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Quest for the Well of Souls


CAUGHT IN A WAR TO
DOMINATE THE UNIVERSE

Once, Mavra Chang had been a master criminal, notorious throughout the galaxy, but for eleven long years she has been trapped on the Well Worldthe Master Control World for the universe, where untold myriads of strange races exist, separated by barriers erected by the mysterious vanished race which built the Well World billions of years ago.

She and her companions had been transformed by the inexplicable mechanism of the Well World into no-longer human bodies. Orbiting the planet was a planetoid concealing Obie, a supercomputer that could restore Mavra Chang to her original bodily formif she could reach it. But the only spaceship on the planet was hidden in the northern hemisphere, where no living creature could go and survive. Then she learned that her enemies were plotting to eliminate her, steal the ship and escape from the Well World.

But many others had planned her demise before, and Mavra Chang was still alive and well; which was more than could be said of those who had wished her ill....

Praise for a Master Storyteller:

"A stunning novel by a first-rate storyteller!" Edmond Hamilton

"A big, bold book'that traditional science fiction and turns it down!" Leigh Bracket

Cover art by Clyde Caldwell



ORDER Paperback

This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

First Baen printing, September 2003

Distributed by Simon & Schuster
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020

Typeset by Brilliant Press.

Printed in the United States of America

ISBN: 0-7434-7153-9

Copyright 1978 by Jack L. Chalker

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form.

A Baen Books Original
Baen Publishing Enterprises
P.O. Box 1403
Riverdale, NY 10471
https://www.baen.com

Production by Windhaven Press
Auburn, NH

Electronic version by WebWrights
http://www.webwrights.com


And for the dead as well . . .
John W. Campbell, Jr.
who taught me to write the stuff

August W. Derleth
who was always interested

Clark Ashton Smith
who dreamed strange, infectious dreams

Seabury Quinn
who cared as much for his friends as they for him

Edmond Hamilton
a wonderful man who liked the Well

Ron Ellik
who should have lived to see this

H. Beam Piper
who was never too busy

and to those two incongruous, ghostly specters, H. P. Lovecraft and Stanley G. Weinbaum, who have haunted this field since before I was born.

 

FATAL OBSESSION

"Humph!" Burodir snorted. "Mavra Chang, always Mavra Chang. It's an obsession, Antor! Look, her form's been changed—she couldn't run a ship even if you put her in charge. No hands, face always looking down. Better face it, there is no way of ever returning to that glittering bauble of yours up there in the sky, and no way anybody else can, either—particularly not Mavra Chang!"

"I wish I had your confidence," Antor Trelig responded glumly. "She's the most dangerous antagonist I ever faced. Tiny little slip of a girl—and yet, she managed to get devices of incredible complexity past my detectors. Then she slipped past my guards, talked one guard into deserting with her, and managed to steal a ship and not get shot down by my robot sentinels—by knowing a password based on a system only I could possibly know. She's vicious and vengeful, I know that. I know what she'd like to do to me!"

Burodir hissed in disgust. "Damn it! If she bothers you so much, why not do something about her? You're supposed to be a big plotter and dirty thinker. What would you do if some slip of a cripple was a threat to your power here?"

His great reptilian head cocked slightly. "But killing her wouldn't be enough. No, I have to know what sort of things that computer put into her, and how much of it she's revealed to anyone else." His mind raced now. "A kidnapping, though. She's helpless to resist, given the situation she is in. A kidnapping and a thorough hypno job. Of course!"

"Want me to arrange it?" Burodir asked, thankful that, perhaps, this obsession could be cleared up.

Trelig nodded idly. "Mavra Chang!" he breathed.

 

BAEN BOOKS by JACK L. CHALKER

Tales of the Three Kings:

Balshazzar's Serpent
Melchior's Fire
Kaspar's Box

The Quintara Marathon:

The Demons at Rainbow Bridge
The Run to Chaos Keep
Ninety Trillion Fausts

The Changewinds
The Identity Matrix
Downtiming the Nightside

Midnight at the Well of Souls
Exiles at the Well of Souls
Quest for the Well of Souls

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