11
The car stopped at the foot of a pebble path that banked up through some trees. A V-class with a neat bun stood waiting for them at the top of the rise, her green overalls flapping in the wind. Tomoe collected her driving gloves and helmet from the space beside her, opened the car door and got out.
As soon as the door closed again, Arthur, Ren and Cecily huddled closer. “We’ve got to find out what Milo, Valeria and Tiburon argued about at that Expo,” Ren whispered. “It could be the reason Milo ran away, and it might help us understand where he went.”
“Do you think all that stuff Valeria said about Milo in the Wondernews was true?” Cecily asked. “Newton mentioned that Milo left behind several unpaid debts. Maybe he asked his brother and sister for money to help pay them and they refused?”
Arthur shook his head. “If he needed money that badly, he could have sold his designs for the time-key and made a fortune.” Unsure what to believe, he retrieved the EXPO 2469 ticket from his pocket and reread the information on the front. It mentioned a very special announcement would be made; he wondered if their quarrel had been something to do with that. Trying to slot all the clues together felt like doing another build-a-labyrinth puzzle, only without all the pieces.
“I suppose we don’t have any choice but to stay here overnight,” Cecily said, peering outside. “We’ve got to sleep somewhere.”
Ren grunted, struggling to unfasten her seat belt. “Am I ever getting out of this deathtrap?”
With a straight face, Arthur reached over and pressed the release button. Ren scowled in thanks, and together, they stepped out into the night. The temperature had dropped since they’d first arrived in the realm and Arthur was grateful that his Wondercloak provided extra warmth. Cloud wagged his tail as Cecily set him down on the ground, keeping the end of his lead firmly looped around her wrist.
Following Tomoe, they climbed to the peak of the hill. An enormous timber building with a thatched roof lay beyond. It had stables off to one side, and was surrounded by an intricate Japanese garden. Orbs of green-tinged light hovered between the plants and trees, illuminating the garden’s elegant shapes like fireflies. Behind the wind, Arthur could hear the trickle of water and chirp of grasshoppers.
“Is this your home?” Cecily asked Tomoe, as they started along a meandering path through the garden towards the building. “It’s so peaceful.”
Tomoe smiled. Arthur felt the pressure in his chest start to ease as he inhaled the cool night air. There were no strong perfumes; just the scent of clean water and fresh earth.
They entered the main building through a heavy wooden door and proceeded into a wide hallway lit by more hovering orbs. Everywhere Arthur looked, the walls were covered in displays of arms. There were fan-shaped arrangements of swords, huge wooden bows and ornate cases of arrows with different types of fletching. The scent of fresh straw and wood smoke lingered in the air.
Tomoe climbed out of her racing suit, revealing a loose white shirt and matching mid-calf trousers. A belt of green, gold and red silk was wrapped around her waist. Placing her boots against the wall, she collected a pair of straw-soled slippers from a rack by the front door and slid them on.
“It’s customary to remove your shoes here when entering a Japanese house,” Ren told Arthur and Cecily, keeping her voice low.
Thankful for the advice, Arthur pulled off his helmet and trainers and put on a pair of straw-soled slippers. As he waited for Cecily to untie the laces of her boots, he examined a set of boxy armour displayed in a glass cabinet beside them. It included a helmet, mask, sleeves, greaves and cuirass, all made of small iron or leather plates. “Was this your armour during the Genpei War?” he asked Tomoe, amazed anyone would be able to walk in it, let alone fight.
The warrior peered through the glass on the other side of the cabinet. Arthur shifted under her gaze, feeling like she was reading him again.
“It’s lighter than it looks,” she said. “A samurai rides on horseback and fights with a bow and sword. Our armour must be strong, but supple enough to allow movement.” She pointed to the white-lacquered chords of leather and braided silk used to tie the armoured plates together. “The colour and design of these fastenings is unique to each warrior’s family.”
The lines around her eyes twitched and Arthur wondered if she was possibly thinking about her own loved ones, left behind in twelfth-century Japan. Eventually, she lifted her chin and gestured to the far end of the corridor. “Please, follow me.”
Their destination was a few rooms away, past more weapon displays and several hanging scrolls of Japanese calligraphy. Tomoe shuffled her slippers off before padding inside. “Tatami mats,” Ren noted, glancing at the floor. “It’s customary to be barefoot for those.”
Removing his slippers, Arthur followed Ren and Cecily in. He gaped when he saw the size of the room. Like a great hall, it was rectangular with a tall, coffered ceiling. Ancient suits of armour from across the world stood guard around the walls, glinting in the orb light. Some wielded sharp pikes or daggers; others heavy swords and bows. Their shadowy eyes watched Arthur unnervingly as he shuffled across the woven straw rugs on the floor.
A large window in one wall gave a view out into the surrounding forest. In the dark distant mountains beyond, an emerald-green pyramid jutted out of the rock. “What’s that?” Arthur asked. He couldn’t remember seeing it on the map.
“Valeria Mal’fey’s operational headquarters,” Tomoe answered, throwing a wary glance at the V-class who had followed them in. “She is always watching.”
Arthur suspected Tomoe was referring to the robot, who was doubtless sending live images of all this back to Valeria. It made him uneasy that they were being spied on; they would have to watch what they said around the mimics.
“Is that why there are restricted zones in this realm?” Cecily asked. “Because it’s where Valeria has her ‘secret’ headquarters for the whole Wonderscape?”
Tomoe gave a single nod. “She is the designer of this realm. Her signature is everywhere.”
Her signature? At first, Arthur wasn’t sure what Tomoe meant, but then he remembered what Newton had told them about the Hxperion logo being formed of three different shapes, each representing a different sibling. The green triangles. That’s why he’d seen them on those floating elevators – they denoted Valeria. He thought of the hexagon-patterned wallpaper aboard the Principia and decided Milo Hertz was probably the architect of Newton’s realm.
“I suppose it’s nothing like twelfth-century Japan,” Ren commented sympathetically.
Tomoe sighed, gazing out into the darkness. “No.”
Right then, the shoji slid open and another shiny-faced V-class entered, balancing a stack of futon mattresses on one shoulder. There was no way a human would have the skill or strength to do so, but Arthur supposed mimics had a whole repertoire of such party tricks.
“You three must rest,” Tomoe said hastily. “And I must prepare for this new opportunity. I will call on you first thing tomorrow.”
Prepare for what new opportunity? Arthur thought, as with a solemn bow the warrior retreated through the shoji. The V-class glided into the centre of the room and flung the futons in a pile on the floor.
“The lights will dim automatically when you fall asleep,” she droned, inspecting her sparkly green manicure. “Travel with Wonder.”
Once she’d gone, Ren pulled a futon off the mound. “Is it just me, or do you get the sense that Tomoe doesn’t want to be here?”
“She seems sad,” Cecily said thoughtfully. “Like she’s lost something.”
The secrets of the Wonderscape must stay secret… Arthur wondered what Tomoe and Newton were hiding. As he hauled his futon into position, his stomach gurgled so loudly the others turned to look at him. He grinned. “Apparently parachuting into the canyon burned more energy than I realized. Do you think Tomoe has a kitchen?”
“Grrf!” Cloud unexpectedly scampered to the other side of the room and pawed at
the floor. Wondering what had got into him, Arthur went over to investigate.
“Hey, buddy,” he said, kneeling down. Where Cloud was scratching, a section of the tatami mat was inlaid with a series of flat silver dots – the same kind Arthur had seen in their paddock earlier. “Strange,” he muttered. Presuming they were activated in the same way, he swiped his hand across them and a puff of metallic dust spurted out. The particles quickly swarmed into a solid shape, transforming in both texture and colour, until standing in front of Arthur was a jukebox vending machine, identical to the one they’d seen on the Principia.
“Whoa! Lucky!” Ren exclaimed.
Arthur stared down at Cloud. Was it luck? It wasn’t the first time the little dog had helped them. When they’d been trapped in the captain’s cabin aboard the Principia, Cloud had uncovered the only exit. It got Arthur thinking…
“Maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t think Cloud’s taken a poop since we met him.”
Ren frowned. “Weird change of subject, but you’re right. He hasn’t eaten anything either. Only drunk some water. Do you think he’s all right?”
Arthur scratched Cloud between the ears. The dog yawned, flashing his sharp incisors and pink tongue, then sleepily licked Arthur’s hand.
He seemed happy enough.
Arthur checked him over, like he’d seen vets do on TV. His eyes were bright, his nose wet, his tail wagging. Arthur ran a finger around his collar to make sure it wasn’t too tight. It was then that he felt some sort of energy pulsing inside, making Arthur’s fingertips tingle.
Curious, he inspected the silver disc attached to Cloud’s collar. On the front it still read: Cloud. West Highland Terrier. Male. It was attached not by a chain or links but by two heavy metal beads. Experimenting, Arthur twisted them both clockwise and heard two clicks.
Suddenly, there wasn’t a dog sitting on Arthur’s lap any more.
There was a pig.
Arthur yelled. “Ow – it’s crushing me!” He tried to wriggle out from underneath the creature’s sizeable rump as Ren and Cecily rushed to help.
The mystery pig was over a metre long with tough grey-brown skin covered in coarse hair. It had a wiry blond mane around its pink nose and tassels on its curly tail. A ruby-red collar – exactly the same as Cloud’s – hung around its thick neck.
While Ren and Cecily pulled on its rump to get it to stand up, the pig wagged its tail and gave Arthur a friendly nudge with its snout.
“Cloud?” Arthur exclaimed, sliding his legs free.
The pig grunted.
“No way.” Ren let go of Cloud’s bristly back. “Is the Fuzzball some sort of alien?”
Arthur stared at pig-Cloud’s collar. The disc now read: Cloud. Bornean Bearded Pig. Male. Thinking of the energy he’d felt thrumming inside it, Arthur shook his head. “No, I think … he’s a mimic.”
“That explains why he hasn’t eaten anything or gone to the toilet,” Ren said. “But mimics transmit images back to Hxperion…”
They all tensed. Arthur thought carefully. “Maybe it’s just the V-classes and T-classes that do that? If Cloud was a spy, Hxperion would have come after us by now.”
Cecily kneeled so she was eye-level with Cloud. “And Cloud has been helping us this whole time. Besides, he’s Milo’s mimic, not Tiburon’s or Valeria’s.” She smiled and then hugged Cloud’s hairy snout. “Mimic or not, we still love you,” she told him. “And don’t worry, you make a cute pig.”
Arthur marvelled at how advanced Cloud’s engineering must be to allow him to transform from a small dog to a giant pig in seconds. Theories stirred at the edge of his mind – ideas he knew nothing about. When he examined his Wondercloak, Newton’s handwriting was reflected on the surface of the water, just like it had done before the race.
“Now it makes sense why Milo fitted the time-key to Cloud’s collar,” Ren said, patting his wiry back. “He’s a super-intelligent robot; perhaps he was meant to guard it?”
Arthur thought carefully. “But Cloud trusted us with the time-key straight away. I wonder why.”
Once Cecily had finished cuddling pig-Cloud, Arthur set about trying to understand how the collar worked. He played around with the two beads. Twisting the right bead on its own changed the words on the disc. The transformation was then activated by turning the left bead in the same direction.
He clicked the right bead steadily round, reading the different animal options:
Cloud. Brown Rat. Male.
Cloud. American Fuzzy Lop Rabbit. Female.
Cloud. Texas Longhorn Ox. Male.
Something about the selection of animals rang a bell in the back of Arthur’s head but he wasn’t sure why. Eventually, with his tummy still rumbling, he changed Cloud back into a West Highland terrier, so they could turn their attention to the vending machine.
“What’s on the menu?” Ren asked.
“I don’t know.” Swiping his hand through the air, Arthur turned the pages to peruse the STORE catalogue. There were sections for first aid, consumables, garb, equipment and special items. In garb, you could pick up replacement Wondercloaks in case yours had been damaged, as well as thousands of outfits from different fashions throughout history. Arthur also spotted I REALM 89 T-shirts and accessories. In equipment, it was possible to select from a variety of wanderer starter packs or pro-wanderer packs, which featured things like night-vision goggles, long-range binoculars, radio transmitters and basic tool kits. Curious, Arthur took a peek at the special items section. Realm-keys weren’t listed, but you could order exit-keys, which the catalogue explained opened a Wonderway to the outside world, so you could leave the game. That must be what happens to wanderers if they don’t win a challenge, he thought. They have to leave. Perhaps when a wanderer returned to play, they entered the Wonderscape via a different realm to avoid getting stuck in the same place…
“No wonder my request to leave ‘couldn’t be processed’ before,” Cecily muttered. “Let’s order an exit-key. It might be useful.”
But when Arthur made their selection, a message flashed behind the glass in an alarming shade of red:
“Hang on,” Cecily said. “Does that mean we have to pay for everything?”
Arthur groaned. He couldn’t believe he’d come four hundred years into the future and the miserable fact remained that he might not be able to afford stuff. Still, he should have seen it coming; Wonderscape was a game, and Hxperion had to be making a profit from it somehow. Dynamic Intergalactic Real Tender was probably twenty-fifth-century money.
“I didn’t see anyone walking around with cash or credit cards today,” Ren noted. “DIRT must be a cryptocurrency. But how did we get over two thousand?”
“I think we each earned it,” Arthur said, remembering the messages they’d received. “The loot for completing Voyage of the Captain and Race of the Warrior included a certain amount of DIRT. And if it’s a cryptocurrency, it has to be stored digitally somewhere.” He considered the water flowing steadily along his arms. “Maybe it’s in our Wondercloaks? Newton told us they would enable us to play along like other wanderers. That could be why.”
Abandoning the exit-key, they opted to spend 750 DIRT as a team on food. The menu was written in Japanese, so Ren did the ordering. Minutes later, she set a hot plate down on a stone in the middle of the floor and surrounded it with trays of freshly prepared vegetables. There were bowls of rice and dipping sauces, a jug of steaming broth and a dish of soft dumplings. She placed a selection of vegetables onto the hot griddle using a pair of chopsticks and let them sizzle. Soon the three of them were enjoying mouthfuls of the first Japanese food Arthur had ever tasted, and it was delicious.
“This is amazing,” he remarked, bringing a bowl of soup to his mouth and preparing to slurp it down. “Thanks, Ren.”
“Dinner at my grandparents’ is better,” she decided, “but this isn’t bad.”
After they’d eaten and cleared away, Cecily unwound her braids, before lying on the middle futon and staring up at
the ceiling. With her turquoise hair spread against the pillow, she looked more like a mermaid than usual. “I’m exhausted,” she admitted as Cloud curled up next to her. “I know time’s running out, but we need to get some rest – or we’ll collapse before we ever make it home.”
Arthur glanced at his watch. They’d only been in the Wonderscape the length of a school day but it felt like longer. Perhaps moving between multiple time zones had given them something akin to jet lag.
Sitting on the futon to Cecily’s left, he hugged his knees, thinking about home. His dad worked mornings as a cleaner at the local hospital and in the afternoon wrote movie reviews for this geeky website called The Nerd Cave. He was always at home when Arthur got in from school. “Do you think we’ve been reported missing yet? The school must have rung our families to ask why we didn’t turn up for registration.”
A line appeared on Cecily’s forehead but she didn’t say anything.
Ren huffed. “My mums will probably think I’ve gone truant again.”
“Again?” Arthur asked.
Ren was staring into her lap, picking at a loose thread on her trousers. “There were some girls at my old school who used to tease me all the time,” she explained, quieter. “I didn’t like hearing what they had to say, so I used to bunk off. That’s why I got expelled.”
Judging from her body language, Arthur got the impression Ren didn’t talk about the subject often. “Well, it sounds like your old school was full of morons,” he said, making her smile. “I heard you got expelled because you rode a motorbike through the canteen.”
“Me too,” Cecily said. “And I agree about the morons.”
A grin widened across Ren’s face. “Is that really what people are saying? That makes me sound awesome.”
Wonderscape Page 10
