We were standing on a slightly raised gallery, looking down. A dozen Ashentay stood at the foot of the ramp to the long-house, and though they were perhaps only fifty metres from us, so far we had not been seen.
Then we heard an inhuman squealing, and three Ashentay males struggled from a pen behind the long-house. They were wrestling with a black-pelted beast the size of a rhino though more resembling a terrestrial pig, but for its deadly array of horns and a spiked tail which whipped back and forth as the creature attempted to escape.
Its captors delivered the creature to their waiting fellows, and two women stepped forward with long knives and sliced into the beast’s thick neck. Blood geysered and the animal’s dying squeal turned to a guttering splutter as it lay twitching on the rock. Then the butchers set to work and seconds later the flesh had been flensed. Four Ashentay men stepped forward, intoned something above the jackstraw scatter of bones, then bundled them up, climbed the ramp to the long-house and passed inside.
Qah spoke in a hushed, reverent tone.
“The ritual of sacrifice,” Hawk said. “The gheer donates its bones for the ritual of smoking.”
Maddie said, “So it hasn’t taken place yet?”
Hawk spoke to Qah. She replied, and he reported, “She doesn’t know. She said she’ll try to find out.”
Qah called out and hurried down to the gathered Ashentay.
An old man, tall for an Ashentay, stepped from the long-house holding an intricately carved spear. On his head he wore a long wooden mask, with wide staring eyes and a rictus grin; the headpiece was topped with an array of gheer horns.
He paused in the entrance at the top of the ramp, then moved to one side and dropped his spear with a great thump on the timber floor.
As if at this signal, six Ashentay males emerged from the long-house. They walked carefully down the ramp in pairs, bearing laden stretchers.
“Christ…” Hawk turned to us. “They’re bringing out the dead...”
I stared at the figure on the first stretcher; it appeared female, but as one Ashentay looked very much like any other I was unable to say whether or not she might have been Kee.
Hawk staggered forward, and we followed. We slowed our approach, something like respect, or a desire to be seen not to be intruding, curbing our haste. We paused before the long-house and the stretcher-bearers passed us without any suggestion that they might have been disconcerted by our presence. I stared at the body on the first stretcher and saw that it was not Kee.
On the second stretcher was the body of a male Ashentay, and on the third...
I took a step forward, peering intently. It was a woman, but not Kee.
I heard Hawk choke back a relieved sob, and Maddie and Matt moved to his side.
I peered into the shadows of the building, and made out several shadowy figures. Seconds later, the survivors of the smoking ritual emerged one by one.
They ducked from the long-house and straightened, blinking in the half-light after the darkness. They wore the rapt expressions of religious devotees who had been granted glimpses of their destinies.
I scanned the aliens as they stepped down the ramp. I thought I saw Kee – a slight, fine-boned young girl... Hawk took a step forward and reached out, his expression of nascent hope collapsing as the girl approached and passed him by.
By my count twelve aliens – including the dead trio – had emerged from the long-house.
Maddie murmured, “But where is Kee?”
Qah moved to Hawk’s side and indicated a dozen seated cross-legged between the distant bonfires. They stood as one and crossed the cavern to the long-house. In the doorway, the priest thumped his spear on the timber threshold and called out.
Hawk said, “Kee...” and only then did I make out her slight figure, third in line, and I understood.
“Christ...” Hawk said. “It’s time for the next intake. I’ve got to go through all that again!”
The dozen Ashentay approached the long-house. Kee paused, then deviated from her route and came to Hawk. She laid a tiny hand on his tanned forearm and whispered in English, “This I must do, Hawk.”
He shook his head. “I don’t understand. Aren’t you happy with what we’ve got?”
She gave a sad smile, perhaps at his incomprehension. “Of course I am happy; I have never been happier. But there comes a time when we must look ahead, and give thanks to our creator that we have the opportunity to perceive what the future holds.”
“But I don’t see why, what benefit...” Hawk began. “And the danger. Kee, I don’t want to lose you!”
She reached up and touched his cheek, having to stand on tip-toe to do so. “We must accept, Hawk. Isn’t that what life is about, after all? An acceptance, an accommodation with one’s fate?”
“No!” Hawk began.
The old man barked a peremptory command.
Kee smiled at Hawk once more and made to move.
Hawk took her by the shoulders, pulled her to him and held her. The disparity between her elfin slimness and his ursine solidity would have been comical, were it not so tragic. He was weeping, and she closed her eyes and accepted his embrace with an expression of infinite calm.
He let her go, reluctantly, and she turned and followed her fellows up the ramp, and disappeared into the shadows of the long-house.
Qah approached Hawk and spoke to him. He nodded and replied.
“What?” Maddie asked.
“The ritual could take as long as ten, twelve hours,” he said. “I’m staying here–”
Matt said, “Hawk, there’s nothing you can do. You’d be torturing yourself. Look, let’s go back to the clearing, set up camp. I have some imported whiskey. We could eat, have a drink...”
“Matt’s right,” Maddie said. “There’s absolutely nothing we can do here. Let’s get something to eat, and we’ll get back here well before the ritual’s ended.”
Hawk looked at the long-house, his expression stricken. I took his shoulder and shook him. “C’mon, Hawk. I’ve never known you turn down a meal.”
Hawk nodded, then spoke to Qah. She replied, and he translated, “She said she’ll come and find us when the ritual’s nearly finished.”
We made our way from the chamber and back up the narrow tunnel to the waterfall. The sun had set and the Ring of Tharssos was illuminating the sheer fall of water so that it looked, as we emerged, like some expensive lighting effect. Carefully we moved along the ledge and out onto the clearing. The Ring was a vivid slash of silver arcing across the heavens, and beyond it I made out the bright scatter of stars.
Matt fetched our backpacks from where we’d dumped them and we set up camp.
It was a warm night, so we elected not to erect the domes but to sleep out in the open. Matt fixed a meal and broke out the promised whiskey, and we sat around in a circle and ate and drank.
Matt chatted about the project he was working on now, the emotion spheres, and how he hoped they would eventually go on tour around the Expansion. I always enjoyed listening to Matt talk shop. I glanced at Hawk; he was watching Matt but his expression was distant as he gripped his glass, taking measured sips from time to time.
After the meal, and after we’d worked our way halfway down the bottle, Matt rolled out the inflatable sleeping bags and we turned in. Matt and Maddie lay together, Hawk beside them and myself at the end. I lay and stared at the scintillating stars.
Hawk said, as if to himself, “It’s all so bloody primitive! Why put yourself at such stupid risk? Who the hell wants to know what the future has in store, anyway?”
Maddie said, “They are different, Hawk. You know that. You must respect their ways.”
Hawk said, “I know, Maddie. I know that. But even so… Christ, if I lost her, I honestly don’t know what I’d do.”
Matt said, “She’ll be fine, Hawk. I know it.”
Hawk fell silent, and I slipped into sleep.
I was awoken twice, once by Hawk muttering in his sleep, and much later by a noise to our left. I rolled over and stared across the clearing. The light of the Ring was sufficient to illuminate a procession of tiny, fine-boned aliens – their chatter like the babble of running water – as they made their way towards the sacred caverns. The next dozen participants in the smoking ritual, I thought, before drifting off again.
* * *
I awoke shortly before dawn to find Maddie pushing at my shoulder. “David, get up. It’s time.”
I groaned and rolled over. Qah stood beside Hawk, who was struggling into his jacket. “She says the ritual’s almost over. We’d better get going.”
I washed the sleep from my eyes with a canister of water, and Maddie handed out bottles of juice. We drank as we hurried through the warm dawn, the sun rising bloody at our backs and sending our elongated shadows stretching ahead.
Qah led the way along the ledge behind the waterfall, Hawk close on her heels. I followed Matt and Maddie, dread lodged in my heart. What if Kee had succumbed to the smoke? I contemplated the prospect, and I wondered if some compensatory fate was about to strike, equalising the balance: we’d had a fine few years together as a group of friends, victim of neither tragedy nor hardship. Perhaps this was when the good times came to a terrible end.
I tried to banish the treacherous thought as we dropped through the tunnel. Hawk hurried towards the arched entrance and the sacred chamber, no longer needing Qah to lead the way. We almost ran to catch up.
Nothing had changed in the cavern. Night or day had no effect here. The bonfires maintained a constant, ruddy light. Beside the long-house, the stretcher-bearers waited passively. We might have gone back in time to when we had first entered the sacred site, but for the collective fear and apprehension that gripped us as we approached the foot of the ramp.
We had an agonising fifteen minutes to wait before there was movement from within the long-house. Hawk was all for striding up the ramp and ending the agony, but something Qah said, a quick fluting command, stopped him. Maddie took his hand and Matt murmured a few consolatory words.
The tall priest emerged at the top of the ramp, stood to one side like a carved statue, and thumped his spear.
The sense of apprehension was almost tangible.
Seconds later the stretcher-bearers hurried up the ramp and ducked through the entrance. Half a minute later the first pair emerged, walking with dignity and care as they negotiated the opening with the laden stretcher. Hawk gave a moan as they moved down the ramp. I was beside him as the bearers passed us by, and we stared at the figure of the dead alien.
It was a young male, and I felt a sudden surge of relief, followed by a quick sense of guilt.
Beside Hawk, Matt squeezed his hand.
The stretcher-bearers unloaded their burden, laying the body reverently on a stone slab beside the long-house.
Hawk turned to Qah and spoke quickly. She replied, but could not bring herself to meet his eyes.
“Jesus,” Hawk said, turning to us as if in appeal. “There’s another three dead in there!”
Maddie said, “Can’t you ask her if she knows whether…?”
Hawk shook his head. “I asked. She says she isn’t allowed to enquire.”
I knew, then, with an odd, cold certainty, that Kee would be among the dead, and I thought ahead to how we might be able to help Hawk through his time of grief. Hard upon that thought came the recollection of my own loss, six years ago, and a selfish part of me did not want to be reminded of that all over again.
There was movement in the shadows of the entrance. The next stretcher-bearers emerged. This time, I saw, the dead alien was that of a young female. I shut my eyes, feeling tears start, hot and raw.
I heard the sound of feet on the giving timbers of the ramp, and could not keep my eyes closed. I stared into the fair, beautiful features of the girl, serene in death, as she was carried past.
It was not Kee. Beside me, Hawk was weeping with a mixture, I guessed, of relief and terrible apprehension.
I wondered if fate was being cruel to him, prolonging his torment until the time the stretcher-bearers brought out the body of his beloved. Matt and Maddie were beside Hawk. I joined them, not wanting to be alone in any of this, and took Hawk’s shoulder.
Movement in the long-house’s entrance. The bearers stepped from the shadows. I felt the beat of my heart, thudding against my ribs. I heard Matt muttering something beside me, maybe a prayer. We stepped forward as one as the bearers came down the ramp.
The body was male, and I closed my eyes and squeezed Hawk’s shoulder.
One more to go...
This is it, I thought. This is the terrible moment when everything is changed for ever.
My grip on Hawk became tighter. Matt and Maddie held him. We would be with Hawk when he beheld the fate of Kee, and we would help him through the dark days ahead.
He let out a pained breath as the stretcher-bearers came into sight at the top of the ramp. They negotiated the ramp, slowly. I stared at the slight figure they carried. It was female, and golden, and beautiful, and it came to me what a farce this was, this slaughter of innocents all in the name of some inane alien religion.
And beside me Hawk gave a sob and collapsed again Matt, and I stared into the serene features of the girl as she was carried past us.
It was not Kee.