Bear, Greg - Strength of Stones by Bear Greg

Author:Bear, Greg [Bear, Greg]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2011-10-30T15:42:18+00:00

He slid off the mount, hitting the ground and knocking all his breath out. He felt a pain, like a pulled muscle in his chest. He rolled over.

Perja stood above him, blocking out the sky. The Chaser put a foot on each of his arms. He couldn't find the gun or organize his thoughts. The Chaser brought out a thin woven wire. Durragon closed his eyes. A shadow passed over. Angel of Death.

He coughed and his eyes flew open. Perja was still there, but something black was above him. The Chaser was cringing, trying to hunker lower, but his head was snagged by an obstruction and he flew away, leaving Durragon on his back. The shadow passed. The wire fell into Durragon's hands.

The city had saved him. The Chaser must have thrown a knife and knocked him down, and now the city, like a jealous lover, wanting his command, had saved him. His chest ached. Where was the knife? The stars were visible. The self-defeating stars ...

Things moved around him, silent as ghosts. Huge things. He could feel their feet tromping the ground. Legs rose into the air like pistons, giant insects, walking ... what? Someone was shouting.

There was wet on his hand, wet dark against the starlit grey

*...* what?

_"I'm hurt!"_ He felt his lips with his fingers. They opened and closed in rhythm with the noises. They were his own. He got to his feet and reached out for a dark hulk moving swiftly by. His hand caught an edge and held, yanking him up, and something large and gentle gripped him to keep him from falling under the treads.

In the starlight, Resurrection circled Akkabar and began to rebuild.

By night, the city was dark and lifeless. Its pieces groaned as they settled, a mournful sound that raised the hair on Ezeki's neck.

Musa cried aloud to Allah like a child.

For two days and nights the leaderless Chasers surrounded Resurrection and tried to get inside. The barriers, though greatly reduced, held. The Chasers' songs could be heard above the wind and city sounds:

_ "Dis we; purge and puriby, sin ob men_

And dog, and Debbils dribe out ob dark,

Dis we, brayba mans oll..."

"Der wa' an ald God, an' dis me broke de Pact ob dis awbul ald Shaytan call' Day-o,

And dead, dey all lab, and cry por de pain

_Ob de paders and modders ob me-o..." _

Musa and Ezeki listened as the sun approached zenith on the third day. "I should have known better than to consort with infidels,"

Musa said, sitting on the back of the stilled transport with Ezeki.

"They have weak minds." The vehicle was parked on a much reduced version of the parkway which had once surrounded the city.

"Weakened by history, I think," Ezeki said. "Doesn't part of you want to do what they're doing?"

Musa made a fist and shook it at the sky. "Yes, but I'm not a crazy man. I don't listen to the voice of _Shaytan_ inside of me."

Ezeki gripped the Moslem's arm. "As of this moment, we have no past.

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