The Battle for WondLa

by Tony DiTerlizzi

  “Eva!” Hailey barked. “We need to go, now!” He seized Eva by the arm and dragged her behind a mound of rubble.

  One of the warbots spoke. “Attention. Remain stationary while identification is confirmed.” A red laser scanned over Caruncle.

  “Where are the people?” Hailey whispered as he peeked out from behind the rubble.

  “I don’t know.” Eva heard the munt-runners braying. She watched as they stomped the ground and tugged at the hitch that held them. “They’re scared. We have to stop this, Hailey.”

  “How? We’ve got no weapons.”

  “That is the one you want,” Caruncle said, pointing to Zin with the boomrod.

  “I don’t think there are any people onboard.” Hailey watched the hatch of the warship. “It’s just the warbots.”

  “Just the warbots,” Eva whispered. “Do you have any idea how deadly they are? I don’t know how we are going to get Zin out of this.”

  The warbots’ red lasers flickered over Zin. “Identification of Arsian traitor known as Zin is affirmative. You are to come with us. Board the ship immediately. Any deviation from our instructions will result in immobilization.”

  Zin lowered his head and floated toward Caruncle.

  Danger. Intruder. Danger. Intruder. Danger. Intruder. Danger. Intruder.

  The cries of the knifejacks flooded Eva’s mind. She peered up from her hiding place just in time to see the pillar guard pick up Caruncle’s hoversloop and throw it at the warbots. When the sloop was lifted, the hitching pole snapped off, and both munt-runners bolted, though still tethered together.

  “My things!” Caruncle roared with anger.

  “Let’s go,” Eva yelled, and dashed from the rubble into the fray.

  One of the warbots toppled and was crushed under the impact of the hoversloop. Cages, crates, and containers spilled out in every direction. The pillar guard leaped over the wrecked sloop and thrashed at the remaining warbot. A torrent of SHOCdarts spewed from the warbot, covering the pillar guard. With one stroke the guard swept most of the darts from its body. The warbot activated the remaining SHOCdarts, but they did not immobilize the guard. Instead they only seemed to anger it more.

  Eva started toward Zin, then stopped when she heard the squeal of one of the munt-runners. A SHOCdart was imbedded deep in its thigh. “Hailey, help Bix and Bax!” Hailey dashed toward the mounts while Eva continued toward Zin. “Hide!”

  A sonic WOOM erupted at Eva’s feet, and she tumbled facedown in a spray of sand and rock.

  “Eva!” Hailey cried. Zin zoomed over to her side.

  “Not so quick-fast.” Caruncle stomped up with the boomrod aimed at Eva’s head. “With or without the warbots’ help, I am bringing Zin in. If I have to bring in your body as an artifact to trade-sell to Loroc, then all the good-better for me.”

  Beyond Caruncle, Eva could see the pillar guard stumbling back into the wrecked sloop. She heard the cry of the crippled munt-runner still hitched to its partner. She felt the joy of the knifejacks escaping from their broken cage. She noticed the silence of the mouls gathered outside their home. They were no longer singing. Eva stood to face Caruncle. She spit the sand out of her mouth onto his face.

  “It is too bad it has to come to this, Eva, but as I-Caruncle said, we must take-do what we can to survive.” Caruncle raised the boomrod and fired. The knifejack that bit him, however, threw off his aim, and the sonic blast connected with a wall far behind Eva. The wall toppled backward, joining the rubble and dust that littered the landscape.

  Before Caruncle could recharge the boomrod, another knifejack landed on him. In one deft move its sharp beak snipped off one of Caruncle’s secondary hands. He stared in shock at the bleeding stump. Before he could cry out in pain, another knifejack landed on him. Then another.

  “No!” Caruncle swatted at the attacking creatures. “Don’t hurt me!”

  Eva watched as Caruncle fell under the drove of freed knifejacks. I can do this, she thought. I must do this.

  Caruncle thrashed about wildly, pleading for help.

  He dies, you live, Eva told the knifejacks. He dies, you live.

  The hiss of the warship’s ramp closing spurred Hailey to action. He pried the Omnipod from Caruncle’s severed hand and bolted past the clashing warbot and pillar guard. Eva watched as Hailey dove onto the warship just as the ramp sealed shut. In seconds the engines rumbled to life and the ship took off in a cloud of dust.

  “No! That will take him back to Loroc!” Eva watched the warship disappear into the cloud cover.

  “Be careful, Eva!” Zin grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her back from the battling giants.

  She shook off Zin’s grasp. “But I have to help Hailey!”

  There was a loud boom as the pillar guard thrust his clawed hand into the metallic shell of the warbot. The robot exploded, throwing the guard, Eva, and Zin backward.

  CHAPTER 15: SIBLINGS

  Eva sat up, partially buried in the hot, gritty sand. She stumbled over to the pillar guard, with Zin close behind.

  “Will he be okay?” Eva ran her hands over the scorched claws of the fallen guard. The tiny pattern of lights under the guard’s skin did not appear to be lit, but it was hard to know for sure in the sunlight. Eva looked back to the sky, trying to spot the warship carrying Hailey toward greater danger.

  Zin zipped around and inspected the guard. “From what I can discern, all damage appears superficial. Although, I cannot evaluate his functions with any degree of assurance without his remote.”

  The pillar guard let out a slow melodious song. Zin translated, “He is asking if those that he protects are safe.”

  “You understand what he is saying?” Eva laid her head and hands against its warm sides.

  “The sentinels of the Ojo clan were created by a long-forgotten ancient race. Not many in the galaxy can speak their language,” Zin said with pride.

  “Tell him we are safe, thanks to him.” She yanked off a hunk of robotic machinery that was impaled on the guard’s sickle claw.

  A low braying came from the foot of the pillar guard. Eva turned to see Bix and Bax, still harnessed in their yoke. With Bix limping, they stepped toward her, still dragging the remains of the hitching pole from the hoversloop. Eva calmed the munt-runners and pulled the SHOCdart from Bix’s thigh.

  “You are free to go.” Eva unhitched them from their yoke. Bix nibbled at Eva’s sleeve and let out a nicker while Bax nuzzled her.

  Eva scratched Bax around his horns. She wondered how long it would take to get to Hailey from here. “Okay. If you two want to stay, you can. But we may have to travel far . . . and fast.”

  “Eva, come see this!” Zin called out.

  One of the mouls was standing near the fallen pillar guard. The moul ran its tentacles over the guard’s rough exterior. It piped out several puffs of bright color.

  Eva walked over to get a closer look. Both munt-runners followed. “He thinks the pillar guard is a gift made of stone,” she relayed. “No. Wait. He thinks the guard was gifted to them from the stones.”

  “Gifted from the stones?”

  Eva ran her fingers through the brightly colored puffs before they were carried away on the wind. “Yeah. If I understand this right, he believes the guard has arrived here to protect the mouls. The stones told them he would come.”

  “The stones, you say?” said Zin.

  Eva nodded.

  The pillar guard sat up and watched as more mouls gathered around.

  Zin rubbed his chin in thought. “Despite your liberation of this guard, they are chivalrous by nature. Ordering this individual’s freedom to do as it pleases has likely caused some turmoil with its programming.”

  Eva looked at the gathering of mouls examining the giant guard. “Please tell the guard to see that no harm comes to the mouls for now and always,” she said to Zin.

  “I do not need to tell him. I think he believes—no, he wants to do just that. Astounding,” said Zin.

 
; The pillar guard rose to his full height. With the mouls circling around him, he strode to the edge of the cave. He turned to Eva and Zin and let out a loud blat followed by more trills. He stepped down and disappeared into the home of the mouls.

  “They are better off having his loyalty. Loroc will likely dispatch more warbots to these coordinates.”

  “Unless you stop him.” Eva began rooting through the mess from the wrecked hoversloop. Among the scattered debris was a familiar item. Eva picked up Hailey’s scuffed-up Omnipod and brushed off the sand. Hailey was right not to trust him.

  Zin joined her at the wreckage. “Eva, I do not know that I am the one best qualified to end a war.”

  “You are the only one who can stop this.” Eva opened a crate to find saddles, bridles, and reins for the munt-runners. “If Loroc is going to betray Cadmus, why wouldn’t he betray Ojo?”

  “I don’t know that he desires to usurp Ojo. I—”

  “He said he was to become ‘the king.’ What else could that mean?” Frustrated, Eva tried to remember how the Cæruleans strapped their saddles onto their mounts. Her thoughts were interrupted by the memory of one of Arius’s old chants. Eva stopped and recited, “Even the most wicked have a family that loves them.”

  “Did my sister tell you that?” asked Zin.

  “Yes.”

  “She was probably talking about me.” There was regret in Zin’s voice. He floated over to the hoversloop.

  “Are you sure she wasn’t speaking of Loroc?” Eva stopped saddling Bix for the moment and followed Zin past smoldering pieces of the sloop.

  “She may have been. But I shall never truly know the answer now,” Zin said with a sigh. “The four of us had been apart for quite some time—too long a time. This upset Arius. She felt that time away from one another put more distance between us than any remote location we could travel to.”

  “So she still cared for your brother?” Eva asked.

  “The Arsian family bond is likely different than it is in your species,” Zin replied. “Regardless, I cannot forgive him if he committed what you’ve described.”

  Eva continued following Zin through the wreckage. Her thoughts were of her own sister. Eva had forgiven Eight despite what she’d done. “Could Loroc change his intent?”

  “My brother’s power is inner strength. He has always exhibited incredible displays of fortitude, which is why he was so essential to our mission here.” From a toppled crate Zin picked up one of the cups Caruncle had polished. “You see, my ability focuses on analysis and intellect, but as you may have noticed, I am physically smaller than my siblings. My sisters, on the other hand, were hardier, though often ruled by emotion, which, of course, enhanced their abilities.” Zin gathered three more cups.

  Eva watched Zin stack the cups on the crate. With his many hands he was able to balance two of the cups on the mouth of one. He then placed the fourth cup on top.

  He pointed to the bottom cup. “Loroc was the one who supported us. Encouraged us, especially in the direst of situations. But he was prone to jealousy. He felt that his ability was inadequate when compared to ours. He didn’t understand that the four of us were interconnected—we all needed one another.”

  “And now?” asked Eva.

  “He is no longer thinking of us. He is thinking only of his needs and desires. Consequently, his strength and support for others has been corrupted into a lust for power and control over others.” Zin knocked the bottom cup away, and the others tumbled from the crate to the sand. He floated over to inspect the fallen warbot.

  “You don’t know this, but I discovered that I had a sister too,” Eva said. “But she and I do not think alike.” Eva stepped over one of the legs of the warbot. “She has different ideas about what the world should be.”

  Zin raised an eyebrow. “And?”

  “Well, the truth is, I understand her reasons—I just don’t agree with them. She puts her own needs before mine and dismisses those beings that I care about, like Rovender. A person shouldn’t do that. Not to anyone. Not to family.”

  Zin sighed. “But I did that very thing. I put my needs, my goals, ahead of Darius’s pain. Loroc is not the only guilty one.”

  “You are not like Loroc. Your goal was to help all the settlers become established here,” said Eva.

  “But at what cost? The loss of my own family? Could you make the same sacrifice?”

  “I already lost Muthr, and my sister must remain in the forest forever. I can’t lose Rovender. He’s all I have.” Eva watched the sand blow against the hull of the battered warbot.

  “What if giving his life meant saving all life on Orbona?” Zin asked. “Or what if this sacrifice were presented to your sister?”

  Eva swallowed down the uneasy thoughts that surfaced. “The spirit of the forest changed my sister. But I think it was for the better.”

  “So is that what you suggest? That I somehow lure my wicked brother to this ‘spirit of the forest’ and let its magical mumbo jumbo cure him?”

  “No. I don’t know!” Eva exhaled loudly. “But you can’t hide from Loroc. He’ll keep hunting you down, and I don’t know what will happen to you, me, or any of us, in the meantime.”

  “But perhaps this matter is best solved by Ojo,” Zin said. “There exists an agreement between the Arsians and her family that implicitly states—”

  “You don’t get it! If she is not dead already, she will probably die—”

  “I don’t want to die, Eva Nine!” Zin’s anger startled Eva. “I fear what my brother has become. If my sisters failed to stop him, then I will follow.”

  “What has he become? What do you know that you aren’t saying?”

  Zin looked down at his hands while he spoke. “From what you’ve told me, he has partaken in an ancient ritual now considered taboo among Arsians.”

  “A ritual?”

  “Correct. Our ancestors believed that all the strength, wisdom, and knowledge of the dead would be absorbed into the living if one were to . . . consume the body. But as I said, it is no longer practiced and is, in fact, frowned upon in our society.”

  Though repulsive, this attitude toward death reminded Eva of the old Cærulean saying that Rovender had told her: When your journey reaches its destination here, may you walk on through the memories of those still with us.

  Zin continued, “Additionally, it appears that Loroc’s strategy is to usurp the leaders of both sides of this battle, either by deceit or by force. Once he has done that, he will reign supreme over all citizens of Orbona. He’ll control the natural resources as well as the military might of the humans. No one will be able to stop him. We will all be at his mercy.”

  Eva looked away from Zin to the broken horizon of a ruined civilization. Is this where we are headed?

  “When we landed here, I was so excited to begin work with King Ojo’s team.” Zin’s tone carried sadness in it. “To take part as a founding member of a colony united by the goal of peaceful coexistence. I wanted to witness firsthand the effects of the Vitae Virus on a barren world. To start life anew where it had once been absent. I do not wish to miss the fruits of my labor. There is so much more to see and learn.”

  Eva turned back to Zin. “I thought that you, of everyone I know, could solve this so that we can all return to that peaceful coexistence.”

  “I’ve warned you about your perpetual optimism before, Eva Nine. Your faith in me is misplaced. I am but a student on a quest for the answers to the universe.”

  “Maybe answers are found not in observing but in doing. Doing the right thing.”

  “What is ‘right’?” Zin faced her. “What might be ‘right’ for me may not be ‘right’ for you. And what of Cadmus? What of the citizens of Lacus or Solas?”

  “Killing others is never right,” Eva said. “Life is a gift given that none should take. Orbona is large enough to harbor all life—all of us. I look around, and I do not see aliens or humans. I see Orbonians. Loroc is going to take away that gift. He is going
to take away all that you have done. Your hopes, Zin, were to establish life here. Your optimism was that the virus would work. And you were right. Do you want to see all of that disappear?”

  “Perhaps you are correct.” Zin gazed out at the ruins. “I would not want to see Solas reduced to a crumbling memory of yet another war.”

  Far above, an airship’s engines droned across the sky. Eva dashed to the cavernous home of the mouls, with Zin close behind. Peering over the edge of the rocky rim, Eva spied a warship dropping below the cloud cover and landing nearby. From the cave behind her the head of the pillar guard rose.

  “Another ship dispatched already?” Zin whispered. “Perhaps I should surrender. I don’t want there to be any more deaths today.”

  “Don’t do anything yet, and tell the pillar guard to stay put.” Eva grasped Zin’s hand. Where is Caruncle’s boomrod? She glanced over at the junk dealer’s remains, where the weapon lay. The knifejacks had made quick work of him. One of the creatures flew off holding a mustard-colored eye in its pointed beak.

  The ramp to the warship hissed open. A dingy pair of checkered sneakboots appeared at the top of the ramp. Hailey walked out from the ship.

  Eva scrambled up over the rim. She ran over to Hailey and hugged him tight. “You’re okay?”

  “I’m fine,” Hailey said with a rakish grin. “The ship’s completely automated, just like I thought.” He waved the Omnipod in front of Eva. “I know this old Fortran alphanumeric password that overrides the highest-level users and grants all access to the ship’s operating system. With that I was able to reboot it and reprogram its directives.”

  “So what does that mean?”

  “That means we now have a ship, Eva.”

  CHAPTER 16: DEVASTATED

  You need to land the ship on the outskirts of the city, near the pollen refineries.” Eva pointed east on the geographical map projected in the cockpit.

  “I don’t know. Are you sure?” Hailey said from the pilot seat.