Read Online A Tree of Bones by Gemma Files - Free Book Online Page A

fought her way to her feet, bracing on Eulie’s and Berta’s shoulders. “Are you telling me you’ll
order
our womenfolk to rip their own childer from their breast, render ’em up to be boned like fishes on that Hell-shat slut’s altar, just to keep this City alive another month?” The rage began to spark off her hair, spontaneous flares of magic crackling from fingertip to scalp, actinic-bright. “Anyone tries the same wi’
me
, an’ I’ll — ”
    “Not one of us will take any babe against its mother’s will,” Rook assured her. “But
you recall your Oath
, Clodagh Killeen.” He touched the name with power, enough to still her where she stood. “Disobey Lady Ixchel, break your word, it’s your life
and
your babe’s, with nothing I can do to stop her — not me, not Henry, not your sisters here. That what you want?”
    Chest a-heave, Clo sat back down, heavily, into Eulie and Berta’s arms — a four-arm hug, half embrace, half restraint.
    “If all else fails,” said Rook, “the Machine
can
be fed with the blood of the non-hexacious, as it was by Her worshippers of yore; them Mexes ensconced in the Moon Court alone prove that, as Miz Marisol could tell you. Which ain’t as potent, but means that even if we don’t have as many such as we’d like, we
can
still do what they did: take prisoners.” He tried to smile. “And fortunately for us, we just so happen to have a literal army of potential donors encamped outside these very walls.”
    “The Pinkertons?”
    “Who else?”
    Fennig nodded, ruminating. “Cert, I see it now. Like back home, when they swelled the constabulary with any man-jack could stand a beatin’, no matter if he’d been gang-bound before — or stayed so, after.”
    “Exactly. The strength that army gives us, once taken, will give us the strength to take
other
armies . . . any, however many are sent, whosoever sends them, each victory making us all the more invincible. Go forth to meet them like the Israelites of old, with Ixchel’s banner before us like the Ark before Moses.”
    “Conquerors,” said Fennig, voice suddenly gone flat. “That the way of it, Rev?”
    “Moral qualms, Hank? You never struck me as a man scared to do what needs doing.”
    “When it does, and t’protect my own? Hell, no. But I —
we
— didn’t come here with it in mind to become no new Alexanders, neither. Just to rake our plot, raise our seed and
live
like we never could, back in the Five Points.” He reached out a hand, not even looking to see if Clo, Berta and Eulie would all put theirs atop his, which they did; as always, Rook envied his easy trust in their affections, so much it almost made him green.
    “That Goddamn Oath,” Clo growled. “Times like these, I wish I’d plucked me own tongue out before uttering its first word.”
    “You had, you or your babe’d most like be dead, by now,” Followell pointed out. “An’ don’t you glare at me none, miss — but seein’ you don’t know my tale, I’ll tell it. I come on late, didn’t flare up with my bleedin’, so I had three babes laid in to suck who died on me and never knew why, not ’til I woke up ravin’ with fever, too delirious t’see I was so strong now, I’d already brung myself back from the dead.
    “Even then, when I did know, could I stop? No ma’am. I went on an’ killed my own boy, ate ’im up like candy. Was after that I finally broke an’ run, for fear Marse Followell’d try to keep on breedin’ me — he was just the sort of fool gotta have all his dogs and niggers be top merchandise, and wa’nt ’bout to quit the idea just on my account. Not like he could stop me, though, once I got my mind made up. And that’s why there ain’t no Marse, no more — no Followell Plantation, neither.
    “So. Say the Machine stops, and the Oath falls to pieces — you pondered much on that? A thousand hexes, all turned on each other at once; you an’ your babe, your sisters — yes, your man, too! ’Cause