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energies below us. You are gone in true death..
     
    "You're telling us that there is a soul—an afterlife?" the woman pressed eagerly. "That's what it sounds like..
     
    "Well, there is a soul, yes. Miss—just what is your name, anyway? We can't keep calling you 'that woman' all the time..
     
    "Marjorie's my real name," she told them, "but mostly I Page 21 Chalker, Jack L - The River of the Dancing Gods just go by the nickname of Marge..
     
    "All right—Marge," the sorcerer said, nodding. "At any rate, yes, you have a soul. All the humans have souls, and a few of the others. But as to the fate of those souls—there are a lot of things that can happen. Evil can destroy a soul—outside as well as internal evil—and leave the body empty. The soul can wander, or it can be trapped, or a million other things can happen. Otherwise it definitely goes somewhere, a somewhere from which it occasionally, but very rarely, returns. And there are, it seems, a lot of somewheres for that soul to go. Let's not get into that now..
     
    "Okay," Joe agreed. "But I noticed you said all the humans have souls, and a few of the others. What kind of others do you mean?.
     
    Ruddygore sighed. "An infinite variety, really. Those without souls are, of course, the creations of the original angels.
     
    To compensate, most are immortal or nearly so, meaning they 26 THE RIVER OF DANCING GODS don't age. They can still, of course, be killed—although, even there, they have a lot of charms and protections. They are not killed in the same way people are, usually. To that original band have been added, over the millennia, ones from your own world who were involved in the original creation but who have, through the dominance of man, been displaced and, by luck, or charm, or the help of me and my predecessors, or the mercy of the Creator, have made their way to my side of the Sea. A one-way trip, though. Some of these have souls, as the Creator Himself willed..
     
    "What sort of—others?" Joe pressed nervously.
     
    "Elves, gnomes, leprechauns—those sorts. The stuff of your legends the world over. The other folk who once shared your world, but for whom man had less and less need and far less room and tolerance. The stuff of your fantasies and legends.
     
    Their ties to their native Earth, in fact, are bridges between the worlds across the Sea of Dreams, in a way, for even today those artists and writers of fantasy and the fantastic in your world see them, experience them, if only in dreams, and write of their exploits. The fantasies, the myths, the dreams of your world, are the reality of mine..
     
    Ruddygore sighed. "Look. We cross the Sea of Dreams, and the Creator is even now all around us. He sleeps, and as He sleeps He dreams. Some of the dreams are pleasant ones.
     
    Some are nightmares. But His dreams take root and flow to one side of the Sea or the other, entering the dreams of one and the reality of the other. This war we now face may be but one of His nightmares. Even now, some dreamer on your world may perceive it in his own mind and write it as a fantasy. You ought to think about that, anyway. You might well be the stuff of an epic fantasy novel in your own world, the dreamer there unknowing that he writes of your reality..
     
    "I'd rather not think about that one," Marge said sourly.
     
    "At any rate," the sorcerer continued, "you're going to a world that will be at once totally different and very familiar to you both. Like this boat. It is a familiar thing to Joe, yet it has not existed since he was a child. It is familiar—yet it is something else. Listen! Have you sensed that the engines have shut Page 22 Chalker, Jack L - The River of the Dancing Gods down?.
     
    They were all suddenly quiet, attentive to the noises—and found that he was right. The thrumming of the engine had 27 JACK L. CHALKER ceased, and along with it, the vibration against the glass windows of the lounge.
     
    After a few moments of silence, they could