He came to a set of making rooms. An old building, made of stone, chased in copper and lead. There was a forge inside, cold in the middle of the floor. The rest of the room was so neat and tidy. Bundles of wire and piles of plate, tins and tins of paint of all colours, neatly arranged on shelves around the walls. Doors led from the main area to the little rooms where the robots of higher rank would go. A dead woman lay in each, hands clutched to her head, the metal of the skull deformed and crushed by her own dying strength. None of them were Jai-Lyn.
Wa-Ka-Mo-Do looked at the last woman, full of silent shame. Somewhere in this city, Jai-Lyn would no doubt be sat, her hands clutched to her head in just that posture.
He emerged from the making rooms back into the red daylight. A robot was sitting by one of the stone tables in the middle of the square, waving at Wa-Ka-Mo-Do.
‘Hello, stranger,’ he called.
Wa-Ka-Mo-Do moved towards the robot. He was sat on an iron seat, the stone table before him crawling with life, both metal and organic.
‘Pull up a chair.’
‘It will break beneath the weight of this body.’
‘You know, I think it will. Perhaps you can kneel instead?’
Wa-Ka-Mo-Do did so, and felt the pain in his feet move to his knees. There was no relief to be found in any position.
The table was marked with a seven by seven grid of squares. Metal beetles, worms and lice wandered at random across its surface, all of them contained by the stone lip that ran around the table’s perimeter. Half of the creatures had a blob of red paint on their back.
‘Have you played chess before?’ asked the stranger.
‘Not like this. Not with animals.’
‘Really? This is the true game.’ The stranger reached out and quickly placed the creatures on their starting positions. Slow creatures, worms and placid beetles on the back row, skittering lice in the position of pawns.
‘They’re moving around already,’ said Wa-Ka-Mo-Do. ‘They won’t hold their position.’
‘That is why you must make your moves quickly, or your strategies will be of no use. You can be red, you begin.’
Wa-Ka-Mo-Do fumbled for one of his lice pawns. His hand was too clumsy.
‘It’s no good. I can’t take hold of it.’
‘You give up so easily?’
The man’s words stung Wa-Ka-Mo-Do. He tried again. With a feeling of tremendous satisfaction he managed to take hold of one of his lice pawns and move it two spaces forward. As he did so it began to rain. Dark spots appeared on the stone table.
‘Interesting opening,’ observed the other robot, ‘but, alas, it is undone already. Your pawn has wandered away…’
The stranger picked up a pawn of his own and moved it onto a square currently occupied by one of Wa-Ka-Mo-Do’s.
‘… so I take your piece.’
‘What is the point of this game?’ said Wa-Ka-Mo-Do, irritated. ‘I can barely move in this body.’
‘Then you will have to be cleverer than me, won’t you?’
With difficulty, Wa-Ka-Mo-Do seized his own pawn, but the piece he was aiming to take had walked out of its range. Frustrated, Wa-Ka-Mo-Do set the piece down on an empty square.
‘This is like life, no?’ said the stranger. ‘Like robots. Our parents twist our mind, set us on their path, but after that they can do nothing more than watch how their children interact with the other players in the game.’
‘There is no logic to the motion of these creatures,’ replied Wa-Ka-Mo-Do, in frustration.
‘Of course there is,’ said the Stranger. ‘They act as such creatures will. It’s just that the logic is not apparent to us.’
‘It would be easier if we just used regular pieces,’ said Wa-Ka-Mo-Do, watching as the robot captured another of his pieces, and dropped it, legs moving, in a stone cup at his side of the table. ‘Or if we could predict which way the pieces would move.’
With a major effort, Wa-Ka-Mo-Do took hold of a beetle. He waited a moment as one of the stranger’s creatures hesitated on the edge of a square, and then brought it heavily down.
‘Check!’ he said.
‘No longer,’ said the robot, and sure enough, his emperor walked from its square.
‘This is pointless!’ said Wa-Ka-Mo-Do.
‘Not at all! In life there are many moments when things seem final, then everything shifts and the game resumes. Just like now. The pieces are shifting. This is your moment, Wa-Ka-Mo-Do.’
Wa-Ka-Mo-Do gazed sharply at the stranger.
‘How do you know my name?’
‘I was told it by a robot on the sea shore. He is waiting there for you now.’
‘Waiting for me? How does he know about me?’
‘Through listening. Some minds speak to each other, Wa-Ka-Mo-Do. You know that the whales talk to each other?’
Wa-Ka-Mo-Do looked at the stranger, looked at his thin, delicate body.
‘You don’t look like a whaler.’
‘I’m not. I was brought here by the robot on the sea shore. He thought there might be a place for me here in Ka with the humans temporarily defeated.’
‘Doing what?’
‘Studying them. Finding out more about them. Deciding how best to fight them.’
‘Should we fight them?’ asked Wa-Ka-Mo-Do, deep in shame.
‘Why not? Your Emperor no longer rules this continent. It is not his real wishes you follow by serving the humans. You know, despite everything, you did well in Sangrel, Wa-Ka-Mo-Do. Maybe the best anyone could have done.’
The praise did nothing to lift Wa-Ka-Mo-Do’s mood. The weight of his body was not the heaviest part of his prison.
‘I could have done more. I could have followed the Emperor, or followed my own beliefs. Instead I did neither.’ He looked around. ‘Maybe I can succeed here. Join the fight with the other robots…’
‘There is nothing for you here, Wa-Ka-Mo-Do. You know that.’