Pilgrimage of the Sacred and the Profane Read Online Free PDF Page A

was still
     “sleeping,” as his face was turned to the ground under his black bowler hat. As he
     spoke in his sleep, his voice seemed unbounded. “But I guess the Hunter D was a little
     too much baggage for him to handle after all,” the elder Bullow continued. “Someday,
     we’d like some of your time to settle things nice and leisurely. We’re headed down
     the same road you are. What do you say to going with us?”



Granny Viper cackled like a bird of prey, blowing aside the dusty clouds. “You think
     our young friend here travels with anyone else? Looks like the Fighting Bullow Brothers
     have gone soft in the head! He’s always on his own. He was born alone, lives alone,
     and he’ll die alone. One look at him should be enough to tell you as much.”
    The crone turned an enraptured gaze on the pale profile riding past her. “But this
     time,” she said to the Hunter, “I need you to make an exception. Now, I don’t know
     what you’re up to, but if you’re going across the desert, then Barnabas is the only
     place you could be headed . . . which happens to be where we’re headed, too. Even
     if you don’t want to come with us, we still have the right to follow along after you.”
     Glaring in Bingo’s direction, she added, “Sheesh. I don’t know what you boys are trying
     to prove, but we could do without you. I’m giving you fair warning,” she said to Bingo
     in a tone that could cow even a giant of a man. “If you make a move against D, I’ll
     take it as a move against
us
. Try anything funny, and you’ll find yourselves with more than one foe on your hands.”
    And then the crone pulled back on her reins. An electrical current passed through
     the metallic rings looped around the necks of the four cyborg horses in her team,
     triggering the release of adrenaline. A hot and heavy wind smacked the horses in the
     nose as they hit the street. Beyond the great gates that opened to either side, D’s
     shape was dwindling in the distance. The wagon was close behind him, and Bingo’s horse
     was about a minute behind the wagon. Another five minutes later, Clay passed through
     the gate as well. As soon as he’d gone, a sad sound began to ring out all over town.
     If the wind was a song that bid them farewell, then the cries of the bugs were a funeral
     dirge. And before long, even that died out.
    The crone’s covered wagon soon pulled up on D’s right-hand side. Golden terrain stretched
     on forever, and the sky was a leaden hue. The thick canopy of clouds that shrouded
     the desert was almost never pierced by the rays of the sun; in the last fifty years
     or so, the sun had only been seen once. Somewhere out on the line that divided heaven
     from earth, a few ribbon-like beams of light had once burst through the sea of clouds
     in a sight that was said to be beautiful beyond compare. Some even said there was
     a town out where it’d shone. But after that, the light was never seen again.
    “Oh my, looks like those two really are coming along,” Granny said after adjusting
     her canopy and peering into the omni-directional safety mirror. Made of more than
     a dozen lenses bent into special angles and wired in place, the mirror not only provided
     clear views of all four sides of the wagon, but of the sky above it and earth below
     as well. The figures that appeared in the lens that covered the back, of course, were
     the Bullow Brothers. “Why do you reckon they’re following you?” the crone asked as
     she wiped the sweat from her brow. Though sunlight didn’t penetrate the clouds, the
     heat had no trouble getting through. In fact, the inescapable swelter was a special
     characteristic of this desert. “They say a fighter’s blood starts pumping faster when
     he finds someone tougher than him. Well,” she laughed, “it sure as hell ain’t anything
     as neat as all that. You know why you were thrown out of that hotel?”
    D didn’t answer her. Most likely, it was all the