Jack Chalker - Shadow of the Well of Souls

“You be not born as form utilized,” the strange, comic birdlike Wukl put it, the voice sounding like nothing Lori had ever heard or imagined. It was a kind of chilling sound, yet without any emotion or inflection whatsoever, and it seemed only partly said aloud and partly formed inside his own brain. It was, of course, male-voice Erdomese, but apparently the way the creature thought wasn’t exactly compatible with the Erdomese language. There were limits on these things.

Still, he was amazed and impressed almost beyond words. “Incredible! Uh—no, I wasn’t born Erdomese, if that’s what you mean. I entered through the Well. But how do you know?”

“Conflict is,” the Wukl attempted to explain, “clear to sense. Know not base not knowable. If unpleased could mediate self.”

“Don’t try and follow it too closely,” the Itun warned. “You will just turn your thoughts to boiling. We, too, think differently than you do, but I have had much training in dealing with others. The Wukl—well, they see things so differently from most races that we know it is difficult for them to understand others, but they are very skilled surgeons and they have good souls and desire to help. Their help, however, can be as convoluted and as unwanted as the initial problem. If given its own way, what would result would be what we might euphemistically call a surgical compromise that would be at best unique and not at all an improvement, as the injured and shipwrecked of a number of races have discovered when washed up on their shores. Nor should you take it too literally. The Wukl see everyone of us as horribly flawed, you see. We’re not Wukls.”

The headache was passing, leaving only the slight stinging. “Yes, I see.”

“No want Wukl betterment?” the Wukl asked.

“Um, no, not at this time, thank you. But—as of now I’ll be able to understand all the other races, whether they themselves have translators or not? And they will understand me?”

“Within limits, yes,” the Itun responded. “You will find those limits can be daunting indeed, as the Wukl here demonstrates in one area, and there are some races simply too different in their thought patterns to allow any meaningful communication. But for the most part you will find that it will take more practice editing out the sounds than understanding what you wish. It will take a little getting used to, but for a traveler to foreign hexes it is the one thing to not be without.”

“Can I go now? I think I’m all right,” Lori told them.

“Yes, the Wukl is a superb diagnostician within limits, and if it hasn’t noted a problem by this point in the procedure, then there is none. We have received payment in advance from your benefactor by messenger, so you are free to go as soon as you feel able.”

He was still a little groggy, and the humidity and heavy gravity made him not totally steady, but he decided he should get back to the hotel.

He soon experienced the strangeness of hearing those alien speakers all about him, and the initial disorientation, since while the words were understandable, the meaning was in most cases more obscure than the Wukl. His respect for the Ituns like the doctor and the hotel people went up enormously; Ituns definitely did not think along the lines of humans or Erdomese.

Julian was awake and apparently had been for some time. Although Erdomese did not take baths on the whole—a complete immersion for any length of time would remove naturally protective oils and could lead to an ugly and sometimes painful itchy skin condition akin to mange—spraying their faces and upper torsos with a showerlike wand could have a cooling and freshening effect. Clearly she’d spent some time in the bath area and had made some use of cosmetics and oils both from their meager case and from what the hotel provided. To him, at least, she looked refreshed and smelled quite sweet.

“Hello, my husband,” she said in Erdomese. “You have been gone a long time. I was beginning to worry for your safety.”

“Chang called and made arrangements for me to get a translator put inside my head. It was no worse than going to a dentist, but it was not pleasant. You were still asleep, and I decided you needed rest more than news at the time, and almost the last words you spoke were that you didn’t want to leave this room again!”

She accepted it. “This thing in your head—it means you can speak to and understand all not-Erdomese speech?”

He nodded. “Pretty much. It was a simple task, but it is very expensive. I am sorry that Chang did not have the money for both of us to have one. Perhaps someday.”

Julian had no reason to doubt him, but she was disappointed. “Yes, probably someday,” she repeated, knowing how unlikely that “someday” might be. It did, however, increase her sense of isolation.

“This Madam Chang speaks not English?”

“No. I don’t think so. She mentioned Greek, Latin, and Portuguese but not English. But it won’t matter in that case. Since she has one of these things in her head, too, you will be able to understand her and she will be able to understand you—in Erdomese.”

She sighed. “In Erdorma, you mean. Oh, well, it is better than silence.” She paused a moment, then asked, “Is there no other news?”

“Oh, yes. She’s coming by tomorrow, with others—I’m not sure how many. People from Earth who came in with the other fellow, her counterpart. I don’t know what race. She wants to leave pretty quickly—don’t worry! She says we’re going to ride out of here. Hopefully all the way out, and quickly.”

He thought that would make her happy, but she just let it go by. She seemed off, depressed, and he went over and stood behind her and massaged her back and neck. She did react as always to that, and she seemed to relax a little.

“We should eat and rest,” she said at last. “After tonight we may not be able to do it when we need to.”

He nodded. “I’ll order something from the hotel. I’m starving, anyway; I didn’t eat because of the surgery.”

Nor did I, because you forgot,Julian thought, but said nothing. She couldn’t quite explain her feelings even to herself, but she was generally irritated by him today, leaving without a word or a message, more like the drugged and hypnotized Lori than the one from before or even the one of this morning. She’d deliberately kept using Erdoma, which made her sound like some sort of Arabian Nights wimp by its very nature, maybe to test him and see if he’d switch to English. He hadn’t. When that was coupled with sneaking out for so long, the apparent start of a new pattern depressed her. Well, maybe it wasn’t a trend. Maybe he was just too tired to realize the way he was acting, she hoped. Maybe it was just this extra gravity that made her feel like a hippopotamus. Maybe she was just getting her period, and that was a wonderful thought to look forward to when they were starting off on a hard trip.

Most of all, she needed somebody else to talk to.

Mavra Chang arrived early the next morning, as promised. The door buzzed irritatingly, telling them that someone was there, and Julian, still feeling heavy and bloated but somewhat better than the day before, went to the door and pushed the opener so that it slid back. She’d hardly remembered that there would be more than one, but she had been curious almost since hearing Lori’s story to see this mysterious, ancient immortal human female.

She was not prepared for someone so incredibly tiny. Julian, although petite compared to Lori, was nonetheless pretty much the same five foot ten she’d been as a human male; if Mavra Chang was over five feet tall, it was because of her high-heeled black leather boots, and it would be amazing if the woman weighed a hundred pounds. She had a nearly perfect waist but almost no breasts at all, and big almond-shaped eyes looked up at Julian from a classically pretty Han Chinese face.