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

happened.”
    “He won for the Norumbegans,” said the general.
    The boys nodded.
    They told how they’d gone home, back to Boston, and how Brian, as the winner, had been designated to make up the next round of the Game. They explained that Brian had started to work out a whole story about gangsters and detectives that some players would stumble into, in a few years’ time.
    And then everything had gone wrong. Gregory’s cousin Prudence, the last winner, had disappeared. The Thusser had tried to kill Brian. Brian and Gregory had traveled up to Gerenford, Vermont, where they’d playedthe Game the year before, only to discover that the forest where they’d had their magical adventure was now an interdimensional suburb waiting for Thusser invasion.
    Kalgrash said, “The Thusser might even be there by now. They’re bad, bad, bad. I don’t like them at all.”
    “But if the Norumbegan side were to win, the Emperor and his Court would be able to return to Earth,” said the general.
    Brian shrugged and nodded. Gregory said, “Sure.”
    “That might be an unexpected boon,” said the general. He smiled. Gears turned behind his eyes. He and Captain Dantsig spoke in Norumbegan.
    “Now,” said the General. “We must call the Emperor’s Court again.”
    He went to a worn wooden cabinet and lifted out an old Edwardian phone with a speaking piece and a whole complicated tree of dangling mouths on wires. He brought the contraption over to his desk and set it down. Pulling the speaking piece to his lips, he made a demand for a call to be put through and waited while the mouths all whispered, “Ring ring. Ring ring. Ring ring.”
    After a long time, one of the mouths perked up and drawled some alien greeting.
    General Malark and the mouth spoke for some time. His eyes were guarded, careful, waiting to see whether the mouth would barter.
    He turned to the boys. “It is the Regent. He wishes to speak to you directly.”
    “Where are the little cubs?” said the mouth in English. “Tell them to talk.”
    “We’re here, sir,” said Brian. “We’ve come —”
    “From the old kingdom, is it? Grand. Just grand. We miss the old place. I suppose it’s all Thussery now.”
    “They’re breaking the Rules of the Game,” said Brian. “You’ve got to stop them. They’re settling in your —”
    “Yes, plenty of time for that, little chap. Malark, might you adjust the loupe so I could get a gander at the squirts? Be a good fellow.”
    General Malark pulled out a small lens on a retractable cord and pointed it at the boys. There was a brief interchange where the mouth made demands and Malark responded, occasionally translating orders to the boys: “Put up your arms. Turn around. Pull down your lips and show your gums.
    “The fat one in the armor isn’t human, though, is it? Rum thing, but I recall humans being less spiky and green.”
    “I’m not fat,” said the troll. “I’m big-boned.”
    General Malark confirmed, “He’s an automaton. Built as a troll.”
    “I see.”
    “I come with the other guys,” said Kalgrash. “We’re a package. Three for the price of two.”
    “Bully for you,” said the mouth lazily. “Now, Malark, why don’t you send them up here? You’ve no use for them.”
    General Malark pulled himself to his full height. “We have a list of noncombatants recently captured at Delge. We demand their release in return.”
    “You have the names?”
    “I do.”
    “Blast. I don’t have a pencil handy. Well, you just tell me and I’ll try my level best to remember.”
    Malark delivered a list of thirty names, all of them unpronounceable.
    He and the mouth continued to haggle.
    Eventually, he hung up.
    He turned to Dantsig, the boys, and the troll with a tight smile.
    “It is agreed,” he said. “A trade. Ten of the automatons for each one of you. The Court is anxious to hear your story.” He lifted the phone and mouth-tree from his desk and replaced it in the cabinet. “You are on