Echoes of the Well of Souls (40 page)

"Oh, it be handy, but limited. Mostly things like medicines and stuff and fancy stuff for the rich come through. Most all else goes in or out by ship and overland by all sorts of ways. It don't allow no animals or bugs or stuff through, so it's safe, but them critters
can
get into Zone, so they spray and inspect and all that in there, and they really don't allow much use of the thing for that kind of trade, you see. Most bugs and stuff don't like it outside their home, and most races can't catch other races' diseases, but there's always a few what can. And most
anything
can live inside the Zone."

"Have you ever been outside of Erdom?" he asked the trader.

"Me? A few times, yes. Not far, though, and not on any of them floating contraptions. Been up north where they grow tobacco. Be a big trade item here, only for the very rich. Gave it up, though, after a while. Them Ambrezans be mighty strange folks, and I don't much like them contraptions floatin' you in air and all that. Also it be wet and smelly, with water just hangin' in the air. They be also makin' smart remarks about our ways and looks and how I treats me wives and all that. The longer you're away, too, the better home seems. This place was
made
fer us."

Lori couldn't imagine himself having that problem, but he might. Who could tell what sorts of places those other hexes were? "Is there anywhere where we can see a map of the world? Find out about some of the other hexes and races and the like?"

"Oh, there's plenty books 'n' maps and stuff, but if ye can't read Erdomese, it don't matter, does it? Down by the port there ye can get stuff in a ton of crazy languages as well as the one they use for translators so we can talk to one another, even them what don't have mouths. But ye can't read that, neither, so what's the use? Best go down to the port and pump some of them funny critters that runs the boats."

Julian's head came up and looked at Lori, who had the same sudden thought. "You mean those translators work— even in Erdom?"

"Yep, they do. Got several kinds. Some folks wear 'em, some get 'em stuck inside 'em—don't recommend
that
be done in Erdom! I hear tell they be hexes where they can look right inside you and see what's there and do all sorts of miracle things. The rich and nobles go there when they needs stuff. 'Course, you and me, we can't afford it and don't have the contacts." He looked at the sun. "We better be gettin' on down there if we want to be on the flat afore dark. It be all downhill from here and windy. The woods don't stop here where ye think; they just go down, too."

The sun
did
set before they were all the way down; the road was good, but they were descending maybe two kilometers or more in a fairly steep grade, and the compensation was a serpentine roadway that switched back and forth on itself for what seemed like forever.

Still, even though it was some distance yet to the city, the flat made it easy going and the city was certainly not something anybody could miss. It was big and bright and seemed lit up like a million Christmas trees.

Julian's past military experience spotted a puzzle. "I wonder why they have city walls if they light the place up like that."

Even Posiphar didn't know the answer to that when Lori passed along the question to him. "Guess if anybody be attackin', they'd put them lights out," he guessed.

This was one city that did not close at night. Oh, the shops and bazaars were closed, but there seemed to be clubs and nightlife and eateries and music and gaiety all over the place, all illuminated by brilliant oil lamps, some, with stained glass, casting fairyland glows that ranged the spectrum.

Posiphar directed them to a small hotel. "Farewell, lad. It's been a very interestin' time we be with you, and the gods go with you. With my brood we be stayin' with some old friends in their place near the docks. Ye mind yer money, now. Ye ain't got much, and it goes quick."

Lori felt like he was losing his oldest friend, which in a way was true, but they parted on a handshake rather than the embrace he almost gave the old fellow. Men did not
do
that, not in Erdom.

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 mockingly, but she shut up.

The place
was
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 something 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 ones
here
knew and could do!

The monk read over the marriage contract and the annotations 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 examined 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 going 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 answered 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 absolutely
great,
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 assured him he had been. He was glad to be rid of that wimpish element.

Next door Julian awoke also feeling simply
wonderful.
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 prescription 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, classical Greek.

This is a just-in-case note. I have word from Zone that you were made into an Erdomese male. While it is difficult 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 interior. This means that the race is on, and time is not on my side. I need your help. The fate of countless thousands 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 is
quite
a
long 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 something 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 a
girl,
but she
was
his wife, and he was responsible, and he'd need somebody along to attend to him. The hell 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." Damn! 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 passage but some international coins for expenses and another copy of a similar letter 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 questions 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.