‘I don’t understand,’ he said. ‘That’s just Zuse.’
‘Just Zuse?’ she mimicked. ‘It’s a metal moon! And none of you think there’s anything wrong with that?’
‘Well there isn’t,’ said Wa-Ka-Mo-Do, puzzled. ‘Why should there be?’
‘You don’t even know what we’re doing here, do you? About -- the…
‘Rachael!’
The words came from behind Wa-Ka-Mo-Do. He turned to see a human male hurrying up. In the light cast from the Great Hall, he had the same copper colouring as Rachael. Was this her father?
‘Rachael! Why are you shouting? Have you been drinking?’
The man looked from Rachael to Wa-Ka-Mo-Do, and something about his gaze caused the robot to rise on his toes a little and prepare a fighting stance.
‘Did you give her champagne? Don’t you know that she’s too young?’
‘Honoured guest, if I have made a mistake I apologize…’
But the human had an arm around Rachael’s shoulder and was already leading her away from the terrace.
Ka-Lo-Re-Harballah appeared at Wa-Ka-Mo-Do’s side.
‘Are young humans not supposed to drink, then?’ asked Wa-Ka-Mo-Do, genuinely puzzled.
Karel
Karel turned up the brightness of his eyes. Just inside the mine entrance was a wide chamber, the only illumination the glow from the small forge in the centre of the room. The air was filled with smoke, and through the haze he made out the shapes of three other robots. Peering closer, he found them to be in a poorer state than Gail and Fleet.
‘Don’t be like that,’ said Gail, noticing his reaction. ‘Or are you afraid of us? Come on, what could we do to harm you? Look at us! Too weak, too far gone. Here, let’s drag your friend to the fire.’
They dragged Melt closer, and Karel took a look at the forge. There was a bucket of coal next to it; he weighed a piece in his hand.
‘This is good quality,’ he said. ‘Where do you get it from?’ No one answered.
‘What happened to him?’ asked a very thin robot, half crawling, half dragging herself up to Melt’s great cast-iron body. She ran a hand over Melt’s chest, feeling the metal there.
‘He won’t say,’ said Karel. ‘He seems to have been permanently joined to that body somehow.’
‘Levine will be able to help you,’ said Gail. ‘Would you like metal?’ She brought forward two strips of iron. ‘We have some oil, too.’ Fleet came up, carrying brass and tin.
Karel gazed at the iron that Gail held. Like the coal it was of good quality. He turned his gaze to her rusted body.
‘There is more to life than metal,’ said Gail, answering his unspoken question. ‘Come, take this. Perhaps it will help your friend.’ She pushed the metal towards him. Five pairs of eyes gazed through the smoke at Karel, and he felt a growing sense of unease.
‘We don’t need metal,’ repeated Gail. ‘We repaired ourselves not that long ago. Come, use this metal on yourself. Look here…’
She crossed the room to another robot lying on the floor, arms and legs so bent as to be useless. Her steel plate was punctured by crumbling circles of rust.
‘Look at her chest,’ she said. ‘Look at her electromuscle, how kinked it is. She’s draining her own lifeforce away.’
‘And yet she’s happy,’ said Levine, and the woman who lay on the floor increased the glow of her eyes by way of confirmation. ‘She understands the truth: that metal is not the sum total of a robot’s life. Look at your friend. He understands the trouble that metal can bring.’
They all looked at Melt, who was stirring feebly on the floor, trying to sit up.
‘Relax,’ said Gail. ‘Lie back and let the fire dry you. Let Levine take away some of the metal that troubles you.’
Levine was still running her hands over Melt’s body, feeling the metal there.
‘I can do something for him,’ she said.
‘Levine is a great craftsrobot,’ said Gail. ‘She was a princess in one of the mountain states, born to a body of steel and silver and gold. She walked here dressed in the finest metals, bent into patterns that you would marvel to see.’
‘I realized that such things are nothing but vanity,’ said Levine, and she ran her hand over Melt’s body, peeling away the finest shavings of iron. Karel was impressed. His wife had been a great shaper of metal, too. The skill that Levine evinced showed her to be at least her equal. And this was in that poorly constructed body.
‘Is this something to do with the Book of Robots?’ asked Karel, suddenly.
‘The Book of Robots?’ asked Levine. ‘No? What is that?’
‘The Book of Robots is a fallacy,’ said Gail.
‘Then you’ve heard of it?’
‘I read it once, or at least part of it.’
‘You read it? When? Where?’
Gail smiled and shook her head.
‘It doesn’t matter, Karel. Don’t you see, that such things are not of interest? The Book of Robots simply shows another way of twisting metal, and metal does not concern us here.’
Levine continued to scrape thin flakes of iron from Melt’s body. It didn’t seem to be hurting him.
‘I’ve travelled in the north,’ said Karel. ‘I heard many robots talk of the Book of Robots. I never met anyone who actually read it.’
‘Karel,’ smiled Gail. ‘It doesn’t matter. Let’s not speak of it.’
‘But I want to,’ said Karel. He felt uncertain and uneasy, and when Karel felt like that his anger kindled. His mother had woven that into his mind.
‘Who are you all?’
‘I’m Gail, I come from the north. Fleet walked the Northern Road. Levine and Carm came from the mountain states, and Vale came from sea. We help travellers who come into difficulty on the Northern Road.’
Fleet bent and collected together the scraps of metal from the floor that Levine had scraped from Melt; he rolled them together into a ball.
‘Why don’t you take that metal and use it to repair your voicebox?’ asked Karel in frustration. Fleet just shrugged and handed Karel the metal.
Karel still felt uneasy, but his anger was slowly passing. These people were different, but there seemed to be no harm in them. And Levine definitely seemed to be doing Melt some good.
‘There’s lead inside him,’ she said. ‘Why would anyone fill a robot with lead?’
‘Can you remove it without hurting him?’ asked Karel.
‘Not all of it,’ said Levine. ‘But I’ll do what I can.’
‘Are you sure you don’t want any metal?’ asked Gail, pushing the strips of iron towards him once more.
‘I’m fine,’ said Karel.
Time passed to the slow scraping of metal. There was something strangely satisfying about this place, a sense that things no longer mattered. All the pain, all the exertion: wouldn’t it be easier just to sit back and let the world pass by?
It was with some surprise that Karel looked out of the mine entrance and noticed that night had fallen. Fleet had gone, he realized. But when? And where to? He realized then just how sluggish his thoughts had become.
There was a hum of current and suddenly Melt sat up. He looked around at the circle of swarf in which he sat.
‘I feel so much better,’ he said. ‘Thank you.’
‘I could do so much more, if you gave me the time.’
‘I’m sorry, we have to move on.’ Melt flexed his arms and shoulders.
‘We understand.’
‘I want to thank you for your help,’ said Melt. ‘If there is anything we can do for you?’
Through the smoke that filled the chamber, Karel saw how Gail and the rest of the robots smiled at that.
‘You could accept a gift from us,’ said Gail. ‘Would you do that?’
‘We would be delighted,’ said Melt, not seeming to notice the look that Karel directed towards him.
‘Then, please, take these, as a token of our respect for you.’
Gail held out both hands. A scrap of silver wire lay on each palm.
‘Thank you,’ said Melt, reaching out to take one. Karel pushed the leaden robot’s hand away. He leaned forward suspiciously, to get a better look at the gifts. Two pieces of metal, two scraps of silver wire.
‘What’s the matter, Karel?’ said Melt. ‘It’s only metal…’