The Mad Voyage of Prince Malock (31 page)

“So sorry about that,” said the woman, gesturing at
the metallic beings. “These automatons can be so reactionary
sometimes. My apologies.”

Malock regained his composure quickly and said, “No
offense taken, Miss ...?”

“Hanarova,” said the woman, curtsying him. “You can
call me Hana for short.”

“Miss Hana,” said Malock. “I am Prince Tojas Malock,
Crown Prince of Carnag, Captain of the—”

“Yes, yes, I know all of that already,” said Hana,
interrupting him with a wave of her hands. “Little Jingus here
already told me. That, and everyone on the southern seas already
knows who you are. I did not believe I'd ever get to meet you, to
be honest, but I suppose Tinkar decided it would be funny to see
what would happen if we met.”

Malock immediately reached for his sword's hilt
before remembering that the automatons had taken it from him
earlier. “Are you a goddess, then? Like the Loner God?”

“The who?” said Jenur, but neither Malock nor Hana
bothered paid her attention.

Hana chuckled. “Wouldn't that be something? No. I'm
a katabans.”

“A what?” said Jenur. “Are you guys just throwing
around words now to confuse us or something?”

“Ugh,” said Hana, rolling her eyes. “It's your
awkward tongue. Doesn't have an exact equivalent. If I had to
describe it using your mortal terms, it means I'm a minor spirit.
Surely you mortals have heard of minor spirits before?”

“Vaguely,” said Malock. “In my education, I was
taught about the different creatures that live in the world. I
remember something about katabans. I think it was a footnote in a
textbook or something that mentioned katabans sometimes working for
gods.”

“Bingo,” said Hana, though there was a touch of
sarcasm to her voice. “Yes, we katabans serve the gods and
goddesses of Martir, both north and south. I am currently the
servant of the Mechanical Goddess, who is the ruler and patroness
of this island upon which you have landed.”

“Mechanical Goddess?” said Jenur. “You mean Asix,
God of Mechanics, right?”

Hana laughed. “No, no, no. The Mechanical Goddess
and Asix are siblings, true, like all of the gods are, but the two
are as different as night is from day. Don't confuse the two when
you are in her presence, please.”

Damn it,
Malock thought.
We just had to
run into another southern deity, didn't we?

Aloud, he said, “Okay. So your mistress rules this
island. I suppose we'll be on our way, then, as that's all we
wanted to know.”

Hana's smiled immediately disappeared from her lips.
“Sorry, but you five aren't going anywhere, I'm afraid. Not until I
find out which of you killed Bet.”

“Who?” said Malock, trying not to show the fear
rising in his chest. “We have no idea who you are talking about,
Miss Hana.”

“Bet,” said Hana. “My brother. There's no way you
could have gotten beyond the ice walls unless you killed Bet and
took his entry stone. I don't know where his body is or how you
managed to kill a katabans, but until I do, you five are staying
put here.”

The front gates slammed shut and Malock saw no other
way out of the courtyard. The walls were too high to climb or jump
and he doubted that he and his unarmed men could fight the
automatons and Hana, whose true power was still a mystery to them
all.

“Are you going to kill us?” said Jenur.

“It would only be fair,” said Hana. “As big of a lug
as my brother was, he was still my brother. I honestly didn't
expect him to get killed by mortals, but mortals have killed
katabans before, so perhaps it's not as shocking as it could have
been.”

“I don't get it,” said Malock. “If you're a spirit,
how come you have a physical body? How can we kill you? Aren't you
stronger than us mortals?”

“We katabans can take on physical forms in order to
perform certain tasks that are beyond our spiritual forms,” said
Hana. She gestured at hers and said, “This one I've had for a
while, as I and my brother have been serving the Mechanical Goddess
for many years. It's rather ugly in comparison to how I really
look, but it gets the job done.”

“'Ugly' is a bit of an overstatement, wouldn't you
say?” said Malock. “I mean, you are almost as beautiful as Kano
herself.”

Hana shot him a irritated look. “Did you kill Bet?
Because I'm starting to think you did.”

Malock, without thinking, immediately pointed at
Jenur. “She did it.”

“Hey!” said Jenur. “What the hell, Malock? I thought
you weren't going to betray me again.”

“So you didn't kill Bet, either?” said Hana.

“Well, I did,” Jenur said. “But only because he
killed one of our guys first. And that's not the point, anyway. If
you knew about what we've already been through—”

“I do not care,” said Hana. “I'll kill all of you
equally and then dump your bodies into the sea. The cold will
probably preserve you, though, so you don't need to be afraid of
losing your good looks.”

Hana snapped her fingers and the automatons
immediately began walking toward them. Malock and the others
prepared to fight for their lives, but just then, a series of
tremors shook the ground beneath their feet. The first was barely
noticeable, but soon the tremors became more and more obvious,
until all of the automatons stopped cold as if obeying an unheard
command. Hana turned to look at the center of the courtyard, which
seemed to be the source of the tremors.

“What's going on?” said Jenur. “An earthquake?”

Hana gulped. “Not an earthquake, murderer. A
goddess.”

The top of the courtyard's center slid away like a
panel and from within it arose a large machine that towered over
everyone in the vicinity, human, automaton, and katabans alike.

When the machine rose to its full height, the ground
ceased shaking. The machine looked like a shrunken lighthouse, with
a small red light at the top whose rays swept across the entire
courtyard in seconds. Whistles and snaps and other mechanical
noises emitted from its black-armored body so loudly that Malock
could barely even hear himself think.

Immediately, the automatons fell to their knees, but
they weren't bowing at Malock. They were bowing at the black
lighthouse, which continued to make loud noises. It sounded like a
toddler that had been awakened from its nap too early or maybe that
was just Malock's imagination.

Hana hadn't bowed, but the expression of reverence
on her face meant she knew what it was. “Mechanical Goddess! What a
surprise. I didn't know you were awake.”

“
That's
a goddess?” said Jenur, not even
bothering to keep her voice down.

“Shh!” Malock said to her in a low voice. “Don't do,
say, or even think anything that will get her on your bad
side.”

“Sir, you sound like you've met her before,” said
Aseth, raising his voice a little to be heard over the sounds of
the Mechanical Goddess. “Have you?”

“No,” said Malock, shaking his head, all the while
keeping his eyes on the Mechanical Goddess. “But I know exactly
what her kind thinks of us mortals and we don't need to give her an
excuse to want to eat us even more than she already does.”

“
Eat
us?” Kocas repeated, her face turning
pale. “What does—”

The whirring and creaking noises of the Mechanical
Goddess became louder, cutting off Kocas's question. Hana cringed
at the noise, looking much like how disobedient servants looked
whenever Malock or one of his parents yelled at them back home on
Carnag.

“Yes, I'm sorry,” said Hana, looking more and more
subdued the further the Goddess raged. “I was going to get around
to telling you about the visitors eventually. It's just—”

Though Malock could not understand the Mechanical
Goddess's language, somehow he knew that she wasn't at all pleased,
especially when a burst of steam exploded from the top of her
head.

“Okay, okay, I know,” said Hana, holding up her
hands, like she was afraid she was going to be hit. “I won't do it
again. Sorry. I'll call off the automatons.”

More whirring and creaking, this time punctuated
with a rather violent-sounding beep.

“Oh, you still want the automatons around?” said
Hana. “Oh. Must have misheard you. Won't happen again. I'm
sorry.”

The Mechanical Goddess became quiet. Then Malock
remembered where he had heard those noises before: from the
automatons, who he realized must have been constructed by the
Mechanical Goddess herself.

Hana sighed and turned around to face Malock and the
hunters again. “You lucked out. The Mechanical Goddess doesn't want
any of you dead yet. She was very angry that I didn't inform her of
your arrival right away, as I should have.”

“So we gathered,” said Malock, though he didn't let
his guard down one bit. “Listen, if it's going to be a problem,
we'll just head back to our ship. The only reason we came here was
to find out who killed one of ours and you know what? We did. We
really don't have any reason to be here.”

Hana smiled. “The Mechanical Goddess doesn't want
you leaving just yet. She would like to invite you to dinner in her
palace. She is sure you are all very hungry. You look like little
more than skin and bones.”

Malock looked at the rest of his party. Sure enough,
they all looked as hungry as a baba raga. Malock's own stomach
betrayed him by rumbling loudly at that exact moment.

“That's a very generous offer and I am not normally
one to turn down a generous offer made by a goddess,” said Malock
as he took a step back. “But we have plenty of food on our ship,
you see, and we just caught some fresh pale deer. Really, we
wouldn't want to intrude.”

“Oh, it's not a problem at all,” Hana said, folding
her hands behind her back. “The Mechanical Goddess has not had
visitors in quite some time.”

“You mean she isn't pissed that we killed one of her
servants?” said Jenur.

Hana's left eye twitched at the mention of her
brother, but she said in her normal voice, “Not really. She never
really liked Bet all that much, mostly because he was never
particularly bright or clean, unlike me. She was actually quite
happy to be rid of him, if you can't tell.”

It was impossible to judge the Mechanical Goddess's
mood right now, due to her complete lack of body language and
facial expression, but Malock nodded anyway like he understood
completely.

“Now follow me,” said Hana, turning around to face
the palace. “And by the way, you have to come whether you want to
or not.”

Malock balled his hands into fists, but Hana was
right. The doors were shut closed, the automatons were still at the
ready, and the Mechanical Goddess probably wouldn't take very
kindly to having her invitation declined.

So Malock nodded his head and said, “All right.
We'll come, but that doesn't mean we have to like it.”

Hana was already halfway to the front steps. “Don't
worry. She doesn't expect you to.”

***

M
iraculously, Kinker managed to climb the
ladder up from the lowest deck, where the hold was located, to the
middle deck, where the cannons were located. Not that it had been
easy. The ship still swayed, his back was still giving him grief,
and now his head was starting to hurt from the fall he'd taken
earlier. Either that or he was just starting to notice the pain
throbbing in the back of his head, but he figured it didn't really
matter when he noticed the pain or when it started hurting because
the result was the same.

But the climb had taken a lot out of him. Kinker lay
sprawled on the floor near the ladder, sweating despite the
coldness. He panted hard, wiping the sweat off his brow and wishing
that he was younger. In his younger days, his back had been much
stronger, much better able to take falls and hits. More than once
he had prayed to Kano to grant him his youth again, even though she
wasn't Senva, and now he found himself once again praying to Kano,
this time asking her for his back to be healed.

She didn't answer. He'd noticed her silence over
this voyage, which disturbed him greatly. True, Kano hadn't always
answered all of his prayers even back on Destan, but he had always
had the feeling she was at least listening if nothing else. Now,
though, he doubted she was doing even that much.

She must think we'll get to World's End
quickly,
Kinker thought.
Without any trouble at all. That
either makes her insane or extremely optimistic. I am willing to
consider the former.

Kinker rolled onto his stomach and started crawling
up the hallway, as he had no way to pull himself to his feet to
walk. He managed a few feet before stopping, panting and biting his
lower lip and trying to ignore the pain. The sounds of battle above
sounded more ferocious than ever, but he paid them little
attention. His pain was the more immediate problem and if he didn't
come up with a way to get rid of it soon, he was unlikely to get
anywhere.

But he was no doctor or mage. He could not simply
wave a magic wand and heal his back instantly. The only choice he
had, as far as he could see, was to keep going, even if his back
didn't want to. He'd simply have to tough it, like his father had
always taught him. There was no avoiding that fact.

So Kinker pulled himself forward again and let out a
loud moan of pain. Ignoring it, he kept pulling himself forward and
kept moaning, but he once again only managed a few feet because the
pain paralyzed him. So he just lay there, face-first, feeling his
beard cling to the grime of the floor, listening to the battle
above grow louder and more violent, wondering if this was the
end.

-

The interior of the Mechanical Goddess's palace was
different from every other palace or castle Malock had ever been
to. There were no paintings of famous ancestors or heroes or gods,
no sculptures representing any of the aforementioned famous people,
not even a special vase on a pedestal that could be broken at any
moment.