The Sinners of Erspia

She said the last absent-mindedly, as if repeating a piece of popular wisdom. They ate from wooden dishes, washing the food down with mugs of an unfamiliar hot beverage which tasted sweet and peppery at the same time. Then the children were allowed back in. There were five of them, three girls and two boys ranging in age from about three to about ten or eleven. Laedo's eye fell on the third eldest. She was a silent, pale-faced girl of six or seven, dressed in a grubby smock. Something about her was different from the others. She was more subdued, more isolated. She came and stood silently by Laedo's knee, as if seeking to draw comfort from a stranger.

Don't love the third one. It was an odd saying. But then, rural cultures had many strange sayings drawn from ancient legends, with no particular contemporary meaning.

He put the matter from his mind and watched the young members of the family eat. The scene was refreshingly normal, after everything he had seen on other Erspian worlds.

Once they had eaten the children were allowed to play indoors for a while, and then were packed off upstairs to bed. Laedo thanked his hosts and announced that he and Histrina would return to their spacecraft.

Brio Fong would hear none of it. He explained that the villagers liked to congregate in the evenings, in what sounded like a cross between a community hall and a tavern. Nellie insisted she would stay indoors in case the children needed her. Laedo and Histrina followed Brio through the front door.

Sunset was not a drawn-out process on any of the Erspia worlds. As they left the cottage the little sun slipped rapidly below the nearby horizon and darkness fell like a curtain.

The half-moon was high in the sky and cast a pale silvery light. Laedo had visited Earth, and had seen the moon gazing down from the night sky there. The scene here was uncannily similar; for the moon appeared about the same size in the sky as on Earth, though its surface was without markings.

Brio told them that the moon passed overhead six times a day. Laedo assumed its orbital speed was controlled artificially, rather than dictated by the equally artificial gravity of its primary. The relatively high rate of orbital revolution would make sense if the moon was being used for surveillance of Erspia-5's surface.

But you wouldn't need a seven-mile-diameter moon in order to do that.

The community hall was crowded. Everyone was curious about the new arrivals. The hall itself was large and comfortable, provided with alcoves, benches and tables. Illumination was the same as in the Fongs's cottage: oil lamps which gave out a warm glow and somewhat smelly fumes. At one end stood a counter, from which a mildly alcoholic beverage was dispensed. No currency was exchanged, but the bartender chalked tallies on wooden boards. Laedo congratulated himself on having guessed correctly. This was a no-money economy.

He and Histrina received mugs of the beverage—called ‘beer'—gratis, either on the house or on the tally of some villager or other. Soon they settled into a pleasantly relaxed mood. Laedo let Histrina do most of the talking. This was easy, since the villagers found her the more fascinating of the two. He had to admit that a pretty girl who had dropped out of the sky was more of a draw than a disgruntled middle-aged man, even when he also had dropped out of the sky.

The Erspians were eager to know about the world Histrina came from. A world from beyond their moon was a novel concept. She described it as pretty much like their own, then went on to speak of the worship of the Good Lord.

It was as though she had temporarily forgotten about the evil Ahriman, her master of late. The Good Lord was, she said, the source of everything that was wholesome and pleasant. One only had to follow him to live a happy life.

She might as well have been preaching a sermon by an Ormazdian priest. “Tush, and Brio told us you knew nothing of Voluptus!” exclaimed a plump woman who was the wife of a man called Gollopy.

“That's Voluptus you are speaking of, surely."

“No, his name isn't Voluptus,” Histrina replied doubtfully. “He has a name, a secret name, though it isn't really secret, which we are told to call upon in times of temptation. I don't know if I ought to tell it to you, but it's Ormazd."

The name mystified them. “I'm sure it must be Voluptus by another name,” Gollopy's wife said fussily.

“Can you see the Heavenly Mansion from where you live?"

“That big round light in the sky? No, we don't have one of those, just a sun.” Histrina frowned. “Of course, there's the other god, Ahriman. He makes you want to do wicked things and tries to turn you against the Good Lord."

There was a pause. “Then it must have been he who corrupted the people of Molem in olden times,”

someone else said. “But don't worry, your god of wickedness has no disciples here. Perhaps he wouldn't be known on your world, either, if you lived closer to the Heavenly Mansion."