‘Likes wot?’ asked Tark.
From outside came a horrible screeching sound, followed by crashing and screaming.
‘Why do I get the sinking feeling that the something we're looking for has just arrived?’ said the princeling.
Zyra led the charge to the front of the shop. They peered through the broken window, just in time to see a giant metal spider step on a policeman. The mechanical beast was the size of an average suburban house, and it towered menacingly over the terrified people trying to escape it.
‘That'll do,’ said Zyra, opening the door and heading out onto the street.
Tark and the princeling followed.
‘Looks at it!’ breathed Zyra, oblivious to the hysterical crowd shoving past them.
‘I'd rather not,’ said the princeling.
‘Looks at the way it kinda shimmers and blurs,’ said Zyra, fixated.
‘Yes,’ agreed the princeling. ‘I can see. But it's not doing it all the time. Just like the phone, sometimes it looks completely solid. Remember what the portal said: find a stable one.’
‘Yeah, well. Bit risky,’ said Zyra. ‘But it's all we's gots.’
‘I guess ya is rights,’ agreed Tark. ‘We is gotta go through that.’
‘Oh, and how do you propose to do that?’ asked the princeling.
Zyra looked to Tark and shared a grin. Then as Zyra nodded, they both took off at a run, directly for the spider. The princeling hesitated a moment, weighed up his choices, then gave chase.
As they approached the spider, it reared on its back four legs, opened its mouth and released a piercing screech. Then it jumped forward, its gaping maw opening wider still, swallowing Tark and Zyra.
Princeling Galbrath ground to a halt, but too late. The spider lunged forward and snapped him up.
21: The Designers’ Legacy
Fizzling, crackling grey static. They were in the Designers Paradise interface. But this time it was different. The static was more substantial. It felt as if they were submerged in water. And floating through it were insubstantial images, ghosts of suburbia, of the World from which they came, of unknown and inexplicable environments comprising spaceships, robots, dark-skinned natives with clubs, giant sailing ships, bizarre-looking animals and things to which they couldn't even put names.
‘Now what?’ shouted the princeling.
A spear flew through the static and pierced the hem of the princeling's coat. ‘We must do something, NOW!’ he shouted, flailing about and floating off through the static.
‘Stays togetha,’ called Zyra, as she grabbed onto Tark's hand.
The princeling stopped his thrashing. Another spear passed through the static narrowly missing them.
Suddenly a Roman centurion pushed his arm through what looked like a shimmering tear in the static. His arm solidified while the rest of him remained an insubstantial ghost.
‘This ain'ts good!’ said Zyra. ‘He's pushing through a weakness. He's after us.’
‘The keys!’ suggested Tark. ‘Coulds we use ’em?’
A piercing screech reverberated through the static. They stared in horror as the insubstantial robotic spider they had encountered on the suburban street appeared before them. The spider screeched again, reared on its back legs and thrust its two front legs forward. A small tear appeared in the static, blurred and shimmering at the edges. Beyond it, the spider seemed solid enough. It forced a leg through the tear, pushing and pulling at the edges, widening it.
Princeling Galbrath reached into his coat and pulled out his key. With a spark of energy it leapt from his hand. It hung in the static, tendrils of grey crackling wispiness enshrouding it, coalescing and forming the vague outline of a door.
‘Quick!’ he yelled. ‘Your keys!’
Tark and Zyra swam through the static to reach the princeling.
Zyra fished out their keys, relieved that she had pocketed them when she'd had the chance. They sprang from her hand and joined the other key. The static hissed and crackled and sparkled into an open doorway, light streaming through it, making it impossible to see what lay beyond. Princeling Galbrath thrashed his arms and kicked his legs, launching himself through the opening. With a quick backward glance at the spider, Tark and Zyra followed through to a bizarre landscape, the likes of which they had never seen before. They were standing on a vast expanse of gently undulating greenery, which in the distance formed hills. At first it looked like grass, but on closer inspection revealed itself to be non-organic. The green plastic substance was dotted with points of silver, connected by an intricate array of wire-work that sparked with electric life.
Sprouting like trees, bunches of fibre-optic cable dotted the landscape. Crackles of electricity flew back and forth through the darkness above, appearing to originate from a tower atop a distant hill. The sizzling energy lit up the silver clouds which reflected the vast circuit-board landscape below.
They looked around in confusion. Behind them was a door-shaped oblong of static. Within, they saw another Roman centurion hitting the doorway with his shield. Again and again, the soldier threw his weight against the door, but to no avail. Then suddenly he was encased in a spray of glistening, metallic webbing. Although he fought against it, the centurion was dragged backwards towards the gaping jaws of the metallic spider, its head and forelegs now through the tear it had created.
‘Let's gets movin’,’ cried Zyra.
‘Where?!’ screamed the princeling.
‘Anywhere that ain'ts near that thing,’ said Tark, pointing back to the static.
Zyra took the lead, heading towards the hill in the distance. There seemed to be no predators in this weird world, or any form of life for that matter. They were soon standing beneath the towering construction of criss-crossing steel that worked its way to a high point with a complex antennae array.
‘So, what do we do now?’ asked the princeling. ‘Climb it?’
Zyra ignored him and walked under the tower to the other side of the hill. ‘Over here,’ she called back.
Tark and the princeling joined her. The circuitboard landscape continued beyond the hill into a valley with more hills swelling to the horizon. Nestled in the valley was … something. But what? It was difficult to make out. A building? A domed building with a reflective surface? The circuit board pattern and crackling streaks of energy reflected on the structure's surface, blending into its surroundings. ‘There,’ said Zyra. She started walking down the hill.
Tark and the princeling hurried to keep up with her.
They approached the building and were soon facing distorted images of themselves.
‘There ain'ts no door,’ said Tark walking a short way along the dome's perimeter.
‘Mmm,’ said Zyra, running a hand over the smooth surface.
In the distance a horrible screeching sound echoed across the landscape. The three of them looked back to where they had come.
‘Must ’ave broken through,’ stated Zyra, matter-of-factly.
Princeling Galbrath turned back to the dome and pounded on its surface with his fists.
‘Let us in,’ he demanded.
To his surprise, a person-sized hole opened like an iris. He looked back at Tark and Zyra, who urged him forward.
‘It could be a trap,’ Princeling Galbrath said, peering into the darkness.
Still in the distance, but now a little louder, perhaps a little closer, another screech pierced the silence. The princeling stepped through the opening without further hesitation, Tark and Zyra followed. The iris closed behind them.
‘It is a trap,’ whined the princeling in the darkness.
Light suddenly filled the mirrored tunnel, although no energy source was visible.
‘Yeah, rights,’ said Tark. ‘’Cause when ya makes a trap, yas always gotta make sure to lights it properly.’