The Search For WondLa

by DiTerlizzi, Tony

  “Only if Mr. Kitt agrees to accompany you, Eva,” Muthr replied as she watched Otto dig. “I can keep track of your whereabouts with the Omnipod.”

  “Of course,” Rovender said as he grabbed his walking stick. “We shall not wander too far. Just let us know when you have found the source of the signal, Mother.”

  “Very well. Be safe.” Muthr watched them as they left.

  “I will,” Eva replied, waving to her. She paused for a moment and looked at Muthr before setting off. The robot stood, balanced on her single wheel outside in the middle of a desert, excavating ruins. Muthr had traveled so far from the hermetic world of the Sanctuary. They both had.

  Eva and Rovender hiked out into the colossal remains, sweeping away the sand here, examining crumbling structures there.

  “Maybe it was an ancient city of people who worshipped lions,” Eva said as they poked around. “Maybe lions were like mythical creatures to them, you know?”

  “I do not even know what this lion is,” Rovender said, flipping over a flat stone with his foot.

  “Oh, they were these wild, hairy, giant cats that were ferocious hunters.” Eva made her hands into claws for effect. “They were extinct on my planet, except for in zoos.”

  “How curious,” Rovender said, “that such a wild beast would be contained.” He picked up a brick and sniffed it.

  Eva was quiet for a moment as they walked along, and she thought about the trapped sand-sniper in the taxidermist’s lab. She thought about herself trapped, like a wild beast in a cell . . . trapped in Besteel’s camp . . . trapped in her own bedroom. She looked up at the afternoon sun hiding behind the Rings of Orbona and smiled, happy to be free.

  “I hope Muthr and Otto can find a way underground,” she said.

  Rovender knelt down and sifted through a pile of rubble. He added, “Yes, I can only imagine what may lie, untouched, in some ancient vaults. It will be—”

  A large congregation of turnfins erupted from their roosts in a deafening clatter, flying in every direction at once.

  “What is it?” Eva asked. She could feel her heart rate speed up before her tunic announced it.

  Rovender stood still and watched the birds. “Something is not right,” he said. “Let’s get back to Mother.”

  They both hurried back to the camp. Otto’s song entered Eva’s mind like a windstorm: Noise. Not. Safe.

  “You’re right, Rovee.” Eva stopped and closed her eyes. “Otto is worried.”

  “I am not sure what’s going on.” Rovender scanned the sky. “What disturbed the flock?”

  They both heard the answer. The haunting low sound of a woom echoed over the landscape.

  Next to Eva and Rovender the remnants of a wall blew apart into shards of rock and dust as a sonic wave shattered it.

  “Run!” Rovender pushed Eva behind a tall chunk of wall with ancient bricks still mortared in it. He dashed off behind another edifice.

  Eva climbed up the wall using the bricks as footholds. She peered through a window opening and recognized the familiar shape of a glider. She gasped when she saw that the glider was accompanied by others just like it. All of them flew straight toward Eva through the swarm of turnfins.

  Besteel had found them.

  He had brought reinforcements.

  With a shriek Eva let go of her ledge and fell down onto her back just as the top of the wall exploded into rubble. Besteel’s glider flashed by overhead at lightning speed.

  “He’s coming back around!” Rovender yelled as he rushed over and helped Eva up. Dark crimson blood trickled in rivulets down the side of his head. “We haven’t much time. Let’s hurry!” He held Eva by the hand as they ran through the ruins.

  “Where are we going to hide?” Eva shouted as a frightened flurry of turnfins flew past them.

  “I don’t know, but he’s got royal guardsmen from Solas with him,” Rovender answered. “Let’s get back to Mother and Otto.”

  They dashed down through the remains of a narrow alley, which led to a blown-out building. Besteel and the squadron zipped by, blasting one of the alley walls with their weapons and causing it to fall onto the other.

  Eva and Rovender scrambled as the stony remains fell downward in a deluge of rock upon them. The pair leaped out of the way as both alley walls came down in an enormous cloud of dust. Eva and Rovender tumbled down crumbling stone steps into the underground basement of a long-forgotten building. As they caught their breath, they descended through the dirt and debris into the darkness below.

  “Don’t make . . . any . . . loud noises,” Rovender whispered in between breaths.

  “No . . . kidding,” Eva said.

  “This vault . . . is full of . . . knifejacks.” Rovender pointed up. “If they’re disturbed . . . we’re in trouble.”

  Eva looked up and saw a ceiling packed with tiny, grotesque, sleeping crab-creatures—just like the kind she had seen back in Rovender’s old Sanctuary.

  They heard a distant boom outside. It sounded like the thunder over Lake Concors.

  “They’re trying . . . to flush us out,” Rovender whispered.

  The ground shook. Dust rained down from the ceiling. A few of the knifejacks opened their glowing eyes and squeaked, then settled back down.

  “I hope Muthr’s okay,” Eva breathed.

  “Yes. I hope she and Otto”—Rovender flinched at another low boom—“were able to hide.”

  “Me too,” Eva said. She shuddered at the thought of them all mounted on display in the Royal Museum with their skin removed.

  “Do you think”—Rovender paused, keeping a wary eye on the horde above them—“that the fellow who gave you the beamguide also gave Besteel one?”

  Eva was quiet for a moment as she considered this. Zin didn’t seem like the type to turn Eva in. On the other hand, he had lied about helping her escape . . . and she had destroyed the museum. “I’m not sure,” she said. “I don’t think so.” She recalled her meeting with the fortune-teller, Arius. “I think he truly wanted me to find this place.”

  There was another vibration, this time much closer, that rattled the walls of their hiding place. Eva and Rovender covered their eyes from the downpour of dust and sand. The dust settled and they looked up to a ceiling aglow with hundreds of tiny eyes.

  “Time to go!” Rovender yelled, and pushed Eva back up the stairs.

  Hundreds of knifejacks flitted past them, pricking and biting along the way. Eva and Rovender fled back up to the surface and ran right into Otto.

  “Otto!” Rovender exclaimed.

  “Where’s Muthr?” Eva asked.

  Hiding. Safe. Come.

  Eva and Rovender ran behind Otto as he took off on his six legs. He led them past the tunnel that he’d been digging and out into the open plain surrounding the ruins. As he did so, the water bear began to squawk loudly. Over his calls Eva could hear the gliders circling overhead.

  “Eva Nine.” Rovender looked back behind them at the squadron up in the sky. “I hope Otto has something planned, because we are easy targets out here.”

  Eva kept running, and shouted over her shoulder. “He does. Trust me!”

  “Here they come!” Rovender yelled, and pointed up.

  At the head of the squadron, Besteel led the guardsmen toward Eva. She could hear the hum of their charging weapons mixed with the whine of their racing engines.

  Otto’s herd emerged from their hiding places in the ruins.

  Using their snapping tails, a volley of water bears launched themselves up into the air, rocketing toward Besteel and the squadron.

  The huntsman skillfully maneuvered his glider through the first wave of leaping giants, but several of the royal guardsmen were hit. Losing control, they spiraled down, topsy-turvy, to the ground below and impacted in brilliant explosions.

  Eva and Rovender ducked behind Otto’s armored side as the next wave of water bears shot up. Like gigantic armored cannonballs, they blew through the remainder of the royal squadron. To Eva’s chag
rin, Besteel once more avoided them as he piloted his craft up, higher than the water bears could leap.

  “Nice try, fraazas!” he called down to them. “I cannotz wait to hunts zu all down!”

  The herd continued to jump up in chase after the huntsman. They came down all around Eva, Rovender, and Otto at incredible speeds, sending sand and dust in all directions.

  Rovender took Eva’s hand. “We’ve got to get to safety!” he said, pointing toward a large steel tower away from the fray. “This way! I think we left Mother just beyond there.”

  The two scrambled in the direction of the tower just as Besteel’s glider zoomed overhead.

  A sonic sound wave boomed as it hit the base of the tower, causing it to topple down in front of Eva and Rovender. It hit the ground with such force that it blasted dirt and debris everywhere, knocking both of them backward.

  Eva pulled herself up, coughing as she wiped the sand out of her eyes. “Rovee? Rovee! Where are you?” she screamed, feeling her way blindly through the rubble. She soon found her friend, lying as still as a doll, crumpled and half-buried in a pile of rocks.

  “No!” Eva wailed. Her heart was pounding. Dread snaked in through her rapid breaths and settled in her belly. She patted Rovender’s face. “Wake up, Rovee! Wake up!” She shook his shoulders, but he did not move. A whine could be heard somewhere in the distant dust, intensifying in sound.

  “Muthr? Otto?” Eva said. Her words sounded barely audible above her ragged breathing. The desert dust clouded her vision and clogged her nose. She searched around in the murk. She called out again. As she waited for a response, Eva heard that loud whine . . . and a voice.

  “My elusive prize. My leettle runner,” the deep voice replied. Out of the thick gloom bounded the burly shape of Besteel. He hopped up onto the base of the toppled tower and charged his boomrod. “Sheesu.” He clucked, “Youz have made Queen Ojo quite upzet. She commandz de royal guardzmen to brings youz back for queztionings. But, de guardz dey needs a tracker to leads them. Zankfully de turnyfins you feeds made yous eazy to trail through deez wastelands. Sos now Besteel brings youz back alive and, tada—my impozible task iz complete. Brozeel iz free.”

  Eva stood up. Sand and dust coated her, from her braided hair to her sneakboots. In her ears the whine grew louder and higher in pitch. She yelled at him, “I’m never going back with you. You’ll have to kill me first!”

  Besteel let out a throaty chuckle. “No killingz. I promised za queen. But you know, accidentz, zay happeen.”

  The Dorcean huntsman fired his sonic boomrod directly at Eva Nine.

  CHAPTER 39: GROUND

  Eva threw her hands over her face as the intense force of the sonic weapon exploded right in front of her. All she could hear was an electronic scream . . . and then silence.

  With both her ears ringing, Eva opened her gummy sand-crusted eyelids and realized she was lying facedown in the soft warm earth next to a large, twisted hunk of metal. She spit the dirt out of her mouth and waited for the ironclad grip of Besteel to scoop her up once more and take her away—but it did not happen.

  Her eyes focused on the wreckage next to her. The upside-down letters spelled the word “Goldfish.”

  “What? Oh, no!” Eva was immediately up on hands and knees, scouring the area. Her trembling hands felt something heavy and round, like a log lying silently on a forest floor.

  She found the truth.

  Muthr lay still on her back, her eyes as dead as night. The robot had intercepted Besteel’s shot to save Eva.

  “No, no, no,” Eva cried. She tried to lift the robot up, but she was too heavy. Eva looked down at Muthr and saw that the top of one of the braincases was missing. She examined the damage to Muthr’s inner porcelain skull, which housed a glass globe. Within that globe was an ivory-colored brain, wired full of electrodes.

  The globe was cracked.

  A thick pink fluid was trickling out onto the sand.

  Eva put her hand over the crack and tried to stop the syrupy fluid from running out. The amber light in the robot’s eyes fluttered on, then went back out. There was a gentle nudge from behind.

  You. Not. Safe.

  “Otto,” Eva said, “Muthr’s hurt really bad.”

  Come. Not. Safe. Otto nudged her once more.

  “No!” Eva’s tears burned her eyes. “We have to fix her. Come on. Help me find the Omnipod.”

  Opening his maw, the water bear spit the Omnipod out onto the ground in front of her. Eva blinked as she picked up the device, astonished that he’d already found it.

  Not. Safe. Tunnel biters. Otto grabbed Eva’s tunic with his beak and tugged at her.

  “What? No, Otto, I have to—”

  Besteel’s voice called out to her. Eva stood, trying to see through the haze of settling dust and sand. “Leettle one, no more gamez,” Besteel yelled over the hum of his charging boomrod. “Come outz, come outz, wherever you are!”

  Come. Safe. Me.

  Eva tore her eyes from Muthr, lying under the wrecked hovercraft, and climbed up onto Otto’s head. He carried her from the crash site to an open area outside of the ruins. Eva climbed up onto his back and discovered that his herd had surrounded Besteel and his glider.

  Why haven’t they crushed him? she thought. Do you want me to watch, Otto?

  No. Come. See.

  Eva soon saw what Otto meant, as he made his way to the front of the herd.

  A dazed Rovender Kitt was hog-tied and strapped to the back of the hovering glider. Besteel stood, patient and unmoving, with the muzzle of the boomrod aimed at Rovender’s head.

  “Oho! She comez!” Besteel gloated. “She iz smart one after allz, eh, Cærulean?”

  “Don’t do as he says, Eva Nine,” Rovender shouted. “Save yourself and Muthr. Get out of here!”

  “Enough!” Besteel pistol-whipped Rovender with the butt of his boomrod. He shoved the muzzle back into Rovender’s face. “You getz down here and on ze glider, leettle prize, or dis one dies. Now!”

  Eva slid down Otto’s back toward his head.

  Tunnel biters. Not. Safe.

  Otto, Eva thought, stopping on the water bear’s head, tell the herd to back up.

  The water bear hooted, low and gruff.

  “No more stalling,” Besteel growled, pointing the boomrod at Otto. “Or I finish whats I started wiz dis cow. Get down here! I do not ask again.”

  Otto’s herd backed up and created an open sandy circle around the huntsman.

  “Yez, dats more like it,” Besteel said, waving his weapon at the herd. “Now come down here, leettle one.”

  Eva stood, pulling out the Omnipod.

  “No, no, no.” Besteel wagged a clawed finger at her. “No trickz wiz your toy. Give zat to me. Come on.”

  Eva held the Omnipod up high.

  Besteel aimed his boomrod at her.

  A hot, gusty desert breeze played with Eva’s thin beaded braids as she glared at the huntsman.

  Besteel squinted at her, his heavy chest heaving with each breath. The humming, charged boomrod remained aimed at the girl, unwavering.

  She glared.

  He squinted.

  Eva blinked, then slumped her shoulders with a sigh. She threw the Omnipod down. It landed in the sand out in the center of the sandy circle created by Otto’s herd.

  “Very goot.” Besteel approached the clicking device slowly and steadily. With one pair of arms he groped around in the sand for the clacking Omnipod, never taking his eye, or his aim, off Eva. Besteel scooped up the device and held it tightly in his talons. “Now comez down here and we leave. Nize and easy.”

  Eva crawled back up to the top of Otto’s armored back. She turned to the huntsman and folded her arms. As she did so, the herd opened up even more, giving Besteel more space.

  Eva stood silently. Watching.

  “You leettle shrew! No trickz!” Besteel yelled. “Getz down here NOW!”

  Eva held her ground. All that could be heard was clicking.

  �
��So be it.” Besteel’s voice was cold. “I kill your friend.” He turned around toward his glider to shoot Rovender, but found himself face-to-face with an enormous sand-sniper clicking to the cadence of the recorded call playing on the Omnipod.

  Before the huntsman could fire his weapon, a pair of spiked forelegs pierced his body. Stunned, Besteel let go of his boomrod and tried to wriggle free.

  The boomrod fell next to the giant sand-sniper just as dozens of juveniles surfaced from the sand. They, too, sunk their pincers into the huntsman and clicked in high-pitched chirps.

  Besteel was dragged below the dark desert sands of the wasteland by the sand-sniper and her brood, never to surface again.

  CHAPTER 40: DARKNESS

  Rovee! Rovee! Are you okay?” Eva jumped down from Otto and ran to the huntsman’s glider. The herd of water bears broke up, hooting and calling out as they rejoiced in the demise of Besteel—he who had hunted them.

  “A bit black-and-blue, but it’s nothing a little moss and drink won’t fix,” Rovender said with a weak grin. He wriggled in his binds. One of his eyes was swollen shut, and dried blood was smeared above it, caked with sand.

  “Hold on,” Eva said as she rummaged through Besteel’s belongings. “There’s got to be a knife in one of these bags.”

  Rovender rolled over. “Here. Try the back pouch on my belt.”

  Eva found the familiar shape of the small curved knife, the same one she had used to free her friend from the huntsman’s camp. Rovender was free in moments.

  “I’m so happy you’re okay.” Eva buried her face in his jacket, staining the shoulder with her tears.

  Rovender broke the hug and looked around. “Where is Mother?” he asked.

  “Muthr!” Eva put her arm around her friend. “Come on, hurry!”

  Together the two limped over to the twisted wreckage of the Goldfish.

  As they both knelt down next to Muthr, Eva could see that more of the thick liquid had run out of the braincase, soaking into the sand all around her. Eva gingerly put the palm of her bandaged hand over the crack, as she had done previously, and lifted Muthr’s head. A golden glow returned to the robot’s eyes.