asked Ember, who was following the thing closely with her eyes.
"If I knew where it was going, what's its goal was, no problem," Ember replied.
"But you won't," Soma told her. "You'll have to guess the next move every time."
"Am I supposed to catch it?" Ember asked. "Like now?"
"Not right now," Soma said. "Not this one, but the machines are everywhere. You'll have your chance."
"Are they dangerous?" Edeline asked.
"They mean no harm," Soma told her. "In fact, they do only good. They're here for us, to serve us, to help us. It's their purpose, their mission. They do it well. Too well, in fact."
"If I catch one," Ember said. "Can I eat it?"
Soma started to reply but Ember interrupted and said she was only kidding. It was obviously a joke. Ember knew what a machine was from other people's stories, but she didn't know about this little flying kind. It had been a long time since anyone had been locked up in the forest world and no one who knew anything about technological advances had arrived since the days of the third-eye patch. That was as far as they knew about, and it was ancient history already. The machines themselves didn't even keep that obsolete knowledge around anymore. All the ancient data had been deleted, everything from steam engines to telephones to computers to embeds to graft patches to quantal nodes. It was all only so much detritus in the compost heap of time. These machines were only mechanical in name and composition. In reality, they were conceived and hatched and grown like any other living thing, but to people and other human forms they were a complete and utter mystery.
The machine buzzed away, but as they approached the station they saw a few more of them, some just as small, others larger, all of them airborne, all of them intentionally keeping just out of reach. Soma said no more about them, other than that the machines had all the information, all the answers.
"They are the real Keepers," she told them.
"Can they be destroyed?" Ember asked.
"It's happened," Soma said, "but it didn't do any good. In fact, it didn't seem to do anything at all."
"You weren't kidding about the sun," Edeline said. The sun had just dropped at least twenty degrees in the sky all at once, like an object knocked off a shelf onto a lower one.
"We're almost there," Soma urged them forward. All day long the scenery had remained the same, glittering white sand below their feet, scrubby plains off to the inland on one side and deep blue gentle sea stretching to the horizon on the other. Everything was flat as far as they could see and then, before them, rising up out of the sand, they saw a small yellowish building with a red tile roof.
"The station," Soma gestured toward it. "Here we'll find everything you need."
"I could use some sleep," Ember groaned. "Do they have any of that in there?"
"I feel like I could use some waking up," Edeline said. "And then I want somebody telling me that it's all been nothing but a very bad dream."
Three
As they drew nearer, they saw that the station was indeed just that, the very image of an old-fashioned railroad station. It sported intricate wood-worked double doors and, on the inside, a floor fashioned of octagonal yellow tiles, with occasional ornate patterns depicting steam engines pulling coaches across a landscape of snow-covered peaks and rushing waterfalls. On the high walls there were oval stained glass windows, each depicting similar scenes of ancient transportation motifs. Around the height circled a balcony with white railings, but there appeared to be no way to reach it, no stairs or ladders of any kind. Along one wall stood an old wooden counter, with racks of tickets and keys behind it. Through the opposite way from the entry, another set of double doors opened on no tracks, and no trains, merely more white sand as far as Edeline could see. To her questioning glance, Soma replied with an amused smile.
"You'll want to use that room," she said, pointing at the left of a pair of doors, over which was written, in old Gothic lettering, the word "Guests".
"What about the other one?" Edeline asked, indicating the sign above that door, which said "Residents".
"That won't do anything for you," Soma said. "We won't be staying long. Use the 'Guests' room. You'll find everything you need in there, and more."
"It looks like it just goes right back outside again," Ember said, and it certainly did appear so. They were standing in the middle of the one and only room in the building, as far as they could tell.
"Just open the door," Soma said with some impatience. "You can take a hot shower if you like. Or a warm bath. You'll find a suit of clothes for each of you. When you're ready, there will be food and drink as well. Please, go."
Ember and Edeline exchanged looks, but they were both so weary from the day's trek that they turned together, with a sigh, towards the door. Edeline gave it a push, and both were surprised, and yet not surprised, to see that Soma was right once again. They entered what seemed to be a luxurious hotel suite. On either side of the door stood beds with thick mattresses, heaped with blankets and pillows. Beneath their feet the plush pale orange carpeting felt like a magic massage to their sore toes and soles. They stepped together through the room, noting that each of the beds held a pair of pants and a shirt just like the ones that Soma wore; a white-button down blouse and black pantaloons.
"These will grow with you," Soma said, standing behind them.
"What do you mean?" Edeline asked, turning to face her.
"The clothes, they grow and change as you do. If you were to gain weight, or more likely, for Ember, as her changing goes, the same clothing will always fit her. Plus, you can customize it a bit. Watch."
She looked down at her own blouse and said,
"Shirt, a little tighter around the waist please,"
And instantly the garment took itself in.
"It's a life form," she said with a smile. "It wants to fit the way you want it to."
"That's just weird," said Ember, eying the outfit with suspicion.
"Our ivy was like that," Edeline reminded her, and Ember reluctantly agreed.
"The bathroom is just in there," Soma indicated a door at the end of the room, and here's a desk and chair if you feel like sitting at one. I'm not sure what one does with it, but there it is." She paused, and then added in a soft voice, "I have a feeling that some of the stuff you'll find out here is kind of leftover, relics. There are some things we have no idea what they're for."
Soma smiled, and then told them she had a few other things to take care of, and she'd check in on them again in a little while. With that she left the room, as Edeline and Ember stared after her.
"A hot shower?" Edeline asked, nearly giggling. "I haven't had a hot shower in, goodness knows how long."
"I don't think I've ever had one," Ember said, "but my grandmother used to tell me about warm baths. I think I'll try one of those."
"You first," Edeline said, but went with her into the bathroom to help try and figure out how the things would work. As it turned out, her help wasn't needed. The fixtures in the bathroom were ancient but clearly labeled with complete instructions that appeared in the air in a Gothic script as one approached them. Leaning over the tub, words popped up informing them which was the hot, which was the cold, which was for the bath and which for the shower. The shower curtain retracted on its own as Ember chose bath. Water poured out of the faucet and adjusted itself to what it considered the appropriate temperature as Ember stared at the self-configuring taps. When she stepped into the water and sat back, she grinned so broadly that Edeline hardly recognized her. She realized that she'd hardly ever seen Ember look so happy.
Ember soon grew bored, however, and leaped out of the tub and grabbed a towel, as instructed by the room, and Edeline took her turn. She spent a great deal more time in the shower than Ember had in the bath, and by the time she emerged, she found that Ember had already put on her new clothes and was giving them orders to tighten and loosen, loosen and tighten, until she had them just as she desired. Then she leaped onto the bed and stretched herse
lf out, arms flung aside, and kicked her feet on the mattress.
"I like it," she declared. "I have to say, I like it."
"Me too," Edeline said, pulling on her pants and shirt. She wandered over to the desk and sat down. It seemed familiar, but she didn't know what to do there. She thought it was missing something, a telephone perhaps, or a notebook and pen. As it was, the empty desk seemed more than pointless. Suddenly, a machine dropped down from the ceiling, a small gray box of a thing, and with two long appendages drew a tray from its belly and placed it on the desk. Before Edeline could reach out, the machine withdrew, but only to the other side of the room, where it set down a similar tray on a small folding table that simply materialized next to Ember's bed. Then, as quickly as it had appeared, it vanished back into the ceiling.
The trays held plates of fruit, rolls, and some sort of meat chunks in gravy. There was also a glass of some yellowish, bubbly liquid.
"It looks like dog food," Edeline said with a laugh, but she picked up the fork that came with it and began to poke at the meal with it.
"It smells like garbage," Ember sniffed, but she didn't actually know what garbage smelled like. In the forest, there had never been any waste, or any meat, which is why the scents were so unfamiliar to her. She picked up a blueberry and popped it into her mouth. Chewing, she nodded and grunted in satisfaction, but the berries were all she planned on eating.
"I'm not touching that stuff," she muttered, pointing at the glass and the pile of stew.
"It's not bad," Edeline said, chewing on a bit of meat. "It tastes like lamb. At least, I think it tastes like lamb. I really have no idea, but that's what my tongue is telling me. My taste buds seem to remember even if I don't."
"I'm losing my appetite," Ember declared, after polishing off the rest of the blueberries and the raspberries as well. This left a peach and some grapes untouched on her plate. Edeline was rapidly devouring every last morsel on hers, and guzzling the beverage, which she informed Ember was nothing more than lemonade.
"I'd rather have some water," Ember said, and no sooner had she uttered those words when the door to their room flung open, and a young boy came running in, carrying a crystal pitcher full of sparkling water, and a glass that sparkled like diamonds.
"Water!" he shouted, as he rushed to her table, set down the glass, and poured it full. He turned and started to run right back out of the room but Ember called out,
"You there!" she said. "Wait a minute."
He screeched to a halt, and looked back at her, standing at full attention.
"Yes, ma'am," he said.
"Who are you?" she asked.
"Zed!" he said at once.
"Zed?" she repeated.
"Yes, ma'am," he replied. "Zed Fortune, at your service, ma'am."
"I am not a ma'am," Ember scolded him. "And where did you come from, anyway?"
"Station, ma'am," he told her, staring straight ahead, and remaining motionless like a soldier.
"At ease," Edeline teased, but her joke had the intended effect, and Zed relaxed and even smiled. He was dressed exactly like they were, in the pirate-type shirt and pants, only he was wearing ankle-high black leather boots, and wore a red scarf around his neck. His short black hair was spiky and sticking out all over the place, as if badly cut and never combed. His face was pale and decorated with a number of light brown freckles and markings that looked oddly like the branches of small trees. His eyes were wide and a deep dark blue. Ember liked him right away, though she didn't know why, and it even bothered her a little. She was not prone to attraction in general.
"At your service too, ma'am," he said to Edeline, and even made a brief bow in her direction.
"Thank you for the water," Ember said, taking a sip.
"The lemonade is good, too," Edeline said.
"I'm not touching that