Changewinds 03 - War of the Maelstrom

by Jack L. Chalker

  And that, of course, was the crux of the whole battle to come- Klittichom and the Storm Princess together could somehow summon a Changewind to any spot they chose; the Princess could then do what even the greatest and most powerful sorcerer, demon, or magical creature could not; she could direct even that great storm, at least to a degree. Not what it could do, of course—that was beyond anyone to predict or determine—but it didn't really matter to Klittichom what it did. It changed, it transformed, it replaced for all time (or until the next Changewind) what it touched, and if you could send such a storm roaring into the hubs of the Akhbreed, even their greatest sorcerers and spells could not stop it or even slow it down. And if you had a rebel army, well armed, well trained, and united in its hatred of the Akhbreed, following that storm quickly in, before even those who could get shelter had come back up, you would have an enemy army in your midst that perhaps even sorcery could do nothing against.

  Halagar checked out everything, then put Charley up on the saddle and climbed on behind her. At the last moment a small, fast shape darted out from the shadows and leaped on to the big saddle where Charley and Halagar sat. Halagar was startled, and reached around her to pick up the creature and throw it off.

  "No!" Dorion shouted. "They need each other. Remember that' The cat is a familiar and essential to her well-being."

  The mercenary hesitated, then sighed. "All right," he growled, "but I'll not have a cat in my way here."

  "Cats will do what they want to do—particularly this cat," the magician told him. "He will stay out of your way generally, and he will hold on as he must. But they go together, the girl and the cat. It is both or neither."

  Shadowcat spent some time figuring out a comfortable place, irritated that his carrier sling was not fixed, but finally found a position that would do right against Charley and settled in, oblivious to argument.

  "All right," Halagar growled at last. "But he better stay out of my way and hang on or he will be cat meat no matter what you say."

  Dorion and Boday mounted their own steeds, and Dorion looked around at me luxury and comfort they were leaving and gave one last sigh, and then they were off, heading back into dangers worse than any yet faced. The only solace, and it was cold comfort to him, was that within a few more short weeks they would either be with Booleanor in Hell.

  3

  Practice Session

  ETANALON WAS STARTLED to find Crim relaxing on her living room couch when she awoke, even though her magical sense told her that this was no enemy. No one, and nothing, could pass her threshold without being invited, and she'd never seen this fellow before. Most disturbing was that she got the same feeling from the stranger as from the pretty woman who was there the night before.

  "Don't be alarmed," he said reassuringly. "I am Crim, Kira's other half, you might say."

  Etanalon frowned. "A curse? A very strong one, by the looks of it."

  Crim nodded. "Kira resides within me as a passive passenger by day, and I inside her by night. It was a bargain to save her life, and, while inconvenient at times, it has not been a terrible thing. I believe, knowing what we do now, that we would still have made the choice."

  Etanalon looked thoughtful. "Fascinating. A strong, handsome man of the world and a beautiful young slip of a thing. … Yet, listening to you and feeling your energies, I can see how intertwined the patterns are. I can also understand why Boolean chose you for this task. You have grown much alike, one to me other."

  Crim's eyebrows rose, "Really? Nobody ever said that before."

  "Not in the mere physical or sexual sense, but where it counts. In your manner of speech, choice of words, radiation of strength. I see not two auras there but more a greater whole. You have her memories, her innermost thoughts, and she yours?"

  He nodded. "Yes. That was the hardest part at first. There was almost a descent into madness until such things could be sorted out and dealt with."

  "Many would not have had the strength to do so. Almost all who know you both believe you to be separate people, I suspect. Perhaps you still think that way yourself; but you are not. In spite of what you say, the auras tell me that she does not ride with you now, nor you with her last night. I would have known. There were two of you once, quite different, but you escaped madness not by acceptance but by becoming as one. When you are a man, big and strong in the daylight and with the body's natural masculinity, you interact with the world as totally male; when you are a beautiful woman by night, you interact with the world as totally female, but you carry the same mind, aura, and inner strength in both incarnations. You have made a fascinating, almost unique, adjustment. Every male has some feminine aspect to one degree or another or they would be mere brutes, and every female has some male aspect to one degree or another or they would lack the hardness to survive on their own. Only in you, it is equal and without a dominant side."

  Crim thought about that. "Maybe. I hadn't really thought about it that way. I certainly never felt attracted to other men, nor Kira to other women, though."

  "Each aspect dominates with the body you wear," the sorceress noted. "That is how you avoid madness and enjoy what you have no control over becoming, but each of you draws what is needed from the other aspect. Strange, is it not, that you, who are truly two opposites in one, have no sense of confusion, while the girl, who is herself a single individual, does. Indeed, many would feel threatened or uncomfortable by you if they knew, yet I get the impression you actually enjoy the duality and would feel its loss greatly. Yet even you are uneasy with the nature of our out-planer Storm Princess."

  He nodded. "It does make me uncomfortable, but I can't really explain why."

  "Her situation is not as uncommon as we tend to think it is. It is only that it is out in the open with her that is uncommon. Sex is such a complex thing, such a part of us, both physical and mental, and yet, next to eating and sleeping, it is the most overpowering thing about us. The wonder is not that it goes awry now and then, but that it does not in so many more of us. Still, the combination, physical and mental, biology and environment, is complex and filled with countless variables. Hence, we get the pedophile and the nymphomaniac, the sexual murderer or sadomasochist and we get the impotent and frigid. The variations are endless. One wonders what the so-called 'normal' folk who would condemn her do in their own beds, or in the brothels and entertainment districts. Take any crowd of men and women and you will have a vast horde of sexually abnormal folk there, far more than her relatively minor situation. No one realty cares, so long as it is swept under the covers and out of sight, any more than anyone really cares about your own true nature unless it is brought forcefully to their attention. Would a man attracted to Kira lie comfortably with her if he knew that in the morning she would be a tall, strapping, muscular and masculine Navigator? Would the women who swoon over you react the same if they knew that at sunset you would become more beautiful and feminine than they? I think not."

  He shrugged. "It is true that I feel more comfortable the few who know my situation, and we have encountered far stranger aberrations in bed than we would have dreamed of otherwise. But we are a special case. Barring the unlikely meeting and compatibility of our opposite number, who might be female by day and male by night and both parts attracted to the other, we are best living somewhat separated lives. She, though, is not cursed."

  "Of course she is! Not by magic spell, perhaps, but by being different in a way that society strongly disapproves. Still, so long as she hid it, from society, even from herself, she could function—except that she was neither happy nor comfortable hiding. Like Kira inside Crim or Crim inside Kira, it was creating great stress and unhappiness and had the potential to drive her mad, a potential almost realized in her initial situation with this potion-created mate of hers, and after, where she has always taken the easy way out to flee her own inner demons. She has been victimized repeatedly here by an inner drive to forget who and what she was, to cease her own growth as a person. Many people can afford that lux
ury, although it is difficult to see how it is a positive thing. She can not. She has a destiny from which she can not run, and if she tries then it will destroy her."

  Crim nodded. "So you decided that she had to like what she was and feel confident and comfortable with it, no matter what the social cost."

  "In the end, it was she that did it. I simple removed the fear inside her, the social inhibitions that stood in the way of her accomplishing what she must. She now is happy with herself and absolutely uncaring about what others think about it. With that comfort comes confidence. Her ego, which the inhibitions kept fragmented and weak, strengthens constantly now. She will probably grow less pleasant and a lot harder to take, I fear, but this is the sort of person needed to stand up to the challenges ahead."

  It was late afternoon when Sam finally woke, after the best sleep she could remember having in a very long time. Her old memories, her complete self, was back, but she didn't think about that past too much because it wasn't all that pleasant. In fact, it was almost an alien past, really; she could hardly believe how fucked up in the head she'd been all her life.

  A fragment of a Golden Oldie song from that past rumbled through her mind, though, and she found herself humming it. You can't please everyone, so you gotta please yourself. Not, however, that she was particularly thrilled with the situation as it now stood. Now that she finally felt comfortably at peace with herself, she wanted to go out and pick up her life and do things and see things and enjoy that life. but her changed attitude towards herself hadn't changed the situation at all.

  She was still a fugitive, still lined up for a battle she didn't really know much about or what was expected of her or how to fight it, and she was still pregnant to boot and none of that had changed.

  Oddly, it was the pregnancy that dominated her thoughts. She preferred to think that she got knocked up that first time, when it was her own will and choice, and that this was no rapist's child, but it didn't really matter. The kid was still a kid no matter what the father had been.

  The crazy thing was, in spite of it all, she liked the idea that she was going to have a baby- She wanted that child more than she had ever wanted anything in her whole life, but it stuck her between a rock and a hard place. If she didn't go into this fully, if she didn't face down this Storm Princess and beat her at her own game, then the child had very little future and she even less of one. She wasn't scared for herself, but what if it came down to victory or the child? That slimy, horned bastard always knew the weak points in anybody's armor, and it was a real concern.

  But everybody had weak points. Even this guy Klittichorn must have them, or he wouldn't have had to take so long and be so sneaky to get to this point. Maybe the trick wasn't to dwell on the weak points but just try and cover them as much as you could and instead concentrate on your strengths. Or maybe use the weakness; the child inside gave her incentive to win, a motivation to dominate those forces that threatened her. Frankly, she wanted to take on her opposite number right now, one on one, and get it over with, but that wasn't the way things worked.

  Damn it, I need a gynecologist, not a green-robed sorcerer, she though sourly. Etanalon was different, she was kind of a shrink, and she certainly was at least as effective as any of the shrinks back home. She just didn't make any bones about working voodoo and doing it with mirrors, that was all. This was different.

  She sighed, pulled on the old dress, and wandered into the main house. Baths were few and far between here, but at least breakfast was still breakfast.

  "I wish you would join with us," she heard Crim saying, presumably to Etanalon. She walked into the living room and saw the two of them sitting there, talking.

  "At the moment; no," the sorceress responded. "I have retired from all that. Someone else must save the world once in a while. I'm tired and pretty welt disgusted with the affairs of kings and back-room magicians. Grotag had a meeting just the other day to press for a united front against Boolean, who he is convinced is the really dangerous one. Many of the others who are still sane enough to care agree with him." She broke off the line of conversation and turned to Sam. "Well, hello! How are you feeling?"

  "All right, I guess," Sam replied. "Not as ready to take on the world as yesterday, and maybe a little over-tired, I dunno. At least now I know that the reason I been feelin' so weak and washed out lately is the kid. Any chance of getting something to eat? I'll fix it if you tell me where all the stuff is."

  Etanalon chuckled. "No need. Sit there in the chair and just think of what you're most in the mood to eat."

  Sam sat, and it wasn't hard to come up with a vision of breakfast, even if it was late in the afternoon. Lots of hot cakes, melted butter, real sausages, maybe with some fruit and powdered sugar, with a pitcher of orange juice, fresh squeezed. It had been a long, long time since she'd had a real breakfast like that.

  Suddenly, in front of her, was a stand-alone tray with dishes containing just exactly what she'd dreamed of. It was a startling appearance, and she jumped, almost spoiling it by knocking it over. "Hey!" she shouted in surprise.

  "Relax," Etanalon told her. "There are several advantages to being a sorceress. No shopping, cooking, cleaning, dusting unless you want to. Go ahead, it's real. You bite it. it doesn't bite you."

  Sam stared at it for a moment, though. In all the time she'd been in Akahlar, she'd seen demonic spells and mystic potions and strange and magical creatures, but she had never until this moment truly seen flat-out magic. The smell of the food and her hunger drove out any further hesitation, though, and she tore into it. Still, as real as it seemed and as good as it was, it just seemed, well, impossible. You didn't get something for nothing, that she'd learned.

  Etanalon seemed to read her thoughts. "Sorry, I forgot. You haven't had much experience face to face with Second Rank personnel, have you? If you want the complete technique and its complexities I can give it to you, although it will do you no good. Only those with the power can do it, and only those with a great amount of power and control can do it that effortlessly. No, it is not materialized out of nowhere; I simply took the image from your mind, extrapolated the ingredients, and then did a simple matter-energy-matter transformation on it. So long as we have molecules of anything, even air, to work with it's not that hard."

  "You sure don't have to worry where your next meal is coming from," Sam agreed between bites. "Uh, you get hold of Boolean?"

  Crim nodded. "I made the call early this morning using the witchstone. He agrees with you that it is far too dangerous for you to attempt the last leg to him at this point. The lands between here and there are filled with colonial rebels, and they have figured out that Charley isn't you, which is good for her but means you're the sole object of everybody's attention now."

  "Yeah, thanks a lot," she responded glumly. "Uh, does that mean they got Charley? I mean, we've heard so little…."

  "No, right now they're safe, and even in Covanti," Crim told her. "But they have already crossed the null and are heading towards Tishbaal. A pity; had we known we might have linked up again to form a company of sons."

  She sighed. "Yeah, I could really have used them now, just for shoulders to cry on. All right, so what's his idea for us?"

  "We know that Klittichom is planning something, but we aren't sure what," Crim said. "Spies in the lower ranks of Marepek, which is Klittichom's domain in the frozen north, report that he and the Storm Princess left there a day ago. No one is quite certain where to, although there are rumors of some sort of fortress or redoubt Klittichorn has used in the past when he wants absolute secrecy."

  "You're tellin' me that we don't know where they are?" He nodded. "That's about the size of it. We don't even know if they're heading for this fortress, even if we knew where it was. They could be headed here, or anywhere." "Yeah, but how far could they have gotten in just a day?" "A lot farther than you seem to think," Etanalon put in. "Do not forget that he is a master sorcerer. Within certain complicated limits we can move very far very fast
if we have to."

  "Oh, yeah? Then how come I been goin' through Hell to get even this close to Boolean? And why hasn't Boolean just used this power to get to me?"

  "Klittichom has convinced many of the sorcerers of the Second Rank that Boolean is the threat," The sorceress reminded her. "Boolean can't move without some of his colleagues knowing where and when. If he were to leave now it would simply cement in the minds of many Akhbreed sorcerers that he is deserting his position and is indeed behind what is happening. He can take Klittichom, or so he believes, but not several sorcerers of that rank working in concert against him. I believe he is fairly itching to break free, and has been for some time, but he dares not until forced to do so, and that means waiting for Klittichom to either make a move or make a mistake."

  Sam discovered that this was indeed a magical breakfast. So long as she was still hungry, the moment she cleaned the plate it was renewed. She enjoyed it without guilt, knowing this might be the last decent meal for a while. "So, we're back to square one, like all the shit we were put through never happened. I can't get to him and he can't get to me and we don't know where the enemy is. So where does that leave me?"

  "Not here," Crim responded. "That's a small town down their and the odds are pretty good that within a short period of time our entry into Covanti hub and village curiosity are going to come together and reach the ears of folks we don't want to know about us. Right now we're going to pick a comfortable colony east of here which doesn't border on Tishbaaf and lie low. When Klittichom tries something it will take energy—lots of energy. Boolean is monitoring all over and he hopes to be able to trace it when it comes. Then we can move on them."