Three hours later the bison stalled again, butting up against the fallen tree trunk that had impeded the first bison. Qah said something to Carlotta.
“This is the end of the road. We walk from here.”
We climbed from the cab and I shouldered my rucksack, which contained food and water. In Carlotta’s was the religious relic, well packed. Qah skipped off like a gazelle and we did our best to follow. Thankfully, Carlotta was dressed for the occasion in slacks, blouse and sturdy boots. If anything, the casual, androgynous apparel emphasised her glamour. She looked like the female lead in some low-budget jungle adventure holo.
I found the trek just as hard going this time around. To my surprise◦– call it overweening male pride, if you will◦– Carlotta forged ahead in Qah’s wake, and they had to stop from time to time and wait for me to catch them up. I was relieved to see that Carlotta didn’t resent the delay I was causing; she had her water canister awaiting me, and even kissed my forehead with a tolerant smile.
A couple of hours later we came to the clearing before the waterfall, and Carlotta stopped and stood, legs planted astride, fists on hips: against the silver fall of water she cut a magnificent figure.
“I never thought I’d see the day…” she began, clearly overcome.
She turned to Qah and spoke Ashentay.
The girl replied.
“What?” I asked.
Carlotta said, “I told her I had something, a gift for the elder in the sacred cavern.” So saying, she unshouldered her rucksack and carefully eased out the wrapped statuette. She pulled off the foam packing, and Qah just stared with massive eyes. She said something, and reached out to touch the figure.
Then she looked at Carlotta, made a quick hand gesture and hurried off across the clearing. Seconds later she vanished behind the sheer waterfall.
Carlotta returned the relic to her rucksack, then strode off a little way, staring into the distance. I sensed that she wanted some time alone to contemplate the past, and the immediate future.
Selfishly, I looked ahead to when she had accomplished what she had come here to do, when she could close the book on this chapter of her life and look ahead.
I sat beside my rucksack, took out the water and drank while admiring the spectacular view, the jungle-cloaked mountains and the Ring of Tharssos arcing overhead. The scene was so exquisitely alien that my human emotions◦– my feelings for Carlotta, and my jealousy◦– seemed puny by comparison, insignificant and unworthy of the setting.
When I next glanced at Carlotta, I saw that she had removed herself even further from me and was smoking a cigarette. I found this surprising, as she’d never smoked before in my presence. The fool in me ascribed it to nerves◦– and then I caught of whiff of the smoke on the warm breeze.
In retrospect, I think she wanted me to learn the truth so that I might find more acceptable what she had to tell me.
She turned to me and stared.
I stood. “Carlotta…?”
I approached her, warily. I gestured, lamely, at the half-smoked cigarette. “The drug,” I murmured.
She smiled, almost sadly, and nodded.
I could only say, “But I thought…” I began. “I thought Grainger used up all his supply.”
“I took a little more than I originally told you, David. Not much, but now–”
My heart fluttered. “I don’t understand,” I said, and I meant it. I was confused, and a little frightened. I recalled her avowal that she had used the drug but twice: she had lied to me, and if she had lied once…
How much of our relationship, I asked myself, was founded on lies?
“Carlotta?” I almost pleaded.
“David,” she said in a reasonable tone, “you must understand what it’s like, to see the future, or what might be the future, to be granted a glimpse… It◦– it becomes addictive, not biologically, but psychologically. Just one more hit, you say, hoping that the next time the visions will be that much clearer, easier to interpret. So you do it again, and again, and again… and by that time you’re habituated, and you can’t stop.”
“You could have told me,” I said.
She shook her head. “I… I didn’t want you to think that my attraction to you might have been my merely following some predestination laid down in a vision.”
That rocked me. I felt a strange heat rise up my chest and engulf my head. “And was it?” I managed.
“I… I don’t think so, David. I looked into the future, and I saw us together, but what I felt when I met you… what I feel for you now… that can’t be denied, David.”
I said, “The drug. The relic. All this is about getting at the real drug, isn’t it?”
She hesitated, looking at me. I thought I saw calculation on her massive Indian eyes, and I understood only later what she was in fact calculating. She said, “I want to see the future even more clearly,” she murmured.
I wanted to ask her, “And then? When will it stop?” but I resisted the impulse. I thought back to my very first meeting with Carlotta Chakravorti-Luna, and I realised that she’d artfully arranged it, set up the tableau outside the Mantis as carefully as any pre-scripted holo-movie…
And I felt sick.
Before I might react, break down and yell at her, accuse her of lies and deceit, Qah emerged from behind the waterfall and ran across to us. She spoke to Carlotta, who turned to me.
“I’m going, David. You can stay here if you want, or if you’d rather come with me…”
I wanted to be strong enough to turn away and walk off, but the truth was that I cared for Carlotta too much to leave her to her fate.
She turned and followed Qah into the caverns, and I hurried after them.
We descended, Carlotta and Qah moving swiftly ahead of me while I, exhausted from the trek so far, failed to keep up. By the time I arrived at the cavern, Carlotta had reached the long-house and paused, something in her poise almost reminiscent of a worshipper at the altar of a cathedral. The tall elder, hidden behind his ornate face-mask, stood in the entrance of the long-house and stared down at her.
Slowly, Carlotta unwrapped the relic and held it up to the elder in both hands. He nodded, once, gravely, and she spoke to him.
I arrived behind her, and stopped. Qah was staring at Carlotta, her eyes wide, and beside her were the four Ashentay bearers, staring also.
Slowly Carlotta turned to me. A look of infinite pity filled her eyes as she said, “David, I must do this. I hope you understand. I… I must learn where my destiny lies…”
“Carlotta,” I said. “We could be so…” but I could say no more.
She smiled and said, “Thank you, David,” and turned and walked up the ramp towards the elder. She paused before him, and they looked at each other for what seemed like an age, and then he inclined his masked head and she passed into the shadow of the long-house. The elder gazed down at me, then turned and followed.
I felt a hand on my shoulder. Qah. She gestured to a seat◦– a shelf recessed into the wall of the cavern and padded with grass◦– and I crossed to the wall and slumped down.
I must have slept. I was startled a while later by the chime of my wrist-com. I sat up, fumbled with the device and stared at the tiny screen.
Maddie frowned out at me. “David, I thought you’d never answer! Are you in the cavern?” The picture sizzled, broke up. The reception was bad, this far underground.
“Yes,” I answered, confused. “What’s wrong?”