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Midnight At the Well of Souls


I NEVER FORGET A FACE . . .

"Looks like somebody's coming to meet us," Nathan Brazil said jokingly, a tone that didn't match his inner feelings at all. He pulled and checked his pistol.

They could see a giant figure coming toward them, and all stepped back to the rear edge of the platform. As the figure came closer, they could see that it was like nothing in the known universe: a human torso, incredibly broad, an oval-shaped head with a huge white walrus mustache, six arms spaced in rows down the torso, and the torso melding into a huge serpentine lower half five or more meters in length.

For what seemed forever, they just stared at each other—these four humans in ghostly white pressure suits and this creature of some incredibly alien spawning. The alien pointed to them, then made a motion to remove their helmets.

"I think it's trying to tell us we can breathe in here," Brazil said cautiously, removing his helmet.

The air seemed a bit humid and perhaps a little rich in oxygen—they experienced a slight light-headedness that soon passed—but otherwise fine.

"Now what?" Hain asked.

"Damned if I know," Brazil replied honestly. "How do you say hello to a giant walrus-snake?"

"Well I'll be goddamned!" exclaimed the walrus-snake in perfect Confederation plain talk, "if it ain't Nathan Brazil!"

Cover art by Clyde Caldwell



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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, April 2002

Distributed by Simon & Schuster
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New York, NY 10020

Printed in the United States of America

ISBN: 0-7434-3522-2

Copyright © 1977 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
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Typeset by Brilliant Press

Electronic version by WebWrights
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This book is for Roger Zelazny, Mark Owings, Applesusan, Avedon, and Suzy Tiffany for entirely different reasons.

Baen Books by Jack L. Chalker

Tales of the Three Kings:
Balshazzar's Serpent
Melchior's Fire

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

The Changewinds
The Identity Matrix
Downtiming the Nightside
Midnight at the Well of Souls

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