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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.
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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
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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.
All three of them were excited by the idea, if a little apprehensive. They
were setting off in near total ignorance of their destinations on a trip few
generally took who were not in trade, finance, politics, or the military and
diplomatic corps, and they hadn't the slightest idea why or what might await
them at their destination.
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