Hello, everyone! Here is the next chapter in the story. I had a bit of extra time to work on this over the holidays at the time I am posting this, which I hope everyone had a happy time celebrating. Not much else to say here, so let's get to the chapter.
DISCLAIMER: The 'Amulet' series is created and illustrated by Kazu Kibuishi, and published by 'Scholastic'. The author owns any original characters and custom elements included into the story.
Onward!
The control room's map showed the Albatross enter the Raker-filled passage without interruption. Caleb watched the plane's icon fly along the path it had chosen, and for a little while nothing came out to investigate the plane's noise. But eventually, despite Caleb's hopes that things would remain quiet, the alien things in the walls began moving their tentacles into the passage.
"The Rakers are waking up!" Cogsley remarked. "Zoom and enhance, Bottle!" The silent robot pressed a sequence of keys to cause the map's display to enlarge the one passage that was important in the moment. The Albatross remained in the map's center, the holographic image moving along behind the plane like a flying camera lens that did not need to fear being grabbed by a Raker's tentacle and devoured. Digitized humanoid replicas of the three travelers, their faceless bodies glowing white, moved about in the open cockpit and passenger area as the tentacles stretched ever closer.
"Looks like Miskit's fighting back," Morrie said, and indeed the little rabbit appeared to be firing small bursts of white energy from his hands. Caleb squinted his eyes to enhance his sight even further. He could just make out something held in the rabbit's grip; a gun, perhaps? He had used a gun when he was dressed as that giant man. The nearest tentacles were struck by bolts, and subsequently fell back a bit. Caleb spared a moment to look at the cockpit and saw Navin gripping a steering wheel in front of him; just like a copilot in an airplane on Earth.
As Miskit moved to another pair of tentacles before they got dangerously close, Caleb leaned over to Morrie's position. "Morrie," he asked the worried robot, "should we prepare a rescue party for them in case… well…?" He raised and lowered his eyebrows in place of putting his fears into words.
Morrie didn't look at Caleb as he pulled out a square-shaped handheld radio from its cradle in the larger computer console. "I don't know what we could really do if they don't make it," he admitted as he pressed a button near the radio's speaker and tugged on the cord that connected it to the console. "We shouldn't be talking about that, I think. It will just make us feel worse."
"Don't lose yer hopes yet," Cogsley interjected as he pointed at the map. "Look there!" Caleb and Morrie looked back up to the holographic representations of their friends just as Emily fired a bolt of energy from her amulet at a tentacle that had Miskit in its grip. The bolt struck the fleshy limb and instantly caused it to release the metal rabbit; gravity took hold of Miskit and pulled him down, but Emily leaned out over the cockpit's side, hand extended, and grabbed Miskit before he fell out of reach.
Caleb watched the screen as if watching a gripping thriller movie, with this scene becoming the climatic escape against overwhelming odds. Navin tilted his steering wheel forwards and the Albatross leaned down slightly as it picked up speed. As the map's image became too blurry to see, Bottle's large fingers made loud taps against the keyboard and the map's image expanded back out to fully show the passage. A sickening stench filled Caleb's mouth when he saw the Rakers were just like what Morrie had said – faces full of eyes that glowed an eerie blue, layer upon layer of teeth in their cavernous mouths, and ropy tentacles that whipped and snapped with malicious intent.
No one in the control room spoke as they watched Navin pitch and roll the Albatross from side to side; Caleb was the only one visibly breathing as one Raker extended its head out of its hole and stretched towards the metal insect with what he imagined was a guttural groan of hunger. Emily fired another energy bolt from her amulet to hold it back, but it took a second bolt to force it away. Navin jerked hard to the left as three tentacles came within striking range one after the other. Emily shot another bolt into a Raker that was too close for comfort while Miskit clung to Navin's seat and didn't move. Emily rapidly fired bolts at both her flanks as Navin kept them all going as fast as possible.
The end of the passage came into view, but it was being closed off with overlapping Raker limbs. But Navin didn't slow down; bravery or a sheer determination to get away from these monsters before they got him and his sister drove him on. The passage got closer as more Raker tentacles reached for the plane's tail to hold it back, barbed tips wriggling as they too got closer to their prize.
Caleb's eyes stung from a lack of blinking, but he kept watching as the Albatross slipped through a crack in the Raker's web and into a much larger cavern beyond. Tentacles burst out from the hole after them, writhing in desperation to grab hold of their prey and failing entirely. When Caleb saw the yellow blip and three white blips inside it all marked on the map and rapidly moving away from the passage, he quickly blinked multiple times and joyfully smiled at their success. He wanted to shout his happiness, but fear of embarrassing himself kept him quiet.
As Caleb celebrated, a sharp crackle came from the radio still in Morrie's hand, followed by Miskit's voice coming from the device's speaker. "Albatross to Charnon House," he shouted into what was probably his own radio on the plane, "Albatross to Charon House. How close are we to the Arachnopods, over?"
Morrie and Cogsley acted quickly to provide an answer. "They're right on top of 'em!" the orange robot told Morrie, who relayed that to Miskit through his radio's speaker.
"Roger that," Miskit said back as Caleb saw the Albatross yaw to the right. "We're moving down there now, over!" The radio then shut off with another loud crackle, and Morrie put the radio he held back into its cradle on his end. Navin, or maybe Miskit, guided the plane down to a curving path of rock reaching towards "Mortley's Cave". There were now five Arachnopods on the path, one of them holding Karen within its belly. The path their legs scampered on had a sheer drop to the left and a veritable forest of rock spires on the right. Two of the spider-like creatures could run along side by side, and it wasn't clear at first sight which one contained the person they were seeking.
"Zoom in the image, Bottle," Caleb told the silent robot. Bottle complied so that the map centered on the Albatross as it got closer to the path. The Arachnopods did not slow down or look away from their route as Emily, Navin, and Miskit flew up close to the path but still out of range of possible attack from the creatures. With the map's screen this close, Caleb could see Karen's form inside one of the middle two Arachnopods, moving around as she was probably hearing the plane's engines. She reached out through a hole in the beast's body and waved her arm towards her children. She was still alive, amazingly enough. How long had she been in there, unable to get out, every passing second the chance she would be digested?
"Come on, come on!" Caleb whispered as Miskit and Emily got a long rifle loaded and ready to fire. Miskit stood up against the edge of the plane's wing and aimed it at the specific spider-monster among the bunch that had Karen inside it. The hologram did not show Miskit firing, or the tranquilizer dart that came out of the gun. The Albatross tilted closer to the path as a few seconds passed by and Miskit got back into the cockpit.
Nothing changed. The Arachnopods ran just as fast as before.
Miskit and Navin swapped positions, the rabbit piloting as the boy readied the harpoon. Like the dart, the actual spear was too small to be shown on the map, but the Arachnopod it apparently hit stumbled for a few seconds, so Caleb figured Navin had made the shot. Miskit then drew the Albatross back to extend the rope, but the Arachnopod still did not slow down. The plane jerked sharply downwards when the attached rope connecting the winch to the spear was fully stretched out, throwing Emily to the cockpit's floor. Miskit struggled with the controls and got them flying level again, but nowhere closer to rescuing Karen.
"They're losing ground!" Cogsley said even though everyone in the control room could see the same things as him. The Arachnopod was not sedated, and it looked like having a spear shot through its back made it angry. Emily and Navin shifted around as Miskit forced the fast-moving aircraft to stay level and aloft. It looked to Caleb like they were in a stalemate, and time was not something they had an infinite capacity of.
And then Emily jumped out of the plane, waves of white energy spewing from her body like trails of light. It had to be the work of her amulet, and it was showing more power than ever before.
Amazingly, the young girl landed on the closest Arachnopod to the Albatross and stood up on its back as her amulet continued to expel energy at a rapid rate. That energy curled forward and down to the Arachnopod's head and neck. The holographic display didn't show how exactly what the energy did, but Emily managed to stand up on the creature's back as it thundered towards the next of its kind in front of it. That one had Karen inside it, and Emily reached out her hand towards her mother's outstretched one as soon as she got close. The mother and daughter tried their hardest to get Karen's long body out of her capturer, and each moment of their struggle was nerve-wracking to all the watchers.
"Watch out!" Morrie shouted towards the virtual Albatross as it was jerked sharply down towards the path. The culprit was an Arachnopod's tentacle, wrapped tight around one of the plane's engines like a tight noose. Miskit and Navin were tossed around as they tried to break away while still holding onto the harpooned Arachnopod, adding another factor to their stalemate. Emily continued her efforts to pull Karen out; Caleb's wrists tingled as his imagination put himself in her situation, pulling with all his might to get someone he loved free. It was a true test of strength, and Emily—
Emily let go of Karen's hand. Willingly.
"What's she doing?!" Caleb shouted as the energy holding Emily's acquired Arachnopod steady faded away. The liberated beast ran to the far side of the path but not over the edge as Emily turned towards her brother and Miskit in the Albatross. Another surge of energy from the amulet surrounded Emily's form in white coils as she leaped towards the two Arachnopods holding the plane down. She flew forwards and up above the cockpit as the coils extended, multiplied, and became clawed hands attached to shimmering arms.
In the span of a few seconds, but what felt much longer to Caleb and the watching robots, Emily landed hard into the open cockpit and the conjured hands shredded the long tentacles apart before subsequently exploding into white lightning. The display's image distorted, and then turned to static as Cogsley uttered a curse and started pressing buttons Caleb couldn't see from his position. What could next be seen was Miskit slicing at the rope holding the harpoon in place with a large knife. The exit to Mortley's cave, and the outside forest, could be seen rapidly approaching.
The rope snapped free and spun to the ground. The Albatross pulled up dangerously fast, away from the Arachnopods as Navin and Emily each pulled on one of the two pilot's wheels. The plane shot out of the cave like a bullet, but not high enough to pass over the treetops. It vanished from view before anyone in the control room saw it impact anything outside Gondoa Mountain.
"Perfect timing!" Cogsley sarcastically remarked as his metallic phalanges rapidly entered commands into the computer console. Morrie's sweating reached prodigious levels as he paced between Cogsley and Caleb, the latter slowly breathing to try and calm his own rapidly beating heart. His anger mixed with fear to create a hard-hitting brew that he had to concentrate on keeping contained. Usually when he felt like this he took a run to force the emotions out through hard work; that wasn't possible in the Charnon House, especially with it being in another world from Earth.
Cogsley slammed a fist against the console's metal surface. "I can't locate them," he grimly announced. "They've got to be somewhere in that forest, at least."
"We can't increase the range in any way?" Caleb asked, not content with giving up on finding his friends just yet. Cogsley shook his head instead of giving words for Caleb to chew over. Bottle, in a moment of unexpected compassion, put one of its giant blue hands on Cogsley's shoulder like Caleb had seen his father do for him.
"Then we wait," Morrie told everyone present as he stopped by the same device he had contacted Miskit earlier with. "We will know something at some point, I'm positive." The yellow robot's face and posture did not echo the hope in his words, and everyone else fell into a concerned silence. After a few minutes, Cogsley mutely entered a command after a few minutes' wait to bring the map back out to show the full mountain again. This did not help improve morale, but it did provide Caleb several things to look at in the mountain and distract him from the fate of two children and their robotic rabbit friend. His distraction was broken by a loud crackling noise coming from the console and Morrie shouting in surprise:
"The radio!"
The device was working again. A voice could be heard in fits and spurts of sound, nothing like words but clear proof someone was talking on the other end. Cogsley rushed over to it while saying, "Must be damaged on their end. Have to adjust the frequency to get a clear response." He did that through the rigorous process of pressing keys, twiddling knobs a few centimeters left or right, and carefully listening to any changes in the crackling noises. Caleb's heart soared with joy when he heard Miskit's voice come through after one final motion by Cogsley with the knob.
"… come in. Charnon House, do you read me?"
Cogsley yanked the receiver out of its cradle and held it close to his mouth. "We hear ye, Miskit," he nearly shouted back. "What's the situation? We're picking up a lot of noise, over."
More crackling came before an answer came through: "The Albatross has suffered a crash landing in the forest, and it's raining pretty hard out here. One of the wings is torn off, and both propellers are totaled. I'm surprised the radio is working, but I don't think this plane will ever fly again. Over."
If Cogsley was struck by this sad turn of events he did not show it. "What about the kids and Karen?" Caleb asked, both to satisfy himself and to move the conversation forward. Cogsley transferred this request for information over immediately, keeping the receiver clenched in his hand.
"Affirmative." There was less crackling interference this time. "Miss Karen Hayes has been found. She is with her children, unconscious but alive. Both the children have small cuts and bruises, but they are otherwise fine as well. Over."
"There ye go," Cogsley told Caleb nonchalantly, and then he continued with his own questions. "Albatross, how long do ye estimate ye will take coming home, over?"
Caleb only half-listened to Miskit's answer, so happy for what had already been heard. "I estimate one to two hours of hiking," the rabbit reported. "We'll have to carry Miss Hayes between us, but I know a safe path through the caverns back to the house."
Cogsley and Morrie nodded. "Albatross," Cogsley said into the radio, "we'll send someone out in the rowboat to the dock and pick you up there. Is that good, over?"
"That's fine, Cogsley. Use the Exo-suit for the rowing, and just stay by the boat until we arrive." Miskit paused again, no interference coming over the radio this time. "I think the rain's letting up, so we'll be moving out soon. Albatross signing off."
The radio shut off, and with it the Albatross ended its final flight. "Darn shame," Cogsley grumbled as he placed the radio back into place. The robot's broken feelings appeared on the face of everyone else in the room capable of expressing emotions. Even though the people they had been watching were alive, relatively safe, and heading back to the comforts of home with their goals completed, no one looked happy. Caleb meandered back from the map display until his back pressed against the room's curved wall, his thoughts turning inward to reflect on what was going to happen next. If Miskit was able to get Emily, Navin, and Karen back to Charnon House like he said he would, then their next action would have to wait until everyone was recovered and together.
The image of those two kids carrying their unconscious mother between them as they walked through dark caves and winding passages stuck in Caleb's head. He pictured their sweating bodies, labored breaths, and shaking hands as they tried to keep up with their robotic guide. They may have to rest before they got back to keep from collapsing; when they finally got to the lake, they would have walked a marathon. They would be tired: tired and hungry.
Caleb's eyes glittered as a smile grew on his face. He knew what he could do to help the Hayes family again.
"Morrie." The anxious-looking robot jumped, startled by the sharp tone in Caleb's address. "Does this house have a kitchen?"
"Yes, it does." Morrie blinked twice in rapid succession after he had answered. "In fact, I was going to suggest you go and eat something. You've been up for hours, not counting your brief period of unconsciousness."
"The kids have been up longer than me," the teenager insisted. "And with all that's happened tonight, I've lost my appetite." A sharp growl from Caleb's stomach marked its protest, and he roughly placed a hand over his chest to silence what he felt was his own, less important, hunger.
"Your body says otherwise," Morrie joked with another split-second smile. "I'll bring you to the kitchen and you can find what you want to eat." Caleb looked over to the Cogsley, Bottle, and the unnamed silver robot for approval or denial of his leaving them. He did want to eat something, he really did, but that was not the only reason he wanted to go to the kitchen.
"Go with him already, kid!" Cogsley insisted with a casual wave of his hand. "We'll be fine here." Caleb gave a brief word of thanks before he followed Morrie up the narrow stairs and back to the wooden hallway with metal walls. Gripping the railings did not hurt his hands or cause his wrists to throb, but he still rubbed the wrappings around his bite wounds as he followed the medical robot.
As appeared to be the norm in Charnon House, the kitchen was on the same level as the other primary rooms, including the guest rooms and Silas's bedroom; the difference with the kitchen was its position at the very far end of that long hallway, with an open archway in place of a door. Morrie stepped through the arch first and flicked a switch on the wall near the entrance to fill the space with electric light. Caleb blinked away the spots in his eyes as Morrie gingerly proclaimed, "Well, here we are. Feel free to look through and find what you feel you want. Please eat sensibly."
"You're not going to stay here?" Caleb asked as he entered the kitchen himself. He would appreciate some help in what he had in mind, but if Morrie had to be elsewhere… "Hold on a moment, okay? I want to see what's here."
Caleb glanced around the room and saw a cooking stove the size of two normal ones along the opposite wall to the entrance, stretching up close to a long and narrow window like the ones Silas's home on Earth had. The adolescent's brain ran very rapidly as he came up with a new idea for his overall plan. "Are there any other robots here besides you and the others?" he inquired. "I mean, did Silas make any other servants like you guys?"
"There are several others, Mister Caleb." Morrie briefly swallowed between sentences. "Master Silas made more of us as he grew more ill, so no important duties would be forgotten. But what do you need robots for, if you are going to eat something yourself?"
"First off," Caleb answered while turning away from the stove to a series of cupboards mounted on the left wall of the kitchen and resting on the floor, all stacked like the blocks of wood they appeared to be made from. "First off, I want to cook something for Emily and Navin. They will be hungry when they get back here with their mother and Miskit."
"Oh. I see." Morrie did not appear shocked, or he was able to camouflage the shock he felt from appearing on his face. "If you are wanting help in cooking, I know a few robots that will fit. They are currently recharging in the basement; I'll go check on them if you stay here in the meantime."
"Go ahead, Morrie." The robot placed a metal hand to his head as he quickly walked out of the room. Caleb immediately turned his focus towards the kitchen he stood in. The floor was made of white tiles with black lines in between them, a simple design that Caleb did not spend more than a few seconds looking at it. Besides the stove and cupboards, there was a refrigerator placed into one of the corners with no visible power source. Various pots, pans, cups and plates hanging on little wooden hooks were mounted to the walls or placed in small piles next to a washing sink by the cupboards. On a series of pegs mounted to a clear space in the wall were some white chef's hats – Caleb figured there was a name for them but did not know it himself – and white aprons. Overall, the image was of a kitchen like one Caleb might see in a TV show on Earth, and this was what he had to work with.
'I can imagine worse,' Caleb told himself to comfort his nerves and empty stomach. He felt the hunger starting to burn in his chest, telling him he needed to eat something, soon, if he didn't want to feel worse. He began pulling drawers and cupboard doors open, darting from one spot to another and trying to take in an entire kitchen's worth of potential food. Unfortunately, the potential did not last long when he looked in the upper cupboards; they were mostly bare and filled with cobwebs or dust, the latter getting into his eyes and irritating them until tears started coming out. He had to spend a moment to carefully wipe his eyes with his wrists.
The bottom cupboards had a large collection of jars, but these gave off the unmistakable aroma of oil when Caleb picked one up and examined it in his hands. He wrinkled his nose in disgust as he put the jar back, shut those doors closed, and moved to the refrigerator for more tolerable things to eat. The refrigerator's cold interior contained several metal containers of various sizes with closed lids, and more jars of oil that did not stink up the enclosed space.
Rattling came from the kitchen entrance; Caleb slammed the refrigerator's door in his haste to spin back around and see what had entered the room. It turned out to be Morrie and three other robots, all of them with eyes if not any other facial features. Their bodies were shaped to match certain household appliances, but all of them had legs to walk on. And all of them looked at Caleb with the same neutral expression. "Sorry about the mess," Caleb told Morrie while feeling like he had been caught with his hand in a cookie jar.
"It's alright, Mister Caleb. Here are the robots that are not already on active duty I believe will best help with cooking." He introduced "Bren" the walking cooking pot, who had a lid attached to one of its arms, a water storage unit on its back, and a 'pot' in the center of its body: the knife-wielding "Chip" with a retractable chopping board and knife storage space in its chest cavity: and the trapezoid-shaped "Gilly" that had a grill atop its head along with stumpy legs that seemed suited for standing in one place for long periods.
Caleb felt weird looking at the new robots, like when he saw that vacuum-cleaner robot. "Morrie," he asked the medical robot while keeping his focus on their more human-like body, "do you drink oil instead of eating food?"
"Yes, Mister Caleb. The oil is our fuel source, like how humans need water. The oil also acts as our food as well. What food are you planning on making here?"
"I want to make grilled sandwiches and soup for Emily and Navin." Caleb took a quick breath and gave the robots a moment to digest that. "This is a fast and simple meal I've made by myself on Earth. But I am not touching anything else here until I know what it is."
"We will help however we can," Morrie promised. They started to help by getting everything Caleb wanted arranged on the stove or in one of their built-in appliances. The closed containers inside the refrigerator turned out to contain small peas, stalks of what Morrie said was celery, and chunks of some sort of cheese. The largest of the containers had a large loaf of what Caleb thought, and Morrie confirmed, was bread, but it was a dark brown color instead of the usual white Caleb ate. Morrie repeatedly informed Caleb that everything was safe for humans to eat, but it hadn't been used in a while. Caleb would believe that when he had tasted the food for himself.
Morrie got measuring cups out from one of the many kitchen drawers and let Caleb measure out things himself. Under Caleb's guidance and quickly spoken directions, each of the newer robots was given tasks to complete. Bren had vegetables loaded into its pot, the water it had stored quickly set to boiling. Chip chopped slices of bread and cheese from the larger stored pieces with careful movements, not spilling any crumbs on the floor. Finally, Gilly toasted the slices while standing perfectly still, its eyes always watching the grill. Caleb held a spatula as he flipped the slices when they started to smoke, his timing keeping anything from getting burned. Everyone in the kitchen helped everyone else as, through their combined efforts, the meal Caleb envisioned came to life.
Morrie got plates and bowls and utensils together when things started to be ready to eat. When Caleb checked the soup in Bren's pot and saw it was boiling, Caleb poured a small bit of it into a spare bowl and tasted it for himself with a spoon. His hands shook as he rose the spoon to his mouth, and he quickly slurped the spoonful down.
"Ugh!" Caleb smacked his lips together and frowned. "Too much water. It needs more flavor. Chip, cut some more of the cheese slices so I can add them later."
Chip gave three quick beeps as it took the remaining uncut lump of cheese on its board and began slicing it. The first of the grilled sandwiches tasted much better, the bread flavored like wheat bread instead of white. Caleb quickly ate half of one sandwich to satisfy his immediate hunger; a few seconds later he devoured the other half because it tasted that good.
"Excuse me, Sirs." Caleb looked to the kitchen entrance while chewing as an ocean-green robot rolled into the room on a single wheel in place of legs. This robot had a dome-shaped head, no mouth to be seen, and extendable arms made from… bellows? Springs? Caleb couldn't tell. As he took in this robot's appearance and swallowed the food in his mouth, he was told, "Cogsley has taken the Exo-suit with the rowboat and gone to the docks."
"Then they made it back?" A smile appeared on Morrie's face, but sweat formed on his large forehead again. "Miskit and the family are safe?"
"We know they have returned, but not if they are unharmed." The robot's voice was like a young boy's, high-pitched and full of energy. "Shall I prepare the medical room, Sir?"
"Yes, please," Morrie answered while still smiling. "Thank you, Theodore." The robot – 'Theodore' – spun away from Morrie and Caleb on its wheel, and only then did Caleb see the three pieces of white metal attached to the ends of its arms. They looked like fingers, or maybe claws; either one made sense in Caleb's head. He didn't get a chance to ask 'Theodore' about that before it had raced out of the room, its wheel rumbling along the floor like a car on a bumpy road.
"How long has it been since we started cooking?" Caleb asked Morrie once Theodore had gone. His hand was halfway to his pocket to check his cell phone's internal clock before he remembered his cell phone was broken. He looked around the kitchen for a clock but didn't see one on the walls.
"Just enough, I guess. The food will be hot for them, at least." Morrie began stacking sandwiches on plates and filling bowls with soup from the larger pot. Caleb put the cheese slices on top of the soup personally, for the sake of presentation.
"Did Silas ever mention Karen Hayes to you guys?" Caleb asked Morrie as he went back to Gilly to monitor the next set of sandwiches.
"Sometimes, yes," Morrie replied. "But he mentioned lots of things over the past months. He was delusional at points, from high fevers or severe chills. Not everything he said was true."
"Well, he's got to feel happy that his granddaughter is safe. This'll be like a family reunion." A loud clang followed this statement, startling Caleb into dropping his spatula and making a smaller clatter. "Morrie?" he asked as he quickly scooped up his utensil, "what's wrong?!"
"I'm sorry, Mister Caleb." Morrie kept his eyes to the floor as he picked up the dropped pan and put it on the closest unused counter. "My programming could not handle the emotional strain."
Caleb did not have the courage to figure out what 'emotional strain' meant until the robot had given him a new spatula. "Did something happen to Silas?" he tentatively asked as he flipped a slice of bread to its untoasted side. Morrie wiped a hand on his sweating forehead and said, in a shaking voice:
"He's dead."
Caleb's heart sank. "Oh, no…" Of all the things that could have happened, Silas Charnon had to die before he could help his great-grandchildren accomplish their goals?
"His body gave out while you were gone. The last thing he did was put the children in charge of the house, and all his servants."
"The children? Not Karen?" Karen should have been the obvious choice, being the oldest among the three.
"Silas had wanted it that way. Miskit will teach them how to take care of things. Silas said he put all his thoughts and memories into that robot, and I believe him."
"Miskit can handle that much knowledge?" Caleb's nose twitched as he felt something start to burn.
"Silas built him like that, just like he built me to be a doctor." Morrie gave a weak smile that did not convince Caleb anything was alright. "Miskit will do fine, I'm sure."
Despite Caleb's logical sense telling him Emily and Navin would not always be protected by a single robotic rabbit, that Silas may have made a mistake, he accepted Morrie's judgement. If Silas wanted his great-grandchildren to wield his power in this world, who was Caleb to argue? Still, it hurt Caleb's heart to hear he was basically worthless to the people he wanted to help so much.
Caleb flipped his anger along with the burning slice of bread and stared into the blackened toast for an answer. The toast did not help him feel better.
Alright, that's all for now. How do you feel about what happened here? I think there will be one chapter left after this to wrap up the events of Book 1. If it goes longer than that, I will update you with the next chapter.
As usual, any feedback you choose to provide for this story will be appreciated.
Draconos is taking off!