Chapter 14

Threo would not release his hold of the chest, even as it dragged him down in the murky, smelly water. It was cold, colder than he had expected, and he kicked away from the bottom and tried to push himself up to the surface. It was only a few feet from his head.

As he struggled and his lungs began to feel the pressure, the water around him suddenly went opaque and a shockwave of water shoved him upward. Dimly he understood that the brave little robot had succeeded in igniting the methane deposit below the canal. And after the explosion had pushed the canal floor upward, a much stronger reverse current would come when the cave floor collapsed and the water rushed in. If Kensaburé had reached the top of one of the two gun towers, he might be able to see the entire canal system sink into the hole.

The first wave pushed him up to the surface. A tremendous roar of destruction hit his ears; the sky was black with smoke.

Threo had only the time to gasp for air and shout to the others: "Hold on to something! Hold on to -"

He felt the current pull him back down, and his back slammed into an underwater wall; the precious air he had just caught rushed out of his mouth in a stream of bubbles. He was sucked alongside the wall, like a piece of trash floating down a gutter, irreversibly headed for the storm drain. He grasped helplessly at the slippery wall with one hand, clutching the chest with his other hand, but only caught fistfuls of frail seaweed.

The outward-facing wall corner came closer, closer... and he knew that when the current dragged him around that corner, he would plunge into the chasm of the collapsed sewage plant, to be buried in the city’s waste sediment, together with one robot... now he was just another piece of debris.



Okono Yota hit the canal water hands first, and plunged in deep. Her robes wrapped around her legs, slowing them down. She untied the wide belt, freed herself from the robe and let her legs pump her forward.

Suddenly the water went opaque, and a mighty shockwave pushed her upward and away from the palace. She momentarily lost her bearings and came dangerously close to panic, but the water changed almost as quickly as it had dimmed and became clearer.

Okono swam back toward the point where she had seen Threo jump in with the precious chest in his arms. She did not care for the chest - it could be salvaged later - she wanted to find Threo. A muffled voice reached down to her from the surface, vaguely recognizable.

Then: a strong current from the source of the explosion hit her, pulled her back toward the pier stones of the palace. She pumped her legs against the pull, and her feet touched the slippery wall beneath the palace. Stray debris sank down into the muddied water. She made out a human shape being pulled past her, holding an oblong object. It touched the wall and started to drift toward the far corner where the current pulled down, down...

Okono acted on instinct and long training; her clan was one of the few ones in Castilia that owned an artificial swimming pond. She had spent many summers in that deep pond, testing her ability to hold her breath for minutes on end.

She swam with the pull, shot through the current like a projectile and overtook the sliding, drowning figure she knew was Threo. At the upper edges of the wall hung several thick iron rings for mooring ropes. She grabbed the collar of Threo’s doctor’s coat, pumped her legs until she reached the surface by force of sheer momentum, and hooked her arm through one iron ring. The pull sent a stabbing pain through her arm, and she thought it would break.

Then she felt the current weaken, and the water level sank around them with astonishing speed. From around the corner came an immense gurgling noise, and boats touched the bottom of the canal as she watched. The canal retreated beneath her feet, leaving her dangling from the ring, with Threo and his chest hanging by the grip of her hand. As the support of the water shrank away, she had to release Threo. He fell two feet and splashed into the muddy canal floor, next to the chest.

Okono became aware of the masked citizens staring at her; she was only wearing a long white shirt and her shoes. She let herself drop, landed in the mud next to Threo, and her feet sank deep into the bottom.

Threo lay on his back in the wet mud, and she could not hear him breathing.

"Wake up!" she cried, leaning down over his pale, calm face. She pounded her thin fists against his chest, her face contorted with grief. "Wake up!" Again she struck his chest, and he stirred.

Threo coughed up some ill-tasting water and blinked his eyes open; they smarted in the sunlight. Around him he saw boats and gondolas standing on the drained canal bed. He felt for the chest and drew a sigh of relief. A smiling woman leaned down over him, her high cheekbones plastered with strands of wet black hair.

There were many things he wanted to say, but in his dazed state all he could think of was:

"Hello... will you be my friend?"

She pounded his chest, playfully, and bent down and kissed him.

"Hey! Young lovers! I told you I cannot swim! Are you trying to kill me?"

The dwarf's angry voice from across the drained canal made them turn around, and they discovered Awonso and the dwarf - clinging to the side of a gondola, which in turn hung down from the embankment by a rope. The other end of the gondola was stuck deep into the canal sediment.

"Threo!" shouted Awonso. "Did you get the chest?"

He coughed and replied, "Yes!" They both grinned. "At least I hope most of the things inside are whole... my father packed and padded them well."

"Do you think Kiti-Mo made it out of there when the methane gas went up?"

Threo frowned and looked up at Okono. She looked sad. From the remains of the palace above their heads came a steady plume of smoke and foul vapor.

"I taught her to hide and stick her feet into the ground when she was in danger," Okono said. "If she found a place to take cover from the water's pull, then maybe... but the water would have ruined her innards."

Fresh water began to flow back into the canal, and lapped at their bodies.

"They have opened the sluice gates," said the dwarf, and crawled up the tilted gondola. "Young lovers! Get up from there unless you want to drown a second time!"

Okono and Threo lifted the chest and carried it across the canal floor to the nearest embankment staircase.

Once they were on the dry street again, Threo bought a couple of cloaks and shirts from a street vendor, and some blank masks. The vendor was unwilling to look at their bare faces, but he accepted Threo's gold coins.

"Where is Kensaburé?" he asked, while he was wringing the water out of his coat. "Last time I saw him, he was going to stop the false Lord Berluchos from escaping the city..."

A crowd of onlookers, all wearing masks, was gathering around them and listening. And yet, none of the Vanitians looked directly at their faces.

Threo was getting tired of this city, no matter how much he wanted to help the citizens. He put his fresh blank mask over his face and said to them: "Talk to the mask!"

The street vendor seemed to understand at once, and said: "Sirrah, you said there is a false Lord Berluchos?"

The dwarf broke in: "Yes, yes! It was his damned courtier, you know, the one who always wanted to impersonate Berluchos during the festivals! He started to think he was Berluchos. And the poor city lord, old and sick as he was, his big nose always getting a cold, he welcomed this opportunity to let someone else stand in for him. Now both of them are gone! The impersonator took Berluchos and myself and the guests hostage. Why does nobody listen to me? Nobody listens to the dwarf! But when I was Counselor Sarastos, everybody listened! Ha! Now look who's laughing..."

Threo began to see now, why the dwarf had started his career as a jester. He was an artful misanthrope. "The impersonator fled to the harbor. Did you not see him?"

The citizens mumbled no and shook their heads. Of course, Threo thought with increasing anger, the impersonator could pretend to be just about anyone, since nobody cared for his true appearance. The only thing he could not pretend to be was a child.

Threo had an idea. The only way to reach the Vanitians was to play their weaknesses against them. "The impersonator is going to reveal your secret to the world!" he lied. The lies came much easier while wearing the mask. "We tried to stop him! If he gets away, your city is doomed. The city will be burned to the ground!"

The masked citizens went into a panic. "Man the guns!" "Raise the chain!" "To the harbor!"

"There," he said when the crowd had abandoned them. "Now at least we will not be lynched by a mob... for a while anyhow. Do you think Kensaburé caught the villain?"

"I only wish I had my radio back," said Awonso. "How do we call for help without it?"

The dwarf cleared his throat. "Ah yes, that thing. In all the excitement, I forgot to ask you how it worked..."

Awonso's face turned red, and he grabbed the dwarf's neck. "So it was you all the time, you two-faced creep! I remember now how eager 'Counselor Sarastos' was to lay his hands on my set!"

"I was going to give it back to you!" the dwarf croaked. "I was only curious! We have never seen that machine in Vanitia... but I could barely make it work... it only sounded like rushing water, until..."

Threo urged Awonso to let go of the gagging dwarf, and crouched down with Okono to question him.

Okono said: "I suspected from the outset that the Vanitians did have radio, and were using it to sabotage our transmissions. But I was wrong, no?"

The grimacing dwarf rubbed his sore throat and exchanged hostile glances with the red-faced Awonso. "Nobody listens to me! I said, that infernal radio only made a racket when I borrowed it... until the morning you and your robot were taken away from the palace. I barely had time to listen to the most wondrous music from some distant land... and then, of course, you came back and started wrecking the place, so I decided to hide away your machine until you were in a friendlier mood."

Okono started as if she had received a slap in the face. She tugged at her hair and bared her teeth. "It is my fault! I forgot about the radiation emissions."

Awonso snapped his fingers. "Yes I see, Kiti-Mo... robots have strong power sources which can emit powerful electromagnetic signals. The older robot designs have atomic batteries shielded with lead. But Kiti-Mo..."

Okono bowed her head in shame, nodding ruefully. "I made her as light as possible, so that she could carry the weight of her head. I removed the lead shielding on the sides, to ease her weight... because I had loaded the head with bullets. My stupidity is unforgivable."

Threo reached for her hand before she started to think of another suicide attempt. "You did not make a mistake. Your robot saved us all."

While Okono and Threo embraced, Awonso looked across the slowly rising canal, at the smoldering ruins of the palace. "Well, there goes our radio. Remind me next time to bring two sets... if there ever is a next time."

The dwarf poked Awonso's knee. "I did not leave your radio set in the palace, bonehead! I was afraid the false city lord might steal it from me... um, from you. So I paid a servant to wrap it up good and hide it in a safe place."

"What safe place?"

The dwarf rolled his eyes and held up one palm in the obvious gesture. "Nobody listens to the dwarf. I keep saying it..."

Awonso sighed and dug in his pockets for the hidden money belt. "If that’s the game, you sneaky snake... how much?"

"Five gold coins."

"It's a crime! That's all I have left! You're robbing me blind!"

"If I hadn't been safekeeping it for you, it would be on the bottom of the canal by now. Think of it as insurance."

Reluctantly, Awonso counted five coins and dropped them one by one into the dwarf's outstretched palm.

"Lousy Vanitian embezzler," he grumbled. "You're no better than your former masters."

"Talk to the mask," the dwarf deadpanned.



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