Empire of Bones Read Online Free PDF Page B

dove over the peak for shelter, and as he did, a swarm of bees stung him in the calf. Not bees. Pellets. Hot, fiery, shotgun-belched pellets. With one handgripping the roof, he grabbed at his leg and bit his lip against the pain. Little craters, erupting blood.
    He could hear shouting, but it didn’t matter what was being said. He knew it was about him. They would surround the building. They would shoot him again. He had to get to the plane. But that meant standing. And then running. And then jumping into the pasture and slamming into the ground. Then standing back up and dodging and outrunning grown men with guns in a four-hundred-meter cross-country sprint. Not likely.
    But the other option was dying.
    Cyrus rose to his knees. He could hear gunfire that was not meant for him. Distant gunfire. And then he heard the airplane change its roar. Diana was taking off.
    Cyrus could hear men below him on both sides. He heard a metal gutter pop and squeal. They were coming up for him.
    The turbo-prop, tilt-rotor plane rose above the pasture and glided forward like a helicopter. It drew every pair of eyes. Nolan was leaning out of the open door with a revolver, taking aim and firing whenever a gun was raised below him. Dairy cows bellowed and thumped around in panic, trying to organize a stampede.
    Cyrus clambered to his feet and began to wave his arms.
    He couldn’t see Diana, but he knew when she saw him. The plane swiveled, and swooped in above themotel, beating the air down around him, sending Cyrus slipping back to his knees.
    The men below finally had a target that was easy to hit. Sparks rattled off the wings, but every time Nolan fired, another gun on the ground went silent. Two men were scrambling onto the roof, and then Niffy dropped out of the door of the plane, robes fluttering as he fell. He landed on the metal roof like a ninja elephant and immediately somersaulted down toward the climbing men. As they raised guns, Niffy tore his rope belt loose, and in his hand, it lashed out like hemp lightning. The end cracked the first man in the face and sent him toppling backward over the edge. The rope wound around the second man’s legs, and Niffy jerked his feet out from under him. The man fired into the air as he fell.
    Cyrus crawled beneath the plane, looking up at Nolan leaning out of the open door at least ten feet above him. He had to stand, to jump. And then a huge hand slid beneath Cyrus’s left arm, and another hand grabbed him by the seat of his shorts.
    Cyrus rose until he was perched just above Niffy’s right shoulder. The thick monk suddenly dropped into a crouch, sucking in a long whistling breath, his grip tightening on Cyrus’s rear.
    Cyrus flailed. Niffy heaved.
    Cyrus floated up through the wind like he’d been spat by a trampoline. Nolan’s eyes widened; then Cyrussmacked into him, and the two tumbled back into the cabin in a tangle of arms.
    The end of Niffy’s rope flopped up onto Cyrus’s back, and Dan grabbed on to it, threading it quickly through the metal bones beneath Antigone’s seat and then gripping the end tight with both hands.
    “Go, Di! Go!” he shouted, and the plane slid to the side, away from the motel.
    Cyrus sat up on Nolan’s legs, grabbed the edge of the open door, and hopped up onto his good leg. Nolan slid back into his seat.
    Cyrus leaned out of the door and looked down as the plane moved over the parking lot and the road and the trees. Niffy dangled from the end of his rope belt with only one hand. His thick bare legs were cinched tight around the arms and chest of a bloody-faced and panicking Flint. While Cyrus watched, Niffy swabbed his free little finger around the inside of his own fat cheek, and then wiggled it in Flint’s ear.
    “Cy!” Antigone shouted. “Cy! Your leg!”
    Cyrus looked back at his sister and his worried mother. Then he twisted, glancing down at his calf. He grimaced at the sight but was actually surprised that it didn’t look worse. He had