Tim Lebbon - Echo city

Peer squeezed into the room behind Malia and closed the door. It snicked shut, and she had a moment of panic when she thought they might be locked in. But then she felt the warm, surprising touch of Malia's hand pressed flat against her thigh, a light tap that's the first time she's touched me.

– and she knew the Watcher was doing her best to settle Peer's fears.

"Peer, meet Blu. Ex-whore, ex-leader of the Bloodwork Gang in Mino Mont, ex-informer to the Scarlet Blades. Murderer, kidnapper, rapist, thief, and monster."

"Fuck you too, Malia," the huge woman said, and her body started to ripple as she giggled like a little girl.

"All that's true?" Peer asked.

"All but one," Malia said. She knelt beside Blu and smiled up at her, as though worshipping the fetid mass of flesh and bone this woman had become. She probably can't even leave this room, Peer thought, and she realized how safe this house must be. Anyone entering through the front door and not knowing what to expect would likely be scared right back onto the street.

"I saw the bat," Malia said. "I was coming to see you anyway, but the bat makes things so much more urgent."

"You want me to read and tell you, Malia?"

"Yes."

"And why should I do that?" Blu's voice was still high and light, but Peer detected the first hint of tension between her and the Watcher.

"Because we keep you safe," Malia whispered. Blu shook some more, but this time her laughter was silent.

"I'm only playing with you, Malia," she said. "Peer. You're very beautiful. I like beautiful women around me, but I… lose so many. I have my needs, you see. Places I can't reach. Things I can't do for myself."

"She's with me," Malia said, and those three words were loaded. Blu sighed, and a ripple of dejection passed around her body and lost itself in the clothes piled around her frame.

"Well, it was worth a try." Then the huge woman opened her hand, and curled in her warm, wet palm was a bat. Its wings were propped beside it, ears high, claws gripping lightly, and its nose twitched as its meaty prison unfurled.

"It flew in from the north," Malia said. "We're looking for someone, and I fear-" But Blu waved her words aside.

"Quiet, Malia. You've come to hear what I have to say, so don't taint the air with supposition."

Malia stood and backed away, standing close beside Peer where she leaned against the door.

"Now what?" Peer whispered.

"Watch and listen," Malia said.

Peer breathed lightly through her mouth, because tasting the stench did not seem quite as bad as smelling it, and her heart beat with nervous expectation.

Blu brought the bat up before her eyes. The little creature shifted in her plump hand, but only enough to maintain its balance. It was looking directly at the obese woman's face, and it seemed ridiculously small. She can't reach her own head, Peer thought, as Blu seemed to stretch her nonexistent neck a little, puckering her lips, pressing her arm into her side in an effort to bring the bat closer. Should I offer to help? Peer was about to ask Malia, but then Blu flicked her wrist, flinging the bat toward her. It landed perfectly on her wide shoulder, fluttering its wings slightly as if to shake off the effort of its short flight.

Blu settled again, and Peer had not realized how much Blu had been tensing her unnaturally large body until it slumped and regained its former, resting position. The huge woman sighed, belched, then tilted her head toward the bat.

Peer's stomach lurched and rolled, her eyes watered, and she could not understand how anyone could bear to be in here for very long. I have my needs, you see, the woman had said, and whenever Peer blinked she had brief flashes of what those needs must be. Her right arm ached in tortured sympathy with whoever had to fulfill them.

She saw Blu's lips shifting a little, and the bat's head tilting, and the woman muttered words and sounds almost too high for Peer to hear. In return the bat flapped its small leathery wings and squealed back. She felt rather than heard the conversation, and she was thankful that it did not take too long.

As the bat seemed to settle again, clawing its way down from Blu's shoulder to her expansive bosom, the woman's head snapped to one side and she grabbed the bat between her teeth.

Peer gasped. Blu bit. The bat squealed, its cries more than audible this time as its body popped. Blood streamed down the woman's wide neck. She bit again, jerking her head back like a wild dog as she drew the bat deeper into her mouth.

"Malia!" Peer said, an expression of disgust rather than a plea for action.

Blu chewed, crunching bone, dribbling blood, and her frown seemed distant and preoccupied. She started swallowing pieces of the bat, and each swallow made a revolting gurgling sound. She chewed some more, glancing at Peer and then away again, her frown deepening.

"What?" Malia said, but Blu ignored her.

When she had finished chewing, Blu opened her mouth and let a glob of glistening, blood-covered fur roll from her mouth. It struck her chest and rested there, spreading a pool of diluted blood across the cloth of her voluminous dress. She stared at it, unseeing.

"Blu, what?"

"Dragarians," the bat-eater muttered. "Many of them, streaming out of their canton. Some fly. Others crawl, run, and slither."

Dragarians! Peer had never seen one, other than in paintings and drawings. They were not quite as mythical as the deep-living Garthans-they were known to exist, beneath the cover of their massive domes-yet they were further beyond the reach of normal Echo City inhabitants. And Penler had respected, even honored them.

"What does that mean?" Malia said.

Blu looked at Malia, then at Peer. Any underlying humor had vanished, and the blood smearing her chin and bloated throat made her look monstrous. "That's for you to know," she said. "I'm just the reader."

"Rufus," Peer said.

"What about him?"

And though she needed to talk with Malia, she did not wish to do so here. Blu was still staring at her, those sunken, strange eyes piercing and animalistic at the same time. She was not chopped, Peer was certain of that. This staggering size was naturally wrought. But such a condition must have also affected her mind, giving her the ability to do what she had just done and perhaps also warping her in other ways. Malia might trust her, but Peer did not.

"Why did you eat the bat?" she asked.

Blu stared at her for a long moment before saying, "Evidence."

"But how did you-"

"Thank you, Blu," Malia said, and she turned to leave.

"But wait, Malia, what about…? When do we…?"

"Thank you." Malia reached around Peer to open the door, shoving her out into the corridor. She slammed the door behind her, closed her eyes, and leaned against the wood, sighing, then opened them again and stared at Peer. "Rufus arrives, and the Dragarians emerge from their canton overtly for the first time in centuries. Is there any chance that this could be a coincidence?"

Is she just going to ignore what we saw? Peer thought, and she felt dizzy with confusion. "Malia-"

"He comes in from the desert, and they stream out from their canton." She was staring at the floor now, where rotten skirtings were punctured with ghourt-lizard holes. "They've spent generations awaiting the return of Dragar. From out of the Bonelands are the words they used, before shutting themselves away from everything else. How the crap do they even know he's here?"

"Spies?" Peer said, shrugging. "People have all but forgotten them-it must be easy for them to watch."

"And now Rufus is lost in the city," Malia said, "and we have to find him before the Marcellans do, because they'll execute him as a Pretender. And we have to find him before the Dragarians do, because if they seriously believe him to be their damned prophet returned to them from the Bonelands…" She shook her head.