Quest for the Well of Souls - Jack L. Chalker [0]
Jack L. Chalker
This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.
Copyright © 1978 by Jack L. Chalker
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form.
A Baen Book
Baen Publishing Enterprises
P.O. Box 1403
Riverdale, NY 10471
www.baen.com
ISBN: 0-7434-7153-9
Cover art by Clyde Caldwell
First Baen printing, September 2003
Distributed by Simon & Schuster
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020
Typeset by Brilliant Press.
Printed in the United States of America
And for the dead as well . . .
John W. Campbell, Jr.
who taught me to write the stuff
August W. Derleth
who was always interested
Clark Ashton Smith
who dreamed strange, infectious dreams
Seabury Quinn
who cared as much for his friends as they for him
Edmond Hamilton
a wonderful man who liked the Well
Ron Ellik
who should have lived to see this
H. Beam Piper
who was never too busy
and to those two incongruous, ghostly specters, H. P. Lovecraft and Stanley G. Weinbaum, who have haunted this field since before I was born.
FATAL OBSESSION
"Humph!" Burodir snorted. "Mavra Chang, always Mavra Chang. It's an obsession, Antor! Look, her form's been changed—she couldn't run a ship even if you put her in charge. No hands, face always looking down. Better face it, there is no way of ever returning to that glittering bauble of yours up there in the sky, and no way anybody else can, either—particularly not Mavra Chang!"
"I wish I had your confidence," Antor Trelig responded glumly. "She's the most dangerous antagonist I ever faced. Tiny little slip of a girl—and yet, she managed to get devices of incredible complexity past my detectors. Then she slipped past my guards, talked one guard into deserting with her, and managed to steal a ship and not get shot down by my robot sentinels—by knowing a password based on a system only I could possibly know. She's vicious and vengeful, I know that. I know what she'd like to do to me!"
Burodir hissed in disgust. "Damn it! If she bothers you so much, why not do something about her? You're supposed to be a big plotter and dirty thinker. What would you do if some slip of a cripple was a threat to your power here?"
His great reptilian head cocked slightly. "But killing her wouldn't be enough. No, I have to know what sort of things that computer put into her, and how much of it she's revealed to anyone else." His mind raced now. "A kidnapping, though. She's helpless to resist, given the situation she is in. A kidnapping and a thorough hypno job. Of course!"
"Want me to arrange it?" Burodir asked, thankful that, perhaps, this obsession could be cleared up.
Trelig nodded idly. "Mavra Chang!" he breathed.
BAEN BOOKS by JACK L. CHALKER
Tales of the Three Kings:
Balshazzar's Serpent
Melchior's Fire
Kaspar's Box
The Quintara Marathon:
The Demons at Rainbow Bridge
The Run to Chaos Keep
Ninety Trillion Fausts
The Changewinds
The Identity Matrix
Downtiming the Nightside
Midnight at the Well of Souls
Exiles at the Well of Souls
Quest for the Well of Souls
THE WARS OF THE WELL, PART II
Part I of this very large novel may be found as Exiles at the Well of Souls. A prequel, Midnight at the Well of Souls may be read before or after this book. The Wars of the Well was conceived as a single novel but published in two books because of its tremendous length. In order to accommodate the split, each novel has been written to stand alone. But in an ideal world Exiles should be read before this book.
JLC
Kyrbizmyth, a Hex to the South of the Overdark
A dark road is dangerous anywhere; but here, on the Well World, in a nontech hex whose diurnal creatures literally became comatose after sundown, it was moreso. The atmosphere was as close to average for the Southern Hemisphere as it could get, and, unlike many other places, almost any race could exist here—all easy