Bones of Veridon by Tim Akers

Author:Tim Akers [Akers, Tim]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Published: 2013-07-31T00:00:00+00:00

####

The heart of God was loud at their approach. Every Wright and Elder was present. Most of them were yelling. They drowned out even the ratcheting thunder of the Column Prosperous. Cam and Morgan entered, and there was silence. Everyone turned to them.

“You’ve come to assist.” Cam nodded in satisfaction. “You are here to comply. Good.”

“Devil!” Ganthony howled and shook his fist. His tiny face was twisted in hate. “Get out of our God!”

Cam sighed and raised her hands. “This isn’t your choice to make, Elder. It’s been, I don’t know. Whatever you call it. Decreed. From on high. I am your angel of deliverance, old man.”

“Quiet!” Ganthony’s voice was now a low rumble, building on itself as he went, ending in a shout. “Lying, deceitful child. You won’t have it. This is our house, our church. Our pattern. Get out.” A tight knot of Elders and Wrights joined him, their hands curled into fists. Elder Hines threw himself in front of the crowd.

“Stop it! Stop all of this. Ganthony, Phan, hold back. The girl has a right to speak, wherever she’s from. And the truth of that will come out.”

“I passed your test, Elder. Was that not enough for you?”

“Tests do not permit blasphemy, child.” Ganthony strained against Hines’ outstretched arm. “They do not give you a holy writ.”

Cam let her shoulders slump. Morgan stepped up and put his hand on her back. The skin was cold.

“Enough. You must give this back. Do you understand? It must be taken apart and returned to the river.” She raised her head, motioned to the whirling murals, the huffing boilers. “It is not yours.”

“And a child, a girl, will not take it from us. Not with some clever tricks and…”

“A sign. That’s all you get.” Cam straightened up. Morgan, with his hand on her back, felt things slip, shift. Her skin became forge hot. He stumbled back.

Camilla slumped over and let out a long breath, an exhalation that seemed to start in her heels and travel up and out. It emptied her of everything Morgan recognized from his week spent caring for the little girl she had been. Her face slackened, her eyes died, the blush of her cheek frosted over. She straightened again, and grew.

It started with her face. She looked up to the ceiling and the plates of her face separated, like the parts of a complicated mask coming apart. A crown of iron circled her head and her hair took on whip-wire life. The lashes of her eyes fanned open into metal leaves. Her teeth and tongue disappeared in puzzlebox trickery.

The rest of her evolved with clockwork precision. Her arms and torso scissored open, got longer and thinner. Her robe tore, but beneath there was nothing but cold porcelain and metal. Her skin had frozen, slid aside and shuffled away, to reveal chain and darkness.

She rose up and cast her arms wide. Her back opened and unfolded, fans within fans clacking apart, cogs sliding in place and telescoping. They

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.