Behind him, the old papio man cried out.

Diamond finished the climb. Generations of feet had built the trail, cutting into the hill’s crest, and he stopped where it flattened and turned. The armored creature had just pushed the two papio aside. The old woman began to scramble across the loose rock and the man lost his grip, and with a clatter of dry gravel and soft dust, she tumbled forward, rolling limp and quick to the bottom of the hill.

Her misery deserved one backward glance from the armored beast, and nothing more. Then it looked forwards again, the talking mouth taking a huge wet breath, and what could have been a laugh erupted from it.

“Ugly stupid monsters,” he said.

The old woman gingerly picked herself off the ground.

“This is beauty you see,” boasted the creature. Then the other mouth spat at the ground. “Come with me, little monster,” the talking mouth shouted. “Surrender and nobody else is crushed.”

Streams of dust flowed down the slope, and voices called out, and Diamond heard birds speaking fiercely and the wind blowing in the distance, and then he felt the wind rush warm across his damp dusted face.

“I know you,” he said.

The strange face changed expressions.

A smile, was it?

“You came out of the corona too,” Diamond shouted. “We were inside her stomach, sleeping together.”

“You don’t know me,” the creature said.

“We’re like brothers,” said Diamond.

The other mouth spat out a gob of golden juice, and eyes that weren’t like any others stared at some point above his head. Calculations were made, and the creature increased its pace, charging up the sheer slope. Save for shorts and a belt, its powerful body wore nothing but the armor. Spikes and brass-colored scales made it seem bigger than it was, and the voice was fearless in every way but its speed. Maybe the species always breathed fast. But as it moved closer to the boy, it breathed in hard deep gasps, muttering, “We’re nothing like brothers and you belong to me and try to fight me, please, you cannot win, you shit.”

They were four strides apart when the creature pitched forwards, exhausted, and Diamond spun around and tore down the hill’s backside.

This was new ground, a new landscape. This portion of the reef was shrouded in low thick foliage. Plants didn’t fall from the sky but instead rose up out of the weathered coral, which somehow seemed more reasonable, more proper. The bark was like leather and the leaves were dark green and thickly built, each shining as if waxed by careful hands, and the talking birds were loud and urgent, and the air buzzed with myriad insects. Little animal bodies moved down runways hidden beneath the hip-high canopy. Diamond listened to them and the heavy feet chasing after him, and looking down to the next valley, he wished for Father’s voice to come tell him what to do now.

No one spoke to him, not even his enemy.

The new valley was smaller and wetter than the valleys behind them. The first, trees stood as tall as a grown man, and they looked a little like blackwoods. A small papio was scampering with her hands and head down, and then she heard him and looked up in time to move aside, hiding long incisors behind bright pink lips.

The armored creature was running fast again, closing the gap.

A sharp ugly spat came out of the bottom mouth.

The papio let the creature pass, and then she pulled a deep long meaningful scream out of her chest.

The little forest was shocked into silence.

Diamond sped up again. The trail flattened and broadened before coming to an abrupt end. One long patch of ground had been thoroughly stripped of trees and smoothed like a floor before a thick coat of blackened pitch was laid across the pulverized coral. The surface was rubbery and a little soft. Various machines stood in the open, no two identical but each following the same logic. Each machine carried little rooms up high and closed doors, and they stood on big wheels that came in pairs and foursomes. The wheels were made of rubber and wood, and the rooms rested on metal skeletons that must have been shiny once but had turned rusty red. Three papio were climbing down from one machine. They saw Diamond and stared, and then they saw the other creature. One of the papio turned to the others. Senseless words sounded like a question. Her companions considered the matter and gave different answers, and they ended up doing nothing as the two monsters ran by.

Diamond turned away from the sun, staying in the open, following the rubbery ground deeper into the reef.

Stout buildings were gathered up ahead, each fashioned from massive coral blocks. The buildings had no windows, just narrow high slots, and every door was built from heavy timbers and iron hinges, closed and sealed tight. Diamond had built ten thousand forts with blocks, and forts didn’t look too different from these structures. He slowed when they were beside him, and after glancing over his shoulder, he slowed again, trying to clear his mind.

The creature was closing again.

Diamond reached behind his back. The knife was still wrapped inside the worn leather, and he pulled it out and unwrapped it as he spun hard, slashing the air with the bright blade.

The creature dipped its head, out of reflex.

Diamond tried another swing.

Up came an arm, the motion too quick to follow. There were little spikes on the fist that smashed into Diamond’s wrist, bones shattering as the hand went numb and weak. The knife that he had carried across the world fell to the ground, skipping back the way they had run. Any fear or caution inside the armored creature was finished. It laughed at the human. It laughed and walked away and kneeled, not even bothering to watch Diamond slump over, holding his damaged arm close to his belly. The silly knife needed to be snatched up by the blade, and the breathing mouth said, “You don’t know how to fight.”

“I don’t,” Diamond agreed.

“My father says, ‘He is an innocent, and we don’t need innocents. Teach him what you know, King.’ ”

“What’s King?”

“My name,” said the creature.

The hand holding the butcher’s blade had six fingers, matching thumbs on opposite sides of a broad hard palm.

“What does that mean?” Diamond asked.

“What does what mean?”

“King,” he said.

The spitting mouth had bright teeth, sharp teeth leading back to flat ones. The talking mouth took a long breath. “The king is that great man who sits on the world’s largest chair. It is an empty chair today, unclaimed and lonely. But my destiny is to fill the king’s chair and make this world my own.”

Diamond considered using his good hand and arm, striking that very strange face.

But King read his face, his body. Laughing loudly, he said, “Try fighting and I’ll beat you to death.”

Diamond did nothing.

“I’ll beat you so dead you won’t wake again for a day.”

The boy took a little step backwards, then a larger one.

“Here,” King said. “Take your toy.”

The odd hand turned the knife, offering the white bone hilt to Diamond.

“Take it and hurt me now.” Then with a soft, almost tender voice, King said, “Please.”

Diamond shook his head. He said, “No,” and turned away from the creature, walking slowly in the same direction that he ran before. The fortified buildings were behind him and the valley ended with the steep face of a cliff—except at least one deep cave was cut into the cliff. He hadn’t seen the cave while running, obscured by curtains of fabric and webs of string colored to look like pink coral and deep shadow.

King suddenly knocked him forwards.

The half-healed wrist broke again.

Diamond stayed on his knees, panting. “Do you see it?” he asked.

“See what?”

“That strange machine,” Diamond said.

“I see plenty of machines,” King replied.