as if rising from the deepest part of a lake. The word evaporated
and the face of Dr. Harding reappeared. And then, to Edgar's
amazement, the glowing blue face of Dr. Harding began to
speak.
"I had a feeling you might find the docking station. I can't say
that I'm happy you take such risks. What father could be happy
about a thing like that?"
"Can you hear me?" asked Edgar. "Where are you?"
Edgar was struck by an impossible thought: What if Dr. Harding
were alive inside this strange vessel? Maybe he'd only hidden
here, waiting for Edgar to return! He eagerly touched the warm
glass where the face appeared. "Come out of there!"
"I made this recording for you, Edgar," said Dr. Harding. "I'm not
here, in case that's what you're thinking. A trick of technology,
I'm afraid. Chances are I made this recording many years ago
and things have unraveled as I'd suspected they would."
Edgar couldn't understand and demanded an explanation.
"How can you be here and not be --"
"Listen to me, Edgar," the image interrupted. "If you're here then
a lot has already happened. Atherton has collapsed, which you
have managed to survive. I am, no doubt, dead."
"No! You're not dead! You're right here," said Edgar. He knew
the face wasn't really Dr. Harding, but he was so lonely and
frustrated he couldn't quite let go of the idea. "You're alive!"
But the blue head wouldn't respond to Edgar.
"I can't tell you how important it is that you listen to me now,"
said Dr. Harding. "You must do as I say. Everything depends on
it. First and foremost, you cannot trust anyone on Atherton. No
one, including Dr. Kincaid and Vincent, has any idea what
Atherton is really for. This was entirely necessary given the
circumstances. No one would have believed, no one would
have trusted, no one would have had the patience required..."
Without warning, the firebugs began drifting off, and Dr.
Harding's face started to melt into a watery mix of black and
blue.
"Come back!" said Edgar.
Dr. Harding's voice became garbled and slowed down, but then
the firebugs reconstructed his face and he was speaking as
before. Edgar had missed something.
"... and so you see, I can't trust anyone else with this task. If my
experiment has gotten this far along, well, it's you and you
alone who must finish it. Things will have gotten very
complicated down there. Dr. Kincaid and Vincent are not bad
men, but they will only get in the way of what you have to do.
They answer to people on the Dark Planet."
The face of Dr. Harding looked straight at Edgar and it nearly
broke Edgar's heart. There was his father, right in front of him,
smiling at Edgar with approval.
"This thing you're sitting in is called the Raven, or at least that's
what I've always called it. I made it like I made you and
Atherton. It's alive, just like you and Atherton are alive. It's very
easy to operate if you follow its lead and trust its actions. It will
take you to the Dark Planet. You need you to go there alone
and finish what I began."
"What!" shouted Edgar. The firebugs moved off again and Dr.
Harding's face dissolved. Apparently, the bugs didn't like it
when Edgar interrupted. He stayed very quiet and the face
returned one last time.
"How can I say this? You and Atherton and the Raven, the three
of you are connected, if you will, by the same raw material. How
else could you do all the things you do? I know, I know--this
sounds terrible--but it's the truth."
There was a pause in which Dr. Harding seemed to wonder
what he should say next.
"You're going to need a little help," he continued with greater
concern in his voice. "You were always a solitary little boy on
the Dark Planet, but hopefully you've made at least one friend
on Atherton. Give the tablet I've left behind to someone you
trust, someone who can read. Something important needs to
happen here on Atherton while you're away. But keep Dr.
Kincaid and Vincent out of it. Now that you have the keys to the
Raven, they'll think they can help on the Dark Planet. But trust
me, Edgar, their good intentions would lead straight to Judix,
and that's exactly what can't happen."
"Who's Judix?" asked Edgar. "What are you talking about?"
The face on the screen turned away from Edgar, as if it had
heard someone or something coming near when it was
recorded. The face turned back and began to drift into
blackness.
"Go to the Silo first, where I lived as a boy, where everything
began. Be careful who you trust."
The firebugs danced and moved and Dr. Harding disappeared.
"Come back! Don't leave me here alone!" said Edgar. But the
face of Dr. Harding was gone. There appeared an outline of the
Silo so that Edgar would know what it looked like. Then it
vanished, replaced by the image of Atherton and the Dark
Planet in their places, surrounded by a night sky of blue dots.
Edgar was now unable to imagine an outcome in which his feet
weren't firmly planted on the Dark Planet. If Dr. Harding had
lived in the Silo as a child, he had probably first imagined
Atherton there. Edgar was sure the Silo was where he would
find the answers to his most troubling questions. Where did he
come from? What had gone wrong with the man who had made
him? What was the purpose behind Edgar's existence?
He touched the oval disk that had started every thing in motion.
It was warm and slippery, like a small pool of shallow water,
and yet it was also solid. Edgar slid the disk off the surface and
let it drop into his other hand. The firebugs receded until only
darkness remained on the table and Edgar heard the sound of
the doorway opening.
He could escape this place and take his chances on the outside
with all the dangers that awaited him.
Looking back at the table, Edgar had a sudden sense of clarity
about the place he found himself in. He set the disk back on the
black surface, heard the door shut, and watched the firebugs
return and form the map of Atherton and the Dark Planet.
"I can command this thing to move," said Edgar, smiling in
wonder at the thought of it. "I know I can."
He felt it in his bones, as though he and Atherton and the
Raven really were connected by some unknown essential
material.
Reaching out over the black surface Edgar touched the big
cluster of blue that made up the Dark Planet. Words appeared.
Silo / Station Seven
Edgar couldn't read the second word and he didn't care about
the third. All he saw was the word "Silo." Dr. Harding's last
words rang in Edgar's ears.
Where I lived as a boy, where every thing began.
On a whim, Edgar touched the much smaller cluster of blue
representing Atherton. The flat surface exploded with blue dots
that formed into three concentric circles, one on top of the other,
each one a little bit big
ger than the last.
"This is an old map of Atherton," Edgar noted. "Things have
changed."
Leaning over the surface, Edgar saw that it was indeed the
surface of Atherton. So detailed was the map he could see the
House of Power in the Highlands, the grove and the other
villages in Tabletop, and Dr. Kincaid's boulder-strewn home in
the Flatlands.
Much of what Edgar was looking at was no more. Everything
inside the smaller two circles was belowground and under
water, but the outer circle--the Flatlands--remained. It made
Edgar wonder about the Dark Planet. Had it also changed?
Maybe it was already dead. Maybe the Silo wasn't even there
any longer.
"I have to find Samuel and Isabel before I go," said Edgar. Was
he really saying that? Leaving for the Dark Planet? It was such
a gigantic idea. If only he could give the wooden tablet to his
friends. Samuel could read and decipher it.
Edgar reached out and almost touched the very place where Dr.
Kincaid and Vincent lived. At the last second he realized that if
this were to set something in motion as he suspected it might,
he would not want to find himself at Dr. Kincaid's doorstep.
Edgar moved his finger closer to where the grove would be and
touched the place on the map where he wanted to go.
The vessel moved ever so slightly and Edgar scrambled into
one of the six seats around the table. He picked up the two
tablets and slid them back together again with a snap. There
was a grinding noise from outside, but Edgar heard only a faint
whisper of sound. All through the walls, ceiling, and floor of the
vessel, creatures were moving and firebugs were glowing
brighter.
Edgar had awoken the Raven and it had begun to move.
"You're not a machine," said Edgar, petting the armrest
instinctively. "I know that word. Dr. Kincaid told me about
machines. They're cold and dead, that's what he said about
machines. He said the Dark Planet was full of them. But you're
not like that, are you? Neither one of us is like that."
Edgar felt confident the Raven was moving faster now, though
he had no way of knowing for sure. He watched the eels
swimming all around him in the murky black. Their mouths
opened and firebugs tried to escape their predators. They left
blue trails of quickly dying light.
Without warning, Edgar felt a pull on his legs and back from the
seat he sat in. He felt glued to the chair by an unseen force.
The Raven had begun to roll and gain speed, but it remained
fairly calm inside. Already the Raven had moved past the giant
stone-covered monster and watched it cower in fear of a million
spikes. The Raven was virtual y indestructible, and she was
more useful than Edgar knew.
She came to the point in the tunnel where it dropped off
violently, and this time Edgar felt the surge of speed. He
couldn't move his limbs as the Raven went faster still. The
seven rock-encrusted cave eels that had waited for Edgar's
return heard the spiked beast coming and cowered deep in their
holes, snapping their jaws in nervous fear.
The Raven shot through the hole and into the open air around
Atherton. Silent and stealthily it flew, rising as if invisible in the
dark night until it landed ever so quietly on the surface of the
Flatlands.
It was night on Atherton as Edgar moved quietly over a rocky
surface peppered with clumps of green grass. The Raven had
landed to the right of the grove, which meant Edgar would have
to pass through a wide pasture.
Edgar had begun his adventure climbing down the side of
Atherton in the late morning of the same day and found it hard
to believe so much time had passed. He was hungry, thirsty,
and tired. Though he pressed on soundlessly as he neared his
destination, the sheep in the pasture saw his approach,
scurrying off in clusters and baa ing as they went.
"You're bothering my sheep."
Edgar jumped back and lost his footing, dropping the tablet with
a bang as it landed badly on the rocks below. It was the
shepherdess Maude, out watching the herd much later than
he'd expected.
"Sorry, Maude... I was just passing through on my way to the
grove."
Edgar and Maude knew each other well. They both understood
the secretive nature of the other.
"I see," said Maude. She was a portly woman with a round face,
known for her strong personality.
Maude leaned against a shepherd's staff and clicked her
tongue in the direction of the herd.
"Edgar's not going to hurt you. He's only sneaking back from
someplace he doesn't want anyone knowing about."
Maude raised an eyebrow at Edgar and locked her eyes with
his in the dim light of night. She was worried about him, but she
also wouldn't pry or try to stop him. After all that Edgar had
accomplished in the past she had learned to let him go about
his business.
"I have to leave for a little while," said Edgar, knowing Maude
would understand.
Maude stabbed the end of the staff into the dirt and looked off
toward the lake.
"Where are you planning to go? There's not much around the
other side."
She had been all the way around the lake in search of pastures
and found nothing better than the ground she stood on.
Edgar didn't answer. He had discovered a crack along one side
of the tablet. The two sides were still stuck together at the
middle, but in the faint light Edgar could see that one had been
damaged.
"What have you got there?"
"Something I found. I'd like Samuel to have it, because there's a
lot of writing."
Then and there Edgar struck on an idea.
"Would you give it to him for me?"
Like the majority of people on Atherton, Maude couldn't read.
She didn't want any part of books or words, so there was no risk
in having her discover what the words said. She took the tablet
and examined it curiously.
"Where are you going, Edgar?"
Edgar hesitated before answering, but in the end he knew he
couldn't leave his friends without telling them where he'd gone.
"I'm leaving Atherton, but I'll be back. Make sure you tell them
I'm coming right back. I won't be gone long."
"What do you mean, leaving Atherton?" asked Maude, stricken
with fear for the boy. "You're not making any sense, Edgar."
"Tell Samuel there are things hidden inside," said Edgar,
pointing to the tablet. "If he can get the two sides to slide apart.
And tell Isabel I'm sorry--I'm really, really sorry. I didn't have a
choice. I had to go."
"Go where, Edgar?"
Edgar looked back toward the Raven, hidden in the night. He
simply couldn't imagine leaving his friends without telling them.
"The Dark Planet. To find out why we're here."
This news came as a shock to Maude. The Dark Planet? The
words rang in her head and she knew them. There was a buried
mem
ory that would not surface, but it left a lingering feeling.
And, oddly, a smell. Like something burning, but what? She
sniffed the air deeply but it was gone. My memory is playing
tricks on me, she thought. She shook her head and looked
again at Edgar.
"I'll give this to Samuel," said Maude. She knew from
experience that Edgar was venturing out on his own and that
he'd have it no other way. She removed a pack from around her
shoulders. Inside were figs, bread, and a leather pouch of
water. Maude had often come out in the night, only to find
herself sleeping with the sheep and waking hungry and thirsty.
"It's my breakfast," she said, holding out the bag. "Take it with
you. Who knows where your next meal will come from?"
"This is just what I needed!" said Edgar. "Thank you, Maude!"
"And I'll tell them where you've gone."
Maude put her arms around Edgar and they embraced for a
long moment. For Edgar it felt like Atherton itself was holding
him and wouldn't let him go. It aimed to keep him here, to keep
him from knowledge it didn't want Edgar to have.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" asked Maude. "What if
you're about to see things you were never supposed to know
about?"
Edgar pulled away and backed up a few paces, sure Maude
was going to try to stop him.
"I can't stay here, Maude. I just can't."
He steadied Maude's pack on his shoulders and walked away,
expecting Maude to follow. But she didn't.
In the deepest part of night on Atherton, Samuel and Isabel
waited at the edge of the crevice for their friend to return. They
wondered where he had gone and vowed to wait all night if they
had to. They fretted over his safety and guessed at what he was
doing.
The Raven moved in silence, invisible against the dark sky.
Samuel and Isabel couldn't have known that before their very
eyes, as they looked out over the edge, their closest friend was
leaving Atherton without them.
PARTTWO
THE SILO
If ever I return,
It will be on Gossamer's wings.
DR. MAXIMUS HARDING
INTO HIDDEN REALMS
CHAPTER 10THE FORSAKEN
WOOD
Sunrise on the Dark Planet was the saddest time of all. At night
a person could look out from the sterile safety of Station Seven
and imagine every thing was perfectly fine. There was so much
less devastation to see when things were truly dark, and this