Crisped + Sere (Immemorial Year Book 2) Read Online Free Page A

don’t know,” Cavalo said. “But it is. And you know who will have the rest.”
    “Lucas doesn’t know for sure?”
    “So he says.” Cavalo wasn’t sure if he could believe the Dead Rabbit.
    “But… how… where can we…?”
    “Dworshak,” Cavalo said. “Does it still stand?”
    “The dam?” Alma asked. “What does that have to….”
    “It should,” Hank said. Cavalo could see the fire blooming in his eyes. He wondered if, after all was said and done, they could ever go back to the way things had been. If they would even have the chance. “Haven’t been there in a few years since no one knew how to do anything with it. Fifty miles is a long way to travel this close to the Deadlands. Unless the Dead Rabbits have taken it over, but I don’t think they have gotten that far north yet.” He stopped. Shook his head. “That’s what they’ve been looking for, isn’t it? That’s why they’ve been moving. To find a working dam. He never asked about it, so we never had reason to tell him.”
    “I don’t understand,” Alma said weakly, though Cavalo could see the knowing glimmer flashing in her eyes.
    Cavalo took a breath and let it out slowly. “Lucas is… a map. Or at least half of one. There are schematics tattooed into his skin. Equations and lines. For machines. Water purification. Hydroelectricity. Power. He is what the UFSA was looking for. Why they want Patrick. The Forefathers, whoever they are. They didn’t know Patrick had divided it up. They thought he was nothing more than a pet. A psycho fucking bulldog. A means to an end. But he’s more than that. They didn’t know what they had. They never stopped to look. Lucas is the key, and I guarantee you Patrick is the lock. Whoever opens that door… will have the power to control everything. You have made a deal with the devil, and in nineteen days, he is coming to your doorstep to collect.”

of bees and men
     
     
    THEY LEFT him chained to the wall, Bad Dog fretting at his feet.
    He pulled on the chains. They clanged against the hooks on the wall. There was no give in them. He wondered how many of those the town had fed to the Dead Rabbits had been kept in here, arms bound to the walls.
    His throat hurt. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d spoken so much. They promised him water but never came back. He expected as much. It was okay. He’d survived worse. He knew there was a guard out in the front office but did not call out to him. It would not have done any good. Besides, he was sick of people. He’d seen too much of them lately. Of this town with all its secrets. He wanted to be alone while he had time left to do so. Once the sun rose, he’d either be killed by the town or fed to the Dead Rabbits. Of that he was certain.
    As the sky grew darker, the snow stopped and the clouds parted here and there, leaving patches of stars and sky he could see through the small window behind him. He even saw the moon, the sliver that it was, when he craned his neck uncomfortably. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen the moon. Men had gone there once, he knew. In their ships that spat fire. Much like the space in which the moon drifted, it was something Cavalo couldn’t quite fathom. He wondered what the moon looked like up close. And how quiet the space around it would be. All dust and stars.
    Bad Dog curled around his feet protectively, huffing quietly in his sleep as his legs jerked. Cavalo wondered what he chased in his dreams. He wished he could follow his friend there. It would be better than staying trapped here in the real world where people he would have trusted, people he thought far better than himself, had shown they were exactly the same as he. It should have provided him comfort to know that others made hard decisions like he did. Those decisions that no one else would choose to make. But it was Alma. And Hank. And Warren. They weren’t supposed to be like him. They were supposed to be different.
    And why are you