found out a lot of
things already tonight, and one of them is that you must give
a gift to a Kauri or she owns your soul. The first man practically
fell all over himself finding something to give me."
"Well, at least you'll always be able to buy what you need,"
he grumped.
"Oh, Joe—it's just in my nature. It's one of the things I
do."
"Yeah, but—so many?"
She shrugged and got on the mule. "It was like eating peanuts.
Once I got started, I just couldn't stop."
He sighed and mounted his horse. "Well, you ought to have
real fun in convention city up ahead."
"I intend to," she told him. "But don't be so damned sanctimonious
about it all. I heard Houma and Grogha talking in
little-kid whispers about the virgins of Kidim. It didn't matter
when it was you men against scared, defenseless girls, now
did it?"
"But that was different!" he protested.
Page 53
Chalker, Jack L - Demons of the Dancing Gods
"How?"
"Well, um, the damned town deserved it, that's all. They
staked you out for the dragon, remember!"
"Even if that were a good excuse for the seduction of innocent
kids, which I doubt, it certainly wasn't true that first
night. You didn't know about it."
"But you were celibate theni A virgin witch!"
"And you weren't then and aren't now. The only difference
is that I'm not now, either. Deep down you're just like all
men, you know. It's okay when you do it, but women—uhuh.
And I'm even more of a threat—a woman who can control
the emotions of men. A woman in command, you might say.
No, Joe, don't pull that hurt act on me. Not until you can
explain to me why I'm an immoral prostitute while you're just
having a boy's night of fun out on the town." With that she
kicked the mule and started out onto the darkened road.
He waited a moment, not at all agreeing with her position
but unable at the moment to figure out why she was wrong,
then followed her.
JACK L. CHALKER
65
It took two more days' ride to reach the city, and during
that time he still hadn't really figured it out, but he'd partially
come to accept it. He did more or less understand why he took
it so personally, though. It was one thing for him, say, to meet
a woman he didn't know and have a fling in the hay, but Marge
was something else, somebody special and important to him.
People he knew and cared about just didn't do things like that.
Except, of course, once he'd known and cared about a very
special young woman, who'd even borne him a son, but now,
in another world and in another life, she was living with another
guy and probably griping about never getting any more alimony.
And he'd tried more than once to pick up truck-stop
waitresses and lady truckers, some of whom he knew very well
indeed, and sometimes he'd succeeded. In a sense, he realized,
he'd taken refuge in Marge's former self. She'd been safe,
dependable, nobody else's, even if not his.
But, irrational or not, he couldn't shake his sense of hurt
and perhaps jealousy, at least not yet, and he consistently refused
her advances as if, somehow, at least that could be preserved
between them. She would remain, then, somehow, his
partner and his friend and nothing more, in the same way that,
were she a male and a womanizer, he might accept but not
approve.
It was, damn it, just that she was so damned desirable...
Sachalin was truly deserving of the term city, rather than
the less important designation of town. It spread out for miles
along the shores of Lake Zahias, a lake so huge that it resembled
an ocean or, at least, one of the Great Lakes, and had tides.
The city was built up against a series of low hills that were,
perhaps, the moraines of the great glacier that carved and be-
Page 54
Chalker, Jack L - Demons of the Dancing Gods
came Lake Zahias. Also deep, the lake actually made Sachalin
a major port, since at its southern end the River of Sorrows
began, winding its way through deep gorges to Lake Bragha,
then slowly between the
things already tonight, and one of them is that you must give
a gift to a Kauri or she owns your soul. The first man practically
fell all over himself finding something to give me."
"Well, at least you'll always be able to buy what you need,"
he grumped.
"Oh, Joe—it's just in my nature. It's one of the things I
do."
"Yeah, but—so many?"
She shrugged and got on the mule. "It was like eating peanuts.
Once I got started, I just couldn't stop."
He sighed and mounted his horse. "Well, you ought to have
real fun in convention city up ahead."
"I intend to," she told him. "But don't be so damned sanctimonious
about it all. I heard Houma and Grogha talking in
little-kid whispers about the virgins of Kidim. It didn't matter
when it was you men against scared, defenseless girls, now
did it?"
"But that was different!" he protested.
Page 53
Chalker, Jack L - Demons of the Dancing Gods
"How?"
"Well, um, the damned town deserved it, that's all. They
staked you out for the dragon, remember!"
"Even if that were a good excuse for the seduction of innocent
kids, which I doubt, it certainly wasn't true that first
night. You didn't know about it."
"But you were celibate theni A virgin witch!"
"And you weren't then and aren't now. The only difference
is that I'm not now, either. Deep down you're just like all
men, you know. It's okay when you do it, but women—uhuh.
And I'm even more of a threat—a woman who can control
the emotions of men. A woman in command, you might say.
No, Joe, don't pull that hurt act on me. Not until you can
explain to me why I'm an immoral prostitute while you're just
having a boy's night of fun out on the town." With that she
kicked the mule and started out onto the darkened road.
He waited a moment, not at all agreeing with her position
but unable at the moment to figure out why she was wrong,
then followed her.
JACK L. CHALKER
65
It took two more days' ride to reach the city, and during
that time he still hadn't really figured it out, but he'd partially
come to accept it. He did more or less understand why he took
it so personally, though. It was one thing for him, say, to meet
a woman he didn't know and have a fling in the hay, but Marge
was something else, somebody special and important to him.
People he knew and cared about just didn't do things like that.
Except, of course, once he'd known and cared about a very
special young woman, who'd even borne him a son, but now,
in another world and in another life, she was living with another
guy and probably griping about never getting any more alimony.
And he'd tried more than once to pick up truck-stop
waitresses and lady truckers, some of whom he knew very well
indeed, and sometimes he'd succeeded. In a sense, he realized,
he'd taken refuge in Marge's former self. She'd been safe,
dependable, nobody else's, even if not his.
But, irrational or not, he couldn't shake his sense of hurt
and perhaps jealousy, at least not yet, and he consistently refused
her advances as if, somehow, at least that could be preserved
between them. She would remain, then, somehow, his
partner and his friend and nothing more, in the same way that,
were she a male and a womanizer, he might accept but not
approve.
It was, damn it, just that she was so damned desirable...
Sachalin was truly deserving of the term city, rather than
the less important designation of town. It spread out for miles
along the shores of Lake Zahias, a lake so huge that it resembled
an ocean or, at least, one of the Great Lakes, and had tides.
The city was built up against a series of low hills that were,
perhaps, the moraines of the great glacier that carved and be-
Page 54
Chalker, Jack L - Demons of the Dancing Gods
came Lake Zahias. Also deep, the lake actually made Sachalin
a major port, since at its southern end the River of Sorrows
began, winding its way through deep gorges to Lake Bragha,
then slowly between the
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