The Sinners of Erspia

He spent some time checking the pipes and joints. Quite a bit of energy haze had leaked into the works generally. It wouldn't do to get total failure a hundred miles or so up.

What of Histrina? Might as well bring her along with him, he thought. If he got what he wanted he'd take her on to Harkio, rescuing her from this damned planetoid, though he didn't know why he should bother.

Otherwise, they were back to square one.

By the time he had finished, Erspia's terminator line was approaching and the point-source sun was about to slip below the horizon. Histrina, when he returned to the cabin, was lounging on a couch, staring vacantly. On seeing him she smiled and invitingly opened her legs.

Laedo ignored the gesture. He moved to the control board, unlocked it, and keyed in the power. A fuzzy, high-pitched note sounded beyond the wall.

“What's that?” Histrina asked, sitting up suddenly.

He pointed to the screen. “Watch."

She clung to the couch as the view on the screen swung, dipped, then fell away. The ground vanished.

"What is it?" she screeched.

“We're flying. Didn't I tell you this ship could go to the stars?"

“You said it didn't work any more."

“Not to get to the stars. We're going somewhere nearer."

Unlike a normal planet's, Erspia's shadow cast an expanding, not narrowing, cone into space, as a consequence of the sun's tiny size. Laedo had decided to make for the Ahrimanic projector rather than the Ormazdian one, so as to avoid approaching that sun, which at close range might well be dangerous.

The manoeuvring engine strained as it lifted the ship up the gravity well. Laedo became afraid that the small motor might not make it, but then the gravity field suddenly ended, cut off sharp in the manner typical of gravity generators. From now on there was only the natural attraction of the planetoid to contend with, and the ship accelerated easily.

He located the small disk of the projector, locked a course on it, then turned back to Histrina. She was still clutching the couch and staring at the screen, which now showed only stars, the sun having disappeared.

“It will only take a few minutes,” he told her.

“Where are we going?"

“Hoggora calls it Ahriman's mouth."

“Ohhh...” Her eyes opened wide in surprise.

He returned to the board, curious to see the object at close quarters. As it swelled, he became aware of a malevolent bubbling in his mind, like a spring of evil water breaking through from below. Conscious of Histrina at his back; he suddenly experienced thoughts concerning her that were so violent and disgusting that they shocked the more detached part of him.

He fought to push the feelings away—he had became adept at turning aside Ahrimanic suggestions. But the impulse grew stronger, became a gloating, rejoicing sense of wickedness which threatened to overwhelm him.

Of course! he thought. I imagined Ahriman was stronger by night because Erspia's bulk absorbs the beam as it passed through. Instead it's because one is nearer to Ahriman at night. The beam has

to emanate in a cone if it's to cover the whole planetoid. It's more concentrated towards the apex!

A stinging blow in the back of his neck made him stagger. He spun round. Histrina was crouched, her face twisted in a grimace, a knife from the dining table in her hand. She had stabbed him in the neck with it.

Luckily it was not a very sharp piece of cutlery, neither had she used it very expertly. Feeling the blood trickle down his back, Laedo was momentarily seized with thoughts of what he would do to Histrina. He lunged, trapped her wrist, then twisted her hand till she dropped the knife. He put his hands round her neck and began to squeeze.

Oh, he was enjoying it! He squeezed harder, till her tongue edged out between her teeth. Then, with a supreme effort, he let her go and stepped back.

She collapsed, coughing painfully and holding her throat. But it didn't take her long to get to her feet again. She threw herself at him, her fingers hooked into claws, the nails seeking to gouge out his eyes.

Laedo threshed with his arms, fending her off while tussling with the maddening impulses that were growing stronger by the second.

The thought projector was looming large. On the screen Laedo could see that the spherical surface was ribbed and striated. He attempted to get to the controls, but by now Histrina, howling in an ululating note of savagery, was on her knees, trying to mangle his testicles with both hands. He kicked her hard in the stomach.