Read Online The Chamber in the Sky by M. T. Anderson - Free Book Online Page B

“Gwynyfer! Someone’s coming!”
    She knew enough not to make a joke. She opened the door and peered out. “Oh no,” she said.
    â€œBack to the dinghy,” said Brian. His face was white.
    They quickly — but quietly — padded back the way they had come.
    But the clamor was getting closer. They weren’t going to make it.
    No way they could get back to the sub.
    The metal floors around them rang with thuds.
    They hid under desks. The three of them were lined up, crouching with chairs pulled in close to their faces.
    They did not lift their heads to look when the footfalls slowed. Someone was in the room with them. Someone’s breath was fast and thrilled.
    They heard the slight clack of metal. Iron things scraping across other iron things.
    Out of the dark stepped a man — a Thusser man — with high, pointed ears and the black-rimmed eyes of the Thusser. The orbs of the eyes themselves were wet and dark, all pupil, no white. His face was as round as a baby’s. He wore a long Thusser coat but also a harness with many straps, and off those straps hung knives and sickles and jagged tools for cutting and torture. They jingled gently as he walked.
    He could not stop licking his lips. His tongue came out of his mouth and squirmed, and went back in and once again lolloped out. His head jerked as he sought his prey.
    Crunched up beneath a desk, behind a chair, clutching his own knees, Brian realized: Before they’d left New Norumbega, the kids had heard that the Thusser were trying to seize on subs so they could assault the Dry Heart. This base might not have been abandoned by the mannequins when the mechanical servants went up to the capital to conduct their rebellion. It might have been abandoned when the mannequins realized that theThusser were coming, that the Horde was searching out all the arteries and veins for submarines of all shapes and sizes to carry their armies.
    This lone Thusser, Brian realized, had probably been left to guard this site and trap anyone who landed here.
    Brian hid his face. He felt like if he didn’t see the Thusser, there was somehow less chance the Thusser would see him.
    He saw that Gregory, next to him, was actually shaking with fear.
    Two knives rasped together. The Thusser walked slowly through the room. Brian could hear thick breathing as the man licked his own lips.
    Brian lifted his head a little. He regretted it: His shirt rustled.
    Thump. Thump. Thump.
    The legs were right near him. Under the long Thusser coat, the man wore blue polyester tracksuit bottoms. They were too long for him, and their dragging cuffs were wet, smeared black, and torn where he walked on them. His feet were bare, coated in cracked mud like alligator skin.
    The Thusser stood near Brian and sighed — a weird, high sound like a little girl who wanted friends.
    He shuffled his feet.
    And then he dove and yanked the chairs out.

T wo hundred miles away, mannequins were stacking muscle to build a wall. They had manufactured cranes out of wood. They were gouging out the fabric of the Dry Heart to raise up some kind of fort that might withstand attack.
    Kalgrash the troll was surprised.
    He walked past the quarries, carrying a shovel. He had put aside his battle-ax for a few days until it was needed for smiting.
    He found General Malark in a hut, talking with the military engineers.
    â€œReporting for duty,” said Kalgrash.
    â€œGood man,” said Malark. He made a couple of final marks in grease pencil on the plans, then rose.
    He and Kalgrash went walking along the wall. “Tell me what you see,” said Malark.
    â€œWhat I’m surprised to see,” the troll said, “is that you’re building a wall for the Court at all. I thought you told the Empress yesterday that you weren’t going to lifta finger till they agreed to call you the Mannequin Army. And here you are, sir — building a wall.”
    Malark stopped short, and looked