Changewinds 03 - War of the Maelstrom

by Jack L. Chalker

  Even sexually, the world was turned upside down for her, although right side up from most points of view. A few moments before she would have thought the idea of a husband, a man, silly, and as for the idea of desiring and needing a man, ridiculous. Now, strangely, the idea of having not one but many husbands excited her all the more, even turned her on a little.

  The sorcerer helped her out of the chair. "Now go join the others out the back door there and wait in the wagon."

  She got up and went out the door as directed and found a tall, burly, bearded man there next to a covered wagon. He helped her up the back steps, and she appreciated it, and found Putie and the other one already sitting there. Putie looked up at her and smiled. "It's all changed, hasn't it?" she asked in a voice that seemed softer, dreamier, and gentler than before.

  "Yes," Sam replied, her own low voice sounding softer and sexier in her ears. "Isn't it wonderful?"

  * * *

  Boolean, Lord High Sorcerer of Masalur, was royally pissed. "What do you mean, you lost her?"

  Crim's voice came distantly out of the glowing green crystal. "I lost her, that's all. All hell broke loose in Covanti all of a sudden. As near as I can figure out, somehow, Klittichom found out where she was. Not generally—exactly where she was. I don't know how or why, but that's the word I'm getting. That Changewind that roared through was their attempt to nail her."

  "It didn't. I had definite energy readings afterwards showing she was still very much alive and still whole. Then, very abruptly, the readings stopped. Cold. Like she no longer existed. It wasn't the Changewind, so what the hell happened?"

  "I couldn't guess." Crim responded. "It wasn't Klittichom's men. They're all over here now moving heaven and earth to block her exit and nail her. If somebody'd gotten her, the news would spread around here like wildfire."

  Boolean thought for a moment. "I'm still getting some readings indicating that the fetus is whole, a new proto-Storm Princess. But they're weak and vague and don't allow me any sort of location except that she's still somewhere in the hundreds and hundreds of possible worlds of Covanti. That means she's been neither killed nor transformed, which is something, but something upset her matrix, her mathematical perfection that made her a Storm Princess. She's not now. I can only guess she's under some sort of spell that's changed something about her that the matrix deems essential. Timing, is everything now, Crim. You should not have left her."

  "What could I do? They got drawings of a fattened-up Storm Princess at all the exit stations now, and the border's pretty well monitored here. It seemed the easiest way to slip her past, and it was—until that damned Changewind. Now we got a state of emergency here, martial law in the immediate Abrasis area, and a hundred of Klittichom's guns on both sides of the border, not to mention colonial forces out looking for her. The only good thing about this is that they can't find her, either."

  "Well, the radiations from the fetus are enough to convince me that it's no big deal of a spell, nothing that I can't reverse in an instant," Boolean told the Navigator, "but first we have to find her. Arc you in a position to move?"

  "Depends," Crim replied. "I can get around the Changewind mess okay, but they're using the Abrasis estates as the eastern staging ground for their operations into the new region. I'm going to try and get in there from the south if I can and see if I can get any information at all about her, but it's such a mess that they may not let me."

  Boolean sighed. "Well, do what you can. If you can get in and find out where they sent her and what's happened to her, well and good, but don't waste time if you can't."

  "Well, I can't exactly scour the colonies for her when I don't have the slightest idea which one. We don't have years, you know, and lots of the Covanti colonies have their main settlements, even Akhbreed settlements, far from the intersection points."

  "If you can't get anything definite and fast, then don't try," the sorcerer told him. "There is another way. The other group, the one with Charley and Boday, is still headed here. They have suddenly become very important again."

  "But that other girl is no longer a decoy; they're wise to her. And she certainly has no powers."

  "I wasn't thinking about Charley. That crazy artist with the love potion had a legal registry of marriage performed between her and Sam back in Tubikosa. I noticed that they used a connectivity spell for the seal when we treated Sam after pulling her out of Pasedo's. A typical bureaucratic simplicity, but short of death or a Changewind, it'll stick, so there's a tenuous thread of magic energy linking the two. I believe that if I had Boday, I could use that thread to find Sam. That group left Covanti starting for here only yesterday, so if you can't find anything on Sam, or get into the Abrasis estates, then don't bother. I have no way of tracking them now, but I know they went via Ledom, so you ought to be able to pick up their trail from that point. As soon as you reach them, notify me, and I will get them into here."

  "Don't they have a magician with them? Why can't you reach them through him?"

  Boolean gave a dry chuckle. "Dorion? He means well, but he's a total incompetent and a klutz to boot. That's why we sent him with them. He was more than expendable. In any case, they were the decoys. No particular need to have contact with them. Frankly, I didn't think they'd get this far, let alone still be loose or even alive. That's irony for you- Now they're the only hope we have of finding Sam. The clock is running, son. Sam's disappearance and the sudden full restoration of the Storm Princess's powers will not escape Klittichom, but he'll also get the vibrations off the child. He'll figure it the same way. He'll send Hell itself after Boday if he has to, and the worst part of it is, that they've been told the heat's off and they're no longer being chased."

  He snapped his fingers. "Wait a minute! There might be a way to warn them after all, although I'm not sure what good it'll do. I'll give it a try, anyway. In the meantime, you make sure you reach Boday before they get her."

  Crim sighed. "Damn it, they're riding right into the thickest concentration of rebel forces in all Akahlar, and they got one hell of a lead."

  "You don't try, you do it," Boolean responded. "Otherwise Hell itself will be preferable to what will happen next."

  5

  The Darkling Plan

  THE FIRST TWO weeks out on the trail had been surprisingly easy, or so they all felt.

  The colonial world that Halagar had picked for their exit from Covanti had proven comfortable, if a bit rugged. The intersection point, which wasn't something anyone could change, was a region of high, rocky desert, strange and eerie landforms, and little to support a population. The road, of course, was well maintained with a complex series of junctions that apparently took you to anyplace worth being in that world, but Halagar wanted to stay away from the main roads and they certainly had no need of junctions.

  The country seemed even more desolate than the Kudaan Wastes had felt, although that might be hindsight now that they knew some of the Kudaan's secrets and secret places. Still, this was a world that seemed to have no secret places, or towns, or thieves' hideouts, or even anything flying about far above. Even the silence was deafening.

  They had crossed at an unmarked border point, well up and out of sight of the official road and known only to officials of Covanti. None of them were really certain why such an alternate way in was there, except that it might provide a less public entry or exit without going through prying eyes or fooling with officious bureaucrats. And there were more than their share at the "official" crossing; the main road was a rather stiff toll road, to cover the cost of water and grain waysides at the various junctions.

  Halagar kept them well away from that road, on rocky ground without so much as a trail, navigating, it seemed, from old experience. Each night, after they would make a cold camp, he would go off with the horses, leaving the rest of them there, alone, and very nervous. He took the animals to the road under cover of darkness and found the waysides where travelers were not camped, and there was able to feed and water them.
r />   When he first did that, Dorion in particular was nervous, although Halagar did not take Charley, and it provided a chance to have something of a normal conversation.

  "Well, Charley, what do you think so far?" Dorion asked, hoping she was already a bit sick of being treated like one of Halagar's possessions. His hopes were quickly dashed.

  "It's not bad," she responded cheerfully. "I wish I could see, but from your comments I gather I'm almost better off keeping this place in my imagination. I kind'a hoped, though, that he'd take me with him tonight. It must be a lonely and dull job out there in the dark with just horses."

  Dorion translated, rather glumly, for Boday.

  "Boday just hopes he comes back at all," the artist grumbled. "There is something about that man that gives her unease. She has seen his type too many times in the back rooms and dark alleys of Tubikosa's entertainment district. No man, or woman for that matter, remains so handsome and so competent after all that experience without it costing something in the soul."

  "Well. he didn't sell it, anyway," Dorion commented. "That's something I could pick up, and even Charley might be able to see. He has a few magic charms and amulets for various minor protections, but nothing else. They aren't much, but he chose them well. No, he's always been like that. A charmed life, everything going his way. That's why I accepted his offer to take us the rest of the way."

  "Bah! Sooner or later all that unnatural luck will be used up, and he will be collecting the unpaid balance of disasters," Boday responded.

  Dorion chuckled. "If there was justice in the world none of us would be here now, or need to be," he pointed out dolefully.

  "I think he's just wonderful," Charley said, sighing. "If I could only see, I'd go with him on my own in a minute. I might anyway."

  "As his personal slave?" Dorion was shocked.

  She shrugged. "What the hell is better for somebody like me? This world always seems to be trying to eat anybody with ambitions alive. Let's say we get to Boolean, he restores my sight and takes away the slave ring, then he and Sam go off and beat the bad guys and have a real happy ending to all this business. Then what? I can barely speak the language, I can't read or write it, and probably never will. I have no magical powers or knowledge or abilities, and only one sure way of making money. The only independent women seem to be ones with magic powers or who are educated in something that's useful here. I'm stuck back in the Middle Ages, and that means you find a strong and powerful guy to hitch on to."

  When Boday got the gist of it, Dorion had some problems with the term "Middle Ages" since it meant nothing to him—she spat and responded, "You have more potential than you realize! That breast halter you created back in Tubikosa should tell you that! Such ideas mean money, and a woman with money in Akahlar is in many ways as powerful as a man with money. Men may have the power, but most men are for sale if you just find the right price."

  Charley chuckled. "The bra, you mean. I didn't exactly invent that, but, yeah, you're right. I probably could come up with a lot of good ideas for the women of Akahlar, since nobody else seems to be bothering, but it would mean going back, building a stake, settling down, and, somehow, that's not what I find appealing. It's pretty much what I set out to do a million years ago back home, I guess, but it hasn't got the same appeal here. No movies, no TV, no pink Mercedes and Dior gowns and all the ways you show off your wealth or realty enjoy it, and I couldn't even really run the thing. I'd need somebody Just to write a letter or make a sale or sign a contract or just write the instructions for whatever I came up with. And for what? So I could live in a place that got the cool breeze and maybe had inside plumbing and a couple of erratic electric lamps and where, no matter how much money I had or how many princes I could buy, I'd still be looked on as a low-class common whore. Uh-uh. If I'm gonna be in a place like this, it may as well be with a classy Conan out seein' and conquering the world."

  Dorion tried to translate, but when he got to "movies" and "TV" he became exasperated. "You must stop using those alien terms," he told her. "Where is Shadowcat? At least with Shadowcat you can project your thoughts and save me this mental torture!"

  Charley frowned. Where was Shadowcat? She relaxed and sent her mind out to find him, expecting to tune into some night tableau she'd rather not see with the big tomcat stalking or devouring some cute little desert creature, but she was receiving nothing. Where was he? Why couldn't she summon him or see with his eyes?

  She'd taken him for granted up to now, hadn't really thought much about him, but this was worrisome. "I can't seem to make contact with him," she told Dorion.

  "Huh? That means he's out of range. I hope he has enough sense not to get lost in this territory. He's a familiar, he can't survive indefinitely without you."

  That worried her. "I never knew there was a range, or that he could survive without me at all."

  "Oh, the contact spell of that sort is basically line of sight. He could still find you, though, the two of you are psychically linked, if he could catch up with you before his psychic energy was depleted. If he could find someone of the same blood type who was willing, he could probably survive for a week on his own, maybe longer, but it wouldn't be the same as if it were you, and he'd draw less and less each time until he couldn't get enough to keep going. I'm afraid I don't remember much about that course beyond that, but I do know he'd have trouble finding anybody with any blood type in this forsaken place. Don't worry, he'll be back at the last minute tomorrow morning as usual."

  "Yeah, maybe," she responded, still worried.

  He decided to redirect the conversation back to its roots to take her mind off the cat. "I'm still amazed that you'd consider going with him, even if I admitted your points. I don't know if you noticed it, but he has a rather odd effect on you. You stop being yourself and just become that vacant-eyed, empty-headed courtesan."

  "Yeah, I know. I can remember all that when I'm me, but I can't remember me when I'm her, if that makes any sense. It's actually easier that way. It bothered me at first, but now I find it, well, sort'a convenient. There's not much conversation in this kind of riding, even if I could get into it, and I'm not equipped for sightseeing, so I'd just be sitting there getting bounced around and brooding and feelin' sorry for myself and maybe going nuts. Maybe that's what triggers Shari around him; I dunno. But Shari, now, she isn't a real person, sort of, at all. She's got no ego of any kind; she exists only in reaction to somebody else. Except in the courtesan role, where she's still on a kind of automatic: she doesn't brood, she doesn't wonder, she doesn't really think at all she just exists. She doesn't even have any sense of time or place. I tell you I'm scared to death, I been scared to death most of the time since I got here. Not thinking for all the boring times just makes things more peaceful, that's all."

  "But if you were with him all the time you'd be like that all the time," he pointed out. "To me, you might as well be dead."

  She shrugged. "Maybe. He's not the type to be around all the time, though. Maybe you're right, though. I'm just not the type to kill myself, the old way I was raised still has hold of me, I guess. Maybe just becoming Shari is a way out that gets around that. There's a way that only Sam and me know that forces me to become Shari and just Shari. There's been lots of times when I was tempted to use it, to solve all my problems, and nobody could ever know how to get me back."

  He was shocked. "Don't do that! In the name of all the gods, don't even think of doing that' I don't think I ever saw anyone so smart and capable as you, who had such a low opinion of themself. Besides, what about your friend Sam? What about all this impending conflict we're trying to avoid?"

  "I no longer care about Storm Princesses and Changewinds and the like. It's not my fight, Dorion. It's never been my fight. For a while I was a decoy, and all that did was almost get me carried away by a monster and scared to show my face in public. Now, well, I heard it being talked about back in Covanti hub. They know I'm not Sam, so that's it. My one remaining bit of usefulness to your caus
e and boss is over already. I can't lift a sword, I can't see to shoot anybody, and it would take a second and a half for a wizard to turn me into a toad or something. It's like atomic bombs back home. I was against them, and scared that one of two old guys could destroy the world in a flash, but there wasn't anything I could do about it. And I don't think protests and petitions would do as much here as they did back there, which was nothing."

  "And Sam?"

  She sighed. "Don't translate this for Boday, since I don't need shit fits right now by anybody, least of all her, but if I hadn't been around Boday all the time I wouldn't think of Sam at all any more, and I don't think of her much anyway. We were teenagers together, yeah, a million years ago, but my life got shorted out because I went beyond the call of duty to help her and got sucked here with her, and since that time we've gone such different ways that I don't think we have anything except the old times in common any more. It's like somebody in the neighborhood when you were growing up they're not a part of your life any more. She got me into this, and since that time I been ying-yanged around and here I am and I'm stuck. Stuck in this world, stuck in this class, stuck blind and mostly dumb to most everybody. Yeah, I hope she gives some meaning to all this by getting to Boolean, becoming the Storm Princess, being a combination of Mommie and Joan of Arc, becoming rich and famous and powerful and a legend in her own time, but it's nothing to me. To me, she's as remote as Boolean and less interesting, who's done nothing but mess up my life, and I have to take the cards I was dealt and live my own life. I just don't give a damn about Sam."

  Dorion didn't translate, but he opened his mouth to reply and then closed it again. There wasn't really'anything to say. In her own way, she was absolutely right—this was no longer her fight and there seemed nothing at all she could do from this point, and she had little cause to love Sam or bother with all these matters of high importance. Struck by her beauty, personality, and intelligence, he'd put her on a kind of pedestal, never really considering just how much a helpless victim she was in all this, how totally out of control of her life she had been since being caught in the maelstrom with Sam. It was a shock to realize that she was not here out of choice, nor because she was any more part of it, nor did she really even have a stake in meeting Boolean, in having curses lifted or anything else. She was here only because that slave ring ordered her to be; she had no choice. She'd had no real choices since coming here, and not much chance of future freedom, either. In Akahlar, her intelligence wasn't a blessing but a curse, since she understood her situation full well and had no real hope or stake in much of anything. No wonder she envied being Shari! She couldn't even marry and have children, Boday's long-ago alchemy had seen to that.