Code Lightfall and the Robot King Read Online Free PDF

bands. A weathered old robot head protruded from the door, a radar antenna rotating on its head and a large ring clenched in its jaws. Standing on his tippy toes, Code reached up and tried to pull the knocker. It was too heavy to move. So with one shoulder, he shoved against the door with all his might. With a slow squeal, the oversized door opened a crack.
    â€œHello?” called Code.
    No response.
    â€œPeep?” peeped Peep.
    Just an echo.
    With a final fearful gaze into the dusky courtyard and the shadowy forest beyond, Code slinked through the crack of the door and into the castle.
    What he saw inside made him gape in wonder. Everything was giant-sized: a pair of mechanical boots lay near the door, as high as Code’s chest; a coat the size of a ship’s sail hung on a hook; and a lacy purple umbrella covered in solar panels rested in a barrel-sized pot. Code pinched his nose. The smell wafting out of the enormous black boots was unfathomably stinky, like bad fish and kerosene.
    The cavernous room was empty and silent—nobody home.
    Code wandered through the entryway and down a hallway until he came to a kitchen, where a bathtub-sized pot of stew was simmering. He dipped a finger into the stew—still warm. As the castle seemed abandoned, Code thought nobody would mind if he just took a little bit. He cupped his palms together and slurped it up. It was like drinking a bucketful of water filled with copper pennies, but it filled his belly. Code smacked his lips and sighed happily. But when he tried to eat a green wafer covered with shiny dots, he nearly chipped a tooth.
    Feeling groggy after his feast, Code trudged back to the entryway, climbed the billowing coat, and lowered himself into an immense pocket. Inside, he curled up and rested his head on a giant-sized chunk of pocket lint. He smiled, seeing Peep similarly curled up inside his own, much smaller pocket. Safely cocooned, Code fell fast asleep.
    The next morning, a tremendous shriek echoed through the castle.
    Code’s stomach lurched as he was swung violently through the air. Through the fabric of the pocket, he could see morning light filtering through the cloudy walls of the castle.
    Someone or something had come home and put on the coat that Code was in.
    â€œBrutus!” shouted a feminine voice. “Something has been eating our circuit board stew!”
    A deep voice responded: “It’s a filthy mechano-rat, Darla. You can bet your backup circuits! My osmotic sensors are never wrong!”
    Peep peeked out of Code’s pocket and buzzed at him in fright.
    â€œI know, I know,” whispered Code.
    Likewise, Code peeked his own head out. He was in the pocket of a giant robot coat, the owner of which was clanking down a dim hallway in a cloud of wet steam and a racket of pistons.
    â€œI’ll find that rat wherever it hides,” muttered the huge robot. This must be the one the other robot called Brutus , thought Code. He certainly sounds like a brute.
    Code swayed in the air as the monster toddled forward on two primary legs, with several smaller ones hanging awry and occasionally pushing off walls or helping to catch the giant’s balance at the last minute. In addition to the coat, the great shabby creature was clothed in a wild confusion of faded robes, capes, and frilly smocks. As it moved, it swiveled its small, metal-sheathed head back and forth. Code could feel the throbbing heat from its internal furnace and his ears rang from the awful scraping of its clawed feet against the floor, but there was no opportunity to jump out of the pocket.
    â€œIs the mechano-rat in … here?” inquired Brutus, throwing open a massive door. It looked to be some kind of game room. The robot checked each pocket of the billiards table. A rack of telescoping pool sticks bounced up and down nervously, but nothing else moved. Then Brutus checked behind the heat-seeking darts and the soot-covered dartboard. Nothing.