Before the huntsman could fire his weapon, a pair of spiked forelegs pierced his body. Stunned, Besteel let go of his boomrod and tried to wriggle free.

The boomrod fell next to the giant sand-sniper just as dozens of juveniles surfaced from the sand. They, too, sunk their pincers into the huntsman and clicked in high-pitched chirps.

Besteel was dragged below the dark desert sands of the wasteland by the sand-sniper and her brood, never to surface again.

CHAPTER 40: DARKNESS

Rovee! Rovee! Are you okay?” Eva jumped down from Otto and ran to the huntsman’s glider. The herd of water bears broke up, hooting and calling out as they rejoiced in the demise of Besteel—he who had hunted them.

“A bit black-and-blue, but it’s nothing a little moss and drink won’t fix,” Rovender said with a weak grin. He wriggled in his binds. One of his eyes was swollen shut, and dried blood was smeared above it, caked with sand.

“Hold on,” Eva said as she rummaged through Besteel’s belongings. “There’s got to be a knife in one of these bags.”

Rovender rolled over. “Here. Try the back pouch on my belt.”

Eva found the familiar shape of the small curved knife, the same one she had used to free her friend from the huntsman’s camp. Rovender was free in moments.

“I’m so happy you’re okay.” Eva buried her face in his jacket, staining the shoulder with her tears.

Rovender broke the hug and looked around. “Where is Mother?” he asked.

“Muthr!” Eva put her arm around her friend. “Come on, hurry!”

Together the two limped over to the twisted wreckage of the Goldfish.

As they both knelt down next to Muthr, Eva could see that more of the thick liquid had run out of the braincase, soaking into the sand all around her. Eva gingerly put the palm of her bandaged hand over the crack, as she had done previously, and lifted Muthr’s head. A golden glow returned to the robot’s eyes.

“Look. This happened before,” Eva said. She gazed at Muthr’s face and waited for her to speak. “If I hold her back here, she comes back on.”

“It is your energy, the electricity within you, Eva Nine, that temporarily revives her,” Rovender said. He looked at the fractured braincase. “I am afraid, though, that she may be damaged beyond repair.”

Static hissed from the robot’s mouth.

“Eva, dear.” Muthr’s voice sounded far away and dreamy, different from how Eva had heard her speak before. “I get to see you one last time. Is Besteel gone?”

“Yes, he’s gone,” Eva replied.

Rovender ran his thick fingers over Muthr’s face. “He will bother no one ever again, thanks to your resourceful daughter,” he said.