by Tim O'Rourke
Within a heartbeat, Zach had drawn his crossbows, and Neanna and William stood on either side of him, catapults loaded.
“What is it?” Zach breathed.
Faraday looked back at him and with an expressionless stare, he said, “I was just joking. Like I said, there is nothing here.”
“You were joking!” Zach barked, his heart still beating.
“Great!” Bom grumbled. “The machine is developing a sense of humour. That’s all we need.”
“A sick sense of humour,” Neanna groaned, brushing past Faraday and stepping into the room.
“That wasn’t funny,” William snarled at Faraday, placing his catapult into his back pocket.
Faraday just looked at him.
Zach holstered his crossbows, and stepping past Faraday into the room, he said, “I didn’t know you had a sense of humour.”
“Apparently I haven’t,” Faraday said back.
Zach found himself standing in a large lounge. Bom was standing by the front windows and peering out at the Butter-Flyers. There was a small sofa, and Neanna was curled up on it, her eyes closed, already asleep. There were bookshelves and a small table, which was covered in sheets of paper. A fireplace was carved into the wall and it was covered in soot.
Faraday crossed the room to the table. Bending down, he picked up some of the sheets of paper which were spread across it. He appeared to study them, while William and Zach looked on. After a short time, he handed them to Zach. The pieces of paper contained symbols and numbers. Zach had no idea what it all meant but guessed it was some kind of complex mathematical equation. Zach handed the sheets of paper to William, who peered at them though his bulbous glasses.
“Is this meant to mean something?” he woofed, placing them back on the table. Faraday scooped them up again, folded them, and placed the sheets of paper into one of the many pockets covering his flight suit.
“I don’t know about you, but I’m starving,” Bom said, turning away from the window. “I’m going to see if I can’t find some food in this place.”
“I’m not hungry,” William said. “I just need some sleep.” And like Bom had, he left the room. Within moments, the sound of his bare feet climbing the stairs could be heard in the lounge.
With Neanna asleep beneath her cloak on the sofa, Zach and Faraday stood alone in the centre of the lounge.
“So you have a sister then?” Faraday asked Zach, as he thumbed through large, dusty-looking books, whose pages were ivory coloured and curled at the corners. “She is the Queen’s reflection?”
“Yeah, her name’s Anna. She’s all I have left - my parents died.”
“How?” he asked.
“In a plane crash,” Zach said, then quickly added, “I don’t really want to talk about it.” He crossed to the window and looked at the Butter-Flyer machines that hovered a few feet off the ground outside.
“Where’s your sister?” Faraday said, inspecting the bookshelf.
“In Earth. She’s being held captive by my Uncle Fandel. He’s poisoning her. That’s why it’s so important we get the box and take it to her. I don’t know how much time I have before...”
To think of his sister’s death was too painful, and he trailed off. Noticing a splinter of sunlight cutting through a gap in the curtains and falling on Neanna as she slept, Zach pulled them closed.
“You care about her, don’t you?” Faraday said.
“Of course I do, she’s my sister,” Zach said, turning to look at the mechanical man again.
“I wasn’t talking about your sister,” Faraday said, and glanced down at Neanna.
“She’s my friend,” Zach answered back, his cheeks flushing scarlet.
“Oh,” Faraday said, turning back to the bookshelf.
“And what’s that meant to mean?”
“Nothing,” Faraday said.
But Zach knew what Faraday meant. If a machine had picked up on the fact that he liked Neanna more than just a friend, had the others? Zach wondered. Had he made it that obvious? It was times like this that he missed his dad. He would have been able to ask his advice. But instead, he was discussing it with a machine.
“Is it that obvious?” Zach asked him, his voice just above a whisper.
“Just a bit,” Faraday said. “Are you going to tell her?”
“Tell her what?”
“About how you feel for her.”
“Nah, I don’t think so,” Zach said, glancing down at Neanna as she slept peacefully. And he did want to tell her, but he knew he couldn’t.
“Why not?” Faraday asked him, replacing the book he had been looking through and plucking another from the shelf.
“She might laugh at me,” Zach whispered.
“Why would she laugh?”
“I dunno,” Zach shrugged, and then said, “Look, can we just change the subject? I thought we were meant to be looking for anything that might give us the whereabouts of this Cribbot guy. Find a way to turn the machines off.”
Faraday shook the book he was holding by the spine, as if he was hoping that something which had been hidden inside would fall out. When the book failed to give up any secrets, he discarded it by tossing it onto the floor.
“If we do find a way to turn off the machines, then I might be turned off, too,” Faraday said.
“You were off when we found you,” Zach reminded him.
“I was switched off,” Faraday said. “I was just powered down – there is a difference.
“So what you’re saying is that if we find a way of switching off the machines for good, then the same might happen to you?” Zach asked him. “So you die?”
“I’m just a machine - a synthetic life form,” Faraday said. “I can’t catch a cold, but I can be permanently switched off – so yes, that would be like dying.”
Zach looked at Faraday as he started to dismantle the bookshelf at lightning speed.
“Are you sure you want to switch off the machines then?” Zach asked him.
“We have to, or you won’t get across the Outer-Rim,” Faraday said. “You saw all of those wild animals – machines – that we flew over. This part of Endra is wild and barren. You will never get across it alive with those beasts roaming free.”
“Couldn’t we just fly across the Outer-Rim on those Butter-Flyer things?”
“They are a weak and a fragile creature,” Faraday told him. “There are many more creatures which take to the skies, and most of them would tear apart those Butter-Flyers. They won’t get you to the volcano safety.”
“What about you?” Zach asked. “You can’t just die along with the other machines.”
“Why not?” Faraday said. “I am nothing more than a machine. I have no feelings. I don’t know love or fear. I can’t even make people laugh. So you could say I’m dead already.”
“But you seem like more than just a machine,” Zach breathed as he watched Faraday inspect the dismantled bookshelf for any secret drawers or cubbyholes hidden behind it. “I want to find Der Cribbot and find out who I was. I know why I was made. But not who I was.”
“Why were you made?” Zach asked him. “I kinda get the whole animals being entangled as they came through the doorway. But why make machines which look like men?”
Faraday turned away from what remained of the bookshelf and looked at Zach. His eyes were as black as ever, and his hair fell across his brow. “Just imagine you could make one person run at super speeds, you were able to give them the ability to jump over buildings, and they could live two, or perhaps even three hundred years. Their very arms, weapons. What would that person be?”
“Invincible,” Zach breathed slowly.
“Then let’s say you were able to make a thousand - no five thousand, or perhaps ten million of these invincible people. Just consider an army made of these soldiers - what would this army be?” he asked.
“Unbeatable,” Zach said, his mouth turning dry and his head beginning to thump.
“I think you’ve got the picture,” Fara
day said.
“So Throat wants to use this army to overthrow Endra?” Zach asked him.
“No,” Faraday said. “This is a world of magic and sorcery – he has the Demonic Guardians for that. But your world – Earth – is different. It’s a world of technology – he would need a special kind of army to conquer such a world.”
“So what you’re suggesting is that when the time comes, when my sister and the Queen die, when he has the power inside the box, Throat will send mechanical men like you in to...” Zach began.
“Yes,” Faraday said, brushing past Zach and leaving a pile of scattered books in the corner of the room. He then began to hurl the pillows from the armchairs and search beneath them.
“So, what about me?” Zach asked him. “Where do I fit into all of this? William and Neanna believe I’m a peacekeeper who has come into this world to defeat Throat and his armies. But you make it sound like an impossible task.”
Faraday strode past Zach and back towards the lounge door and disappeared into the hallway. Zach rushed after him to find Faraday pulling open a wooden door that was tucked beneath the staircase. He yanked it with such force that the frame that housed it began to snap and splinter.
“Cover your eyes,” he said as he pulled on the door one last time. It came away in his hand in a shower of wood and masonry where he had actually pulled the brickwork away from around the outer edge of the door.
Faraday cast the door aside, and looking back at Zach he said, “Follow me.”
Zach followed the machine into the darkness beneath the stairs.
Chapter Twenty -One
The Delf looked through the doorway that the black dust had created in the night sky. Through it, she could see Fandel with his hands bound behind his back as he crawled along the shoreline of the Onyx Sea. Black waves crashed against the sand. There were others, too.
“The peacekeeper!” she cried on seeing Tanner racing across the sand towards her. And there were more, too – just like him – at least six. “The girl!” she screeched again, as she watched Anna struggling with the bandit named Van Demon. She watched with a sense of delight as Tanner blew the bandit’s head clean from his shoulders. It saved her from doing the job at some later time, she guessed. But then Tanner turned his attention to the doorway again and came charging towards it, his crossbow blazing in his fist.
“Fandel!” the Delf whined, holding out a set of swollen fingers. “Take my hand!”
On the other side of the doorway, where it was just dusk and not yet night, Fandel turned and saw her. “Delf!” he cried out, and she couldn’t ever recall him looking so delighted at seeing her. Usually he was covering his nose and mouth with his handkerchief to block out her vile stench. But not tonight, he looked happy to see her. With his hands behind his back, he shuffled along the shore towards the door where she waited for him on the other side.
“Quickly!” she urged, maggots spraying from her lips. “Come to me, Fandel!”
And he did, as fast as he could. Through the doorway and over his shoulder, she could see Tanner and the other peacekeepers gaining on him fast. The stakes that they fired from their crossbows whizzed above his head. When he was within reaching distance, she stretched through the doorway and grabbed him.
“Come, come!” she cried, as Fandel stopped at the doorway and looked back. Then he was falling out of the sky just above the Delf’s head and into her arms. For such a thin man, he was heavier than she expected. So grunting, belching, and farting, she lowered him to the ground. The Delf rolled him onto his side and untied the ropes that bound him. Fandel yanked his hands free and sat rubbing his wrists as he looked up at her. At first she could see the relief on his face at being saved – perhaps at seeing her too – but then his face screwed up as if his very flesh was cracking like stone.
“Jeez,” he groaned. “You stink.”
She hitched up her baggy skirt and turned away. She was hideous, the Delf knew that. She did stink like excrement, but she hadn’t always been like that. She had been beautiful once and would be again. Fandel wouldn’t look upon her with disgust then. No, no, no. He wouldn’t be able to take his eyes off her. He’d never want to let her go. Fandel would want her. But until that day came, his spiteful and callous comments hurt her all the same. Just because she was so ugly didn’t mean she didn’t have feelings – it didn’t mean that she didn’t hurt.
“A thank-you would be nice,” she huffed, snorting back a nostril of maggots. She swallowed them and looked back at Fandel.
“For what?” he said, standing and brushing the dirt and sand from his smart flannel trousers and waistcoat.
“For saving your skinny arse,” she belched, and handed what she had burped up to Max who licked greedily from her fingers.
Fandel saw this, and throwing his hands to his mouth, he gagged and said, “I think I’m gonna puke.”
“Maybe you would prefer it back on the beach with your friend, the peacekeeper,” she said, shuffling back towards Fandel. She brushed up against him, wrapping her arms around his neck. Fandel looked down into her upturned face. The smell coming from her mouth revolted him, and he pushed her away.
“Get away from me, you disgusting witch,” he groaned.
“You might not realise it yet,” she said, fixing him with her yellow eyes, “but one day, you will come to appreciate me.”
Fandel looked into her eyes as they gleamed in the darkness. And as he did, there was a small part of him that did want to go to her. A part of him that wanted to take the Delf in his arms, entwine his bony fingers in her filthy, matted hair, and press his lips over her cracked and weeping mouth.
Stop it! He cursed himself, and those thumping pains started to pound in his temples again. He rubbed the side of his head with the tips of his fingers. Everything had gone wrong! He should have brought the girl back with him. Throat – his reflection – wouldn’t be pleased.
“We need to get the girl,” he hissed, the pain inside his head becoming unbearable.
“Throat has everything under control,” the Delf tried to assure him, and then farted.
“Will you stop doing that!” Fandel screeched at her, the tendons on his neck flashing white through his skin. “I’m trying to think, goddamnit!”
“But you don’t need to think,” the Delf soothed, reaching out and stroking his face with her claw-like hands.
Fandel flinched backwards as if her fingers were red hot.
“Throat is well pleased with you,” she lied, reaching for him again.
“Really?” he snivelled, and this time he let the Delf caress his cheek.
“How do you know?” he asked her.
“I’ve spoken with him.”
“You’ve spoken with Throat?” Fandel gasped.
“I’ve seen Throat,” she hushed, running her broken fingernails through the hair that circled his ear. Then, looking into his eyes, she lied again and said, “It was Throat who sent me to save you. He has a very special task for us.”
“For us?” Fandel asked, his eyes wide and heart slamming in his chest. He felt scared but excited, too. He liked that.
“He wants us to travel to the Outer-Rim,” she lied again. “There we will take the key from the Noxas boy.”
“He has the key?” Fandel shuddered under her touch. “I truly have failed Throat.”
“No,” she cooed in his ear, her rancid breath making his skin flush cold. “He is very pleased with you and wants us to work together.” This wasn’t a complete lie, as she knew her brother had said she could have Fandel once he had finished with him.
“Really?” he asked, now finding some pleasure in her touch.
“Really,” she said, her blistered lips hovering over his.
Then suddenly, he pushed her away and said, “Hang on a minute!”
“What’s wrong?” she burped, fearing that he had seen through her deceit.
“How are we traveling to the Outer-Rim?”
“On Max, of course,” she said, looki
ng over her shoulder at the giant dog.
“If you think I’m traveling on that, you’ve got to be out of your tiny mind,” he hissed. “That thing doesn’t like me.”
Max turned his colossal head and looked at Fandel as if it understood every word he had said. It stood as tall as a lion, its matted, black mane blowing in the wind. It prodded at the ground with its three-toed paws and snarled at Fandel.
“See - it hates me,” Fandel spat, taking a step backwards.
“Get a grip,” the Delf said, leaving Fandel and going to her pet. She stroked its long hair and let the abnormal-looking dog lick her face.
“You can travel by dog if you wish,” Fandel spat, but I’ll make my own way to the Outer-Rim.
“And how are you planning on doing that?” she asked, wiping the goo from her face which had been left there by Max’s fleshy tongue.
Ignoring her, Fandel looked up into the star-shot night and started to chant.
Beat thy wings from the depths of torment
From the darkness above make thy decent
Raven black and as cold as snow
I give you flight, Mortality Crow!
Fandel recited the spell over and over, until his lips moved so fast that spittle flew from them and his words became just like undecipherable jumble. Then over the sound of his chanting came a different noise. It sounded like two giant sails flapping in the wind. Fandel’s lips stopped twitching and he opened his eyes. He watched with delight as the Mortality Crow swept out of the night, gliding just feet above the floor of the desert.
“Come to me,” Fandel called out to it, raising his arm into the air as if training a bird of prey. But the crow was far too big to be like any known species of bird. It swooped high up into the night sky, swooped around, then dropped like a stone. Just feet from the ground, it spread its mighty wings, and landed on a set of grey talons. The crow beat its wings, and both the Delf and Fandel shielded their eyes against the spray of sand that was whipped up into the air. The creature squawked and the noise was deafening. Max howled and retreated backwards, its teeth glinting in the dark as it rolled back its lips in a show of anger.
