“zz-raavaanaa-zz,” rasped the one with the lion-patterned sash. The edge of his hood trembled slightly as he spoke. Not for the first time, Ravana jumped as the words emerged like the muted wail of a steel grinder. In her mind’s eye she could almost see the fiery sparks issuing from the speaker’s hidden lips. “zz-taakee-aa-seeaat-zz.”
Ravana hesitantly sat down in the empty chair opposite the two figures, taking care not to look too closely into the shadows of their hoods. Other than the desk and chairs, the room was empty, with a large window behind where the grey monks sat. The enticing view, a deserted strip of coastline beneath a deep blue sky, she remembered being told was Pampa Bay on the moon of Daode. The window was open a fraction and the sound of distant crashing waves drifted in to fill the room with a soothing murmur.
“zz-brootheer-siimhaa-aand-ii-aaree-pleeaaseed-zz,” said the other monk, his buzzing tones identical to those of his companion. “zz-yyoouur-miind-haas-beeeen-shaatteereed-buut-iis-reecooveeriing-weell-zz.”
“Glad to hear it,” Ravana murmured, once she had deciphered the message.
“zz-yyoouur-meemooryyy-iis-aa-coonceern-zz,” intoned the first monk, whom she assumed was the aforementioned Brother Simha. “zz-brootheer-dhaanuus-aand-ii-muust-aask-thee-saamee-quueestiioons-eeveeryy-daayy-zz.”
“zz-haavee-yyoouu-reemeembeereed-hoow-yyoouu-goot-heeree-zz?” asked the other monk, presumably Brother Dhanus.
“Only what I’ve been told.” Ravana was tired and slurred her words.
“zz-whiich-iis-zz?” said Simha.
“I was in a virtual-reality game,” she said slowly. “Gods of Avalon. I reacted badly. The nurses say it was due to an old injury, something to do with my brain. They said I was taken to a doctor and then brought here. To rest while my mind recovers.”
“zz-teell-mee-aaboouut-thee-booook-zz,” screeched Dhanus.
“Book?” Ravana was puzzled, then shuddered. “There were books in the walls, closing in on me. The pages opened and spiders burst out…” The memory made her feel queasy. Her fear of anything with too many legs was not something she was ever likely to forget. “Then I was in bed, being told… something. Everything after that is a blank.”
She paused, disturbed once again by the cloud over her thoughts. It was hard to judge the monks’ reaction to what she was saying, but the tilt of their hoods suggested they were listening keenly.
Dhanus leaned forward. “zz-whyy-diid-yyoouu-coomee-too-daaoodee-zz?”
Ravana thought back to the series of events that had led her to Hemakuta, a city on the moon of Daode in the Epsilon Eridani system. She had jumped at the chance to go when the Newbrum Academy band, student musicians from Ascension in the Barnard’s Star system, chartered her father’s ship to take them to the peace conference in the city. The trip was a homecoming of sorts, for she had been born on Daode’s neighbouring moon of Yuanshi, a world split by civil war. She wondered if the peace conference had achieved its aims.
“Where is my father?” she asked. “Where are my friends?”
“zz-yyoouur-friieends-aawaaiit-yyoouu-iin-heemaakuutaa-zz,” Dhanus buzzed softly. “zz-ooncee-yyoouu-aaree-beetteer-yyoouu-caan-jooiin-theem-aand-reetuurn-hoomee-zz.”
“And my father?” This time there was an edge to Ravana’s voice.
“zz-wee-haavee-toold-yyoouu-beefooree-zz,” Simha replied harshly. “zz-hee-iis-faaciing-triiaal-foor-heelpiing-rooyyaaliists-oon-yyuuaanshii-zz. zz-yyoouur-friieends-weeree-luuckyy-noot-too-bee-aarreesteed-toooo-zz.”
Ravana fell silent, sensing the underlying malice in the monk’s words. She had vague memories of a man called Fenris and a young prince who had been kidnapped, but could not remember where they fitted into recent events. When she tried to think about her father’s place in the rebellion and the war on Yuanshi her thoughts were even more confused. Her shoulders drooped and she sank wearily into her seat.
“zz-yyoouu-aaree-tiireed-zz,” noted Simha. “zz-yyoouu-shoouuld-reest-zz.”
The door behind Ravana opened and she turned to see Lilith waiting to take her back to her room. The monks no longer looked her way and instead conversed quietly in the impenetrable staccato language she had heard them use before between themselves.
Ravana took this as a sign to leave. She rose from her chair and hobbled towards the door, her bones screaming in protest. Lilith was not a great conversationalist at the best of times and led her back along the corridor without a word.
Just before they reached the entrance to Ravana’s room, an adjacent door opened and Jizo stomped backwards into the corridor with a squirming young boy, carrying him like a sack with her arm clamped around his waist. The portly nurse swung her burden upright and a startled Ravana stared into the pale and frightened face of her previously-unknown neighbour. The boy, who wore a green gown similar to her own, looked no more than ten Terran years old, with tousled blond hair crowning a pale face streaked with dirt. It was the first time Ravana had seen another patient and she attempted a smile. The boy looked up at the bedraggled Indian girl with the scar on her face and shrank back in alarm.
“What planet are you from?” he asked, scrutinising her carefully.
Ravana thought about this. “I’m from a moon,” she said at last. “A hollow moon.”
She evidently arrived back at her room sooner than expected, for a trolley-like laundry robot was still busy changing her bedding. Ravana went to sit on the chair next to the bedside table, aching more than ever and glad to get the weight off her feet. When Jizo returned to the room, the wary look she gave Lilith was that of a fellow conspirator. By the time the robot completed its duties and trundled away, Jizo had reinvigorated herself with a swig from a pocket flask and was back to her usual chirpy self. The lopsided smile she gave Ravana when she came to help her back into bed was weird but oddly genuine.
Ravana rose from the chair and with a grimace faltered under a spasm of pain. She grabbed the table to steady herself, then cringed as her hand fell against the pot of flowers and knocked it from its perch. She made a grab for the toppling pot, but it fell too quickly and she watched in dismay as it smashed upon the floor. The smile on Jizo’s face was short-lived.
“Whoops,” Ravana murmured. She looked down at the crumpled blooms, scattered amidst lumps of soil and shattered remains of pot. There was something about potsherds that prodded a recent memory, but it was gone before it had time to surface. “I’ll clear it up.”
“No need,” Lilith snapped. “I’ll call the janitor robot.”
“Hey janitor, you’re a robot!” Ravana joked weakly, then saw the nurse’s expression and decided it was not the time for silly quips. “Sorry for being clumsy. I just feel so weak and heavy, like something’s weighing me down.”
The nurses gave her an odd look and helped her into bed without another word. While Ravana busily rearranged her pillows in a half-hearted attempt to get comfortable, Lilith disappeared briefly from the room and then returned with a canister of protein drink and Ravana’s usual second dose of pills for the day. Behind the nurse trundled a squat and very battered janitor robot, which after bouncing off the wall several times extended a brush on a spindly arm and started to sweep the mess from the floor.