‘“What about me?”
‘“Come with me, Khalah!”
‘“My father would never allow it! I must stay here at the forge with my mother!”
‘“I know that, but Khalah, I must go.”
‘There was a long silence as Khalah contemplated his words. She knew she could not leave the forge, she also knew she could not bear to be parted from Eric. The two urges were powerful within her, so powerful they threatened to rip her in two, or so she thought. In the end her path was obvious.
‘“Then I will come with you,” she said.’
‘And so, later that day, when the forge was full, and Ben-Ji and Khalah were hard at work tending to a man and woman who twisted metal, Eric and Khalah left the city of Ell and set out towards the High Spires.
‘They did not take the main road that led south to the mountain pass, but rather walked through the wastelands that lay to the sides. In those days much of the land of Yukawa was overgrown with grass and twisted trees. Animals walked freely, and these watched Khalah and Eric as they headed south. The robots’ metal soon became dented and scratched from the journey, their electromuscle sodden from fording the cold streams and rivers that tumbled down from the mountains.
‘There was no fire to be found in the wastelands, save what Khalah could kindle from the dead wood that lay on the ground, and the fire she could make was a poor cool thing, not hot enough to fix the damage that their bodies suffered. Eric saw how Khalah’s once smooth and shiny body was now nothing but a network of scratches and scuffs and dents, he saw how she looked away from herself to the grass and the stones and tried not think about what she had become, and Eric felt ashamed at this. He pushed his hand into hers and sent a current down his own electromuscle and into hers.
‘“Thank you, Khalah,” he said.
‘“I will follow you anywhere, Eric.”
‘“I would do the same for you, Khalah.”
‘She was too noble to ask him to follow her back to her father’s forge.
‘And so they walked south towards the mountains, and as they did they saw, in the distance, the other robots who searched for them, for Ben-Ji loved his daughter, and he had not given up hope of finding her.
‘This saddened Khalah further, for she loved her father.
‘But she loved Eric more.’
‘After some weeks they came to the edge of the High Spires. The glassy rock rose up above them, piercing the very skies.
‘“What now, Eric?” asked Khalah.
‘“There is a way up, Khalah. I can feel it in my mind. If we walk along the base of the mountains in the direction of the rising sun, we will find it.”
‘They wandered east. After two days, at the rising of the sun, they saw a ledge that tilted from the ground and ran upwards.
‘“That is the path,” said Eric. “If we follow that ledge it will lead us up into the mountains, up to the treasures.”
‘“Then let us take it,” said Khalah.
‘“Yes, but…” His voice faltered.
‘“What’s the matter, Eric?”
‘“Khalah, now that I see the path, my thoughts have awoken some more, and I can see that this is not enough. Two of us will not be sufficient to gain the prize.”
‘Khalah gazed at him, her body scratched and dented. She kept her calm. “We are not enough,” she said, patiently. “What do you suggest that we do?”
‘“Your body is in need of attention, Khalah. The road north runs near here. A forge lies there at the foot of the mountains. I say we visit the forge, we repair ourselves. Perhaps we can persuade others to join us.”
‘Khalah was pleased to do this. For though she loved Eric, she craved other company, and she desired to visit the forge and make herself beautiful once more.
‘So they visited the forge. And whilst they were there, they persuaded two more robots to join them on their journey up the mountain, and those two robots persuaded two more, and they persuaded still more, until eventually sixteen of them took the path up into the mountains.
‘It was a long and dangerous journey, a story in itself. Perhaps another time I could speak of the paths of glass, too slippery for a robot to pass, or the caves of spears that thrust themselves into bodies as they passed by, or the creatures with the heads of robots but the bodies of insects that they had to battle with in order to get to their destination, but suffice to say they arrived there.
‘And so Eric and Khalah and their company walked into the centre of a circle of stone pillars, and they looked around.
‘“Is this the right place?” asked Khalah. Her body was battered and damaged once more by the journey. She had seen how empty their destination was, and now, for the first time, she questioned the wisdom of accompanying Eric here. All the robots did.
‘Eric looked around, puzzled.
‘“This is the place…” he said, “I’m sure of it…” And his eyes shone as he recognized something.
‘“There,” he said. “There, near the centre of the circle! See? The hole in the ground.”
‘Now they all saw it. A circular hole, about fifty feet across, smoothly bored into the ground. The wonder was they hadn’t seen it before.
‘“That looks like the den of a mugger snake,” said Khalah. “Only bigger. Much bigger.”
‘“It is,” said Eric. “Go down it, all of you.”
‘“But it will strip our metal away and plate it to its own body!”
‘“Yes. That’s how it feeds. It has grown so large that its body stretches nearly to the bottom of this mountain. It curls around inside the rock below us, but it is so big it can no longer hunt as it used to. So now it brings its prey towards itself.”
‘“But that’s impossible,” said Khalah. “Eric, I’m walking towards the hole. I don’t want to! Stop me!”
‘“I can’t, Khalah. I remember now. This is how it got so large. It’s twisted into our minds to follow the will of the mugger snake. All of us. All of the robots on the plain.”
‘“But how?”
‘“It made us! All of us! Simply as way of extending its range. A way to search out metal beyond the mountains. It made robots and sent us out into the world. And every so often it makes a robot such as me to bring prey back to itself. This is how it finds new metal.”
‘“No!” cried Khalah, and a sound of hissing emerged from her voicebox. “I thought you loved me!”
‘“I do, Khalah. But this is more important than that.”
‘Ahead of them, the first of the robots had stepped over the lip of the borehole, falling into the mugger snake’s maw.
‘“More important?” shrieked Khalah. “How can you say that?”
‘“Well, maybe not more important. Maybe it is an underlying truth on top of which all of our other thoughts dance.”
‘“No! I can’t believe that!”
‘“Well, you are walking into the hole,” observed Eric. “We both are.”
‘And they both stepped over the lip.’
‘The story can’t be true,’ said Susan. ‘If there were no survivors, how did the story get told?’
‘I don’t think that story is true,’ said Karel. ‘It’s an illustration. A warning from the past. A warning that none of us will know the truth until the end. And on that day we will walk unresisting towards the pit, because that is our purpose. That was what we were made for.’
Susan gazed at him with horror, the wire cooling in her hands.
‘You allowed me to make a child, knowing this? Knowing that we were all doomed?’
‘No!’ said Karel. ‘No! That may have been the way we were made, but we are better than that. We can be better than that! Look at Turing City, and all that we achieved! Even Artemis City showed how much robots can achieve through sheer will.
‘That’s why we need to travel north and search out the truth Susan! Because even if someone did make us, and even if they meant us to be nothing more than raw material for some other cause, that doesn’t mean we have to accept it! There is no such thing as destiny, Susan. At least, there doesn’t have to be.’
Susan gazed at him as she cut free the end of the wire that came from his body. She quickly tied it off in the fuse.