Free Butcher Bird by Richard Kadrey Page B

Shrike. Spyder didn't like the idea of being in the passages any longer than they had to. He looked back the way they had come and saw things moving in the darkness. Golden eyes glinted and slid along the floor. Spyder caught up to Shrike and made sure not to fall behind again.
    After what seemed like hours, they were moving through a passage lined with old red brick and dry rot timbers. A cool breeze touched Spyder's face. Sand had piled in miniature dunes where the timbers met the floor.
    "Oh dear," said Primo leaning over a broken machine in the tunnel ahead. Twisted wheels lay on the bricks. Spyder could already smell the stink coming from the wreck. Melted rubber, gasoline and burned flesh.
    "I'm guessing this is the tuk-tuk we were waiting for?" said Shrike.
    "It would seem so," replied Primo. "Hmm. I don't believe this was a motor accident. There appears to be an arrow in the driver's eye. I wonder who could have put that there?"
    "That would be us," came a croaking voice from the roof of the passage.
    Four men (and the gender of the intruders was just a guess on Spyder's part) dropped to the floor. The men weren't holding anything, so Spyder wasn't sure how they'd been holding on to the ceiling. But what seemed more important to him now was the men's elongated faces and crocodilian skin. Each was dressed differently—one in a firefighter's rubber overcoat, another in priestly vestments, the third wore shorts and an I LUV LA T-shirt and the fourth was wearing a high school letter jacket. Spyder didn't want to think about where the lizard-men might have acquired their clothes, but the rust-colored stains on the LA T-shirt gave him some idea.
    "Excuse me, gentlemen," said Primo, and he gave the lizards a bow. "I am Primo Kosinski and I am conducting these guests to the abode of Madame Cinders. The Madame has negotiated safe passage through the Blegeld Passage for herself and all her guests."
    "She didn't negotiate with us," said the lizard-priest in a gravelly, hissing voice.
    "That's because the compact is universal. No one may ignore or prevent—" Primo began. Shrike cut him off.
    "What will it cost us to get through?" she asked.
    "The pretty green. Piles of it. Do you have that?"
    "You know we don't," Shrike said.
    "Good," hissed the lizard in the letter jacket. He took a step toward Shrike. Just as she was bringing her sword up, Spyder saw Primo ram his shoulder into the lizard's midsection, smashing him against the wall in an explosion of bone, blood and dry skin. Next, Primo rounded on the priest and back-fisted him, ripping off a good portion of the beast's face. Spyder was pulling Shrike back from the carnage. As awful as it was, he couldn't turn away. The first thing he noticed, aside from the fact that Primo had the last two lizards by the throat and was slowly choking the life from them, was that the little man's clothes were no longer loose on him. In fact, they seemed a little tight. His skin had turned a bright crimson and long, thorned hooks protruded from every part of his body, ripping through the fabric of his suit. Primo growled with animal fury as he crushed the throats of the lizards until their heads hung at odd angles on limp flesh. Dropping the attackers' bodies, Primo turned to Spyder and Shrike asking, "Are you both all right?"
    "We're fine," Shrike said. "Thank you."
    The little man, for he was already shrinking back to his original size, approached them, cleaning his hands on the T-shirt he ripped from the body of one dead lizard. "Forgive me, please," he said. "You were under my protection and should never have had to even raise your weapon. You may ask Madame for my life, if you like."
    "Don't be silly," said Shrike. "You protected us and we're grateful."
    "I'm happy to be of service."
    "You're of the Gytrash race, aren't you?"
    "Yes, ma'am. Members of my family have been guides for Madame Cinders and her friends for over a thousand years."
    "Your family should be very proud of you,