BACK TO Merric Blackman's The Portal And The Golem Index ... Next
I wasn't liking the experience much, either. A wish to discover new experiences had never been programmed into me, and the Great Maker knew that the Seven Suns didn't allow for the fabled night to occur. So here I was, alone in the dark.
At least I thought I was alone. Perhaps I was deaf as well! Perhaps the Great Maker had, in his great wisdom, taken out my eyes and ears. I hoped not. Hope had been programmed into me. So had Faith. I had faith that the Great Maker would deliver me from this travail.
Time passed. I stood patiently, not wanting to move lest I fall off a cliff or run into something dangerous. Oh, I admit I wanted to move, but wanting is a different thing than getting your motor circuits to activate when they weren't receiving the proper optical signals.
More time passed.
Finally, I realised I wasn't deaf! A voice - male by the sound of it - came to my ears. "The gem was flawed, Clarissa! I could have been killed!"
"I'm sorry, master," came a female voice, low and lilting. "It tested well to my sight."
There came the sound of a open hand hitting flesh. "That was for your incompetence. Now, where is our new ally?"
A flame, protruding from a piece of wood came into view. I wasn't blind!
"There it is, master," said Clarissa. Two robed figures came into view.
"A golem!" exclaimed the bearded man. "The portal brought a golem. I wanted a devil, Clarissa. I am not pleased."
"Perhaps it can fight well?" suggested Clarissa, obviously trying to please her master. I stood still and did not speak. One does not speak in the presence of a Master unless spoken to first.
The Master had approached and was studying me more closely. "This is a most strange golem," he remarked. "I wonder what it can do?"
Clarissa shrugged in bafflement.
"Very well. Golem, follow me," the Master ordered.
My motor controls engaged, and I strode in the footsteps of the Master. A strange new place this certainly was, and I wondered what the Great Maker had in store for me. A new master I had, however, and I would follow his every command.
A proper War Robot always follows its master's commands, after all.