“Oh, believe, my friend. There are many wonders, out there.” Illiun said. “Alas, we cannot stay on this planet for much longer. The entity is still in pursuit and it’s vital that we repair our engines.”
“Entity?” Bestion said. “What is that?”
“A determined enemy, one we have been fleeing for generations. Yet no matter how far we travel, it still finds us. Coming here, we hoped that we had finally escaped it. However, in the last few days our sensors detected the entity’s approach once again. We prepared the ship for departure, only for our engines to fail. There are minerals on this planet that can help us repair them, but we’re going to have to recover them quickly.”
“We’ll help you,” Silus said. He turned to his companions, who were looking at him in stunned silence. “What? What else are we going to do? The Llothriall is no more, we’re far from home, and something big and angry is heading our way. I say that leaves us with little choice; as far as I can see, Illiun and his people offer us the best hope of survival and of finding our way back to Twilight.”
“As we are new to this planet ourselves, we are still unsure as to the nature of the risks that may lie between us and retrieval of the mineral,” Illiun said.
“Trust me,” Silus said. “We’re quite used to risks.”
He squeezed Katya’s hand and she smiled at him, but there was a deep weariness in her eyes. On her knee, Zac suddenly pointed at his father before letting out a delighted squeal and clapping his hands.
“At least one of us isn’t feeling this overwhelming sense of impending doom,” Katya said, kissing the top of her son’s head.
“Of course,” Illiun said. “Any help that you can give us will be more than gratefully received. Certainly my people are delighted to have you amongst us. Tonight you will avail yourselves of our hospitality. I will provide you with a communication staff in order that you will be able to converse. Come the morning we will have a decision on how to proceed.”
The door opened and one of the silver-eyed men entered. “Please see to it that our guests are well looked after,” Illiun told him.
As they left the ship and headed back into the settlement, Silus looked up at the clear blue sky, wondering what manner of threat it was that this entity posed, and quite how they would escape it when the time came.
Back in the settlement proper, they were guided to one of the larger sand-dwellings, there to be greeted by a familiar face.
The girl grinned as she pushed aside the curtain covering the doorway, her pet scampering past her and weaving itself between their legs, emitting a discordant whine that sounded like no dog they had ever heard.
“Mummy and Daddy said that the strangers were coming,” she said.
Not wanting to be referred to as ‘the strangers’ for the rest of the evening, the crew introduced themselves and ascertained that the girl was called Hannah, which was also the name of her pet.
Once inside, they were introduced to Hannah’s parents — Rosalind and Shalim — who were so similar in appearance that they could have been brother and sister, though no one chose to comment, not wanting to jeopardise the hospitality of their hosts.
Within, the sand house was ordered and comfortable. The structure consisted of five rooms: a kitchen, a living area, two sleeping areas and a latrine. Hannah and her parents shared one of the bedrooms, along with the pet, while the remaining bedroom had been given over to the guests.
Once they were settled, the family asked them to join them for a meal and they sat in the living area, watching as Rosalind roasted root vegetables amongst hot coals.
For a while there was silence, none of the crew really knowing how to make conversation with these people, even with the aid of the translation staff; not that Hannah’s parents were particularly chatty. After being mobbed earlier that day, Silus had expected their hosts to show a little more curiosity.
“Hannah,” Bestion finally said. “Where did your pet come from? I haven’t seen any other animals in the settlement.”
“Hannah comes from another world. The people on the ship wanted her once, but the council decided they had no use for her. Mummy and Daddy said that I could keep her, but I don’t think that this place likes her very much.”
“And have you seen many worlds?”
“Lots and lots. Though not as many as Mummy and Daddy.”
“How long have you been on this world?”
“Not long,” Shalim said, joining the conversation. “But there is nothing here for us and soon we will be leaving.”
“Ah, yes,” Bestion said. “That would be because of the entity, wouldn’t it?”
Shalim returned to staring at the glowing coals.
“What sort of world were you born on?” Silus asked.
“Shalim and I were born on the ship,” Rosalind said. “Hannah was born on an ocean planet. We were happy for a while, there, before we had to move on.”
Zac began to struggle on Katya’s lap and she let him down onto the floor, where Hannah showed him a simple game with coloured pebbles. They became utterly absorbed in their play, paying not the least attention to the adult conversation going on around them.
“What about you?” Shalim said. “How did you come to this world? We didn’t see your ship land.”
With occasional interjections from Dunsany and Kelos, Silus told their story, including everything from stealing the Llothriall, to the defeat of the Chadassa, to arriving in the desert on a broken boat.
“It seems to me,” Shalim said, “that your homeworld isn’t a place to which you would want to return.”
“There are things there worth fighting for,” Kelos said. “And it is our home.”
“Don’t you ever get tired of running, Shalim?” Silus said.
“Indeed, but we hope that one day we will have run far enough.”
“I wish I had witnessed some of the sights you’ve seen out there,” Kelos said. “Just think: if we found the right world, we wouldn’t have to return to Twilight. No more Final Faith on our backs. We could start afresh. We don’t have to go home.”
As they talked, the sunset that had been edging into the room faded and then finally died. A sharp wind picked up, howling against the house, although inside they felt not the slightest breeze.
Katya hadn’t even realised that Zac had left them until he tottered back into the room, holding Hannah’s hand.
“Where have you been, wee man?” she said. “Playing with Hannah? Thank you for keeping him entertained, by the way. Are you hungry, Zac?”
“The stars are falling,” he said.
“What’s that, sweetie?”
“Come, see.”
As Katya and Silus got to their feet, Silus thought that he heard a low, deep thud as though something heavy had fallen to the floor in another room.
In the guest room they found Zac and Hannah kneeling on one of the beds, looking out of the window, their faces intermittently illuminated by brilliant flashes of light.
“Dunsany, Kelos… everyone! ” Katya said. “You may want to come and see this.”
Zac had been right; far out in the desert, stars were falling to earth. Most fell beyond the horizon, but a few landed closer to the settlement, throwing up huge plumes of glowing sand.
“My gods!” Dunsany said. “I’ve seen shooting stars before, but nothing like this.”
“Shouldn’t we be heading for the ship?” Kelos said. “I mean, if one of those things hit us…”
“We are quite safe,” Shalim said. “The ship will protect us and the bombardment will soon be over.”
And indeed it was. Silus blinked away the purple blotches swimming across his vision. Where the stars had come down, the sand glowed rose-red.
“It’s beautiful,” Kelos said.
To the mage, it may have been a wondrous sight, but as Silus watched the glowing sand darken, he’d never felt further from home.
