Shade's Children by Garth Nix

Author:Garth Nix
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, pdf
Tags: Magic, Fantasy, Children: Young Adult (Gr. 7-9), Juvenile Fiction, Fantasy & Magic, Science Fiction
ISBN: 9781435232952
Publisher: Paw Prints
Published: 2008-04-10T07:00:00+00:00

“Absolutely not,” said Shade, shaking his handsome holographic head from side to side. “The risk is too great and the reward slight.”

“Getting Drum isn’t important?” asked Ella, an edge to her voice that was rarely heard by Shade.

“Of course that would be important,” replied Shade. “But not at the risk of losing three or four others. And no great intelligence would be gained. I know what goes on in the Meat Factory in general, and I doubt that specific information would be particularly useful.

“But let’s not dwell on an unpleasant subject. It would be better to direct our attention to what you’ve found at Fort Robertson. Perhaps, Ninde, you’d be kind enough to put it on the floor for my little helpers?”

“What about Drum?” Ella began, but Shade cut her off. Two of his spider robots were already clicking their way across the floor to take the conch-shell device from Ninde.

“We’ll discuss it later, Ella. Now, how did you know this was worth picking up, Ninde?”

Ninde looked at Ella before replying, as if expecting a further outburst. But Ella was silent, looking away into the dark corners, away from the bright hologram of Shade.

“As soon as the Deceptor battery went flat, I could hear the Myrmidon Master’s thoughts,” Ninde explained. “It was really easy there—really clear. The Master was thinking that we were creatures from some other Overlord, that we’d broken the…Compact…like the rules. And we’d come to steal the Thinker. That thing there, because not every Overlord had one, but they all wanted one. So I thought if they all wanted one, we should take it…so I did.”

“Quite right,” said Shade, his smile expanding to show an even greater expanse of white teeth than normal. A greedy smile.

“Now I think you should all go and rest,” he said, “while I examine this…Thinker.”

As soon as he finished speaking, Ella got up and left without a word. Ninde hesitated for a moment. She watched the spider robots taking the Thinker away, then followed Ella. Gold-Eye got up too. He stood there looking at Shade, trying to find some words that might encourage Shade to order Drum’s rescue.

But the hologram was already dissipating and the spider robots were carrying away the Thinker to one of the corners, where more spider robots were coming out of the conduits, carrying instruments and trailing cables.

As the light from the hologram faded and no others came on, the room darkened. Gold-Eye headed for the hatch, but missed it in the dark and had to feel along the bulkhead. His ears seemed more sensitive with the lack of light, and he heard the spider robots clicking across the floor and the faint hum of electrical power above the soft breathy sound of the Submarine’s ventilators.

For some instinctive reason he crouched as he felt along the bulkhead. His hands quested for the sill of the hatch, but found fur instead—the wet, furry shape of a rat robot, lying in the corner. One of its legs twitched as Gold-Eye touched it, and he leaped back, but no further movement followed.

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