The Builders by Daniel Polansky Read Free Book Online

the Gardens years ago, just ahead of a mob of animals looking to hang them by their long necks. With such qualifications, they’d had no trouble finding work in the Kingdom to the South. The Kingdom to the South was that sort of a place.
    It was a long time before the two of them came within speaking distance. The Captain wasn’t the hurrying kind. Cinnabar, though he could move very fast, very fast indeed, was not the hurrying kind either. The Weasel sisters were also not much for haste, or at least they didn’t snap to attention at the arrival of their guests; they didn’t even bother with a greeting.
    “You gonna tell your boss we’re here?” the Captain asked.
    Angie Weasel walked over and banged on the door of the house.
    “You must be the Dragon,” Bessie Weasel said.
    Cinnabar didn’t respond.
    “You don’t look like no dragon to me.”
    “You ever seen a dragon?” the Captain asked.
    “No.”
    “Then your opinion don’t hold much weight.”
    Angie Weasel snickered. Bessie Weasel scowled. Things might have gone bad right then if the door hadn’t opened, and the only creature alive who could control the Weasel sisters came out of it.
    It had been years since the Captain had seen Zapata, but he looked exactly the same. Armadillos age slowly, after all. The plate of their armor grows thicker and denser, gray scales shielding the soft flesh beneath. But apart from that there is little enough to distinguish a pup from an elder. A pair of bandoliers crisscrossed his wide chest and two fat revolvers peeked up from his belt. A sombrero, turned off-white by long years in the sun, shaded the narrow point of his face. Zapata gave the simultaneous impression of a tyrant and clown, like he would make you laugh before having you shot.
    He approached the Captain with an excitement one sees in lovers long separated, his claws outstretched as if for an embrace. When he saw the Captain wasn’t going to go for it he shortened his paws up to at least offer a handshake. When he saw the Captain wasn’t going to go for that either he set them into his pockets. He remained smiling, however. “The Captain himself! The Elder’s avenger, bringer of righteous death! How long has it been, my friend?”
    “ A while.”
    “And by his side the Dragon, just as in the old days!”
    Cinnabar nodded but didn’t say anything.
    “You are both welcome, and more than welcome, to my humble abode. But perhaps this conversation is best done away from any prying eyes?” Zapata waved toward the entrance.
    The Captain looked at Cinnabar. What passed between them, none could justly say. Then the Captain followed Zapata indoors, Cinnabar holding his spot by the trough.
    Only the front room of the house remained usable, the rest having long fallen into disrepair, overgrown by the scrub grass that was the only form of flora the desert allowed. There was a table, and two chairs, and one rat who closed the door after the Captain had come inside. Zapata took a seat and waited for the Captain to take the other. For a moment it looked like he intended to stand, but then he gave the guard a glance that would have curdled milk and dropped down across from Zapata.
    “I must say,” the armadillo began, unplugging the cork from a jug resting beside him and taking a swig, “I was surprised when you contacted me.” He pushed the liquor across the wood.
    The Captain eyed it for a moment, then pushed it back. “Because you thought I was dead?”
    When Zapata laughed, his stomach rocked the table back and forth. “Please now, Captain, we both know you’re too ornery to die. Though to judge by your eye, Mephetic took a pretty good run at it. How did that happen, exactly? One moment you are cock of the walk, and the next your throat is all but cut.”
    “I suppose I’m just too trusting.”
    Zapata laughed again. Zapata laughed often. “It is your one failing, if you don’t mind me saying so! You’re too trusting.”
    The Captain’s appetite for