Empire of Bones Read Online Free

inside and haveArachne look him over.” He stepped forward and reached for the monk’s arm. “This Irish gob and I will have words in private.”
    The thick young monk was rabbit-quick. He snatched Rupert’s wrist and jerked him forward. In one burst of motion, a bare leg flashed up, smacked into Rupert’s face, and bent, hooking around Rupert’s head. The monk dropped onto his back, slamming Rupert to the ground with two white legs scissored tight around his throat. The monk’s robe was bunched up around his waist, and his boxers were striped with the green, white, and orange of the Irish flag. He was laughing,
    Cyrus stepped forward, planted his left foot, and kicked Boniface in the jaw.
    Pain shot through Cyrus’s leg. It was like kicking a fire hydrant. He saw blood spray up around his foot in a little cloud, and then two large hands closed around his ankle and he was falling. Asphalt jammed loose gravel through Cyrus’s shirt and into his back. An anaconda arm twisted him sideways and wound beneath his arm and behind his head. He was looking into the blood-spitting, grinning face of Brother Boniface, he couldn’t move, and deep grinding pain shot through his shoulder.
    “Do you prefer your arm in or out of its socket?” the monk asked.
    Cyrus kicked, but the pain and the pressure only sharpened. He heard Rupert scuffle, and then a hammercocked and Rupert’s revolver slid up the monk’s chest, pointed right at his face.
    Behind Cyrus somewhere, a shotgun pumped. And then pale Nolan dropped into view, grabbing a fistful of the monk’s Mohawk and levering his head back. With the other hand, he pressed a long knife against the monk’s soft throat.
    “Release them both,” Nolan said. “Slowly.”
    Boniface licked his bloody lips, then spat out a molar. Cyrus heard it click away across the asphalt, and he heard Rupert gasp, breathing suddenly. The pain in his own shoulder suddenly vanished. He rolled away quickly and rose to his knees.
    Pat the cook held a short shotgun, and Dan and Antigone stood beside him. Rupert rose slowly, coughing, chest heaving, and then he pointed his gun down at the monk.
    Brother Boniface Brosnan looked up at them all with his thick white limbs splayed and Nolan’s knife at his throat. He snorted and spat a glop of blood after his tooth. Then he grinned.
    “Well,” he said, “shall we try, try again? My best mates call me Niffy. It’s truly a pleasure to meet your little outlaw band.”
    Nolan turned his deep, timeworn eyes onto Rupert, waiting for instruction.
    Rupert shook his head and wiped a trickle of bloodfrom his nose onto the back of his forearm. Nolan withdrew his knife as Rupert looked at the road and another passing semi with a chattering trailer.
    “Get our dear Brother Niffy inside,” Rupert said. “Guns and blood and brawling, we’d best get out of sight and quick.” He turned to Cyrus. “Your shoulder okay?”
    Cyrus nodded. “But my foot hurts from kicking him.”
    Niffy stood and straightened his robe. “And my jaw’s just brilliant, thanks. A lovely boot you have.”
    “Don’t start, Irish,” Rupert said. “Get inside and have your story ready. I’m missing people.”
    Dan and Antigone were lifting a whimpering Dennis between them. Dan paused, cocking his head. “Are those for us?” he asked. “The sirens?”
    Everyone froze. Cyrus looked at Antigone, at Rupert, at Dan and Nolan. He heard nothing but cicadas. Then a van passed and faded. But Daniel wasn’t working with normal human ears. He’d gone through horrors on Phoenix’s table, and his heart could still beat thanks only to the flesh-weaving magic of Arachne. But there were some upsides to the modifications. Dan turned to Rupert and nodded.
    “They’re coming closer. And a car. Fast. Someone is seriously hauling.”
    Slow seconds passed. And then Cyrus heard it, too. At first, only the distant whine of sirens. Definitely morethan one. And then tires screaming on asphalt, sliding on