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“Yes, Mistress Mirabella?” the golden automaton said in a cultured, but hollow tone.
“This is Beelie.” The girl motioned to it. “If he hadn’t been with me when that monster attacked, I would have been dead for sure.”
“First things first,” Sky said. “Give us a description of the killer, please.”
“He doesn’t look like a person…not a real person, anyway,” Mirabella said. “His face is kind of like this white mask—all rubbery and wrinkled around the eyes. It’s like…it doesn’t fit him right. And his eyes…” She shivered. “His eyes are black but they have these red dots right in the center. He has black lips and he’s tall and impossibly thin and he has this terrible smell—I can’t even describe it. Oily and dirty and rotten and just awful. But the worst thing is his hands…”
“What about his hands?” Sky asked eagerly. They were getting so much more than she’d hoped for here—lots of people who underwent traumatic experiences couldn’t remember them afterwards. Mistress Mirabella, on the other hand, seemed to have an excellent memory!
“His hands…his fingers are like—they have these long talons but they look like metal or razors.” Mirabella made a gesture with her own fingers, trying to explain. “That’s what made those scratches on Beelie’s front,” she added, nodding at the automaton, which still stood there, waiting silently beside her. “He…he was trying to get to me.”
“I don’t understand,” Torin rumbled. “Were you hiding behind him? Behind Beelie?”
“No.” Mirabella shook her head. “Not exactly. See—I was in a room with two other members of the Sacred Seven—Mistress Seethree and Mistress Mapletaste. They both had their bodyslaves to guard them and I had Beelie—he was the last thing my Aunt Raz ever gave to me,” she explained.
“Go on—you were in a locked room, I’m guessing?” Torin rumbled.
Mirabella nodded.
“Locked and sealed. By that time the killer had already gotten the first four Mistresses on the Sacred Seven and we knew we were next. That’s why we were all together in Mistress Mapletaste’s tower. It was supposed to be the strongest, most secure place in all of Opulex.”
“But he got in anyway, didn’t he?” Sky murmured.
“Yes.” Mirabella’s eyes were huge and suspiciously shiny as she told the story, but she kept her chin high and kept talking. “First the lights started flickering and then we heard him outside the door. His voice…” She shook her head. “I can’t even describe his voice. It’s like…pure evil pouring into your ears. It’s horrible.”
Sky would have liked more details than “pure evil pouring into your ears.” Was the killer’s voice high? Low? Gravelly or grating? But she could tell that Mirabella was summoning all her courage to tell them this story, so she kept her questions to herself for the moment.
“What did he say?” Torin asked softly.
“He…he knew all our names.” Mirabella’s voice hitched slightly. “He called all three of us and said…said he was going to kill us. Then the lights went all the way out for a minute and when they came on again, he was inside the room.” She shook her head. “I don’t know how he got in—the door was locked!”
“What happened next?” Sky couldn’t help asking, because Mirabella had paused, her moss-green eyes wide and haunted. She and Torin were both leaning forward, at the edge of their seats as they listened to the harrowing tale.
Mirabella shook her head.
“I…I couldn’t see much because after that, I ran and hid.”
“You hid? Where?” Torin asked, frowning.
“Inside of Beelie of course,” Mirabella spoke as though it should be obvious. “He’s not just an automaton—he’s an old-fashioned vault droid—it’s one reason my Aunt valued him so highly. Beelie, open,” she said, turning to the automaton.
“Yes, of course, Mistress Mirabella.”
The old-fashioned robot swung around and backed up to give itself more room. Then a vertical seam appeared at the top of the round golden torso and stretched all the way to the bottom. With a slight creaking noise, the seam split apart, showing that the inside of the automaton was completely hollow. Inside its round ball of a body was a low, velvet seat and just enough room for someone about Mirabella’s size to hide.
“Beelie’s completely hermetically sealed,” Mirabella explained. “He has an oxygen tank that has enough air for three hours, a little bottle of water, even a few snacks. And once you’re inside him, you can control his movements and send him anywhere you want. Plus you can see what he sees on this little screen.” She tapped a tiny screen on the inside. Only, I couldn’t see much because the killer squirted some kind of oily black stuff all over Beelie’s front when…when he was trying to get at me.”
She shivered and a single tear overflowed and rolled down her cheek.
“How long were you in there for?” Torin asked softly.
“It felt like forever,” Mirabella whispered. “I could hear the screaming and shouting as he killed all the bodyslaves and then the other two Mistresses. And then he came up to Beelie. And he kept saying, “I know you’re in there, my little pretty one. I’ll get you sooner or later…”
