Echoes of the Well of Souls watw-1

by Jack L. Chalker

  Lori did find this particular scale of bargaining distasteful, though; it seemed too much like haggling over a sale price, and in this case the commodity was a woman reduced to the status of a brood mare. Still, the addition of drugs—“herbs”—to Julian’s food explained a lot as well about her mood swings and collapse of will.

  “And you are arguing that I should repay you for your losses to date, when you are telling me that she is as she is now only because of herbs? And other than your loss of use of the storage shed, how much has she cost you so far above what dowry you were paid for her? How much for those herbs and all the special attention?”

  “My investment is considerable now. That is why I will not give her away!”

  “Ah! But you said it would still be months, perhaps many months, before it ran its course and you had the girl you wanted. Perhaps it will be months. Perhaps it will be longer. And can you ever be certain that what you see is real, is not an act? Will you ever be able to trust her fully? Or will your wives and daughters always be preoccupied watching her, so that they can never concentrate on their duties? It seems to me that you are boasting of doubling your costs in a fifty-fifty chance that she might work out. Right now, thanks to the dowry, your losses are small, but now that dowry is gone and all the costs are on you. Is yet one more wife worth that much to you?”

  They argued back and forth, and for a little while Lori was afraid that Aswam might well not budge too much beyond a “Take her and go,” blaming Lori for Julian’s newfound resolve.

  Lori had fought so hard just to get the tentmaker to this point that he feared pressing the matter might lose everything. Still, there was just some feeling inside, some gut instinct, that the old man really didn’t want Julian anymore. Lori wondered if he had the right to bargain beyond this point, considering that it was Julian’s future, not his, that was at stake, but something inside made it impossible to stop. He did, however, decide to bring down the hammer.

  Lori got up from the cushion and looked down at the still-reclining tentmaker. “I cannot accept the dishonor of a wife with no dowry,” he said flatly. “If she is not worthy of it and I am not worthy of the respect, then there is nothing more to say.” He turned, feeling uneasy and queasy as hell about what he was doing, and started for the exit from the great tent.

  He actually thought the old bastard was going to let him go, but just as he reached the curtained doorway and made to push back the drape and leave, Aswam called, “Now, wait a minute! Perhaps something can be arranged, young hothead.”

  Lori smiled and felt immense relief, then set his face in a very serious posture before turning and coming back to the old man. From this point the haggling would be over how much the tentmaker would pay, not the other way around.

  The final price was not nearly as much as Lori had hoped for as a stake, but he just didn’t have the heart or stomach to press it anymore. He kept thinking that if Julian had known what he’d done, she’d have killed him. In fact, if the old Lori Ann Sutton had seen this, she would have organized protests.

  Once agreed, a marriage contract of sorts was drawn up, and then Lori had to go and see the village Holy One.

  The monks of the hierarchy of the church looked and sounded quite odd. All males, castrated while still children, they tended to be small and wizened, with weak sopranolike voices, without hair or horn. Only the eyes showed that there was a lot more going on in the head than their appearance indicated.

  “I must confess that I am not wholly in favor of this union,” the monk told him. “The role of females in this society is quite tightly prescribed, and no matter why the gods have chosen to put that person in that body, it was their holy will that it be so, just as it was for you. You were a step beyond her in your spiritual development, hence you were reborn male, and she was a step behind. In a sense, both of you were given a great gift. Few may be spiritually reevaluated while still alive. You were promoted, Julian was demoted one step, as it were. The proof of the lightness of it is how well you have adapted under a mental and cultural burden the rest of us do not have to share. That is why Julian is having so many problems with it; it is always more difficult to go down than up. I know the argument for the randomness of the Well process, but we reject it. There is a reason for all that happens. Randomness is an illusion. I fear that the joining of the two of you might well undermine that process.”

  Lori remembered Julian’s warning that this monk was both devious and dangerous. Maybe they all were. Playing god and meddler on some level was the only thing they had.

  “Are you telling me then, Holy One, that you will not allow it?”

  “I am of two minds on it. On the one hand, there must be a reason why, out of 780 racial possibilities for each of you, both of you were reborn Erdomese and have come together in this way. On the other hand, since Julian will tend to cling to her old self more in your constant company, by allowing it I might jeopardize her immortal soul.” He sighed and thought a moment. “There is a possible compromise position here.”

  “Yes?”

  “First, what are your plans afterward?”

  “Um, well, I am weary of being a needless guard for an old trader. I need more of a challenge. I had thought to travel to Aqomb and find tutors to teach me the full written language of Erdom. Once I am reasonably proficient, I hope to gain a position in the civil service there.”

  The monk nodded, pleased with the answer. “Very well. Here is what I will do, then. I will marry the two of you, but on the official papers I will place conditions. First, you must swear to me on your honor that you will continue with the herbal additives until they are gone. This is not just a religious requirement; to discontinue them now might well cause her to become very ill and cause permanent mental and emotional problems. Do not believe that I say this just to make you do it. I swear upon the Holy of Holies that what I tell you is true.”

  She didn’t like it, but there was nothing she could do about it for now. “All right, I swear it. But I must know what they are.”

  “They are simply aids. In layman’s terms, they help her mind and body become one and her behavior to be consistent with Erdomese culture.”

  “And in nonlayman’s terms? I was once a scientist.”

  The monk gave a thin smile. “In technical parlance, they are natural psychochemical blockers and facilitators of attaining desired hormonal balances. One, for example, is a hybrid of two herbs used for countless generations as aphrodisiacs. Over a period of time the body begins to treat the blockers and newly set hormonal levels as normal and produces them naturally as needed. Once that happens, the drugs have no further effect and can be discontinued. In midtreatment, however, the body’s balances are quite disturbed and discontinuance can produce what anyone might call insanity. The pharmacology is quite complex, actually. To go into more detail would involve going through the Pharmacopoeia, and you cannot at the moment read it.”

  She was startled by this sudden rather sophisticated science and immediately saw what Julian meant when she said that this guy was no fool.

  “I accept what you say. The problem I have is, what is it doing to her mind?”

  “You won’t notice any changes from the way she is now so long as you continue them. The bottom line is that she won’t want to kill herself, and she will be accepting of her role.”

  “Okay, that’s one condition. You said several.”

  “Yes. When you reach Aqomb, you must check in and present the papers to the Holy Office there. They will monitor your compliance and her progress.”

  “Very well.”

  “Next, you will speak only Erdomese to one another, even in private. Language is the primary definer of a culture. You must believe that the Holy Office can determine if you uphold this or not in their examination of you both.”

  She wasn’t sure how they could tell, but right now she would agree to anything just to get it done and over with.

  “And finally, as soon as practical after the marriage but ce
rtainly before you retire for the night, you must consummate the marriage and present her for examination by me the next day. Then, and only then, will I give you the papers. Failure in any one of these may result in the marriage being annulled, and if it is, you will not see her again and may yourself face criminal penalties. Once you are married, you are morally and legally responsible for her and you will be held accountable. Remember, too,” he added, possibly guessing at her ultimate intentions, “that even if you leave our land, you have had your living rebirth. There will be no more change in race, sex, or anything else until you die and are again reborn. There is no running from it. There are no colonies here. You both will be Erdomese and nothing else.”

  Well, the monk had sure laid it on the line. “All right, I agree.” Lori said. “I swear it to you here and now.” He hoped he could fulfill the duties he was agreeing to. As a male and an Erdomese, he was still a virgin.

  “Very well. I assume you can write in some language?”

  “Several. Just not Erdomese—yet.”

  “All right, then, I will dictate the contract, and you will write it in the language of your choosing. One copy for you in your language, certified as a true copy by me, and the other in Erdomese for official use. Those, and the marriage contract, will suffice. When do you leave?”

  “Well, Posiphar has indicated that he might well go to Aqomb himself for a while and take a rest. If he does, we’ll go with him. The hope is to leave just before dawn the day after tomorrow so that we can hit a small oasis at midday.”

  “Very well. Then you will marry tomorrow. I will then be there before you leave the next morning to make my examinations and, if satisfactory, hand you the papers.”

  The interview was over. “Thank you, Holy One. I will try to be worthy of your trust,” he said, rising, bowing slightly, and leaving the prayer sanctuary.

  He headed for Julian, who was still locked up by decree until the marriage, to tell her the good and the not so good parts of the news.

  “I speak in Erdomese,” he said right off, “because one of the conditions was that we speak nothing else to one another, and I do not wish to have anything go wrong.”

  “It will be so,” she agreed.

  “The reason why you have changed so much in here is that they have been giving you herbs to facilitate the process,” he told her. “They are strong, and the Holy One knows his business. I am commanded to keep you on them until they are gone. He said that to stop them now would cause you to go mad. He also said that they would not change you more than you are now, that it is just to ensure that you remain this way. He also said that an examination by others could tell. Does this bother you?”

  “No,” she responded. “It—gives me relief. Now I understand why I have been this way. It helps me. And if it frees me from this place, I will take anything they wish. I know they can probably tell. That is one thing they are experts at here. Getting what they want.”

  “Then we do it tomorrow.”

  “Tomorrow!” Julian was excited. “But—I will need more than this! I can’t get married looking and smelling like this!”

  Lori grinned. “You look just fine to me, but I’ll speak to Aswam. Most likely his wives and daughters can help you.

  He’ll probably try and rob me blind for the service, but until tomorrow he’s stuck with you.”

  Julian laughed, the first laugh she’d had since she’d gotten here. “And I will be a good little girl until he has no hold on me. I promise.”

  “Um, one more thing. They require that we consummate as soon as possible after marriage.”

  “Well, I am ready for that. I would not have it any other way, as I told you before, even though it is another way they hope to hold us here.”

  “Huh? Why is that?”

  “They hope I will get pregnant, which will restrict us, and that I will have children, which will limit us more. With nations so small and so different, it is unlikely that the others would welcome families as settlers. It does not worry me. One day I might like to have children, but it is not how you do it here that counts. Even births are regulated from on high, so that the nations do not get too many people to support. That is what they told us when we came in here.”

  Reminded of that, Lori felt a little more relieved. She didn’t think they had a population problem here at the moment, and she’d seen some babies in her travels, but not a lot of them. The fact that at least by observation it appeared that twins were the norm made the chances even lower.

  “That’s supposing that we can do it right to begin with,” she joked.

  Julian gave a soft laugh. “That should not be a problem. You know what a woman wants; I know what a man wants. When you consider that, we should be the most perfect couple in all history!”

  After Lori left to make the arrangements, Julian had to chuckle at the sudden realization that she was still of two minds. As a human male she’d been divorced with no children; now, as an Erdomese female, she was to be married and could have her own children, and something in her really craved the kind of family life Julian Beard had rarely experienced. Lori might find what he was looking for elsewhere, but she would never again fly a plane, let alone a spacecraft, never again do meaningful research—not with this body and these hands—and, curiously, she didn’t really mind. She’d railed against that knowledge most of all in the beginning, but it no longer seemed to matter now. Oh, she was glad that she’d done those things and had those memories, but at the age of forty Julian Beard, from a broken home and with no wife or family, had accomplished as much or more on his own than his boyhood dreams had ever imagined. She hadn’t realized until now how empty some of the triumphs had been without anyone to share them with.

  She wondered if in fact the Well had screwed up or whether, somehow, becoming Julian Beard’s complete opposite—sexually, technologically, and in every other way—wasn’t what was exactly right for her at the moment. Now she was supporting Lori’s show, and it felt comfortable to be in that role and stop fighting. Lori might never understand it, but that, too, was all right.

  Husbands never understood their wives, did they?

  Julian in fact looked stunning for the tiny wedding, with long golden earrings—a series of squares linked together with chain, hanging down from punctures in the lowest part of the equine ears—a matching necklace, a pinkish glow applied judiciously to her face and upper body, hooves and “fingers” shined to almost a reflective polish, and her hair and tail done up in the traditional style, rising from golden tubes out across her back and up from the rear and then slinkily down to almost the ankles. Aswam’s women had done her up just right, and she had just the body for it.

  Lori was stunned by the look. In the dark shed he hadn’t even noticed that Julian’s hair was a sultry light reddish-brown, and the combination now put the other women around to shame.

  Somehow, too, he’d expected Julian to be taller. It was true that Lori was very large for an Erdomese male, and he’d gotten used to being higher than everybody else by a few inches, but Julian looked positively tiny beside him, with only that huge mane of hair bringing her up to near his shoulders. She also looked so young, although certainly amply developed.

  The wedding was brief and simple, held in a small demonstrator tent on Aswan’s property, with only the tentmaker and his women and Posiphar and his women in attendance. In some ways the oaths taken before the witnesses and priest were everything Lori had hated back on Earth; Julian had to promise to honor, respect, and “obey absolutely” her husband, while Lori was required to swear only that he accepted all responsibilities, morally and legally, for his wife’s welfare. More interestingly, the word “love” was nowhere to be found. That, at least, Lori thought, was not dishonest; he wasn’t in love with Julian, but he did find her incredibly attractive on all levels, and love might come later. Neither, however, really knew the other yet—which was in some ways also consistent with Erdomese tradition.

  Then there were fruit drinks and ex
otic pastries and some of the exotic-sounding Erdomese music from two of his daughters who had some talent in that direction, and that was it. By the heat of midday they were in a guest tent not too far away, the floor of which was covered with the large, varicolored pillows that were the most common furnishings in the nation.

  Julian sighed. “Well, now I am Lori-Julian, or Madam Lori. Husband’s name goes first here, but even if you take a dozen more wives I’ll still be the only Madam Lori.”

  “I know,” Lori replied, stretching out on the pillows and sighing. “Sorry, I didn’t get much sleep last night.”

  “You are lucky. I got none at all. I never thought I would ever get married again. And I surely never thought I would be somebody’s wife .”

  Lori frowned and looked up at her. “You were married?”

  “A disaster. I will tell you about it if you want. We were divorced years ago, and after she remarried, I never saw or heard from her again. You were never married?”

  “No. I lived with a string of men off and on, the last one for five years. We had just broken up for good when I got the offer to cover the meteor strike.” He smiled sadly. “Want to know the ultimate irony? I forced the issue. I was closing in on forty, and my biological clock was in screaming mode. The idea of children frightened him to death for some reason. I pressed, he left. Just moved out without a word.” The smile turned to a nasty grin. “How I’d like to see him now!”

  Julian chuckled. “Yes, it might be fun to see Holly now, too. I’ve got twice her cleavage in both ways. Useful, too. They actually are ‘jugs,’ you might say, holding water until near the time of birth, when Mother Nature throws a switch inside. You think you have problems. Erdomese gestation is almost a year long, and the little buggers have hooves.” She lay down beside him. “We can get some rest now and do what we must later,” she suggested, “but can you at least satisfy one bit of curiosity I’ve had since I woke up here?”