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the Holy Covenant.
You got to, whether you like it or not. Had one of you a while back who was a
grown-up-married, too, although her husband was out of town so she didn't
hav'ta worry about that part. Wouldn't wear the veil. Stepped outside into
public, Holy Spirit struck her, zam!
She don't have no nose or mouth or anything! Started chokin' to death, of
course. I got the veil on her all right, but she wouldnt repent.
Dumb, you see?"
'
Jill was aware of a queasy feeling in her stomach. "What happened to her?"
"Died, of course," the boy replied, still chuckling slightly. "How long can
anybody live without breathing?"
She sighed. "All right, you made your point with your little story. I'll do
what you tell me. But I
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only asked for some clothes . . ."
He nodded. "That's it exactly. You're a girl!
Girls don't wear clothes. When you change into a woman, then some man'll claim
you for a wife.
Then you put on clothes and veil and all, and
nobody but he and his family see you any other way again. That's the sys-tem,
see? That's the way things work."
She was appalled. Clearly females weren't people here, they were objects. It
was like a Middle
Eastern harem, only worse.
She wanted out of this world as quickly as possible. "So what happens if it's
cold?" she asked, trying to keep her outrage under control.
He shrugged. Then you dont go out, of course. Don't happen often
around these parts
"
'
anyhow, and not now for sure, not with the long days here. Cools down at
night, sure-that's why the fire's here. But it's mostly wetness. Tomorrow will
be warm, even hot. You won't have no trouble."
Except being naked in public, she thought sourly. Aloud she said, "Then I
can just go out now, like this?"
He nodded. "If you want. Dumb, though. After dark, this much, the air'll go
right through you.
Gonna rain, too. Heard some thunder a little bit ago. Besides, all you got are
dark streets and a bunch of grown-ups with night jobs. Wouldn't help you see
anything or find anything you couldn't do better in the morning, and
youd probably get at least a cold. Might as well relax, try to
'
sleep-bed's over there. Tomorrow morn-ing I'll take you on a tour." He yawned.
She sighed, got up, and went over to the bed. It was only a slight improvement
over the table and she didnt feel all that sleepy, but there was not much else
she could do. The boy was right.
'
Medieval sexism and divine punishment, she thought, and shook her
head in helplessness.
Nothing had ever looked so hopeless.
As she lay there; trying to sleep, her thoughts went back curiously to her
father. "Never quit,"
hed told her. "Quitters are losers."
'
But this is a little bit different from getting a ten on the floor exercise,
Daddy, she answered him, but he was still there, still staring down at her,
urging her on, insisting she was the best, that she could do anything.
And it was with those memories of a dead man and an alien world that she
finally drifted off into sleep.
"Wake up!" the boy's voice called through a fog.
She groaned slightly and came a little bit awake, just enough to assure her
mind and body that she'd rather go back to sleep. "What time is it? she
mumbled.
"
"After dawn," the boy replied. "The streets are sunlit and soon townsmen and
traders will be about. It is the start of the day."
"I think I'd rather start the day a little later," she managed, and started to
drift back into sleep.
Suddenly within her mind came a voice, a vast and ancient voice that was at
once fatherly and chiding but nonetheless quite inhuman.
"
SLOTH! it charged, and then was gone. Suddenly she felt a force, a current,
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run through her
"
entire mind and body. It wasn't painful, but it was certainly power-ful, as
powerful a stimulant as
she'd ever known or received.
She was wide awake now and virtually leaped from her bed. She felt
like a coiled spring, supercharged, and somewhat frustrated at not really
knowing just what it was she was supposed to do. It frightened her a
little, too, and she said, more to herself than to the boy,
"What's happening to me?"
The boy smiled. "Welcome to Zolkar, he replied playfully. "I don't know how
it is beyond the
"
world where you come from, but here you will act in the manner that
the Holy Covenant
says-whether you want to or not. Don't worry, you'll calm down in a little
bit. That was only your first reminder. It gets worse the more times you do
it."
His words held little comfort for her, now or for the future, but this little
taste of Divine Will had a sober-ing and frightening effect on her. What kind
of a place was this, anyway? And what kind of a life?
"Let's go get something to eat," the boy suggested, and moved toward the door.
She followed, glad to be doing something.
Although it was probably not a half hour after sunrise, a lot of people
were up and moving about. The air was filled with a curious mixture of
odors, those of excrement and drying mud and garbage mixing with exotic smells
of freshly baking bread and other active kitchen odors.
The temperature was already warm; there had been a thunderstorm during the
night and the signs of it in mud puddles and drying walls were everywhere,
but now, with the sun starting to
, bear down and evapora-tion well under way, the air was almost like a
steambath. If in fact her nudity presented no barrier or threat except to
her modesty, then she was better off than the boy, who obviously was expected
to wear the heavy if ragged robe.
Her shyness quickly wore off as they turned a corner and walked down a main
street crowded with numer-ous robed and long-haired men and women
dressed in colorful but baggy cloth dresses wearing veils -actu-ally
pieces of cloth tied in such a way that they were not so much veils
"
"
as kerchiefs over nose and mouth. All the women looked like a gang of female
bank rob-bers in some western drama. None of them paid her the slightest
attention, and the final barrier dropped when she saw many female infants and
girls as naked as she.
The supercharging that had gotten her up was wear-ing off, and she could think
more clearly now. "Where are we going?" she asked the boy.
"
Just up ahead," he replied, gesturing but not breaking stride. "A small
cantina that sells to the merchants and people in town from the farms. Just
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