The Lady Tower

Elsa Frohman Part 5

On the 13th level, Todo found evidence of the Baron's party.

"Stay back. Don't come around the corner," he called back to Elora urgently.

"What have you found?"

"Just stay back."

Elora tried to obey, but had to know what he was looking at. She peeked around the corner carefully.

"No!" she exclaimed.

In the gloom of the hallway, she could make out Todo bending over the prone body of a man. She recognized his boots immediately. It was Balnor, one of those who accompanied her father. She couldn't stay where she was. She had to know what happened to him.

Elora let out a cry of revulsion and dismay as the lamp she still wore hanging around her neck illuminated the gaping hole in Balnor's chest. Something had burned through his leather cuirass, and the tunic and shirt beneath. A large chunk of his torso was missing, the intense heat of the attack having cauterized the wound instantly. His arms and legs were thrown out wide and his face was frozen in a grimace of pain and terror, made even more horrible by the deep shadows competing with her light.

The sight of the wound triggered a violent heave of Elora's stomach and she clapped a hand over her mouth.

"I told you to stay back!"

Elora looked away. "I had to see," she said in a tiny voice.

Todo's voice was tight and worried. "Go back. Right now."

Elora didn't move.

"I'm not only concerned about what you see, Elora," he said with a sigh. "There is danger here. Please go back and stay completely quiet."

He reached down and touched the edge of the wound. Elora watched him in frozen horror for a moment then forced her feet to obey his order. He joined her back round the corner a moment later.

"What did you do to him? How could you touch him?" she asked.

"I had to examine the wound to see how old it was," Todo explained in a whisper. "I needed to know how long ago it happened."

Elora swallowed the bile in her throat and nodded unhappily.

"How long?" she said as quietly as she could.

"About two days, I think," Todo whispered.

"What could do that to a man? Is this what you were talking about? A way to kill thousands?"

"Nothing that big. This generally kills one at a time."

"Two days ..." Elora whimpered. "How could they hold out against such a foe for two days?" Despair gripped her.

Todo motioned for her to follow him and they returned to the lift quickly. He closed the doors, but didn't set it into motion.

"We should be safe in here for the moment," he said. "We need to make a plan."

"They are lost, aren't they? They couldn't defend themselves against such an attack. Not for two days," Elora said, beginning to cry.

"It's not as bad as that," Todo replied. "They were attacked by what I call a guard dog. Its weapons are quite terrible, but its primary function isn't to kill -- only to guard. It only kills when its quarry doesn't retreat. If your father's men retreated after they saw what the dog could do, then they're trapped somewhere on this level. The dog holds its quarry until its master comes to deal with the situation."

"Guard dog? An animal?"

"Not an animal, a machine. I suspect that's where the lights your sentries saw came from. When a dog patrols a corridor at night, it casts a light before itself to detect motion and intruders.

"What disturbs me the most is that the dog on this level had been activated before your father's party came up here. It means someone has been up in this tower who should not have been here. And since we've seen no second set of tracks, it was someone who knew exactly where in the tower he was going. I wouldn't be surprised if that intruder didn't sabotage the ladder. It's probably how he came up."

"Someone like you ..." Elora said slowly.

Todo sighed again. Yes, he thought, a Custodian -- unauthorized. No Custodian would come here on legitimate business without contacting him.

"Someone who knows about the Ancients, as I do. Yes, that's a reasonable assumption. But I will have to deal with that later. Right now, we need to find your father and the rest of the survivors of his party."

"You believe they survived?"

"As I said, the dog only uses lethal force when it's advanced upon. If you back away from it, it simply forces you into somewhere where it can hold you. If they went into any of the rooms off the corridor, it would set up guard outside the door and prevent them from leaving. It's programmed to hold prisoners until its master arrives."

"Who is its master?"

"Its master is long dead. The machine has been dormant for thousands of years. It doesn't know that its master will never come, though, so it won't let its prisoners go."

"What can we do?"

"We have to disable it."

Elora thought about that, and about seeing Todo activate the lift.

"If it's a machine," she said slowly. "Then you can turn it off, right?"

"In theory. Its master would know a command to give it, which would make it stand down instantly. Unfortunately, that knowledge has been lost."

"But there's still a way, isn't there?"

Todo nodded.

"But first, we have to find it and where it's holding its prisoners." Todo paused, seeming unsure of what to do. He bit his lip.

"This is very dangerous. It would be best if you stayed here while I go looking for the dog."

"I didn't come this far to stop now," Elora said with determination.

"You saw what happened to Balnor. When we go out there, we may come upon the dog at any moment. It has probably already detected our presence on this level. It will have concealed itself, waiting to ambush us. The dogs are quite clever."

"But you said that it only uses lethal force when you advance on it."

"True, but if we back off, it will maneuver us into a place where it can trap us, and we'll be no better off than your father and his men."

"If you don't know the command to make it stand down, how will you prevail? At least if we both go, we could ... split up when we see the dog. That might confuse it, and maybe one of us could get past it."

Todo smiled, impressed at Elora's reasoning. He could see her becoming a sharp strategist some day -- with a little more experience.

"Not a bad plan, but the dog isn't that easily confused. When it finds itself with more than one target, it activates another guard dog.

"Besides, I'd rather we both got out of this safely."

"So, tell me what to do," Elora said, setting her jaw. "Except don't tell me to stay behind."

Todo shook his head in resignation. "All right. But you have to stay close to me. We don't want to end up with two of the things to deal with."

They worked their way down the corridor slowly, carefully and silently, pressed against the wall, Todo listening for any sound of movement. He had taken the light from her and put it away in his bag, saying it would only draw the dog to them. The corridor was dark, but not pitch black. A faint gray light filtered in from windows at either end.

The dust on the floor here was churned beyond any chance of identifying individual footprints. That a desperate retreat had taken place along this hallway was beyond doubt.

They found a sword on the floor abandoned.

"It's Marco's," Elora whispered, her eyes reflecting new fear. "He would never leave it behind."

"There's no body," Todo whispered back. "He may have dropped his weapon, but he got away."

Elora took the sword and tucked it under her arm to carry. "If he's all right, he'll want it back," she said resolutely.

Todo knew enough of military strategy to imagine the events that transpired in this corridor. The first skirmish had taken place not far from the stairwell where the Baron and his men entered the level. The dog would have let them get far enough into the hallway to get behind them and cut off their escape. Then it would have fired a warning shot -- a low-power laser bolt designed to sting, but not seriously injure its quarry.

Thus confronted, the Baron's men would have formed a tight battle formation and advanced on their attacker. They wouldn't know how deadly it could be. As they advanced, the dog would have fired a fatal salvo. This was the bolt that killed Balnor.

It was difficult to know just what happened after the Baron's men saw their comrade fall. This was certain, they would have no idea how to deal with a machine that fired bolts of energy at them. They were skilled soldiers, but trained in hand-to-hand combat, not weathering laser cannon fire. Todo imagined a moment of chaos, quelled by the Baron's voice regaining command. "Take cover! Take cover! Fall back, men!"

But the corridor provided scant protection, and they would have begun their desperate retreat, the machine following them and firing shots intended to keep them moving without killing. Anyone who stopped, or showed signs of turning to confront the pursuer, would get a high-energy blast.

Todo imagined Elora's brother proving his courage by turning to stand and fight. The action would have earned him a rebuke that could maim, if it didn't kill.

Todo snapped back to the present as he heard a soft click several yards behind them. He and Elora turned simultaneously to see a panel in the ceiling slide open. Todo's arm shot out and pressed Elora back flat against the wall.

"Don't move," he whispered urgently.

The "guard dog" dropped noiselessly from the compartment above the ceiling. It couldn't have looked less like a canine. Its body was a sphere of polished metal, slightly flattened on the bottom. There was a brightly glowing dome on top of the sphere that illuminated the corridor as a beacon within rotated.

It sank slowly, buoyed by some power Elora couldn't imagine. She watched it wide-eyed, her heart pounding and the tightening in her chest making it hard to breathe.

"It's all right, so far," Todo said out loud. "Just stay still. It isn't certain whether we're hostile or not."

Elora wondered briefly why Todo had stopped whispering, and he seemed to sense her question.

"It knows where we are," he said calmly. "It has a subroutine for dealing with people who have wandered into its territory innocently. We have a minute or so to convince it we belong here before it does anything hostile."

"Hello," Todo said casually, addressing himself to the machine. "I believe we've lost our way."

The machine hovered for a moment, and the rotating beacon stopped, locking onto Todo and illuminating him like a spotlight.

"Can you direct us back to the lifts?" he asked politely.

"Can it understand you?" Elora asked softly.

"Not really. The Ancients spoke a different language. And if I tried to speak that language, my accent would give me away as an intruder. However, the machine is sensitive to tone of voice as well as specific phrases, so if I don't sound like a burglar interrupted during a break-in, it may have trouble classifying us."

Elora turned and addressed the machine.

"We belong here," she said as confidently as she could. The beacon swung around to lock onto her.

The machine seemed to examine her for a moment, then started to sink toward the floor again.

"Uh, oh," Todo said. "It's taking up a defensive position. It sets down before it shoots, so the recoil from its weapon doesn't spoil its aim for a second shot."

As it neared the floor, eight legs folded out from its sides, coming down to suspend its body, making it look like a giant spider.

"OK, I've got one chance at this," Todo said as he started walking toward the machine. Elora watched in horror as a bolt of light shot out of the beacon and hit him square in the chest. He gave a cry and collapsed to the floor.

The machine began to walk, its eight legs clicking against the tiles as it moved spider-like toward Todo.

"No!" Elora screamed.

"Elora! Don't move," Todo cried, realizing she was about to draw fire -- and not the painful, but harmless bolt he had just taken. It would shoot to kill now.

Elora was too panicked to understand what he had said. All she knew was that the terrible machine was advancing on Todo. She stepped into the center of the corridor and took Marco's sword in both hands. She knew the blade was no defense against the thing she faced, but she had to do something, even if it wasn't effective. With no time to think or plan, she swung the weapon over her head and flung it at the machine with all her strength.

The sword tumbled through the air only to meet a bolt of lightning from the machine. The flash of light turned everything white for an instant. There was a sharp hissing sound, so high-pitched it was almost a shriek. When the light dimmed again, the sword was gone, leaving only a sharp burnt odor and several drops of molten steel glowing dully on the floor.

But in the instant of distraction, Todo had hurled himself toward the metal spider. He was underneath it now, between its legs, furiously yanking on a panel that came off in his hands. He reached up inside the machine.

The guard dog's reaction was instant. It screamed in protest and tried to get away from him. It backed up several steps, but Todo had a firm grip on it both with the hand inside its casing and the other hand holding to one of its legs. He was dragged along with it, the heels of his boots scraping trails in the dust. It reared up, trying to shake him off, but he stayed with it, rising up until he could get his feet under him. When the spider reached its highest angle, its back four legs as low as they would collapse and it's front four legs fully extended, Todo abruptly brought his boots down on the floor and pushed up, standing up to his full height and overbalancing the machine.

It tipped over on its back. The glass beacon on its upper side shattered as the body came down on it. The machine's legs waved helplessly in the air. Todo continued fishing inside until there was a sharp snap and the legs went limp, flattening out on the floor.

"There," he said, standing up straight and brushing himself off.

"It's dead?" Elora asked in a trembling voice.

"It was never alive. But it's not going to do any more harm."

Elora walked over for a closer look at the defeated guard dog. She was shaking all over, and struggling to get control of her shivering knees.

"It doesn't look much like a dog," she said, trying to sound brave.

Todo shook his head. "I know, but it just doesn't sound right to say there are guard spiders in the towers."