A long square leg stepped forward from the pillar, followed by two more. Eva’s eyes went wide as a six-meter-tall automaton emerged, marching out from the pillar base it had been standing on. Rows of small lights inside its armored alien coating flickered in rhythm from its three feet to its three eyes. Segmented arms, ending in endless talons of every size, extended down from its sides. Eva sunk into the recesses of the shadows in the doorway, watching the pillar guard. It stood in the high-roofed corridor in front of the lab door and looked down at Zin.

“Behind this door is a feral carnivore that has escaped,” Zin explained as he fluttered around the guard. “I need you to enter and immobilize it immediately. Use any means necessary, understand?”

The pillar guard blatted in response as Zin opened the door. A flying crab creature chirped as it soared out of the lab and down the hall. The door closed behind the pillar guard after it entered.

“This is overkill, don’t you think?” the taxidermist asked as he listened to the chaos on the other side of the door. “Those things are supposed to be used only if we are under attack. We probably could have just had a few royal guards handle this.”

“Perhaps, but if that large subterranean arthropod is as deadly as Besteel says, then let us not risk any casualties. The pillar guard will handle it efficiently,” Zin chirruped.

While their attention was focused on the battle within the laboratory, Eva slipped down the hall.

CHAPTER 28: ARTIFACTS

Eva Nine discovered that the bending corridor was simply a big loop with mysterious rooms radiating off it. With a sigh of relief she found her way out, undetected. As the exit door retracted open, Eva stepped out onto the topmost floor of an enormous multilevel open hall.

The Great Hall’s ceiling was similar to the one she’d seen in the laboratory, but executed on a much grander scale. A network of aged support beams was woven into a mesmerizing geometric lattice, supporting the transparent arched roof. Outside, Eva saw colorful banners fluttering in the afternoon breeze—all of them adorned with the symbol of a single eye with a horizontal iris.

Here and there, pedestrians of every shape, size, and color ogled at the rows of exhibit cases that lined the ribbed walls. The architecture was so organic, so magnificent, so otherworldly, that Eva momentarily forgot the peril she was in and strolled about, taking in the grandness of it all.