The Shadow of the Moon-Lydia's Tale

Chapter Eight

As they passed them in the street Faulke recognised the indigenous species as Lydia had described, a form of Polymid, distinguished by their silvered hair and short barrel chested bodies. They seemed generally disinterested in their space suited visitors only stopping to gawp without embarrassment at the hulking figure of Faulke as he strode past them. 

They found the headman Tekinon in the busy marketplace. He was a cheery soul with a permanent smile and excitable hands, who, having been introduced to Faulke by Nape continually walked his Geron specimen up and down the main square like a showman displaying his most recent exhibit.  

Lydia and Saffi pushed their way through the bustling crowd .The market was full of long stalls piled high with the weathered crops the Ax had nurtured from the better soils further down the valley. The edged their way around a group of six legged shaggy beasts standing in the pale light slowly chewing a barrel full of old old roots before crossing the cracked flagstones and climbing the stone steps onto a raised platform at the far end of the market. 

Lydia looked down from where she stood at the milling crowd. A melee of noise- shouting, joking, bartering, crying children, baying animals, rose up to her. Standing there she felt alone with the cold hand of fate slowly wrapping its chilled fingers round her consciousness. 

She walked to the centre of the platform, below the crowd was oblivious to her presence. She adjusted the translator. Her hands were sweating inside her gloves, her tongue dry in her mouth. 'Hello can you hear me?'  

'Lydia what are you doing?' The urgent voice of Saffi rang in her ears. She felt her grab her arm. 

She pushed Saffi away and turned up the volume on the speaker. 'Hello, I'm Lydia. Please listen to me, this is important. Your God wants you to rebuild the temple out in the desert.'  

A few children close to the platform stopped and stared and then ducked back into the throng. 

'Please listen to me.'  

Saffi grabbed her arm again, so hard it felt as if the bone could snap. 'You need to be more convincing Lydia. Make them believe in me. Like you do. You know what to do.' 

'You? You're here? They're not listening to me. You can see that. I can't do anything.' 

'Believe in me Lydia. Believe in yourself for I will do all in my power to ensure no harm comes to you.' 

'Why don't you do it?' 

'It must be you Lydia. It can only be you.' 

'I can't.' She could not get Milo out of her head and the promise the Nergalrhod had made. She needed to know about Milo. More than anything she needed to know.  

And then she knew what she had to do. What she had to face. She twisted the screws on her helmet, tugged it off and threw it behind her. Instinctively she held her breath, then ignoring her racing heart and the voice of self-survival tearing at her brain she closed her eyes. 

She gasped the air, anticipating the pain that would soon burn her lungs like hot acid. It didn't come. The air tasted warm, the rich aroma of spices rose up from the stalls below, rounded with a slightly bitter taste of ash. She tipped her head back, the glow of the light reflected off the moon felt soothing on her face.  

'Go to the temple,' she said quietly, afraid of being noticed, then raising her arm. 'Go to the temple, your God wants you to rebuild her temple.' 

Hearing her voice some of the crowd stopped, turning to her, pulling others with them. The children slowly stopped screaming. A wave rippled up the square leaving a chilled silence behind it. A hundred faces turned to her. She could hear the flapping of the awnings in the wind and feel the breeze on her face. She closed her eyes and breathed in. Nothing, she took another breath. The air felt soft, her lungs flooded with a tangy heady smell of musky animal dung. 

Emboldened she walked to the edge of the platform. 'Listen to me the Nergalrhod wants you to rebuild the temple, her temple. You must go.' 

Saffi pulled at her. 'Lydia what's going on? You need your helmet on. Lydia what are you saying? I don't understand you.'  

Lydia inhaled deeply. Gathering all her strength she shouted out. 'The Nergalrhod has come again. You must rebuild her temple out there in the crater. You must do it now.' 

Disturbed from his conversation with Tekinon by the eerie silence and the solitary voice carrying over the heads of the crowd Faulke stopped talking and looked toward the source of the voice. He stood paralysed, watching, listening, entranced by the language of the Ax being spoken by Lydia. He looked at the crowd to get confirmation of what he was witnessing. They like him stood transfixed listening to the slight figure of the girl standing on the stage, her chin resolutely pushed forward, her heady thin voice falling over the still crowd. Then, gathering his wits he shot forward. In ten strides he was past Tekinon and the crowd and up on the platform. He grabbed Lydia's helmet and dragged her off the platform.  

'What in the stars do you thing you are doing.' He yelled at her, hurriedly refitting her helmet. 

'I'm doing what I must,' she shouted back, voice muted by the helmet. Her red face staring defiantly back at Faulke. 

Monetarily Faulke was lost for words. He softened his tone. 'Lydia what you are doing could have cost you your life.' 

'But it didn't.' She had flipped her comms back on. Her voice was stronger than she'd expected as if it had found its purpose, emboldened by her experience in front of the crowd.  

She was right, it hadn't. Faulke checked the readings on his wrist tablet, without a doubt the atmosphere was poisonous to both her and him. He checked the breathing valve on his mask and flipped Lydia around and checked oxygen supply and then her helmet seal. 

The Polymid had followed them and were beginning to push around them murmuring and pointing. Faulke looked around warily. 'We're going. I'll come back later to finish my business with Tekinon. Let's get the others.'  

The crowd followed them at a distance through the narrow streets and then spilled outside the town wall and watched in silence as Faulke bundled Saffi, Nape and Lydia into the transporter. He fired up the levi, next to him Lydia sat in her seat avoiding eye contact, staring fixedly out toward the craters edge. 

They powered their way back up the rim over the scrubland toward the craters ridge. Looking back toward the town he watched as two riders, heads shrouded against the dust passed out through the main gate. One headed for the rim, the other raced down the rock strewn hill away from them towards the towns to the south. Faulke turned away and fell deep into thought. 

'You're an idiot Lydia!' Napes voice bounced through Faulke's comm. 'Who does that? You could have died, then we'd have two deaths. You're a liability Lydia, you know that don't you?' 

'Shut up Nape, leave her alone.' Faulke snapped irritably, pulling his coms piece from his ear. They tipped over the ridge back into the craters bowl. Far off he could make out the temple, a distant blip of white in the oppressive blackness of the landscape. He pulled down his xshades, pushed the levi to full velocity and through the whirling dust they sped back toward the hab hubs.  

Lydia sat staring up at the sky, head reeling, fuelled by adrenaline and the realisation of what she'd done. Far above her the twinkling of the stars were revealed in the evening sky and the dark monoliths of the assembled star fleet hung ominously over Ax in the dying afterglow of the day.