Read The Empire of Gut and Bone for Free Online Page A

ormechanical.” He looked down at the stapler in his hands. He rubbed his thumb against the two fangs of the staple that projected from the carriage, as if caressing a cobra to charm it. When he pulled his thumb away, the skin was white where the tines had pressed.
    “There are only rarely open hostilities with our masters,” he said. “Over the last century, we have all abandoned their capital and spread throughout the Great Body. We will not go back to serve them. They are angry that we have deserted them, but they cannot do anything about it. Occasionally, they send out a force to try to reclaim us, but we resist them. They stew in their palaces alone.
    “But. As you have seen …” He idly opened the stapler and closed it, the spring twanging as he shut the cover. When he continued, he said, “Delge Crossing. They shut off and kidnapped everyone in Delge. This is new. Descending on a larger town like that. Openly. It calls for a new strategy. This,” he said, smiling, “is where you come in.”
    He sat forward.
    “We are considering whether we might trade you in exchange for some of the heads of the citizens of Delge. We do not know yet whether you and your message will be considered important enough by the Emperor to merit a trade.” He sighed and put down the stapler. “For one thing, the Imperial Court will not pick up the phone.”
    Brian asked, “Did you say that the Emperor isn’t the Emperor anymore? The blond man? With the beautiful queen?”
    “He abdicated. Gave the crown to his son.”
    “Why did he do that?” Brian asked.
    The general frowned. “Emperor Fendritch wished to be at leisure. Emperor Fendritch likes his leisure — his golf, his tennis, the foxtrot, downhill skiing. Emperor Fendritch … one cannot say anything against Emperor Fendritch — no — one cannot say a word against one’s former master — one cannot — one cannot say a thing against Emperor Fendritch because we all have been designed never to —” (Here the general’s mouth flapped shut, and he grimaced.) “We cannot … so let me say instead that the Emperor was so variously gifted with talents and enthusiasms — quite splendid, really — that he did not find it convenient to reign. So he abdicated in favor of his child.” He quivered, then added, “Long may he live.”
    “So his kid’s Emperor now,” said Gregory. “So it’s his kid we need to talk to.”
    General Malark and Dantsig exchanged glances. “Not precisely,” said General Malark. “The boy is too young to reign. He has an elected regent who rules in his place. But this is immaterial. We need to hear your story so that we can convey to the Emperor’s Court who you are and try to arrange an exchange.”
    So Brian, Kalgrash, and Gregory told their story. They explained how they had, the year before, played the Game, not knowing what they were part of, traipsing through the woods and encountering puzzles and elves and trolls. They told the general that it had turned out that Brian was playing for the Norumbegans (though he didn’t know it) and Gregory for the Thusser Horde, which waited tospill out across the landscape. They explained that Brian had won, scoring a victory for the Norumbegans.
    Brian said, “I realized at the last minute that we weren’t both playing for the same team. Without knowing it, we were rivals.”
    “So I let Brian win,” said Gregory. “He was being held down by a Thusser assassin at the time. So I could have just won, but we made an agreement that I would let him win.”
    “I see,” said the general. “To confirm: The Norumbegan side
did
win?”
    “Sure,” said Gregory. “Because I let him win. Really, either one of us could have won. I mean, either one of us, except that I was the one who wasn’t being strangled by the assassin. So I could have won more easily, technically. If we’d been playing fair.” He shifted on his seat and stuck his hands between his knees. “But Brian won. As it