Читать книгу The Grand Dark онлайн | страница 69

It was promoting its arrival in the city with a small impromptu show. Since it was in the butchers’ quarter, clowns juggled raw chunks of meat while pretty women acrobats swung from the old coal gas lamps that lit the plaza at night. A large man in a tiger-striped suit barked orders in a guttural foreign language at a half dozen catlike chimeras as they leaped in the air and came down on their front legs. They’re perfect, Largo thought. Just the kind of creatures I’d make.

But they’re making me late.

The happy crowd pressed in around the performers. There was no way for him to get through to the exit, so he turned the bicycle around and went back the way he’d come. All he could do now was go around the butchers’ quarter onto the main streets and hope that traffic was clear enough that he could make it to work before six.

Just as he reached the exit, a woman screamed and a man yelled, “Get back!” For a moment, Largo thought they were shouting at him. His first instinct was to get away from whoever was bellowing at him, but when he looked back he saw a man on the ground writhing in convulsions. By his heavy state-issued coat, the mask hiding his face, and a few medals on his chest, Largo identified him as an Iron Dandy. The man’s contortions were much worse than Remy’s had been the night before. He arched his back so far and hard that it broke, the crack echoing off the plaza walls. His shoulders rolled and his head looked like it wanted to twist itself off his neck. But worse than that, the soldier’s arms and legs snapped and bent back at odd, unnatural angles. People shouted for a doctor, but no one would approach the sick man. Even those who’d never seen the Drops knew what it was and no one wanted to risk becoming infected.

Finally, the Dandy’s neck cracked and his head flopped back and forth like a dying fish. Blood oozed from his mouth. However, the more Largo looked, the less certain he was about what he saw. What came from the Dandy’s mouth wasn’t red.

It was black and thick and smelled like scorched oil.