The Empire of Gut and Bone Read Online Free PDF

creep behind a building.
    They sat on either side of Kalgrash, staring at the little huts on little islands. There were bridges and steep roofs and torn nets hanging between telegraph poles. Punctured tanks stood on high pedestals like statues of some robot god.
    “I do not like this. Bad, bad, bad,” said Kalgrash. The gloom seemed particularly dense. Brian wondered how much was darkness and how much was smoke.
    Off in the ruins, where Dantsig had stalked off, there was a cry.
    “What was that?” hissed Gregory.
    Neither of the other two bothered to answer him.
    Crouched forward, they waited. Occasionally, they heard something crack or splash. The fire popped. The air smelled of burning diesel.
    Forms shifted in the dark … Kalgrash rattled, stepping into battle position.
    “Hey!” he said. “Who goes there?”
    Dantsig appeared in the midst of the smoke. “Me, Kalgrash. And one of the miners.” Beside him was a man bent with trouble, dressed in a padded, grease-smeared miner’s suit.
    Gregory and Brian lowered the gangplank and the two men came aboard.
    “He’s the only one they didn’t get,” said Dantsig. “We’re taking him with us.”
    “What happened?” Gregory asked.
    Dantsig didn’t bother to answer him. He spoke to the miner in their language and sent the man below. Then he goaded the beasts into motion. The sleigh pulled away from the dock. Dantsig still kept his eye on the ruins they passed. He still kept the rifle by his side.
    They were heading back out into the plains.
    Gregory asked, “Where are you taking us?”
    “Pflundt.”
    “Did you just hawk a loogie?”
    No one laughed. Kalgrash rolled his eyes.
    “Who destroyed the town?” Brian asked.
    “The Norumbegans. They wanted samples for study. They came in and captured everyone. Took them away.”
    Brian asked what he meant by “samples for study.”
    Dantsig said, “They’ve forgotten how to do a lot of things. A lot of them died when they got here, to the Great Body. And they’re lazy. I mean, they have other interests. For generations, mannequins had made mannequins. Suddenly, we wouldn’t make any more for them. They don’t recall how to put us together. They don’t have any more of us. We left. For their own good.” His jaw twitched to the side and locked, tic. He closed his eyes and fiddled with his goatee. “Their own good.” He opened his eyes and mashed his mouth around to loosen his jaw. Then he said, “Last few years, they’ve been raiding. When they can be bothered. When there isn’t a concert or a whiskey tasting. They come down here and destroy a village. Hunt the people who escape as they struggle away through the muck. Chase them across the plains. It’s a sport. Tickles their lordships’ fancy.” He surveyed the horizon from side to side. He said, “This is the worst raid I’ve ever seen. They came in, he said — came in and just grabbed everyone. No one could stand up against them. When they order you … it’s …” He shook his head. “Doesn’t matter that they’ve forgotten so much. They’re descended from gods. They’re like nothing else. But they can be —” He stopped speaking, as if he couldn’t say more.Finally, he concluded, “The old guff thinks they disassembled everyone before they took them away.”
    “Disassembled?” Kalgrash said, fear in his voice.
    Dantsig didn’t answer, but a few minutes later, he nodded and pointed.
    They saw bodies mired in the goo. Jumpsuits and calico dresses. Hands coming out of sleeves. Feet with boots.
    “The memory is in the head,” said Dantsig. “All the delicate stuff.” He tapped his own temple. “That’s what they can’t get anymore. Without our craftsmen. They can’t design thought. They have mechanicals now — they call them drones — just machines. No thought. No emotion. Just simple commands. Standard format. Hardly any grammar.”
    He looked at the dark horizon. “They want to build more of us. They want servants who