Salamander

Chapter Seventeen: The Imperial City

Chapter Seventeen

We had made it to the area where we had left the robotic boy. The scientist roused him from some sort of sleep-mode and he had followed us ever since. The soft metallic noises and periodic plumes of smoke that exited his ears distracted me from where I was walking, causing me to trip over a rock or nearly run into a tree.

            “I’ll need to refill his water tank soon,” the scientist mumbled to himself. I didn’t know what that meant, but I had a feeling that it had to do with the steam that the robot seemed to run off of.

            “How’d you make him?” Mariam asked.

            The scientist seemed to flinch a bit. Just when I thought he was going to reply, he looked down and said nothing.  Mariam shot an inquiring glance in my direction, and I returned it with the same amount of curiosity. What was this robot made out of?

            “Is he the only one?” I probed.

            This time the scientist replied. “As of now, yes. I’m currently working on another model – one that can do much more than scouting.”

            “What else will they need to do?” I felt my foot catch another branch, but I was able to stop myself from tripping.

            “Do you recall me saying that they are meant to be soldiers?” he said in a condescending tone. “They need to fight. And if I’m successful, they could possibly get rid of the Collector Regime. We would just have to present them to the King Plarsky and –”

            “Wait, you know the royal family?” Mariam gasped.

            “Somewhat,” he said. “I had presented this idea to King Plarsky’s father, and he didn’t believe that I could create a sustainable robotic army. Luckily enough, he passed away last week, and all I can hope for is that his son, King Plarsky, will not be as closed-minded.”

            My mind shot back to the festival on the beach, remembering the large, floating ships that had been carrying what had been the future king. Apparently his name was Plarsky – that kind of information must have just been spread through the Imperial City, which explained how the scientist could have known after only one day of the new king’s coronation. “Did the city have a festival as well?” I wondered out loud.

            “Oh my, the coronation ceremony was spectacular,” the scientist said excitedly. “Those flying ships?! I wonder how they work, or who invented them, because they hadn’t been seen until the coronation ceremony. They must have been invented during the previous king’s time.”

            “King Algory,” Mariam said. “Did you attend his funeral, speaking of which?”

            “What?” the scientist asked confusedly.

            “You said you knew King Algory, that you had introduced the idea of a robotic army and that he had dismissed it,” Mariam explained. “Surely you must have been invited to his funeral.”

            He laughed in response. “I didn’t know him that well! I had only spoken to him twice before his death, both including me proposing my idea and him yelling at me about how it wouldn’t work.” He looked up through the canopy of trees, towards the sky that was already beginning to lighten with the end of night. “I pray King Plarsky will not be the same way. And surely if I show him a finished, working model he will at least consider my proposal, unlike his father.”