01. When the Changewinds Blow (25 page)

"Boday-Kligos is coming tonight, right?"

Boday frowned, then nodded. "Yes. That's right. It had slipped Boday's mind. It is no longer of importance to her."

"Well, I don't want him to have this girl. I went to a lot of trouble to rescue her. He's a very powerful man, I know, but we have to stall him, or get him no longer interested in Charley. Is there any way to do that convincingly?"

The alchemist thought for a moment. "Well, we could always use a placebo, but that would buy only a few days. Let Boday think. She is a genius. She can solve any disputes." She paced for a minute, then snapped her fingers. "Yes! Of course! Royal prerogative!"

"I beg your pardon?"

"Never beg Boday's pardon, my love. You can do no wrong. Royal prerogative. It has happened before. Boday does work for the royal family at times in matters like these. A noble drops by, sees a work in progress, and takes a fancy to it. Even Kligos will not interfere in such a matter. They could shut him down here in hours and fillet him alive on a number of charges if they chose. Boday will simply tell him that the girl was so perfect-and she
is-
that the royal prerogative was invoked. Bad luck. Kligos will be pissed but he will not question it. After all, what does he lose? He just cancels the payment to the procurer, that's all."

"That's great! But won't the warehouse guards be able to tell him that no such royal visitor showed up?"

"No problem, darling! They are three shifts. He will believe. Why should he
not?"

"Well, do it, then. But that doesn't solve any problems now." She told the alchemical artist about the problem of Ladai. "You see-if Ladai's tale gets back to here, then Kligos is gonna remember the boy and die girl with Zenchur and put two and two together and he'll be back here fast figuring you're just stiffing him for the fifty thousand." She did a quick translation for Charley's benefit.

Charley was also thinking. "I wonder if we're ever gonna get out of the frying pan or the fire? Well, you're right. We can't stay here, but we can't go, either. Once that story gets out they'll be looking for us. They'll have the city and this little country bottled up, maybe for weeks. You're not so bad off, so long as you got that jewel and you aren't around me. Kligos saw you close up but without the magic. That-spell-or whatever it is takes you and cancels out everything, and I mean everything, feminine, and it tightens you up a lot and makes you seem taller. Not real tall, but taller'n me, anyway. I think you can get away with walkin' right past this Kligos, so long as that spell holds, and if not you can zap him with the jewel. Now, he also saw me, and he knows what Boday does, so I think he'd still make me, though. And where can I go in this straight society, like
this,
and without the language?"

Sam explained the problem to Boday, who thought for a moment.

"First, then, my love, you must get your tittle bauble attached, so to speak. That way the spell holds. Once Boday's genius solves your problem we can think about your friend's, yes?"

She went over to the lab counter, reached down, pulled open a big drawer, and started rummaging through the largest collection of baubles, bangles, and beads Sam had ever seen. She would stop every once in a while, pulling out a wound roll of thin gold chain at one point, then a starburst backing. She reached for a bubbling chemical beaker, then said, "Remove all from the waist up. Let Boday see what she can do."

First a length of thin gold chain was measured so it would fit comfortably around Sam's neck but not with enough play that it could be taken off over the face. "Now your pretty bauble," said the alchemist.

Sam was reluctant to hand it over, even to Boday. "But
I
will change back into a girl," she noted. "Will you still love me anyway?"

"Not to worry, darling! Boday always has played both sides of the street. She saw you briefly when you proved yourself to your friend. Nice body. Much like hers, I
think. Boday could do
wonders
with you."

Sam had forgotten that lapse. So it didn't matter. Whatever bond that potion created was more than just appearance. Or, perhaps, because Boday saw the change there was now no difference in her altered mind between the illusory male vision and Sam's real self.

Expertly, and in very short order, the Jewel of Omak was mounted on a strong backing and held there with folds in the setting and some kind of alchemical bonding. Sam hoped she didn't have it on backward. Then the gem and setting, on a slightly longer chain, was bonded to the neck chain. Again, the fusion appeared seamless, but that thing was
on.
It
might be cut off, but never would it fall off.

But the other problems would be tougher to solve. It seemed like every fix they'd gotten into had been resolved more by dumb luck than brains, and there was a limit to how much you could count on that, but that wasn't the real depressing thought. It was that every time a super grade problem had been solved it had created new ones that looked just as or even more formidable.

"Ask her if she's got something to eat," Charley said to Sam. "I'm
starved."

Suddenly Sam's own hunger and thirst came back full force. "You have anything we can eat? It's been a long time."

Boday brightened. "Anything and everything for you, my darling! Wait, and Boday shall create a
masterpiece!"

They settled initially, though, for some wine, fresh bread, and cheese, which helped the two of them from getting more nauseous. Boday, however, was in her kitchen making a great racket, but soon the smells coming into the lab were pleasant, overwhelming the chemicals still on the boil.

"It's too bad we can't just stay here," Charlie sighed. "This is the first time I've felt reasonably comfortable in a long time.

It would be nice if it'd last, but I keep sitting here expecting eight big bruisers to crash through the door any minute."

"I know. I been tryin' to figure something but nothing's coming. We just don't know this
town,
let alone this world, well enough, and I keep remembering that sight from the cliffs-the green hills changing like that into tall mountains. Even if we could get out of this place we'd be screwed without somebody to take us. Navigators and Pilots, they call 'em. Like ships. And Kligos told Zenchur that just to get a Pilot who don't talk or ask questions would be five hundred or whatever they call their money here. If we also needed a navigator, it might cost a
fortune,
and we don't even know how far it is we're supposed to go."

To Boday the entire world existed for most people to go about drab, colorless, irrelevant lives while she existed to put artistry there. It extended to her cooking, too, even when doing something essentially quick and dirty in the kitchen. Admittedly some of the colors of some of the items looked more than a bit artificial and odd, but the arrangement, the preparation and look of each item, and, frankly, the smells and taste were really good. They already knew that the food in this part of this world was either basic meat and potatoes or very spicy, even hot, but they had never had things that tasted this uniformly different and good. Neither Sam nor Charley, however, had the guts to ask what any of it was.

Kligos's arrival a bit later, however, forced some improvising. Charley was kept out of sight, but Sam decided it was time to test just what good this magic spell might be before an expert in phoneyness. She had gotten this far on guts and she was beginning to learn confidence in a big way. She was prepared, though, to use the jewel at close range if she had to.

"Oh, darling! Boday has the most wonderful news and the most terrible news!" Boday gushed to the tough but slick-looking gangster. "The wonderful first. She is in
love!
This is Sandwir! Isn't he
cute?"

"Adorable," the big man grumbled, nodding to but barely giving a second glance otherwise to Sam. Test passed. "He looks like he might take awhile for you to wear out. What's the terrible news?"

"Ah! Boday is crestfallen! She is desolate! Pamquis-he's the ratty little fellow from the Chancellor's Office-came by today to see about something for the regency celebration and he saw your little darling!"

Kligos's face froze into a hard and mean look. "I don't want to hear what I think you're gonna tell me, do I?"

Boday threw an arm up to her forehead in mock despair. "Darling! What can Boday say but what happened? Those two terrible words-'royal prerogative.' He asked who had brought her and I told him, of course, and all he did was grin evilly and-oh, it is confiscation! What must Boday do to atone, but what could she do in the face of those words?"

"Sons of bitches," Kligos grumbled. "She was a lot of trouble to get, too. I wish I'd let my men have at her.
Then there
wouldn't be no 'royal prerogative' with my property! Well, at least no money's been paid yet. Damn! She was worth a hundred a night minimum!"

"Boday
knows,
darling! And she, too, is out much investment. She is as blackmailed as any. What can she say? He insisted on the potion right then and there as usual. Apparently they hold a grudge for that switch we pulled last year. Can you ever forgive this?"

Kligos sighed. "Forgive, yeah. Forget, no. Those highborn royal bastards. It's not enough that we got to pay 'em a percentage just to operate in this town. No, they steal, too, and smile about it. All right, couldn't be helped. But cut rate on the next one, you hear?"

"Boday will create a
masterpiece
for you! She promises!"

The gangster had a look of total disgust, but he turned around and left, slamming the door behind him. He looked in a foul enough mood to go out and torture a few women and children just to get it out of his system.

"That
is a dangerous man," Sam noted worriedly. "Right now, he's our biggest worry, too. At least he didn't recognize me, I'm sure of that. But he's dangerous and smart or he wouldn't be where he is."

Boday shrugged. Such things were beneath her notice. "Still, we have a few days. He does not connect you and her, my sweet. Come. Let us go back and you can tell your worries to Boday and she will try and solve them."

"It's simple. There's an Akhbreed sorcerer trying to kill me by any means he can, and there's another who wants me alive and in his company, maybe just because he hates the other sorcerer so bad he wants something to hold over him. I don't know the reason.
Our
sorcerer can't come to us because he's real powerful, but maybe not powerful enough to match this guy on his home turf. Maybe he's got friends here that can outnumber our man, so our man can't come to us. If we can sneak in and get to him, though, then we're under his power and protection and he can help us. Zenchur was supposed to get us someplace where we could be taught the ropes in this world, then to the sorcerer, but that's out now. I don't even know where this guy is in relation to where we are. I wish I did."

Boolean is chief sorcerer of Masalur,
said a familiar voice in her head.
Masalur is two hubs northwest and two hubs due west of that. Add in the seven sectors, or wedges, required for traversal and the nulls as well as the hub traversals and the distance would be approximately four thousand five hundred and six kilometers.

She had forgotten that the jewel was now against her chest and that a wish was a wish.

"Darling! Lover! What is the matter? Do you feel ill?"

"Yeah, maybe," Sam responded. "I just got the answers to my questions from my magic jewel and now I'm like Kligos. I didn't really want to know. Four hubs, seven sectors-it says the distance is . . ." Suddenly in her mind some measures appeared but they were meaningless. "How big's a leeg?"

"Oh, how can it be put? From here near the water to the tall buildings in the center of town is a bit less than two leegs, my love."

From her rooftop vantage point she'd seen some lights in the spires of those buildings and she now guessed them to be about a mile in. A leeg, then, was about half a mile, and a kilometer wasn't much more than that.

"Would you believe about five thousand leegs, maybe a little less?"
Well over two thousand miles and eleven countries with God knew what!

"Boday believes all that you tell her, love. That sounds about right. Sectors average about six hundred leegs, give or take, and hubs about four hundred across. This one is four hundred fifteen across."

Then they weren't that standard. Still, it was pretty depressing, and Charley wasn't exactly cheered when clued in, either.

"We can't do that distance on our own," Sam told Boday.

The artist nodded. "No one could, not even Boday. You would need a navigator just to start with. Such a one could arrange for the proper Pilots as well as plot the routes and outfit the trip, but this is not cheap. A navigator for such a distance would easily cost two thousand sarkis. Particularly one who would be basically loyal and might defend his client against attack. Say twenty-five hundred just to be sure. Pilots who will just do their jobs and not ask questions are easily five hundred each, and you need-what?-seven of them. No pilots necessary for the hubs. They're all
our
kind, darling, and they stay the same most of the time. Now we are at six thousand. Then there are supplies. One would not wish to walk if it can be avoided, yes? Two thousand more. And then there will be expenses on the trails, and in both sectors and hubs. The more money the merrier but two thousand minimum. Let's see-that is ten thousand sarkis. I think I know where Zenchur was supposed to take you. It is where Boday was perfected! But it is southwest-add six more, you see. Another three or four thousand and another three thousand or more leegs."

"Yeah? What's so special about that place, anyway?"

"It is-university. You go there, whatever you need to learn, they teach you."

"Not whatever you want, whatever you need," Sam noted. "And who decides what you need?"

"Oh,
they
do, darling! And they
know.
Those who decide are all Akhbreed sorcerers. Those without positions, those studying further, those who have retired or do not wish positions. They know, lover. They know. Boday was an artist. A good artist. They did not teach her design. No, they teach her alchemy. The secrets of arts and potions. It is where sorcerers learn to be sorcerers, and heroes and heroines learn how to be heroes and heroines, or navigators, or Pilots, or any other great skills."