Free NovaForge by Scott Toney Page A

silent for a moment. “How do we escape? Where are we?”
    “I do not know,” Julieth said, beginning to saw the rope binding her hands once more. She could feel strand after strand snapping after hitting the shard’s edge. She eventually felt the bindings weakening and leaned away from the bars, pulling with all her strength in an effort to break it. “Ugh,” she moaned, the muscles in her arms burning with heat and pain. She sat up, letting her body relax for a second, then, with a forceful pull with her arms the rope shredded and her arms flung into open air, one of them thrusting against the stone wall of the cell. Blood trickled down her knuckles, but she was free. Without hesitation she reached down and untied the rope knotting her legs.
    “I have freed myself of the ropes,” she spoke upward out of the cell bars.
    “Will that do us any good if we cannot escape these bars?” Bayne replied.
    “…click, click, click, click, click, click…” a faint metallic sound came from the underground road beyond their cells.
    Julieth lay flat, peering out to see what was coming. There is nothing there, she thought. Then, in the shadows along the bottom of the far wall, she saw a metallic thing that could not have been bigger than her foot, quickly skittering along. Her heart raced as she saw it stopping. Its head adjusted toward their direction, and then it quickly moved across the road toward their side.
    “…click, click, click, click, click, click…” The metallic thing moved. She saw its beady red eyes before it disappeared from view.
    “Did you see that?” she whispered to Bayne.
    “Yes. What is it? I haven’t seen anything like that with the beasts before. Do you think it is coming for us?”
    Before Julieth had the chance to answer the head of a metallic, insect-like thing flipped up and into her cell. Its body remained out of sight below.
    “Beep, Vrax at your service, compartmentalized cyber-repair and multifunctional cyborg device.” Its eyes glowed the same red hue she had seen in Riad’s. It’s talon-like metal feet clasped onto her cell’s ledge. “Permission to enter requested.”
    “Riad?” she questioned, wondering if this thing had some connection with him.
    “Beep, yes, Cyborg Riad’s repairing pair, mam. Permission to enter requested. Vrax is on orders.”
    Julieth stared at the bizarre mechanism for a second. Could she force it to leave if she wanted to? “How do we know Riad has sent you?”
    …click, click, click… Vrax climbed the rusted bars, curved inside her cell and turned its back to her. On it was a blue symbol that she remembered seeing on Riad’s leg.
    Yet something else you have hidden from us, she thought, now certain this thing was with and possibly even a part of Riad. “Permission granted,” Julieth said, scooting back in the cramped cell as Vrax moved in further and held its claw-like hands before her.
    “Cyborg Riad requests assistance,” it spoke coldly to her.
    “In case you haven’t noticed,” Julieth held out her hands as if motioning to the ‘grandeur’ about her, “we are not able to come to him at the moment.”
    “The woman and boy are restrained, yes, but Vrax can fix.” The bot’s head clicked and flipped down, steam roiling up from an open area where its head had been. Its arm reached up, grabbing something minute from within the hole. Its head then flipped up and clicked back into place.
    “What are you?” Julieth questioned.
    Without hesitation the bot brought the minute rod from its back up to the bars and touched one.
    A hot metallic scent wafted over Julieth as she watched the bar glow molten orange and then ooze down and harden on the cell’s floor. Again Vrax touched the rod to a bar, melting it with heat and then moving on, until no bars of her cell remained.
    Julieth unbound her wings while Vrax climbed above her to free Bayne. She held her head beyond where the bars had been, glancing to be sure that the hall was still barren