The Search For WondLa (21 page)

CHAPTER 38: RUINS

Both of these
sculptures are of lions,” Muthr said, scrolling through endless data on the Omnipod. “I am sure it means something, but it may take us some time to determine what exactly that is.”

“It would probably be best to dig down to where these steps lead and take a look around,” Rovender observed. “I am sure more clues will present themselves.”

“A fine idea, Mr. Kitt,” Muthr said, and looked up from the Omnipod. “For the moment I do not detect any large life-forms in the area, and you are positive that no sand-sniper will attack in this vicinity?”

“I am sure.” Rovender tapped the stone steps with his walking stick. “Besides, there are not many creatures that I know of that would inhabit an ancient place where spirits likely still remain.”

Muthr returned her attention to the display on the Omnipod. “Look here. It seems as if there may actually be a cave, or a chamber, that we could explore. But it is considerably far below the surface. This is going to take some time to excavate.”

“I bet Otto could do it,” Eva said.

“Really?” Muthr looked at him.

“Let me ask.” Eva closed her eyes and stroked Otto’s side.

“Yes. He said he’ll do it before he rejoins his herd.” Eva scratched the giant water bear’s chin. “Just show him where you want him to dig.”

Eva, Muthr, and Rovender sat under the fragment of a great archway that shadowed them from the late-day sun. In their makeshift camp, they watched Otto tunnel down into the sand. His movements reminded Eva of the recorded holograms she had seen of burrowing badgers. The giant water bear dug into the earth with his front claws, and passed the dirt backward to his back legs, where he would kick it far from the giant hole.

A cascading flume of sand now sprinkled down on Eva from Otto’s most recent kick. She stood and shook the sand off her. “If it’s okay with you, Muthr, maybe Rovee and I can look around while Otto digs this tunnel,” she said. “Perhaps we can find more clues.”

“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 chagrin, 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.