01. When the Changewinds Blow (32 page)

The marriage registrar looked more bored than shocked, although perhaps it was because of the looks of the women in there. "You swear that you have cohabited for a year and a day or more and that you have during that period been intimate with each other and with nobody else?"

"Yes," they both answered. Sam felt uncomfortable with this but she could see the practical reasons if they allowed it. This sure as hell wouldn't be allowed back home, but here it was actually a law!

"Dip all five fingers in this solution and then place them where I point on the document," the registrar instructed. The stuff tingled, and when Sam pressed her fingers on the paper there was a hot sensation. It made a nice embossed set of prints, though.

"You understand that this pairing is unorthodox and by registering it the Kingdom does not imply that it condones or approves such unions but that it allows this only to ratify an existing fact so that legal ejudication of disputes, property, powers of attorney, and so forth can be maintained in an orderly manner," said the registrar in a tone so routine and bored it sounded even more soul-less than the demon.

"Yes," they both answered.

"Dip both palms completely in the solution and then place palm against the palm of the other," the registrar instructed. "If you have sworn falsely to this you will feel a painful shock at the end of this."

Some kind of truth stuff, Sam thought. They really wanted to make sure of this. Of course, it protected the pair, since if they'd cheated it would tell, but it also forced a somewhat embarrassing admission in public and on the record that indeed you had sex with another woman. She and Boday pressed palms.

"Say aloud your given name and then the given name of the other," the registrar said. "Be exact, for from that point on that will be your only legal and true name."

"Susama Boday," she said, and Boday said, "Boday Susama." There was a sudden but not unpleasant shock and their palms were stuck together for a period. Sam felt a little dizzy and seemed to black out for a moment, then it was gone except for a slight headache. They let go, and the registrar stamped the document and then gave them a certified true copy.

They left and went out into the main hall. Sam was mad and Charley saw it. "Got you
again?"

"I don't know. Damn it all. Oh, I
don't feel
much different, even about her, but-it's hard to explain. I'm
really
married to her. It's a spell or something. I can't shut her out, I can't really act without considering her. It's not sex. Nothing like mat, although I can't deny her her rights in that. But, somehow, a tiny part of her is inside me and I guess the other way around. I could fool around all I wanted to but I couldn't be not married to her as long as she lives. I can't dump her, run away from her, or shut her out. And I'm Susama Boday. Everything inside me says that that's me. Damn it, demon! You said she wasn't pullin' nothin'!"

She wasn't. As I said, it was the easiest and best way. You need her to survive, to read, to protect. From my point of view it completes the disguise in an almost iron-clad manner so long as no one runs a skin or hair sample or something like that- and why would they? Even under truth potions and spells you
will say that you are Susama Boday, legal consort of Boday Susama, and she the same. You cannot slip anymore. All you need is to take care to use English sparingly and you are beyond suspicion. She now has a tiny bit of your soul and you have a tiny bit of hers. Since it is your body, not your mind or soul that is required, this was a permissible deviation. You will never miss it, but it is vital. Even some magics will be fooled. Do not worry. I assured you that you could cheat, didn't I? And thanks to the potion, she won't.

She growled but said nothing. This damned demon was her master, and that was the most galling part of all.

The marriage document smoothed the way for her to get whatever legal documents she needed, though, just as promised. Boday showed her how her name was written in Akhbreed script and it wasn't all that complicated, but it saved a lot of time. The full documents would have to be picked up in ten day's time, the usual bureaucratic thing, but they issued her a citizenship and identity card. For the first time she could open or close an account, sign or make contracts, and have all the legal rights of a citizen. Socially and religiously, of course, she was an outcast, but legally she was a real person in this world. The most unsettling thing of all was the near reversal when clerks and others dealt with them.
She
became "Madame Boday" and Boday became "Madame Susama." Sam was still Sara, of course, but the trouble was she had no problems knowing which one they were speaking to, and it was aggravated by Boday's new use of "Madame Susama" to refer to herself-still in the third person, of course. That got to her and she blew her stack.

"Boday! You're still Boday and I'm still Sam, okay? Now cut out the Madame crap!"

And to her surprise Boday responded meekly, "Yes, Sam."

Sam thought long and hard about herself over the next few weeks, and about the other two as well. After all her fantasies and play-acting at being a man, here she had a chance to be legitimately butch and she found she didn't want it anymore. It hadn't been the fun of her fantasies at all. Maybe it was the spark of Boday inside her that got all the right things in balance, but she wanted to be all woman now. She shaved her arms and legs, took some time styling her hair, and applied a little perfume and makeup.

The link with Boday also gave her an odd sense of security and identity that somehow hadn't been there before. She no longer cared what other people thought; the vision in the mirror no longer repulsed her, it just
was
her. The reflection became her identity. She had no illusions that the shape with the monster tits and ass and the two spare tires was gonna knock 'em dead and drive men wild, but she didn't dwell on it anymore, either. It was sure as hell a body that
two
men wanted on this world, two big and powerful ones. And even some of her resentment of Charley faded as she stumbled into facts she simply hadn't considered. It had come out of a very simple situation.

"Hey-the bags and trunks for the trip are in," Sam said to Charley. Boday was off pricing other stuff and shutting down her interests, such as they were, and without her Sam was stuck with a splitting headache and no alchemical remedies. "I just can't make it now."

"You kidding?" Charley replied. "Sam, I can't go out alone. Not unless I pull my virgin trick and around here that's a sure way to get yourself snatched or arrested."

"Huh? Why not?"

Charley sighed. "Sam,
think.
Both you and Boday are full citizens of the master race here. You have rights and separate identities and can come and go as you please. Sam, I'm
property.
Legally I belong to you and Boday. Oh, they go through this contract business because they don't allow slavery, but that's just a sham. Legally and officially I have no rights at all. In fact, under this law I'm treated as if I were a baby, mentally incompetent to make any decisions for myself. It's illegal for me to own anything-even the dresses and staff. It's illegal for me to have money, let alone spend it. It's even illegal to give me anything, or even to talk to me or me talk to them, without your permission. In fact, it's illegal for me to be out of my quarters unaccompanied by a responsible citizen who's either you, Boday, or somebody delegated by either of you. It's even illegal for me to use anything but the Short Speech, although in your company and outside the earshot of strangers they can't do much. My prints and documents are on file this way and have to go with me. Didn't you
know
that?"

"Uh-no, I didn't. Jeez, Charley-that's the pits. No
wonder
you didn't want to stay here."

"Well, it would just have been a matter of transferring my contract to somebody else, but I couldn't be on my own. In fact, if I fail to act within the law, even to the slightest degree, then the punishment must be a public whipping by my- contractors. You or Boday. A. real one, too."

"Come on! I could never allow that!"

"Then if you couldn't you forfeit your contract and I'm either sold to the highest bidder around who has to do it or I must be put to death. I like being taken around to all these places but I got to be on my best Shari behavior. Didn't you even notice how I opened the doors and stuff like that?"

The truth was, Sam hadn't. "Charlie-the only way any-body'd know is if somebody told them, right? I mean, Boday has the eye makeup and more body painting than ten of you."

"And she has to show her citizen's card a lot, too, and she doesn't even look the part of a courtesan. I do. Boday also reads, writes, and speaks the language and I think she's a known character in this town. I'm not supposed to-and I don't. Oh, maybe I could get away with it once, but if I got caught the penalty is too much for the risk. I kind'a hope that once we blow this country the laws won't be all that strict but, face it. Those other places aren't our kind of people, and the Akhbreed system, I think, is pretty consistent in its basics. Oh, I understand there are some places where the girls are loose and high fashion and maybe even some where they run the place, but there are men of my status, too, remember. I think there's a certain-standardization-in the basic system no matter how different they are. I'm resigned to it. I envy yon your freedom here but we have to take what we're dealt and make the best of it."

Sam looked at the stunningly beautiful woman who none the less was an alternate version of herself and couldn't believe it.
"You
envy
me?"

It was inconceivable, yet, the more she thought about it, the more obvious what her friend said was true. Charley liked being a courtesan, it was true, but if Sam was as smart and pretty as Charley and had the kind of adventurous spirit Charley had and found that the price of being a courtesan was irretrievable slavery . . . Well, maybe. Damn, this was a lot more complicated than it looked.

All of the documents came through, and they went shopping for things on the list to take with them-other than food, of course. That would come last, as it must. Somehow neither Sam nor Charley had envisioned this trip as Wagon Train, but that's pretty much the way it looked. Oh, the wagon was oddly styled and had fancy suspension and a comfortable driver's seat, but it was still a covered wagon. It was not pulled by horses, either, but by odd-looking animals called
nargas,
which looked like a cross between a big mule and a humpless camel but tan and white striped like a zebra. They were strong if not swift, could survive on almost any known grasses alone, and if need be could go without water for up to ten days. They were tough, muscular bastards not native to any of the hubs but an import from one of the sectors, but they were highly recommended for wagon travel. They had long, skinny, snake-like tails with big tufts of tan hair at the ends that they carried looped up on top of their bodies most of the time-but you found that those tails were
very
prehensile and that a favorite narga sport was to swat you hard in the behind if you had your back turned to them. Apparently they thought it was funny.

The wagon was cleverly designed. You carried most of your stuff in compartments underneath, putting only what you needed every day inside. The area behind the seat was lined with a soft, thick material like a mattress, and another compartment came off the back end when stopped and turned into a kitchen-like area, although, of course, you had to build your fire on the ground away from the wagon. It had compartments for carrying water and two more for wine, and it also had a small box with a cut-out that was sort of a toilet, although it appeared that whatever you did in it just dropped down enter the road.

"More like an early American Winnebago," Charley commented.

They also bought a sleeping bag-it was as roomy as it could be but kind of cramped sleeping for three, although in really bad conditions it would do in a pinch-and some cold and foul-weather clothing, giving in to Charley's pleas in her case to buy her a fur jacket. It looked like mink and was pretty well styled, but if it was, then mink were cheap and common around here. Sam finally found a sheepskin coat, man's type, that fit even if it did come down to her knees, and Boday, of course, stuck with leather.

Charley was pretty good at helping them hitch up the team and showing them how to drive the thing. She'd driven buckboards and hay wagons when still a kid at her relatives' ranch where she often spent the summers, and she knew most of the tricks that also proved true for nargas. "By rights and status I should be the driver," she told them, "but I don't dare. It's not possible for beauteous property to get or wear glasses and they never invented contacts here. Neither Boolean nor Boday was able to change my nearsightedness. It's not awful- I can see to the lead narga, but beyond it's just a blur."

Sam hadn't considered how little change had really been necessary in Charley to make her look a twin. "I'm still farsighted," she told Charley. "I guess I figured you were, too. Since I can't read this stuff I haven't really thought about it much. I know Boday's got decent vision so I guess you teach us to drive this thing. At least you know how to hitch 'em up and unhitch 'em, and the care and feedin' and all. They seem to like you, too."

"Yeah, we got things in common. We both got the same owner, we're kiod'a pretty, we go where we're told and we don't own nothin'."

Buying the food was the last thing, and it was a real expedition, although there were a couple of companies specializing in this sort of outfitting who even had magicians in their employ giving preservative spells, then packing it all nice and neat and stowing it in the wagon. Counting what they would have to give the navigator the next day, their fortune was aleady down almost seven thousand. They did a final check to make sure the expedition was really kicking off the next day- delays were the rule-and found it on schedule. The navigator had been vacationing here and so was starting fresh.