02. Shadows of the Well of Souls (14 page)

"If I knew
that
for sure, I could deal with them!" Mavra snapped. "Never mind that now. Somebody with influence who definitely doesn't want me to get up to the Well first, that's for sure. Anybody here a good judge of land speed? About what speed do you think this car is making now?"

It was Julian who spoke up. "At its maximum, no more than two hundred kilometers an hour," she stated with a certainty that surprised them. "At average, about one hundred forty."

"That's a fair enough estimate," Mavra responded, impressed.

"You were never in astronaut training."

"That's
right
!
I'd forgotten you were a spacer! Okay, and according to this cheap watch I bought months ago, we've been going for three and a half hours. That would mean we're about two-thirds of the way, or were when we were switched. At the angle we're now traveling, if it stays fairly constant, we'll still reach the coast, but way, way south of where we want to be. There's only one decent harbor on the west coast, or so I'm told; the coastal waters are otherwise too shallow. Mostly small towns along there dependent on rail. I'd say that they're aiming to bring us in down there at one of the small towns on the southwest border, maybe the southernmost one, at or after dusk."

"But
why?
That's the question," Lori said, frowning.

"That's easy enough. We miss our ship, we've got a long, slow walk up, since we can't trust the trains anymore, and we're in the kind of area where we always will stick out like sore thumbs."

"But we can't
walk,
not in this humidity and gravity!" Julian protested. "At least
I
can't!"

"This is not as much of a problem for us," Tony pointed out. "If need be, I could carry you and Mavra, too, and I am certain that Anne Marie could carry Lori."

"Of course," the other centauress replied. "It is a
bit
more difficult for us, and we have to go slower because of the burden on these thin legs, but you would hardly add to the burden."

Mavra shook her head. "Uh uh. We might do that for a short distance but not a long one. Not only do I want out of here, I want to get lost. At least to whoever's behind this. And the
last
thing I want to do is make a grand march under these conditions to a place where somehow I know they won't have a ship for us."

"But what is the alternative?" Tony asked her.

"If we keep going this way, we'll come in to the southwesternmost yard in a small town almost at the Gekir border. Gekir's a nontech hex and I've never been there, but my experience has been that if you want to get lost, get into a nontech hex. No mass transportation, but no mass communications, either. Nontechs are also the most dangerous for a lot of reasons, but while I don't remember much about them, what was said indicates that the Gekir are not a mean or hostile people, and there's some trade between there and Itus. As to what kind of creatures they are, I haven't a clue, even though we might or might not have seen them among the races back in the capital. If we're lucky, there might be some kind of sailing vessels that call along the coast. It's worth a try."

"But if whoever is chasing you is influential enough to divert our railcar, they will have people watching out for us at the town, won't they?" Julian asked worriedly.

"Yes, so we'll have to get off before that point and avoid the town. It shouldn't be too hard to do. They're bound to have a decoupling yard just before the town to route the various cars to loading areas. When the train slows, we get off, fast. It'll still be moving, so watch yourselves, but it should be moving at a crawl, at least up to the switch. Tony, I assume you and Anne Marie could jump off."

"I don't think that would be a problem, but we'll have to time it right," Tony replied. "I don't think either of us should risk a broken ankle at this point, and the heavier gravity is a major threat. Wait a moment! Anne Marie, come give me a hand here."

The two centauresses went over to the left side and studied the short staked fence. "They look just placed in," Anne Marie said, and with both hands tried to pry one up. She tried as hard as she could, but it wouldn't budge. "No go, I'm afraid, dear."

Tony got close beside her. "Both of us together, then."

They tried, but it was as if the panel were welded on.

Julian came over and looked at the panel as well, bending down to see what might be holding it in. "I think it's more magnets," she said at last. "This train runs on the basis of magnetic polarity. There are two strong electromagnets underneath, one the track and the other on the undercarriage. When power is applied, they repel, we float essentially friction-free, and by moving one set, speed can be quickly achieved or slowed, even stopped on a dime. But the stakes, I bet, are matched to the polarity of the undercarriage. When it's powered, they're pulled tight." She thought a moment. "I wonder if there are any dead spots."

"Dead spots?" one of them asked.

"Yes. Have you ever ridden on a subway—underground, metro, or whatever—or an electric-powered train? There's often points where the track is either not powered because of some repair or connector or the power source changes. The lights might flicker or even go off, but it's brief and the train's forward momentum keeps it rolling until it gets to the next powered section. I thought I felt a slight loosening at one point while I was leaning on it here, and there were the vibrations rattling the stakes briefly, but then it was tight again. If there's another, then in that brief moment this panel should be able to be pulled.
If
it's really held by the electromagnets, that is."

"There is only one way to find out," Tony said. "I will just stand here and pull on it and see."

Although it was a rather simple explanation of the principle, Lori found himself momentarily taken aback by Julian's sophisticated knowledge, even though he knew her background. He hadn't been used to her being very assertive of late, and it gave him oddly mixed feelings he neither liked nor wanted to deal with. Julian had come up almost effortlessly with the solution to a problem of the sort that only seemed obvious when it was explained. The rattling had happened every few minutes off and on since they boarded, yet only Julian had put it together. Although he was quite proud of her, the two warring halves of his nature could not have been more divided on interpretation. The Lori Sutton part was cheering; the Lori of Alkhaz part was furious that she'd just given it to them all rather than tell him in private so that he could bring it up to the group.

Several minutes passed, and a bored Tony, feeling circulation going in her arms, was just about to give it up when suddenly the panel came up and she staggered back a bit, barely keeping balance. It didn't come all the way out but was now held only by two flat pins, no longer flush with the flatcar floor.

"If need be, I could probably kick it down at this point," Tony commented, "but I think that Lori might do better pushing up from beneath. Just be sure you don't fall off the train when it comes up!"

Lori looked at it dubiously. "Yeah, right," he said, but lay down, got his body in as close as he could with his legs well beyond the almost-free panel, and pushed against the very solid-feeling section.

When the moment came, tense as he was, the panel almost did take him with it; it flew up and away, and he suddenly felt himself going forward into the opening. Only Anne Marie's strong hands grabbing his legs and bringing him back in saved him, and, being hauled back on his stomach, he was suddenly
very
thankful he'd kept wearing the hardened codpiece.

"Wow! Can she
bend
!"
Julian gasped. "She didn't even have to
kneel
!" But she rushed to Lori.

Mavra nodded and said to herself, "Things aren't quite as static as they seem on the Well World. Dillian evolution has sure done a neat job on them!"

Julian bent down next to Lori, concerned. "Are you all right, my husband?" She asked in Erdomese.

He nodded. "Just bumped around a bit. I will be all right in a minute or two." He turned on his side and looked back and up at the centauress who'd grabbed him. "Thanks a lot, Tony."

"Think nothing of it, dear," responded Anne Marie, not taking any offense at all at being confused with her twin.

Mavra came over and inspected the opening. "Okay. That means Lori, Julian, and I can sit on the edge and then jump off rather than having to contend with a meter-high hurdle, and you two have a straight jump."

"How much longer will it be, do you think?" Julian asked her.

Mavra looked at her watch and then at the sun. "Maybe fifteen minutes. Okay, you've all seen these switching points; you know what they look like. Get as far away to the south—the direction that you'll jump—as you can as fast as you can and stay out of sight of anybody in the yard area. Assemble behind the first building that gives us cover and wait until we're all there. Understood? They may not be expecting us to jump, but they're sure to have somebody at the station to keep a tail on us, and it'll most likely be an Itun hired for the job. From this point we avoid Ituns until we're across the border."

They waited as the shadows grew and the light began to fade around them. Darkness came quickly to the Well World, and within a few minutes it would be pitch black. That actually bothered the two Erdomese the least, since they could simply lift their natural eye filters and see the full spectrum. Mavra and the two Dillians, however, had no more night vision than ordinary Earth humans, a thought that occurred to Julian.

"We should jump off last," she said to Lori, "because we can see."

He shook his head. "No, I think we go first for that very reason. We can find
them
a lot easier than they can find
us,
and I think it would be better to be on the ground just in case one of them has a problem with the jump."

"All right, then. You go and I'll follow. Night is almost completely upon us, and there are many lights not far ahead. I can already feel us slowing just a bit."

Lori turned to Mavra, who had noticed the lights as well, and she nodded. "Any time you feel right after we're slow enough. Just don't take it too fast. We'll get out."

The Erdomese moved to the opening in the flatcar stakes. Lori sat, legs over the side of the car, uncomfortable sitting on his behind because of the tail and tailbone. It was not a normal position for Erdomese, and he decided to jump as soon as he felt it was safe.

"Remember the heavier gravity," Julian warned him. "You will hit very hard, my husband."

"You take care, too."

The train was definitely slowing now, going perhaps thirty kilometers per hour, and it continued to slow. Lori's tailbone was hurting badly enough that when it was down to about twenty, he took a deep breath and launched himself into the night. He hit as hard as Julian had warned, pitched forward, and found himself rolling down a small embankment into a fetid, muddy drainage ditch. Covered with stinking mud, he almost panicked, got control, and clawed himself out of it and up onto dryer land. He lay there, breathing hard, for a minute or so, then picked himself up. He not only stank, he was sore, and his left ankle and right wrist stung when he moved them. For a moment he was afraid that he'd broken something, but he quickly realized that they were probably only sprains and not that serious. By force of will he made his way in the darkness just below the tracks toward the lighted area about half a kilometer farther on.

Julian came to meet him, walking on all fours. "Are you all right?" she asked, concerned, then twitched her nose. "You sure don't
smell
all right!"

"Rolled all the way down into the drainage canal. Didn't pay enough attention to the slope. I've got some twists, but I can handle it. You?"

"A little bruised but not bad. It was slower, and I had a more level area. About the only problem I'll have is getting grass stains out of my fur."

He managed a chuckle at that. "The others?"

"Mavra was right behind me. She just jumped out, rolled once, and landed on her feet almost beside me! Like an acrobat or something. She told me to find you and she was going to check on the Blondie Twins."

"Let's join up," he told her, gesturing forward.

"You are limping! Come! Put your hand on my shoulder, and I will help you," she invited, standing erect.

"I—I can make it on my own," Lori insisted, then grimaced and almost fell forward. She caught him and helped brace him, and this took just enough weight off that he was able to manage it.

"I thought you couldn't even move, let alone stand in this place," he noted.

"I grow strong when I am needed," she responded, quoting a female Erdomese proverb.

Both Dillians had jumped without a hitch and now waited with Mavra for Lori and Julian to join them in a dark area behind the first automated switching tower. Mavra, seeing them in the very dim glow of the tower lights, motioned for the much larger centaurs to remain where they were and ran toward the two Erdomese. "What happened?" she asked. "Are you hurt bad?"

"I'm not sure," Lori answered honestly. "I
thought
the ankle was just twisted a little, but now I'm not so sure. It doesn't feel broken, but I think it's a hell of a sprain."

"Well, a very ancient man who knows the Well World far better than I do once said to never travel without a Dillian if you can manage it. We can repack all the stuff on one of them and put you on the other. Don't argue! Whoever's watching us has probably already discovered that we're not there. The sooner we get away from here, the better!"

When they reached the Dillians, one of them was already repacking the saddlebags on the other. Then the one who carried all the equipment helped Lori onto the other's back.

"Ride forward," the centauress suggested. "That should take the pressure off your tail as well. And watch that horn on your head! I don't want to get stabbed if I have to make a sudden stop!" Left unsaid was the rather noticeable stink of swamp and mud permeating his hair.