bear?"
Halagar sighed, aware of the innate hostility and also of the
vast potential mob behind. "With all due respect, soldier, I
can't reveal that to you, any more than you would to me. If I
could just see the commanding officer, though, I'm sure we
could work this out."
The sentry thought a moment. "AH right. Just you, though,
Captain. The others remain here. along with your weapons
and horses."
Halagar nodded, dismounted, and the others did likewise.
"Just stay here and say nothing," he whispered to them. "1
know it's a nervous situation but consider that the alternative
is trying to fight or sneak through all this. At least you're
safer inside this picket line."
There was no arguing with that. so they sat, Boday and
Charley sitting together and keeping very quiet and very still,
Dorion tried to look unconcerned, but he wasn't at all thrilled,
either. At any moment, the slightest hint of anything suspi-
cious would make things instantly unpleasant.
The nearest sentry came over to him and gestured at the
two women. "They his, magician, or yours?"
"Personal slaves. They were slaves even under the old
order, so this isn't much different for them." The conversa-
tion was making him uncomfortable. Too much chance of a
slip of the tongue here.
But the guard just nodded. "That explains it, then. I
thought I noticed a different look about them. They say
they're going to be pulling the women out of these camps
soon. Going to start a breeding program. Some of the animal
husbandry experts are opening up a whole new business in
slaves. Akhbreed, mainly, but some of the other races who
won't join us will wish they had, too. That bother you, you
being bom Akhbreed and all?"
It did, more than this sentry could know, but that wasn't
the required answer.
"The system's been just as bad to some of us as to most of
you," he responded. "You don't know what some of those
big-shot sorcerers are like close up. I do. I've been a refugee
in the wilds for many years, seeing little of my own kind,
living and dealing mostly with halflings and changelings and
155
WAR OF THE MAELSTROM
die like. The system's done such horrible wrongs that it's
only to be expected that setting it right will cause suffering as
well. I had a mild brush with a Changewind anyway, so I'm
not wholly acceptable to them any more, either."
The sentry nodded sagely. "Most all the magicians work-
ing on our side have some problems tike that, either from
magic backfiring, curses by higher-ups, or occasional Changewind
problems. Nobody ever knew how many like that there were
until this."
And, with that. he slowly wandered away. Dorion allowed
himself a nervous sigh, and Boday caught his eye and seemed
to understand.
It took Halagar almost an hour, but when he came back it
was with an escort of soldiers- "Come, Dorion' The General
was most understanding, and we're getting a security escort
to the border. All I had to do was mention Masalur and all
barriers dropped. You two—take the third horse, double up,
and ride between us!"
Boday was immediately on her feet and lifted Charley into
the saddle and then climbed on behind. They both were thin
enough that a common saddle wasn't all that cramped. It
wasn't until they were on their way that either could wonder
just how easily Halagar seemed to have managed all this.
Was he working both sides or not? Or was this some kind of
trap for all of them?
. The guard parted the ways of the crowd down to the null
border itself, and then took them in. past the equally profes-
sional picket line. Out here was no colonial rabble; the sol-
diers of the rebel forces holding the colonial side of the null
looked tough, efficient, and businesslike. The commanding
general, a rough-looking creature with mottled rust-red skin
and a serpentine face, who was of no race either Halagar or
Dorion had seen before, was crisp and businesslike. This man
was a pro, trained and prepared for this point in time.
He pointed a long, clawed finger out into the null. "That's
the enemy, about twenty leegs beyond. From my front line
here, it's a no-man's-land until their frontier line. They're
established quite well—their commander seems to know what
he's doing—but when we're able to move they will be vulner-
able with little or no cover."
Halagar was the professional military man all the way.
156 )ack L. Chaiker
"You really think you can take them? Your troops here look
excellent, but there are not enough of them, and the bunch
back in Mahabuti, if you'll forgive me, would be cut to
pieces by any good defender, and not inclined to obey your
orders."
"Well, we're doing what training we can with them, but
you're right. They're strictly a rearguard force, or cannon
fodder, depending on the situation. I have sufficient forces,
though, both in reserve in other colonial worlds and more
coming all the time. I'll need more time than I have to whip
that rabble into shape, but I have enough time to get sufficient
forces for the real fighting together." He paused a moment.
"So you're on a special mission from Colonel Koletsu. How
is the Colonel?"
Halagar was unfazed. "I'm afraid I've never met him, sir.
My instructions come by courier. I've never actually seen any
of the people I work for.''
That was the right answer. "Well, neither have I, although
I saw this Klittichom once and he impressed me as one nasty
character. I confess I'm uneasy about building his power so
much, but if you're going to have to deal with the power of
sorcery you're going to have to deal with the devil, and if that
power's on my side I can't quibble about it not being perfect.
I assume that you're going to pass into the hub as refugees? If
so, don't get shot by a nervous sentry over there."
"We'll be as careful as we can. I'm hoping to pass us off
as double agents. Get a convincing story and pledge alle-
giance to the king and like that. Enough to get me through,
anyway."
"Like you did here," the general muttered. "But I don't
care who or what you are, Captain. If you're truly with us,
then you'll wind up rewarded and living in the only remaining
center of Akhbreed freedom in Klittichom's immediate do-
main. If not, then you'll join those wretches you saw back
there, if you survive. Pretty soon the last obstacle to us will
be removed and then it will be time to strike. I've grown old
waiting for this; I'm not about to fail."
"Well, I'm counting on us all being evident Akhbreed to
tilt any doubt on their side in my favor," he told the general.
"Am I going to have to go through all this on the other side
as well. though?"
157
WAR OF THE MAELSTROM
"Not much. There's just enough force against the west
border to secure it so we can bring up our own forces as need
be, nothing like this. But when you get near Masalur hub, it
will make this look like an unpopulated desert. If all goes
well with you, though, then you ought to reach there just in
time for the fun."
Halagar didn't know exactly what that meant, but he re-
sponded, "Well, that's when and why I'm supposed to be
there. Those of us with combat experience need to evaluate
what's what."
The general nodded. "Yes, indeed, we do need that. We
will win, but the casualties are going to be a hundred times
greater than they need to be because we're using, of neces-
sity, all green troops. Very well. Captain. I'll give the orders
for you to pass."
And, like that, they were through the line and out into the
middle of the no-man's-land of the null.
When they got far enough out that the others felt free to
speak, Boday said, "You were very chummy with those
slime, and very free with the right names. One might wonder
with that general just whose side you're really on."
Halagar chuckled. "l*m a mercenary, and I'm on the side
of those who pay me, which in this case is Dorion. As for the
names, I picked Koletsu because it's a fairly generic name. I
have no idea if a Colonel Koletsu exists anywhere, let alone
in the rebel general staff, but I took the gamble that those
people wouldn't, either. A military command is a vast bu-
reaucracy; nobody knows all the players, particularly those on
the operational level. I wish, though, that I knew what the
general meant by getting there just when the fun begins. My
best guess is that they are going to move for practice on your
friend Boolean, and quickly, to test out their system."
Dorion looked ahead at the slowly appearing hub border on
the horizon. "He was right about us getting shot coming in,
though. Shoot first and ask later, I'd say, particularly if these
guys are as nervous as the ones back at Covanti."
"Well, I picked up some yellow cloth for a pennant when I
was back in combat support," Halagar told him, the yellow
pennant being Akahlar's symbol of truce. "I'd say we hold it
and come in openly, slowly, and wait for the challenge. If we
158 Jack L. Chalker
talked our way through back there, we should be able to talk
our way through here, surely."
None of them talked much about what they had seen back
at the border, but it was on all their minds. For Charley, it
had always been a cut-and-dried situation: the Akhbreed should
give the colonials and natives their independence and deal
with them as equals and everybody would live happily ever
after. Happily ever altering, though, wasn't the result. Oh,
you could argue that the Akhbreed had brought this on them-
selves by maintaining such a system for so long, but did
anything excuse what she'd seen back there? Did mere op-
pression warrant genocide? Or would she think it did, if she
had been one of the oppressed? And what were those people
going to do once they had totally destroyed the Akhbreed
culture and its knowledge and skills? They knew the basics of
getting raw materials, but did any of them know how to build
the buildings and repair the machines or engineer even a
sanitary system? Who would keep them from fighting each
other in constant wars? Were they in fact anticipating some-
thing that was going to wind up reverting thousands of civili-
zations back to the Stone Age?
It was much too heavy for her; there shouldn't be situations
where all the solutions were bad. All this war and hatred and
savagery was so unnecessary and so tragic for all of them.
Things had been so much simpler back home—or had they
only seemed that way?
Well, the bottom line was that she couldn't do a damned
thing about it, and that fact, instead of frustrating her, made
her a little happier. God, she'd never want that kind of
responsibility. . . .
"Did you really have a brush with a Changewind?" Boday
asked Don on.
"No, I was making that up as I went along. All my life my
best asset has been my voice. One on one, anyway, I've
always been able to talk my way out of just about anything. It
explains why there were so many magicians there doing their
bidding and yet getting along in that crowd of hate, though.
Changelings and those somehow deformed by delving into
forbidden magic way beyond them—that's who those guys
are. Now their differences, their deformities, become an asset
and not a curse. Hounded out of the hubs. made to feel like
WAR OF THE MAELSTROM 159
monsters—the kind of folks like we saw back in the Kudaan.
Now they got a chance to get even with all those fine Akhbreed
types who looked down on them before. You know, until
now I never could figure why somebody like Boolean, who
never missed a chance to knock the whole Akhbreed system,
would risk his neck to defend it. This is the first time I think 1
can understand- It's all hatred and revenge. This whole revolt
is all hatred and revenge, from Klittichom and the Storm
Princess on down to those people back there. That's what
their whole new society is gonna be built on—hatred and
revenge. Makes a society built on callousness and indiffer-
ence seem downright nice by comparison."
It took several hours of slow, cautious travel to reach the
outer defense line of Tishbaal hub, and when they did, in
spite of their pennant and their precautions, they still got shot
at.
"Hold your fire, damn it'" Halagar shouted. "We're
Akhbreed and we're not with them! Let us talk to your
officers!"
There was no immediate reply and he grew impatient.
"Damn it, look at us! tf you have anything to fear from the
likes of us, then all the guns in the world won't save you!"
Suddenly an entire squad of uniformed soldiers rose from
the mist, guns pointed directly at them. "All right, sir." said
a nervous sergeant. "You just keep those hands free—all of
you—then dismount and follow us."
In a stroke of luck, the intelligence officer of the forward
defenses knew Halagar- Not personally, but they had met in
the performance of the mercenary's old duties as a Covantian
courier. After that, there was no question that they would be
admitted, although first they had to be thoroughly debriefed
on what they'd seen back where they'd come from, and how
the hell they'd gotten through.
Without identifying the two women and letting the officer's
mind assume the obvious about them, Halagar gave the basic
story flat out.
"Perhaps we should hire you on," the intelligence officer,
whose name was Torgand, remarked. "We've tried infiltrat-
ing people over there regularly and none of them ever get
back to report."
"The Akhbreed they have working for them keep well
160 jack L. Chalker
back of the border and in their own camp," the mercenary
told him, "as would I in their place. I'm not certain any
Akhbreed will be safe once the fight begins."
"Yeah, well, we're still trying to figure out how that can
be. Our shield is strong; they can take out our forward
element, of course, but even our picket line is within range of
hub artillery. And even if they send that rabble in wave after
wave, they're not going to break the psychic shield that
prevents any non-Akhbreed from entering the hub. They've
got a bunch of magicians, maybe even a few real sorcerers on
their side. but all of them together couldn't break the kind of
shields the hubs have."
"I thought so, too, until I saw that Changewind valley.