“You better,” Nadya murmured. “Uh—have you tried it out yet?”
Suzl giggled. “No, but I plan to. Better shape up, girls—I’m the man around here, pardon the bosoms.”
“It doesn’t make any difference out here what sex you are,” Cass put in, stirring from her chair where she sat. “There doesn’t seem to be any men’s or women’s jobs—just jobs. That’s why you two won’t have problems, except maybe getting picked up by the wrong people in bars.”
“I’m swearing off bars for a while,” Dar told her. “So far I’ve been in two and both haven’t been exactly great experiences.”
They were about to go further when there was a sharp knocking on the hotel door. It startled them, because they weren’t expecting anybody or anything as yet. Cass got up and went to the door, opened it, and found Matson standing there. He looked at her and frowned as if slightly puzzled at her new look, but he recovered quickly. “We won’t have to detour to Pericles after all,” he told them. “The old boy I wanted to see is here in the hotel right now. He and some friends of his want to see all four of you in one hour, Room 224. Be there and we can settle this as far as we’re concerned.”
“We’ll be there,” Cass assured him. She hesitated a moment, then asked, “Like the new look?”
“Hadn’t noticed,” he responded curtly, turned, and walked down the hall. Crestfallen, she watched him go down the stairs.
“That rat,” Nadya commented, and she turned and shook her head.
“No, he’s not a rat, just, well, unobtainable in the long term.” The ironic thing was, although they didn’t seem to know it, she had obtained the unobtainable from him, knowing that he was as out of reach as ever.
“What’s that all about?” Suzl asked.
“Probably another thing like the trial we told you about. Give the same information to a bunch of powerful wizards and then they’ll decide something or other about Haldayne and Persellus. After today it won’t concern us, though.”
Dar sighed and looked down at Suzl. “Well,” he said hopefully, “we still have an hour to kill.”
Room 224 turned out to be a large rectangular end room that was obviously rarely used as a place for anyone to stay but rather for small receptions and gatherings. It had been set up in this case with a head table in the front and a dozen or so folding chairs for ah audience. Matson was there, as were two other stringers—the dark woman Cass had seen when they’d arrived and another, a huge, beefy man with a full beard and cold brown eyes.
Also present were two duggers, obviously the chief train drivers for the other two. One was totally reptilian, down to being covered in green, scaly skin and having a snout-like face with fangs, sex indeterminable, while the other was a man whose skin was all blotched and twisted, like a long-dead corpse. The foursome sat with the duggers, nervously eyeing the reptilian one. They didn’t care so much any more about the walking corpse—he looked too much like a couple of duggers in their own train.
Soon, three people entered. The first was an elderly man with long, flowing gray beard and hair that looked as if it had not only never been cut, but also never washed, combed, or otherwise cared for. He used a short cane to walk on, and seemed slow and stooped with age and infirmity. It was hard to imagine him as a wizard of power like the handsome Haldayne.
The second was a young looking woman with a rather attractive face, although she was only a meter high, had bright green skin and dark green hair, and shell-like ears, while the third was a very fat man with a nearly bald round head who looked more than slightly drunk. None were the sort of people who inspired confidence and dynamic leadership by their every look and gesture.
They took their seats up front, the old one with difficulty, and for a moment said nothing, just looked out on those whom they had summoned. Finally the fat man and the tiny green woman looked over at the old one and he nodded absently. “The room and its contents are clean, although we have a Soul Rider present,” he croaked in a voice that was barely audible to them. Cass jumped a little at that but decided to hold her peace for now. “That is either a very good sign or a very ominous one, depending on how you look at it.” The other two nodded slightly in agreement.
“Now, then,” the old one continued, “I am Mervyn, the lovely one here is Tatalane, and on the other end is Krupe.” He brought up his cane like a rifle, and from it shot a tremendous spray of yellowish white energy. It struck the walls, then coated them as if a living thing, then floor and ceiling as well. When it passed under their feet it gave a very mild numbing sensation that lasted only when you were in direct contact with it. “These proceedings are now sealed,” Mervyn told them. “What proceeds is for our ears alone. Although only three of our fellowship of nine are present, it is sufficient for action in this matter. I am going to call upon each of you to tell me the various facts that you know directly in this matter. We will begin with the attack on the Arden train. Mr. Matson first, if you please.”
Matson stood and gave a general, brief description of the discovery of the train, its grisly contents, and his conclusions from that evidence. Then Suzl and Nadya were called upon to supplement, then Cass up to the time she’d been knocked out, and, finally, Dar. He was hesitant in telling his part in the story and his feelings at the time, but this was brushed aside by Mervyn. “Just the outline,” the old one told him, “no moralizing or excuses. We are aware of what happened. We are reading your reactions when these things are called up in your mind.”
Eventually, in this fashion, step by step, the entire story was told to them. The three listened passively, prompting only when necessary, and made no comments or gestures at anything told them or not told them. Ultimately, with the impressions of Persellus gleaned from Dar, Suzl, Nadya, and Matson, the tale was told.
The three then lapsed into deep thought, not apparently conferring or even showing awareness of the others’ presence, but finally Mervyn said,
“Stringers Hollus and Brund, what do you think of this?”
“Sounds like Haldayne, all right,” the bearded stringer commented. “Cheeky bastard to use his own name like that, though.”
“Yes, isn’t it? And you, Hollus?”
“I never had a run-in with him, but it’s clear to me that he ordered the deliberate murder of a stringer and took control of a valuable crossroads. This cannot be allowed.”
The two duggers were also called on for opinions. Both, except for wishing to avenge the duggers more than Arden, echoed Hollus.
“If we were to take on Haldayne, it would require not only the three of us but an army,” Mervyn told them. “There are enough raw souls in a land that size to make its retaking very hard. Knowing Haldayne, he would never take us on directly, but he would make his minions, his conquests, and his would-be conquerors pay dearly for each tiny bit of Fluxland. We see only two choices. Either we retake Persellus bloodily, or we act to seal it off completely and totally reconfigure the trade routes. That is, isolate it and write it off.”
There was some consternation among all three stringers at that. “You can’t just reconfigure those routes!” Matson protested. “It would take years to reestablish new patterns and get word to everyone. Not to mention the fact that it would take one of you near there permanently just to make sure his buddies didn’t break through and unseal the land.”
“And yet the object of this exercise seems to be to draw us into a direct confrontation,” Tatalane said, speaking for the first time. “He deliberately invites attention by moving this madman and then exhorting him to attack the stringers. He could clearly see the string on Cass and could have easily eliminated it, but instead he allowed it to remain, meaning certain discovery of the pocket. He changed his shape absolutely while in the pocket, yet seemed to go out of his way to display his manner, his ring, and his left-handedness to Cass. Any one of these might be overlooked, but the combination was certain to rouse suspicion. Even so, when he could stay out of her way, he deliberately places himself in close contac
t with her in Persellus, then, when she could still prove nothing, sends four inept minions to subdue her, thereby proving her story. Clearly, too, Matson was allowed to see and then escape when it would have been child’s play for Haldayne to have taken him, his train, and Cass.”
“Well said,” Mervyn approved. “So he did everything but raise a flag to cover the sky of World saying, ‘Here I Am—Come and Get Me!’ He wants a fight, that is certain. He knows who and what he’d be facing. That, too, leads to two different possibilities. Either he is certain he can win, or he wishes to lose. It is that simple.”
Cass frowned. Why would anyone want to lose a battle?
“Good point,” Mervyn responded, as if she’d spoken aloud. “Why, indeed would someone want to lose a battle? Perhaps to prove to us that we saw a danger, met it, and vanquished the evil? Then we would all go our merry ways, satisfied in a job well done, and look elsewhere for the next evil. We would overlook what Haldayne really does not wish us to see.”
“But what could that be?” Hollus asked him. “I know the crazy man said they were going to attack the gate, if there is one, but I didn’t think that was possible.”
“Insofar as we know, the Guardians of the Gates of Hell have never been defeated or even tricked,” Mervyn assured her. “Nevertheless, the conclusion is inescapable. Remember, however, that we know the location only of four of the seven gates. We do not know how many the Seven might know of—perhaps all—nor what they might have accomplished on one or more. The conclusion is inescapable. There is a gate lying between Persellus and Anchor Logh. We must assume that, somehow, Haldayne has access to and perhaps control of that gate no matter what logic says to the contrary. That is what he wishes to hide from us.”
“So what do you propose?” Matson asked him directly. He was growing impatient with the long-winded theorizing.
“We must recapture Persellus, if only to do what he expects,” the wizard told them. “We must also find out what he knows that we do not.”
“But it could also just be a trap for the three of us,” Tatalane argued. “What if it is—and he wins?”
Mervyn shrugged. “Then we will know at least that the gate is still secure and our successors on the Nine will know and avenge us. But if he loses, then the gate is open to Hell. Haldayne has six of the seven combinations to open the gates. Hell has most certainly worked out the seventh after all this time. If he has a way in, if he can talk to the horrors of Hell, he will have all seven and need only control of the physical gates to open them. My friends, this is grave. We dare not ignore it.”
Mervyn thought a bit more. “Hollus, have you enough duggers able to follow strings to get to Domura, Salapaca, and Modon?”
She looked back at the reptilian dugger, who nodded.
“Brund? Can you take the alarm to Zlydof, Roarkara, and Fideleer?”
The bearded man did not consult his dugger. “No problem.”
“Are you all three willing to avenge your slain comrades?”
The three stringers huddled in whispers for a moment. Finally, Matson said, “We are agreed that this thing can’t be allowed to go on. Otherwise everybody will be doing it.”
Cass smiled slightly at that. That, really, was the feared stringer, the terror of Anchor and Flux— one who saw all World as a giant ledger sheet, the battling storekeeper who would leave his lady’s body to rot in the void but take strong action when his trade was inconvenienced. How utterly romantic.
“Matson,” Mervyn continued, “your train will be the point and guard along the route from here to there. We will supply equipment, explosives, and fifty good fighters to staff your outpost, all at least minor wizards.”
“Will they take orders?” he asked sourly.
“They will because we will tell them to. You three also have between you almost two hundred young people from Anchor ready for the block. We will remold them and use them.”
That got the stringers upset again. “Who’s going to pay for all this?” they all demanded to know.
“Who is going to buy them if we tell them not to?” Mervyn responded with a slight smirk. “However, we guarantee you an equal number for the market out of conquest if we lose them. Further, we will ourselves fill any specific goods orders intended to be picked up in the old Persellus. That should restore a tidy bit.”
Mollified, the stringers sat down once more.
“Hollus, Brund, you will work with Tatalane in getting these new troops into line. Hollus knows Haldayne, which should simplify matters a good deal, while you, Brund, are particularly gifted with explosives, their transportation and use. This will have to be done in a newly created pocket between here and Persellus. There should be no traffic in either direction between Haldayne, Matson, and you, so it should be perfect—and private. We also have two Anchors to draw upon and I intend to do so. Since the four of you appear human and will pass muster at the gates, I am detaching you temporarily from Matson’s service. I hate to break up a happy couple, but Dar and Nadya must accompany Krupe to Anchor Abehl, as we have no one from there here to assist. Because both Suzl and Cass have direct knowledge not only of the Anchor but the Temple of Anchor Logh, you two will come with me to Anchor Logh. There are things I must know there.”
They all four looked at each other in some distress. “I think I know the Temple as good as Suzl,” Nadya responded. “Why split up the teams?”
“Please do not waste time second-guessing me. We must move and move quickly. Do you not think that at this very moment Haldayne’s spies aren’t going mad trying to penetrate the shield on this room? However, just this once, I will explain that the rather unusual aspects of two of you are required for effect in Anchor, and both of you cannot be in the same place when the places you might be needed are three hundred kilometers apart.”
Dar looked at Suzl, who shrugged and grinned. “Have fun. I know I will!”
He grinned back. “Yeah. I always wanted to see the inner sanctums of a Temple.”
“This Council is now adjourned,” Mervyn pronounced, “and will convene again in twenty-seven days at the proper points around Persellus. With divine help, perhaps we can convene once again in Persellus. Normal precautions have been taken so that details of this meeting cannot be picked from your minds. However, it is essential that we all get to our work and out of Globbus as soon as possible, for while compromise is inevitable we need not give the demon any advantage.”
The energy field retreated, flowing first back into the walls, then along them and back, it seemed, into Mervyn’s cane. Cass and Suzl went up and approached the old wizard, as the others approached and talked to their appointed leaders and guardians. The wizard’s eyes, an enigma from a distance, seemed surprisingly sharp and full of life and energy up close. “Go, get your packs, sign out at the hotel desk, and wait for me there. We will go together. I rather imagine you are looking forward to this.”
“I’m not too thrilled with asking the Sister General for help,” Cass responded honestly, “but at least I’ll have the chance to get word to my family that I’m all right. It’ll be a shock to anyone who knows us to see us again. I don’t know anyone who ever met anyone who went out in the Paring Rite and returned.”
“I’m just gonna have fun,” Suzl told him. “I can sure defile their holy Temple and surprise a whole lot of people.”
“It is true that this is an unprecedented event for Anchor Logh, but this whole business is unprecedented. Win or lose, I fear that our dear World is going to come in for some severe changes by the time this is all resolved,” the wizard said seriously.
“Damn. And before I saw most of it the way it is now,” Cass muttered.
They left him and went immediately back to their rooms. Nadya caught up with Cass as they approached their door. “Tough luck. But we’ll get together again. I sure would like to get back home and rub it in their noses, though.”
Cass nodded. “I know—but I’d much rather be going back with an army than to get one. I still can�
�t believe Anchor would ever send forces into Flux, not even on the request of the Nine Who Guard. We shall see. At least you can tell me what another Anchor is like. I’ve been curious to see how much they’re the same and how they differ.”
“Not like Fluxlands, that’s for sure. Not with the church in such control—huh?”
Suddenly the lights in the room went out, and both felt extreme dizziness and a sense of falling. Nadya recovered in what seemed like only a few moments, and looked around. The lights were back on, the door was closed—and Cass was nowhere to be seen.
Cass drifted in a dreamy, uncaring fog neither asleep nor awake, not dreaming, not thinking, but just so, so relaxed….
After a while there were voices, distant and indistinct at first but growing clearer with time. She heard them, a man’s and a woman’s voices, but it made no impression on her.
“She is well protected,” said the woman clinically.
“She has improved her looks a good deal,” the man’s voice noted. “I guess she really is in love with that stringer. Ah! Unrequited love! Takes me back to my youth.”
“You never had a youth, love. Still, we won’t get it by spell. That leaves it in my department. Good thing a drug is a drug.”
“So long as we keep it that way and there’s nobody around to counteract it. It’s simple and direct.”
The woman seemed to be fumbling with something, and there was a mild pricking sensation on her arm. They waited a while, just chatting pleasantly. “Lucky for you I was here. Your crude methods would have killed her before she talked.”
“Luck had nothing to do with it. I summoned you because I needed your help. Geniuses are few and far between, my love.”
The woman snorted. “She’s under but good. Let’s get that spell off her.” There was a sudden tingling, and Cass felt herself being drawn back to reality.
She was aware of everything, of every noise, feeling, sensation, more aware of such things than she had ever been.
Spirits of Flux and Anchor Page 20
