The New World

by Matt Myklusch

Mr. Clear had hit the nail on the head when he suggested that DeMayne’s attack had caught Joey by surprise. Joey didn’t even have time to think about using the wand to save himself or anyone else. Fortunately, Allegra was there to save them all. She stretched her liquid metal arms to grab everyone as they fell and morphed her body into a wide net. She caught the whole group and held them in place like a giant hammock, securely anchored to the bottom of the bridge. Below them, the machinery that covered the canyon floor chugged along with an endless supply of pistons firing, pumps pumping, belts spinning, and gears rotating. Joey looked down at a giant toothed wheel turning slowly beneath him. Had he fallen into it, he would have been crushed under its might and ground into hamburger meat. It all happened so fast. Once Joey realized that he and his friends were safe, he let out a broken, off-kilter giggle of relief. The kind that usually follows near-death experiences. Skerren cupped a hand over Joey’s mouth and put a finger to his own lips. Joey checked himself, and the group waited in silence after that. Once the coast was clear, Allegra helped everyone back up to the right side of the bridge, where they found Oblivia sprawled on the floor.

  Her white robes were soaked with blood. Everyone could see she was close to death. Hypnova went to her side. Joey took out the wand. “I can help. She’s still with us. I can heal this.”

  “Don’t.” Oblivia coughed. “Don’t. Save your strength. You’re going to need it for—”

  She broke into a painful coughing fit, unable to finish her sentence.

  “But you’ll die,” Leanora said.

  “If it’s… my time.”

  “This isn’t what I wanted,” Hypnova said, taking her hand. “I wanted you to see.”

  “We don’t… always get what we want,” Oblivia replied, struggling to speak. “But sometimes we get what we deserve. DeMayne was right. I would have killed you. I never would have listened. I was blind. You showed me the truth. I did see. I understand now.”

  At the far end of the bridge, DeMayne and his men entered the Clockwork Castle.

  “Stop him.” Oblivia gripped Hypnova’s hand. “Do what you came here to do.”

  A few labored breaths later, Oblivia closed her eyes. Her grip on Hypnova’s hand relaxed, and she slipped away. Hypnova set her down gently. Oblivia looked as if she were sleeping peacefully, but Hypnova’s face was a mixture of grief and furious anger. Her golden saber was on the bridge, stained with Oblivia’s blood. DeMayne had cast it aside, just as he had cast Oblivia aside after stabbing her in the back. Hypnova took the blade and rose slowly to her feet.

  “Let’s finish this,” she said.

  They marched on the castle with Hypnova leading the charge. Joey and Jack were right behind her, followed by everyone else.

  “What do you think DeMayne’s doing in there?” Jack asked Joey.

  “Whatever it is, it isn’t good,” Joey said.

  “I told you he was going to double-cross us,” Jack said. “I knew he was going to try something, but I wasn’t ready for him. I was too busy looking at all this.”

  “Don’t blame yourself,” Joey said. “It’s hard not to be distracted by a giant mechanized castle.”

  “I also thought when he did make his move, he’d go after you first,” Jack said. “He seemed to hate you the most. I underestimated how he felt about the Secreteers.” Jack looked back at Oblivia, lying alone on the bridge. “I’m sorry, Hypnova. We both had our issues with Oblivia, but she didn’t deserve that.”

  “No, she didn’t,” Hypnova agreed, striding forward. “But it’s not your fault. It’s mine. I wanted DeMayne to lead you here in case I didn’t make it. We needed DeMayne to find this place. We needed his memory, but…” Hypnova trailed off, clearly angry with herself. “I’ve been in his head. I should have seen this coming.”

  “Don’t you blame yourself either,” Joey said. “Remember, the only reason you wouldn’t have made it would have been if Oblivia had succeeded in killing you. Anyway, it’s impossible to know everything that’s going on in DeMayne’s mind. He keeps remembering new things. The question is, what does he know that we don’t?”

  As they approached the gates of the castle, Joey wondered why DeMayne really wanted to come here. If he wasn’t after the wand, there had to be something better in the castle. Joey couldn’t imagine what that might be, but the mere possibility was terrifying.

  The castle was protected by a series of exterior walls. They were three feet thick and revolved slowly around the castle in competing directions. Each wall had a single opening, and at a certain point, they all lined up to grant passage to the castle, but they never stopped moving. The gate only appeared momentarily before the walls moved on, closing off access once again.

  “This is good defense against a siege,” Skerren said. “You can’t march an army through these gates. They only admit a small group of people at a time.”

  “Lucky for us, we are a small group of people,” Shazad said. “We can get through this. We just have to time it right.”

  Jack balled a fist, and the walls came to a screeching halt. After that, he made a few sweeping motions like he was directing traffic, and the walls rotated back into the proper position.

  “Or we could just go through right now,” Jack said.

  “I thought the castle wouldn’t work with you,” Janelle said.

  “I don’t need its cooperation if I can understand how it works. This mechanism is simple enough. The rest of this place is a different story.” Jack used his power to lock up the walls and keep them from moving while everyone walked through the outer gate. Once they were through, an interior wall, taller than any of the others that came before it, stood between them and the castle courtyard. It was made of shiny gold and bronze metal with a heavy portcullis at the center. “If DeMayne’s got all his memories back, we have to assume he’s in control of the castle defenses.” Jack turned his palms up and raised his hands an inch, lifting the portcullis out of the way. As soon as the inner gate was open, a troop of guards wearing suits of armor came through from the other side, ready to fight. “These guys, for example.”

  “Who are they?” Allegra asked, morphing one hand into a shield and the other into a sword.

  “Nobody,” Jack said, using his powers to scan them. “They’re empty suits. Drones. You don’t have to hold back.”

  “Finally, some good news,” Skerren said. He drew both swords. “Allegra, do you mind? I’d like to see what we’re up against.”

  Allegra relaxed her stance and morphed her hands back to normal, even as the iron knights closed in. “Be my guest.” She laced her fingers together and reached out to give Skerren a boost. He stepped up, placing his right foot in her hands. Her arms stretched like rubber bands as he pushed off, and she vaulted him into the air. He flipped over the armored guards and landed behind them as nimbly as a cat.

  With a single slash, he cut the two rear guards off at the knees. They fell, and as they fell, he cut them again, separating them both at the waist. They clattered to the ground in several pieces, with sparks flying from their severed limbs. The other drone guards turned and immediately went for Skerren. He kicked pieces of the fallen knights across the floor to the ones that were still standing. One of them stutter-stepped to keep from tripping on a torso, and in that fraction of a second, Skerren took its head. In the same motion, he whirled around, ducking under an enemy blow and lashing out again with his swords. He never stopped moving. In a matter of seconds, any remaining mechanized suits of armor were reduced to spare parts. When he rejoined the group, he wasn’t even breathing heavily.

  “If that’s the best this place has to offer, we’ve got nothing to worry about.”

  “Those swords are really something,” Shazad marveled.

  “It’s not the swords,” Skerren replied. “It’s the swordsman.”

  The group stepped over the scrap-metal remains of the iron knights on their way to the castle courtyard, which was another complex network of industrial gadgetry. A field of flashing
lights and electrodes crackled with energy beneath a bridge made of interlocking gears. Joey and the others walked across it as the wheels rotated beneath their feet like giant turntables. They only made it a few steps before more drone guards emerged from the machinery below, coming to block their path. The resulting battle was made more difficult by the constant revolutions of the gear bridge, but Joey and his friends would not be denied. They reached the Clockwork Castle unscathed, and Leanora beat down the doors with a firestone punch.

  “DeMayne! Show yourself!” Hypnova shouted. “It’s going to take more than a few tin soldiers to keep… us… out.”

  Her voice fell flat as the group came face-to-face with a full battalion of tin soldiers. There were hundreds of iron knights waiting in the throne room of the castle.

  “Well, that’s just great,” Allegra said.

  Fortunately, the iron knights didn’t attack right away. A wide staircase led down to a sunken concourse where they stood in formation, awaiting further orders from DeMayne. Joey spotted him next to the throne, which looked like the mission control center for steampunk NASA. A series of workstations with switches, buttons, and dials were built into the back wall, going up like rows of stadium seats. Levels of industrial hardware and mechanical devices separated each tier leading up to the spot where DeMayne was standing. The throne room was like the heart of an engine. Massive gears rose halfway out of the floor, turning contraptions behind the walls. A network of pipes ran up to the ceiling, where giant steel tanks whistled and let out steam. Giant pneumatic presses rose and fell, creating the force to power more components of the great machine. The entire chamber hummed with activity.

  DeMayne locked eyes with Joey across the room and scowled.

  “Really?” he asked Mr. Ivory and Mr. Clear. “They’re alive? You had one job. I told you to check to make sure they weren’t hanging on the bridge.”

  “I did check,” Mr. Ivory said. “I didn’t see anything!”

  “I specifically said I wasn’t sure,” Mr. Clear added.

  DeMayne touched his forehead like he felt a migraine coming on. “Idiots. I knew I should have had a look myself. I was too excited about being back home.” He took a breath and waved his hand, dropping the matter. “It’s all right. We’re nearly done here. This will all be over soon.”

  “You’ve got that right,” Skerren said, starting down the steps.

  The iron knights drew swords and took a step forward.

  “Really?” Jack asked. “You’re going to use drones? Against me? I got a look at the ones we took apart outside. They’re not going to cut it.” Jack held up a hand, and the iron knights halted. He wiggled his fingers, and they split their ranks, stepping aside to open up a lane and let everyone through.

  “That’s fine,” DeMayne said, pushing the throne to the side. “I’d rather have you focused on them. In fact, I can give you lots of them to think about.”

  “What’s he doing?” Leanora asked.

  “You’ll see!” DeMayne called out. Behind the throne, a large wheel had been built into the wall. It was the size of a bicycle tire and looked like the kind of wheel someone might turn to close a hatch on a submarine. “Mr. Ivory,” DeMayne called out, curling his finger. “Make yourself useful. This wheel hasn’t been turned in a thousand years. We’re going to need the ogre.”

  Mr. Ivory sighed. “I hate the ogre.”

  DeMayne’s expression made it clear he didn’t care how Mr. Ivory felt.

  Mr. Ivory reluctantly dug a rotten tooth out of his bag and pressed it into the gap in his smile. He gagged before undergoing a horrifying metamorphosis. Joey watched him transform into something like the Incredible Hulk, only uglier and with less muscle definition. His skin turned gray and rough like the hide of an elephant, and his face twisted into a hideous shape with a large protruding brow, tusklike teeth, and pointy ears. He looked like a monstrous brute, but he was still himself underneath it all. Mr. Ivory grabbed the wheel and gave it everything he had, straining to make it turn.

  When the wheel finally budged, there was a loud hiss as jets of gas burst out of the floor in the space where the throne had been. It was the sound of an airlock decompressing. The rear wall of the throne room slid apart like elevator doors to reveal a hidden room with some kind of power core at its center. At least, that’s what Joey thought it might be. There was a beam of blue light the size of a tree trunk coming out of a platform with wires and cables plugged into it.

  “Hang on.” Jack stopped short. “Where did that come from?”

  A few of the stationary iron knights surrounding Jack and the rest of the group twitched slightly. They were free for just a moment as his concentration lapsed, but he regained control before they did any harm. Meanwhile, DeMayne was pulling levers and hitting buttons on a control panel, causing more machinery to kick into gear. Doors opened in the corners of the room, and more iron knights marched out. They were rolling off assembly lines as automated arms put them together. DeMayne had an endless supply of cannon fodder.

  “So, this place is a factory?” Leanora wondered aloud.

  “That’s not all it is,” Jack said.

  “What’s he doing?” Joey asked.

  “I’m taking Oblivia’s advice!” DeMayne shouted. “Going back to being king of the world!”

  “There’s too many of them,” Jack said as the drones began to break free of his will. “I can’t control them all.”

  “You don’t have to,” Skerren said, cutting down the drones nearest him. “You think you’re going to build an army and take over?” he shouted at DeMayne. “Don’t get too comfortable up there. We’ve taken down armies before.”

  “They just need to hold you for the next few minutes,” DeMayne said. “I’m not going to use force. I’m winning hearts and minds. Or, just minds if I’m being honest.” He made a series of adjustments to the instruments near the power core, modifying the width of the energy beam. “I knew there was something here. I knew if I could just find this place again, it would all come back to me.” He keyed in a final command, and the blue beam of light grew from the size of an oak tree to something that resembled a giant redwood. A blue orb rose out of the ground in front of the power core. “It’s all coming back to me.”

  Jack’s control on the iron knights continued to slip as more of them poured into the room. “This isn’t good,” he said.

  “No kidding,” Joey replied as the group backtracked up the stairs, finding a more defensible position.

  “You don’t understand,” Jack said. “It’s worse than you think. The castle remembers him, and he remembers what it was built for.”

  “What did he just turn on?” Janelle asked. “What does all this stuff do?”

  Jack turned around, taking in the place as Skerren, Allegra, and Hypnova held back the iron knights. “Everything here and everything outside that keeps the island moving… it generates energy that powers that beam. It’s sending out a signal to the world.”

  “What kind of signal?” Joey asked.

  “The wrong kind of signal.” DeMayne tapped at the orb like someone touching a hot plate to see if it was safe to pick up. Sparks flew out every time he made contact. “That’s going to change. This castle—this whole canyon—is a machine created by the emperor I once served. It took him years to build it. He was a man of science. I had to kill him. You should thank me. I did the world a great service. He despised magic. Even after we had all but stripped the earth of its magic, he wasn’t satisfied with the state of the world. He would have used this place to control it, along with everyone else.”

  DeMayne laid a hand on the orb. It sizzled with energy, but he was able to hold it in place.

  “What is that?” Allegra asked Jack. “What does this thing do?”

  “It’s a mind-control device,” Jack said. “His emperor built it to control people. To make everyone behave and live the way he wanted. No magic… no imagination.”

  “He wanted a world of law and order,” DeMayne sa
id. “His law. His order. I had other ideas. I taught myself to use this place, but it took too long to learn its secrets. Before I could activate the machine, they came for me. Merlin and his allies. They ripped this island free of its moorings and sank the continent, but they kept this place intact. This machine is what changed the world. It changed people’s minds. The Secreteers’ power gave Merlin the idea. He enchanted the machine, twisting its purpose to affect how people perceived this island—how they viewed the entire history of the world. He took away my victory and made me forget, but they let me live. Merlin died, and the ones that came after him forgot about me. They should have known better.”

  He put his other hand on the orb. A wave of energy ran through his body, giving him a shock, but he managed to hold on, and the blue light in the orb swirled with red.

  “Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. I ruled the world from this spot a thousand years ago. My reign was short, but I’m going to make up for lost time. I’m going to take it all back, and I have you to thank, Joey Kopecky. More than anyone else, you’re the one who made this possible.”

  23 Rage Against the Machine

  “He’s going to brainwash the whole world,” Joey said, horrified.

  It dawned on him that he had been played. Joey had thought that if he kept the wand away from Ledger DeMayne, everything would be fine, but it turned out DeMayne didn’t need the wand after all. What he was going to do was worse than locking magic away again. He was going to set himself up as the ruler of the world, taking the place of the emperor whom he’d deposed so long ago.

  “Can he do that?” Janelle asked.

  “This machine can,” Jack said. “He can use it to control the minds of millions.”

  “No.” Joey reached for the wand. “I have to stop him.” He was going to have to use it to finish this after all. There was no avoiding his fate. Maybe there never had been.

  Hypnova grabbed his wrist before he could act. “Joey. You don’t have enough energy left to stop something this big. You’ll die.”