Twenty Palaces by Harry Connolly Read Free Book Online Page A

suddenly realized, like a small tree branch. Another set appeared, then another, like thorn bushes growing out of her. They were each half as thick as my little finger, and they curled up out of Echo's throat and braced themselves on her lips.  
    Legs. They were legs. Something was crawling out of her.  
    Echo thrashed. The little woman could barely hold her still.
    "If he gave you a weapon," the woman said, "use it!"
    I didn't have a weapon. I didn't even have the ability to move.
    Something wet and the color of new phlegm pushed past Echo's teeth. It looked like a grub or a maggot, but with those strange, crooked, spiny legs. And it was as big as a cat.
    Wings uncurled from its back and began beating the air. Blood sprayed off them. Echo fell still.
    The thing turned toward me and leaped.

CHAPTER SIX

    I fell back. The creature landed on my chest, needle-sharp legs stabbing through my jacket. It snapped at my mouth with pincers and--
    There was a tremendous flood of energy from the pocket of my jacket--it felt like I was hiding a high-powered generator in there. The worm was flung straight up into the air, and the energy subsided.
    The creature beat its wings and stopped itself falling. It glanced at the tiny woman then turned and flew away, struggling to stay aloft.
    "You let it get away?" the woman said, incredulous. "Why didn't you attack?"  
    I knew I should have answered her somehow, but I couldn't tear my eyes off the retreating creature.  
    It had been inside Echo. That thing had been inside her. I thought back to the batting cage--to Echo's amazing quickness and coordination. Macy had been just as gifted. And so had Jon.
    Did Jon have one of those things inside him, too?
    I reached into my pocket and felt what had given me that tremendous surge of power. I'd dropped the stolen blue ribbon in there at some point without realizing it.
    "Hey, dipshit!" the woman said to me. "Is this your first time? It can't be."
    I turned to her. The streetlights shone directly onto her face and I got my first good look at her. She was younger than I'd originally thought, probably under 25. Her plain face looked delicate. She had no makeup, no hairstyle, no jewelry that I could see.  
    She had turned her attention to me and it was like being stared at by a live wire. She was full of power, and she was irresistible.
    "My first time? Yes, it was." Echo was absolutely still. Her lips were split and torn from the passage of the creature but she wasn't bleeding. Her neck was misshapen and collapsed like an empty bag. "She's--"
    "Cured," the woman said. "As cured as her kind can be. Let's get after that thing or I'll have to cure the whole damn city."
    I knelt beside Echo. She couldn't be dead. I touched her chin and her head rolled toward me. A pool of blood spilled out of her mouth onto the parking stripe. I jumped back.  
    Damn.
    The strange woman grabbed the back of my jacket and pulled me along. "Come on," she said. "We'll help the others later."
    Somehow she had the idea that I was on her side. I craned my neck to look at Payton. He was still breathing. I wanted to run back into the bar and call an ambulance for him, but I didn't. I kept my mouth shut and did exactly what the woman told me to do.
    She marched me toward a high fence at the edge of the lot. The woman was alert and careful, watching for the return of the creature. She didn't seem concerned with me.
    I considered cold-cocking her, but she had already smacked her skull against the metal lamp post. If that hadn't hurt her, nothing I could manage would. I looked at the back of her head and neck, half-expecting to see a set of switches there. All she had were more tattoos.
    "It looked weak to me," she said. "I don't think it could have gotten far. Keep your eyes peeled."
    "Are you sure it went this way?"
    "Can't you see the blood?" She pointed to the parking lot. I almost said no, but then I saw it: A line of dark droplets barely visible in the light of the distant