Steph Bennion - Paw-Prints of the Gods

“Neands?” he asked, puzzled.

“The greys,” she hurriedly corrected.

“Fwack fwack!”

Ravana looked at Kedesh, baffled by the abstract image the translator presented.

“Neands?” she repeated. “Is that what you call greys?”

“Never mind that now,” said Kedesh. “What’s your story, Artorius?”

“I’m from Avalon,” he said sullenly. He seemed unwilling to say any more.

“That’s all I managed to get out of him,” said Ravana with a sigh. “The greys were in cages in a laboratory at the dome. Artorius persuaded me to bring them with us.”

Kedesh gave a wry grin. “I’m sure you’ve annoyed a fair few people by doing so.”

Ravana remained cautious. “You seem very casual about the fact there’s two supposedly mythical extra-terrestrials aboard your transport,” she remarked. “Aren’t you even a tiny bit curious about them?”

“Apart from their interesting choice of attire? I’m sure we’ll get to that later,” said Kedesh, returning Ravana’s stare coolly. “At the moment it’s yours and Artorius’ story that is hitting wide. Any idea why you two may be of interest to the Dhusarians?”

Ravana paused, then slowly shook her head.

“I’ve been monitoring local police channels.” Kedesh’s tone made it clear she knew Ravana was keeping something from her. She picked up the second cup of tea and took a careful sip before continuing. “There’s been an unusual amount of chatter lately, considering that the number of agents fielding this wicket can be counted on one hand.”

“Thraak?”

“Yes, a human hand.”

“No one came looking for me,” Ravana said sadly. “No one missed me.”

“Ravana has no friends!” sniggered Artorius.

“Fwack fwack!”

“Thank you, Stripy,” said Ravana. “But Artorius is right. I made no friends at the dig. The tutors were too busy arguing over findings to notice me. They probably think I ran out on them and took the ship back to Ascension.”

“No one at all?”

Ravana hesitated. “There’s a boy called Xuthus,” she said coyly. “I’d met him before, at the peace conference on Daode, so he talked to me sometimes.”

“A boy, eh?” remarked Kedesh.

“Fwack fwack!”

“It’s not like that!” protested Ravana, feeling embarrassed. Artorius gave a snorting laugh that sounded far too dirty to be from the innocent mouth of an eight-year-old. “Anyway, enough about me and my lack of friends. What brings you to Falsafah?”

“Me? I’m just a filthy-rich, eccentric adventurer,” the woman said briskly. “You’re with the archaeologists? Found anything exciting at Arallu?”

“Dead aliens,” Artorius intoned. Keeping to his seat, he mimed a mummified corpse walking out of a tomb, his arms outstretched above the table.

“How fascinating!” remarked Kedesh. “Ravana, are you not having cake?”

Ravana caught her odd expression, opened her mouth to reply, then hesitantly took a slice. Artorius had not waited to be invited and had already wolfed down three portions. Ravana munched thoughtfully upon the fruit cake and found it surprisingly good.

“A rich adventurer?” she asked, looking at Kedesh. “I don’t believe you.”

“A roving researcher for The Amateur Astronaut’s Guide to the Five Systems ?”

“Thraak thraak!”

“She said astronaut, not hitch-hiker,” Artorius told Nana.

“Does it matter who I am?” Kedesh said testily. “I saved your lives! I gave you tea and cake! I’d much rather talk about what you’re doing here, so far away from home.”

“It matters a lot.” Ravana took another sip of tea, unwilling to satisfy the woman’s interest in the excavation until she had some answers herself. “We only have your word that you’re not in league with the nutcases in that dome. How do you know my name?”

Kedesh looked momentarily flustered. “Artorius told me,” she said at last.

“Did I?” Artorius looked surprised.

Ravana raised a surprised eyebrow. “No, I don’t think you did.”

“My mistake,” Kedesh admitted. “Let’s just say I have a special interest in making sure we’re not left on the back foot by groups such as the Dhusarian Church. Anyone who delves into the life of the priest Taranis will soon come across the name of Ravana O’Brien. Is that not so, my would-be demon king of Yuanshi?”

Ravana shuddered. Taranis was one name she was unlikely ever to forget.

“Demon king?” asked Artorius. He looked at Ravana in awe.

“Ravana is the legendary demon king from the Ramayana,” Ravana said, sighing. “Taranis gave me the name before I was born and arranged for me to have a special-forces implant, all as part of a prophecy he invented to win supreme power on Yuanshi. Then my mother rebelled and had treatment to make sure she would have a girl rather than a boy. The Dhusarians do not recognise women as being capable of holding power,” she explained, seeing Artorius look puzzled. “Taranis’ stupid war killed my mother, left me scarred for life and drove father and I into exile. I’m now nothing more than an outcast with a stupid boy’s name and hardware in my head I still don’t fully understand.”

“Ravana doesn’t sound like a boy’s name,” Artorius said hesitantly.

“It does if you’re Hindu!” she retorted. “The school bullies reminded me every day. Father found he couldn’t change official records, so made a point of correcting those who pronounced ‘Ravana’ the Indian way instead of how he thought it should be,” she said, emphasising the long vowel of the second ‘a’ in her name. “He’s Australian.”

“It would be like Christians naming their daughter ‘Satan’,” Kedesh told Artorius and smiled at his look of disgust. “Why not change it unofficially?” she asked Ravana. “Though I appreciate it is hard to cast aside a birth name and put on fresh whites.”

“I did think about it,” she admitted. “But once we left Yuanshi for the Dandridge Cole it no longer seemed important. The folk there saw it as just one more exotic foreign name. Then Taranis turned up and dragged up the past in front of my friends.”

“Who’s Taranis?” asked Artorius, who had slyly reached for another piece of cake.

“A misguided but charismatic priest who brought about the Dhusarian Church,” said Kedesh. “Half man, half machine and totally insane. I’ve been pursuing him for some time.”

“Half machine?” Artorius’ eyes went wide.

“He has this spider walker contraption to move him around, only it has somehow become part of him,” Ravana explained. She eyed Kedesh cautiously. “I heard he was dead. And that I killed him.”

Kedesh smiled. “You? I didn’t have you down as the murderous type.”

“Taranis hurt my friends and had us all really scared,” Ravana said bitterly. She shifted uneasily in her seat, for the priest’s alleged death remained an uncomfortable subject. “He was too strong to fight, so we set him and his monsters adrift in deep space. I encouraged Zotz to do it, which makes me just as guilty as if I had pulled the trigger on a gun!”

“Thraak thraak!” interjected Nana.

“I left you to die with him,” Ravana pointed out. “That makes it worse.”

“Your witness appears to think you acted in self-defence.” Kedesh seemed quite taken aback by Ravana’s outburst. “Besides, are you really sure Taranis is dead?”

“Are you saying he’s alive and on Falsafah?”

“I’m not sure. There’s a trail of sorts that leads to Tau Ceti, so I thought it was worth keeping an eye on the Dhusarians’ dome,” said Kedesh. “Did you know Taranis used it as a base many years ago, after he disappeared from Yuanshi? Anyway, there was something about the manner of your departure from the dome that seemed suspicious so I followed. It wasn’t until I saw you face to face that I realised who you were,” she added, making as if to touch Ravana’s disfigured cheek. “An Indian girl with such distinctive scars, escaping a Dhusarian compound? It had to be you.”