Jack L. Chalker - Soul Rider 01 - Spirits of Flux and Anchor.pdf

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Spirits Of Flux And Anchor - Soul Rider 01
Jack L. Chalker
This is a work of fiction. Alt the characters and events
portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance
to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.
Copyright © 1984 by Jack L. Chalker
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this
book, or portions thereof in any form.
A TOR Book
Published by:
Tom Doherty Associates, Inc.
8-10 West 36th Street
New York,New York10018
Page 1
 
First TOR printing, March 1984
ISBN: 27298-03
Can.Ed.: 812-53-276-7
Cover art by Dawn Wilson
Printed in theUnited States of America
For Mike Resnick
-from. one madman to another.
ANCHOR
There was no need to tell anyone in Anchor Logh
that the man in black was dangerous. Any stringer
who rode the Flux was more than dangerous—he
was someone to be feared for more reasons than
one.
Cassie watched the man ride in on his huge
white horse and felt a sudden chill at the very
sight of him. She had a particular reason for that
chill, being of The Age and with the Census Cele-
Page 2
 
bration barely three days away, although she didn't
really believe she was in any danger. The quota
this year was the lowest in her lifetime, thanks to
an unusually abundant harvest and a high number
of deaths among the Honored Elders, and her odds,
like all those -with her birth year, were barely one
in a hundred. In fact, only four stringers had been
invited to the Celebration this year and, it was said,
only two had accepted, the rest preferring fatter
pickings in other Anchors with more potential
victims—and profits. That fact alone made the ap-
pearance of this one even more of a standout than
it normally would have been.
He was a tall, lean, muscular man with coal-
black hair and a handlebar moustache, and in
normal circumstances and with a normal back-
ground he would have been considered a hand-
8 Jack L. Chalker
some man, even a desirable man, by those Cassie's
age and older. But he was not a normal man with
a normal background, and it was clear to any who
looked upon him that this was so. There was just
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something about him, something you couldn't put
your finger on, that radiated a fearsome chill to all
he passed. His face was worn and aged well beyond
his years, his skin seemed tough as leather, and his
eyes, a weirdly washed-out blue, radiated contempt
for World and its offerings- He was dressed in
black denim, including black boots, gloves, and a
wide-brimmed black hat that had one side of its
wide brim tied up in stringer fashion, and a black
leather jacket lined with weathered sheepskin that
must have once been white.
Weathered.... That was a good word for him.
His boots, his clothes, even his sawed-off shotgun
with the fancy carved handle that hung from his
silver-decorated belt in a special holster—they all
were weathered almost beyond belief.
He rode slowly, imperiously, right past Cassie,
but those cold, distant eyes took no notice whatso-
ever of the thin, slightly built girl nor of much of
anyone or anything else, either. She shivered a bit,
then turned and began walking back towards the
communal farm where she had been bom and
raised.
Page 4
 
The farm lay at the end of a winding, rutted dirt
road, about a kilometer back from the main high-
way, and on either side of the girl stretched broad
fields of grass dotted with grazing cows. She knew
every rut in that road by heart, and every cow as
well, but somehow, today, they seemed more dis-
tant and remote than anything ever had.
It was a bright, cloudless day, and the Holy
Mother was in all Her divine glory in the sky,
filling Anchor Logh with her brightness and slightly
coloring the landscape with subtle and different
shadmgs. It was a glorious sight, yet She was al-
SOUL RIDER: SPIRITS OF FLUX AND ANCHOR 9
ways there when the clouds parted, and Her visage
was so omnipresent, so taken for granted, not just
by Cassie but by all those on World, that the Holy
Mother was rarely paid attention to except when
one was praying—or sinning.
Today, though, the Holy Mother seemed particu-
larly close and needed, and Cassie stopped and
looked up at Her reverently, seeking some comfort
Page 5
 

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