by Shannah Jay
‘You’d better bring Niam, too, then, to write it all down,’ she said, with a sudden flash of ill humour. ‘We couldn’t do without her!’
He ignored her tone. ‘Yes, Niam will be a necessary partner in our task. She’ll help us to lay good foundations for the future. Knowledge, that’s what she’ll give our descendants. A priceless gift, eh?’
Karialla fell silent, ashamed of her own jealousy and ill temper. How could she have been so petty? She stole a glance at Deverith, but he was studying a leaf and didn’t notice the increased colour in her cheeks. At least, she hoped he hadn’t noticed.
By the fourth day of their journey, the forest was far less lush. The trees looked stunted compared to those they had seen so far, and even the flowers were smaller and less numerous. Deverith pointed to the vegetation. ‘They’re right about one thing, those folk in Tenebrak. The soil’s not very good around here. Perhaps that really is the reason why no one’s settled in these parts.’ He gave her a strange look, then added slowly, ‘Or perhaps there’s another reason. A reason so bizarre people wouldn’t believe it if you told them.’
He clearly knew what to expect. ‘Should I be afraid of what’s to come?’
‘Oh, no. I wouldn’t bring you into danger, lass.’ He started sniffing the air. ‘It’s close now. I can smell water. The lake’s nearby.’
By mid-morning, the trees were much sparser and they were going downhill. Karialla caught a glimpse of something silver-blue in the distance. ‘I think we’re coming to your lake, Deverith.’
‘About time!’
‘Don’t you think you should tell me now what to expect?’
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‘No.’ He put a hand gently on her arm. ‘I want to see what you make of it. Bear with me, lass.’
A short time later they walked out of the last of the scrubby undergrowth and stood looking down a sandy slope at the lake. To the right, on a small rise beyond the water, something as tall as a cliff but silver gleamed in the sunlight, its sides curving upwards from the watery reflection into a shining mass several hundred paces long that reflected back the sunlight and dazzled the eyes.
Karialla frowned, trying to make sense of the shape. ‘Is that it? The thing we’ve come to see, I mean? The deleff showed me a picture of it on the day Niam appeared out of the woods.’ Her breath caught in her throat for a moment.
‘They even showed me standing here with you by my side.’ She knew instinctively that this was a crucial moment in her life and the silver object had enormous significance for her. For a moment she forgot her companion as she tried to work out what it was.
A touch on her arm made her jump and she turned to smile at Deverith.
‘We need to walk on a bit further before we can get a really good view,’ he said quietly. ‘You can’t see it properly from here.’
As they approached the large object she couldn’t speak, only stare. It lay there, limned with gold from the sun’s rays, and it dominated the landscape long before they got close. It was far taller than the tallest tree, and it wasn’t a natural part of the world but a gigantic metal cylinder with some sort of attachments making one end lumpy. And how she knew it was lying on its side was another mystery, but she felt utterly certain about that.
It resembled nothing she’d ever seen. She tried to stop, wanting to study it before she went any nearer, but her feet continued to move against her wishes. She felt as if something was tugging her towards it, reeling her in like a river fish on a line. She glanced at her companion. Deverith, too, was staring ahead at the object. He didn’t volunteer any information so she didn’t question him, just took his hand and walked with him towards it, narrowing her eyes against the reflected glare from its silver skin.
As they drew closer, she noticed to the right what looked like the remains of a small settlement. These cottages were of a strange creamy material she’d never seen before and they were unlike normal dwellings, so stark and functional were they: mere boxes, with flat roofs and walls, and not one bit of decoration on them. In Tenebrak, even in these hard times, people tried to create as much beauty as possible. What sort of people would create this ugliness?
At one end of the small settlement, if that was what it was, stood a few larger buildings made of a duller, greyish material. Like the cottages, they seemed to be in good condition and the paths between them were clear and uncluttered by regrowth. But somehow, everything had an air of having been long deserted. She knew no one was living there, felt it in her bones, and shivered suddenly, wondering what had happened to the people who’d built this place.
‘What do you think it is, lass?’ Deverith’s voice was a soft breath in her ear.
‘I don’t know. The only thing I can think of is - it’s just too - ridiculous.’
‘And what’s that?’
‘I - it - no! It can’t be true!’
He lifted one eyebrow. ‘Go on! Tell me.’
‘Well, it looks like what they tell about in the old legends, the ship the Forebears came here in.’
‘Right first time.’
She turned to him in shock. ‘It can’t possibly be!’
‘Why not?’
‘Well for one thing, it’d have crumbled away by now. Nothing lasts that long.’
‘Doesn’t it?’
‘Nothing that I know of.’ She seized his arm and shook it. ‘Deverith, talk to me! No more mysteries! Tell me about this - this thing!’
He laid one hand over hers for a moment. ‘All right. I needed to know whether you’d be allowed to come here before I explained.’
‘Allowed to come? By whom?’
‘I don’t know. I’ve tried to bring other people here, but they were stopped, just as I was stopped, couldn’t go too far west. I’ve watched it happen. They became glassy-eyed and turned back of their own accord, wouldn’t speak to me or answer questions, just walked back the way they’d come and forgot they’d ever been here. That didn’t happen to you.
So I began to hope you’d be able to come here with me.’
‘Is that why no one else has found it?’
He shrugged again. ‘Who knows? Maybe other people have come here - hundreds of years have passed since the our ancestors came to this world, after all - but we’ll probably never know about them. We can’t be the only ones, surely?’
‘I suppose not.’
‘Want to go inside it?’
She gasped and clutched his hand. ‘Can we?’
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‘We can, but I must warn you that it’s frightening the first time. Some of the machines still work, you see. They -
well, they talk to you.’
‘Machines can talk!’
‘Yes.’ He hesitated, before adding, ‘And they make good sense, too.’
The idea was terrifying, but he’d already been inside the ship, had spoken to these machines and come out alive. She was suddenly determined to do the same. And besides, there was a steady, tugging feeling from the object, as if something wanted her to go there. Deverith waited patiently beside her until she moved of her own accord, then led her on towards the massive silver shape, his arm round her shoulders.
By the time they reached the buildings, the ship was towering over them. She took a deep breath before following him into one of the houses, then stared around in distaste at the room. The walls and floor were all shiny and white with precise corners, and everything was sparkling clean. Lights switched on automatically as they entered and switched off automatically behind them as they moved on into another similar room. Such strange lights, like bright lines around the edges of the ceiling, and so harsh on the eyes. She preferred the light of the moons - or even lamplight or candlelight.
‘These places feel as if no one has ever lived here,’ she whispered.
‘They feel like that to me, too. As if people built them then changed their minds.’
‘What are they for? It doesn’t feel at all like a settlement.’
&nbs
p; ‘I don’t know what they’re for.’
She stood listening. ‘Something’s making a humming noise. Will that be one of the machines you told me about?’
‘Probably.’
She stared around, disappointed. Invisible machines, no furniture and not a single item of decoration. It felt wrong.
‘I spent the night here the first time I came,’ he said. ‘On my own. I was too tired to care if anyone attacked me or to look for somewhere safer. It was raining and the night outside was full of the hiss of water, just me alive in the whole world, it seemed. I found a room with only one door, closed it and slept right behind it, so that no one could enter without pushing me aside. And yet, for all my fear, I slept well and nothing disturbed me.’
As they moved on to the next room, her hand crept into his and he gave it a reassuring squeeze, keeping hold of it.
They went through a bigger door than the others and paused at the top of the downward-sloping ramp that lay behind it, still holding hands. Lights showed what lay ahead quite clearly.
‘Everything’s connected by underground passageways,’ he told her. ‘At first I suppose they must have needed to stay close to the spaceship or been afraid of the wildwoods, so they built homes with escape routes underground.’
‘Space ship?’
‘Yes. The silver thing’s a vehicle designed to fly across the sky. There’s a lot of space between one world and the next, it seems. The ship is like a gigantic traders’ wagon, only it flies of its own accord.’
‘Oh.’ She tried to understand this, but it seemed hard to take in. She’d never even considered the idea that there might be other worlds across the sky.
‘The stars you see on dark nights are the suns of other worlds,’ he said quietly.
She thought of her own sun, the golden warmth of it on her skin, and frowned. The stars were such tiny glimmers of light. ‘They must be very far away, then.’
‘Yes. So the machines told me, but I couldn’t understand the measurements they used to explain it.’
She didn’t feel she understood anything. ‘Why did this - this spaceship not fly away again, then?’
‘The old legends are right about that. Something was broken, so they brought it down to our world, which it wasn’t meant to do, so that they could use its contents. And then, of course, they all had to stay here. The machines told me about that, too, but they didn’t seem to understand exactly what had happened. They kept saying “No data are available” when I questioned them.’
‘I wonder what the Forebears’ own world was like? And where were they going?’
‘I’ve asked the machines. They won’t or can’t tell me that.’ He tugged at her hand. ‘Come on! There are much more interesting things to see and you’ll have plenty of time later for all your questions.’
The ramp led down into a broader, white-walled passageway, where two people could walk comfortably side by side.
This in turn led further down into one central underground passage, which was as wide as the widest street in Tenebrak.
Karialla stopped with a long-drawn-out, ‘Ohhh!’ of astonishment. There were buildings on either side of this strange street, and you almost felt as if you were in the open air. The illumination, which had been faint when they arrived, began to increase the minute they stepped out from the passageway. It was as if something had sensed their presence and made the lights burn more brightly for them.
She heard a humming sound, which changed within seconds to a faint purr. The strip of what Karialla had taken to be paving in the middle of the street began moving of its own accord, like water flowing in a river. It was maybe three people wide and after the initial humming sound, it moved noiselessly. When no danger seemed to threaten, she allowed
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Deverith to tug her forward to look at it more closely.
‘Like to take a ride on it?’
She hesitated, but he coaxed her on to the strip of moving ground then put his arm round her shoulders as they rode along at a speed just a little faster than walking pace. ‘It’s only machinery, lass. There’s nothing here to hurt you. As well be afraid of a carpenter’s saw.’
‘But it all looks as if it were made only yesterday. There’s no dust and yet it must have been made hundreds of years ago. Who takes care of it? Are you sure there’s no one left alive?’
‘Very sure.’
She stared down. ‘How can a substance feel solid, yet move along like this?’ For there were no edges to the moving pathway, just a gradual slowing down until it merged with the motionless ground at either side. ‘It’s like the old tales of magic.’
‘Who knows how it’s done? Water can behave like that, but you can’t stand on it and anyway this isn’t water. I’ve often wondered how the forebears did it, myself. But I’m sure it’s not magic. They didn’t believe in magic, our ancestors. Why should they, when they had machines to do wonderful things for them?’
The moving pathway was now slowing down. Deverith’s arm tightened around her for a moment. ‘This is the end.’
Karialla frowned. ‘It seems - well - unnecessary, don’t you think?’
‘What?’
‘To have a path that moves like this for such a short distance. Didn’t our ancestors’ legs work properly? Or were they very lazy, too dependent upon their machines?’
‘I never thought of it that way,’ he admitted. ‘I enjoy using it. I was like a child on feast-day the first time I came here, running on and off it, going in and out of the buildings, though there are only bare rooms inside most of them.
You’d have laughed to see me. You’re much more dignified about it all.’
‘I’m older than you must have been.’
‘No. I was forty when I found it. And you probably weren’t born then.’
She frowned, studying him. ‘You don’t seem that old.’
‘I don’t feel it when I’m with you.’
‘Why didn’t they keep on building their machines after they founded the first settlement? You say we’re their descendants, but we don’t know how to make anything like this.’
‘As far as I can make out, they deliberately chose not to keep them. At least, that’s what all the old tales say and the machine records bear them out. They also chose to destroy the knowledge of the weapons they’d brought with them.’
‘Evril still talks about the weapons. How do people know such things still?’
‘Who can tell? Perhaps some of the original settlers passed on the tales to their children.’ He looked round and changed the subject. ‘It hasn’t altered since the last time I was here and that must be twenty years ago.’
‘Twenty?’ And how long before that was the first time he’d come here? A shiver ran down her spine. It didn’t add up. He didn’t even look fifty now that he’d recovered.
‘He tugged her forward. ‘Let’s go into the ship itself now, eh? I love it in there.’
She hesitated.
‘Don’t you want to see how the Forebears came to this world?’
‘Well, yes. But Deverith - can I keep hold of your hand?’
As they walked forward across the wide space at the end of the moving pathway, she looked around her curiously.
Everything was as bright as the sunniest day, yet she could see no sign of lights. How had their ancestors done that?
This place was like a big market square, with a fountain playing in the centre and seats scattered about here and there, as if to invite you to stop and chat with your friends. But they’d seen no other people besides themselves.
She had a sudden longing to be back in the wildwoods among teeming plant and insect life, with soft, blossom-scented breezes wafting around her. Shaking her head, she mentally chided herself. She was no child, to be afraid of the unknown!
As they walked past the fountain she saw, on the opposite side of the square, the entrance to another tunnel. It was brightly lit, but more ominous, somehow. There were no buildings near it and
it made no pretence of being part of a human settlement. There were just shiny white walls and a white floor, and you entered it through a low arch of gleaming silver light.
I’m afraid, she admitted to herself as they approached the mouth of the tunnel. Who would not be?
CHAPTER 18 The Spaceship
The tunnel was quite short, ending in a small circular space about as big as a large room, with a curved ceiling. There
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was another doorway on the opposite side. Karialla jumped in shock as part of the wall above the doorway lit up and began flashing words at them:
AUTHORISED PERSONNEL ONLY
She could read the letters and mouthed what she thought the words might sound like, but they held no meaning for her.
Deverith let go of her and moved forward confidently. ‘I ask entry,’ he said loudly.
‘NAME?’
Karialla jumped in shock as a voice spoke above them. She craned her head round, trying to see where it came from.
Deverith turned to smile at her. ‘It’s just a machine, lass. The same voice has spoken to me every time I’ve been here. It’s a sort of guard, I think.’ He raised his voice. ‘My name’s Deverith.’
‘MOVE FORWARD TO THE SCREENING AREA, PLEASE. THE NAME DEVERITH IS REGISTERED.
WE NEED TO MAKE IDENTIFICATION.’
He let go of Karialla’s hand and moved towards the wall.
Part of it lit up and something started humming behind it. Light glowed around his body for a few seconds, then faded as the voice spoke again. ‘IDENTITY VERIFIED. YOU ARE LATE FOR YOUR CHECK-UP, DEVERITH.
PLEASE GO STRAIGHT TO THE MEDI-CENTRE ONCE YOU ARE INSIDE THE SHIP.’
The voice spoke again, sounding to be above Karialla now. ‘NAME?’
‘K - Karialla.’
‘IDENTITY NOT RECOGNISED.’
Deverith beckoned her over to the screen. ‘Karialla hasn’t been here before. She’s a friend of mine, seeking entrance.
I’ll vouch for her. Please register her identity. She’s a healer, like myself.’