Liar's Harvest (The Emergent Earth) Read Online Free PDF Page B

adapting it to his own purposes.”
    “Leon ...”
    “You told me about Belmont, Uncle Henry. About how the ritual released a ton of supernatural energy, enough to overcome the damping effect that people give off, right? Well, now that magic is coming back, you can’t just decide that it’s all bad. It’s no different than any other resource, it can be used for good or ill, our choice. Why not healing? Almost every magical tradition in the world has some form of healing ritual or substance in it. Hell, half the books you got in here talk about remedies for one thing or another.”
    I spoke up. “Piotr didn’t get a recipe for chocolate cake and then suddenly figure out how to summon the Devourer. Henry and I spent months looking through this book after we took it from Piotr in Warsaw, back in 1944. Look at this.”
    I flipped through the worn pages until I came to a drawing of the four altar pieces nestled in the stomach of a goat. “Here’s how to summon the altar pieces, remember those?” I flipped again. “Here’s a picture of the worms, and on this page, sketches of the Mother infecting her victims.” I dropped the book back into the box. “Piotr used the package exactly as it was intended. The question is, why did whoever gave it to him want the ritual performed? And how long must it have taken to find someone with the ability to pull it off, not to mention insane enough to want to kill the world?”
    “The point,” said Leon, “is that it was the answer to his prayers. The ritual is exactly what he wanted, and it was delivered to him personally. Well I have prayers, too. And this was delivered to me on a goddamn battlefield full of unholy creatures by something natural and beautiful.”
    I picked up the seed, put it in the lockbox, and closed the lid. “You have no idea what will happen to you if you use this thing.”
    Leon slammed his fist down onto the table, making everything rattle and jump. “Who cares what happens to me? My life is over, motherfucker! I can’t do shit anymore. What, I’m gonna spend the rest of my life in this chair trying to prove that I can still go get the fucking mail? You saw what happened today. I was useless. Worse than that, I was a liability. The world is changing, I’m right in the middle of it, and for the first time in my life I’m completely worthless. I might as well be dead. So it doesn’t really matter what happens to me, does it?”
    “What happens if you die, but it doesn’t stop there? The ritual that Piotr got was designed to kill him, remember? And then kill everybody else. Your death might just be the first step.” I took a breath and tried to calm down. “I know how much you want this ...”
    “Hey, fuck you, Abe. You have no idea.” He stabbed a finger at me. “You’re fucking immortal! And you’re telling me you know how much I want to be able to walk again? Hey, how’s your back? Feeling fine, right? You don’t know shit.”
    Anne held up her hands. “That’s enough. We don’t have to decide anything right now. Let’s just take a day or two to think things through, okay? The seed’s not going anywhere. Leon?”
    Leon and I glared at each other in the silence that followed. Then Leon spun his chair around and headed towards the door. “Whatever. But this is my life we’re talking about. Remember that.”
    We watched him leave, and then Henry locked the box and put it on a high shelf, hidden behind some other boxes.
    “Magic, huh?” said Chuck. “You mean like wands and ... this?” He waggled his fingers in the air.
    Anne gave him a look. “Please tell me you’re not going to say something skeptical after fighting supernatural killers full of worms and losing an entire town to a god from beyond time and space.”
    Chuck put his hands in his pockets. “It’s cool. If that was magic, then fine. Just wanted to know.”
    “Magic is as good a name for it as any other,” said Henry, “but it’s not new, and it’s certainly