Watcher's Web (Return of the Aghyrians: Young Adult Science Fiction Book 1) by Patty Jansen
Author:Patty Jansen [Jansen, Patty]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fantasy, Patty Jansen, Post-apocalyptic fiction, Science Fiction
Publisher: Capricornica Publications
Published: 2014-01-06T05:00:00+00:00
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Chapter 18
* * *
IZTHO WENT TO a couch against the side wall in the shop, where he had left his screen, and turned it towards Jessica. âThe markings on the walls in that cave you were talking aboutâdid they look anything like this?â
He spoke Mirani and made no attempt to simplify his speech for her sake.
So he had been interested in her story about the cave. She made a note not to underestimate him again.
The screen displayed an image of a stone, like a brick in a wall. Carved grooves in the surface depicted, under each other, an arrow, two suns and three people. Her cheeks flushed, Jessica nodded.
He touched the screen. Another picture displayed an overview of a chamber with a flat dais in the middle, just like in the chamber she had visited with Ikay. The walls were covered in carvings. She whispered, âYes, like that. Where is this?â
He cursed, or at least she thought he did because she didnât recognise the word he uttered. âThis is one of the chambers they found on Asto.â
âWhere is that?â
âItâs the inner world in this system. Iâll show you tonight. Asto is very bright in the evening sky at the moment.â
âHave you seen this cave?â
âI canât. Itâs too hot to go there.â
âToo hot? But . . .â She sought for words. âCan I do this in English?â
He gave her a withering stare that said I thought you were made of tougher stuff.
All right. Not in English then.
His attention returned to the screen. âAsto wasnât always the desert it is today. Many years ago, a great civilisation, the Aghyrians, inhabited the planet. They invented many things we use now; they invented things we donât even half understand. They started space travel at the time Ceren was only a jungle inhabited by savages.â
The people from the frieze. âWere they tall and. . . ?â She didnât know how to say broad-shouldered.
âYes.â
âWhat happened?â
âThe legends say a star fell from the sky, but in reality, it was a wayward asteroid. For all they peered into space, luck was not on their side. It came from behind the larger sun and by the time they saw it, there was little time left to prepare. Our own Mirani legends say the cloud of dust around the planet took thirty years to clear.â
Jessicaâs skin broke out in goosebumps. Thatâs how scientists said dinosaurs had become extinct. A massive impact, clouds obscuring the sun for years. What a horrible way to die. At the same time, she remembered hearing running footsteps on stone, panting breaths, a slamming door and the rumbling of the earth. Sheâd thought it had been a vision when she was in the cave with Ikay, but could it be a memory? She clamped her arms around herself.
âDid anyone survive?â
âAt first, it seemed not, but then, many, many years later, another kind of people appeared on Asto. They called themselves Coldi. No one is quite sure where they came from. Their own history tells of them arising from the dust, and when you couple legend and known history, it seems they are right.
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