River dressed without showering. Her room did in fact have a washroom with plumbing, but it was useless without water. Apparently, the robots running the city hadn’t found any reason to maintain the minor conveniences that a human might enjoy, such as running water or functioning lanterns. She wondered if Altaire had hot running water in his chamber, or if he had to bathe at the well in the courtyard.
The thought of the diminutive man brought back a flash of memory. Socrates had visited in the middle of the night. It almost seemed like a dream, but she was sure it had been real. And he had said that Altaire wasn’t human. ‘You mustn’t say anything,’ the ape had said, ‘He doesn’t know!”
Had it really happened, or was her foggy memory playing tricks on her? If Altaire was an android, how could he not know? Did that mean the creature thought he was human? Was that what Socrates had been trying to tell her?
River mulled this over as she finished getting dressed and strapped on her firearm and bullwhip. If true, it was a curious revelation indeed, but it didn’t change anything. Not really. They were still stuck there, with the Iron Horse in ruins just outside, surrounded by at least a thousand ghouls.
River made up her mind to explore the castle and the city, and find out what exactly was there. In a city the size of Ironhold, with all the machines and gadgets buzzing around, there must be something they could use against the Legion. If not a weapon, at the very least they could manufacture some sort of escape. A plane maybe, like her mother once built, or a gyro. Devils, she’d even settle for another boneshaker, or a steamwagon.
Socrates had been assigned a room down the hall. River went to the ape’s chambers to check on him, but found the place deserted. It didn’t look like he’d even been there. She wandered out onto the balcony, where she had a sweeping view of the castle’s massive interior.
Almost like Dragonwall, she thought, leaning up against the railing. The massive open space, the maze of balconies and corridors stretching above and below. That however, was where the similarities ended. Dragonwall was a mountain, engineered to suit humans’ needs. This was a tower of iron girders and arches. It was a miracle of engineering, yet at the same time, the most uninviting place she’d ever been.
The atrium-like center of the castle bustled with activity. Dozens of robots went about their usual business, just as they had the day before, with no thought whatsoever to the human in their midst. Even though they were only machines, in a strange way, they seemed to have built their own society. Each robot performed its duties with perfect efficiency, and without argument. Each individual contributed to the greater good of the society.
Not that any of them were self-aware. The closest was Altaire, but if he believed himself human as Socrates had said, then there was certainly some failure in his logic circuitry. But this gave River a thought. It made her wonder if perhaps there were varying degrees of consciousness. Perhaps the miracle that gave Socrates self-awareness had worked to a lesser degree on some of these creatures. Maybe, just maybe, some of them actually knew what they were doing to a certain extent.
River heard a noise towards the back of the castle that caught her attention. It was sort of an electric sparking, like the sound of the Horse’s crude welder, and she found herself wandering in that direction. River followed the balcony around the atrium to a long enclosed hallway. Down below, she saw the flicker of torches in sconces on the walls, but little else.
She continued on, following the length of the hallway until it opened into a larger room. Here, she saw a number of robots working on some sort of metal structure. She couldn’t quite make out the details in the darkness, and she hurried closer for a better look. As she came nearer to the structure, her eyes gradually adjusted to the dim light and the occasional shower of sparks. Her eyes widened.
The room below, she realized, was a throne room. The massive structure appeared to be the throne. It stood two stories high, and was made of intricately wrought iron that gleamed as black as obsidian in the torchlight. Like the castle, it was decorated with interweaving arches and patterns so elaborate that it was impossible to tell where one feature ended and the next began.
River stared at this incredible structure, trying to figure out its purpose. A torch moved down below, and dim light fell on the truss work. River caught her breath. The framework she had seen wasn’t just a throne. It was also a king.
He was a massive machine made of iron trusses, gears, and actuators. He was fully proportional to the size of the throne, and River guessed the machine would be fifty or sixty feet tall when standing upright. She moved to the side for a better view, and saw dull red lights shining in the hollow cavities that should have been eyes.
A guard materialized out of the shadows beside her. Like many of the robots in the castle, it was shaped something like a human, but with no effort made to conceal its mechanical nature other than a long black cloak. As it moved, River caught the motion in the corner of her eye. She jumped, and her hand instinctively went to her revolver. The guard tilted its head, looking at her.
“Greetings, human,” it said in an eerie humanlike voice. “Are you lost?”
River stared at it for a moment before answering. She forced herself to relax, letting her hand fall away from the revolver’s grip. “I’m looking for Socrates,” she said. “Have you seen him?”
“Of course. Please follow me.”
The robot turned, and River realized as it moved away from her that instead of feet, it had a set of tracks attached to the lower portion of its body. “Wait!” she called after it. “I have a question.”
“What would you like to know?”
“That thing I was looking at. The giant throne, and the...”
“The king?” the robot said.
“That is your king?”
“Of course.”
“Is it alive?”
“I do not understand your question.”
River frowned. Something about the creature’s tone seemed almost condescending. Was it just her imagination? “What does your king do?”
“He watches and protects us, of course.”
“But he doesn’t seem to be... he’s not moving.”
“He is asleep.”
“Your king sleeps?” she said, her eyebrows knotting together. What sort of robot needed sleep? Even Socrates, who was entirely self-aware, didn’t need sleep. The closest he came to that were the infrequent rest periods he took to allow his internal components to cool.
The robot turned back to the walkway and said, “Follow me. Socrates is in the laboratory.” River followed. She was unsure whether the machine had ignored her question intentionally, or simply hadn’t known how to answer. Again, she found herself wondering just how intelligent these machines were. It was impossible to say.
They took an elevator to the first floor, and down the hall to a large room in the castle’s west wing. The laboratory was a large room filled with tables, cabinetry, and mechanical work areas. Large pieces of machinery stood here and there, some of which River could identify (a press, a stamping machine, a drill press, a sheet metal brake) and others she could not. Socrates stood at a table near the entrance with Altaire. The pair seemed to be discussing a set of blueprints. There were other tables nearby, some laden with bins of machine parts and equipment, others covered in blueprints and designs.
Socrates looked up as River approached. “Ah, there you are!” he exclaimed with an excited smile. “Altaire has been showing me some of the most remarkable engineering designs.”
Altaire hovered nearby, staring at her. The look on his face was not friendly, and River got the impression that she had somehow interrupted them. She coolly ignored him, focusing her attention on Socrates.
“Did you find anything useful?” she said.
Socrates tilted his head. “In what way?”
“To fight the Legion, of course!”
“Oh.” His face fell. “No, I’m afraid not. But if I keep looking, I’m sure I’ll find something.
You really have to see what they’ve been working on here. Some of these designs are marvelous. Did you know Ironhold outdates Sanctuary by at least a century?”
She folded her arms. “How would I know that?”
“Oh. I suppose I should catch you up...”
“But we have so much yet to discover,” Altaire said. “Perhaps you should study everything first, and then share it with your companion.”
Socrates gave River an uncertain look. He was clearly torn between his loyalty to River and their mission, and his newfound friendship with Altaire. Not to mention the blueprints. Devils only knew what sort of inventions these robots had come up with. Nothing useful, she thought. Just more insanity.
River took a deep breath. “I’m going for a walk,” she said. Altaire seemed to brighten at that comment.
“Yes, excellent idea!” the android said. “By all means, take a look around the city. Enjoy the entertainment. Perhaps you will learn something useful that will help you with your mission.”
River rolled her eyes as she headed for the door. Being the only human at the party, she realized, is an odd sensation.
River left the castle through the main entrance. She paused at the top of the stairs, blinking against the light. It wasn’t sunny -far from it, in fact- but even with the thick layer of clouds blocking out the sky, it was considerably brighter outside than inside the castle.
River proceeded down through the courtyard and into the city center. There was a town square here with a well and a fountain, but little else of interest. She investigated a few nearby shops but found the mechanical proprietors to be detached and only superficially interactive. It didn’t help that none of them were actually selling anything. The woman in the dress store, for instance, only had a handful of aged and threadbare items hanging in the window. The items were dusty and covered with spider webs. Not that River was actually looking for a dress -she was just fine with a comfortable pair of breeches and boots- but it would have been nice to find something in the city that was real.
Further down, River stepped into a saloon. It wasn’t as lively as the first one they had encountered, but it did house a number of humanlike robots going through their programmed routines. Some spoke to the bartender -a tall bearded man with a dangerous glint in his eyes and a scar on his cheek- in low tones. A handful of others sat at scattered tables playing card games or eating their meals, although the plates and glasses they pretended to dine on were empty.
River waited a few minutes to see if any of the robots would interact with her, or if anything interesting would happen. After a few minutes, she gave up and left. This, she assumed, was what she would find everywhere she went. No useful tools or weapons, no repositories of ancient secret knowledge, just a bunch of dumb robots dressed up to look like humans and performing the same scenes over and over into infinity. She left the place feeling angry and depressed.
As River stepped back onto the sidewalk, she caught a glimpse of movement at the edge of her vision. She turned, scanning the street behind her, but saw nothing. Perhaps it had been her imagination, she thought, or one of the mechanical creatures designed to look like birds and other animals.
River continued her journey deeper into the city. She made a wide circle around the castle, pausing now and then to gaze into shop windows or examine a particularly clever robot. A few buildings she entered had back rooms or basements, but they were mostly empty and uninteresting. At one point, not long after seeing that strange shadow, River saw it again. This time, before it ducked into an alley, she got a good enough look to realize that it was something large. She began to suspect she was being followed.
To test this theory, River went into a corner store and circled around to see if her follower would appear. It took a few minutes, but soon a robot came scooting along the sidewalk. The thing didn’t realize River could see it through the windows, and it paused at the end of the street, looking around for her. River recognized the machine as the same guard she had spoken to inside the castle.
Altaire sent it to spy on me, she realized.
The machine hovered on the corner for a few seconds before coming into the store to look for her. As it did, River slipped out the side entrance. She broke into a run, flying down to the next street, where she turned the corner. River stopped long enough to peer around the building, and saw that the robot was already coming after her.
It must have seen me slip out, she thought, narrowing her eyebrows. Either that, or the others told on me...
That was a hair-raising thought. What if the robots in the city were capable of spying on her? What if they could communicate, even track her movements? A chill went down her spine. If they were capable of doing that -and it seemed likely that at least some were- then that meant they might be reporting directly back to Altaire. They might even have some means of communication that she hadn’t observed, like the radio transmitter Socrates had used to communicate with Sanctuary.
River hurried down the street. As she moved, she cast suspicious glances at the robots around her. They made no outward signs that they were aware of her, other than the occasional flicker of the eyes or a gaze that seemed almost intentionally averted. River couldn’t be sure if this was just her imagination or if they really were watching her.
River took a frantic path through the city, weaving her way through random streets and alleys, slowly working towards the north. Gradually, the city opened up. The buildings were lower and longer here, like warehouses, and she saw fewer robots along the way. Eventually, she came around a corner and found herself standing across the street from a massive railroad depot. River’s eyes went wide in disbelief.
The depot was located on a long strip of land at the northern edge of the city. Multiple sets of rails ran between the depot and the roundhouse a few hundred yards away, and she saw a handful of old railcars that looked similar in size and design to those pulled by the Iron Horse. The primary difference, she realized, was that these cars were all black. There were no brass and copper pipes, no gleaming chimney stacks or brightly painted doors. Just plain black iron.
River threw a glance over her shoulder before heading across the street. She didn’t see any sign of her follower, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t there. The odds were that even if she had lost him somewhere along the way, it wouldn’t be long before he caught up with her. At this point, River didn’t really care anymore. Her primary concern was with the depot. She would find tools there, equipment, maybe even another locomotive. The lure was too much to resist.
River crossed the street and walked up to the large wooden doors at the entrance. She tried the handle and found the doors locked. She knelt down, drawing the dagger hidden in her boot, and slid the tip of the blade into the crack between the doors. River worked the blade up into the latch, feeling for the rounded edge. A smile came to her lips as she found it. She gave the knife a little twist, putting just enough pressure on the blade to slide the latch back without breaking the tip. The door swung open, and River rose to her feet, grinning.
The interior was dark, lacking any artificial light. As far as she could tell, there were no robots inside. River latched the door shut behind her. She inhaled, drawing in the scent of old dust and grease, and a smile came to her lips. Finally, a place that feels normal. In fact, for an engineer like River, it was almost like home.
River dropped to her knees, spilling out the contents of her travel bag. She fumbled through the items in the darkness, locating her flint and tinder kit. She pushed everything else to the side, and kindled a small blaze. River created a makeshift torch by wrapping a piece of oily rag around the blade of her dagger and setting it alight. She held it high as she rose to her feet.
Her jaw dropped. In the center of the room, alongside a wide boarding platform, a massive locomotive rested on a set of double rails. She walked closer, holding the torch high as she drew her gaze across the impressive piece of machinery. Like the railcars outside, it was similar in proportion and design to the
Horse, but also like the other cars, it was solid black in color. River drew her gaze along the platform and realized that to her left, at the building’s west end, the tracks dove into a subway and vanished. Curiosity drove her forward.
River followed the platform along the tracks until it narrowed into a tunnel. She found an old oil lantern hanging by a hook on the wall, and used her torch to light it. Up ahead, a solid iron gate closed over the tracks making access impossible. An iron door at the end of the tunnel hung slightly ajar. River pulled it open and stepped inside.
Here, the subway stretched off into darkness. The depression where the tracks lay had been filled with smooth round stones. The stones filled this area entirely, actually spilling up over the walkway in places.
River took a few steps closer, frowning, trying to understand why someone had done this. Clearly the subway was another access point into the city. It could have provided a means of escape from the Legion. Had it been filled in to prevent their intrusion? No, that didn’t make sense. The tunnel was only partially filled, and with stones that could be easily removed. A cement mix of limestone and sand would have been far more effective, or even raw dirt.
River accidentally kicked one of the stones. She glanced down as it rolled away, and her eyes widened as it came to rest. It wasn’t a stone at all, she realized, but a human skull. She approached it, staring down in disbelief. She turned, directing the light of the lantern into the valley along the walkway. Thousands of bleached skulls gleamed in the light, gaping up at her, occasional bones thrusting up out of the pit. These, she realized in horror, were human bodies!
“What the devils?” she muttered under her breath.
River scanned further down the tunnel, trying to grasp the scope of what she was seeing. The tunnel continued on beyond the light’s reach, brimming with skeletons. There were thousands... Tens of thousands! Her mind whirled, trying to piece all of this together. Who had done this? Had these bodies been collected here for a reason? Had someone put them here, or had they died in this place?
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