Read Online Code Lightfall and the Robot King by Daniel H. Wilson - Free Book Online

protect you, of course.”
    â€œOf course,” said Code, carefully stepping around one outstretched hoof. Lightfall. Royal. Code wondered again how his grandfather, just an ordinary old man back home, had come to be royalty here in Mekhos. Then again, any human being who could stay alive in this place for a week had to be amazing.
    As they walked, Code allowed himself to imagine what the Robonomicon would look like—probably a massive golden book with words written in shimmering light. Like a book of magic spells. Code couldn’t wait to find it.
    They pursued Peep and soon found themselves in a clearing with tall, waving grass. It was home to a group of odd trees covered with what looked like glowing lightbulbs. Their smooth, thick branches were pruned completely bare except for puffy tufts of leaves. Planted in a row, the trees looked like a line of trimmed poodles at a dog show.
    Gary screeched like a broken can opener and pointed with one trembling finger cannon at the meadow. “Oh, no, Code. The grass.” He quaked. “It isn’t mowed !”
    â€œGeez,” said Code, peering through the tall weeds. “Just relax—”
    Suddenly, a loud buzzing sound rang through the clearing. Peep flickered past, glowing a scared violet as she darted over the grass and toward the puffy trees. Gary squealed as a flurry of freshly cut grass shot up into the air nearby. The flying grass erupted in a zigzag pattern that raced across the field. Whatever was hidden in the grass was coming toward them—fast.
    â€œMowers!” shrieked Gary, stomping his huge feet in hysterical fright. (In fact, his body was doing what it does when the brain shouts at it to do something , but doesn’t tell it what.)
    From the corner of his eye, Code saw a bright streak of light as Peep careened away. Thinking quickly, Code grabbed Gary by the finger and pulled him headlong through the grass. The buzzing noise seemed to be coming from every direction. Code and Gary couldn’t see anything as they stumbled forward, ribbons of grass and acrid smoke flying everywhere. Finally, Code spotted the trunk of a tree. Just as a mower lurched out of the grass, the boy and the robot leaped for one of the lower branches. It bent alarmingly under their added weight, but held steady. Peep was already waiting on a higher branch, preening nonchalantly.
    Below, the monstrous predators were hidden somewhere in the tall grass. The mowers buzzed angrily and circled the tree like sharks, sending plumes of shredded grass into the air. Safe for the moment, Code and Gary perched on the creaking branches and stared morosely at the grass. There was no place left to go—they were trapped in a tree in the Toparian Wyldes.
    After a few moments, however, all the grass lay in a jumble on the ground. And Code saw the mowers for the first time.
    There were two of them. Each was about the size of a dinner table and covered in a thick mat of sod and leaves. They had small heads with tiny, dim eyes that peeked out from under their grassy shells. With all the grass gone, the roar of the mowers’ whirling tummy blades had grown quiet. Without the smoke and confusion and cutting, the mowers actually looked kind of like a couple of oversized puppies. Of course, thought Code, when a puppy jumps on your leg, it doesn’t chop up your pants with whirling metal stomach blades.
    The boy and the slaughterbot sat in the tree for a long time, trying in vain to come up with a plan to escape. An expert tree climber, Code made his way to the upper branches and found one of the lightbulb-shaped fruits. It glowed and pulsed with a rainbow swirl of delicious-looking colors. But when Code tried to pull it from the branch, the fruit wouldn’t budge. Instead, he heard a beeping and booping noise coming from inside the tree. Very faintly, almost lower than the sighing of the wind, Code heard the word “human” being repeated. Suddenly, all the