the auras or spiritual components of people and things. You
get pretty good at recognizing specific things by their auras
atone."
Charley looked at Dorion. "Then why couldn't / see like
that?"
"You have to have the power as well. Just three percent of
the Akhbreed have it, and they're bom with it. You either
have it or you don't, and, even then, you never find out unless
you're subjected to the intense radiation from dealing with the
netherhells. Only ones with really strong natural power see it
from the start."
276 Jack L. Chalker
Sam looked now at Charley's distended abdomen and con-
centrated and, to her immense surprise, she could see the
fetus in the womb. "Gee—looks just like the films in sex ed,
only in three-D and living color," she commented. "This is
neat! Kind'a gross in parts, though. And it glows real bright."
She felt a sudden shiver run through her- "What the hell?"
Boolean reentered the hut and saw what she was doing.
"You felt it, huh? That's what the enemy feels as well every
time some random part of the power is given off by the child,
even though unborn. She can feel you, too, looking at her,
and is reacting. I'd stop it for now." He turned to Charley.
"And how are you making out?"
"Awful," Charley moaned. "Like a ton of bagged water is
inside me all shifting around, dead shifting weight below,
slow and awkward, 1 can't even see my own feet."
Boolean passed a hand in front of her eyes and suddenly
Charley's face went blank, staring forward.
"The more you move, the more you will learn about and
compensate for the body's limitations and these will be auto-
matically and subconsciously incorporated into your normal
movements until, within your limitations, you feel totally
confident and can walk, sit, stand, or lie without even think-
ing about it. When you reach that point you will think of it as
your body, your child, and accept it as normal and not think
much about it, accepting it and its limitations."
"Jeez! Where were you when I needed you?" Sam muttered.
He turned to her. "Just a simple spell, like hypnosis, only
it won't wear off so rapidly, and by the time it does it'll seem
natural to her. It's no panacea, but anyone who can adjust so
well to blindness should have little trouble with this. More
gradually, the biochemistry of pregnancy will begin to influ-
ence her thinking as well. Of course, I could cast a really fine
spell so she'd be perfectly happy and all that and do all sorts
of other things, but casting individual spells on human beings
is kind of like making pacts with the devil. You never can be
sure you've covered all the loopholes and the ones you don't
are often doozies." He turned back to Charley, did another
wave of his hand, and she came back to full consciousness
and frowned.
"Huh! Had a little dizziness there for a moment. It's okay
now. Let me move around and do a few things and get the
WAR OF THE MAELSTROM 277
real feel of this. I'm not going to be much help, but if I'm
going to survive the next couple of months, I want to be as
self-sufficient as possible."
While Boolean and Sam huddled over what was going to
be done next, Charley was active, trying out all sorts of
dungs, me ever-concerned Dorion at her side should she need
assistance. She even went out and managed to climb the
ladder down and back up again, although not without some
difficulty. At the end of an hour or so she reported, "You
know, this isn't as bad as I thought at first. I guess my
hormones are flowing or something, but I'm starting to get
the hang of this. It's not like pregnancy is an abnormal
condition or something—women's bodies are designed for it.
it's just that I suddenly had to take it on in full bloom rather
than grow into it gradual like."
"Don't push yourself." Sam told her. "We don't want to
lose the kid."
Charley shrugged. "If we were really that delicate, then
we'd never have gotten out of caveman days. I'll manage.
I'm actually less dependent now than when I couldn't see, by
a long shot, and I just picked up and moved that heavy chair
over there without thinking about it. You got real muscles
under all this fat. 1 couldn't have moved it before."
Sam nodded. "I kept working out as best I could using
weights. There's nobody else around here half the time to
move the heavy stuff and do the lifting. I got pretty good
around this place carryin* heavy stuff around on my head, but
first I had to lift it up there. I'm havin' the opposite problem
now discoverin' how weak I suddenly am for anything. When
I was with Crim I practiced with swords; now I don't mink I
could lift one."
"Compare notes later," Boolean told them. "Now we
have to plot our move. It's already late afternoon and we
can't dawdle here any longer or we'll begin to attract some
visitors with real power."
She nodded. "Nothing personal, Sam, but I think I want to
be gone before your four husbands get back. I don't think I
could explain this to them—or maybe it wouldn't make much
difference to 'em. But where are we going? And how? You
think it's safe for me in one of those—saddles?"
"You'll be fine in the saddle, and I'll be watching out for
278 Jack L. Chalker
you," the sorcerer assured her. "In fact, Sam's the one we'll
have to watch for a bit. As to where, we are going to go
briefly to a small town in Covanti hub where I need to contact
some people and update them and see if there's anybody left
out there with both brains and guts. After that I'm going to
put you in some safe hands well out of the field of battle, and
Sam and I are going north for a while."
"Hey! Wait a minute!" Charley objected, suddenly hesi-
tant. "First of all, I haven't any clothes! If we're going
someplace where strangers are, I don't want to be like this!
And, second, what about Boday? She's technically married to
Sam but she'll think I'm Sam! This is bad enough without
having to deal with that!"
"Yes, and what about the other people here, and my own
husbands?" Sam added worriedly. "They're good people.
The boys may be a little rough but they're not really bad."
Boolean thought for a moment. "Well, Charley, we'll get
you some clothes when we need them. You didn't seem to
mind being undressed before."
"Yeah, well, I didn't have this body before."
He ignored the comment. "As for Boday—well, Cromil
has informed her of what we did. although I'm not sure she'll
believe it until she sees it for herself. I can probably ease
belief by simply separating out that simplistic marriage spell
that caused so much trouble late in the game and transferring
it over to Sam. Here—I'll do that now." It took maybe ten
seconds and a bit of odd gesturing, and Sam actually watched
as he reached out and grabbed the slender red thread of a
spell she'd never seen before as if it were a real thread and
attached it to her. "There. Uh—Sam I hope you're ready for
Boday now."
"Yeah," she sighed. "If she'll accept me this way, sure,
why not? 1 hate to admit it, but I actually missed her."
"As for the locals here," he continued, "well, that's going
to ha^e to leave a void, that's all. There are. after all,
suddenly far fewer men than women. They might miss you,
but I don't think they'd understand how complicated the
problem was. It's best you just, well, vanish. I wish I could
do more. but time's wasting away."
"But, won't Klittichorn eventually send other forces here?
WAR OF TOE MAELSTROM
279
I really do care about them, you see. All of them. I don't
think they should suffer any more."
"Don't worry about them. They'll be okay—unless Klittichorn
wins. Then I wouldn't give a plugged nickel for anybody.
You see, there's not much chance they'll send anything but
supernatural forces the next time, and those will be looking
for impulses from the child. They won't find them, and they
will move on. Right now. they can't afford mindless ven-
geance with you again on the loose and in full power—the
Storm Princess will know that, probably already does. They
haven't the time."
Sam wanted to believe it—hell, she had to believe it. She
took one last look around the place, sighed, and walked out
onto Ac porch, opened the netting, and climbed down the
ladder. Odd how easy it was to do that all of a sudden. She
was tending to overcompensate and almost turned her ankle at
the bottom. Hav'ta get Boolean to do one of those adjust-
ments on me, she thought. She had never been this thin or this
weak. She felt tiny, and she wasn't sure she liked the feeling.
She turned and saw Boday standing there a bit uncertainly.
The artist sure looked different without the neck to toe tattoos,
but, in a way, she almost looked, well, normal. No, better
than normal. She was still tall and thin, but she was tight as a
drum and look at those muscles!
"Hello, Boday," she said, feeling a bit awkward.
"Chariey? You are seeing? Or is it . . . has he . . . ?" She
grinned. "Susama!" And then there was a rush to her and
Sam was picked up and hugged and dam near killed by
Boday, who'd picked up real muscles herself and damn near
crushed the now tiny Sam.
"All right, all right! We've got to go!" Boolean called to
them. "Dorion, you help Charley down and go over to the
saddles where we parked them. Boday, you and Sam will ride
together—you'll both fit very nicely in one of the saddles
now, I think—and can renew old times then. I've already
mentally summoned Cromil and he'll bring Crim in. Probably
Kira instead by the time we're ready to go. That may simplify
matters. . . . Hmmm. . . ."
"He always does that—thinks aloud on the practical level,"
Dorion told them. "He can formulate a spell in his head that
280 Jack L, Chalker
it would take a good magician a day just to read. but unless
he does that he can't remember to put on his own boots."
The saddles looked both more and less intimidating to
Charley when she could see them. Just ordinary saddles,
although when Boolean nodded towards one it rose into the
air. It was clear right off that no matter what her and Dorion's
preferences were, there was no way even Cromil, who was a
foot high and weighed maybe twelve pounds, could fit on one
with her as she was. Boolean lowered one to the ground, she
got on and got as comfortable as possible, and then it rose
maybe three feet in the air. She had some initial trouble with
balance but managed to stay on and finally decided that she
could handle it.
Charley turned and was surprised to see a very pretty
young woman, dressed in a tight black stretch pants outfit and
pistol belt, walk in as Cromil scampered up, jumped, and
perched on Boolean's shoulder. Boday, too, seemed startled
by the strange woman's sudden appearance.
"Oh, 1 forgot about Kira," Boolean said apologetically.
"This is the master swordswoman who did in three of the
raiders and dueled Zamofir to the death last night."
Charley frowned. "Where'd she come from? And what
about the guy with the sexy deep voice?"
It was Kira's turn to look confused, and Boolean had to
explain, "I had to make a switch in the interest of all con-
cerned. That's Sam and that's her friend Charley, Probably
the only two people in the cosmos who even share the same
fingerprints. And that's Boday, about whom you've probably
heard much over the past months."
Kira gave a wan smile. "And people have problems with
me sometimes. Well, glad to meet you. And—Charley—Oh!
this is going to be very difficult for me! I'm so used to one
being me other. . . ."
"You are!" Charley muttered.
"Well, you'll meet Crim in the morning in the flesh. Right
now you might say he's with us in spirit. Don't bother to
figure it out. I am certain that if someone wants to explain,
they will."
Now that's the kind of body I would kill for, Chariey
thought, looking at Kira. She made Sam—or Sam in Charley's
body—look positively plain. That woman would be glamor-
WAR OF THE MAELSTROM
ous in a pigsty. Seeing the way even Dorion was looking at
this Kira suddenly made her self-conscious and jealous. Worse
when Boolean said, "Dorion, you'll double up with Kira for
now so 1 have one less saddle to juggle. Use hers over
there—we're donating the horse, Kira. Hope you don't mind."
"No, these people need all they can get. Well! 1 can't think
of any time I had a ride with a naked man. You want front or
back?"
Charley fumed inside but couldn't really say or do any-
thing- Any order she gave Dorion would be nullified by
Boolean anyway, so what was the use? But he better damn
well not get so much as a hard-on or he was gonna regret it
later!
All set, they rose high into the air, giving Charley some
really bad moments, then set off in a line. After the first
hours, Chariey had the hang of it, but she sure wished Dorion
and that woman were in front rather than in back of her!
She was actually somewhat surprised at her feelings seeing
Dorion with the woman. She tried to dismiss it as simple
jealousy based on what she looked like now as opposed to
what she had looked like, or thought she had looked like.
Good lord—was she really that thin? Somehow she always
felt just a little fat, a little not right, no matter what. Maybe
Sam was right—maybe she had gone overboard. Well, Sam
could fatten up that body now. At least she didn't have to
worry about it in this body, with that spell that would make
any diet useless. Maybe, at least, she could enjoy the next
two months pigging out, if she was anyplace she could pig
out. Ice cream . . . chocolate. She hadn't had those since,
well, since she'd been back home on her own world. If they
lost, well, hell, why diet? And if they won. Boolean would
eventually make her look great again with no strain. It was a
no-lose period.
But Dorion. . . . Well, he was kind'a cute, really. Over-
weight, yeah, but still with the tightest, cutest little ass. . . .
He had a crush on her. sure, but in all mat time he'd never
taken advantage of her. In his own way, he was kind of sweet
and a little shy. If that slave spell of his came off, with her
looking like this, though, what would be his feelings then?