And The Devil Will Drag You Under (1979) by Jack L. Chalker Read Free Book Online Page B

much was available.
    The sandwiches smelled really rancid, and Jill passed when they were offered to her. The trouble was, she didn't know whether they were truly rancid or if that was the way they were supposed to smell. It didn't matter; the other kids wolfed them down hap-pily, and she got a good share of the sweet pastries and rolls, which tasted excellent despite being hard and more than a little stale. When you're hungry that doesn't matter much, and if she were starving, even the sandwiches would look attractive, she knew.
    The appetite of Bright Star of the Night Skies, whose body she now wore, was almost birdlike, and Jill was soon full. It took a bit longer to satisfy Shadow of the City, and there was little left by the time he, too, was filled. Finally he turned and said, "All right, now let's go see if we can find your jewel."
    They got up, although it took about another fifteen minutes of saying goodbye to all those long-named types and wishing them good days and good fortunes before they were able to break loose. Finally on their way someplace, Jill felt free again to talk and question her young guide.
    "I notice that everybody seemed to be in boy-girl pairs," she noted as they walked back to the main street. "Why is that?"
    Shadow of the City looked a little bemused. "It's not seemly for a male to beg unless he is crippled," the boy explained. "That means a girl must do the begging. But girls can't touch or spend money, so the system always results in that kind of partnership."
    Another bit of craziness, she thought.
    "And what if you can't find a partner, or you out-grow yours, like your friend back there?" she con-tinued with the same line of thought, suddenly realizing the meaning in some of the odd commentary. "Do you starve?"
    The boy chuckled. "Did Whisperer of the Long Marsh Grasses look like be was starving?" he asked.
    She had to admit that, if anything, the chubby boy could have stood a diet, and said as much.
    "Sometimes the girls outnumber the boys, which is fine, since more than one can beg for a boy.
    So if a boy gets without a partner, then an extra girl moves in with the boy who needs one. That's how I got you-that is, how I got Bright Star of the Night Skies-aw, you know what I mean."
    She nodded, sympathizing with his confusion. Had the boy not already had experience with others from outside his world, he could never have handled this conversation at all, she realized.
    "But you don't have that now, do you?" she asked him. "What happens when there are more boys than girls?"
    He shrugged. "If things are going good, we all chip in to help him, and there are always places like the cantina. If times are real bad and he faces starvation, say, he might die or he might take The Risk."
    They were walking along the wide central street now, and she realized that the town was truly a city with perhaps ten thousand or more people in it. They were heading toward the tallest building in town, that was for sure-she could see the odd pyramidal tower's top ahead.
    "The Risk?" she prompted, glad to get whatever added insight into this new culture she could.
    He nodded grimly. "Appealing and praying to the Holy Spirit for divine charity."
    "You get it?" she asked, fascinated.
    His smile turned sardonic. "Oh, you get it, all right. It just might not be what you think. You come to judgment right then and there, really, and if you're found completely worthy, then you'll get what you need. If not, well, I've known guys struck dead on the spot or turned into buffaloes or even girls!"
    She didn't like the obvious distaste of that last, and said so. He just grinned and shrugged it off.
    She sighed, reminding herself that she was, after all, talking to a small boy-hard as it was to remem-ber that sometimes, with his older-than-his-years man-ner-and changed the subject.
    "What happens when you grow up?" she asked. "I understood you to say that you can't beg any more."
    He nodded ruefully. "Manhood means you must act