Read Online New Title 1 by Dru Pagliassotti - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Dru Pagliassotti
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anonymous message I received. It seems like the kind of hint a man trying to stay neutral might send.”
“I can take you to a bone staircase,” Todd said, calmly. “There are several, along the paths I walk.”
“We also saw worms burrowing through flesh,” Andy said, holding the bigger man’s gaze. “That could be a metaphor for the earth, or it could have more direct significance. Either way, I think the first thing we need to do is find out why those bones were buried in the north campus.”
“As you wish.”
“Looks like this used to be the local history shelf,” Jack said, tilting over a fallen book case and picking up a narrow burgundy volume titled California Hills University: The First Quarter-Century . “Guess we’d better get to work.”
XI
The four coryphaei stirred, hearing the wakened cries of the kine rippling through the limis . They stretched and felt old barriers crumble and fall. Vertical lids slid open to reveal pale, nictating membranes over half-blind eyes.
Domitor was the first to move, as always. He uncoiled and mustered his muscular body, exulting in his new freedom. The kinecall ebbed and flowed against the delicate membranes of his mouth and genitals.
A split second later, Viator lifted her narrow head, running a tentacular tongue through the nearest quasiverses, tasting gravitational wells and particle waves.
Beings have passed , she said, surprised. How did they not awaken us?
Beings? Carnifex yawned and stretched out razor spines. Bladescales rippled down the length of her body. Did they rouse the kine?
Domitor drew himself up, lifting and fanning a frill of sensory membranes. They trembled with screams of breed-readiness. The kine cry of blood and fecundity.
They are only kine. Auctor watched the other three through narrowed eyes that ran the length and breadth of his massive bulk. It would be unwise to rush off blindly at the sound of their bleating.
Neuter , Carnifex hissed, taking a swipe at the larger coryphaeus. Auctor sidestepped into a quasiverse where the killing blades slid by without drawing blood. The assassin spat and lowered hollow, venom-tipped fangs in a challenge. Go back to sleep, if you are too cowardly to act.
Be still. Domitor quelled Carnifex and regarded the other male warily. The Verminaarch had given each of them a specific duty. Auctor’s was to record. Domitor felt his own urge to rush to the kine and fertilize them, but his other duty was to keep the small tribe alive. Do you have a memory to convey?
The last bloodcall to awaken us closed the pathways and bound us to the limis . How long have we slept?
Domitor tilted his head toward Viator, who was the most sensitive to the multiplicity. She was already flicking tentacle-tongues across the paths.
The stars have barely moved , she reported. And the paths that were closed have opened again.
Then we do not plunge into the unknown. Let us silence the kine and finish what was started, Domitor declared, lifting his sensory frill until it was crown of vibrant red vessels around his skull. We go!
With a surge, he pushed himself through the tight loops and spaces of the multiplicity, creating a new wormhole. Carnifex chuckled and surged after him, eager to share his breedblood.
Viator turned her narrow head, regarding Auctor from one hooded eye. Her tongues swept the paths again, tasting, gauging, evaluating.
The opposition lingers , she murmured. Auctor heaved himself forward, onto the first path. The thousand eyes that covered his bulk were busy scanning, watching, and recording.
Yes , he agreed.
They followed Domitor and Carnifex more cautiously, side by side like hunters in strange territory.
XII
Alison Kirsche was sure she was going to die.
She’d been watching television with her new boyfriend, Peter, enjoying some time together before the dorm cohab restrictions cut in, when the shaking had started.
They’d both given each other startled looks and lunged for the doorway
“I can take you to a bone staircase,” Todd said, calmly. “There are several, along the paths I walk.”
“We also saw worms burrowing through flesh,” Andy said, holding the bigger man’s gaze. “That could be a metaphor for the earth, or it could have more direct significance. Either way, I think the first thing we need to do is find out why those bones were buried in the north campus.”
“As you wish.”
“Looks like this used to be the local history shelf,” Jack said, tilting over a fallen book case and picking up a narrow burgundy volume titled California Hills University: The First Quarter-Century . “Guess we’d better get to work.”
XI
The four coryphaei stirred, hearing the wakened cries of the kine rippling through the limis . They stretched and felt old barriers crumble and fall. Vertical lids slid open to reveal pale, nictating membranes over half-blind eyes.
Domitor was the first to move, as always. He uncoiled and mustered his muscular body, exulting in his new freedom. The kinecall ebbed and flowed against the delicate membranes of his mouth and genitals.
A split second later, Viator lifted her narrow head, running a tentacular tongue through the nearest quasiverses, tasting gravitational wells and particle waves.
Beings have passed , she said, surprised. How did they not awaken us?
Beings? Carnifex yawned and stretched out razor spines. Bladescales rippled down the length of her body. Did they rouse the kine?
Domitor drew himself up, lifting and fanning a frill of sensory membranes. They trembled with screams of breed-readiness. The kine cry of blood and fecundity.
They are only kine. Auctor watched the other three through narrowed eyes that ran the length and breadth of his massive bulk. It would be unwise to rush off blindly at the sound of their bleating.
Neuter , Carnifex hissed, taking a swipe at the larger coryphaeus. Auctor sidestepped into a quasiverse where the killing blades slid by without drawing blood. The assassin spat and lowered hollow, venom-tipped fangs in a challenge. Go back to sleep, if you are too cowardly to act.
Be still. Domitor quelled Carnifex and regarded the other male warily. The Verminaarch had given each of them a specific duty. Auctor’s was to record. Domitor felt his own urge to rush to the kine and fertilize them, but his other duty was to keep the small tribe alive. Do you have a memory to convey?
The last bloodcall to awaken us closed the pathways and bound us to the limis . How long have we slept?
Domitor tilted his head toward Viator, who was the most sensitive to the multiplicity. She was already flicking tentacle-tongues across the paths.
The stars have barely moved , she reported. And the paths that were closed have opened again.
Then we do not plunge into the unknown. Let us silence the kine and finish what was started, Domitor declared, lifting his sensory frill until it was crown of vibrant red vessels around his skull. We go!
With a surge, he pushed himself through the tight loops and spaces of the multiplicity, creating a new wormhole. Carnifex chuckled and surged after him, eager to share his breedblood.
Viator turned her narrow head, regarding Auctor from one hooded eye. Her tongues swept the paths again, tasting, gauging, evaluating.
The opposition lingers , she murmured. Auctor heaved himself forward, onto the first path. The thousand eyes that covered his bulk were busy scanning, watching, and recording.
Yes , he agreed.
They followed Domitor and Carnifex more cautiously, side by side like hunters in strange territory.
XII
Alison Kirsche was sure she was going to die.
She’d been watching television with her new boyfriend, Peter, enjoying some time together before the dorm cohab restrictions cut in, when the shaking had started.
They’d both given each other startled looks and lunged for the doorway
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