by Jon Skovron
“Yeah,” I said. “I was worried about both of us. The bird people slashed you up pretty bad. But you look fine now.”
“That dwarf of yours has all sorts of little tricks. Once the Dragon Lady got here, he mixed up some potion with her blood and it healed us all right up. Well, except it couldn’t grow back limbs and the like.”
“Mom can take care of that,” I said. “She just needs some parts.”
“Might be some spare trowe parts she could use,” muttered Claire.
“Now, now,” I said.
“She helped him, Boy. She’s a bloody traitor.”
“She also saved our lives.”
Claire looked like she was about to fire off another retort, but then she just let it all out in a sigh.
“Yeah. Okay.”
She moved behind me, stretching her legs out on either side of me. Then she wrapped her arms around my chest, and let her head drop onto my shoulder.
“I’m so tired,” she said.
“I’m not.”
“That’s because you’ve been sleeping this whole time while I’ve been all nurturing, at your bedside, wiping your brow and shite.”
“You wiped my brow?”
“Too bloody right, I did.”
“Thanks.”
“You’re welcome.”
We sat there in silence for a moment. Then, gradually, I started to become aware of a feeling in the air, like right before a storm.
“Claire? Do you . . . feel that?”
“Yeah. What the hell is it?”
“No idea.”
The feeling got more intense, as if the air pressure in the room was changing. Then a crack formed in the cave wall and began to slowly widen.
“That looks bad,” said Claire. She stood and moved in front of me, her fists balled up.
Laurellen’s head popped through the crack.
“Oh, good,” he said calmly. Then he turned his head and said behind him, “This is the place. Sorry about that last one. It’s been a while.” He turned back to us. “Hello, Claire dear. Boy, you look frightful. I’d offer you some glamour but I’m afraid I’ve used the last of it for this.”
He stepped out of the crack, followed by Maria and Henri, each holding one of his hands. As soon as they stepped through, the crack sealed shut, like it had never been there.
“Let’s never travel that way again,” said Maria. She leaned against the far wall and took a slow breath, her face pale.
“That was amazing!” said Henri, somehow completely recovered from the beating Stephen had given him. “In the succession of incredible things I have seen in the past month, I think this actually was the most astonishing.” He looked at me with eyes brighter than I’d ever seen. “An alternate reality, Boy! I cannot . . .” He shook his head. “Words fail me!”
“Whoa, slow down there,” said Claire. “Where the hell did you just come from?”
“I knew time was short,” said Laurellen. “So I took us through the faerie realm. It’s a bit dreary these days, now that there are so few faeries. But still, I suppose it’s good to pop in and see how the old place is doing.”
“Boy,” said Maria. She seemed to have recovered a little. She came over, knelt down beside me, and took my hand. “I am so sorry about your father. I never had the chance to meet him, but Mozart spoke of him with the utmost respect.”
“Thank you,” I said.
“Laurellen,” said Claire, “why didn’t you ever tell us you could bloody teleport?”
“It’s not teleportation, actually. Time is different in the faerie realm. It’s only been a few hours out here, but in there we’ve been traveling for weeks. That’s why Henri appears to have miraculously healed. He just spent most of his recovery in the faerie realm.” He frowned. “I’m fairly certain that won’t have any long-term effects.”
“But how did you guys even know what happened or where to find us?”
“Vi told us, of course,” said Henri.
“Vi,” I said, patting my pocket. “She’s okay?”
“Your mum was able to salvage the drive from that phone and upload her into a different one,” said Claire. “Since then she’s been jumping all over the place, from Ruthven’s phone to Holmes’s to wherever else she can pop in to relay messages. We haven’t been sure if Moreau can track our regular communications, so using her as the messenger seemed the most secure way to do it.”
“So, Boy,” said Henri, his face suddenly serious. “We are going to get Moreau, right?”
“Of course,” I said.
“How?” asked Claire.
“Do we still have that helicopter?”
“Yeah, it’s just outside the cave. The dwarf has it camouflaged somehow. Why?”
“One of my daring plans is starting to form.”
She rolled her eyes. “If it’s anything like the last plan, I think the word you’re looking for is suicidal.”
CLAIRE HELPED ME hop down a passageway that opened up into a cavern big enough to fit everyone: my mother, Ruthven, the surviving dryads and trowe, La Perricholi, and Holmes. The Dragon Lady was also there with Rhoecus, Knossos, and Javier. There was no sign of the dwarf, but that didn’t surprise me. What did surprise me was that standing next to Holmes was General Montgomery.
Maria went immediately to embrace La Perricholi. “I’m so sorry, my child.”
“There is nothing to be sorry about, Mother,” said La Perricholi, stroking her long, black-and-gray-streaked hair. “I understand him more than ever now. I feel closer to him than I thought was possible. For that, I am willing to suffer the rest.”
Maria nodded and kissed her forehead, tears in her eyes.
Ruthven raise an eyebrow at Laurellen. “How on earth did you get here so fast?”
“Faerie realm,” said Laurellen.
“How is it now?”
Laurellen shrugged, but there was a flash of pain beneath his usually smug expression. “Much the same. Perhaps a bit worse.” Then he smiled again. “Henri enjoyed it, though.”
“Yes . . .” Ruthven frowned slightly as he watched the dryads approach Henri. They were looking at him in a way I’d never seen them look at anyone before.
“Eh, hello, ladies,” said Henri, flashing a nervous smile. “You haven’t been hitting the wine, I hope.”
“Something is different about you. . . .” said Meadow, placing her hand on his chest.
Iris leaned in to him so closely that her nose pressed against his cheek. She inhaled deeply.
“Yes,” she said. “He smells of old earth.”
Sequoia ran her fingers through Henri’s hair. “I always liked him, anyway.”
“Um . . . help?” Henri looked over at us, his eyes wide.
“I suspect they’re just picking up some residual presence from your stay in the faerie realm,” said Laurellen. “I’m sure they’re perfectly safe.”
“Are you really sure?” I asked quietly.
“Not at all.”
“Let’s keep an eye on that, then, okay?”
“Absolutely.”
I turned to Montgomery. “I didn’t expect to see you here, General.”
“Holmes brought me.” He nodded his head toward her. “I, uh . . .” He looked off into a dark corner of a room, his expression uncomfortable. But then he turned back to look at me. “I asked her to. Because I screwed up. If I’d listened to you, if I’d trusted you and Holmes, I might have been able to prevent what happened in there. So I’m here to do whatever I can to help make things right.”
“Good,” I said. Then I turned to Holmes. “How is it out there?”
She shook her head. “It’s really bad. You’ll see for yourself soon enough. Most of those feral monsters are still running amok. And the Sphinx is destroying anything and anyone he comes across, on the ground
or in the air. Moreau still occupies Phoenix, but he’s also gained control of Albuquerque and Denver. I know he did not have this many troops when he hit Phoenix. I can’t figure out how he keeps expanding his numbers like this. It’s almost as if . . .” She paused for a moment, then shook her head. “Regardless, the entire middle of the country is more or less a war zone. Now he’s trying to convince monster enclaves in other countries to join in and rise against their own governments. There have been incidents in Scotland, France, Germany, Romania, China, Russia, and Australia.”
“If we don’t put Moreau down soon,” said Montgomery, “those incidents will turn into full-scale rebellion.”
I turned to Ruthven. “So? What’s the plan?”
“Plan?” he asked, his red eyes flickering to me, and then away.
“Yeah. I mean, I have some ideas, but I was wondering what you guys have come up with.”
“We have had several discussions,” he said.
“And?”
Ruthven said nothing. And for the first time I could remember, he couldn’t look me in the eye.
“The discussions,” said La Perricholi, “have been about whether we should do anything at all.”
“What do you mean?”
“Some people,” said Liel, “think we should just stay down here until it all blows over. Let Moreau and the humans fight it out.”
“It’s what they want,” said Ruthven, his tone almost defensive. “It’s what they all want. To destroy each other. Man versus monster. Survival of the fittest. That is natural. That is the way of the world.”
“You’re wrong,” I said. “That isn’t the world. It’s what we’ve tried to turn it into. We’ve mapped it, we’ve studied it, and we think we know it. But we don’t. There are awesome things out there, and terrible things, and things that are beyond any words we could use to describe them. This world can still surprise us. If we just challenge it, it will evolve.”
“Into what?” asked my mother.
I looked at them all. Such a bizarre and amazing group of people. Monster or human or somewhere in between, they were all people.
“My father believed that it is possible for monsters and humans to live together. He died for that belief. And he was right. Look, we’re doing it right here. Now we have to prove that it’s possible not just for our little group, but for everyone.”
“But how?” asked the Dragon Lady.
“If Moreau wins, he’ll kill all the humans, right? And if the humans win, they’ll kill all the monsters. Or maybe they’ll destroy each other. Regardless, it’s nothing but the same old cycle of fear and hatred. But what happens if we win? Our little group of monsters and humans could show the world that the way to come out on top is to work together. What do you say?”
“You know you can count on me, cousin,” said Henri.
“Likewise, of course,” said Claire.
“And me,” said La Perricholi.
Every phone in the room went off simultaneously.
“I’d say that’s a yes from Vi,” said Henri.
“I know I screwed up, siding with Moreau,” said Liel. “I was just . . .” She glanced over at Bakru, then looked away, her face pinched with shame.
Bakru took her hand and smiled encouragingly.
Liel nodded and took a deep breath. Then she turned to me, and her diamond eyes were wet with tears. “I’m sorry. More sorry that I can possibly say. The trowe are with you.”
“Thank you,” I said. Then I looked at the rest of them. “It’s going to be dangerous. Obviously. I understand if you want to stay down here. But I can’t let my father’s death have been for nothing.”
I noticed my mother staring hard at Ruthven. He noticed it, too. Finally, he sighed.
“For the sake of your father’s memory, I cannot refuse. So tell me, what is your plan?“
“Yeah,” said Holmes. “Not to point out the obvious, but you’re missing some parts.”
“I just need new parts,” I said. “Better parts.”
“Where are you going to find these better parts?” asked Liel.
“Mom, Henri, Vi, and I will take care of that,” I said. “What we need to worry about right now is how we’re going to get to Moreau.”
“He’s holed up in Denver with about a thousand human hostages and an army of beast people,” said Holmes.
“But before we can even get to Denver,” said Ruthven, “we’ll need to deal with the Sphinx.”
I turned to the Dragon Lady. “Right before you bit Stephen’s head off, you told him that no matter how big a fish he was, there was always someone bigger. Is that true of the Sphinx, too? Is there someone bigger?”
The Dragon Lady gazed down at me for a moment with her glowing, ageless eyes. “There are three such creatures. They have slumbered far beneath the surface of the earth for thousands of years. Pray that you never see them. Moreau may be a danger to a race of people, but to awaken the Hecatoncheires would be to endanger all life on this planet.”
“Right, that’s no help, then,” said Claire.
“But I will face the Sphinx,” said the Dragon Lady. “I cannot say it is likely that I will be victorious. But I will attempt to end his mindless rampage and lay him down to permanent rest. And if I fail, I should at least be able to buy you the time you need to get past him.”
“I will help you,” said Knossos.
“And I will personally lead a squad of helicopters in to assist you, as well,” said Montgomery.
“Thanks, all three of you,” I said. “So while Montgomery, Knossos, and the Dragon Lady are keeping the Sphinx busy, the rest of us will continue on to Moreau.”
“What’s to stop him from killing the hostages the moment we attack?” asked Holmes.
“Has anyone else noticed a pattern in the way Moreau operates?” I asked. “He didn’t deploy his armies until he’d unveiled them to us. He’s broadcast to the entire world to make sure everyone knows who he is and what he’s fighting for and just how clever he can be. He held off waking the Sphinx specifically because he wanted us to be there to see it.”
“He needs an audience,” said Holmes.
“He won’t kill the hostages until there are people to witness it,” I said. “Otherwise, what’s the point?”
“He could just broadcast like he did before,” said La Perricholi. “Show the whole world that we’re calling his bluff, and then he kills the hostages.”
“What if he can’t?” I asked. “Who’s got a phone?”
Holmes held hers up.
“Vi,” I said. “Can you block all incoming and outgoing transmissions in Denver? Bring down a total media blackout?”
“You bet!” Holmes’s phone said.
“That still leaves a mass of beast people to get through,” said Ruthven. “Individually, we are more than a match for them. But as you and Claire discovered, their strength in numbers is what makes them dangerous.”
Then I turned to the dryads. “Ladies. Uh, I know we haven’t had the best relationship. And I hate to ask this of you.”
“What do you need, Boy?” asked Meadow.
“The maenads.”
“Uh, Boy . . .” said Claire.
“Seriously?” asked Liel.
“Moreau will never expect it,” I said.
“You can’t control them,” said Ruthven. “They are a maelstrom of chaotic fury. They wouldn’t distinguish between friend and foe.”
“There might be one person whom the maenads would listen to,” Meadow said. She turned to Iris and Sequoia. They looked at each other for a moment and nodded. Then they all turned to Henri.
“Give him to us,” said Meadow. “And we will do what you ask.”
“Wait, what?” said Henri. “Give? Boy, what are they talking about?”
“I really don’t know,” I said.
“And we won’t keep him all the time,” said Sequoia. “We will only require him in the spring. The rest of the year he is free to come or go as he chooses.”
Laurellen cleared his throat. “I think they want him for . . . pollination purposes.”
“Oh,” I said.
“Can I do that?” asked Henri.
Laurellen shrugged. “They seem to think so.”
“Humans can mate with dryads,” said Meadow. “Although the offspring will not be half human. There will only be more dryads.”
“We are the last three,” said Iris. “In order for our kind to survive, we must have greater numbers.”
“Well, Henri?” I asked. “It’s your call.”
“No pressure or anything,” said Claire, smirking.
“I honestly don’t know whether to be honored or horrified,” said Henri.
“Probably a bit of both,” said Laurellen.
“What the hell,” said Henri. “Ladies, I’m yours.”
Meadow smiled. “Thank you.” Then she turned to me. “Once we have drunk the wine, he will be able to keep us pointed in more or less the right direction.”
“All right,” I said. “With that extra muscle, I think all of you will be more than a match for the beast people. That just leaves me to handle Moreau.”
“Moreau is clearly a formidable opponent,” said Ruthven. “If your father couldn’t defeat him, how do you plan to do so?”
“Like I said, better parts. Mom? Henri? Vi? We’ve got work to do.”
23
The Revenge of Robot Junior
WHEN I LOOKED out of the helicopter window, the landscape below seemed more like some war-torn third-world country than the middle of America. We passed over grasslands churned up into piles of mud, wooded areas where the trees had been torn out by the roots, small towns that were now nothing more than smoking rubble. Cars and trucks lay abandoned, often crushed. I closed my regular eye and squinted, which engaged the zoom in my bionic eye. I scanned the inside of the vehicles for survivors but there was no one left alive.