Watcher At The Well - Echoes Of The Well Of Souls Part 25

Julian looked at the hotel. "Well, my husband, it looks a little seedy, but cheap at least."

Lori grinned. "You mind your manners and tongue here or we'll both be in trouble."

"Yes,sir, my Lord and Master," Julian responded mock-ingly, but she shut up.

The placewas a little seedy, but it wasn't all that cheap.

While he liked the city, its sights, sounds, and smells, Lori had to wonder how long he could afford to stay around this place before he had to find a job of some kind. At this rate, not long, and there was much to learn and probably a lot of money to raise before they could ship out of here.

The next morning he got directions from the desk clerk to the Holy Office. Best to get that out of the way as soon as possible, they'd both agreed, although it was not some-thing they looked forward to.

Posiphar had confirmed that the church was a master of drugs and potions, and it was here, in the unique climate and conditions of the south coast, that they grew and bred their stuff. He'd figured as much. If a monk in a jerkwater town like the one they were married in knew that much, imagine what the oneshere knew and could do!

The monk read over the marriage contract and the anno-tations and paperwork from the desert monk.

Then they were separated, somewhat to Julian's panic, and taken to different rooms that looked very much like Erdomese-designed versions of doctors' examining rooms, and that was what they proved essentially to be. The monk who ex-amined Lori seemed a bit younger and in a little better shape than the others he'd seen, but the doctor knew his stuff and gave a pretty reasonable physical. At the end the monk left for a couple of minutes, then returned with three small cups filled with different colored liquids.

"Recline on the examining couch and take the orange liquid and then relax," Lori was instructed. "I will return in a few more minutes. Your wife is fine, and I'm sort of go-ing between the two of you."

Lori noted that the doctor didn't leave until the liquid was clearly swallowed. It tasted like burned orange.

After a while things got very pleasantly hazy, although he was never completely out. He just lay there, kind of floating, and he didn't feel any anxiety when the monk-doctor returned and checked his eyes and reflexes.

After that came a whole series of questions, and he an-swered every one, although the moment he answered, he found he couldn't remember the question or the answer. Feeling good, he was agreeable when told to down the green liquid, and after a very short time, he was out cold, at least as far as he was concerned, and he never did know about the third cup.

He woke up later feeling absolutelygreat, supercharged with energy. He also felt different somehow as well, but he couldn't quite put his finger on what it was at the start. Let's see . . . He knew who he was, and where he was, and why he was here . . . Something about a woman . . . His wife? No, that wasn't it.

Oh, yeah.He'd been a woman, from a different world, and he'd carried part of her inside him since he got here. Now she was gone. Not the memory, although that seemed both alien and irrelevant to him. All those feelings, all those emotions, all those conflicts seemed to have vanished now. He felt no conflict; he was all man, and he liked it that way. He liked being Erdomese, too. He couldn't imagine being anything but what he was, even though the back of his mind a.s.sured him he had been. He was glad to be rid of that wimpish element.

Next door Julian awoke also feeling simplywonderful. She, too, had a feeling that something was gone, but, as with Lori, it didn't matter.Nothing mattered. All she could remember was that she'd been sick some way, and they'd made her well, and now she was First Wife to the most handsome, virile, wonderful man and that was that.

The monks studied them from hidden recesses in the walls and nodded to one another. Lori would take the pre-scription down to the pharmacy and get more of the second and third drugs. The second they would both take, and they would effectively rehypnotize each other. The third, which only Lori would take, would cause overwhelming hormonal changes that would wash the last traces of Lori Ann Sutton from his conscious actions and inner thoughts.

They would make good citizens.

The monks' plans might have worked well except for their own introduction of a factor that they never thought of as a threat.

A note on official government stationery had been left at the Holy Office for Lori, and it was given to him dutifully as the pair left.

Lori was quite puzzled at it and even more puzzled that anyone would think he might be able to read it, but he found that he could. It was written in, of all things, cla.s.sical Greek.

This is a just-in-case note. I have word from Zone that you were made into an Erdomese male. While it is dif-ficult for me to imagine you other than as you were, it is a very good thing you were made male if it had to be Erdom, as you know.

I had intended to come to you, but in your own port where this is being written and where I have been trying to locate you, there has been a serious attempt on my life. I cannot imagine any motive for this except from Nathan Brazil, and, since he knows I cannot be killed, I can only guess that he has learned of my intentions and is attempting to slow me down, possibly lay me up for weeks or months in a nontech hex hospital, or at the very least kidnap me and imprison me somewhere in the inte-rior. This means that the race is on, and time is not on my side. I need your help. The fate of countless thou-sands of worlds is at stake, as well as, quite possibly, this one. My best bet is to head for the Zone Gate if I can get to it safely, which will return me to Ambreza just to the north. If I cannot get into Zone, I'll have to take a ship, but few have ever been able to prevent me from going where I want to get into.

I have left messages everywhere I dare that I feel are reasonably secure. If you made it here and are reading this, I plead with you in the spirit of comradeship we once had not long ago to join me. I must get out of here today before more attempts are made-one might succeed. It is unlikely that they would know you by sight or current name, so you should be safe. I have left money on account with you at the Gryssod Shipping Line on Baszabhi Street at the port. Money right now is the least of my problems. Use the account to purchase tickets on the first ship north to the port of Sukar in Itus. Register at the Transient Main hotel. Someone will contact you there and get you in touch with me or provide the means to get to me.

I will not minimize the task. It is long, arduous, and dangerous. The prize, however, is that if we win and beat him to the Well, you can name any treasure, any reward, anything you like. There is literally no limit.

I hope to see you very soon.

It was signed "Alama-Mavra Chang." The date was only four days old.

He gestured for Julian to follow and went out, trying to figure out what to do next. She followed meekly, without questions. Certainly this put a different light on things. He liked the fact that she was pleading with him to help her. He remembered her as small and weak compared to a big man like him. She needed a warrior, and that was at the moment the only thing he was qualified to do.

And the reward certainly beat working for a living.

Instead of going back to the hotel, he went to the port and, after a few inquiries, found the shipping agency. The clerk, who looked something like a Julian-sized bowling ball on stilts with two huge oval eyes, was disconcerting, being the first non-Erdomese he'd seen since the dragon back in Zone. It also had the most irritating high-pitched voice he'd ever heard.

"Is there a ship leaving any time soon for Sukar, in Itus?" he asked.

"There usually is, sir," the thing replied. "Drat these old-fashioned written schedules. It takes time to find anything. Itus, Itus . . . Yes, here it is. There is a ship leaving this evening, in fact."

"And how long would it take to get there?"

"Well, it isquite along trip, sir, and the only ones likely to put in here are coastal steamers."

"Never mind that! How long?"

"With stops, five days, more or less."

Five days."And how long is it from-"What was the name of that place? Think! "-from Ambrosia or some-thing like that to Itus?"

"You mean Ambreza, sir?"

"It sounds right. North of here?"

"Immediately north, so just minus one day, sir."

One day. So if Mavra got back to Ambreza and set out for Itus from there, it meant that she was five days ahead of him. Five, plus the five days for Lori to get there by boat, was ten-maybe less if Mavra had to travel from the hex gate in Ambreza to the port and get transit. Clearly, overland wasn't an option from the way the letter was phrased.

The offered reward, however exaggerated, sure seemed better than working for years.

He looked at Julian. This wasn't a job for agirl, but shewas his wife, and he was responsible, and he'd need some-body along to attend to him. The h.e.l.l with it.

"Book two on that ship. There should be an account in my name left here to cover the tickets. Lori of Alkhaz and First Wife." d.a.m.n! That name sounded dumb to him now. He'd have to change it sometime, but not until he'd linked up with Chang.

There was in fact a pouch left for him, which included not only sufficient money for pa.s.sage but some interna-tional coins for expenses and another copy of a similar let-ter in Greek that contained no new information.

He went back to the hotel, pausing only to stop at a chemist's shop and get a prescription from the monks filled. It never entered his head why he was doing it or that he shouldn't.

"Pack what we have," he told Julian curtly. "We're going on a trip."

She looked puzzled but neither objected nor asked ques-tions about it.

The monks' plot would work for a while. But there was only a four-day supply in the vials, and when he felt the urge to get more, both he and Julian would be hundreds of kilometers away from the nearest chemist who could fill it and heading farther away from Erdom.

South Zone

standing behind her desk, ursoma would have lookedto any Terran like a pretty woman with very long blond hair, an exotic cast to her face, and a skin tone that one might not have placed exactly. Only the ears, which were pointed and set oddly on both sides of her face, would have seemed out of sorts.

When she moved from behind the desk, however, the dif-ferences were more apparent. She had no navel, but at about where the navel should have been, the skin became darker and light wheat-colored hair began-from this point on down, and back through all four hoofed feet to her tail, she was very much a horse. The fact that the seemingly un-balanced front and rear halves managed to work so well to-gether was even more amazing.

There was a buzzing sound, and she turned and looked toward her office door. "Come in!"

A large creature walked in, in some ways the reverse of Ursoma. His body, while chunky, was quite humanoid, but upon his thick neck sat a face that most resembled a great bull's head set in a permanently p.i.s.sed-off expression. Be-cause of the differences in them, she was almost as tall as he was.

"You left a message that you wanted to see me?"

She walked over to him slowly, all four hooves clattering on the smooth floor. When she reached him, her face grew suddenly very angry and she slapped him hard.

Although she didn't look it, female Dillians were very strong, and the bull-headed creature reeled from the blow, then snorted and roared, "Howdare you do that to me?"

"Because you are a pigheaded a.s.shole, and I'm in charge by mutual consent of this operation. I can have youexe-cuted for what you pulled! Your punishment would be far worse than slapping if I reported you!"

"What do you mean?" the creature grumbled, but calmed down.

"I mean these reports! Brazil and that mute girl. Mavra Chang down in Erdom. I know you hired those killers. It wasn't hard to trace a t.u.r.d-brain like you!"

"So they failed. They won't next time. I am tired of all this stupidity, this sneaking around and spying.

Direct ac-tion is the answer! Just eliminate the threat!"

She sighed. "I think Iwill have you executed! That'sNa-than Brazil, you idiot! Youcan't kill him! No matter what you do, the Well won't let you! And since we have no rea-son to disbelieve her, the same goes for this Chang woman. All you can do is scare them underground, put them on their guard, and if you kill any of their friends or a.s.sociates, you'll have them so p.i.s.sed off at us that when one or the other gets into the Well, they'll take a revenge more terrible than the legends! Didn't that everoccur to you?

Didn't youlisten at the briefings, when we played the tape of her talk-ing to her compatriots before they went through? Didn't you hear the proof that it was Brazil coming through, un-changed but with a translator module implant so he could speak to the Ambreza as soon as he awoke? And the same for Chang? Our computers state that there is almost a dead certainty that at least one and possibly both are of the First Race, locked in Glathrielian bodies for some reason of their own but heading for the Well."

"It was boring and stupid. When you started on that im-mortal c.r.a.p, I fell asleep. I'm an atheist. I do not believe in immortal G.o.dlike beings. I think we were being had with that briefing s.h.i.t. Either that or the female is crazy. If it wasn't one or the other, she makes a pretty dumb G.o.ddess using a translator and never once thinking that it might be recorded or monitored."

"Well, wake up now and look at the evidence! Did it ever occur to you that after all those centuries Chang just might be a wee bitrusty ?Oh, I don't know why Idon't put you permanently to sleep. One more, justone slight deviation from plans, oneteensy, infinitesimal attempt tothink oract on your own and you will forfeit your lands, your pos-sessions, all wives, everything you have, and then you willbeg to be executed after we are through with you! Our chances of pulling this off are slim enough now. Once they get into the Well, who can limit their power? Who can override them? Not any ofus !Andyou -you get them run-ning scared and threaten any possibilities of a deal we might have!"

"All right, all right. So what do you want me to do?"

"Call off your a.s.sa.s.sins. At once. Then start attending briefings, and this time stay awake andlisten !

Brazil and the girl are now headed west across the Gulf of Zinjin. If they connect at the narrows, he will be almost two-thirds of the way there, while Chang is still getting organized in Itus. We must slow Brazil and direct Chang so that the two are likely to end up near the equator in the same general re-gion at the same time.That is going to be tricky enough, but we can't depend on fate to do it for us. This is going to take a lot of coordination. And we mustall work as a team. All of us! If we don't, then armies will mobilize once either or both get near their goals, and we shall be fighting each other over them!

Understand?"

He nodded but said nothing.

'There is a briefing over the secured channels in one hour. Be on and be awake!" she snapped, then whirled and trotted back to her desk.

Glathriel, at Midnight

IN THE DARKNESS, UNDER CLOUDY SKIES WITH A DRIZZLY RAINfalling, with the air seeming heavy and solid and the mists moving like wraiths through the tops of the trees, there was a Gathering.

By the hundreds they came, male and female, young, old, and in between, to sit in the open on that wet, swampy ground, eyes closed, and to touch one another in such a way that both arms were linked to or clasped by different people. The Gathering itself was brief and silent. Thoughts, as most of the other races of the Well World had them, were not transferred, yet information was. The combined a.n.a.lytical data was sifted, sorted, and examined; all possi-bilities that might be foreseen were equally and clearly laid out in an instant, and a collective decision arose as if spon-taneously out of the combined input of the Gathering.

It was over in just a few minutes, but had they been Ambrezan, or Erdomese, or Dillians, or even Terrans, they might have run on for hours and never even seen all the data or all the ways it might be used, let alone make deci-sions. But if the Gathering were translated to a linear form and distilled, it might have been something like this: "The stepchild of the group does well.

"That which we imparted to her blends well with that which had come before. She has now ensured that she will enter the Well of Souls with the man of the First Race.

"It is surprising that the Power works even on one of his strength.

"The First Race was great enough to know, even at their height, that they were flawed beyond redemption. That is why the Great Experiment was decreed. But as the Watchman, he is less than he was, although all that he was is still within him. Consider the shock to the Monitors when he in-stinctively reacted to the Power! Yet, in taking on the form of a Colonial Race, living as one with them, he shares their defects and weaknesses as well as their own strengths. Oth-erwise he would have recognized us and sensed us.

"And so he proceeds to do for us the one thing that we could never do for ourselves. Our opportunity comes early. We must seize upon it and hope that it has not come too early for us, as it did for them.

"So far, things go well. It is good that the girl was not given to know that she and the First One are proceeding to-ward the end of the universe as they know it."

Vergutz

THE COASTLINE WAS NOW OUT OF SIGHT BEHIND THEM, AND THEmighty stacks of the great ship belched out plumes of white smoke as the ship accelerated to full speed.

Terry sat on the afterdeck next to Nathan Brazil, oblivi-ous to the stiff wind and chill in the ocean air, looking not back but forward.

Brazil himself stared into the rolling waters, put his arm around Terry, and thought only of good possibilities. Since no one could possibly know which route he would take and no pa.s.sengers or crew had signed on to the ship after he purchased their tickets, he was reasonably certain that who-ever had hired those b.u.mbling a.s.sa.s.sins was left behind. It would be next to impossible to set up anything serious at his destination before they arrived, unless somehow they al-ready knew that destination and had allies there. Unlikely, but he could cope. If itwas Mavra, she'd be more likely to go h.e.l.l-bent north herself than worry anymore about him. She had started from the same place and at roughly the same time, so they had equal distances to travel. He would also have liked to have checked up on Tony and Anne Ma-rie, but they, too, could wait. If there was any place a po-tential foe would figure he'd show up and be laying for him, it would be around either one of them.

At any rate, once he was on the northern land ma.s.s, they'd be d.a.m.ned difficult to track and he'd have many op-tions open.

Once the entire Well World had marshaled to prevent him from getting up there. This wasmuch easier.

And once inside, he'd find out about this Glathrielian business, and maybe, once he normalized the girl here a bit more, they might stick around a while, take the grand tour of this place. Perhaps, if she still loved him then, he'd add her to the master Well matrix. Then, perhaps, he could also find out what the h.e.l.l was the bug up Mavra's a.s.s for the last three thousand years.

The h.e.l.l with it. He was on a great ship going across a beautiful ocean, an attractive and loving if mysterious com-panion at his side, and things didn't look nearly as rough as the last couple of times.

h.e.l.l, after all he'd been through before, he wasowed one easy one . . .

Somewhere in the Constellation Orion