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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 mock-ingly, 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 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 ones
here 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 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
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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 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, 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 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 [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]