Eric Brown: Penumbra

He tried to shut out the terrible images, concentrate on what lay ahead.

He realised that he could have killed Bennett and the others ten times over during the past few hours, but something had prevented his doing so. Not mercy, or anything like compassion, because he knew he would take great delight in eliminating Bennett and his cohorts, preventing their disseminating the evil ways of the Ancients to the universe.

No, something else had stayed his hand so far.

Only as he came to the end of the valley, and paused on the lip of the vast amphitheatre, did he understand. As he watched Bennett and the others climb the steps of the ziggurat, Klien knew suddenly why he had been brought to this place.

Not only would he kill Bennett and the other humans, he would use his considerable firepower to rid Homefall of every last Ancient as well.

Filled with the fervour of the righteous, Klien activated his lasers and descended into the amphitheatre.

Bennett stared at the gaunt figure of Carstairs in the entrance of the temple.

“Welcome,” Carstairs repeated. “We are preparing a ceremony of reception for you.”

“Klien killed you?” Mackendrick said, voicing Bennett’s incredulity.

“We never really die,” Carstairs said. “We merely relinquish our physical forms when the time is right, and, move on. When I died, the time was not right for me to move on. First, I had to learn.”

Bennett heard Ten Lee beside him. “Yes…” she whispered to herself.

Carstairs lifted a hand. “Come, I will explain. If you would care to follow me.”

Mackendrick looked around the group, his face frozen with shock and hope. He gripped Rana’s hand and followed as Carstairs turned and walked into the shadowy portal. Bennett, Ten Lee and Hupcka joined them.

They passed down a wide, high corridor, leaving the pink fungal glow behind them. They switched on their flashlights and filled the corridor with a hundred dazzling reflections.

Carstairs turned. “Please, in the temple, only the light of naked flames.”

Obediently they switched off the flashlights. Bennett walked on, blinded by the absence of light in this midnight tunnel. As his eyes became accustomed to the darkness, he saw a faint source of illumination far ahead. He felt a hand grip his, small and warm: Rana. They left the corridor and entered the great circular chamber, illuminated by the flames of perhaps a hundred tiny candles set high in the curving walls.

Mackendrick, Rana and Bennett were the first into the chamber after Carstairs, and they stopped and stared at what was revealed in the fitful candlelight. Bennett’s pulse quickened and fear clutched at his chest.

Stationed like silent sentries around the circumference of the chamber, Bennett made out the tall and shadowy shapes of the Ancients—the Ahloi, as Carstairs called them. They stood unmoving, their long arms by their sides, even longer legs slightly bent at the knees. Rana almost collapsed against him in shock. He took her weight, wishing that someone would likewise support him.

Carstairs, ahead, turned to them. “Please,” he said. “Follow me.”

“Where…” Bennett began. “I mean, where are we going?”

“There is much I must explain,” said their guide. “This way.”

He turned and led them across the chamber, past a short, central stone, towards a dark square set into the floor. As they approached, Bennett made out a flight of stairs. He followed Carstairs down the steps, Rana supported between himself and Mackendrick. Ten Lee and Hupcka brought up the rear.

The meagre illumination from the candles in the chamber lit their way down the short staircase. Then they were in another wide, high corridor, receding into absolute darkness. Bennett heard Carstairs’ footsteps ahead, checked that the others were with him, and followed.

They walked for perhaps ten minutes before the darkness was alleviated by a light in the distance. It appeared tiny at first, a mere speck like a star, but rapidly grew as they approached. At last they made out the shape of the tunnel ahead, the walls, floor and ceiling receding in perspective to form a square exit filled with a familiar opalescent glow.

Bennett knew where he had seen such light before, but he found it hard to believe that this was the same. Then he felt the lapping of a faint wind about his face, and knew that his eyes had not been deceived. They were emerging from the mountainside, into the light of Tenebrae.

They arrived at the end of the corridor, and Bennett halted and stared out. An ever-widening flight of stairs fanned out from the exit of the corridor and descended the flank of the mountain. Far below a vast sea was contained and encircled by a rearing rampart of cliffs like the inner wall of a volcano. Let into the almost sheer face of the rock were dark slits like windows, hundreds of them, thousands in fact, in serried rows one above the other. Bennett moved his gaze from the far wall of the mountain, around in a great sweep, to the sheer cliff faces on either side of the corridor’s exit. Here he could see that each of the window slits was at least ten metres tall, carved into the mountainside to form great, cavernous chambers.

Carstairs made a sweeping gesture to encompass the whole spectacular design. “Welcome to the monastery of Ahloi-tennay,” he said.

Bennett looked around at his friends. He knew that the expressions of wonder on their faces matched his own.

Only then did he see the statues, small compared to the great slit windows, that stood in a great phalanx on a ledge to either side of the exit and encompassed the entire sea. He could make out the details only of the first dozen or so. They were carvings from the natural rock of… at first he assumed they were animals, and then revised his opinion. Among the first few statues was that of an upright being, a humanoid with a regal bearing; it possessed a great domed skull, tiny childlike features, its body enveloped in a robe. Next to it was something very much like an upright scorpion, and next to this an ursine being, and then an arachnid with great faceted eyes and ferocious mandibles. Bennett began counting the statues, and reached a hundred before the diminishing perspective defeated his vision.

Carstairs turned to them, silhouetted against the opalescent dome of Tenebrae, and spread his hands.

“The Ahloi are an ancient race,” he said. “They are the most ancient race in the universe. They are the only survivors among the many who inhabited the young universe, billions of years ago. They were once a materialistic race like any other, but while their fellows across the many galaxies wasted themselves in futile aggression or the hedonism that results from the pursuit of materialism, the Ahloi managed to survive this stage of their evolution. In time, over many millennia, they became contemplative beings.

“They crossed the universe by means of star-flight unimaginable to us and lost to the present Ahloi. They seeded many galaxies, and settled to fulfil their self-appointed roles of guardians, or teachers. Over time, over millions of years, many races came to the planets inhabited by the strange and wise beings, often accidentally, and then purposefully when they heard the Ahloi’s message.

“Homefall, or Ahloi-tennay as we call this world, is where the Ahloi set up their monastery, their ministry, in this galaxy. We have received many novices in our time, as you can see.” Here Carstairs gestured at the statues to either side of the exit. “They came, and we healed them, and in so doing they saw the light of the truth, and some remained with us in contemplation until they relinquished their forms and became part of the shannath, or nirvana, while others returned to their planets of origin.”