"If you're so super rich, why can't you wear decent clothes," said Anne Mae as she clutched the steering wheel.
"It was just a party. My light blue turtleneck, brand new, under a medium blue sport coat, just two years old, is the current style. My navy slacks are so conservative they are never out of fashion. I never wear jewelry." In our code I had added for Betty, "Do you know what's bothering her?"
"And why don't you get a car of your own," she continued the attack.
"This is San Francisco. People don't need cars. I got to the party without one, but I will have a car ready any time I need one. Besides, you asked me to come with you when you left. I had been planning to get home on my own."
"And I had hoped to stay a bit longer," said Betty, adding, in code, "No idea".
"You spend so much money on those homeless people, you should indulge yourself more," said Anne.
"Oh, I think I know what's bothering you. That little pipsqueak lawyer has been hitting on you again, hasn't he. What's his name ... Dwight something."
"McNab," said Betty. "All nose and ego. Andrew's right. I saw him coming after you and I should've come to the rescue. I meant to but I got distracted."
"You're both right. I apologize for attacking you instead of flattening that pimply pirate at the party. Another ten minutes with him and they'd be checking me into jail for assault."
"Well, now that we have figured that out, you have my sympathy for having to put up with that pest. What did he do, propose marriage?"
"That's either a very good guess or your Rasputin told you," admitted Anne Mae. "Asking is not his style, though. He told me we'd marry as if it was a foregone conclusion. He wants to be your brother-in-law and prefers me to Betty."
"Me? Andy, can't you cause him to have some kind of mishap? Preferably fatal?"
"No, no mishaps. He's forty-something. You're in your seventies. You all look like you're in your fifties. Superficially a match but not one made in heaven. But you should each either get a serious boyfriend or take a very long vacation in Australia or Hawaii."
::Someone is dying, someone you would like if you knew them, up that alley:: came the voice in my mind.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Stop, Anne, please stop immediately, by the end of that alley. Rasputin just told me to investigate somebody who is dying."
Anne Mae brought the car to a quick, precise stop just beyond the alley mouth. Betty and I started down the alley, the cold wind now at our backs. "There is more than one, according to what Rasputin said. Street people wouldn't try to sleep in this area, not if they want to survive, so they're probably victims of violence."
We moved quickly down the alley. Betty kicked at a pile of rags, then said, "Here. And you're wrong for once. Try to get better directions from Rasputin in the future." Betty tore the remaining rags away from the two small forms, twin girls, turning blue from the cold. I tossed the first one over my shoulder and tried to lift the second around her waist but Betty took her from me. There was a plastic bag containing clothing, so I took it along. We hurried to the car, Betty shouting to Anne Mae to crank up the heat.
We bundled both of the girls into the back seat with Betty, then I took the front passenger seat. "Who are they?" asked Anne Mae.
"Nearly frozen, half starved teenage twin girls," answered Betty. "That's all we know about them at the moment. We'd best get them to the hospital."
"The shelter is closer and I know Faith is still in the clinic with that Russian girl who got beaten so badly. If anybody can save these two, Faith can. From their look they haven't been on the street very long." I silently ordered Rasputin to keep them alive and to start to warm them from the inside, receiving his silent affirmation.
It wasn't far to the shelter, a converted apartment building. There were only a few lights on at this hour. Anne Mae was able to park near the elevator, which the night manager, a young man with short blond hair, unlocked for us. Betty and I each carried one of the girls while Anne Mae got the various doors along the way for us. When we got to the clinic I spotted a still form covered with a sheet on the guerney. Faith, a tall, thin woman, jumped up when she heard us, knocking her chair over. "I thought it was the M.E.," she said. "Who's this?"
"We're not really sure, but they're cold and probably haven't eaten in about a week, judging from their appearance," I said. "Rasputin directed us to them. They haven't awakened or made any noise since we found them. The shelter was closer than any hospital. I hope you don't mind."
"I lost the Russian girl about half an hour ago. There was nothing I could do to save her. That frustrates me, and I'm so mad at whoever beat her so badly that I'd like to beat the hell out of them. I'd feel better if I could save somebody, to make up for her."
As she spoke, she and Betty arranged the two girls on two of the four available beds and started solutions flowing into their veins. "They're probably pretty well dehydrated, too."
"Rasputin is warming them internally and keeping them alive. As soon as they are out of danger, he'll withdraw."
There was a noise to announce the arrival of the night manager with the Medical Examiner and an assistant. Faith hurried off to meet with them, Anne Mae helped Betty with the girls, and the night manager came over to speak with me. "New residents?" he asked.
"Probably. Have you got a room for them?"
"Only the one the Russian girl was using. Kind of small for the pair of them."
"I would guess they won't need a room for a couple of days -- they'll have to stay in the clinic until they're better. Then, if necessary, we can send them to a hotel until a room becomes available. Or we can ship some of the other residents off to Sacramento, Oakland, L. A. or Phoenix to free up some room."
Betty was shining a light into one of the girl's eyes. She told us, "I'll stay and give Faith a break. I'll change to scrubs when I get a chance. Anne can take you home when you're ready."
"Actually, I'd rather stay, too. I'm not totally useless here, even if I'm not any kind of medical expert like you. Andrew has his room here, so he can stay or leave as pleases him." Anne Mae braced herself, as if expecting opposition. Betty smiled and I nodded, putting Anne at ease again. I conjured up coffee and snacks for everybody.
Soon enough, the Medical Examiner and his assistant left with their grim cargo, the night manager hurrying after them. Faith, physically and emotionally exhausted, retired to the back room to grab some sleep. Assured that the girls were now resting, not just unconscious, I excused myself and went up to my room on the top floor, knowing Rasputin would wake me when anything happened.
"Where's my sister?"
"She's asleep on the bed next to yours." Faith moved the curtain aside to show the girl the truth of her statement, then returned to perform a quick check of vital signs. "You are in the clinic of our shelter. You were brought here by our patron and his sisters late last night. The sisters left about an hour ago. Mr. Jamison will probably show up in a few minutes, now that you are awake. I'm not going to ask for your complete identification, but I'd like you to give me a name I can call you by and one for your sister."
"I'm June," the girl said. "My sister is Joan. We just got to San Francisco yesterday and didn't know where to go. It took all of our money just to get here, so we'll leave as soon as we can."
"You weren't paying attention, June. You are in Mr. Jamison's shelter, one of many he runs, and you don't have to leave. He brought you in himself, and nobody else is going to suggest that you leave. He should be here soon, to talk with you."
Joan tried to sit up, groaned and flopped back down. Faith told the pair, "You've suffered exposure because you chose a poor place to try to sleep on a particularly cool night. You're weak from lack of food. You'll probably be in bed for a few days. Don't try to hurry to get up or you'll make yourselves worse. If you want to sit up, let me know and I'll adjust the bed to sit you up. If you're hungry, you can have jello or a bit of soup along with milk, juice, coffee or hot chocolate. If you need to pee, tell me and I'll help you. Or my replacement will, when she gets here. You look like mirror twins to me; am I right?"
The two girls said, "Yes" in unison. June asked, "What kind of soup?"
"It's sort of a corn chowder with tomatoes and potatoes."
"I'd like some soup and coffee, then, if you'll sit me up, but I do need to pee first," said June.
"Me, too -- everything she said," said Joan.
They were finishing their soup when I arrived, at the same time Mary, the day nurse, arrived. Faith introduced us all, then gave Mary and I a quick summary of their conditions. Gathering her things, Faith said goodbye to each of the girls and left. Mary began her examination of the girls, starting with Joan, closing the curtains with me on the outside. Mary asked them, "How old are you, girls?"
Joan answered, "Fifteen."
"Where are you from? Don't worry. I'm not going to ask very many questions and I won't get mad if you don't answer. I will be disappointed if you lie to me, though."
"We're from Portland. We ran away. We didn't have much money and it took everything we had to get here."
"Do you want us to tell anybody that you're well and being taken care of?"
"No. If you tell our mother, she'll just tell her husband."
"Is he the reason you ran away?"
"Yes. Does he have to know where we are?"
"We have to report that we found a couple of girls and are taking care of them. If you don't give us any more details, our report won't be very useful. I'm not going to ask any more questions but you can tell Mr. Jamison anything you want. He only reports what he feels like reporting and the authorities can't do a damned thing about him. Just don't tell anybody else." She pulled the curtain aside and I stood up. "Except for a couple of bruises, there's no sign of recent abuse. They would be healthy enough if they had been eating recently."
"Thank you, Mary," I said. "Girls, you're welcome to stay here or in any of my other shelters as long as you obey a few simple rules. First, the building is divided into two sets of apartments, one set for girls and one for boys. Girls stay out of the boys' area and boys stay out of the girls' area. Second, no drugs are allowed. That includes alcohol and tobacco. Third, you attend school. We have our own certified teachers, so you don't need to attend a public school. Finally, I would appreciate it if you would help out in whatever way you can. That will give you a chance to earn some spending money. Think about it for a while -- you don't have to commit yourselves to anything until you are well enough."
"Thank you, sir," said June. "When you found us, did you find a bag along with us -- everything we have was in that bag."
"The bag is safe, in the office. The clothing can be washed for you, if you want, or we can wait until you're better and show you how to do your own laundry. When we have a room available for you, your belongings will be placed in your room and you'll each be given a key. If you don't want to share a room, we'll find two smaller rooms for you."
"Oh, we do want to share a room. And most of the stuff in the bag is clean; we'd rather wait and clean our own stuff," said June. Joan nodded agreement.
"In that case, you can either go back to sleep or, if you would rather, I'll tell you a story about myself and my servent Rasputin."
Mary said, "It is a strange story, but you'd better believe it. Mr. Jamison is known as the Chosen One and has had very strange things happen to him, things that have never happened to anybody else."
Joan said, "I couldn't go to sleep now if I wanted to. Everybody has heard of the Chosen One. I never expected to meet him, and I'd love to hear your story." June nodded her agreement.
I began, "Fifty billion years ago, more or less, there was a race of people who traveled from star to star, to find new worlds to live on. The trip from one star to another takes a long time, hundreds or thousands of years, even moving near the speed of light. The trips were very dangerous, so many of the ships that set out never arrived or the people in them all died, and those who set out on these voyages were very brave. When they arrived at a new star, there were often no planets suitable for them to live on. They would break their space ship apart to make space stations, habitats where they could live while they built a new space ship to carry them to the next star.
"Each time they colonized a new world, they would start construction on another space ship so some of their people could go to yet another star. They were constantly leaving behind their friends and families. Sometimes they could send back robots with messages but that was almost as expensive as sending a ship on to another new star. They wanted to be able to communicate with others of their kind.
"We live in a four dimensional universe: three dimensions of space plus time. They discovered that there were other dimensions and they learned how to send machines into what they called multi-space, space having more than four dimensions, in the hope of being able to use multi-space to communicate faster than light. But multi-space was too different to make it easy even to communicate with the machines they sent, robots of increasing ability and complexity that they called probes. Finally they sent robots so complex they could design and build even more complex robots within multi-space, super robots they called probe machines. One of these probe machines contacted a person in regular space by the name of Am Ouil, the very first of the Chosen Ones.
"Am Ouil, who we call the First Chosen, ordered his probe machine to communicate with the rest of his race and with any other intelligent race the probe machines could find. Then he discovered that there were many, many other universes the probe machines could transport people to. Being transported to a new universe meant they could choose stars having suitable planets to live on without having to build the gigantic star ships they used before. But the Chosen One had to live in both universes to keep the stars from getting lost.
"You see, all of the regular universes are connected in multi-space. They are connected in such a way that, no matter how many universes are involved, the Chosen One moves from one to another periodically, usually every five days. But when he gets back to the world he started from, no time has passed there. He takes up where he left off. I have sixty thousand universes where I live."
"How can you remember what you were doing when you get back," Joan asked.
"That is something that multi-space does for me. I have a different body in each universe, and the body remembers what happened to it most recently. I don't move from universe to universe, Rasputin does. He uses me as a key. He can always find my pattern, as he terms it, within a universe he has visited. When he finds my pattern, he establishes himself in the solar system where I am. He modifies my mind, the part of me that actually seems to move from universe to universe, so I remember other universes but less clearly. If Rasputin lost me, I would continue to exist just like anybody else until I died."
"This may sound stupid, but has Rasputin ever lost you?"
"Yes. We call it the stability problem. If we can confuse a probe machine so that it can't recognize the pattern of its Chosen One, it loses instances of its Chosen One. Because of the research I was doing to gain an advantage over some other Chosen Ones, we ran into stability problems and lost several hundred instances of my research teams."
June asked, "Where do your bodies come from?"
"The probe machines make them by duplicating my existing body in the new universe. If I want to send somebody else to another universe, the probe machine makes a copy of their body in the new universe."
Joan asked, "Why? That is, why do the probe machines do these things?"
"The original probes were programmed with very strong orders to serve their creators. The probe machines inherited those instructions. It is one of their most basic features.
"In addition to traveling to other universes, Am Ouil discovered that we can sort of travel backwards in time. Let me explain. The very first time we visit a world in another universe, we can synchronize with it as if we had moved back in time up to a hundred thousand years. Eventually it will work its way into synchronization with our current time. That sounds stiff and technical. The farther we go back in time, the longer we have to stay there so we'll eventually catch up."
Joan asked, "How many worlds do you have stuck in the past? How many do you have that aren't?"
"I started with sixty thousand worlds placed as far back as I could so I could do some basic research. I have only brought two of them up to our current time but all of them have come at least several thousand years forward. I don't want them to all pop up at once. I'll start with a few hundred and then decide how fast to bring them up. What I've done so far has cost me over two billion years. Bringing them all up would have cost me six billion years of my life."
They said, in unison, "You don't look that old."
"Every time I die I get a new body that's about twenty-five years old."
Joan asked, "Why twenty-five?"
"Physical maturity. The body and mind develop from conception to about age twenty-five. Then they pause for a few years and start to deteriorate. Twenty-five is a convenient age."
June asked, "Why die?"
"Believe it or not, we have souls. Over the years they accumulate a bunch of junk and after a while they need a few days to shake it off. We take away the protection of the body so the soul can dump its load of junk. When the soul is ready, the probe machine makes a new body. A twenty-five year old version of our original body."
June asked, "How many other Chosen Ones are there?"
"Each new race of intelligent beings gets one Chosen. Am Ouil set up the criteria for intelligence. There are over thirty trillion intelligent races, which is about five thousand for each person living on the Earth."
Joan asked, "How many of those races live in our universe?"
"So far as I know, none. There are so many universes, most of them are void of intelligent life. Lots of places have some kind of life but it is mostly pretty simple. Intelligence is pretty rare."
Joan said, "You can say that again!" Both of them giggled.
"Were you rich before you were chosen?" asked June.
"I was well enough off. I had my own business and it was doing pretty well. But I am much richer now. And I'm going to get rich a whole lot faster now that I've started bringing new worlds up to the present time. If nothing else, just taking people to visit new worlds will make me very, very rich. Rasputin does a lot to earn me money. I don't ask how very often."
Joan asked, "You have a bunch of these shelters. Do they make you any money?"
"No, they cost me money. So do many of my other projects, like providing education for those who want it. I'll give you an example of how Rasputin makes money for me. People are constantly losing money, usually small amounts. Rasputin finds lost valuables of all kinds. Sometimes he returns them to the people who lost them but when he can't, I get them.
"Rasputin can't act directly. He uses what I call 'agents'. These range from microscopicly small creations to some that could pass for human. Many of the human agents look and behave exactly like me. At any given time, there are hundreds of copies of me wandering around all over the world."
Joan asked, "Why can't Rasputin act directly?"
"He's too different. His base universe has more than four dimensions. The probes he is constructed from are smaller than electrons but his basic time interval is much greater than ours. His kind needed an interface in order to communicate with us at all. It took close to a million years for Am Ouil's race to invent such an interface."
Joan stifled a yawn. June followed suit a moment later. "You both need to rest. I'll talk to you again later."
"Not yet. Not yet," Joan protested, "One more question: Are you married?"
"Mostly. I'm married on ninety percent of the worlds I live on. Here I'm only engaged, although on another world I'm married to the girl I'm engaged to here. She is studying for her doctorate in biology and too many other things are happening here right now, so we haven't yet set a date. I haven't even met her parents yet. I've been traveling in Europe with a group from that same other world where we married. They are visiting New York now and I had to come here on unrelated business."
Both girls nodded and settled down to sleep. I left.
Four days later the twins were released from the clinic and given an apartment that had become vacant. It had been cleaned and painted, and it still smelled of paint.
There were three rooms, a bedroom, a bathroom and a study or kitchen. The bedroom had two twin beds, two small chests of drawers, a closet and a desk. There was a second desk in the study, along with a table with four chairs. The furniture took up most of the available space.
Unpacking the little they had in the plastic bag didn't take long. As they finished, someone knocked at their door. They opened the door to an Oriental girl not much older than they were. "Hi," she said. "I'm Marge, acting manager for this set of apartments. I brought you some supplies: plates, glasses, cups, napkins, paper towels, toilet paper. I live one floor up. My door is marked with a big red star. If you need anything, it's my job to get it for you."
"Hi, Marge. I'm Joan. This room is a little cramped. Can we trade these twin beds for futons or something?"
"I'll have somebody take care of it. Lots of people prefer the futons. That's why we have a surplus of beds. Meanwhile, I have to take you over to the school and get you started. Just leave the bag. You can unpack it later."
Marge escourted them downstairs and across the street to what appeared to be a warehouse. Entering, they found themselves in a gymnasium with two basketball courts. Passing through, they entered a courtyard surrounded by small rooms. Marge led them inside a room being used as an office. A man with a graying beard got up from a cluttered desk when they entered. Gesturing at the mess, he said, "I had a secretary ... eventually I'll find everything."
Marge said, "Robert. June and Joan. See ya later." Then she was gone.
"This place is a mess. Come on into my office." The room he led them to was a small classroom with a desk and large table at the front. Robert seated himself on the edge of the desk and waved them to seats at any of the smaller tables arranged throughout the room. "I'm Robert, so you must be June and Joan. I understand the boss brought you in himself."
"Yes. He saved our lives," June said.
"He saved mine, too, a couple of years ago. Then he found me this job, which I love. I used to teach; now I'm learning and educating people. You're fifteen and from around Portland; that gives me a basic idea of what you've been studying. Anything special, like music or sports?"
June said, "I play the flute. Joan has started playing the clarinet. We both like soccer and volleyball."
Joan said, "June brought her flute along. All I have is a few reeds. Can I have a clarinet?"
Robert made a note, then looked up. "I wouldn't be surprised at anything the boss can come up with. I'll check on it and let you know. How were your grades?"
Marge stuck her head in the door, said, "You've got futons," and disappeared.
Joan said, "We mostly got A's. We both like to read. Even stuff other kids consider boring. We do a lot of reading."
"Most of our books are on disks or chips. Do you have a machine?"
"We both brought our book readers and folding keyboards. They read both the one inch disks and chips."
"That brings up the Net. I assume you both have Net accounts?" Both girls nodded, so Robert continued. "There are no connections in your rooms; you'll have to connect from a classroom. If you try to sign on to your old accounts, though, they'll be able to trace you. Some of the kids here can safely hack your stuff out if you trust them to. They love the challenge. I'll ... hmm ... I'll have Billi check with you, get your metrics and passwords, and pass your stuff to new accounts.
"Most of your studying will be online on the Net. I'm sure you're used to that. You'll have live classes in the morning. Nine sharp, room seventeen. That's across the courtyard from here. You'll get your schedule there tomorrow morning. You'll meet your music teachers in the morning, too. I still teach live classes, math and physics, sometimes history, so you'll probably have a class with me eventually, if you stay long enough.
"Now let's head over to the library, get you a couple of computers, then you can check out some magazines or books. We have movies and TV in the library in the afternoon, too. You saw the gym on your way in. There is also a weight room and several exercise rooms. We use local schools for baseball, football, soccer and track. You can sign up in the morning."
Joan stopped him. "What about report cards?"
"Your progress goes on record. Closed records. City school officials will review your records and test scores to approve your advancement to another grade or your graduation. They won't know your identities. Otherwise, its just me and the boss. And you. You can review your records at any time. Okay?"
Joan asked, "Then nothing gets back to our parents?"
"Not without a court order. You'll have an interview with city social services, too, but those records are also closed while you're a minor. They have to be sure we're not abusing you."
Both girls had recovered a month later when Karen came out to spend the week-end with me and decided to meet them. They got along so well together that Karen decided to spend Saturday shopping with them. I wasn't invited. Anne Mae invited them to accompany us for dinner that evening. Betty thought she would be too busy to attend but was able to join us. She brought along a colleague, the only other man in the group, Ben Englander. The restaurant Anne Mae selected for us specialized in Thai cuisine. I had a spicy hot soup followed by a shrimp dish.
"Andrew," Betty started, "how many wives do you have right now?"
"Betty, are you trying to stir up problems with Karen?"
"Go ahead," Karen said. "I'd have asked you if I'd thought of it. I'm a very interested party."
"Okay, in round numbers, I'm married to more than fifty three thousand women right now. On sixty thousand worlds. And that includes you, Karen."
Joan asked, "How many children do you have?"
Anne Mae asked her, "Which one are you, June or Joan?"
"I'm Joan. If you want to know which is which, I usually dress in blue or use blue accents. June goes for green. We do it that way on purpose. When we want to have fun, we trade colors. Besides, I'm left handed and she's right handed."
"And what have you heard from your family?"
"Nothing, thank goodness. Andrew says Mommy is okay and that her husband is searching for us, mostly in Oregon. The shelter reported us separately, not as sisters or twins, so he still doesn't know where we are. That could change, so we're keeping our bags packed, ready to move elsewhere."
"But you will stay with our shelters, won't you?"
I laughed. "The early indications are that these two will be running the shelters pretty soon. They have a talent for organization and management."
Joan giggled. June said, "The shelters are managed by the residents. Most of them have no management skills whatever. They need professional management. We've fixed a few obvious problems but we're not prepared to run things."
I corrected her. "Each shelter has an office manager who is a resident. The shelters as a whole are managed by a law firm I employ for that purpose. The office managers don't really run the associated schools, clinics, kitchens, laundry operations or whatever. They just coordinate stuff. Each building and the operations in it are run by a building manager. In a couple of cases, with really large operations like the one in Los Angeles, there is a city-wide manager, too. All of them report to me to some extent, but most of my dealings are with the law firm on top."
Joan said, "I like the shelter. I wouldn't mind running one."
Ben remarked, "That is an excellent goal, and being an office manager could be valuable experience. You should be thinking of a future career now. Do you know what you're going to study in college?"
Both girls shook their heads. June said, "Up 'til now, we were just trying to get through each day as it came. We didn't really have any future. We've just started to talk about it. We've ruled out a few possibilities like science and medicine. Law sounds like a bit much. I don't want to teach."
Joan corrected her. "We don't want to teach little kids. Teaching older people is a different story. Particularly teaching adults."
June jerked her head around. "Wait just a minute. Just a minute. You said you had fifty three thousand wives, then changed the subject when we asked how many children. We've passed through towns with fewer than fifty three thousand people. You have enough wives for a good sized town. If there are people on all of your sixty thousand worlds, where in hell did they come from?"
"I wasn't the one who changed the subject," I replied, "but you have a good question. You didn't think I was going to sit on empty worlds for billions of years all by myself. Rasputin populates those worlds with copies of all of the animals and people that have lived on Earth for the last hundred thousand years. I recruit a few people from modern times, partly because more are available now than have been available throughout human history, but a lot of my people come from the stone age, the bronze age or the iron age. Some people that I like share lots of different worlds with me."
June glared at me. "You've done it again. Every time I think there is something normal about you, you drop some kind of bombshell that blows my mind away."
I reminded her, "We tried to divert you, to keep the conversation normal. You girls asked about my wives. You were the one who asked where all the people came from. Don't blame me. You'll have to get used to living on a different scale if you stay near me."
Joan turned to Karen and said sweetly, "You're lucky that you found him first and that we like you. Otherwise, we would claim him for ourselves, to share between us. I like his sense of humor and the gentle way he keeps trying to protect us."
The dinner broke up. Anne Mae took the girls back to the shelter and the rest of us went our own ways.
The twins were just weeks away from their eighteenth birthday when their mother's husband located them. Rasputin was immediately aware what happened and notified me. I was in Colorado at the time, recruiting administrators and workers for a new shelter in Minnesota. I immediately called Betty in San Francisco.
I spoke to her of the weather in Denver and the problems with finding people for the Minnesota shelter, things we had discussed the day before, but I added in our code, "Send the twins east, no destination. You stay put. Tell nobody."
There would be several people leaving San Francisco for St. Paul to work in the new shelter. Most of them would be willing to take a couple of passengers and their small amount of luggage. But the car I was renting wasn't big enough for even one more passenger. I drove north to Denver, turned in the rental car and took a taxi to the shelter there.
It was late afternoon when I arrived. I dropped my travel bag in the office and headed for the chow hall, where the manager was just starting his supper. I got a tray, picked out a salad and iced tea, and joined him. "Hello, Maxwell," I said.
"Wassup, Boss," he growled.
"I was visiting in Pueblo and was given some stuff for St. Paul. I want to take care of it myself but my little rental car won't handle it. Have you got a truck or van you can spare for a month or so?"
"I've got an old truck I've been trying to get rid of. A truck rental company gave it to us a couple of years ago and it's too big and eats too much gas. I'll get you the papers so you can sign it over to them when you get there."
"That sounds great. I'll head out in the morning. Late morning. Is ten a good time for you?"
"Before eleven. I've got an appointment then. Staying in your room here?"
"Yes, but I'll be in and out for a bit. I've got some shopping to do."
"If I know you, you'll head out by bus and come back in a taxi. Hey, Nan," he shouted to a young lady just leaving the line with a laden tray, signaling her over. "The boss needs a chauffer this evening. Use the van."
Nan was new to me. I stood as she joined us. "Nancy Harper. I'll be glad to run you around. Where do you want to go?"
"I think I can get everything in Cherry Creek."
She nodded. A thin woman dressed in tan came over to the table with a large platter, which she placed between us. "I'm glad to see you here, Boss. We just got a new chef, a hotel chef donating his night off. He wants you to try some of his coconut shrimp and some of his leg of lamb. That puny little salad you always get won't hold you for long anyway. There's enough for all of you. I'm going to fix myself a plate. I'll be right back."
"Thank you, Caroline," I said as I helped myself to a large portion of the shrimp from the platter. When she returned, Caroline brought a caraffe of red wine and four glasses in addition to her plate.
Maxwell muttered, "I'm sorry, Boss. I forgot all about the new chef." He helped himself to a generous portion of the lamb.
"Caroline, I'm just passing through. I'll be heading east late morning. Is there anything you want me to drop off in Des Moines?"
"I'm fine, Boss. So's Benny. Marilyn left Des Moines two days ago for St. Paul. I've already sent her a ton of stuff this week. How are Betty and Anne Mae?"
"They're both hanging in there. But they don't intend to leave their home now. Karen is teaching at the university in Flagstaff. I was there this morning. Who have I left out?"
"The twins?"
"With Betty and Anne Mae, getting ready for their big birthday celebration in about three weeks. I should be back in plenty of time. This shrimp is excellent."
They were probably still in San Francisco but should be on their way soon enough. I planned to pick them up before they turned northwards in Iowa and take them on through Detroit to Ottawa. They could stay in the shelter there until after their birthday. After that they could do what they wanted where they wanted without problem.
Joan said, "It was a shock seeing Karen so old. A couple of months ago, just before our party, she was something like twenty-two. Now she is, what, sixty something?"
"Just sixty. We hopped a couple of fairly shallow worlds before you joined us. I'm roughly fifty. On the last world she saw me go from ninety-something to about twenty-five. Anyway, this trip would be a bit rough for her. That's why she flew up with Rob and Casey." We were each riding horseback and leading at least one additional animal carrying a pack. I was leading a pair of brown pack horses. My tan mount shied a bit at something I didn't see, so I pulled up.
June pulled up beside me. "Whatcha think, Andrew? Are we in for some weather?"
I shaded my eyes to look at the clouds that were forming. "I'm afraid so, bad weather. I think we're about to be hit by a spring snowstorm, a big one. We'd better pick up the pace and find ourselves some good shelter. You two go on ahead. I'll follow with all of the pack animals."
June said, "No, Andrew, you know how to survive in the mountains from centuries of practice. You scout shelter and we'll follow with the pack animals."
A few snowflakes blew around us as I passed her the lead to my two pack animals. Then I headed up the trail at as fast a pace as I knew my mount could maintain for a long period. The area was rocky and held little hope of shelter, so I headed up slope towards a line of large fir trees. It was early afternoon but it was rapidly getting dark. A brief rain squall wet me before turning into snow.
On most worlds I would have had some devils and goblins scouting shelter for me. But the population of this world considered anything that seemed to be magic to be evil. It was unlikely that anybody would be out here watching us, but it was not impossible and it was easier to be consistent than to have to think about it. I did use some small owls, who quickly located a cluster of shelter pines, several of them large enough for the three of us and all of our animals. They also located a man on a mule who was just sitting there in the open, not seeking shelter.
I headed back to where I could see the girls and motioned for them to follow me, remaining in sight until they caught up. I led them to the cluster of shelter pines. We got the pack animals inside under its protective boughs. Then I headed back the way we had come to where the man on the mule waited. June followed me.
"What's up, Andrew?"
"When we went by, I spotted a man on a mule. They were just standing there, facing away from the snow coming down. I'm going to bring them into the shelter pine with us."
It wasn't far, no more than half a mile. The man appeared to be asleep or unconscious, not looking up or turning his head as we approached. He was dressed in a thin, badly patched monk's robe and cowl, apparently having nothing else to wear but the robe and sandals. He must have felt the cold even before the snow started. He didn't react when I took the reins from his hands.
The saddle was just a wooden frame covered with tattered blankets. The mule shivered and stomped his feet as I tied the man to the saddle frame and as June and I tied his feet to the leather strap that held the saddle frame in place. The animal followed willingly when we led it towards our shelter.
Joan had already tied the animals together on one side of the shelter and removed their saddles and packs. She helped us get the man and his saddle frame off of the mule, then led the mule to join our animals. I got some blankets out of the packs, placing one on a heap of leaves for an impromptu bed, where June and I seated the man, a young man who was probably not yet twenty. I covered him with another blanket, then got our metal stove out of the pack and set it up nearby.
I filled the stove with dried pine needles and twigs and started it burning, then got out the three personal heaters we had and started pine needle fires in them, too, placing each heater on a patch of cleared ground near the man. I broke out some more blankets, which Joan and I used to cover the animals. Each animal was then given a ration of grain.
June had gone out to get some water from a nearby stream. I placed some of the water in a pot on the sheet metal stove for tea, then got out some dried meat and herbs to make a pot of broth. While I tended the fires and the tea and broth, June and Joan got out a rifle and a shotgun to see if they could supplement our meal with something fresh while there still was light. Shortly after they left, I heard a single shot from the rifle. Joan returned with the two weapons, which she unloaded and packed away. She then grabbed our large axe and went out again, saying, "We got a baby elk," as she left.
The two returned burdened with a haunch, the hide and several select cuts of meat, including the tenderloins and the liver. I added a few pieces of fresh meat to the broth, then cut up the tenderloins and liver for frying. Our frozen monk had thawed out enough to take an interest in our activities, so Joan began to feed him warm tea to thaw him out even more. June devoted herself to cleaning up the protected area we occupied, making one large bed for herself and Joan and a smaller one for me
The wind picked up, but the snow it blew onto the tree added to our protection. We continued to be cool but comfortable. Sometimes a blast of wind would shake the whole tree, bringing down showers of needles, branches and other stuff, so I rigged a tarp over our living area. I cleared an area as far as possible from our sleeping and cooking areas, dug a ditch and rigged tarpaulin walls to make a small latrine. Then we settled down to wait out the storm.
"You were lucky to find the small elk so quickly. Was there any sign of its mother?"
June said, "No, the baby was all by itself. It had fallen and impaled itself on a snag. It was still thrashing around, which is what attracted us to it, but it had lost a lot of blood, so it wasn't going to live much longer anyway."
I said, "It was a fortunate find for us. It was unlikely we'd find any birds. They'd all be seeking shelter from this weather."
I turned to the monk and said, "I'm Andrew. The girls are June and Joan. I'm escorting them up the mountains to a town where my wife and some friends are waiting for us."
He said, "I'm Bro ... Father Joshua. It's a brand new title and I'm not used to it yet. I'm on my way to visit the Clarity Redemption colony near here. They don't have a permanent priest and I have several duties to perform for them. Marriages, baptisms and the like."
Joan said, "You're lucky we found you. June and I went right past you without seeing you. You were covered with snow and looked just like any other big rock. Andrew is the one who found you and brought you here."
Joshua said, "Thank you and bless you for helping a stranger."
I said, "Clarity Redemption -- aren't they an offshoot of Clear Way Redemption? I'm surprised they don't insist on having their own priests."
"Normally they do, but this is a small colony, about two hundred people, and their priests died over the winter. I'm of the Order of Kindermann and only marginally acceptable to Clarity, but a Clear Way priest would be completely unacceptable to them. The appointment is supposed to be temporary but they won't use electronic technology to message the large colony on the western coast of Easterling and they won't get a Clarity priest until they send a committee by boat to request one, probably six months or more."
"Always assuming the main Clarity colony has a priest to spare. They're awfully harsh on their priests and mortality tends to be high."
"I was told that the rumor of high mortality among Clarity priests was simply a story invented by their enemies. Their course of study is difficult and only a few of their many condidates reach full priesthood, but they have an intermediate level, sort of a lay brother, who can perform marriages, baptisms and the Symbolic Mass. They will need a priest to train lay brethren to the full priesthood, but any of those trained as lay brothers can replace me."
Joan asked, "Why did Clarity split from Clear Way?"
"Clear Way had a hard core of fundamentalists who believed both air travel and radio were magic, therefore both unnatural and evil. When the matter was considered at their Synod of Mells, these beliefs were denied and air travel and radio continued to be considered acceptable. The fundamentalists broke away and formed Clarity."
"But the Kindermann brotherhood is part of the traditional Christian Church, aren't they? Do they believe that magic is evil? Why is a Kindermann priest more acceptable than one from Clarity?"
"This world was founded mostly by Europeans and North Africans from neolithic to modern times. On one hand, something like Earth's modern Catholic Church became the dominant religion but on the other hand it picked up a lot of pagan traditions, particularly beliefs concerning magic. The Redemption cults formed when somebody decided that the Chosen One's powers came from the use of evil magic rather than from natural sources beyond our four-dimensional universe. This was encouraged by the Chosen One's use of devils, demons and goblins, monsters borrowed from those same religious backgrounds.
"When Clarity was founded, the Elders of the new church declared Clear Way to be a tool of the Evil Chosen One and their souls forever blackened. No such declaration was made concerning the traditional churches, so our priests are considered as acceptable as their lay brethren for the minor duties."
I said, "Most Revered Dixon Kindermann was a close friend of the Chosen One before he founded the order that bears his name. They remained in contact for years after the order was founded. The Chosen One convinced Revered Kindermann that no magic was involved in what he did, only natural powers beyond our four dimensional universe. But the Chosen One did not participate in any way in the founding of your order. It is entirely a product of the efforts of Most Revered Dixon Kindermann, as he claimed. It is a pity that slanders from the various Redemption cults has hurt its reputation so much, particularly over the past few decades."
"You're well informed in the history and affairs of the order. Have you ever studied for the Calling or been affiliated with the Order?"
"No, but I've known several of the leaders of your order. I knew Revered Flanders before his stroke and I attended conferences with Fathers Benning and Kourangi. I get around a lot."
June and Joan, sensing my dilemma, managed to change the subject. I didn't want to speak any untruth but I didn't want this priest thinking about the Chosen One who was named Andrew. Fortunately Father Joshua was weak from his exposure and went to sleep early. He also slept late the following morning, which was just as well, since the storm continued to batter our shelter pine until well into the afternoon.
June and Joan scraped the elk hide, gave it a quick oil treatment, then sewed it over the wooden saddle frame. Except for the saddle repair and normal camping chores, we all rested the whole day, deciding to get an early start the following morning. The priest recovered quickly. The fair weather following the storm helped.
We decided to accompany Father Joshua to the Clarity Redemption compound, a small detour. We also provided him with a duster-style long coat and boot-like moccasins for the trip and a decent blanket to take with him for future use. We didn't approach the compound closely ourselves but watched as the Father was met and escorted inside.
The weather remained clear and pleasant for the remaining two days of our trip. We remained in contact with Karen and the rest by satellite phone and they tracked our progress through our satellite positioning repeater messages. When we arrived, in late afternoon, a party was already under way in our honor.
I had been ready to ride out well before sunrise. Other people, including Karen, had insisted on a varitey of unnecessary preparations, so the sun was well up when we set out on our hunt. Todd and Melly, my guides and companions for the hunt, were more frustrated by the delays than I was. We now led pack horses with enough equipment and supplies for a week, despite our plans to return early in the afternoon. June and Joan and their guides followed us out for their own hunt. The two hunting parties escorted out six young girls who would be tending herds of sheep and goats that had been brought in recently for shearing.
"We should have been there by now," Todd complained.
I replied, "We're not really seriously hunting, you know. You're just entertaining the guests while your family puts together yet another feast. If we do get something it will be nice, but they want me out of the way more than they need an additional deer or elk for the table."
Jasmine, one of the shepherdesses, added, "We should have been up on the holding fields hours ago. The night crew is going to be upset that we're so late."
Todd pointed up the road and said, "It looks like they sent out a welcoming committee." There were about a dozen long-haired goats coming down the trail towards us. The shepherds broke away from our group, signalling to their dogs to turn the goats around. They had been riding our pack animals but were now continuing on foot, so we collected the pack animals as we passed them. By the time we rode out of sight the herd of stray goats had grown to over twenty animals.
We continued on past the pasture, June and Joan and their party leaving the road about a mile beyond the pasture. We followed the road for another two miles, then moved off up the wooded slope at the edge of a valley. About four miles farther on our path turned downwards. We tied up our mounts and the pack animals and started off on foot.
We hadn't gone much over half a mile. We were at the top of a long slope, walking slowly and quietly, when we heard gunfire. Somebody downslope from us was firing at us, three figures on horseback coming up the slope towards us. We were barely beyond the range of their rifles and could see the bullets hit near our feet. Todd and Melly began firing at them but were clearly missing. They were too excited to aim well. They were probably also not compensating for the downslope at the extreme range.
I pointed my own rifle at the largest of the three. As I expected, the targeting display was flashing, indicating that they were out of range. I aimed slightly above my target. As I did so, an old, familiar coldness settled over me. How many hundreds or thousands of times had I prepared to shoot a person over the past two billion years or so? My emotions went dead, my breathing settled into the correct pattern, with the pause as I gently squeezed the trigger. The buck of my rifle seemed an independent experience. My guess was good, the shot hitting him low but knocking him off of his mount. The other two spurred their mounts towards us, firing as they came.
Todd and Melly each fired several more shots that missed the two figures. The out of range indication on my range finder disappeared as the figures approached. One of their bullets would have struck my knee if Rasputin hadn't stopped it. Still coldly emotionless, I sighted on each of them in turn and fired, dropping them from their saddles. Neither moved after hitting the ground. The first figure was crawling toward the rifle he had dropped, having a difficult time of it because of his injury. Keeping our eyes on him, we moved down the slope.
Melly reached the first small body. "It's a little girl. She couldn't be more than twelve years old," she said. "You hit her squarely in the chest. She must have died instantly."
Todd made a similar report on the second little girl. For a moment I felt sick, then deeply sad. Those emotions were quickly replaced with anger, an emotion I could handle better. I asked my two friends to catch the horses, tie the bodies aboard, and head back to where our horses waited.
I reached the final victim, picking up his rifle. Unlike my pale, nearly transparent rifle, his was a solid black with a black stock, grip and forearm. He was a man in his forties, dressed in the dark homespun typical of the magic-hating cults. He looked like a farmer, weathered, with broad, muscular shoulders. I said, "I assume you're all from the Clarity Redemption colony. Why were you trying to kill us?"
"You are evil! You corrupted a commoner priest and sent him into our midst."
"Father Joshua? How am I supposed to have corrupted him?"
"You found him dead and used your magic to bring him back to life."
"I did what? Father Joshua was chilled and passed out before I found him, but warmth and a cup of tea were sufficient to wake him up. He immediately recovered completely, all naturally. No magic was used."
"You lie!" His outburst brought on a coughing spell. Afterwards he was unable to respond for several minutes. He was gut shot and was beginning to suffer extreme pain. "You lie," he said more softly, "We questioned the priest at length. He had been riding along on his mule. Then suddenly he found himself on a bed with you and two witches standing over him."
"The two ladies with me are not witches and have no magic. I used no magic. When I found Father Joshua he was sitting on his mule, unconscious. He was suffering mild hypothermia. The cold knocked him out. We brought him inside a shelter pine, wrapped him in blankets on a pile of leaves and started burning pine needles in our stoves to warm him. When he regained consciousness he seemed perfectly rational, with no confusion. He was never dead."
"He is now. He hanged himself when the truth was revealed to him by our elders."
Now I was transferring my anger from the three who had been shooting at us to the whole pack of cultists who had browbeaten an innocent young man whose only desire was to serve his God and humanity into commiting suicide and who had then set off as a group to murder me, and probably June and Joan as well. It was pointless to try to convince this one of the error of the cult's ways. He wasn't going to be here long enough for it to be worth the effort. It was probably almost as pointless to try to convince anybody else in the cult that they were wrong about us, either. All I could do was to try to prevent them from doing any more harm.
"Your elders are guilty of the death of an innocent man. But how did you find me? I had no idea we were coming here."
"How are my daughters?"
"They're both dead. I shot them after I shot you. How did you find me?"
"We were lucky. Our group is just one of many. Almost everybody in the colony set out to destroy the Evil One and his witches. Only the aged, the infirm and babies stayed behind. Some other group will do what I failed to do. Please end this pain."
"The pain will end soon enough without my help. There is nothing I can do to save your life." I unloaded his rifle, then loaded a single cartridge into it and placed it on the ground about six feet from him. "If you want to end your pain yourself, you will have one chance to do so. We are leaving."
I hurried up the slope. As we prepared to mount our animals we heard a single shot behind us. Ignoring it, we hurried back the way we had come just a few hours earlier. As we approached the pasture area we ran into sheep and goats, both individuals and small groups, milling around confusedly. From a great old oak at the edge of the pasture hung the bodies of the six shepherdesses who had tended the animals. All had been tortured. Their fingernails had been torn out, all had multiple burn marks on their arms, legs and faces, and there had been other mutilations. We cut them down and checked to be sure they were not alive, then hurried on.
My anger grew, as did my fear for my friends' safety. Melly was in shock and couldn't keep up, so I asked Todd to stay with her while I went on ahead. I didn't get far. Riding past an open meadow, I spotted a group of crows behaving strangely. I almost rode past, then decided to investigate.
I found the bodies of June and Joan well off of the road. They had been having a picnic. The picnic cloth and basket hadn't been disturbed. The plates and food were still laid out ready to eat, except for the little damage the crows had done. June had been shot once in the back, Joan multiple times in the front of her torso. Both had been hacked to pieces, apparently with large axes.
I was still standing there, silently, my fists clenched, when Todd and Melly rode up. They were standing silently behind me, unsure what to do, when I summoned up the chief of my devils. Melly screamed and took shelter in Todd's arms.
Standing over their remains, the monster wan nine feet tall and twice as broad as a large human. His thirteen ivory horns seemed to glow against the red blackness of his skin. He seemed more proud and noble than I could ever hope to be. I gave him his orders in a voice whose seeming calmness surprised me: "Kill all of the Clarity Redemption cultists. Drag their bodies into the wild places and shred them into little pieces to feed the mice, crows and foxes. Include those they left behind, their elders and babies. Destroy the compound; burn it to the ground, along with any other objects they might have built. Destroy all copies of any books they have written and any letters they have sent. I want nothing to remain of them."
The remains of June and Joan began to glow with that bright white light that accompanied my own first resurection. In a moment they were sitting up, intact. As the light faded, I could see the familiar double form of a Healer-Destroyer.
[[Greetings, Andrew Jamison. We are proud to serve you.]]
"Thank you, Healer-Destroyer, for restoring my friends."
[[That is not the full measure of our service. We have also destroyed the remains of those who attacked you, who you call the Clarity Redemption, as well as their parent organization, the Clear Way Redemption cult and several other offshoots of the Redemption cults, all everywhere they were to be found on this world. All of them, from baby to elder.]]
"That's nearly sixty thousand people! In my anger I ordered the destruction of a mere two hundred. Two hundred people in the wilderness could simply disappear, although rumors would persist, but everybody will blame me for the deaths you have caused."
[[You must face their displeasure. It is better that it be known how your enemies will be dealt with. You know you are better off without these cultists constantly telling everybody that you and your magic are evil. What the cultists did was done from ignorance and hatred, both of which were growing to stunt the civilization of this world. You know you wanted them dead or gone so this world could grow and flourish. We acted as surgeons, removing the cancer that was holding back civilization. We acted, rather than meekly waiting for your orders or your request, which amount to the same thing. We acted in the only way we know how to, doing what needed to be done because you wouldn't have asked it of us. Goodbye, Chosen One. We are proud to serve you.]]
They faded away. June and Joan came to me and embraced me silently. The shepherds, also restored, silently joined the guides standing behind me, waiting to see what my reaction would be.
I stood there for a long time, just staring into the distance. The trouble was that the Healer-Destroyer was right. I wanted the cults removed so that a healthy civilization could develop instead of the one the cults had been determined to create. I had wanted it, but I would never have asked it. If it had been suggested, I would have vetoed the suggestion. It was done and couldn't be undone.
It wasn't just a matter of avoiding doing things the easy way. Trying to do the right thing often resulted in exactly the opposite happening. There were many ways I could have countered the belief that my powers were evil magic, not all of them violent. But I didn't have a full measure of the problem and wouldn't until I allowed the Redemption cults, or something much like them, to flourish on several worlds. Their short term problems might well bring long term benefits. So, in general, I still wanted to encourage the growth of anti-magic cults somewhere. Perhaps I could best do that by claiming to be trying to destroy them.
The Healer-Destroyers were another problem. This was not the first time they had taken some unrequested action, supposedly to aid or benefit me. They were taking too active a part in my life, encouraging me to violence more often than not. I wondered at their motivation. Why me? They sometimes helped others of the Chosen, but not to the extent that they had attempted to help me. Why was I special to them?
A group of horsemen approached at a gallop, their leader, Rob Royal, having his flaming red hair restored to the permed bubble I had first seen him wearing. Seeing our quiet group, he slowed to a walk, his group catching up to him. I saw Casey raise her satellite phone to her lips, probably reporting to Karen.
"Hello, Rob. Is everything all right back in town?"
"We were attacked by a group of farmers. Somebody said they were Clarity Redemption cultists. We beat them off, then they disappeared. They came from this direction. We thought there might be something wrong, so we hurried ... ."
"There is something wrong," I said. "The cult came here to murder June and Joan as witches and me as their Evil One. I destroyed all of Clarity Redemption and all of Clear Way Redemption. I cannot tolerate ignorant, hateful cults attacking me. Now let's get back to town. I've had enough hunting for today."
"Todd! You're not drinking. Normally you'd be on at least your third drink by now."
"It was the kind of day that left me feeling that if I started drinking I'd never be able to stop."
"Just exactly what happened."
"Before we could start hunting, somebody started hunting us. The three of them were shooting up the slope and their bullets fell short. We shot back at them, but Melly and I held too high and our bullets went over their heads. Andrew picked off one after another, three down with three shots. The two little girls were dead and their father was gut shot. Yet he answered all of the questions Andrew asked him, as if he couldn't refuse."
"What was Jamison shooting? And what were the others shooting?"
"Andrew was shooting one of those overgrown .45 caliber rifle cartridges. Everybody else was shooting .30 caliber hunting ammo."
Melly said, "No, the first little girl was shooting a .243 caliber varmint cartridge. I checked."
"Which are useless on anything much bigger than a marmot. But I thought she was dangerous. So did you. How many shots did you fire?"
"Five. Maybe six, the same as you. I'm not sure I aimed but I sure didn't hit anything. And the guy did answer every question Andrew asked, as if he couldn't help himself, just like you said."
"Well, what did he say? What did Jamison ask?"
"It was something about a priest dying and being brought back to life corrupting him. That is, being brought back to life corrupted the priest. Andrew said the priest never died and there was no magic ..."
"And June and Joan weren't witches. Aren't witches."
"Anyway, the whole cult, everybody who could move, was going to try to kill Andrew and June and Joan. So then we headed out of there as fast as we could. Back to town. And we found all of the shepherdesses hanged from that big oak tree by the pasture."
"They had all been tortured. Fingernails torn out, burns all over, a couple had their eyes burned out."
Jasmine, seated next to Todd, said, "You have no idea how it feels to be tortured. They kept asking where Andrew was. They would pull out a nail and ask where he was, then pull another and ask again. When they ran out of fingernails and toenails they started using burning sticks. At the end they stuck the burning sticks in my eyes. I screamed a lot but I didn't answer their questions. So they hanged us. When Rasputin brought us back to life, he did something to make my memories more remote and to make me calm instead of totally hysterical."
"Andrew cut them all down from the oak tree, checking each one to make sure she was dead, then laid them out side by side with their arms crossed. Then we started out again but we didn't get very far. We stirred up a bunch of crows, which Andrew investigated. That's how he found June and Joan."
"They had been shot, then hacked to pieces. He ... we were all in shock."
"Well, what happened then? Don't stop now."
"Andrew stood there for a long time. His face was blank, his eyes unfocused. Then he was normal and he called up this devil."
"It was a prince of devils. Its horns formed a crown. It looked so ... so noble. So totally in charge. And when Andrew told it to kill all the members of the Clarity Redemption cult, it said, in that deep, mellow voice it had, 'It will be my pleasure.'"
"Then that skinny guy with all of the red hair came riding up on that fat pony ..."
"My horse. As fat, calm and steady and animal as any parent ever trusted to their kids. That horse never moved so fast before in its life ..."
"... riding on that fat pony like a pumpkin on a stick. With that crowd of riders behind him, I thought a kid's TV cartoon had come to life."
"Rob Royal. He and his wife, Casey, are cool. When the cultists attacked the town, Rob was the first to respond. The cultists didn't know what to do. There were only a few of them, a hundred or so, and the town was bigger than they expected, twelve thousand big. Little groups wandered around, sometimes shooting at a building. One group made the mistake of putting a bullet through a window near Casey. Rob was out the door in a flash, nothing but a stick in his hand ..."
"An axe handle. He went through Dad's shop and grabbed the handle from a broken axe."
"Anyway, he tied into this little group of five, all armed with rifles, and started beating on them. They were so surprised they never fired another shot. Three of them dropped their rifles and they all ran off. Rob ran into the barn, saddled the first horse he found, and rode off after them, with the axe handle still in his hand."
"He's so skinny they couldn't have hit anything if they had shot at him. Except maybe his hair. And he did look like something out of a cartoon, like a big red dandelion puff."
"Hey, don't forget that ghostly creature, the Healer-Destroyer that brought everybody back to life ..."
"He only brought June and Joan back to life. Something called Rasputin brought the shepherdesses back to life."
"Whatever. The Healer-Destroyer said it destroyed all of the Clarity Redemption and Clear Way Redemption and a bunch of similar cults, to serve Andrew. I felt it speaking in my mind."
"I thought Jamison killed all of those people."
"No. He said he did, afterwards, but the Healer-Destroyer did it because Andrew would never have asked anyone to do it. That was its idea of service to Andrew. To do what it thought Andrew really wanted even though Andrew would have resisted having it done."
An adult came to the door of the small classroom where the group of teenagers was talking. She said, "Melissa, Todd, Jasmine, please come with me. Mr. Jamison and his friends would like to talk with you."
The three stood and followed the woman. They went past the entrance to the school auditorium, where a party was going on, to another small classroom. Andrew and Karen Jamison, Rob and Casey Royal, June and Joan, and several strangers were sitting in a circle that included the rest of the shepherdesses. Todd, Melly and Jasmine took the three remaining seats in the circle.
Andrew addressed them. "You've had an unusual experience, even a traumatic experience. I've discussed your experience with the people who've been travelling from world to world with me. We agree you should be given a choice. Actually several choices. First, do you want to remember what happened to you? We can soften your memories to the point they seem no more than an indistinct dream, or we can leave them alone. What do you prefer?"
Five of the shepherdesses, all but Jasmine, elected to forget the experience. Looking confused, they were led from the circle and their chairs removed.
"Todd, Melissa, Jasmine. You have elected to retain your memories. You know a lot more about me than most people except for the people in this room. These people have followed me from world to world and can tell you what I'm like and what travelling with me is like. I would like each of you to get to know each of them. Then, some time in the next few years, I want you to decide whether or not you want to join us in our journey. You are all invited to join us whenever you feel ready to do so."
Todd said, "Andrew, I don't need even another minute to make my decision. I want to be part of your group."
Melly said, "Todd's right. I can decide now, too. I'm with you."
Jasmine asked, "Can we tell our parents?"
"You can tell anybody you want. I'm not going to keep this offer a secret. That's not the way I do things."
"Then I want to talk with my parents, with your wife and with June and Joan. I will probably decide to join you, but I want to think it through first. How long do I have?"
"We'll be on this world over a hundred years more. You are almost certain to die before we leave. You have to let us know before you die so we can plan to take the appropriate action. Apart from that limitation, you may take as long as you feel you need."
"I'll let you know later, then. Now I'm going to talk with my parents. Will you excuse me?"
"Go ahead, Jasmine. We'll all join the party, but you can talk to any of us at any time."
"If I decide not to go with you, do I have to forget what happened?"
"No, whatever you decide your memories are yours to keep."
"Thank you. Thank you all."