I couldn’t imagine what the fellow was talking about, so I said, “Hang-up?”
“Yes. He wants to be a fish. Oh, well—I’m Tally Kokul, chief magician and high muckety-muck of this little speck of humanity.”
“Park Lacoch,” I responded, “and this is Zala Embuay.” He looked at Zala, and I saw a little puzzlement come over his face, but he recovered quickly. Whatever Korman had seen, though, Kokul had just seen as well.
“I knew you were coming, Lacoch, but nobody said anything about the lady here. I—” He was about to continue when there was a knock at the door. The boy Gori entered and placed a brief-pouch on his desk, then turned and left again. “I was wondering about this,” he muttered, as he opened it, removed two file folders, discarded one and opened and looked through the other. I could guess pretty well that those folders contained everything known on both of us, along with orders and recommendations from above. “Humph. I’m not sure I like your status, Madame Embuay,” he said almost to himself. He looked up at her. “Bourget is a pretty conservative village. Other than myself, you’re the only two people here not native to Charon.” Zala looked blank, so I hazarded a guess. “Religious?” He nodded. “Fifty, sixty years ago the Diamond had a near invasion of missionaries from all sorts of sects. The Confederacy more or less encouraged it—got the fanatics out of their hair and voluntarily exiled here for life. Bourget wasn’t much of anything then—it still isn’t all that much, although we now rate as a sort of local capital. This one group, the Unitites, were real fanatics and were pretty much run out of all the established towns. But their leader, a fellow named Suritani, was a real lady’s man who was also pretty well practiced in the Arts. He was able to get a pretty good following, mostly female, and came here and established Bourget as a religious colony of sorts. Most everybody here’s a cousin of everybody else.”
“Sounds pretty liberal to me,” I noted. Zala said nothing.
“Oh, it was—for the big man. But not for everybody else. The usual story. Understand, I’m the only one around who can get away with talk like this. You better respect the local beliefs so you don’t step on any.”
I nodded, and he went on.
“Well, anyway, you’ll find most everybody stops twice a day—at eight and six—and prays together for a couple of minutes. Men and women have clearly defined, but different jobs, very strict, and men can have up to three wives. We still have more women than men by a long shot.”
“Can a woman have three husbands?” Zala asked, seriously interested.
“No. I told you it was an old-style, almost throwback religion—one big god, who supposedly lives at the center of the universe, and assorted godlets who are the messengers between people and this one god. All very complex, and very strict.”
“Sounds like this isn’t a very good place for loyalty to the central government,” I noted. “Not with a woman as Lord of Cerberus.”
“You’re very perceptive, Lacoch. I can see why they sent you. You’re right—they simply don’t accept the prevailing politics, which is always a headache to me. One of several this sect gives me, frankly. Most of them just prefer to believe Aeolia Matuze has a man who does all the thinking for her, making her a bridge, like the godlets. So far that’s been okay, although there’ve been rumblings that our leader is going to declare her divinity and impose her own religion on the planet. If it comes to that, they may have to get a new population for Bourget, even the Company chiefs. I’m hoping that, at least, I can get a soft-pedaled exemption here.”
I sympathized with his problem, and it didn’t escape me that the chief sorcerer of Bourget was a ripe candidate for somebody like Koril.
“This religion is a hundred percent, then?” I asked.
He shook his head. “Nothing’s ever a hundred percent. I’d say about half the people are really devout and really believe all of it, another thirty percent just do it because it’s the way they were raised, and another ten go through the motions just to avoid trouble.”
“That’s only ninety percent,” I noted.
He nodded. “The other ten are with the opposition.”
“The opposition?”
“Most religions have a devil, a demon, somebody who represents evil and on which everything bad can be blamed. This one’s no exception. It’s called the Destroyer. Some personalities are just naturally attracted to the side of evil in such a strict society. In addition, it’s a natural place for people in Bourget who chafe under the strict society—women, mostly, who have some or a lot of the Art, and know either by experience or direct knowledge that the rest of the worlds allow women not only equality, but occasionally superiority. It used to be pretty local, but lately similar cults have been cropping up all over Charon, and there’s some evidence that they’ve been co-opted by a political opposition to the rule of Matuze.”
“I’m familiar with the politics of the situation,” I told him. “Still, it seems funny that the logical order’s been reversed here. The establishment, which backs the existing order on Charon, is prejudiced against women in leadership positions yet has a woman at its head; the opposition, which wants women made equal like everywhere else, is falling in with a group designed to put a man back in power.”
Zala followed the conversation but said nothing. I had pretty well given her the entire outline of recent history on Charon, so she at least knew the players even if she didn’t seem quite able to understand the game.
“Well, it’s not that simple,” Kokul came back. “On most of Charon it’s different, although some towns have pockets with even crazier beliefs and systems than Bourget. What we have is a three-sided system here, as in most places. Our cult with its value system; the opposition, which ties into the overall opposition; and governmental authority—which right now is you and me and just about nobody else.”
I understood what he meant, and although it wasn’t comforting to me, I could well understand why I’d been sent to Bourget. The stricter the local social system, the more likely that the opposition—and Koril’s strength and agents—would be powerful and well-organized as well, particularly with its south-coast location and general isolation.
Although Kokul seemed casual and not a little cynical about Matuze, I was under no illusions that he could be trusted. Like me, he was from some other world and culture—and had been sent here for a reason. No matter how casual he was about the central government, there had to be the suspicion that they would hardly send a traitor or an incompetent to such a sensitive spot as Bourget.
“Enough about that,” the wizard decided. “As for Bourget—well, if you can tolerate the social structure, which really isn’t all that bad once you get used to it, the citizens are a pretty good, hard-working lot. We’re self-sufficient in food and building materials, have a lively local handicrafts industry, and generate a fair amount of surplus income through exports. Not bad for a village of less than 5000. The climate has two seasons—hot and hotter—so outside of official circles you’ll find dress ranges from little to less. We have good ground water, which is safe for all purposes, and back in the hills some really nice waterfalls, which we’ve harnessed as best we can for everything from cooling systems to pumps and the like—all direct mechanical, though. About the most modern machine you’ll find here is a solar watch, although we do generate some minor steam power for the big jobs, mostly out in the Companies. It’s surprising what good engineering will do, even without modern power sources.”
I accepted his point, since it was self-evident—early man had built some stunning empires on the most basic of power sources. “So what’s my job here?” I asked him. “And how do we get set up and get started?”