Monterra's Deliciosa & Other Tales & Read Online Free PDF

STAMP! Harder, harder the little creature pounded. But Werner lay still, glistening in the wet.
    STAMP STAMP. There was a frantic tone now, and even the impassive air picked it up and spread the urgency.
    The stone eagle on the dome craned its neck to look ... then peered. It flexed its toes, opened giant wings, and soared off its globe, out over the rooftops of the great city, down to the small curled body on the pavement. Deftly hooking into Werner's coat with talons large as carcass hooks, the stone bird lifted the unconscious man into the sky. They flew over the quiet streets, a rattling whirr all the while coming from Werner's pocket in addition to the steady STAMP STAMP, STAMP STAMP that never ceased. The shrrr of rain obscured the halting reply of Werner's heart.
    It was hardly more than three great wing flaps before down, down, the giant bird circled into the thicket of buildings. And there, waiting at the entrance, were the stone man and woman. She, having stepped out onto the pavement, was holding out her open, uplifted arms. Both people were the gleaming grey of the eagle: he, naked and magnificent, and she, half-robed and just as handsome, her smiling upturned face washed by the rain. The eagle loosed the feather-of-a-man into the arms of the woman, and with one sure wing-flap, the giant bird was high above the city once again, where it looped the sky till it was lost in the murk of night.
    The stone woman shifted the man in her care to be cradled entirely by her left arm. Tender as with a baby, she used her robe edge to wipe his face and soak up the moisture from his uniform. Her face was calm, but there was a wrinkle between her brows as she worked. Then she nodded to the man beside her.
    The stone man and woman had to duck to enter the doors to the building. He went first, his steps ringing on the stairs. She followed with Werner in her arms.
    Knock, knock , he tapped on the door to 3C.
    Gretina, inside, was on the bed, talking to the bird trapped in its stone, laid on the duvet.
    The steps she'd just heard: terrifyingly loud. Officious. How many men? The knock! With a truncheon? Certainly not knuckles.
    Oh mein Gott! She looked at her watch. He's late! They've got him! Quick!
    She jumped off the bed, picked up the fossil slab with one hand and the mattress with the other, and shoved the stone underneath to hide between the mattress and the metal mesh of the bedframe, all in one fluid motion like wrenching the polishing machine away from her toes.
    A smoothing hand to the duvet and her dress, and she was ready to face the door, imperturbable as she'd been with those teasing guards. My Werner? A bit late, but nothing out of the ordinary. A theft? Oh, how terrible. Would you like a strudel?
    Knock knock knock! The door shook from the insistence. Gretina's hand shook, but her mouth betrayed nothing as she unlocked and—
    The stone woman in the Greek robes rushed in carrying Werner, followed by the stone man. They both stood, uncertain, in the living room, turning this way and that.
    "In here!" Gretina yelled, seeing only Werner, limp in the giant's arms. Gretina rushed into the bedroom and pounded the bed.
    The stone woman laid him on the duvet and stood beside the bed, looking down at the fragile, still man. The stone man watched from the foot of the bed.
    "What have I done? What?!" Gretina hit her head with her fists, then ran to the kitchen. Opened a drawer. Pills? Which ones? No. I wouldn't know. What?
    She ran back to the bedroom, threw herself on the bed and kissed Werner all over his face. "Wake. Wake, my darling."
    A crumbling sound underneath, like that of gravel scrunched, was muffled by her sobs.
    The woman and man watched, sombre.
    Gretina stroked Werner's head, rolled up his eyelids to look into his eyes, but he didn't look back.
    She felt his wrist, so faint the beat; and then his heart. Heart! The little mechanical creature. She felt its feet pounding against Werner's heart. Heard how strong it