could be they got a deal in collusion with some of our bad ones. Might be partly an inside job. There'd be big money in exporting Mandan."
The Pilot sighed. "Yeah, some people will do anything for a sarkis. Glad to have you, officer. I was arguing for this policy for months."
Charley frowned. She'd gotten the gist of it and whispered to Sam, "Aren't we going to this Kudaan Wastes? Jeez! We're goin' where they came from!"
"Kudaan Wastes," Boday repeated. "It is not even a pleasant name. You wanted something real to worry about, darlings. Boday thinks this is it."
As if in confirmation, Jahoort said, "Well, I'm goin' right into the Wastes. I'm supposed to have a patrol from the Mashtopol Forces meet me at the border there. Until I talked to Ganny, here, I hadn't expected much trouble til I got there. I'll order all my men armed from this point anyway."
The officer spat. "The Mashtopol Forces. That motley lot might be more dangerous to you than the bandits." When they left Bi'ihqua they would also leave the Kingdom of Tubikosa and enter the Kingdom of Mashtopol; it would be another country's jurisdiction.
"I can't say I ain't worried," Jahoort responded rather casually, "but I been through the Wastes many times and I got a few surprises if anybody makes a try on me there. You just get me to the border and we'll be fine."
Although it had seemed a long trip already, and they had far to go, in many ways Sam and her companions were sorry to reach the end of this place, with its spectacular geysers, staging mud pots, colorful mountains and rich land. It had been an education in how things worked on Akahlar, but it had not been unpleasant until the patrol showed up. After then, every time they reached a point where the road went through thick growth or sloped down, presenting rocky outcrops on either side, their eyes combed for any signs of movement and the friendly land seemed filled with potential menace.
Charley was positive that Mister Moustache was the inside man and that he would somehow signal and bring down a horde of fierce bandits on them at any moment, but while the odd little man kept to himself pretty much he did nothing of a really suspicious nature. Perhaps he just decided that this one wasn't worth it; there'd be easier pickings on later trains.
Along the way, too, Sam had gotten to know a number of the people, both travelers and crew, including Madame Serkosh, the married woman traveling with husband and kids. Rini, as she insisted she be called, had the art of trail cooking and packing down pat. "You have to, with five along," she said practically. Her husband seemed somewhat withdrawn and aloof, but she and the kids were outgoing types, delighted to show a newcomer the art of baking on the trail and lots of other practical things, and seemingly not at all put off by the unusual nature of the female trio Sam represented. They were headed home after showing off the kids to her brother-in-law, who managed a luxury hotel in Tubikosa. They lived in a Mashtopol sector off the southwest of that hub, and would change there for the final few days home.
"You'll like Mashtopol alter Tubikosa," she told Sam. "Things are a lot more fun and a lot less strict there. The capital's not very big compared to Tubikosa, but it's a nice little city that minds its own business and lets you mind yours. I wish it had the markets and bazaars of Tubikosa, though. Seeing the variety there compared to what we're used to was just amazing."
Their own sector, which was called Shadimoc, apparently was involved in some kind of manufacturing, although just what it produced-and what sort of inhabitants really produced it-^wasn't all that clear. Sam didn't press it; with all the possibilities of this world it didn't seem worth it, and besides she was still getting used to the little Bi'ihquans.
Neither of Rim's boys-Tan, eleven, and Jom, seven- would have much to do'with Sam; she suspected their father feared those weird women would infect them with some kind of debauched ideas. Apparently he didn't care about his daughters getting corrupted, though, or thought they were too smart to be corrupted, since he seemed to have no objection to their talking not only with Sam but even with Boday, who showed an unexpected soft side for kids. Charley, at first, had felt stuck, since she really wanted some company, but felt she had to play Shari at all times around them so they wouldn't be going back to their parents with news that the pretty girl was smart and clever. After a couple of days, though, it was clear that while Charley could fool adults, she had little chance of fooling kids. The language barrier, at least, kept things at what seemed to be a safe level. Both dressed in long pullovers and pants, apparently the standard garb for Akhbreed colonials where they came from. It wasn't all that fashio
nable, but it was practical; they had all clearly left the strict codes of Tubikosa, or at least had exchanged them for looser ones.
Rani was thirteen and already pubescent, only just so, and still trying to deal a bit with what that all meant and what her body was doing to her. She was thin, with her parents' dark olive complexion and her father's rather prominent nose, with thick black curly hair and eyes that seemed just as dark, and she was already about five feet tall, almost to Sam and Charley's height. She looked like somebody from the Middle East, as did her parents. She wasn't all that pretty, with a mouth too large and a nose too prominent, but she wasn't ugly, either, but to Sam, at least, the girl seemed both ordinary and exotic. She was a rather quiet child, but she warmed Boday's heart by looking at the eccentric artist's sketches with awe and wonder. Boday instantly decided that this was the most tasteful and intuitively brilliant child she'd ever met.
Sheka was nine, and had that same mouth, but her nose was a bit better proportioned, her eyes large, and her hair straight, and she was chubby-not fat like Sam, but chubby. She was also more outgoing and inquisitive, and seemed fascinated by Charley. She was also capable of asking embarrassing questions in total innocence like why Charley waited on them like a serk-apparently the name of the natives of Shamidoc-and if the butterfly eyes came off and how much of Boday's body was covered with designs and pictures-and why. With the aid of Rani, who seemed constantly embarrassed by her sister's questions, they managed to deflect the hardest to answer.
WHEN THE CHANGEWINDS BLOW 237
Both were allowed to come over now and then, usually together, when they stopped for the evenings, and even though their stays were brief they were welcome ones.
When The Changewinds Blow Page 28