“And to think,” Carlotta declared, at her most thespian, “I am intimate with the Opener of the Way!”
We laughed and drank and, come midnight, we were happily sozzled.
“And now,” she said, standing and swaying and pulling me up from the table. “Now I want to show you something. Back to
my place, my man.”
I allowed myself to be taken, and we slogged through the magenta sands which scintillated in the Ringlight, almost falling once or twice and laughing at our clumsiness.
At last we made it to her villa.
“Sit right there,” she said, pushing me into the sofa and swaying over me. “Don’t move, and I’ll show you… I’ll show you an invaluable work of art.”
I opened my mouth to ask what it was, but she shushed me with a long finger pressed to the crimson slash of her mouth, and tottered into the next room.
She returned a minute later carrying a box perhaps half a metre square. She placed it with exaggerated care on a small coffee table, then knelt on the carpet, reached out and touched something on the side of the box.
The sides unfolded as if by magic, revealing a small carved figure standing on a plinth.
I gasped. It was the religious relic which, in the film Starship Fall, Ed Grainger had taken from the sacred cavern.
“So that part of the film was true to life?” I began
She blinked at me. “You’ve seen it all the way through?”
I told her about the download. “But in the film,” I said, “Grainger returned here with it…” I shook my head. “But obviously not in reality.”
Carlotta stared at the carving, her eyes massive. She said, “What really happened, David, is that Ed sold the relic to finance his explorations. It went into the xenological museum in Paris. He tried to get it back when he decided to return here, but they weren’t giving it up that easily◦– and he didn’t have the cash they were asking for it.”
“So how come…” I said, gesturing at the statue.
“I made them an offer they couldn’t refuse, and for the past few weeks I’ve been waiting for the relevant authorities in Europe to sanction its release.”
“And now,” I said, “you can return it to the Ashentay as Ed would have wished?”
She smiled. “Closure, David…” She paused, then went on, “But I also want something from them, you see. It came to me that if I returned the relic, then they might help me locate where Ed’s ship landed, or crash-landed.”
I nodded, feeling adolescent jealousy despite myself.
Then I said, before I knew I was saying it, “I could help you, Carlotta. I mean, I know the way to Dar, the Ashentay village not far from the sacred cavern. I even know someone who could guide us the rest of the way.”
Her face illuminated. “David, you don’t know how much… Come here.” She reached out and took me in a passionate embrace, and seconds later she was sobbing against my shoulder.
“It’s been so long, David. So long, and I finally want an end to the… the grief. I want closure.”
“And then?” I asked.
She answered me, between kisses. “And.” Kiss. “Then.” Kiss. “Who knows what the future.” Kiss. “Holds?”
She dragged me to the bedroom, and all I could concentrate on was the glorious present.
In the morning, as the sun climbed and filled the bedroom with its golden light, we held each other and I suggested that later we drive down to MacIntyre and hire a bison.
I left her villa, arranging to pick her up in an hour, and hurried over to the Mantis. I showered and changed, and was about to dash out when the com chimed. I had half a mind to ignore it, but on impulse accepted the call.
Kee’s innocent child’s face filled the screen. She was leaning close, staring intently. “David!”
“Kee, what is it?”
“David, the woman I saw yesterday. She was the same woman I saw in my vision of the scared cavern!”
I shook my head. “Are you sure…?”
“David◦– please tell me. Are you going to the cavern?”
I blinked. “Ah…”
“David! Please◦– don’t go!”
“Kee, Kee, calm down. There’s no need to worry. Trust me. We’re merely going to return something that belongs to your people.”
She interrupted, “But the woman, David! I saw her in my–” She stopped suddenly and glanced, frightened, over her shoulder. Then I heard Hawk’s muffled enquiry, “What woman, Kee? Who are you talking to?”
“No one!” she almost screamed.
“Kee,” Hawk said, and I saw his torso behind her as he moved towards the screen.
“No,” Kee cried, and cut the connection.
I stood there for ten seconds, in a daze of indecision, wondering whether to call Hawk and explain the situation. In the end, not wanting to alert him to Kee’s vision, I thought it best to leave well alone.
I hurried from the dome and collected Carlotta and the boxed relic, and we drove south to MacIntyre in the glorious autumn sunlight.
One hour later, after hiring a bison and setting off inland, a combination of Carlotta’s exhilarating company and my rationalism persuaded me that Kee’s outburst had been nothing more than heightened alien superstition. I told myself that Carlotta might have born a passing resemblance to a woman in Kee’s drug-induced dream, but the idea that Kee had been granted a glimpse into the future was ridiculous.
“What are you thinking about, David?” Carlotta asked, resting her head against the back of the seat and gazing at me with loving eyes.
I smiled. “I was just thinking about how happy I am,” I said.
Nine
We reached Dar just after midday. If the Ashentay were surprised at the appearance of a second set of humans within a week, they gave no sign. A posse of tiny children crowded the bison as I braked on the outskirts of the village. We climbed down and approached the few adults who had bothered to emerge from their huts at the sound of the vehicle’s engine.
The emaciated elder, Jyrik, faced us and spoke in his language. I was about to gesture, helplessly, that I could not understand.
Then, to my astonishment, Carlotta stepped froward and spoke in halting Ashentay.
I stared at her when she’d finished. She smiled. “Not just a pretty face, David. I’ve been teaching myself the language for months.”
The elder replied, and seconds later the slim, lithe guide called Qah appeared at his side.
Carlotta inclined her head and spoke her thanks.
We returned to the bison and I gunned the engine, heading away from the village towards the flattened jungle where the first bison had broadened the path. Qah sat behind us, leaning through the gap in the front seats and speaking to Carlotta. When Carlotta failed to reply, or spoke only the occasional monosyllable, Qah gave up.
I glanced at Carlotta. She seemed withdrawn now that we were so close to the sacred cavern, almost nervous. She leaned forward, staring ahead at the tangled undergrowth, and I wondered if she were thinking back to the time her lover Ed Grainger had found himself in the jungle of Chalcedony… Jealousy burned in my gut like bile.
I said, to provoke a response from her, “We drove the bison for a couple of hours last time, Carlotta. When we couldn’t go any further, we walked the rest of the way. That took about another two hours.”
I glanced at her, but she only nodded minimally.
“I must say it was hard going, in the humidity and all…”
“Yes,” she said abstractedly, “I guess it must have been.”
I turned my attention to forcing the bison over the uneven terrain. The fact that we were following the track originally laid down by the first bison made the job a little easier, but I was no expert at off-road driving. We stalled often and once, stupidly, I even found I’d taken a wrong turning. Qah soon put me right, calling out in her breathy language and pointing out the correct way.