The Hexslinger Omnibus by Gemma Files
Author:Gemma Files [Files, Gemma]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Tags: Omnibus, Fantasy, Horror, Western, Fiction
ISBN: 9781771481878
Publisher: HarperCollins Canada
Published: 2013-10-14T23:00:00+00:00
EPILOGUE
Somewhere else, entirely:
Chess came to by slow degrees, marrow-cold, with something unfamiliarly hardâand wet, and rough, and dirtyâincising his cheek. Opened his eyes on darkness and squinted just the same, like he expected that to be any help.
Hollow echoes all âround him, a great sigh and clatter, congregative. The clop of hooves and grate of wheels overâcobblestones, was that it? Like heâd heard tell they had in New York, a layer of pavers set âneath the usual street muck and sluiced clean every half-year, shallow enough to be dug up and thrown in a pinch?âplus a distant, mammoth thrum and clank of engines, furnaces burning black, throwing dirt up into the skies.
And now, eking through that stinking yellow fog heâd thought was just his eyes, a whole city street arrived: buildings dilapidated and promiscuously overhung, jammed hugger-mugger as a junk-fiendâs teeth. Half-glazed cataract windows staring down, where they hadnât been shattered wholesale; stagnant gutters and hinge-fallen doors; a sketchy crush of humanity loitering or roaming, wreathed in grime, ignoring Chess in the grip of their squalor. Raggedy skeleton children ran free as roaches, relieving themselves indiscriminately.
I know this place, Chess realized, a slow hollow birthing itself in his gulletâs lowermost pit. For God alone knew heâd heard it described, a thousand times overâthe worst of all possible bedtime stories, told by one whoâd been born there, only to steal and screw herself passage to what sheâd dreamed was a far more exotic continent.
But this couldnât be that place, surelyânot after the Enemyâd stuffed him into some infernal belly-hole, prisoning him inside whatever tiny outpost of the Sunken Ball-Court that betraying sumbitch of a deity carried under those swinging slatted ribs where his heart should be, from which to pluck and don the faces of the dead.
All of âem are mine, no matter âoo. And all of âem find their way down âere to me, eventually.
Chessâs hands slapped leather, automatically; no guns, of course. Not even holsters.
âHell, then, one way or tâother,â he said out loud, resisting the urge to shiver. âMust be.â
âThe âOly Land, more like,â somebody corrected him, from perilously nearby. âOr Seven Dials, they calls it, up-town. But close enough.â
A woman stood on the corner, angled toward him with a sort of hunger, as though sheâd been following his trail far longer than either of them could calculate. Her hair was a sodden red tangle, grim smile in a fox-sharp face, skin pallid even in darkness, an uneven thumb-print smearâand the voice, Christ Jesus crucified. That bloody, bleedinâ voice.
âDonât you know me, then?â she asked. âFor I do know you, believe me, no matter âow long itâs been. Iâd know you anywheres.â
As she spoke, all the anger flowed out of Chess at once, blood from a cut throat; the hollow at his core had swelled so large now he felt empty, a mere shed skin. Unable to stop himself from replying, though he well knew the error of it.
âYeah, I know you, all right . . . Ma.â
He said it tonelessly enough, bowing his head down, almost like he meant to pray.
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