AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She walks over to the bed and sits down beside me, still holding the journal in her hand. "We need to take control of the Brain, so it can't seize control of you. Right now, I think it's still doing what Sefton wanted."
"Which is what?"
"To connect with its creator. Sefton is dead, though, and even his Echo is gone. The Brain must sense that you are part of it now, but it can't comprehend a woman joining with it. Sefton would've wanted to keep the power for himself."
"So, you think the Brain assumes I must be Sefton and that it wants me to command it again."
"Yes."
I rest my elbows on my thighs and let my face fall into my raised palms. "I don't want to become one with a machine that's pining for Sefton Stainthorpe. He was a whackjob."
"But you aren't. Still, it's too dangerous for either of us to meld with that machine until we understand what needs to be done to keep the worlds from imploding."
I raise my head. "When did that become an option? Nobody warned me the worlds might implode."
"No one understands what having no Brain is doing to the Echo or to Earth. We might have enjoyed two months of peaceand quiet, but the fact that the Brain brought us into this world to save itself doesn't bode well."
She has a point—a damn good one. The Brain can't function on its own, so it's desperately trying to find a replacement for Sefton. And that's me. Perfect. I feel like I've fallen into a science fiction movie about evil machines taking over the world. But this machine only wants me.
"What should we do?" I ask. "Can the stronghold protect me?"
"No, it cannot."
The response did not come from Sarah. Aldith stands in the doorway, wringing her hands.
"I thought this was a safe place," I say. "Now you tell us it can't protect me from the Brain?"
She bows her head. "I regret that I can't foresee every eventuality, and I can't stop what is about to occur. But if I can help in any way at all, I will."
"It's not your fault, Aldith. Do you have any idea what might be coming?"
She starts to speak but freezes. Her gaze veers to the picture windows. "It is already here."
A black shape speeds past the window.
Oh no, it can't be.
The Echo flier speeds by again, this time squawking like an angry crow.
"I have fortified the windows with wards," Aldith says. "But the Brain is far more powerful than I am. If it has invested the creatures with magics on the level of Sefton Stainthorpe's powers…"
We're screwed. Yeah, I didn't need a diagram to show me that scenario.
Two bird-like creatures soar up from the ground, each hauling an earthbound beast on its bank. The fliers aim straightfor the windows, then swerve away at the last second. Their passengers slam into the windows, clinging to the outer sill.
And they bash their fists into the glass.
The magics protecting the windows begin to pulsate, just like the machine in the castle had done. But here, the pulsations are clearly aimed at breaking through the shield Aldith had erected. The creatures clinging to the windows pound their fists while still hanging on to the sill with one hand. The wards pulsate even more strongly, creating a sensation of pressure inside the room that makes my ears hurt.
The Echo fliers drop off more creatures, ones even bigger than the beasts currently pounding on the wards, and they join in the party.Bam, bam, bam.Big fists batter the windows. A variety of creatures have joined forces with the fliers—big brutes with gnarly skin, scaly beasts with snake-like tongues, fanged monsters, and more.
And all of them want me.
"They've surrounded the stronghold," Aldith says, and for the first time, she sounds panicked. "And the wards are faltering. We can't fight Sefton's magics."
How can a dead man cause this much chaos? The answer must lie within the machine he left behind, but we can't risk returning to the castle to find out. The machine's pull is way too strong for me to keep fighting it.
I grasp Sarah's shoulders. "Get out of here. You can't let those creatures take you."
