Chet immediately took off to the right, running along the edge of our fragment of land. “This way!”
I scrambled after him but risked a glance back. I was rewarded with an encouraging sight: though there was a meter of open space between the jungle and the cliff, the monster was wider than that. So while we could run on a straightaway, it had to maneuver around trees and tangles of foliage, its trunk-mouth-nose thing wagging angrily.
“Spensa,” M-Bot said, hovering along beside me, “I am not enthused by my first experiments in self-determination. My chronometer details that since my awakening, I’ve spent a frightening amount of my time lost, pouting, or being chased by interdimensional monsters.”
I nodded but kept running, trying to save my breath.
He zipped out a little farther ahead of me. “If you were to rate my mastery of emotions on a scale of one to ten, what would you give me?”
I grunted.
“I’ll pretend that was a three,” M-Bot said. “I know it wasn’t optimal, but for a newly awakened robot, you have to admit that I did a fine job. In fact, all things considered, I think I deserve higher than a three. I feel bad that you’d rate me so low, Spensa.”
I glanced over my shoulder again. The beast had fallen behind, but I could still see those eyes glowing on either side of its trunk.
What…I felt the word pushed into my mind. What have you…
I redoubled my efforts anyway, and with a burst of speed caught up to Chet. “Where,” I managed to say. “Are. We. Going.”
He pointed ahead. “Another fragment up there. You see it? I’m hoping we can leap from this one to that one, and thereby escape the beast.”
Tons of these fragments hovered about, all on the same plane, at the same elevation. Like they were scattered pieces of a puzzle on an invisible table. Ahead, a tan chunk of ground was drifting near, separated from our chunk by only a few meters. Seeing it highlighted to me that there wasn’t much rock under my feet. Did sections of these masses break off? Was it dangerous to be this close to the edge?
We ran anyway. And as we drew closer, I saw that the distance between our fragment and the tan one was larger than it had looked. Clearly farther than a person could jump.
Chet ran beside me, and his expression fell as he obviously realized the same problem. “Miss Nightshade,” he said, glancing toward the monster, “I fear I might have led us both to our dooms. Would you prefer to try to hide in the forest or stand and fight?”
“Neither,” I said, feeling that beast’s mind pressing against mine. “M-Bot? Want to earn a ten out of ten on saving my life?”
“Ooooh,” M-Bot said. “Ten is way higher than three. I mean, depending on your frame of reference, of course.”
“Go attach your light-line to that other fragment,” I said, panting, “then come back! Meet us by that boulder up ahead, where the two fragments are closest to one another!”
He zipped off. I wasn’t certain how much mass that little drone’s acclivity rings could support, but a good light-line could bear my weight and more.
“Excellent idea!” Chet said. “Keep running! We can make it!”
Behind, the beast roared, but the voice was different now. It sounded like a hundred different versions of the same roar, overlapping. I glanced over my shoulder and saw it charging toward us, nearly upon us.
Scud. Couldn’t it see I wasn’t worth the effort? That had to be one advantage I had over someone like Conan the Barbarian. I would barely constitute a snack. But I didn’t think it was my flesh it wanted to consume.
Fortunately, M-Bot’s drone moved at a good speed. He was already attaching the light-line to the other fragment. That accomplished, he streaked toward us, trailing the glowing reddish-orange line of energy.
The monster’s footsteps shook the ground just behind us. I could practically feel its breath.
Come on…
M-Bot soared back—then pulled up short right before reaching our fragment. He jerked to a halt in the air. The light-line wasn’t long enough.
He was so close though…
I glanced at Chet. He nodded.
Only one thing to do.
We reached the part of the fragment nearest M-Bot and—together—we jumped.
We probably made a dramatic sight, the two of us hanging in the air as the monster arrived and snapped at the place where we’d been standing. We soared over an infinite expanse and…
I managed to grab M-Bot’s drone.
Chet missed. He’d aimed too low and ended up slamming into my waist. We all started to plummet, as M-Bot’s acclivity rings proved far too weak to keep us in the air. I was almost jolted free as Chet got a grip on my leg, and we swung like a pendulum away from the jungle.
I hung on for dear life, my eyes squeezed shut, concentrating on keeping my grip on M-Bot’s drone. We swung back and forth a few times before slowly coming to a rest.
I opened my eyes. M-Bot’s light-line was attached to the fragment some fifteen meters above us. I held to the drone with everything I had, and Chet clung to my left leg.
“Well,” M-Bot said, “you don’t need to rate this rescue on a scale. I figure it’s pretty much pass/fail, right?”
I grunted, hugging the drone tighter to my chest. I was really glad I was in a jumpsuit, because otherwise there was a good chance Chet would have ended up falling for eternity, his only company a pair of women’s trousers.
M-Bot began to retract the light-line. Fortunately, the mechanism proved strong enough to hold us as we inched upward. I glanced behind me, where the monstrous creature stood at the edge of the jungle, watching. Those haunting eyes glowed so brightly they consumed its other features.
Vast, terrible, they intruded on my mind. What…have you done…to the Us? WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?
That was the delvers. I recognized their minds.
“Can you hear that?” Chet asked softly.
“Yeah,” I said, squeezing my eyes shut again. I forcibly pushed the delvers away.
When I opened my eyes, I saw the beast retreating into the jungle, vanishing in the shadows.
“I sure am glad everything turned out all right,” M-Bot said as we slowly moved upward. “Actually, that’s me lying. Look at how good I’ve gotten at that! In truth, Spensa, I’m still frightened. Even though we’re safe now. Why is that? Shouldn’t I be relieved?”
I shook my head. “It sometimes takes a few minutes for nerves to settle. Chet, how you doing down there?”
“Contemplating my life’s choices, Miss Nightshade,” his voice said from below. “How is your grip, if you don’t mind me asking?”
“Solid, for now,” I said.
“If you start to slip, I’d request that you inform me. As your would-be rescuer, I will not allow my weight to hasten your demise! Better that one should fall than two.”
“Don’t talk like that!” I said. “What would happen? Would you fall forever?”
“At least until you cleverly acquired a ship and came to my rescue!” he said. “I’d hope my performance up to this point would earn such a turnabout. But let us simply hang on!”
Fortunately, I’d positioned myself to grip not just with my fingers but my whole arms. I was fairly stable, all things considered.
We eventually pulled to a halt near the rim of the fragment, where M-Bot had stuck his light-line. There were a few centimeters of slack left, but he couldn’t retract that while I was clinging to his boxy form.
“You’ll have to climb up first,” I said to Chet.
“Right, then!” Chet said. “Sorry in advance!”
He started pulling himself up by my jumpsuit. I focused on keeping my grip. My hands were slippery from my sweat, and Chet’s weight as he climbed threatened to jostle me free. Eventually however, he was able to grab something on top of the fragment and haul himself up over the side. I sighed in relief.
His hand reached down a moment later, and I accepted the help, letting him heave me up onto the surface of the new fragment. Bits of dirt and sand rained off the side, sprinkling against M-Bot’s hull as he hovered up. We were on some kind of desert fragment—it was covered in sand, broken only by occasional bits of scrub plant life.
Nothing here appeared immediately threatening. Chet and I looked at each other, then both of us deliberately scooted away from the edge before collapsing and letting out exhausted sighs. My arms ached and my heart was still pounding. But when I glanced at Chet, I discovered he was grinning.
And…scud. I felt the same way. There was something incredibly thrilling about our wild escape. My friends called me crazy for this sort of reaction, but Chet seemed to get it.
“We had no business surviving that,” I said to him.
“None whatsoever!” he agreed. “But it is the most fun I’ve had in ages.”
M-Bot’s drone turned from me to Chet, then back to me. “You’re insane!” he said to us. “Both of you!”
“We simply appreciate life, abomination!” Chet said, dusting his clothes off and standing up. “Nothing brings you more of said appreciation than nearly losing that which you value.” He walked back to the edge of the fragment and put one foot up on a rock, leaning forward as he studied the jungle fragment. It was drifting away from us at a slow speed.
Standing like that in his flight jacket, I had to admit he cut an impressive figure. He reminded me of…well, someone from one of the stories. The people I’d dreamed about meeting, even imagined myself joining in an adventure.
But I couldn’t help being wary. Running into him here so quickly seemed coincidental. But what did I know? Maybe this strange place was full of heroic adventurers. You couldn’t ask for a better ambiance. Because as Chet stood there staring outward, the jungle fragment drifted far enough to the side for me to finally make out the source of light in this place.
A gigantic, expansive bright sphere of light rose halfway over the horizon. It looked like a bomb frozen mid-explosion. Though it was difficult to tell from my vantage, it felt like hundreds—maybe thousands—of fragments led toward it, each with a different terrain.
A thousand little worlds of adventure, leading like a broken roadway toward that enormous sphere. Was that a sun? It looked far too big, and was too close. I mean, yes, it was probably hundreds and hundreds of kilometers away—but suns were supposed to be millions upon millions of kilometers away.
Plus, it didn’t seem to be producing any heat, and I could look directly at it without trouble.
“We call it the lightburst,” Chet said, turning back to me. “It’s where the delvers live. The center of everything, in here. I assume from your expression that you’d like some answers?”
“That sure would be a nice change…”
“And you still intend to follow the Path of Elders?” he asked.
“That’s why I’m here.”
“Then our journey begins,” he said, walking over and offering a hand to pull me to my feet. “Join me, Spensa Nightshade, as we head toward adventure and I do some explaining.”
