Soul Rider #01: Spirits of Flux and Anchor

by Jack L. Chalker

  He put it down and sighed, then looked out at the fighting not far away. They were bogged down again, this time by a very large number of well dug-in troops. "Sure is a bitch, ain't it?" he Said wearily. "You better get back a little, though, Sister Cass. Stray bullets are carrying back farther than this."

  "I'm a whole lot more bullet proof than you," she told him, "and you don't look too worried.'"

  He turned and looked out at the battle. "Well, I—" he began, then he was apparently hit by an invisible fist that knocked him off his horse, the canteen flying out of his hand.

  "Matson!" she screamed, and jumped off her horse and ran to him. The entire front of his shirt had been ripped away by whatever it was that had hit him, and it seemed as if his chest were one huge bloody wound. He was still, his mouth open, blood trickling from it. She took his hand, squeezed it, and screamed at him, "Matson! Come on, you good-for-nothing stringer! You beat the odds! You always beat the odds! You can't do this to me! Not now!".

  But there was no response. She felt a presence near her and whirled, seeing Jomo. "Jomo!" she cried desperately. "Get a healing wizard here! Hurry! He's been hit!"

  The enormous tears in the huge blob of a man looked very strange, but the dugger shook his head, then knelt down and checked out Matson's body. "No use, Missy Cass," he said, voice trembling. "He gone to see Missy Arden."

  "No! Oh, Holy Mother above, please! Not now! Not him! Not yet!" she sobbed. Jomo got up and tried to pry her gently away from the body. For a while he could not budge her, nor could she do anything but sob and stare at Matson's lifeless body. Suddenly she shook off the giant dugger got up, and turned facing the battle, a strange expression on her face. She seemed to radiate power, the kind only powerful wizards do, and the dugger stepped back nervously and just watched.

  She looked out at the bodies. Everywhere there were bodies, everywhere there was blood and terror and death. In that moment something snapped within her, snapped for good. Now she understood, at last, that what she had been telling Suzl was only part of the truth. She was not any victim of chance, but the one chosen. Everything that had happened said that she was the agent of divine will. She had wavered and fallen, as the church had fallen, because of human frailty and weakness, and because of his Matson had tope taken from her. She knew that now, understood that it had to be this way. Every step she had taken, every new experience, from the point at which she'd first entered the forbidden sacristy, had been directed to this one destiny.

  "No more," she muttered under her breath, looking at the fallen bodies stretched out as far as the eye could see. "No more," she said again, louder now, the tremendous power rising within her. It was will that brought it up, but emotion that triggered it. She stuck out her arms, palms out, as if to stop something coming down on her, but it was something different she wanted to stop. All sounds of battle, of people yelling and guns firing, vanished in a roar in her ears. There was only a single will now, and it was directed forward. She felt the power as she had never felt it.

  And the Soul Rider provided the required mathematics.

  Far off, in the capital, a weak Gifford Haldayne was taking a drink and waiting it out, trying to regain what strength he could. He felt it at once, and knew it for what it was, and cursed himself for it. Damn their eyes! They had a fourth World class wizard in reserve!

  He frowned, then staggered, suddenly, from the force of a psychic blow. "What the hell is this?" he asked aloud, amazed— Never in his entire life had he felt such power, such force, such single-minded direction of will. This was something totally new, and totally frightening. This was no doing of the Nine, or Seven, or any combination of Fluxlords. This was something new, and terrible, and beyond even his ancient comprehension. He had a sudden, queer thought. What have I unleashed? he wondered, but he did not dwell on it now. He knew what he had to do, and he knew he had only seconds to do it.

  He released control to the new force, changed to a raven, and was out of there like a shot. He was fifty kilometers into the void before he even allowed himself enough time to realize just how close it had been.

  On the battlefield, Mervyn awoke with a strange sensation inside him. He got up weakly and made it forward to the seat so that he could see out and ahead of him. The sight that he saw was as unprecedented to him as it had been to Haldayne.

  Cass, in lavender robes stained with Matson's blood, walked forward towards the battle. As she did, the firing stopped on both sides, and the face of the land and sky trembled and changed. All around her the darkened and blood-stained volcanic ash changed into life itself, into fresh, green grass and flowers. It spread continuously out, touching the front lines and causing soldiers on both sides to stop, turn, and stare. The sky above lightened until it attained the dark blue of Anchor, and the landscape rippled as in Anchor as the great orb of Heaven filled the sky, sending its multicolored light down on the scene.

  The wizard was awed by the power coming from her, and the total mastery of the Flux and its complex mathematics and physics despite her almost complete lack of training. He had, indeed, set the conditions up and put it all in motion, but he had never expected anything like this. In fact, he had to admit, he hadn't in the end expected anything at all.

  The zone of Fluxland influence now extended from horizon to horizon, the volcanos becoming green rolling hills, the river crystal clear and running its normal course.

  The soldiers of Flux and Anchor on both sides of the battle could not, in the main, sense any of the magic, yet it radiated from her frail form and touched them all. They threw down their weapons as she passed, and fell in behind her as she continued her walk.

  She drew strength from the Flux, not only for herself but for them, and she walked without stop all the way to the capital, with those of both sides following silently. From the rear and from the side others streamed in from the other two attacking forces, and their enemies.

  The town itself had been transformed. No longer was there a goddess's tower or Haldayne's great black castle, but in the center was a huge Temple, the largest ever seen, radiating from its perfect surface the colors of Heaven. As she entered the city limits, the townspeople lined the routes ten deep, throwing flowers at her and at all the soldiers. All fell in as the parade passed, and moved to the central Temple area, where they filed in before the great steps and back as far as the eye could see— All stopped at the base of the Temple steps, but Cass kept walking until she was at the top. Only then did she turn and face the crowd, which was suddenly silent.

  "People of Flux and Anchor, hear me," she said, and her voice somehow carried clearly throughout the boundaries of the land. "I am the Adjutant not of Anchor but of Heaven itself. Corruption has, strangled humanity long enough. There is the corruption of the church in Anchor, and the corruption of wizardry in Flux. Both have held humanity too long in their grip. You have just endured a great battle, but to what end? Hell is but the ultimate corruption of the human soul, and it flourishes and grows and feeds upon that corruption. Thousands of brave, good people have just died, mixed their blood with this land, and for what? To make things better? No! To keep things the same." She paused for a moment, took a deep breath, and continued.

  "To keep things the same," she repeated, saying. it bitterly. "So what choice did we have? We were offered only our choice of Hells! To this I say, no more. No more. It is evil! I renounce such evil. I rebel at such a choice. The Holy Mother cries out to me, 'No more! No more!' I reclaim this land in Her name, and with Her power, and I rename it Hope. I do not bind you to my will, for then I would be as guilty as those who now run World. Instead I offer you a partnership, and hope, and no more. It will be no easy road, to reform our ways, to rebuild our corrupted church, to make for ourselves a world of free men and women who will not fear Hell because it will have no way to gain a foothold inside us. You, all of you here, can be the vanguard that will revolutionize World. We may be weak at times, we may stumble occasionally, we might even suffer failures and disappointm
ents, but we will try."

  Again she paused, allowing the message to sink in. "Now go," she told them. "Go free of mind and free of entanglements so long as you are in Hope. Let all who live in this land open up their hearts and homes to those who do not. Those who wish to join in the mission, whether wizard, soldier, slave, dugger, half-human or inhuman, may meet me in this square tomorrow, either physically or in your hearts. I will know, and reach you. I was ordained by the church as Sister Kasdi, so that will be my name henceforth. Hell cannot stand against me. Only you can." And she blessed them, turned, and walked into the Temple.

  She walked straight back to the chapel and then to the altar, and knelt and prayed and performed the sacraments that only a priestess could, and reaffirmed her vows. Only then did she turn and see that there were others in the chapel. They were people that she knew. There was Mervyn, looking very spry and pleased with himself, and Suzl, and Nadya, too, in robes just like her own.

  Nadya smiled and came forward, then took and kissed her hand. "They ordained me as Sister Tamara. I, too, will keep that name and proudly." They embraced and kissed, and there were tears in both their eyes. Finally Nadya said, "I knew, somehow, from that very start, that we were destined for something different, something new-I would never, however, have guessed this."

  Cass smiled. "I know." She sighed. "I guess we'll have to postpone our adventurous tour of World."

  "Only until the next life," Nadya replied.

  Cass smiled and turned to Suzl next. "And what about you?"

  "I think you're a powerful wizard and a stark raving lunatic," she told them. "However, this sounds interesting. As long as you can stand somebody who's psychologically unfit for society hanging around, and a cynic at that, I might just stick until I see how it all comes out. If nothing else, you're gonna need somebody around with the guts to tell you what lunatics you are, just to keep from vanishing into your own little worlds. I may not be one of the faithful, but revolution kind of appeals to my nature. Besides that, I'm unemployed. I have to sponge off somebody and it might as well be somebody important."

  Cass and Nadya both laughed, and Cass stepped forward and took her hands. "All right, 'psychologically unfit.' As much as I think you might be dangerous to have around, considering the real wording of that chastity clause, I'm glad to do it." She paused a moment. "Have you seen Dar?"

  Suzl's face grew serious. "He's dead, Cass. He died bravely, from what I hear, saving a couple of people's lives in the process."

  She had no more tears to give to grief, but she felt it anyway. She let go of Suzl's hands and turned to Mervyn. "Now, don't tell me you planned all this or I'll make an exception of my love rule in your case."

  "I primed the pump," he admitted, "but I was still surprised to find water at all, and least of all a fountain." He sighed. "What will you do with it all now?"

  "What I said. if anybody returns, that is. Even if nobody returns."

  "And what of the unfinished business?"

  "I haven't forgotten it, but it must wait until we're organized here. I don't think anything will be tried right away. They will be far too interested in me to think about anything else."

  "I agree," he responded. "I'll talk it over with Tatalane and Krupe, but I'm sure we'll all help. It must be done. It is long overdue. Otherwise we'll be stuck here like this forever and eventually Haldayne's bunch will win."

  She hesitated a moment. "You know who is behind this, don't you?"

  "I think I do, and my joy at this outcome cannot quite balance my grief. Still, humanity lives again. Empire is reborn as a concept, and, perhaps, as a reality. The Empire of Flux and Anchor. The concept itself is staggering."

  "Come," said Sister Kasdi. "We have much to plan and work out between now and tomorrow."

  19

  ANSWERS

  Five hundred and fourteen border troopers had ridden out from Anchor Logh, and only two hundred and twenty-seven had returned, although, thanks to Flux magic, their wounds were healed and they felt pretty tough and proud of themselves. They were also the objects of awe among the local population and their fellow troopers, and told their battle stories time and again to enthralled audiences. Ultimately, though, even heroes have to go back to work, and they were all returned to duty.

  Because they were more than a quarter of all the remaining guards, it was inevitable that, in many cases, long stretches of the border wall and the drains through it were guarded by these returning soldiers. Because of this, the invading army had little problem in breaching the wall along a more than two kilometer stretch halfway up, without, in fact, the rest of the guard force even knowing that such an invasion had taken place. They continued to guard the wall against attack from outside long after the enemy had a fully established force and was marching in strength on the capital.

  There was little resistance because it was so obviously futile, and while whole families wept as the conquerors marched by they could not resist these battle-hardened veterans with anything but insults and more tears. Without guns, which were outlawed in Anchor, there was no chance of even inflicting a minor blow. Most of the population seemed dazed by it all, in fact, for this sort;-of thing simply did not and never had happened as far as they knew. The compact between Flux and Anchor upon which the church and its people depended was suddenly in ruins, and it was a simply inconceivable event. Anchor's own children, cast into Flux as a part of that compact, now returned to it-

  The Temple was the one trouble spot, and not easy to take. It was built like a fortress of materials so hard that diamonds could not scratch it, and it was guarded from within by a force of armed wardens with electronic traps and devices. Bronze doors, however, needed far less than diamonds to blow apart; they needed only a good, solid shot from a single cannon.

  Inside, confused, frightened, and dazed, the Temple staff prepared for the inevitable rapid fall. Behind still-locked doors piles of papers and other documents were burned, and the administrative section worked feverishly as the invaders conquered level after level to rid the Temple of hard evidence of its activities and files. They did as best they could, but they could not destroy it all.

  One figure slipped through a little-known rear passage and went down a long series of old 'and dusty metal stairs and through doors that creaked and groaned from disuse to the sub-basement. For a moment it stood there, looking at the small power transformer network buzzing away, then walked over to the grid, reached down into a large bag, and picked out a small rectangular cube with two small buttons on it. The figure then pressed both buttons simultaneously and tossed the brick into the metal cage hiding the wires and transformers.

  Quickly now she went up to the section of wall that seemed boarded, pressed on two spots, and the boards swung away on hinges to reveal a door. She did not wait for a key, but took a pistol and shot out the lock, then kicked the door in, then flipped on the light switch, climbed over the rubble of crumbled concrete and masonry to a spot in the rear of the room with chalk marks on the floor. She looked down at them, pistol still in hand, and mentally traced the strange and incomprehensible design. In an instant she was standing not in the room, but in front of the great machine that guarded the gate to Hell.

  She paused to stare at it all for a while, now feeling no great hurry. She had never been here before, and the sight was awesome. There was something almost suicidally hypnotic about that swirling mass at the tunnel's end, giving one the same feeling as she might get standing on an incredibly tall spot. She turned, though, and walked up the tunnel, each section lighting as she passed, until she reached the wire grid to climb up and out. She realized how badly out of condition she'd become in climbing up and out, but she made it to the bottom of the saucer-shaped depression, then walked up the slope to the metal ladder there.

  "There is no way out for you," said a voice from above, at the top of the ladder, echoing across the depression and sounding ghostly and almost inhuman. She stopped, and instead of trying the ladder stepped back from it, pi
stol still in hand, and looked up.

  "Who's there?" she called. "Show yourself!"

  A somewhat familiar figure moved to the edge of the ladder and looked down at her sadly. "You have been in Anchor too long. That pistol cannot harm me here."

  She fired anyway, emptying the entire clip. The figure at the top of the ladder just stood there, unmarked and unmoved. In disgust, she tossed the pistol away, and it fell with a clatter and rolled back down the depression.

  "I know you!" she shouted, frustration building within her. "Who are you?"

  "You ordained me Sister Kasdi," came the reply. "What do you want with me now?" called back Sister General Diastephanos.

  "I want to know why. You weren't like Sister Daji, a professional undercover agent. Nobody shot you full of drugs and gave you orders to turn. You're the same woman who left Pericles full of commitment and dreams."

  The Sister General looked up at her in disgust. "You're barely nineteen, I think. What can you possibly know? Your ordination was a political show for the benefit of the masses. You have no background in theology, let alone management. What gives you the right to judge me?" '.

  Cass sighed. "The same right Haldayne had to murder and rape and destroy— The same right you, in the end, used to. pervert the scripture and rule Anchor Logh. _I_ have the power, and that gives me the right."

  That stopped the Sister General cold for a moment. Finally she said, "You ask me why. Why are you doing this? Because you see a church corrupted and a people forever stuck in one place. You can't change it. They make you so accountable, send wardens from Holy Anchor to keep tabs on you, to eliminate you if need be. You play the Queen of Heaven's game, and send her her dues, or you don't play at all. So you settle back and enjoy being dictator of your own little world, becoming fat and corrupt like the whole rotten church, or you do something. Anyone who is for the overthrow of the church is on the side of the frustrated. There is less difference between the Seven and the Nine than you realize."